The Art is Alive Magazine x Skypod Founder and CEO Richard Jardine
You created Skypod in 2014, and I am told that this invention was inspired while you were traveling in the air. It seems natural to me that we consider our mortality more while in an airplane, as we cannot control the potential for a life-ending crash. Is Skypod starting to become suited to include the other type of major market, i.e. preserving memories to share while still in the present?
While Skypod was originally inspired by me having lost my father as a small child, a lot of my vision was developed in airplanes. Every time I’d soar about the clouds, I’d think about my own mortality. I’d wonder what would happen to my loved ones if I passed away. What advice did I wish I could leave for them? What did I want them to know about me? What events would I miss out on?
Those thoughts would stick with me when I landed and helped me shape Skypod into what it is today, a platform anyone can use to create digital time capsules to share things that matter with loved ones.
To this day, every time I look up at the clouds or out the window of an airplane, I think of the impact people around the world are making on their loved ones for generations to come using Skypod. Soldiers and frontline workers who create happy birthday messages for family members they can’t be with on their special day. Parents and grandparents are sharing age-appropriate messages for loved ones. For as low as $2.99 per month, people can send important messages or words of wisdom months or even years into the future.
In addition to people thinking about their mortality, Skypod has been very well received by people who want to create messages with the intention of watching their messages with their loved ones at a later date. By planning ahead, they ensure a special moment for their loved ones. If they are able to watch together, the creator can enjoy seeing their loved ones react to their special message in real-time. And they can rest easy knowing their messages are preserved and can be accessed in the future if they pass away.
Your platform wants to provide services that suit relationships which are rocked by life circumstances. By this, I assume you mean that if one gets ill, elects to get engaged, finds themselves pregnant, completes college, etc., Skypod can make special memories? Does anyone ever find that some of these stories are almost too personal to put into a cloud based place? I say this because we live in a world where information can be stolen from certain online platforms.
Skypod takes user data very seriously because people use our software to share very meaningful messages with people they care about. To that end, our patent-pending technology was designed to make sure Skypod is safe, secure, and encrypted. Nobody at Skypod can see the contents of any user’s digital time capsule. Only senders and recipients can.
We also designed the Skypod delivery process to enhance both security and user experience. When someone creates a digital time capsule using Skypod, they designate as many recipients as they’d like and set the date and time the recipients can open the time capsule. Our software then sends notifications to the recipients, letting them know they have a message waiting for them but that they can’t access the message until the date and time set by the sender. This feature not only locks down the message from anyone but the sender until the appropriate date and time, it also enhances the user experience by creating anticipation.
Yes, many Skypod users are people who are receiving hospice services, having surgeries, battling terminal illnesses, or working in high-risk jobs. Those users tend to want to share words of wisdom and age-appropriate advice to loved ones in the future. We also have a growing user base who are not nearing or contemplating their mortality. Either way, protecting and preserving user information is of utmost importance.
Between the security of our software and the stability of our platform, we are committed to ensure that our user’s information is both private and preserved. Our software is significantly more secure than storing messages on a phone, laptop, or tablet. And it is designed to preserve messages and memories much better than how memories have traditionally been passed down, on paper, in a shoebox, or by relying on children and grandchildren accurately retelling the stories of their ancestors.
Our users can rest easy that their digital time capsules are secure, and their loved ones will receive message that matter to them, in their words, no matter what happens.
As Founder, you currently live in Miami Beach, which is full of sand, sun and surfing. It is also a large tourist attraction, so one has to ask - was a move made there to enhance the business or was this done before the business began? I also imagine your biggest demographic from this area would be the more mature, i.e. 50-70 year olds, as they tend to frequent Florida the most?
It wasn’t planned, but my family and I are very happy to live in Florida. With a headquarters in Miami, Florida, and offices in Los Angeles, California, we are fortunate to have a physical presence in two wonderful locations.
Florida is a great place to live. It is filled with great people of all ages but does have a large 50+ community. That’s certainly a big age demographic for Skypod, however people in their 30s and 40s are starting to close the gap.
That’s important to us because we created Skypod for everyone, regardless of race, religion, where you live, sexual orientation and identity, financial status, or political status. There is only one common denominator in life, and that’s death.
We have received a lot of feedback from younger users who are using Skypod to create digital time capsules in connection with family and estate planning. Many even create digital time capsules with their young children to send messages to watch with their children months or even years into the future.
These users are also realizing that life can change at the blink of an eye, especially in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Making digital time capsules to share things that matter with loved ones helps them create precious moments no matter what happens in the future.
With plans as low as $2.99 per month, younger users are loving creating priceless family memories for mere pennies a day. We also even offer free support and emergency use credits if someone enters hospice care or receives a terminal diagnosis and can’t afford our $2.99 plan. So, we urge everyone who wants to preserve things that matter to visit www.Skypod.com or email support@skypod.com if you need help. Your memories matter and we want to help you preserve them.
The process for making memories on Skypod is three step: fill pod with content, name the receiver, and set the date and time for actual opening. When one is sending pictures, videos and digital files, do you accept only specified types of files? Is this something the technically challenged can use?
Ease of use is very important to us at Skypod so we designed our software to accept all of the common document, picture, audio, and video file types. Users can also type or record messages directly into our platform if they want.
Skypod is extremely easy to use. You can literally drag and drop files from your desktop to your digital time capsule and add multiple files at the same time. You can also create and add files to your time capsule directly from your smartphone.
If there is an issue adding your file to your digital time capsule, we let you know right away. We also show you exactly what your Skypod digital time capsule contains before you complete your purchase. This way you know exactly what your loved ones will receive before you send it.
Skypod’s cloud-based platform offers users multiple options with flexible delivery dates and times suited for each user’s needs. Skypod can also be accessed from any smartphone, tablet, or computer, anywhere in the world with an internet connection.
Per your website, we as users are provided with secure and encrypted digital time capsules. Now, just to dispose any doubts, what if the internet crashed tomorrow - what safeguards are set in place to preserve these materials?
I’m glad you asked this. Skypod is a safe, secure, encrypted digital time capsule platform. Technically speaking, we are as safe and secure as Amazon. If Amazon goes down, yes, we could go down as well. However, everything is backed up, again in a safe, secure, and encrypted manner. Therefore, if the internet crashed and was then restored, your files will still be there and will only be accessible by the sender and recipients.
Like I mentioned before, we are committed to ensuring that Skypod’s users’ information is preserved. This is one of the greatest benefits of our software. Before Skypod, information was stored in phones, laptops, tablets, papers, and shoeboxes. Anyone with access to those devices or papers could access your information. If a hard drive crashed or got erased your information would be gone. A flood or a house fire could destroy your precious memories forever.
With Skypod, our leading security and patent-pending technology ensures your data is safe and secure, only accessible by the people you designate. It also ensures your data is protected both in the present and the future.
Typically, the charge to use Skypod is $2.99, but you have graciously offered to donate $1,000,000 in credits to first responders. Those that qualify include nurses, doctors, patients and other health care workers. Is this nationwide, or a set amount per state? If someone is interested in claiming this credit, how would they do so? Is there a specified end date for this lovely gift?
Our $1 million donation of Skypod credits is available worldwide, just like the coronavirus pandemic, which we all know has impacted more than 180 countries, including Italy, Spain, France, the UK, the United States, Brazil, Russia, China, and others. We have users all around the world and want to help first responders, frontline workers, and coronavirus patients all around the world, too.
While we have not set a specified end date, the credits will all have been distributed once the first 20,000 people sign up. So, if you or someone you know is a police officer, doctor, nurse, healthcare worker, or coronavirus patient, encourage them to claim their $50 in Skypod digital time capsule credits before they are all distributed. All they need to do is sign up for a new account at www.Skypod.com/together.
Each account will receive $50 in Skypod credits to be used to create Skypod digital time capsules for loved ones. Because Skypods start at just $2.99, they can create a number of messages with these free credits. No credit card is needed, and there are no strings attached.
This is Skypod’s way of giving back and offering hope to the dedicated men and women who are putting their lives on the line every day, as well as the patients they serve. We want to provide some peace of mind that their loved ones can hear from them no matter what happens.
Finally, do you envision branching your business out to include real-time recording of memories or other types of services through Skypod?
We are constantly looking for ways to add even more value to Skypod users and real-time recording is a great example of our dedication. Skypod recently added this feature and users have already started using it in their digital time capsules.
Additionally, because the sender controls the date and time their digital time capsules can be opened by the recipient, some users are sending real-time messages with open dates as short as forty-eight hours.
Recording memories in real-time creates some of the most special messages because they are created while the emotions are still raw and pure. Your loved one can truly feel your pride, love, or excitement when you capture those emotions in real-time.
In addition to real-time functionality we are working on helping people use our platform to support people living with Alzheimer’s, Dementia, and other neurodegenerative conditions. Our commitment is to consistently improve Skypod so everyone in the world can preserve things that matter for generations to come.
How can our readers stay connected with Skypod on social media?
They can follow Skypod on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
We love hearing stories about how people are using Skypod to send messages that matter to loved ones around the world!