With one million Covid-related fatalities in the United States alone, with pandemic years limiting families’ ability to congregate and grieve those and others lost, communities throughout the world are left bereaved. As time passes, priceless family memories, tales, and customs are lost.
Lalo debuts today from beta to create a private, digital place for families to retain memories, traditions, and legacies held important to them while the $648 billion care industry thrives and age-tech breakthroughs take off. The app-based platform provides an intimate setting for remembering loved ones who have died, preserving memories of ageing family members, and capturing key moments in time.
After an eight-year stay at Amazon, Juan Medina founded Lalo, which was influenced by Medina’s personal experience. Medina realised he didn’t remember his father, called “Lalo,” well enough to pass on memories to his daughter, who would never see her grandpa, after losing him when he was young. Wishing he had more to say, Medina developed Lalo to ensure that valuable memories of loved ones, such as his father’s, are never forgotten.
“A photograph alone doesn’t capture the essence of who someone is, or who they were,” said Medina. “Lalo embodies the true core of a person and allows families to share everything they want to remember about them in an intimate and personalized way. Lalo is something that’s incredibly close to my heart, and I can’t wait to share it with the world.”
On the heels of a 600-person beta, Lalo is already well-loved by its first customers, made up largely of multi-generational families, and even folks who use the app to preserve memories of pets.
“There are people in life who are very important and vibrant, who you center around like a fire to keep you warm and shine light. My dad’s memories are that fire – and once it’s gone, it’s so difficult to bring it back,” said Matt Troup, one of Lalo’s first beta users. “It was imperative to keep the fire alive, to share with my children who never had the opportunity to meet their grandfather. Lalo presents the opportunity to keep his memory alive, for myself and for my family.”
Share Photographs Privately and Securely with Friends and Family using Lalo
Lalo’s mobile app leads users through the process of creating individualised “journeys” that collect tales for oneself or a loved one, or creating a tribute for someone who has died. Based on user feedback, the app has grown over its beta time and is now:
Users can collect, share, and preserve many forms of material with Lalo, including family recipes, jokes, images, video clips, voicemails, and much more. The objective is to create material that is as complex and layered as the individuals it honours. Family members and friends can create private networks to share memories and converse within the app, away from the adverts, invasions, interruptions, and distant relatives that may be found in large social networks.
Overlooked Ventures, a venture capital firm focusing on early-stage startups with one or more historically overlooked founders, has invested in Lalo. Medina was born in Brazil to parents from Bolivia and Colombia, putting him in the top 2% of VC-backed Latinx innovators in the United States. Those interested in contributing to Lalo’s growth can do so through the crowdfunding site WeFunder, where users can contribute as little as $100 as part of the company’s next fundraising round.
Lalo may be downloaded through the App Store and Google Play. The app is now free for users, but there will ultimately be a premium edition for $25 per year, paid once per year by the primary account holder.
About Lalo
Lalo was designed to give a private, digital area for families to retain their memories, traditions, and legacies. After an eight-year stay at Amazon, Juan Medina founded Lalo, a private, ad-free software that allows families to commemorate loved ones who have died, preserve memories of elder family members, and document key family moments in time. Lalo is being hailed as a pivotal company in the $128.8 billion death-tech business.
Overlooked Ventures backs Lalo, which is based in Seattle, Washington. Please visit http://www.lalo.app for further details.
Mikey is a geek with a passion for all things tech. He enjoys keeping up-to-date with the latest advancements in a variety of industries and is particularly geared towards technology that changes the world.