Launch HN: Artifact (YC S20) – Personal podcasts with the people in your life
I’m Ross Chanin, co-founder and CEO of Artifact (https://www.heyartifact.com), where we help people record the important stories in their lives, told in the voices of friends and family members. Think of us as an on-demand podcast studio you can focus on anything you want. We set you up with an interviewer in our marketplace, and we make the process easy, from scheduling to hosting interviews over the phone, and then delivering a polished edit that wouldn’t sound out of place on the radio.
Our idea was born out of a personal sense of loss: My grandfather passed away and I found myself regretting that I hadn’t captured him telling stories about his life. I thought others might feel the same about someone in their own lives.
The problem (for me, anyway) was that I didn’t have an easy way to go deep with my grandfather. It was never the right time. Some of the questions I wanted to ask were quite personal. I don’t have audio editing skills, so I was unsure what I would even do with the raw audio if I’d recorded a conversation with him.
I mentioned what I wanted to do to my friend, George, who’s a journalist. He stopped me and said, “But that’s what journalists do. Why don’t you hire a journalist?”
We decided to try it as an experiment. My Aunt Cindy was about to turn 59, so George called up three of her oldest friends, interviewed them about their relationships with Cindy, and delivered an edit that, when Cindy heard it, had her laughing and crying in equal measure.
Cindy and her friends told us three things that we have since heard over and over: First, customers often tell our interviewers things they’ve never told their loved ones, but would like to be able to say to them (example - https://www.instagram.com/p/CDlwIojFPmF/). Second, we routinely hear from recipients that, as soon as they've heard an episode in which people talk about them, they want to call those people and thank them. And third, that the experience is helping people feel closer to each other.
But the truth is that we would have only ever been a cottage production studio with George and me at the helm (that’s right, my friend George became a co-founder). This is where Moncef Biaz and Martin Gouy, our technical co-founders, enter the picture. Together, as a team, we think about Artifact as a marketplace, connecting the right interviewers with the right guests (e.g., if you need a bilingual Mandarin and English-speaking interviewer who is also great with 11-year-olds, we got you.) We’ve also become obsessed with the state of audio recording and editing technology, effectively asking the question: "How close can we get to studio-quality sound without the studio?" The answer is: pretty darn close.
Far more important than the audio quality is the substance of what people are telling our interviewers. Our customers are telling us that these incredibly personal stories are becoming heirlooms for their friends and family. Customers are also teaching us new ways to use our service: wedding and anniversary gifts, family heritage, journaling, enterprise use-cases, etc.
We put lots of little snippets (with permission from our customers) on our Instagram. You can also hear a full Artifact—commissioned by a couple who wanted to document the husband’s cancer diagnosis and their shared journey (https://www.heyartifact.com/daryl).
Ultimately, our goal is to make this service accessible in every language, geographic region, and culture. Because we all have a story to tell; what we didn’t all have, until now, is someone to tell it to—someone who knows how to ask the right questions, how to record it, and how to make sure it sounds great, so that we can easily share it with friends, family, and generations to ...
111 comments
[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 167 ms ] threadI'll also say that (and this is off in the future), that we hope to bring this per episode price point down as we streamline ops. We really want our service to be accessible to all. Not there yet.
I also like to think about podcasting as the "modern" medium for oral history and story creation. At its core, we think about Artifact as a service that makes it easier to go deep - and it just so happens that this podcast interview setting seems to be a good way to do that.
Thus far (and, admittedly, it's early days), we are growing organically. When people are interview guests for an Artifact or listen to Artifacts involving, friends, family, or colleagues, they are becoming customers.
In this way, people are telling us that they can see a "constellation" of Artifacts around them and the people in their lives — and that they'll add to it over time. So, we might do an annual Artifact interview with your child from age 9 to 18, capturing their voice and their thoughts, and then you might sit for an Artifact with colleagues as a send off before leaving for a job, capturing that work together. You also might use Artifact to capture family heritage - with parents, aunts/uncles, and grandparents, and do so incrementally over time, etc.
So yeah, early days but this is what we are seeing. We'll be keeping our heads down, focused on providing quality service day in and day out.
If a "VC case" ends up supporting that goal, great. If not, so be it.
All that is both pretty straightforward and fun. If I hire Artifact to do this for several hundred dollars, I've essentially paid someone else to have the fun.
I may be an outlier but this inspires me to do something, not to buy something.
Will they necessarily talk to you, based on the relationship with your mother? Outsiders can often get info from people they wouldn't share with family members.
> All that is both pretty straightforward and fun.
Not for most people, and not with any reasonable assurance you'll get something 'good' at the end. Even scheduling time between multiple people can be a deal breaker. The OP had posted there never felt like a 'good time' to do it.
Asking good questions, prompting people who aren't great (nerves, whatever) can all add a lot of stress to the process.
I think you're probably a bit of an outlier. If it works for you, great, but... I know far more people that want the end result of something like this than have the time to do it.
I really appreciate.
I think it is a great idea for a product to be spec'ed into family lore :)
Your feedback is making me think that we're not doing a great job of making clear the importance of the role of the professional interviewer in what we create for our customers.
Separate from the important logistical aspects of our service that other contributors mention on the thread, our customers continue to share with us that the role of the professional interviewer is just really important.
This space that gets created between professional interviewer and guest makes it possible for the guest to go beyond that first question about, say, the relationship between two people, and get much deeper into particular periods in each others lives when that relationship has really mattered, and also sharing makes sharing lighter moments a lot of fun.
I'll just say that the art and skill of the follow up question is real.
I'd also say that if reading a bit about what we are up to inspires you to interview your mother's closest friends about her and their relationships, that means a lot to me and please go for it. Also, let us know how we can help!
Feel free to email me with any questions you might have as to how to best set things up: contact@heyartifact.com
At his eulogy I talked about how great it is that hundreds of awesome people came to say nice things about him. But it would be even nicer if he heard those things when he was alive. I encouraged attendees to go tell their loved ones how they felt before they were gone.
Artifact seems like it can help with that in a very polished way.
I can also easily imagine spending a few hundred $$ on this once or twice a year for various people in my life. It's on the high side (e.g. "meaningful gift/memorable occasion" pricing), but given your audio samples it seems price indicates quality.
Good stuff. Will be following your journey and will become a customer at some point.
I eulogized my grandfather and felt similarly at his funeral - I learned so much about him over that day and weekend, and felt he would loved to hear those thoughts.
To your point on pricing - you're correct, we are very much focused on quality. As I mentioned in another comment on the post (and while it's off in the future), we do hope to bring price per episode price point down as we streamline ops. We really want our service to be accessible to all.
I very much look forward to serving you as a customer in the future.
Love this idea! How are you thinking about sharing Artifacts with less technically inclined recipients?
I'd love to give this as a gift to my parents but I've unsuccessful tried a few times to get them set up with listening to podcasts.
Instead we share Artifact episodes with you (the buyer in this case) via your Artifact account. You can then share out each episode as as weblink via text message, email, or however you prefer to share with your parents and they can listen from the browser on their mobile phone or computer. Example here of an Artifact that we are authorized by the interview guests to share publicly: https://www.heyartifact.com/daryl
So, no set up required!
Of course, happy to further clarify / answer any additional questions you might have - we'd love the opportunity to serve you as a customer.
When I'm in "the zone" of a run and a podcast comes on that particularly resonates with me, I tear up (maybe 3-4 times in my 6+ years of running). I think that's due to a combination of the power of the podcast episode and my heightened emotional state when I'm on a long run.
This Artifact had that effect on me while I was sitting on my couch. I am blown away.
[0] http://trysaga.com/
[1] https://apps.apple.com/app/saga-private-family-podcast/id150...
We'll also be rolling out accounts for Artifact listeners, so they can login to listen to Artifacts that are relevant to them going forward.
We'd love to have the opportunity to serve you as a customer. We're interviewing parents and grandparents about their life stories everyday. Feel free to reach out directly with any questions at contact@heyartifact.com.
And in case helpful, we typically create a "Life Story" Artifact over three to four interviews (so it's like a mini-series). The outline, which you can of course adjust to your needs, tends to look like this:
Interview #1: Family Heritage & Childhood - Your dad's personal memories of prior generations. Interview #2: Teenage Years / Young Adulthood / Early Career. Interview #3: Mature Adulthood / Family Life / Career. Interview #4: This tends to be a "wild card." Your dad and the interviewer may just have more territory to cover after the first sessions, or your dad may want to return to a certain time in his life or several themes. We can also 100% refund if this interview is not needed (we find that 80% of the time it is desired).
Have you heard of StoryCorp? [0] It's a nonprofit which sets up booths and recording equipment around the world, then records and transcribes intimate conversations between individuals and catalogues those stories in the Library of Congress so they can be found and remembered.
They have hundreds of thousands of conversations at this point. Pretty remarkable initiative, similar in philosophy to yours. Dave Isay, the founder, describes it as a "hope machine", kind of the opposite of reality TV.
StoryCorps also produces these 3-minute summaries of some of their more notable conversations, which cover the whole range of human emotion. Here's a funny personal favorite: https://storycorps.org/stories/betty-jenkins/
[0]: https://storycorps.org/
We have been deeply inspired by StoryCorps. And I couldn't agree more with Dave Isay's vision - this goal of creating a "hope machine".
What we've found with Artifact (thus far) is that the "do-it-for-you" aspect has been important - that we set up interview guests with a professional interviewer, who helps guide guests through the things they want to capture.
We see this as a natural extension of the StoryCorps mission - with the idea of making capturing the important stuff in life even more accessible.
And btw, the Betty Jenkins 3-minute summary is amazing! Thanks for sharing!
Isn't this just a suboptimal substitute for a conversation?
The feedback we received then and continue to receive from customers is that people are using our service to record what you might call "archival conversations". These are conversations about important questions, events, or people that you, and your friends and family may want to listen to again in the future - or later share with new friends and family (children and grandchildren) along the way.
I'd also say that we are finding that there is some kind of magic that happens when we bring together a professional interviewer with someone to talk about important things. The candor and depth in that session is something that continues to surprise us and our customers.
All of that said, I really appreciate your direct question about a potential weakness in what we creating.
A bit like how people would tell taxi drivers their secrets, because they don't need to be afraid of the driver's judgement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgWVmi5P-D0
The taxi driver analogy is awesome, btw!
We are profitable and have been since our second week of operation.
[1] https://useCastup.com
From taking a quick look at your website (thanks for sharing it), it looks like you guys are focused on serving podcasters, which makes total sense.
So for us it's a bit different: We set up our customers (who are not podcasters) with a professional interviewer to explore subjects in their lives and the lives of others who are important to them. And yep, like Catsup, we do edit those interviews, so in that way there is some crossover.
Ultimately, different services and different customer bases. But I'm really excited about what you're building and it would be great to chat further if you're up for it. Feel free to reach out at contact@heyartifact.com.
And to your point, VC is in no way a marker of success. Building a sustainable business that provides value is what it's all about, and it sounds like you're doing just that. Hats off!
Again, great idea and I hope you guys succeed and prove me (and people who think like me about venture capital) wrong.
I think there are just different ways of building a business. Ultimately, it's just core to put the customer front and center with every choice you make along the way.
I wish you guys luck and please don't hesitate to reach out if you think we can collaborate — I'll do the same!
Why not do it for the gratification of offering a great product.
Thanks so much for the wishes! Would love to hear more about the social-film camera idea / if you guys are still working on it. No pressure at all, but feel free to email us at contact@heyartifact.com. Can def set up time to chat!
- re: interview requirement - Since launching we've had a lot of interviewers (moonlighting journalists) come inbound and we feel lucky for this. It's also a great help that George, one of my co-founders, has been a journalist and editor for 15+ years, so his network is deep and he's developed trust over the years. This is fine for the immediate future, but we will need to build out an interview portal in the future. Just not there yet.
re: interviewer vetting - We ask for writing and audio samples in advance. Each interviewer will then conduct at least one and sometimes up to four practice interviews with Artifact team members or friends of the company to collect feedback. There is a lot to build out here over time but we feel good about the quality of interviewers. It's core to the experience and so I'm really glad you asked about it!
re: interview <> guest matching - We make note of interviewer attributes like language proficiencies, skill at speaking with children, grandparents, subject matter expertise, etc. Based upon the information an Artifact buyer provides in their Artifact creation flow, we are then able to match an interviewer appropriately. That said, this is also something that we will build upon heavily going forward. Early days.
I hope the above helps and very happy to answer additional questions you may have!
a) pure entertainment b) automation/facilitation of some boring/mundane task
While the above are useful without a doubt, your service provides something more than just an utility - an enormous emotional value that I really admire. Once I prepared a kind of audio commemoration for incurably ill nephew of a friend of mine and I'll never forget the look of her eyes when she got this CD. I'm sure Artifact will provide such effects with greater intensivity and scale.
And it sounds like it has all of the care and sensitivity we could ever hope of bringing to people. So, it means a lot that you would even consider what we are building in the same context.
I'll also say that you've really honed in on our goal with Artifact - to create both an impetus and a space where going deep on the important things is just a little bit easier.
Question: my friend would be perfect for this as a job for her, how might she go about applying?
As an aside could you also use it to write biographies? Biography-as-a-service I imagine might go down well..
I'm not mocking your idea, I genuinely think it's great, but I can imagine how depressing the Amazon "Biographies" section will be in a few years when it's filled with Youtubers and Instagram influencers who "made it" and think their stories are worth reading...
When we think about our goal for Artifact, we really want to create a space for people to explore the important stories and subjects in life, especially when someone might think that those things might not be worth capturing - they are! It's why Artifacts are default private or set up for easy sharing only among close friends, family, or colleagues.
Now if people want to share their interview more widely, they are of course welcome to do so, but I 100% agree with you that I think what we are building looses a lot if the assumption is that Artifacts are created for primarily public consumption, etc.
It's something we'll be paying close attention to going forward. Thank you very much for the astute comment.
I imagine a Borgesian world where all the stories that could ever be told are available to all the future ages of time. What incredible things could we do, as a people, if we truly were able to process in some way the lives of those who came before us, and knowing our own stories could be shared with generations to come? Narcissism notwithstanding, as for me it's the ordinary lives that have so much to offer us, in aggregate.
And yes, the little things are in fact the big things.
Your friend can email us at contact@heyartifact.com. George, my co-founder, will follow up from there.
Regarding biographies - great question. We don't currently do this, but it's an idea that make a lot of sense as extension of "Life Story" Artifacts. And in a lot of respects, "Life Story" Artifacts, which occur over 3 to 4 interviews, end up feeling a lot like an "audio biography" - with that intimacy of having the person's voice right there.
Thank for the suggestion and please do have your friend email us!
One thing that could be helpful is to provide to a private RSS url in addition to web link, so I can play it in my podcast player.
Maybe there’s a DIY version of this product? You make available the internal tools that interviews use but let me actually do the interview? To make it cheaper.
I’m actually about to start interviewing my own family members to get some of our history recorded, so I'm very interested in this use case.
Also, noted on DIY + tooling as a way of making Artifact more accessible - I'd be really curious to learn what features you'd want as a user (i.e., what are your needs and what would feel like annoying feature creep, etc.).
If it's not too much trouble, as you start interviewing your family members, I'd love to learn about what kind of tooling would be helpful. We'd also be than happy to provide some pointers around the interview set up, sound quality control, etc. You can email at contact@heyartifact.com
It was brilliant: everyone loved it and I never got a better grade for any homework again.
So yeah, this could work. Good luck!
Heck, I would love to listen to it.
Appreciate the sentiments and thanks so much for the good wishes!
My mom focused on walking through the family tree and dad keeps putting it off.
This will for sure be a Christmas gift. Amazing idea.
If you or they have any questions about getting started at all, just send us an email at contact@heyartifact.com
That said, I'm sure that's unfair - I could see myself working in the team and feeling well about providing this service. And it does sound appealing to get a recorded memory of a loved one. Plus I'm also the kind of guy who feels uneasiness at uploading photos to the cloud, and there aren't very many of us.
One thing I'll mention is that all of our interviews are, of course, voluntary. I always begin by telling my guests that if I ask them a question that makes them feel uncomfortable for any reason, I want them to let me know and we can move on. Personally, my experience has been that the people I speak with feel valued when a loved one asks them to tell their stories, and pretty much every person I've spoken with has seemed to enjoy the experience.
Edit: Your homepage doesn't explain what you do well enough, IMO. When I visited it I wasn't sure what you do - but reading your post explained it to me (I think) - you hire journalists to interview your loved ones and turn it into a podcast. I didn't get that from your homepage.
We are now supporting Artifacts in Spanish, French, English, and just added Korean. Other languages on the way. In what languages would you like your family members interviewed?
"...there are two reasons we are not using video as an interview medium today.
First, video chat creates technical challenges when an Internet connection is spotty. This creates both sound quality and consistency issues, both of which are detrimental.
Second, we receive consistent feedback from customers that the idea of sitting for an “on camera” interview, while intriguing on first consideration, becomes both intimidating and unnatural as guests get closer to the interview. We’ve taken that feedback to heart. Our North Star at Artifact is:
Every interview guest comfortable.
Everything we do is focused on driving at this North Star. The reason is that we find that the more comfortable customers are when they sit for interviews, the better they express themselves. The better they express themselves, the better the product we can provide to you. It’s that simple."