Memory Applications was founded three years ago when I lost my grandmother.
As people we create memories every day, but we’ve lost the ability to tell the story behind the memories and explain the significance and meaning to the people who create them.
That’s not just for each of us now in the present time, it’s for the generations that come after and how the memories we create today can have an impact tomorrow.
Thinking about this, we started looking at applications which could record a person’s whole life story. We had our idea and started to build a prototype with an outsourced development team in India, but we struggled with the language barrier and with timezones.
We wanted to bring production back to the UK, being based in the Tees Valley was important to us – we're a northern product, the north is big on family and we wanted to be rooted in the community in everything we do.
To help us achieve that, we contacted Teesside University and had a conversation with David Dixon at DigitalCity.
David looked at the prototype we’d built, gave us some really valuable feedback. As a start-up you have so many questions you don’t have the answers to – but going to DigitalCity helped us answer some of those questions.
From then on, the help and support that DigitalCity has offered is another level - it’s world class.
David, Scott Watson and the Accelerator programme mentoring team – Ammar Mirza, Phil Veal and Justin Souter – their advice is so valuable, and they’ve got so many connections and ties with the digital sector in the area. On our own journey, a challenge was we didn’t have a brand identity.
DigitalCity team knew graphic designers who had been through the programme they could put us in touch with.
Then when we explained that we wanted to bring development back home, they knew developers and we were able to build strong connections through them helping us. Without their support, so many businesses would have struggled to get off the ground or gone to the wall.
DigitalCity don’t just leave you when you’re finished with them, they’re there all the way through your journey and throughout your business life - they’re just great friends.
Website: odyssea-app.com
