A private biographer for your family
Every life deserves a great interviewer.
Omoide talks with the people you love, follows the stories that matter, and turns those conversations into a beautiful family biography — in their own voice.
Nothing to write and nothing to install. They talk, on the phone or on the web.
We only meant to stay one summer. Then your grandfather found the little shop on Clement Street.
01Why families miss the best stories
There are stories you have never heard.
Not because anyone is hiding them. Because nobody asked the second question.
Most of what a family knows about itself lives in the gap between “how was your day” and the questions we only think of years later. A list of weekly writing prompts does not close that gap. A good interviewer does.
- What your mother was actually thinking the night she met your father.
- The job your father turned down in 1981, and what he thought about for months afterwards.
- Why the family recipe has one strange ingredient nobody has ever questioned.
02The difference is the interview
The questions you wouldn’t know to ask.
Omoide doesn’t read from a list. It listens for the detail underneath the answer, follows it, and remembers it months later.
An example of how Omoide follows a story
Omoide
You said you came to California in 1977. What made you decide to leave?
Opens with the decision, not the date.
Bob
My uncle Hiroshi had a restaurant in San Francisco. He needed help for one summer. I told my mother I’d be back before the autumn.
Hears a person — Hiroshi — and a promise: back before the autumn.
Omoide
You told her you’d be back. When did you know you weren’t going to be?
Follows the turning point rather than the timeline.
Bob
There was a night in November. The kitchen flooded and we stayed until four in the morning. I remember thinking, I wouldn’t have done this for anyone but him.
A story worth keeping. Omoide slows down and stays here.
Three weeks later · Fourth conversation
Omoide
You mentioned staying until four the night the kitchen flooded. Did Hiroshi ever ask you to stay for good — or did you simply never leave?
Three weeks on, Omoide is still holding the thread. Every conversation builds on the last.
The short version of this story was already in the family. The reason he stayed was not.
03How it works
Three steps, and one of them is theirs.
One
Invite them
Send an invitation by text or email. They tap it once. No account to create, no password, nothing to download.
Two
Omoide interviews them
Twenty to thirty unhurried minutes at a time, by phone or on the web, in the language they’re most comfortable in. Omoide picks up exactly where it left off.
Three
Receive their story
Each conversation becomes chapters, photographs and an archive of their voice — and, when the story is ready, a hardcover book.
However they’re most comfortable talking.
By phone
Omoide calls at a time they choose. Answering the phone is the whole of it.
On the web
One link, one tap, and a conversation. It works on the phone or tablet they already use.
04The keepsake
It ends as something you can hold.
A hardcover biography, bound in cloth, printed on heavy uncoated paper, with their name on the spine. Photographs given room to breathe. Chapters in their own words rather than ours. And throughout, quiet links back to the recordings — so you can still hear them say it.
- Cloth case with a blind-stamped title
- Uncoated interior stock, full-colour photography
- Original recordings linked from the page
- Extra copies for the rest of the family
An example cover. Every book carries the storyteller’s own name.
05Privacy
Their story stays theirs.
The storyteller is the one who decides. Not us, and not whoever paid.
- Nothing is recorded until they say yes
- Consent is asked for in plain words at the start, kept as a record, and can be withdrawn.
- They can skip anything
- A subject they would rather not discuss is simply not discussed, and Omoide doesn’t circle back to it.
- They choose what the family sees
- A memory can stay private to them, and still shape how Omoide understands their life.
- We don’t sell stories, and we don’t advertise
- Family content is not sold, and not repurposed for unrelated model training.
- The archive belongs to your family
- Recordings, transcripts and the finished biography can be exported or deleted whenever you ask.
06Pricing
One price. No subscription to keep their memories.
Every package includes the interviews, the digital biography, the photographs and permanent access to their voice archive.
Omoide Essential
$299
For a first, substantial portrait of a life.
- 5–6 guided interviews
- 3–5 hours of recorded conversation
- One premium hardcover book
- Photo integration and digital biography
- Voice archive
Omoide SignatureRecommended
$499
The fullest version of the story, edited with care.
- 10–12 guided interviews
- 7–10 hours of recorded conversation
- Deeper family intake before the first call
- Family tree and timeline
- Enhanced cover and materials
- One round of editorial review
Omoide Legacy
$999
For a life that needs more than one volume of attention.
- 15–20+ interviews
- Narrative planning and research
- Human editorial review
- Premium design treatment
- Two physical copies
- Priority support
Additional copies, slipcases, photo restoration and translation are available as add-ons.
07Questions families ask
The things worth knowing first.
Will my parent actually do this?
Most people find talking far easier than writing, which is where prompt-based memoir products tend to stall. There is nothing to type and nothing to install — Omoide can simply call them at a time they choose. Conversations run twenty to thirty minutes, and they can stop at any point.
Do they need to be good with technology?
No. Answering a phone call is enough. If they’d rather talk on a screen, the invitation is a single link that opens on the phone or tablet they already use.
What if they don’t want to talk about something?
They say so, and Omoide moves on without pressing. Sensitive subjects are approached only with permission, and you can flag topics to avoid before the first conversation.
How long does the whole thing take?
It goes at their pace — most families settle into a conversation every week or two. The first story usually reaches you within days of the first interview, long before the book is finished.
Is this really AI?
Yes, and we won’t pretend otherwise. Omoide is an AI interviewer: it listens, asks follow-up questions based on what it has heard, and remembers earlier conversations. What it isn’t is a chatbot with a list of prompts — the interview method is the product.
Who owns the recordings and the book?
Your family does. Whatever has been recorded is yours to keep, export or delete, whether or not the biography is ever finished.
Start with one conversation.
You don’t have to plan a whole book. Invite them, and let Omoide ask the first question.