Show HN: NanaGram – Text your photos and we'll mail 4x6 prints to your Nana

by aacook • 9 years ago

5 5 9 years ago

aacook3• 9 years ago

Hi HN,

So happy to share this project, born on my Grandpa's 94th birthday party. Over the years, we've tried to teach our grandparents tech but nothing stuck. As our habits have shifted our grandparents have sort of been left behind. Showing our grandparents photos on our smartphones is fine in the moment but leaves them with nothing to look at once we've gone home.

NanaGram started with just my siblings and me curating photos for our grandparents. Before NanaGram, the photos on the fridge hadn't changed in 10 years. I bought my grandma a 100 pack of magnetic pins. Now nearly the entire fridge is covered and the grandkids compete to get on the fridge.

The second customer was my future wife. I didn't give her a discount since I wanted to prove people would pay for it. She still gives me a hard time :) Her Grandma's first delivery arrived at just the right time, bringing joy to her Grandma during a challenging weekend. Her Grandma brings the photos to her knitting group and brags about how great her grandkids are.

Early customer orders are starting to drop and reactions from loved ones has been awesome: https://twitter.com/jayacunzo/status/939231360618844160

One of the best parts of the project is it’s been an excuse to spend more time with my 94-year-old grandparents. A couple weeks ago I bought my grandparents an Amazon Alexa Show. I recorded the unboxing and what unfolded was just… ridiculous: https://youtu.be/4eomGnUHido. I wrote a bit more about it at http://blog.nanagram.co/echo-show-unboxing.

A viral video TV show reached out and asked if we could use the video. When I asked my Grandpa if he’s okay with being on the Internet and TV, he immediately looked at me and said, “When are we going to Hollywood!?”

Further shenanigans ensued. He asked the show for compensation and when they offered him $150 he counter-offered, asking for $500 in “Bite” coin. This past Monday morning the show was broadcasted and I went to their home to watch it live. After seeing themselves on TV for the first time, my Grandpa turned to my Grandma and said, “See? See who you married? I’m a famous Grandpa. I’m America’s Grandpa!”

champion• 9 years ago

This seems great. In the past I had set up Flickr to at least email all my daughter's grandparents so they could see new photos of her. As Flickr is dying and this case doesn't seem well handled by Instagram/Google Photos this seems like a really nice way to share family photos with everyone.

aacook3• 9 years ago

Love that. Do you ever send photos to print as well?

andygcook• 9 years ago

Hi HN - aacook’s younger-but-taller brother here. We’ve been using NanaGram as a family for the past few months and it’s been great. Makes it super simple to send photos to my grandparents now. I just need to text it to a number, add a caption if I want, and it gets mailed off to them. Our older sister, who’s not super tech savvy, can even use the UI because the primary interface is SMS.

aacook3• 9 years ago

* and-more-handsome

Show HN: NanaGram – Text your photos and we'll mail 4x6 prints to your Nana

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