Something to ponder.

Hey TableTalkers — Conner here.

We just got back from Seed the South, and honestly, it's been a week. Between the conversations with founders, operators, and investors building real things in the South — and getting back to the day-to-day of building SoGo — this issue is going to be a little shorter than usual. Two sections this week, both worth your time.

Huge congratulations to the companies selected to pitch. Our mission is to follow in your footsteps.

First: let's talk about the goal we're kicking at — we're here to kick decision fatigue.

Decision fatigue isn't just about restaurants. It's about all the small jobs we get tired of doing: being the one who always plans, having taste that lives in a private Notes app, cooking for people you never actually meet. The fatigue comes from doing these jobs alone, on repeat, with no system underneath them.

The framework I kept coming back to after Seed the South is Jobs-to-be-Done. The idea, from Clayton Christensen, is simple: people don't buy products, they hire them for a specific job. You don't buy a drill — you buy a hole in the wall. Apply that to SoGo and the question sharpens: what job are people actually hiring us for?

It's not "find a restaurant." That's the feature, not the job. The real jobs look different for each of our three people:

The planner hires SoGo to stop being the planner. To offload the weekly cognitive tax of being the one who always organizes. That's a recurring frustration nothing else solves — subscription territory.

The foodie hires SoGo to be heard. Their taste is currency, and right now it sits in a private Notes app. Give them a stage — followers, influence, early access — and you've built something they'll pay to amplify.

The chef hires SoGo to reach a diner directly. Restaurants already pay Yelp, Google, OpenTable, Resy for visibility. SoGo offers something different: presence at the table. The story behind the dish, in the moment of consumption. That's the B2B side that funds the consumer side.

And underneath all three is a job everyone shares: sometimes you just want to be told. Not given options. Not asked to weigh in. Told. "Here. Go here." A curated answer from something that knows you. That's the job SoGo was built for — and it's the one all three of our people share on the nights they're too tired to choose.

Three jobs. Three willingness-to-want segments. One universal mode underneath them. One platform that has to earn each of them.

The honest part — and this is what Seed the South sharpened — is that none of this is linear. We have to be useful to the planner before the foodie has anyone to share with, and useful to the foodie before chefs have a reason to show up. The sequencing is the strategy. Get the planner right first and the rest compounds. Get it wrong and we're a feature with no flywheel.

That's the bet. That's why we obsess over the first recommendation.

We're opening a small number of spots in Beta 3 for power users — the planners, the foodies, and yes, the chefs who want in early.

Here's what that means. Power users get latest app before public release, direct access to the team, and a real seat at the table for what gets built next. We're not looking for passive testers. We're looking for the people who already organize their friend group's nights out, who already have a running list of spots, who already know which chef in their city deserves a wider audience. If that's you, we want your fingerprints on the product.

In exchange, we ask for honest feedback — what's working, what isn't, what's missing. The product gets sharper because of users like you. That's not a marketing line; it's literally how Beta 2 became Beta 3.

To request a spot, email [email protected] with a sentence or two about who you are and why you want in. Subject line: Beta 3 Power User. We're reviewing requests on a rolling basis and seats are limited.

If you've been reading TableTalk and waiting for the right moment to get involved — this is it.

Every week I sit down to write this and try to tell it straight — not better than it is, not worse than it is.

But Seed the South did something to me. Watching those founders on stage — people who decided their idea was worth betting a decade on, who got up and made the case for something that didn't exist yet — I left with the kind of clarity you can't manufacture in a strategy doc. The companies that win aren't the ones with the cleanest decks. They're the ones who refuse to let the idea die.

We're a long way from 500 users. Longer still from PMF. But I'm done pretending the path is anything other than what it is: hard, non-linear, and entirely worth it. I watched a room full of builders this week remind me that conviction isn't a feeling — it's a decision you make again every morning. And I'm making it.

Let's get cooking.

See you next Wednesday.

— Conner

_{*We are 'testing the waters' to gauge investor interest in an offering under Regulation Crowdfunding. No money or other consideration is being solicited. If sent, it will not be accepted. No offer to buy securities will be accepted. No part of the purchase price will be received until a Form C is filed and only through WeFunder’s platform. Any indication of interest involves no obligation or commitment of any kind.}

_{†Newsletter written by humans at Some Good People, Inc. Edited with AI because we're a small team that would rather build SoGo than proofread. Every idea is ours — we just had help with the polish.}