Mae is the new AI solution for decluttering and reviving your digital junk drawer – making it easy to scroll down memory lane.
Users can request Mae (memory assistant experience) to organize photos based on specific criteria, such as “find this weekend’s best photos” or “create a ‘best of 2023’ collection,” via her digital platform. This allows users to focus on the “MVP memories” of the highest quality to save key moments and create physical or digital collections as they see fit. Mae then suggests on-demand physical products that users can purchase to revive, share and extend the shelf-life of their best digital memories.
This software was inspired by Georgia-based founder Nicole Healy’s overwhelming experience when sorting through her son’s digital baby photos.
“The sheer volume of digital photos and videos that myself and my husband had, in addition to trying to centralize it all — it felt so overwhelming and induced so much anxiety. It felt wrong. Our memories should be bringing us joy, instead of creating feelings of anxiety,” said Healy.
Healy explained that families on average are creating around 3,000 digital assets, photos, and videos per year, just to store them online and miss out on the opportunity to experience sharing memories with their loved ones.
“I used to pour over my mom’s wedding album and my mom would sit with me. There was an actual time of connection. That wasn’t happening with my family,” said Healy.
After talking to her friends, she realized that many families were “missing out on this prime opportunity to connect [over] our shared stories and memories.”
Developing Mae
Healy became a Certified Professional Photo Organizer in 2020 and saw the need for managing volume and organization of photographs. Although there are solutions for photo storage and others that organize photos for print, she found there is no software in the market to help users actively manage their memories in the short-term for long-term preservation.
“Through working with clients, I was able to understand the management problem. I was helping them organize their digital assets, and then I was specifically helping them create photo books. That’s what my clients wanted. Taking my methods behind the scenes and then putting them into a product,” said Healy.
Healy joined an accelerator in New York last year where she met Co-Founder Dayna DeStefano, who brings over a decade of experience in storytelling, digital trend forecasting, and product development.
Shortly after, Healy applied and was accepted to Techstars Atlanta Powered by Cox Enterprises class. Techstars supports entrepreneurs around the world by giving access to capital, mentoring, finding customers, hiring talent, choosing the right infrastructure, etc.
In the last 4 months at Techstars, Mae by Memory My Way has gained momentum through algorithm development and growing their team.
Healy says the current focus is on building a world class product while learning from target customers, mainly families and caregivers, to ultimately create an interface that maximizes the memory sharing experience.
“We are really thinking through how we can use generative AI and machine learning to elevate the physical experience and technical experience with how Mae is closing the management loop. And also focusing on our users and audience to listen to what it is they want to help bring their digital moments to life…to create maximum connection with the people that they want to share them with,” said Healy.
Mae is set to launch in January 2024 and is currently in their pre-seed funding rounds. Interested investors can contact Mae directly through their website. Users interested in receiving updates about Mae’s launch can join the waitlist found on their website, linked here.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:Jamie Miller is based in Atlanta and graduated from the University of Georgia with bachelor’s degrees in Journalism and Business Management. When she is not writing or working as a Business Consultant at Ernst & Young, she can be found reading a good book (anything from Harry Potter to Brene Brown), sipping an espresso martini at the neighborhood bar or hunting the flower aisle at Trader Joe’s. She aspires to produce diverse and valuable journalism for the world in the hopes that it inspires others to become lifelong learners who seek first to understand, then to be understood. Read her portfolio here.
