A Moose Jaw tech company that helps people preserve their physical and digital memories using an online platform is quickly gaining provincial and national attention.
Established by co-founders Jessica McNaughton and Taylor Fox in January 2020, memoryKPR “is a digital time capsule that allows you to save, protect, design and tell your story in a meaningful way,” according to its website.
McNaughton had the idea for the company after both of her parents and a niece died, with all three leaving behind physical or digital media that she wanted to preserve. Specifically, she wanted to save her father’s voicemails and her niece’s social media presence.
“Unfortunately, we lost some (materials) on social media and therefore learned the hard lesson that it is an impermanent solution for things like this, so created a company to solve that problem,” said McNaughton.
People need to know where they came from and have the ability to tell those who come afterward about that history, she continued. Humans usually had one-dimensional ways to record their memories for decades, such as letters or physical pictures, but voice recordings became important as well.
The ability to capture stories in multi-dimensional ways in the last 20 years has also grown exponentially. People will upload 14 trillion images this year, or 1.8 billion images every day.
“The way I think about it is, what are you going to pull off your shelf to show your kids in 30 years, or your family?” said McNaughton. “And right now, probably really nothing, other than a media folder with loose images.”
Users can add still images, images with voice tags, audio, video, and print — they maintain ownership of these materials — while others can contribute material through a link or QR code. It’s also possible to export materials from social media into the platform.
McNaughton and her team of seven have been building the platform since April 2020. The back end is fully developed — “We have excellent security,” she pointed out — while features to make story design more attractive are coming along, such as chapters, timelines and maps.
The company launched its premium version this past January — there is also a free version — and has acquired about 500 active users.
They recently received national attention for its partnership with seniors’ care organization Eden Care Communities. During a pilot project this past winter at two care homes in Saskatoon, memoryKPR helped residents connect with their families during the pandemic by recording their thoughts about their life.
The tech company has also teamed up with funeral homes, wedding planners, and high schools preparing for graduation. Sports teams, youths, social media influences and friends sharing ski trip pictures have also used the private platform.
Meanwhile, memoryKPR recently received $125,000 through a Saskatchewan/Manitoba Angel Network Investment program, while it is working with two companies that convert physical media — such as pictures and VHS tapes — into digital. This ensures that people can share their media online instead of having a box sitting on a shelf.
“It’s for everyone with a story worth preserving,” McNaughton said. “We … don’t think our stories are worth preserving. But do we wish we could hear grandpa’s story in his own voice? Yes.”
memoryKPR is still in its infancy but has exciting short-term and long-term plans that include automating storytelling worldwide, McNaughton continued. The company is also excited to receive support from the community and provincewide.
“We’re excited, but we’re also really aggressively pursuing going bigger and faster … ,” she added. “We keep ahead of the trends (and changes) of digital space so your stories can last through them.”
