About · A Melbourne software studioAbout JOLA

A small studio still here after launch.

JOLA is a Melbourne software studio. The usual worry with hiring one is being left alone with what it built. We run six products of our own, so looking after software is already our day job.

How we work Start a project
Benvena: Lily, an AI front desk for small and medium businesses EscapeTo: a camping search engine for five countries Camping Australia: camping gear store and campsite directory Oz BBQ: specialist barbecue and outdoor cooking store Spambuster: a Shopify app that stops spam on store forms Cart Spy: a Shopify app that shows why carts are abandoned
Each point is a product we built and still look after. Choose one to read its story.

(01)The story

It started withour own products.

We designed and built an AI front desk, a camping search engine for five countries, two online stores and two Shopify apps. We still run all six, and there is nobody else to hand them to.

JOLA PTY LTD is a Melbourne company. Two of our products are online stores, one for camping gear and one for barbecues. The rest map campsites in five countries, from Canada to Chile, answer website chat for small businesses, keep spam off Shopify store forms and show merchants why carts get left behind.

Now we do the same for clients. We plan yours the way we plan our own, working out early who gets the email when something breaks and what they'll need to fix it. We have no client case studies yet, so judge us by what we run.

EscapeTo home page: Discover America's best camping spots, with a campsite search box, a Plan a road trip button, popular regions such as Yosemite and Yellowstone, and routes such as the Pacific Coast Highway.
Camping Australia app on iPhone: Find the spot. Pack the gear. Buttons for camping gear, caravan gear and a free trip planner.
EscapeTo on the webCamping Australia on iPhone

(02)The studio model

If ours breaks,nobody else fixes it.

We run all six of our products ourselves, and there is nobody else to fix them. So we build each one expecting to be the people who look after it.

Then it goes round again. We'd put a client project on the same loop, for as long as you want us on it.

  1. At the start

    Build

    We design it and build it, then do the fiddly launch work ourselves, from App Store and Google Play submissions to Shopify App Store listings.

    Where we’ve done itCamping Australia, where one store and campsite directory runs on the web, iPhone and Android.

  2. Once it's live

    Run

    We keep running what we ship. Our six get their updates and fixes from us, and anything we build for you can be looked after the same way.

    Where we’ve done itWe set up each Benvena business by hand, usually within about a week, so the owner doesn't have to.

  3. As people use it

    Grow

    We help people find it. Growth and search work is part of what we offer, and we start on it while the product is still being planned.

    Where we’ve done itEscapeTo, where campers suggest campsites and campsite owners keep their own listings up to date.

(03)How we use AI

Lily would ratherpass a question on.

These are the four rules we'd build into an assistant for you. Three of them are at work in Benvena, and you can see them in the screens below.

  1. It answers from facts you've approved.

    If nobody has signed a fact off, the assistant leaves it out of its answers.

  2. It passes on what it can't answer.

    A question with no approved answer goes to a person who knows, rather than getting a guess.

  3. It's labelled as AI.

    We'd set it up so nobody chatting with it mistakes it for a member of staff.

  4. It shows its working.

    When Lily can't answer from an approved fact, the question is emailed to the owner.

Benvena chat example with a yoga studio: a visitor with a bad knee asks about beginners' classes. Lily answers with the class times from an approved fact and says she'll pass the knee question on. The approved fact is shown, marked Approved by the studio owner, and the chat ends with the question being emailed on.
Benvena's example handover email for the yoga studio, about the knee question Lily couldn't answer from an approved fact.

Lily gives the class times from a fact the owner approved, and emails the owner the knee question she has no approved answer for. Both screens are Benvena's own yoga studio example. See Benvena

Some products are better without AI. Spambuster uses Google reCAPTCHA to stop spam and bot submissions on Shopify store forms.

(04)Principles

Habits we picked uprunning our own.

  1. We plan for year two from the start.

    Looking after a product is the longest part of its life, so we plan who will do that, and how, while we plan the rest.

  2. We tell you where the AI stops.

    Before we build an assistant, we write down with you what it may answer and whose inbox gets everything else. That list is yours to check it against.

    Our four AI rules

  3. We've shipped to the app stores ourselves.

    Our products are live on the web, iOS, Android and the Shopify App Store, and the submissions, reviews and updates on each one are our job.

    Web ↗ EscapeTo (opens in a new tab) iOS ↗ Camping Australia on the App Store (opens in a new tab) Android ↗ Camping Australia on Google Play (opens in a new tab) Shopify ↗ Spambuster on the Shopify App Store (opens in a new tab)

  4. Search gets planned with the product.

    People have to find a store or a search engine before they can use it, so we plan search and content early. Oz BBQ's buying guides and EscapeTo's pages for popular regions and routes show what we mean.

  5. We're a small Melbourne company.

    When you write to us, you're writing to the Melbourne studio that built these six products and still runs them. The company details are further down this page.

    Melbourne, Victoria

(05)The products

Start with the oneclosest to yours.

These six are the closest thing we have to a portfolio. Each page covers what the product does.

  1. AI agent · SaaS Benvena Lily, an AI front desk for small and medium businesses, answers website chat from facts the business approved.
  2. Search · iOS · AI EscapeTo A camping search engine for the US, Canada, New Zealand, Argentina and Chile, with campgrounds and RV parks on a map, a road-trip planner and an iOS app.
  3. E-commerce · iOS · Android Camping Australia An outdoor gear store with a directory of over 3,300 free and paid campsites, on the web and in two apps.
  4. E-commerce · Content Oz BBQ A specialist barbecue and grill store, with buying guides that help people choose.
  5. Shopify app Spambuster Stops spam and bot submissions on Shopify store forms, using Google reCAPTCHA.
  6. Shopify app · AI insights Cart Spy Shows Shopify merchants why carts are left behind, with session replays, heatmaps and AI insights.

Camping Australia also has phone apps, on the App Store ↗ (opens in a new tab) and Google Play ↗ (opens in a new tab), and EscapeTo has an iOS app as well as its website ↗ (opens in a new tab).

See the work

(06)The company

You'd be dealingwith JOLA PTY LTD.

Legal name
JOLA PTY LTD
ABN
65 159 395 114
Location
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Email
contact@jola.com.au
We build for
Web, iOS, Android and Shopify
Legal
Privacy, terms and cookies

Got something that needs looking after?

Say what you want built, or what you already run and want help keeping up. A few lines is plenty to start.

Email contact@jola.com.au Other ways to reach us

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