The Keepster Story
In 2015, Founder Jennifer Simchowitz had an idea for a Valentine's gift for her significant other: a year’s worth of their text messages as they were falling in love, turned into a book.
That was the idea that ultimately launched Keepster. Though, it was way easier said than done...
After Googling around endlessly for easy tools to create the book, Jennifer discovered that they simply did not exist. The Valentine’s Day present that she had in mind was going to have to be laboriously hand made.
She couldn’t believe it - texting had become such a significant form of communication, wouldn’t everyone at some point want to create something like this? What if you somehow lost those special texts? Then what?
Back then, the only way Jennifer could make the book was to spend hours (and hours) scrolling through her phone, cherry-picking texts, cutting and pasting them into a Word document, then quite literally cutting and glueing printed pages into a beautiful red leather journal.
That was the idea that ultimately launched Keepster. Though, it was way easier said than done...
After Googling around endlessly for easy tools to create the book, Jennifer discovered that they simply did not exist. The Valentine’s Day present that she had in mind was going to have to be laboriously hand made.
She couldn’t believe it - texting had become such a significant form of communication, wouldn’t everyone at some point want to create something like this? What if you somehow lost those special texts? Then what?
Back then, the only way Jennifer could make the book was to spend hours (and hours) scrolling through her phone, cherry-picking texts, cutting and pasting them into a Word document, then quite literally cutting and glueing printed pages into a beautiful red leather journal.
Turned out all those hours were worth it. Her labor of love was a home run. To this day, Jennifer remembers the look on her guy’s face when she proudly presented him with her homemade gift - a memory she’ll carry with her forever. “A gift of a lifetime” he said.
With that, the tiniest seed of an idea had been planted.
With that, the tiniest seed of an idea had been planted.
Six months later, a beloved childhood friend of Jen’s passed away tragically and suddenly. They’d known each other since the day they were born, back in South Africa. Losing her was completely devastating to everyone. Part of Jen’s healing process was going through their texts - whether daily check-ins, or planning who would cook what for their shared Thanksgivings. Now those texts meant so much more. The idea of ever losing them was unthinkable. Jen could not let that happen! Jen’s awareness of the importance of messages grew stronger...
The seed began to sprout…
Texting had crushed past forms of communication:
letters, long phone calls, even e-mails. Texting and social media is what we have now, and texting is actually out-pacing social media. The fact that struck Jennifer was that there was simply no satisfactory way to single out and hold onto the texts that resonate for each of us. Whether for comfort, a good laugh, a quick pep-me-up, or just because….
Texting had crushed past forms of communication:
letters, long phone calls, even e-mails. Texting and social media is what we have now, and texting is actually out-pacing social media. The fact that struck Jennifer was that there was simply no satisfactory way to single out and hold onto the texts that resonate for each of us. Whether for comfort, a good laugh, a quick pep-me-up, or just because….
A few months later she landed up at a Startup Festival in San Francisco.
CLICK!
She inhaled the energy, the ideas, the language… there was no going back. Soon after, project Keepster came to life.
Eighteen months later, Jen’s idea got her into a Silicon Valley Incubator. The only female, the only sole founder in the cohort, and old enough to be everyone in the group’s mother!
Three years and a lot of all nighters later, Keepster was launched as a desktop app to save, search and organize text messages, and print the special ones into books.
The work at Keepster continues to evolve, fueled by our belief that SOME MESSAGES REALLY MATTER.
Circling back to where our Founder began her journey, our ambition remains: to give you a new set of tools to relive and reflect upon the messages that matter.... just to YOU.
CLICK!
She inhaled the energy, the ideas, the language… there was no going back. Soon after, project Keepster came to life.
Eighteen months later, Jen’s idea got her into a Silicon Valley Incubator. The only female, the only sole founder in the cohort, and old enough to be everyone in the group’s mother!
Three years and a lot of all nighters later, Keepster was launched as a desktop app to save, search and organize text messages, and print the special ones into books.
The work at Keepster continues to evolve, fueled by our belief that SOME MESSAGES REALLY MATTER.
Circling back to where our Founder began her journey, our ambition remains: to give you a new set of tools to relive and reflect upon the messages that matter.... just to YOU.
We are passionate about helping you preserve your meaningful conversations.
