As a dad of two boys, my time online shifted from personal and work needs, intellectual curiosity, and social media to managing all of our family's needs - communication, coordination, forms, apps, things to buy, things to remember, things to learn, things to do. The list goes on.
Like many parents, I started experiencing cognitive overload, digital fatigue, and an increasing sense of not being in control, as I manage too many apps with a never ending flow of data.
I knew there needed to be a way to streamline our digital experience to get more done, have more control of our own data, and preserve meaning, memories, and life experiences of raising a family. With 20+ years of building in consumer tech, I set my sights on helping parents improve their quality of life.
As with many AI startups, we shipped a number of cool AI-powered, single workflow solutions that were super helpful to parents. We shelved each one within a few months, despite having meaningful traction and buy-in from our ICP.
Why? Because, after hearing Mustafa Suleyman speak at Masters of Scale in late 2024, I realized that most of the AI consumer apps around productivity and information would be consumed, laid to waste, or have zero moat to defend against the features and functionality the likes of OpenAI, Anthropic, Perplexity, etc. would deliver, fast. We needed to see around a corner and build something that delivers emotional, practical, and sustainable value. We needed to figure out what matters most to our ICP.
I thought about my own life, and the things happening around me, and it led me to a realization of what I knew I truly needed to build.
It started with my dad.
My Parents
Dad has such an amazing story coming to the US to work with NASA for over 40 years, contributing to the likes of Hubble and James Webb. Together with my mom, a successful Infectious Disease doctor, they sacrificed so much to afford us the opportunities we have.
Recently, Dad was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer. This put our entire family on the clock. We realized how frighteningly little memory we actually have of our parents' stories and our upbringing. Being latchkey kids to immigrant career builders, we didn't spend as much time together as I can with my kids. I think we've kind of taken things for granted until Dad became sick. Now, with only a few pictures, and scattered anecdotes, we find ourselves struggling to capture, preserve, and remember as much as we can.
As I raise young kids of my own, I've developed a deep empathy and gratefulness for everything my parents did to get me to where I am. I think the most important thing I could do for my family, and for my parents, is to make sure I can capture and pass on their story - their sacrifices, their beliefs, their upbringing - the things that made us who we are.
"I think the most important thing I could do for my family is to make sure I can capture and pass on their story - the things that made us who we are."
My Kids
Then I look at my kids.
They have these ridiculously magical moments all the time. And we take pictures - thousands of them - and then we forget. Sure Google or Apple will surface some images in the form of memories, but when I look at those pictures, there's something missing. I can't hear their voices. I can't feel the emotion that drove that moment. I don't remember the perspectives of others in those memories.
Those are the parts of their lives that I want to remember better. I want them and the rest of our family to be able to remember and experience.
All the amazing moments with my life partner, before marriage and kids, it's really hard to remember all the moments. She asks me all the time, "Hey, do you remember this?" and I often find myself saying, "Mm, not really."
So I started asking myself: why do we have to let memories fade away, only to exist as flat, 2D images, if at all. I want to build a world where my kids have on demand access to the stories behind the pictures and videos, filled with the voices of family and friends. A world with vibrant 3D memories, where the voices, emotions, and meaning are preserved.
The Realization
We are increasingly dependent on our digital tools in our everyday life. With all the benefits we can claim, the truth is that every day, we are increasingly inundated with information and content. This has proven to significantly increase our cognitive overload, digital fatigue, and feeling of not being in control.
The amount we forget is already high, and scientists now believe that as the first generations in the digital age, our ability to remember is noticeably diminishing.
Our personal information is scattered across apps and platforms that don't talk to each other, that don't remember us, and aren't set up to benefit us. It's all trapped in digital landfills - growing at exponential rates - further trapping singular memories from ever being recalled.
And this leads to missed opportunities. Missed opportunities in connections and relationships. Missed opportunities to follow up with people. Missed opportunities to follow up on ideas, or on things I want to do for myself and for my family. Missed opportunities everywhere.
We've built tools that store everything - except the things that make us human: context and emotion.
"We've built tools that store everything - except the things that make us human: context and emotion."
Why Now
We finally have a way to address this using AI.
But, the truth is, the utility and power of AI is only as good as the context it has - and that context can only come from the data we allow it to reference and the context we provide with that data. For AI to truly serve people, it needs to know the meaning behind our lives, not just the metadata around them.
That's what Rosie makes possible.
It starts with a few core things:
One - being able to capture memories differently, but in the ways we already live. Just adding a couple of really unique things that get context from your head into your digital memory. That's huge.
And two - being able to take all of our disparate, scattered data and use it in a smart, private way, for ourselves, with control.
By doing that, we can unlock meaning. We can retrieve and connect insights across our life's data - across all those dots - and at the very least, find things in one place; at the very most, discover incredible insights that help us remember better, connect deeper, and live more intentionally.
We can build "digital souls" that allow us to pass on the family stories, the generational wisdom, the life lessons, the important memories to our future generations. (I knew we were on to something here when I had a parent break into tears at Trader Joe's when she started thinking about the possibilities for her and her family!)
The Outcome
We can finally build our own context-rich, AI-ready systems of record - a personal infrastructure that's never been available to consumers before. We have the most proprietary and personal data sets in the world - our own.
A place where our kids' magic moments live safely.
Where our parents' voices are preserved with their stories.
Where our memories aren't lost in digital landfills, but connected and instantly accessible.
Where our ideas never get lost and we can get more done.
Where we can be present and foster deeper connections with the people we love by remembering more about them.
That's what Rosie is for.
"It started with my dad. It's amplified by everything I experience with my wife and kids. It's grounded in the emotional resonance we found with every parent we talk to."
That's why I'm building heyRosie.
For me and my family; and for you and yours.
With gratitude,
Sujal Shah
Founder & CEO, heyRosie