Octopus Think
Octopus Think creators, Sarah and Matt, use Buttondown to connect with customers, share updates about their apps, and other projects they are working on.
Tell us a bit about yourself and your background.
Matt and I are long-time friends with extensive backgrounds in tech who run a small two-person app and development shop.
You may know us as the makers of Mic Drop, a MacOS app for muting your mic on video calls, or Turnip, a menu bar timer app that integrates with bookkeeping software for freelancers and small businesses.
We’re both enthusiastic runners, so we’re currently working on a few iOS apps for run nerds. Early beta invites available via our newsletter, of course!
What do you write about in your newsletter?
We rely almost entirely on word of mouth for our marketing and only write newsletters when we feel we have something important to share. Major app updates, invitations to beta-test new apps or features before they’re out in the wild, and a little bit of what we’ve been up to.
Where did you first learn of Buttondown, and what made you decide to give it a try?
I’ve used MailChimp pretty extensively whilst working for larger companies, but we wanted something significantly simpler and more straightforward. Buttondown was a natural choice due to its focus on privacy, flexibility, and simplicity.
We care about privacy and don't collect data we can’t use to improve user experience. Email tracking can be pretty snoopy, so we really liked that Buttondown allows us to disable it entirely.
We also love that you’re a small team who puts out a great product and does direct customer service. You don’t get that from MailChimp!
We’d definitely recommend Buttondown to anyone who’s looking for a straightforward tool that gets out of your way and lets you get your work done.
What are some ways Buttondown has helped you run your email?
Because we’re so small and bootstrapped, we have pretty simple needs. We wanted a tool that would allow us to manage a subscriber list and send out occasional updates without requiring a lot of regular maintenance. Buttondown is perfect for this.
The ability to pause our subscription has been particularly helpful for us, since we don’t want to send out newsletters every month.
Our Buttondown newsletter is our primary way of interacting with our customers (we aren’t big on social media). It’s the best way for us to share app updates as well as managing any public beta programs we run.
We’d definitely recommend Buttondown to anyone who’s looking for a straightforward tool that gets out of your way and lets you get your work done.