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Comment by andygcook | Hacker News Reader

Plugging my brother's one-person business because he'll be too humble to post himself: https://nanagram.co

The product allows you to send pictures in the mail to your loved ones via SMS. It works great for getting fresh photos to your grandparents who might not be super savvy with a computer.

My brother started it a few years ago and makes enough now to keep it going. Probably is the classic definition of a lifestyle business, but I think that's a success even if it's unlikely to be a unicorn.

Also and more importantly, the product helps to bring hundreds of families closer together, which is especially important right now given our elders are cut off from contact.

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Thanks for sharing, brother! <3

I would like to take this moment to give a big shout-out to the USPS. NanaGram wouldn't exist without the postal service, in the US and abroad. Apparently, the USPS is struggling financially right now. You can help the USPS by buying stamps, which you can order online [1]. If you're new to the old-school hobby of letter-writing, I wrote some guides [2] to help you figure out how much postage you need for letters domestically and abroad (e.g. Canada [3]). Lastly, a delightful thing you can do for a family member or friend is send them old photos in the mail (just be sure to scan them in first if you're mailing originals) — I wrote a post about sending photos with stamps. [4]

[1] https://store.usps.com/store/results/stamps/_/N-9y93lv [2] https://nanagram.co/blog/how-many-stamps-usps [3] https://nanagram.co/blog/postage-to-canada [4] https://nanagram.co/blog/how-to-mail-photos

Absolutely love the idea of this service.

Trying to sign up now, site is returning a blank page near the end of account creation.

Hopefully this is a good sign and you’re seeing the HN spike. Either way, thank you for making this a thing.

Thank you! You should be good to go now.

Not a customer (yet), but I worked at a startup where we had chatted with NanaGram.

From our interactions, Alex seems like one of the kindest people we've ever come across, and I'd highly recommend anyone to give this a try if they're interested.

I have a lot of faith in it being a good service with Alex at the helm; if you're reading this, Alex, kudos to you! :)

Thank you very much for the kind words. :)

You get a phone number number to which you send SMS that is tied to your billing and destination. You can share the number for others to send photos as well. This is an incredibly thoughtful and simple UX.

Thank you. Credit goes to @andygcook for the initial idea to handle photos over SMS. We also support email. I've thought about web uploads but hardly anyone has asked for it. Behind the scenes, we also support iCloud sharing albums, Google Photos albums, and Google Drive. I've been working on a WhatsApp integration which will be pretty neat; just a couple hurdles to overcome first.

This is easily one of my favorite monthly services I subscribe to. I will say that a good reason why I believe it has been so successful, 1 best its a good idea, but 2 because your brother has responded to all of my questions and issues immediately and gracefully. That is the sign of a business that cares.

Thanks you. It feels like I'm constantly chasing the inbox zero tiger. Words like these make it totally worth it.

This has been a great service for our family to keep in touch with folks who aren't tech savvy. Thank you!

Thanks for being a NanaGrammer. :) If I haven't sent you some already, drop me an email and I'll mail you some sweet NanaGram stickers.

This looks super awesome and the testimonials about the founder made my day - nice guys do win!

No Nanas to send this to :( but will keep it in mind for other uses.

I find the online print services super clunky to print - but I could use this to send myself picture prints to frame? Just a thought!

Thank you. When I initially launched on Reddit, lots of folks asked for an "adopt a grandparent" mode. I talked with some nursing homes last week and we're exploring the possibility now. I've always been hesitant to do this, primarily out of concern for abuse (e.g. elderly financial abuse) but a partnership with nursing homes plus background checks could be the answer.

You gave me an idea. I can use this to send prints to anyone who would enjoy physical prints. My friend's mom whom I dearly adore loves pictures of flowering plants :) Thank you!

Awesome! Check this out: https://usdawatercolors.nal.usda.gov/pom/home.xhtml

Tell your brother he's got a new customer coming up!

Will do. I just texted him the HN thread, so he might hop on here.

Right on! Shoot me an email if you have any questions: alex@nanagram.co.

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