I say this a lot when I’m building Gleam: I optimize for joy.

That can sound strange in clinical research. The work is serious. The stakes are real. People are dealing with patients, source records, timelines, and data that has to be right. That is exactly why I care so much about how the software feels. If someone is going to spend hours inside a web browser moving data from source to EDC, the tool should make the day easier. But not only should it feel clear and precise, I think it should also feel joyful and fun.

I have loved software for as long as I can remember. I came up in a time when computing still felt weird and wide open. HyperCard existed. Clippy existed. People made silly little apps because software felt like a medium you could play with. It had personality and made you smile. I miss that. Maybe you do too.

Ten years ago, I built Slope Clinical from scratch. We turned it into a real product with a real team serving clinical research. That chapter taught me a lot about this industry, but it also sharpened something I already believed: most healthcare software feels dead the moment you open it. You use it because you have to. You do the work and leave.

Gleam feels like a chance to build something better. We are solving a real problem for sites: moving data from source into the EDC is slow, repetitive work. It is easy to make mistakes. It pulls skilled people away from patients, and into cleanup later. Because Gleam is built for sites, the target is clear. We know who we are helping. That gives us room to care about the details.

For me, joy lives in the workflow itself. It comes from small reductions in friction. Gleam thinks ahead. It shows its work. A coordinator can see where data came from and stay in control. It has some personality, then gets out of the way. We even tucked a little fun into the product because I still think software should have some life in it.

What's that lollypop icon at the top of the Gleam extension? Click it and you get this hidden space where you can change the skins and colors of the extension, and make it feel a little more like yours. There is even a fully working version of Flappy Bird in there that we call Flappy Gleam and a button you can click to grow a flower garden on the top of the extension window.

I know none of that is required to move data from source to EDC. I added it anyway because those details matter to me. That is part of what I mean when I say I optimize for joy. I want people to feel that there is real care behind the product, that somebody put heart into the details, and that the product was crafted by people who actually love making software.

That is why our principles matter to me. Felt, not seen keeps the product close to the work. Verify, then trust keeps it honest. Building for sites keeps us pointed at the people carrying the burden every day.

I want people to feel the care that we put into Gleam. I want people to open it and feel that someone thought about their time and the pressure they are under. Clinical research is serious work. The software around it does not have to make the day heavier.