To the first-time parents, the first few years of their child’s life is filled with awe and amazement. From capturing the first smile, first steps and even your infant’s cute moments, you would want to capture photos and videos to create memories forever.
To make it more special, YourAppic offers a unique way to make a digital book for your baby’s milestones. It’s basically an app with which parents can record the first years of their toddler’s life in pictures, text, and sound.
The parents can create a profile and receive weekly inspiring assignments to record important moments of their child. First words, first steps, snacks, everything can be recorded in a beautiful digital book for the child. YourAppic is available for iPhone and Android both, but it’s a paid app. It can be bought for at least 12 months at a cost of €12 making it roughly €1 per month.
In a recent conversation with Silicon Canals, YourAppic’s founder Lara Godschalk disclosed more details about the app and how parents have responded to the service so far (you can also read about Louise Doorn of HelloMass and Sapir Shpigel of coworking space Merkspace in Silicon Canals’ coverage of aspiring female founders).
“The main reason I started YourAppic, is that I believe that people enjoy knowing how the first years of their life looked like through the eyes of their parents,” Lara Godschalk.
YourAppic: Inspiration behind the app and how it ensures privacy?
Silicon Canals: Your inspiration for YourAppic comes from a handwritten diary you received about your childhood. Can you narrate how parents/users have responded so far?
Lara Godschalk: The main reason I started YourAppic is that I believe people enjoy knowing how the first years of their life looked like through the eyes of their parents.
Our users are very surprised about the diversity of the questions we ask. We ask questions like, which characteristics of yourself do you recognize in your child or tell your child how you felt when you first held her/him in your arms. This makes YourAppic more personal than usual baby books you get to see.
SC: Can you share how did you start YourAppic?
LG: I started the company 2 years ago. I managed to find a couple investors and an App development company and we are good for now. I quit my steady and full-time job and went to Malaysia to guide the development team. As the founder of YourAppic, I am overall responsible. Peakfijn B.V., also an owner of YourAppic, is in charge of the technical development of YourAppic.
SC: How secure is YourAppic as an online platform, this question is in line with the recent Facebook’s debacle with ensuring privacy?
LG: YourAppic is not designed with an intention to share the memories/photos with others except with your child. The data is on a secure server and only accessible for the user.
YourAppic’s competition
SC: How does ‘YourAppic’ differentiate itself from Bundle (recently acquired by Re-snap)?
LG: With YourAppic, parents do not make a hard copy photo album as with Re-Snap. They create a digital timeline not only with pics and videos but also with audio fragments and text spoken and written by the parents. For example, sing a lullaby for your child and record it. It is possible to make an export of the timeline. The design of YourAppic will stay intact. (html file)
YourAppic: New features & future plans
During the conversation, Lara Godschalk also gave an insight to how YourAppic stacks up against competitors like popular photo books including ReSnap.
SC: How are you working to improve the user experience of YourAppic app? Any upcoming developments?
LG: YourAppic is currently designed to capture the first 4 years of a child. Users gave us feedback that they would like to use YourAppic also after the age of 4. Hence, we are redesigning YourAppic to a subscription model where parents can use YourAppic as long as they want to.
SC: Do you plan to join an incubator and do you have any expansion plans?
LG: We are open to join an incubator! With our ambition to conquer the world, it would also be advisable.
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