Denver Startup Keeps Families Histories Alive With 'Interactive Digital Scrapbook'
DENVER (CBS4) - The Denver-based startup Kinecho is changing the way families look back on their history.
"Thinking about losing my mom, and my dad getting up into his 80s, I really wanted to hear more of the stories."
Kirk Holland wanted to do more than just listen to those stories. He wanted to make sure his kids and their kids would hear them one day, too.
"We grew up in a Scandinavian Norwegian house, so more reserved. So, there wasn't a lot of loud stories going on like there are in a lot of other families," Holland said.
The answer was Kinecho, a startup wanting to connect families across generations using interactive storytelling.
"It is kind of an interactive digital scrapbook," co-founder Tom Anderson said.
Anderson says once a member of Kinecho you can create a group of family members and ask a question. The stories unfold from there through writing, audio recordings and photos.
"Fifty years from now if I'm still around, and my kids and grandkids will be able to tap into that memory and hear their great-grandma tell the story in her own voice. I think it's something we all wish we had," Anderson said.
In just a few months, Holland has captured stories from his 84-year-old father about meeting his mother, being a pilot in Vietnam and his grandparents working in a shipyard before WWII.
"When you ask him about a story he tells it and tells it well," Holland said.
With Kinecho's help, the Holland family will share those stories repeatedly for years to come.
"Just having being able to listen to the voice of someone especially when they're gone being able to listen to the stories in their voice it's hard to put a price on that," Holland said.
A lifetime membership is less than $100, and the entire family can ask questions or share their own memories.
LINK: Kinecho