THE VOB EPISODE 7- HEIRLOOM

As time passes, certain memories are sure to slowly fade.
Memories of children, parents, grandparents, friends, and even pets.

First steps, childhood memories, marriages, births, progressions of life.

We live in a world where it’s so much easier to capture these moments, but it’s still not foolproof and this wasn’t always the case.

Printed photographs, slides, negatives, 8mm videos, reels, VHS tapes…

Recently, I received a box of items after my grandmother passed. In that box were old letters that my dad had written before I was born. 10 years’ worth, actually. Additionally, there were some old photographs. Many worn, some still in decent shape. My aunt had sent them to me because she figured that of out of all of the people in my immediate family, I was probably the one to appreciate them the most.

As I read through the letters and looked at the photographs, I found some that I thought my dad would enjoy. I took a photo with my iPhone Pro, but it definitely didn’t them justice. My $500 scanner wasn’t much better. Also, I didn’t really have the time and patience to scan them all, so I only sent over a couple.

As expected, my dad enjoyed them. But a few months later asked if I could send one of them to him again. I have no idea where those images went - I had deleted them shortly after sending them off. The originals are packed in a box somewhere with my recent PCS.

In another instance, I was proactive and had backed up my wedding and honeymoon photos on an external hard drive. Too bad that both my computer and the hard drive both crashed at the same time. Not that this is likely to happen to anyone else, but heaven forbid that photos I got from my aunt got lost in a PCS, or something happened to them when I wasn’t home.

Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to get these items (old and new) nicely preserved in a safe place and easily sharable? I wouldn’t have to spend hours looking for my kid’s senior photos from 6 months prior when his father’s aunt asked for a copy.

Well, the good news is that my next guest’s veteran owned business does exactly that. AND more.

Geoff Weber - Founder and CEO of Heirloom Cloud

Geoff Weber is the founder and CEO of Heirloom Cloud Corporation. Prior to 9/11, he joined the Navy as an Intelligence Officer and very recently retired. (Congratulations to Geoff and his family!)

Prior to joining the Navy, he had founded 2 other startups. But this veteran owned business was founded while he was still serving on active duty, and has been running 3 years strong!

So how did it all start?

Being active duty, he and his family constantly moved during his 20 years in the service. Every PCS, he and his wife struggled to preserve all of their family’s precious memories in different media formats. Eventually, he figured out a way to digitize everything into the cloud. Family and friends heard about their process and wanted to preserve their memories as well. After spending countless hours helping them, he realized there was a problem.
Heirloom became the solution.

But, if preserving memories wasn’t enough of a reason, Geoff had an additional purpose. As the father of an autistic son, he knew how these talented men and women on the spectrum have an eye for detail, strong focus, and can perform repetitive tasks at a high level and wanted to incorporate supporting them. Heirloom will be hiring several autistic employees in September as they expand.

AND they are making a positive impact in the transitioning service member community by being a part of the DoD Skillbridge program! They have over a dozen on their team through the program - learning new skills and helping to make a difference. While they don’t have any openings currently, definitely keep an eye out for future opportunities!

“Founding a new startup takes perseverance and determination. You have to have a solid mission and vision to stay focused on the long game. Success in a startup doesn’t happen overnight. It takes years of dedication and long hours to make it happen. You also need to surround yourself with a team that you trust. Leveraging the talents of your team is essential if you want your business to not only survive but to strategically become the reality of your vision.” Excellent advice, Geoff!

Heirloom launched their “No Memory Left Behind” Kickstarter Fundraiser on Friday, April 9th. Funds generated through this will be used to open a new fulfillment center that will hire up to 10 autistic workers by September, as well as develop new code for their platform, supporting contracted coders in war-torn Ukraine. Kickstarter rewards will offer digitizing discounts that save clients up to $12,000 in digitizing their precious memories.

But don’t let those savings scare you. Their pricing is incredibly affordable, and they have some amazing upgrades to their offerings coming later this year.

You can find out more about Heirloom Cloud at https://www.heirloom.cloud/

Their site has easy-to-access contact information, and if you take a look at the banner at the top, you can get more information about their Kickstarter Fundraiser!

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