Get their story while you still can. Without being the one who has to ask.
Your mom, your dad, a grandparent, anyone whose story you want to keep. Told does the asking, so all they have to do is talk. What you end up with is their life in their own words, a book on the shelf, and the sound of them telling it, one tap away, for as long as your family wants it. You read it all before we print, and if it doesn't sound like them, you don't pay.
Told knows how to ask, and how to tell. It starts somewhere easy, with a story they enjoy telling, follows their life the way they see it, and knows the moment to say: tell me about that day. Then it turns what they said into a story that reads well from start to finish, without inventing a thing.
You don't ask a single question. The first chapter is on the page after the first conversation. At the end, a hardcover with their voice beside every quote.
Works on iPhone (iOS 17 or later). Android is coming.
Why it usually doesn't happen
It doesn't get started.
1
There's time
You mean to. After Christmas, when work calms down, when the kids are back at school, when Dad's in a better mood, when Mom's feeling stronger. There's always a reason it's not this week. Then one day there isn't a next week, and what you didn't ask went with them.
2
It can be awkward
You know the stories they always tell. It's the ones they don't that you also want. What you were like as a child. How they met. What their own parents were like, and theirs. The brother or aunt you know existed but can't quite place. You don't quite know how to ask, or whether you should, and with everything else going on it can feel selfish to. So it waits. Sitting them down with a phone and saying "tell me about your life" isn't how anyone talks.
Told takes the asking off you. You tell us who it's for. We send a link to their phone. From then on the app asks, they talk, and the story builds itself in their own words. It asks the way a good listener does, so the stories you've never heard come out alongside the ones you have, and you don't have to be the one asking. Today those stories live in their head, and only there. Afterwards they're written down, recorded, printed and kept, in their voice, for your children to hear one day.
The question, asked for you.
What makes it theirs
Don't just read what they said. Hear them say it.
A memoir service gives you their answers, rewritten. A recording gives you an hour of audio you have to search through to find the moment you wanted. Told gives you both, joined: their story on the page, and beside every quote and every fact, the moment they said it. Tap it on the story page, or scan the small code beside it in the book, and there they are. Years from now, that's the part your family will use.
Scan the code beside a quote, and there they are.
How it works
Six conversations, at their own pace. Then a book.
Setting it up takes a moment. Along the way we'll ask you to check the spelling of a few names and places, whenever suits you. Once you're happy with the story, the hardcover arrives a few weeks later.
One question at a time. One button. They just talk.
1
Tell us who it's for
Tell us who the story is about and what you call them. We send a link to their phone; tapping it opens the app, ready to go. If you like, tell us a few of the people and places in their life. Told can mention them by name, so it feels like talking to someone who already knows a little about them, and every name is spelled right from the start.
2
They tell it
Told starts somewhere easy, with a story they enjoy telling, so the first conversation feels like a chat, not an interview. From there it follows their life the way they remember it and draws out the stories they rarely tell, asking for the moments behind the facts: not "where did you work" but "what happened that day". Six conversations in all, usually twenty to thirty minutes each, whenever suits them, and never cut short. At the end it may check how to spell a name or two, and they just say yes or no.
3
See the first chapter
The first chapter is ready after the first conversation, so you can see what you're getting before the second. Along the way we'll also ask you to check the spelling of a few names and places, whenever suits you.
4
Read it. Hear it.
Their story, in their words, in chapters, told the way they told it. Tap anything and hear them say it. Nothing is smoothed, invented or improved: if they said "I think it was 1968", that's what it says, and anything we can't tie to their voice is checked by a person, not guessed.
5
The book
Before we print, you read it through and make sure the names and dates are right. When you say "that's them", we print a hardcover with a small code beside each quote that plays their voice. Nothing is printed until you've said yes.
The price
One price. Everything. Nothing to subscribe to.
The Life Story: six conversations, one book, their voice kept
The usual alternative is doing nothing, and the cost of that arrives later, all at once. The memoir subscriptions charge $69 to $199 a year, every year, for a question a week that your parent answers on their own. A ghostwriter is $18,000 to $50,000 and months. This is $249, once. Six conversations, then it's done, and everything is yours to download and keep: every recording, every word, in ordinary files that work with or without us.
First edition: ten families. A person reads every story before it's printed, and ten is what one person can do properly.
$249 one storyteller, once. US dollars.
If you don't say "that's them", your money back. You keep every recording.
Six guided conversations, on their own phone; you don't have to ask a thing
Their finished life story, in their own words
Every original recording, in full, yours forever, in a download that works without us
Tap-to-hear source audio behind every quote and every fact
A private story page for the whole family, five years included
A hardcover book, with the family's photos where they belong
The print-ready file for as many copies as you ever want
A person reads every story before it's printed
The That's Them guarantee
Start their storyFirst-edition places go in the order they're reserved. Nothing is charged until you decide to go ahead.
The That's Them guarantee
If you don't say "that's them", your money back.
You read the finished story before we print a single page. If it isn't them, tell us, and we refund you in full. You keep every recording and every transcript, because they're theirs, not ours.
Full terms at the foot of the page and on the terms page.
Who it's for
Anyone with a story that would otherwise be lost
Told isn't only for the very old. A parent with a diagnosis. A grandmother with a lifetime of stories. A father who never talks about his own parents unless someone asks properly. A friend, a mentor, yourself. Anyone whose story would go with them.
Every reason this usually fails
And what we do about each one
They won't do it
They don't have to do anything but talk. Told asks, they answer: one question at a time, big type, one button, and a link on their phone that opens it ready to go. No one in the family has to nag.
They ramble
Good. Rambling is where the stories are. Told follows them, asks for the moment behind the thing they just mentioned, and keeps all of it; what doesn't fit a chapter gets its own place at the end. Nothing is ever cut short, and if they want to talk longer or sooner, they do. The app reminds them when the next conversation is due, so you don't have to.
There's something they don't want to talk about
They say so and the app moves on. It's never asked again. The hard parts come last, once they're used to it, and they can stop any time.
They say something private
They decide who can hear it, from their phone, and can change their mind. They can leave anything out, and they can delete everything. The family manages the story within what they've allowed, not beyond it. They also choose what happens to it after they're gone.
Something happens to them halfway
Everything recorded so far is kept, in full, within what they allowed. We build the story from what exists, and the book can still be printed.
They get tired and need to stop
Then they stop. Everything they said is kept, and the next conversation picks up where they left off. A conversation that ends early doesn't count as one of the six: short sittings add up, so they always get six full conversations.
What phone do they need?
An iPhone from 2018 or newer (iPhone XR, XS or later) on iOS 17 or later, with Wi-Fi at home and a little free space. They don't need to know their way around apps; the link opens it ready to go. Android is coming. If they use Android, tell us when you get in touch.
Do they have to speak English?
For now, the conversations are in English. Names, places and words from another language are kept exactly as they said them, and if you tell us which languages are spoken at home, we'll spell them right. Conversations in other languages come later.
It sounds like a machine wrote it
It's their words, in their order, and you can hear them say every one. We don't polish, because polish is where people stop sounding like themselves. Anything we can't tie to their voice is checked by a person, not smoothed over, and you read the whole thing before we print.
We lose it
You can't. Every recording is kept in full and backed up, and you can download all of it whenever you like, in a form that works without us. If Told disappeared tomorrow, their voice wouldn't. The story page is included for five years; after that, a small yearly fee, or simply keep your copy.
Can six conversations hold a whole life?
No, and we don't pretend they can. What you get is a portrait: the shape of their life in the chapters they chose, the scenes told properly, their people, their sayings, and what they wanted kept. The book says which chapters were covered and lists the ones left open at the back, so you know. Shorter packages, one story about their parents, one trip, one lesson, come later.
The stories are already there. They just need someone to ask.
Told does the asking. They do the talking. You keep what comes out of it.
