The gift of yoga

We are harder than anyone on our product, and it's bothered us for a while that we didn't have a nice robust feature that allowed our customers to take gift certificates. So I'm thrilled to announce that starting today, gift certificate functionality is available in Tula, and is ready for use today!

Like we always do, we think long and hard about the user experience of everyone involved, and with the introduction of gift certificates we pushed our payment system even harder to create the optimal experience for everyone involved. This means for the person buying the gift, for the recipient, and for the studio owner we needed to make the system perfect for everyone involved.

The result is an implementation that is as simple to use as it was complex to build. Here's how it works:

Enable Gift Certificates

The online store settings have been modified to allow you to choose which of your passes should be available as gifts. Simply choose the passes you want available as gift options, and then save your settings. That's it, that's all you need to do to start accepting gift certificates!

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Payment form automatically updates

Once you choose one or more passes to be available as a gift certificate, your payment form will automatically update so that people can choose to indicate a purchase is intended to be a gift. Upon choosing this option, the list of passes is filtered, and the input fields are updated so that they can enter information about the recipient. As always, it's worth pointing out that with our payment form, people can make purchases from you without first creating an account with us. With gift certificates, this distinction is more important than ever.

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Match the payment

Once a purchase is made via the online form, match the payment to the buyer of the gift certificate. This is no different than how normal purchases work now. (note, you can also record the purchases of gift certificates from within the app.)

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Unique Gift Certificate Code Created

Once the purchase of a gift certificate is made, the person is charged for the gift certificate, and a unique gift certificate code is created. This purchase is noted in the purchasers profile as a purchase, and we indicate that it was a gift purchase.

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Redemption

Redeeming a gift certificate is simply the recording of a purchase, but you choose 'Redeem Gift Certificate' as the payment method, which is a new payment option. Upon choosing this payment option, you enter in the code, and this code will only work for the pass type it was intended for. Once the purchase is complete, we indicate this as well on the student's profile page.

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Easy, fast and ready to go now!

We're so happy that we can help our customers give the gift of yoga this year, and with the latest updates to our iPhone app, it's easier than ever to match these incoming purchases on your phone.

2026

As our customers and anyone who has been following us for a while knows, Tula was born when my wife Maile opened her yoga studio in Chicago. Our idea when we started, was that it was crazy no software product existed that was focused on serving yoga studios. And in particular, independent yoga studios. 

How could this be?

How could an industry with tens of thousands of potential customers be considered too small for a software company to serve?

And so we set out to build a product that was perfect for the needs of an independent yoga studio, often times doing things that allow us to better serve our core audience at the expense of reaching a broader one. 

We believe in focus, and the benefits of regular, consistent effort applied over a sustained period of time. We recognize too that no-one ever sees the roots and no-one notices the Oak Tree when it's a sapling. (And yet, it becomes an Oak Tree, doesn't it?) No one celebrates the struggle to break through your first 10, first 100 and first 1000 customers. These victories for company like ours happen in private.

So today I'm happy to talk about a different kind of number that affects our company. After 3 years of running her studio, Maile decided that it was time to think about the longer term future for her business. This morning she just extended her lease - which now runs through 2026.

So that's the number I'm focusing on right now. Two Thousand Twenty Six.

While the companies that we compete with announce multi-million dollar rounds of funding, prepare for IPOs, and compare their valuations against one another, we work every day to serve our customers better, with the continued belief that yoga studios and the students they serve are special enough to warrant their own software.

We never set out to be the biggest company, just the best, for independent yoga studios.

And as I think about the fact that 12 years ago there was no Facebook, no iPhone and no Twitter, I'm so happy that we can tell our customers we'll be walking through whatever technological advancements we see over the next decade right along side you, and that like today, you'll be using the exact same piece of software that the woman I love uses to run her business.

No matter where your business goes or where the technology takes us, I promise you, if you own a yoga studio, you will not find any other company on the planet that will treat you better.

2026, here we come.