Essential
$299
For a first portrait.
- 5 to 6 conversations, about 3 to 5 hours in all
- Stories shared with family as they happen
- Photographs placed through the book
- The voice archive
- One cloth hardcover book
A private biographer for your family
Every life deserves a great interviewer.
Omoide talks with the people you love — or with you — over many unhurried conversations, by ordinary phone or in a browser. It remembers, follows the stories that matter, and turns them into a family biography: stories you hear as they happen, their voice kept, and a printed hardcover book.
No app to install. No account for them to make. A person to talk to, always.
Checkout opens March 15, 2027. Founding families begin in January. Hear how it works
Three steps. They do one of them.
Most of the work is theirs — and it is the kind of work people enjoy: talking about their life to someone who keeps asking.
Step 1: You do this
Invite them
Choose an edition and tell us a little about the person: their name, how to reach them, the language they'd like to talk in, and what they love talking about. You can add a note about anything to be careful with — only Omoide ever sees it. Then send the invitation, in your words, by text or email. You can buy today and send it later.
Step 2: They do this
Omoide talks with them — or with you
They tap the link, or ask Omoide to call their phone. Before anything is recorded, Omoide says plainly what it is and what will be shared, and asks them to say it back. Then a conversation of about 20 to 30 minutes, usually once a week, over several weeks. Omoide remembers each one and picks up where they left off. A reminder comes the day before. Nothing is timed, and nothing is a test.
Step 3: The family enjoys this
Hear the stories, then hold the book
Within an hour of each conversation, a story arrives — in their voice. Family can add questions and photographs through a link, no account needed. When the conversations are done, the storyteller reads their book first and approves it. Then it is printed, bound, and delivered, with a code inside that plays their voice.
The questions you wouldn't know to ask.
Anyone can send your dad a prompt. A good interviewer notices the name he mentioned in passing and comes back to it three weeks later.
- Week one
Storyteller: We had the place on Halsted for eleven years. It nearly went under in '82, but that's another story.
- Week four
Omoide: You said the restaurant nearly went under in 1982. What happened that year?
- Week four, later
Storyteller: Keep that between us.
Omoide: Of course. That stays between us.
It remembers.
Every name, place, and half-finished thread from earlier conversations. It opens each call by picking up where they left off.
It follows.
When something matters, Omoide asks the next question rather than the next topic.
It knows when to be quiet.
Pauses are part of remembering. A faint room tone on the line means it's still there, listening.
It moves at their pace.
Early conversations are easy ground — names, places, the house they grew up in. Meaning comes later, and only when they're ready. After a hard day, it doesn't ask to schedule anything.
Their story. Their rules.
Omoide is only worth having if the person talking can trust it completely. So the rules favor them, always — even over the person who paid.
What the storyteller says
“There are things about those years I want to say out loud — but they're mine, not for the book. Keep this part between us. The lake house stories, though, tell everyone.”
What anyone else sees
Marked private: this passage is never shared or printed.
Marked private · never shared, never printed, and no gap where it was
- Before anything is recorded,
- Omoide tells them plainly that it is a computer program, that the conversation is recorded, and what will be shared with whom. It asks them to say it back. They can say no, and nothing has been recorded.
- Anything can stay private.
- “Keep this between us” works in the moment or weeks later. A private passage is never shared, never printed, and leaves no gap where it was.
- Only they read the full conversations.
- The storyteller can read every word of every conversation. Family hears the stories the storyteller shares — never the raw transcript, and we tell the storyteller exactly that.
- They can change their mind.
- If a story has already reached the family, taking it back removes it everywhere, quietly. No one is told.
- Family questions go through them first.
- When a relative adds a question, the storyteller sees it before Omoide asks, and can say “Don't ask me this.” The asker never learns it was declined.
- The book is theirs to approve.
- The storyteller reads the finished book first, fixes what's wrong, leaves out what they choose, and approves it. Family reads it afterwards, read-only.
- Your stories are not a product.
- Omoide uses the conversations to create your family's biography. We do not sell your stories or use them for advertising. You can export or delete everything, and the storyteller's privacy choices survive them.
Signature edition
Cloth hardcover · photographs woven through · a code inside that plays their voice
A book made to be kept.
Not a printout of transcripts. A biography written from what they actually said, in the way they said it.
Every chapter is built from their conversations — their phrases, their rhythm, their jokes. The storyteller chooses how it should sound: in their own words, lightly polished, or told about them. Photographs your family adds are placed through the chapters, with captions. A family tree and a timeline sit at the back.
Cloth hardcover. Foil-stamped title. Archival paper that takes a photograph properly. Inside, small codes beside certain stories play the original recording — so the book can speak in their voice for as long as there are phones to hear it.
The voice archive stays online for the family: every shared story, playable like an album, and the conversations only the storyteller can read.
Extra copies are $89 each, from the same edition, whenever the family wants them.
One story. Three editions.
Every edition includes the conversations, the stories shared as they happen, the voice archive, and a printed hardcover. The difference is how long Omoide spends with them, and how far the book goes.
Signature
Most families choose this one$499
For a life told in full.
- Everything in Essential
- 10 to 12 conversations, about 7 to 10 hours in all
- A deeper first conversation with you about who they are and what to ask
- Family tree and timeline
- A round of editorial review before the book is final
- Premium cover and paper options, and gift presentation
Legacy
from$1,299
For a story told completely, with a human editor alongside.
- Everything in Signature
- 15 to 20 or more conversations
- A human editor working with the manuscript
- Archival edition design
- Two printed copies
- Priority support
Extra copies $89 each · Slipcase and large-print edition available · Interviews in English at full quality; Japanese and Spanish are new · Books are printed in English
Prices shown are launch prices. A reservation holds your place; you pay the edition price when conversations are ready to begin. Reservations open November 15.
If the conversations don't happen, you don't lose.
If the storyteller stops partway, we'll pause for up to a year, finish the book from what they've already shared, or refund you in full. If life intervenes, our life-event policy puts the family first. Deposits are refundable at any time before your first conversation.
Buying for yourself? Since this is your own story, your payment is refundable.
The first 250 families
We are opening Omoide to a small first group before the public launch, so that every early family gets the full attention of a new company.
Join the list and we'll send three short emails: what Omoide is, a real sixty-second conversation, and a look at the book. In November, people on the list are invited to reserve a place with a $50 deposit, fully refundable, numbered in the order received. Founding families begin their conversations in January 2027, and their books arrive before Mother's Day.
Founding families receive an extra copy of their book, with our thanks. There are no discounts — the editions cost what they cost — but you will have been there first.