Dear Rescuers and Rescue Advocates:

It's been a busy year so far for us here at Sparkie, and it's far from over.

We hit the ground paws first in May, after spending the first few months of the year building out our prototype. In the past 5 months, we've on-boarded clients, made countless connections on behalf of rescuers, businesses, and other types of animal-related organizations, and produced nearly 25 pieces of custom-built content through our blog SPARK! and social media platforms.

Now we're gearing up to take our product, and company, to the next level.

Of course, like any business with a big goal, with this progress comes some change. Since we believe in being open and honest with the rescue community, we wanted to take the time to let you know what's happening:

1. Product Improvements. Today our product can do a lot. Among other benefits to rescuers, it can help them easily understand and manage where there animals are, what they need to do to keep their animals healthy, and who the people and organizations are that they work with.
   
   We're thrilled to see that our software has helped rescuers who, before using Sparkie were spending upwards of 3 to 4 hours a day managing hard copy documents and large spreadsheets, now have up to 90% of that time back, and are planning to apply for grants and grow their organizations as a result.
   
   We're also so proud of the fact that we've been told by countless rescuers that our product is paws-down the easiest to use and understand on the market. Rescuers who self-admittedly have no tech knowledge are able to figure out our software in 5 minutes or less.
   
   HOWEVER, WE KNOW WE NEED TO BUILD MORE, AND BUILD MORE FASTER.
   
   So this Fall we are working on major additions to our software including comprehensive medical and task creation, reporting, and permissioning. These features have been informed by 100s of hours of conversations literally sitting right beside rescuers (at cafes, in borrowed conference rooms, even airplanes, you name it). We can't wait to see their reaction to these product additions and are excited to bring our software to even more organizations.
2. Less content, better content. We've harped on this topic in our blog posts many times but quality really is better than quantity. So in order to make sure our posts remain relevant, detailed enough, and easy to follow, we will be moving to 1 post a month, every Wednesday (starting on September 14).
   
   In addition, one thing that's become very clear over the past few months is rescuers' desire for guidance on social media and technology, more so than any other type of topic we've written about. Therefore, while we'll always keep sniffing around for interesting content to share regardless of topic, our focus will largely be on sharing best practices around social media and technology resources for the rescue community (and the occasional product and corporate update).
3. Team changes. Building a business is like having another rescue pet in your house (OK maybe it's like having 10 more!) so we've made some changes to ensure we are set up to maintain momentum moving forward. Of course, we're always looking for partners who share our belief that rescuers deserve access to technologically sophisticated, modern, and easy to use software. So if you want to join us in our mission, reach out at info@sparkie.io for the poop.

We are so grateful to all those who have supported us to date - family, friends, rescuers and rescue animals. We can't wait to share with everyone our progress and journey.

And while things may (and will) change, one fact remains firmly the same: every day we remain motivated, humbled, inspired, and encouraged by the animal rescuers who work tirelessly to make the lives of animals better.

Yours in tech and rescue,

Rachel & Dave