Remento

Here’s a hot take: the most exciting AI consumer products aren’t AI products themselves. It’s the ones that leverage AI to build a bigger product.

Take a company like Remento, for example. Only a fraction of its core product is AI! But it makes its storytelling technology possible, and through it, helps families preserve the memories of their loved ones.

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• Wednesday, Sept 24: Fireside with Max Marchione, co-founder of Superpower. Diving into all things zero to one in startups, as well as his thoughts around the future of personal health tech. Open to all!

Ethan and Arek 🦄

Remento helps families preserve their loved ones' life stories through guided storytelling. The platform lets family members select meaningful prompts for their storyteller, while its Speech-to-Story AI enhances the recorded responses by polishing narratives. Each completed story joins an ongoing digital archive of memories that is accessible to all family collaborators through shareable links. Families can then transform these digital recordings into professionally bound books, complete with QR codes that link back to the original audio and video recordings, to create lasting keepsakes.

Check it out: remento.co

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Remento operates with a subscription-based business model. The subscription is priced at $99 per year, or $12 per month, and includes one storyteller account, unlimited collaborators, a year’s supply of story prompts, and one full-color hardcover book up to 200 pages. Books exceeding 200 pages incur an additional $30 fee, and those over 380 pages are divided into two volumes. Additional hardcover books are available for $69 each (up to 200 pages) or $99 each (201 to 380 pages). An ebook version is also available for $49.99.

• Raised $4 million from three institutional investors and 10 angel investors

• Featured on Shark Tank in February 2025, securing $300,000 for 10% equity from Mark Cuban

• Made $620,000 in sales during the first 10 months and projecting $4.6 million in 2025 with $1.5 million to $2 million in net profit

• Average order value of $119 with a $16 cost to print and ship each book (an 86% profit margin)

• Approaching 500,000 stories recorded

Remento founder and CEO Charlie Greene's journey began in journalism at NBC News, where he discovered his passion for the intersection of technology and storytelling. He would pursue it further as a speech writer for the Obama administration and public affairs director at 21st Century Fox.

Remento's origin story is deeply personal. After learning of his mother's cancer diagnosis, and having already lost his father in 9/11, Greene urgently began recording conversations with his mother to capture her memories and life stories. Beyond being a powerful bonding experience, these sessions revealed that there was significant friction between having meaningful conversations and actually documenting them. Greene realized that while his mother had always been eager to share her stories, he had previously hesitated to ask deeper questions out of modesty and the perceived complexity of the process.

This insight sparked his exploration into how technology could lower barriers to make it easier for families to share and preserve their stories. And so, after pursuing an MBA at Harvard, and a year and a half of customer discovery, the Remento team launched the final iteration of their product: an AI-powered platform that prompts older family members to share and preserve their stories for future generations.

Remento’s market is shaped by converging demographic and digital trends, creating opportunities for story preservation platforms. The U.S.’s aging population has surged to 61.2 million people over 65, growing 3.1% in just one year, with their share of the population jumping from 12.4% in 2004 to 18.0% today, creating an unprecedented reservoir of life stories and family histories.

This demographic reality coincides with explosive growth across related digital markets. For instance, storytelling platforms are projected to more than double from $415.78 million to $851.34 million by 2030. Similarly, the genealogy market, which encompasses family history research, ancestry documentation, and also to an extent, personal narrative preservation, is racing toward a $8.84 billion size by 2030, with an 11.36% compound annual growth rate. The broader personalized gifts market, which intersects with Remento's keepsake functionality, is expected to grow from $29.89 billion to $54.15 billion by 2033. Altogether, consumer appetite is strong for meaningful, customized products that celebrate relationships and preserve precious memories for future generations.

Remento competes with established story preservation platforms like Storyworth, Kindred Tales, Meminto, and A Life Untold, but differentiates itself through simplicity. While competitors offer speech-to-text features alongside traditional writing options, Remento’s “no writing required” approach to storytelling with its Speech-To-Story AI creates a distinct brand identity centered on accessibility and ease of use, appealing to seniors who can use the natural flow of spoken conversation to eliminate friction when documenting their stories. 

Looking forward, Greene's vision for Remento's future begins with a compelling question: "If your parents are no longer here, what would it feel like to be able to have them take you on a tour of their hometown?" Greene believes every story captured on Remento today is building a foundational layer of personalized family data that will eventually power immersive virtual reality experiences. While Remento isn't currently a VR company, Greene envisions a future where people can step into virtual recreations of their parents' hometowns or relive significant family moments through advanced storytelling technology. By preserving these personal narratives now, Remento is creating the raw material for future generations to connect with their ancestors. 

• Remento on Shark Tank [Remento]

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