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I'm working on NanaGram (https://nanagram.co). The tagline: Text or email your photos and we'll send 4x6 prints to your loved ones.

It doesn't provide the majority of my income (yet) but by far and away it provides the majority of my life's meaning. I haven't crossed the mental hurdle of sharing all my numbers publicly yet but let's just say it is turning a profit and there are thousands of happy NanaGrammers.

I got started on it at my grandfather's 94th birthday party when by brother 1-uppped my gift of live lobsters with the gift of "InstaGrandpa." He prototyped it the night before and asked me to help build it.

Working solo is a challenge for many reasons. One thing I did early was automate the customer feedback loops. I set up an automated loop to collect customer reviews (https://nanagram.co/#happy). Collecting feedback from grandparents is a bit tougher so I set up a phone line for them to dial in and leave voicemails (https://nanagram.co/#happynanas). I get a couple voicemails and reviews each week and it's like maker fuel.

Another big challenge is fighting isolation. I like to practice deep work but there's a fine line between deep work and isolation. I would've given up a year ago if it weren't for the advisor-like support from my brother and my friend Dan. I did YC Startup School last summer and that was huge as well; I remember sharing with the group that I was on the edge of throwing in the towel, then last December MRR grew by over 2X. The next big thing I plan to change in my life is adding weekly volunteering.

We're certainly a convenience service. You can definitely do this cheaper on your own and I wrote a bit more about that here: https://nanagram.co/blog/how-to-mail-photos/

I think our prices are pretty solid and often hear that from customers. For $6.99 per month we mail 5 photos and all you have to do is text or email them to us. We also have an annual plan which brings the price down to just under $6 per month.

The service also really shines when you have multiple senders (siblings, cousins, etc) using it as we curate photos from the group via reminders.

We recently had the 5-photo plan set to $7.99 but unlocked savings on the fulfillment side, passing those on to customers.

Pricing has been a challenge for sure, as on one hand I've always firmly believed the product should be accessible to people from all walks of life, and on the other there is a reality of paying the bills.

@otras thanks for sharing. It's an honor to be mentioned on HN like this.

One of the big goals of the product is to increase interaction between loved ones. I wrote about this a bit more at https://nanagram.co/blog/niche-start — we have a feature, which allows you to list names and phone numbers of you and your siblings on a cover photo. I get reports all the time of grandparents who go down the list, dialing each grandkid to talk through the photos with them.

Pick natives and don't ask for permission! (https://www.reddit.com/r/gardening/comments/bwuxsf/guerrilla...)

Hi again. Thanks for sharing this with me. I'm surprised it hasn't been posted to Hacker News yet. I just posted it.

This really should exist in the US too. I assume the footage is all BBC footage.

I came across this via a comment by another HN'er on a different thread about dementia.

This is fascinating research about how the BBC compiled old footage, audio, and imagery going back to the 1930s. They created an interface to browse by decade or theme. A researcher at the BBC spent time with 53 people with dementia, many who reported positive effects using RemArc.

Awesome! My wife and her family are crazy about your app. Her mom discovered an unknown half-sister through an Ancestry.com match. They used Marco Polo to get to know each other. My wife's mom also sends monthly printed photos via NanaGram.

Nice! Thanks so much for the supportive words. There have been a few times were I've considered "giving up" (putting this on the back-burner to take on contract work and pay the bills) but I've been fortunate with things like this HN thread. I'm also lucky to have a crazy supportive wife and family.

I like the idea of adding more goodies to the shipments! Hoping to get to that soon. That, and greeting cards.

The key challenge with the experiment was a sales challenge. At the time, I didn't have too much runway. The sales cycle was longer than I could afford.

But speaking of chocolate, one idea I had was to send giant chocolate bars to the nursing home directors to get their attention :)

Thanks! I wrote a little bit more about the story around the name at https://nanagram.co/blog/the-grandma-test

Thanks! I had a step in the initial onboarding to let folks add their NanaGram recipient as a contact via a contact.vcf file. I user tested with 5-6 people and couldn't quite nail it. Had other priorities at the time and decided to back burner it. The concept of downloading a vcf file, opening it, etc is foreign to many people. Another challenge to nail was the copy around adding a contact record for the recipient, as many people were confused (I already have a contact for my Nana!) This kind of address book integration seems easier to do in a native app. Soon, I hope!

Thanks for adding your perspective. Also so sorry to hear about your mom.

Music really is an amazing thing. I meant to touch on it in this post but didn't get to it. My grandma's favorite song was "papa loves mambo" which we'd play on the Echo Show. She loved singing the "Uuuuh"s! They brought musicians into her assisted living nearly every Friday. I went to 7-8 of them and it was such a beautiful thing to see everyone singing along and smiling.

I don't mind this kind of feedback. It's honest and helpful.

I'll have to watch those BBC archives soon.

Thank you! I've explored other platforms. One of the reasons I've been hesitant to rely too heavily on social tools is NanaGram is often used for photos that never make their way to social. That said, Whatsapp has an API but it's invite-only and I've had no luck getting in. It's too bad because it would be a perfect medium. Hopefully in time.

Snapchat would be a great fit. I looked it about a year ago and it wasn't feasible. I'll take a look again!

In the meantime, we do support email by giving you a unique NanaGram email address.

We're doing that right now with most international destinations. We just don't have a Canadian printer. It's likely I'll start printing them here in the Boston area for Canadian users. The US and Canada offer super fair postage rates for first-class mail.

Thanks for these details. We take privacy extremely seriously. Most international folks use the email version of our product. In that case, they'd go from your mailbox to ours (Google Apps / Gmail) and then onto our server (Digital Ocean, NYC). We never use your images for marketing or promotion, unless in specific cases where we have your permission. For example, when people post reviews with their loved ones holding NanaGram prints. We don't get that many requests for deletion, but when we do, I run a full delete on your data.

Not yet. What would you use it for? Alternatively, drop me an email via the button on the bottom right of the home page.

Awesome, haven't seen this yet. Thanks. The UK seems to be leading the way in elder care. Last year, they appointed a "Ministry of Loneliness." https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/17/world/europe/uk-britain-l...

Thank you. Really appreciate this kind of feedback as it helps me grow. Topics like these are tough to write about. I often hesitate to publish. I'm glad the post brightened your day.

Thank you! I can't take credit for the idea. That goes to my brother Andy. He'd originally dubbed the prototype "Instagrandpa" but we thought Facebook might get upset and went with NanaGram.

I'm not raising money and this is a bootstrapped product. FWIW, those questions were things she asked me every time she saw me, not the last time she saw me.

I don't really know how to respond to this. She literally asked me that nearly every time I saw her. Word for word, she said, "How's the photo business?" and/or "How many customers now?" Ask anyone in my family. This is kind of a mean comment that I doubt you'd say to me in-person, especially if you knew just how much I deeply cared for my grandparents.

Thanks so much! Susan Pinker gave a fantastic Ted talk about this topic: https://www.ted.com/talks/susan_pinker_the_secret_to_living_...

The #1 factor to leading a long and happy life is the frequency of your social interactions, both with close friends and family and acquaintances. I'm certainly getting reports of people talking to their grandparents more since they started sending photos and it warms my heart.

There's quite a bit happening in this space which has recently been coined by some as "elder tech." Alexis Ohanian and Garry Tan's fund Initialized are investing in the space in startups like https://www.joinpapa.com.

That's pretty cool. Thanks for this. I tried to sign up but it won't let me through without a member number (http://bit.ly/2YDIHaD). Maybe Costco is able to do this using member fees to offset the costs.

I am offering a way for people to try us completely free right now. It's on the home page. You can also just text 3 photos to 617-622-5124.

I wonder if Costco ships internationally. Thanks again for the heads up.

Sweet! I haven't heard of Nohana yet, thanks for sharing. Japan seems like it would be a great place to expand to soon.

BTW, I'm hoping to drop the price for Canada in the next couple months!

Thank you! I love talking to customers on the phone. I subscribe to the idea of building a product or feature for one person. You kickstarted what eventually became an international email product. Now we've got customers delivering all over the place. Pretty soon I hope to start shipping worldwide. Thanks for sharing us with your friends.

Nice, thanks for sharing! Do you have to be a member? It's free shipping with no order minimum?

NanaGram works best for people with siblings or cousins who want to send a curated pack of photos to their loved ones. The account owner can invite people to send in photos and everyone can tailor reminders (1 week, 3 days, 3 hours, etc from the monthly ship date).

The other nice thing is the interface, since most of the time there isn't one. We give you a unique phone number and all you have to do is text your photos to the number.

I'm hoping to release a couple low-priced solo-sender plans soon.

Thanks so much for all of your feedback. I won't take it lightly. Looks like HN edited the title. I edited mine too. I'll be thinking of your feedback when writing future posts.

I am truly sorry to hear about your mom's dementia progression. I can only imagine. Wishing you and your family strength.

A few of my customers have mentioned it's helping them. I observed first-hand that going through fresh photos seemed to help my grandma too. She had dementia, although hers didn't progress as far as your moms. Maybe the photos didn't help but instead it was the frequent interactions with her loved ones that did. Also, maybe products like NanaGram help in the early stages of the disease but not later on.

I'm not a psychologist and dementia is an extraordinarily complex disease. I'm most definitely not trying to mislead. I drafted a few different variations on the title and ended up going with this one to get the point across.

So amped to have you on board.

Nice! Best of luck with launching.