Pictures are a token of appreciation that helps encapsulate and cherish a certain memory, event, or occasion forever. It’s where they tend to tell a thousand stories with a simple outlay. However, with innovation and technology moving faster than ever before, making these pictures come to life is now possible. If you’re wondering how? Then Moving Moments has the solution for this.
Moving Moments is a company that provides consumers with making any ordinary picture mean something more. It’s where making it come to life is the primary goal. For having such a picture, upload the picture you want, add the video file, and then the photograph’s frame, and you’re done. Once you get the picture framed in choosing your style, simply open the dedicated application, and you can see the video playing on the canvas as it came to life. Having a conversation with Christianne Taylor, one of the co-founders of Moving Moments, Venture Mirror learned a lot about the company. If you wish to do the same, then the excerpts from our interview are provided as follows.
What is the startup / product / venture about? Give us a brief description of it.
The short answer we typically tell people is, “we figured out how to make those moving photographs in Harry Potter real!” LOL
It’s even better when we are actually able to pull one out and show people and see their reactions. It’s really fun!
The more tech savvy answer is we are the first STC AR print shop. For both Josh and I (my business partner) the goal from the beginning was to create a product that does more than sells well but actually cultivates happiness, joy, magic, connection and meaning.
How many co-founders are there? Please introduce them and their backgrounds.
Two! So Josh Eindenberg is my business partner and fellow Co-Founder. I can not express enough HOW AMAZING HE IS! Not only does he have decades of tech entrepreneur experience, far more than me, but his heart is so good. He has a huge capacity to find unique ways of spreading love and it has made building this company together so much richer.
As for me, my background was in investing and photography. I built my first company when I was a freshman in college. I basically locked myself in my dorm until I figured out how to build a website from a software box kit that I got from Office Max for $50! It’s hilarious now, but I was determined. At the time, my roommate thought I had lost it but about 2 weeks later I emerged with a website. (albeit a janky ass website but still a working website!) I ended up building a career in photography and went on to have work published in multiple magazines, namely Vogue, even before finishing college.
Somewhere along the way I started investing in friends start-ups and my interests peaked in building something again myself. That’s about the time I met Josh.
How did you come up with the idea? What motivated you to do this?
So this one is actually on Josh. He was invited up to my ranch and during the evening he showed me what we now call a “Moving Moment”. He’d gone to a wedding and as a gift to the couple, had mailed them a canvas he’d figured out how to make augmentable. They absolutely flipped. I flipped! I was like “this would be a game changer gift!”
I asked how he made it, and came to find out, it required far more work and tech smarts than your average person could figure out. So I asked if all those steps could be consolidated into one site and an easy 3 step process; something easy and simple that could be done using a phone. That’s where the brain-storming started.
I think if I’m being vulnerable though, I’d tell you that I watched it thinking; if I had a picture of my Dad that came to life and I could hear his voice and laughter; see his smile and one-sided dimple again, I’d give anything for that. Even now writing this I’m tearing up, but I get why Harry Potter carried that picture of his parents with him. It’s priceless.
Who is your target market? Why do you think your product will appeal to them?
Our target market is anyone who loves anyone, even pets. lol. If there are special memories on your phone, then you’re probably our market. If you’ve ever scored the mall or internet to find a gift that’s meaningful and personable for someone you love, then you’re definitely our market.
The reality is I think we all want to give good gifts but too often we end up buying meaningless shit.
The truth is, the magic isn’t in our tech, it’s in the memories that our customers are framing. We just make it easy for them to experience and share in the moments together again.
Who are your competitors? How are you different from them?
Ew, I hate the word competitors. I can tell you that Mixed Tiles is a company that has been doing an incredible job helping people easily get pictures on their walls. We admire them. Shutterfly and Ellen are also a partnership we freaking love; mainly because I’m encouraged by the way they work together to simply support people who are spreading goodness and joy.
LOL, I think it would be utterly ridiculous to call them competitors because they aren’t. They are however, incredible companies and people we watch to get inspired in how we go about our business and to set a standard for how we want to interact with customers.
What are the future plans with the product/startup? Any new features you are planning on?
AHHHH sooo many plans! We want to start connecting with artists and photographers to offer set prints of work in our product line. Right now our product is making your own AR Print. Which is awesome but we want people to also be able to order premade prints too. So that is currently in the works!
Think how cool it would be if a beautiful waterfall print you have framed on your wall could come to life? It would be like you are entering into the intimacy of the moment with the photographer themselves. It’s a new unique way to explore the NFT space and just truly a magical experience to open customers to as an artist. To allow them into the fullness of the wonder of the moment when you were there present with the roar of the waterfall, feeling the rustles of the leaves against your skin and the delicate symphony of wildlife that were absent but a moment before when the print was only a print. The NFT space is cool! As an artist, I want to support other artists and this is just one more way to allow them to create connection, intimacy and expand artistry.