January 23, 2025 • 31 mins
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What if your possessions could tell stories as rich and vivid as your own memories? Join us as we explore this intriguing possibility with Ellen Goodwin, co-founder of Artifcts, a platform revolutionizing how we preserve sentimental value in our belongings. Goodwin shares her personal journey sparked by a poignant experience with inherited belongings, which led to the creation of Artifcts. Discover how this innovative tool blends inventory with personal stories, offering a seamless way to document the emotional significance of items for future generations.
Imagine turning everyday objects, like a brick from a memorable trip, into treasures of emotional significance. We uncover how Artifcts serves diverse users—from parents crafting digital baby books to veterans using the platform for PTSD intervention. Learn about the surprising cognitive and behavioral health benefits, such as assisting those with hoarding tendencies. Even more fascinating is the integration of QR codes, which bridges the gap between digital and physical worlds, aiding users in organizing, decluttering, and preserving cherished stories.
Unlock the secrets of maintaining authenticity in a digital age where technology changes rapidly. Goodwin explains how Artifacts ensures the accessibility and exportability of users' data, keeping it in human-readable formats. Delve into Artifcts' straightforward subscription model, avoiding hidden fees, and explore how it connects with professional fields, including estate planning and insurance. As we discuss its applications in senior communities and the photo organizing industry, you'll see how Artifcts transforms collections into curated, story-rich memories.
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Hosted and produced by Gary Pageau
Edited by Olivia Pageau
Announcer: Erin Manning
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Erin Manning (00:02):
Welcome to the Dead Pixels Society podcast, the
photo imaging industry'sleading news source.
Here's your host, gary Pegeau.
The Dead Pixel Society podcastis brought to you by Mediaclip,
Advertek Printing, andIndependent Photo Imagers.
Gary Pageau (00:18):
Hello again and welcome to the Dead Pixels
Society podcast.
I'm your host, Gary Pageau, andtoday we're joined by Ellen
Goodwin, the co-founder ofArtifcts.
The company's in Washington DC,but Ellen's coming to us from
Austin, texas, today.
Hi Ellen, how are you today?
Ellen Goodwin (00:32):
Hey, good morning Gary.
Happy to be here.
Gary Pageau (00:35):
Everyone's going to say what is Artifcts?
So let's just get that out ofthe way first, because it's a
relatively new company serving avery long-needed service.
Ellen Goodwin (00:48):
Yeah, you got that right, Gary.
So what is Artifcts?
We are where stories and stuffmeet.
We all collect and accumulateand inherit, or will one day
inherit, a lot of stuff.
Gary Pageau (01:00):
How do.
Ellen Goodwin (01:00):
We know what it is, why it matters and what
we're going to do with it next.
So we wanted to make it assimple as social media, but
private by default, for you tocapture the stories and the
memories and the history behindit all, and the value.
Gary Pageau (01:12):
Tell me a little bit about why the company was
founded.
You and your co-founder said,saw this as a need.
Was there a personal story thatjump-started this, or was this
a boy?
There's a lot of boomers dyingand they got a lot of stuff and
this is a big market opportunity.
What was the reason behind thestarting of the company?
Ellen Goodwin (01:29):
Well, you aren't wrong, there's something like $3
trillion worth of durableassets that the boomers are
about to pass down, and that's aterrifying sum of stuff.
But yes, it was personal andmotivation.
My co-founder's mother passedaway unexpectedly.
She was only 65 years old.
Motivation my co-founder'smother passed away unexpectedly.
She was only 65 years old, shehad an estate plan, she had a
(01:52):
will, and yet where it said,what are we going to do with
your changeable assets?
It was blank.
And all it said was divideequally among three children,
and my co-founder being theeldest and only girl.
Her brothers looked at her andsaid not it, but don't get rid
of anything important.
And how do you know what thatis?
And, moreover, ultimately wedon't really want the stuff.
We want the stories and thememories, but we still have to
deal with the stuff in the room.
(02:12):
It took her over a year to gothrough a house, 5,000 square
feet of stuff, and make thosedecisions.
That's putting your life onpause.
That's putting your grief onpause, because you're tumbling
through all of this stuff andyou're reliving it as you go.
Gary Pageau (02:28):
It's a very, very painful process and the brothers
, of course, said, you knowbeing probably dudes going.
I don't want to touch thoseemotions.
Ellen Goodwin (02:38):
Oh yeah, they're like good luck with that, right,
but that's exactly it and looklike we have a stuff problem and
we're a very consumeristicsociety.
We accumulate a lot of it atevery life milestone.
This is not just about growingold and collecting a lot of
things.
We accumulate throughout ourlives.
We can transform ourrelationships to stuff and to
(02:58):
each other if we just pause andask ourselves what is it, why
does it matter and what am Igoing to do with it.
And that's what we wanted tobring to people.
And my co-founder said look, Idon't need an inventory, I don't
need to know every spoon sheetlamp in the house and I don't
need a journal with stories.
I need to literally bring thetwo together so I can make
(03:19):
better decisions about all of it.
And that's what she ended updoing.
She came to me and she saidlook, I have this problem and
we're going to solve it together.
And I said great, what doesthat look like?
And she said that's how youfigure out.
So I'm on the product side,dreaming up how we make this
really really easy, and we'vedone that right.
One of our top Artifctors she's76 years old.
(03:42):
She has over 600 Artifcts she'smade using our Android app and
she's delighted that she did itwithout any help, like she makes
a point about that.
So it really was one of thosethings where we had to make it
easy and fun so it can become apart of a habit, right?
My husband gave me a newnecklace for our anniversary.
First thing I did was artifactit, along with the documentation
(04:03):
, so if I ever need to sell itor insure it, I have it.
I also have the great story frommy anniversary to go with the
necklace when, one day, I giveit to my daughter.
Gary Pageau (04:12):
When you're talking about you know these things,
you're not always talking aboutthe monetary value, right?
So we're not talking about someof these home inventory things
that you see.
I mean there's all kinds ofapps for that.
Ellen Goodwin (04:27):
This isn't that right.
Gary Pageau (04:27):
So let's walk through what Artifact actually
does like the process, Becausethis is an audio podcast.
I strongly encourage people togo to your website, which we'll
talk about later, to learn more,but talk a little bit about the
process, of what people getwhen they sign up for Artifact.
Ellen Goodwin (04:46):
Yeah, absolutely so.
You'll go to our app or go toour website.
You'll create a free account.
You can create five Artifctsfree to give it a try.
But what it's going to have youdo is, let's say, you're on a
mobile app.
My friends always say, oh, itworks like a normal app.
Yes, it works like a normal app.
You know I talk about thesentimental in nature.
My daughter made me a card.
(05:07):
I was sick, right, so she mademe this beautiful card and she
gave it to me.
So I took a photo of it.
I selected that photo, I sharedit and I didn't choose
Instagram or Facebook.
I chose the Artifcts app and Ipopped that photo of the card in
it and I hit record on my phonein the app and I recorded my
daughter telling me mom, wishingyou well, blah, blah, blah.
I have her video there with thecard and.
(05:29):
I save it, I caption the card, Iadd a few details, I hit save
and it goes into my Artifctscollection and now it's one of
many Artifcts I have from amoment in my life that was
really amazing.
And that gives me two thingsright it captures that moment in
time, but also we literallycannot keep everything that
comes into our homes.
(05:49):
That would be, taken right.
So at some point you're going todeclutter and you're going to
downsize, whether you're movingor not, but like you can't keep
it all.
But this is a way to keep thememories, even if you don't keep
the stuff, and it's allinstantly organized and
shareable and downloadable, soit just puts the utility back in
your hands.
I don't have to.
You know, we tell people youtake a lot of photos.
(06:10):
You're from the photo industrybut you take a photo.
We take 5.3 billion photosevery day worldwide.
That's the number I read.
The average person takes 20 aday 20 a day, and then that
photo that I took of the cardwould be 20 back, 100 back,
thousand back.
I forgot I even took the photo,right?
I share it or do anything topreserve what it mattered to me.
(06:31):
And photos can't talk.
I mean we can animate them anddo interesting things, right,
but no one's going to be able tosay.
What does your daughter saywhen she gave you this card?
no one's going to know that theycannot read my memories yet,
but no one can AI their way intomy memories that's not me but
we can make it really easy tocapture it.
So when you create artifactafter artifact, you build this
collection and you can view itin a timeline fashion so you can
(06:54):
see moments of your life.
I can see when I went tograduate school.
I can see when I was travelingthroughout Africa right, All of
these moments come to life inthis timeline and it makes it
easy to share too, with like thevaluable stuff.
I will.
I'll make sure it's coveredunder my insurance policy, I'll
send it to my agent, I'll addthings into that tangible assets
memorandum in my will, sopeople not only inherit stuff
(07:15):
but the stories to go with itand maybe they'll actually want
the stuff.
Gary Pageau (07:18):
Right, because now they know what it means to you,
right, exactly when they get thenecklace.
You know this isn't just thenecklace from you know, you
picked up on one of your trips,but it was a present from your
husband and that was great andthere's this whole lovely story
behind it and that makes it moremeaningful.
Ellen Goodwin (07:35):
And how great that your legacy is all these
stories and memories, and notjust a burden that you're
passing down to your loved ones.
Here is all my stuff.
Go figure it out.
Like that's not fun.
This is a much betteropportunity for you.
Gary Pageau (07:47):
You've been on a great point, because when you
mentioned downsizing or that hithome to me, because my wife and
I downsized our home.
We went from a you know 3,300square foot home with four
bedrooms to, you know, basically, an apartment we're living in
right now.
We sold, you know, we'vedownsized the house and
everything, and we had bins ofstuff that we had saved for the
(08:09):
kids, like all theirkindergarten artwork, all their
stuff, the trophies, the medals,the participation ribbons, the
first place ribbons, the youname it.
We saved it and then we had thekids over before I moved in.
We were like here, take yourbin.
And they're like what?
I don't want this bin.
Of course we couldn't get ridof it, so the bins are in our
(08:30):
storage unit.
And now I'm thinking now I needan artifact thing to artifact
these things so I can get rid ofthe bins.
Ellen Goodwin (08:38):
One hundred percent, gary, and that is a
story we hear probably everyweek here at Artifacts.
And I've actually been workingon drawing a cartoon.
I've discovered I'm not acartoonist.
I need to hire one.
But for exactly that reasonit's like look, I saved this all
for you.
And it's literally a closet andthese boxes piled up with, like
you know, high school and Kthrough 12 and stuffed animals
(08:59):
and all these things, and you'relike, no, I don't want it, but
it's great if you remember.
You know our kids.
They don't remember being three, but we can remember for them.
We can catch those storiesbefore we donate those items.
Right, and we had one father.
He actually ended up writing anarticle for us.
He was going through that.
Just like you said, he wasdownsizing.
He told his kids you have untilthis date to come and get your
(09:21):
stuff.
Gary Pageau (09:21):
That's what we did, exactly.
Ellen Goodwin (09:23):
Yep.
And so that date came and heartifacted what he knew about
the things that he was gettingrid of because they didn't come
get him.
And then over Thanksgiving heshowed his kids his artifacts
timeline.
He's telling them all thesestories and he asked his four
kids.
He said what did you learn fromthis?
And his eldest said I learnedyou didn't have a kid named
(09:49):
Spencer, and he's like what it's?
Because the eldest was the onlyone that came and got his stuff
, so none of it was artifacted.
The others got all these greatstories, but not the eldest.
So, he's a little jealous anddad had to go back and create
some artifacts for his eldest.
Gary Pageau (09:59):
That hits home because one of my children is
named Spencer, so that's acoincidence, isn't it?
Ellen Goodwin (10:05):
That's wild.
It was not just for the record,everyone, it wasn't Gary.
That story was not about Gary.
Gary Pageau (10:10):
But it sounds very appealing at this point.
Anyway so you've got differentmarket segments you can appeal
to at this, because it's notjust the people who are passing
on a legacy, but even just like,like you said, the lower kids.
So is this something youdiscovered or was this part of
the pitch when you were, whenyou were looking for, you know,
(10:31):
the 32nd elevator pitch?
Was this part of it or did thisopen up?
When you discover it?
Ellen Goodwin (10:36):
We always envisioned.
Look, our slogan at the startwas gut stuff.
We all do so.
We always knew stuff issomething that crosses every
boundary demographic wise, butyou can't build a company going
after everybody.
That said, this has been aninteresting year at Artifacts,
so we've received a mom's choicegold award.
(10:57):
Why People are using us tocreate digital baby books, and
that's fabulous.
Why, people are using us tocreate digital baby books, and
that's fabulous.
Right, we won a genealogytechnology award this year.
Why?
Because if you're not agenealogist, genealogy software
can be really intimidating.
It's awful.
Gary Pageau (11:17):
Sorry, I use Mac Family Tree.
It's terrible.
Ellen Goodwin (11:18):
But getting your family to sign in and look at a
family tree or a gallery ofhundreds of photos or a gallery
of hundreds of documents andputting the burden on them to
connect the dots is really,really unpleasant.
And so genealogists discovered,oh on, artifacts.
Each artifact is a bite-sizedstory that connects the dots,
(11:38):
and I can get my family to payattention to that right.
So we have, along the way,picked up a lot of energy,
attention to that right.
So we have, along the way,picked up a lot of energy.
And even now we just announcedwe're working with a group of
veterans organizations, becauseexperimenting with using
artifacting is a PTSDintervention.
Gary Pageau (11:50):
Sure.
Ellen Goodwin (11:51):
Not because every artifact by default is private.
So you can capture thosememories and stories behind
photos and medals and uniforms,all of that, and you can share
it with whatever community youwant to, when you're ready.
And that's the key there isfinding a safe space.
It's the same reason we'redoing brain health study right
now with UMass Chan MedicalSchool right.
(12:13):
It's a cognitive healthcomponent to what Artifacts is
doing, as well as the behavioralhealth right People struggle
with.
You know, another spectrum ishoarding disorders, right?
How do you help people let goof the things?
Well, you can do it by honoringthe reason why they kept it in
the first place.
We all keep it.
You know, I interviewed agentleman, very wealthy
(12:34):
individual, and he was enamoredwith artifacts from his
collections.
He has a lot of very valuablecollections.
First thing he wanted toartifact it was a brick and it
was the week of bricks.
We had three other peopleArtifcting bricks that week that
shared them with us.
You know these things that arecompletely sentimental.
It was a trip that he and hiswife took for an anniversary and
they're rebuilding this pathwayand they swiped a brick from it
(12:57):
and they keep it and it's amemento of this very big trip
that they took.
Your kids look in your houseand they're going to be like why
?
Gary Pageau (13:06):
do you have a brick ?
Ellen Goodwin (13:07):
Like what's for the brick, dad Come on.
But that's another way where wedepart, because we actually
connect the digital stories withthe stuff in the room, because
you can print a QR code off ofyour artifact and actually
attach it to the physical item.
Gary Pageau (13:21):
Right.
Ellen Goodwin (13:21):
That way, someone comes across dad's brick, they
scan it and up pops the story,and that has a lot of legs with
it with all of those segmentsthat we just talked about.
We have a lot of users who areusing those QR codes to help get
organized and declutter, tohelp with managing a move, to
help on all these different ways, and so those QR codes that
became ubiquitous during COVIDera we built that in from the
(13:42):
start and we now have actuallyQR code stickers because people
are using them in such a volumeand they're like Ellen, it's
great that I can print it forfree from my artifact.
I don't have time to print andcut and stick.
Can you give me some stickers.
So, like we've been watchinghow our members are using us and
trying to make sure that we'remeeting them where they're at,
to make it easier and easier asthey go.
Gary Pageau (14:07):
One of the other things we've been covering a
little bit is, like the photoreminiscent therapy for
Alzheimer's patients, rightwhere people can re-engage their
brain, if you will, throughlooking at photos.
So I imagine Artifacts couldeven be part of that process.
Ellen Goodwin (14:19):
Yeah, absolutely.
Our brain health study is usingsomething a little different.
We're using biomarkers andvoice to detect cognitive health
changes.
But the NIH has funded multiplestudies on reminiscence therapy
and there's a lot of hope there.
And I tell people it'sinteresting and you and I were
talking before we startedrecording about these broad
questions that come out therethat we're supposed to ask our
(14:41):
family members to elicit familystories and history and they can
be really intimidating, likewhere do I start with such a big
question?
Our findings are completelydifferent.
If you just show someone anobject that they have right next
to them every day, and so askthem a very simple question,
just a truth what is this thing?
And then they can say, oh,that's a cat, is a cat?
(15:02):
Where did it come from?
Oh, I carved it.
You carved it, yeah, oh, I was16.
And the boys and girls schoolhad just merged together into
one high school and we had ashop class with the boys and I
carved this cat and the boysstill.
You know, an object can pullthe thread on memory after
memory in a really powerful way.
And then, on artifacts, youcapture that and it's shareable
(15:24):
for always and obviously you canattach the story to it.
So we see that all the time andeven in my life.
My mother has dementia and weartifact together all the time.
It's a safe space.
It doesn't have ads, it doesn'thave people trying to friend
you right.
Isn't these like hidden chatswhere they're swapping
(15:45):
information?
It's a safe space and it's ahappy space.
Right, I can sit there and gofrom story to story to story.
She can listen to audio andvideo.
She can, you know, call to me,Do you remember?
Yes, I remember.
You know like it's a safe space, friendly one, and you can step
out of that role of caregiverand you can just be
mother-daughter again and that'sreally, really powerful.
Gary Pageau (16:08):
Now, does your mom go back and revisit things she's
already artifacted, or is thatOver and over?
Ellen Goodwin (16:15):
Yeah, and that's part of it.
You know people with dementia.
There's a reason they like tolook at photographs and images
in general, but the ones thathave the reminiscence therapy
power that they're researchingare not general images.
It's not here's a dog, here isyour dog, that you have.
(16:35):
That's the more powerful imageis something very personal, and
so all of the artifacts arepersonal.
She's not browsing throughgeneric ones that the public
have made.
She's in her own collection andthings people have shared with
her.
So these all evoke memories forher and very positive emotions.
Gary Pageau (16:53):
So this is like a private network storage sharing
thing.
How is your plan to keep thisin perpetuity?
I guess that's a word I cannotpronounce, but I think you
understood what I just said.
You know that's the other pieceof it, right?
Is you hope this is here forgenerations?
What is your plan for that as acompany?
Ellen Goodwin (17:11):
Well, I think that you know.
It's interesting when we wereabout to launch, when the heic
files all of a sudden were thedefault on our phones, when the
HEIC files all of a sudden werethe default on our phones and we
immediately had to adapt.
Now, not all technology has.
Like, I upload my accountingreceipts and it still won't take
a HEIC file, and it's beenthree years, like what on earth.
(17:32):
But I think part of the answeris adaptation.
We're digitally native.
We're going to keep adaptingand we're even, you know,
looking at other things rightnow, like how do we bring in
hidden watermarks to protect thecontent that people add into
the artifacts, right?
So part of it is adapting.
We will never tell anyone thatsomething's permanent or forever
(17:53):
, because there's no such thing.
We don't know what forevermeans, right, as a human species
.
But we'll continue adapting, astechnology does.
And, furthermore, ourtechnology is built with a
couple of defaults in it.
One there's legacy contacts,right, a primary and a secondary
.
So if we don't hear from you orsomething happens, your
artifacts can be transferred andthey can live on, they can be
(18:16):
frozen in place, right, there'schoices.
But you know, I would hopeevery company, I don't care how
big you are or how small, has anexit plan.
If we needed to exit, the firstthing we do is contact all of
our members and say these arevaluable, these artifacts you've
created.
Here are any number of ways youcan take them with you.
Gary Pageau (18:35):
Right.
Ellen Goodwin (18:35):
That's the responsibility of every company
is to know how you protect thevalue of what your users have
created.
Gary Pageau (18:43):
Yeah, that's what I was getting to is that you know
, even though you're a privatevault I don't want to use the
word vault, but a privateenvironment and it's personal
and private it is exportable.
Yep absolutely Unlike a lot ofother things which we will not
mention.
You know it's not a proprietarydatabase, you can still get.
Will not mention, Right, youknow it's not a proprietary
database, you can still get atyour stuff.
Ellen Goodwin (19:05):
Exactly, and then human intelligible formats.
This is not a proprietary formatthis is you can take it as a
PDF, you can zip it and takedown your original photos,
videos, audio documents in theiroriginal formats.
We don't compress them.
You know how many times peoplecomplain to us oh, I put this in
photo in Facebook and now it'spixelated.
I'm like, well, yeah, theycompressed it when you uploaded
(19:26):
it right, and so people lose thevalue of their assets.
And so at Artifacts, we're like, yeah, we are not doing that.
You can download it in itsoriginal format, take it back,
and that supports a lot of otherthings too, but it makes it
easy to work with as well.
So a lot of other things too,but it makes it easy to work
with as well.
So a lot of our members we nowyou can print your artifacts to
a book if you want, with ourcustom designer, and it makes it
(19:48):
easy to do things like that too.
We don't want you to feellocked in.
Gary Pageau (19:52):
Right and that's where I was kind of getting to
is that you know output is apiece of this and of course my
audience loves the output piece.
I can imagine there's a lot ofactually opportunities where
people could create collectionsof things.
Let's say, you know grandma'swoodshop projects, you know her
cats and all her things and youcould just create a little thing
(20:12):
just to have it, just have atangible thing.
So you know not that your Website and app aren't great, but
you know it would be nice justto have a tangible thing you can
touch and this does allow forthat.
Do you plan on expanding thatsort of opportunity?
Ellen Goodwin (20:25):
Yeah, and that's something that you know.
I attended the Visual FirstConference, which is a big
photography industry conference,and you were there, and it's
definitely an area where makingthat easier and easier.
We know partners that supportan API, so our members can
simply export artifacts into abook builder and build their own
(20:45):
books if they wanted to.
Gary Pageau (20:47):
And put that QR code next to the.
Ellen Goodwin (20:49):
That's right.
Gary Pageau (20:51):
And that's how our books are designed right.
Ellen Goodwin (20:53):
So right now, if you do it with our partner right
now, you know she does thelayout for you, but you can
choose do I want the QR codes,and obviously then you're
reading the story up, pops audioand video as well.
It also means you can edit andadd to it without you know.
You don't have to reprint thebook necessarily immediately.
Ultimately, you might havevolumes one, two, three, four
over time.
(21:13):
I was thinking about thatmyself.
I've artifacted all theornaments on my Christmas tree
right, Tell the stories behindthem, but I get new ones every
year, so ultimately I'd need avolume two for all those
ornaments or things like that,and so I do think that that's an
area of overlap with folks inthe photo industry, and I
mentioned another, which is, youknow, the whole build of
(21:34):
watermark things discreetly aswell as things.
But there's a lot of crossoverfor us.
We're never going to be that wehave no desire to help people
post-process photographs oranything like that.
That's not what we're here for.
Gary Pageau (21:49):
And that actually kind of violates the
authenticity of the artifact isif you're laying on some filters
and some crazy stuff on there.
Ellen Goodwin (22:00):
That's exactly right.
People are coming to us forauthenticity, right, they're
just.
That's not what they're herefor in the artifacts community.
Gary Pageau (22:07):
So what's the business?
I mean, I understand thebusiness model is a subscription
, but just can you just kind ofwalk us through what that looks
like?
Is there an annual fee or astartup fee or a per gig fee, or
what's the?
Ellen Goodwin (22:20):
Absolutely Well and a lot of thought went into
that right, because what weobserved in the industry is
there's a lot of nickel anddiming going on.
Really, I'm shocked.
It can be hard to know at theend of this what am I actually
paying?
And that is not something wewanted to deal with.
So at Artifacts, anyone cancome to Artifacts
(22:40):
A-R-T-I-F-C-T-Scom.
We took out that second A.
Anyone can go to Artifactscom,create a free account and you
can create up to five artifactsfree.
This does two things.
One, you can try us for free,Try us on our mobile app, Try us
on your tablet, Try us on yourlaptop.
But it also means that anyonecan have a free account and view
the private artifacts someonemight share with them.
(23:00):
So that's how we make sure thatyou can have that privacy
guarantee.
Then we have two tiers we havea $45 a year for 30 artifacts
and we have an unlimited for 119.
And that unlimited also givesyou three accounts to give away.
So it's actually four accountsfor $119.
This is how people who maybehave dementia and don't have a
credit card anymore this mightbe my brother, who would put
(23:22):
everything in a dumpster, so Ican get him involved and add to
stories with me, so that's avery, very affordable option as
well.
But we also work directly withinsurance companies, estate
planners and those who wanttheir clients to be using
artifacts for different purposes, right.
Erin Manning (23:43):
If you're an insurance company.
Ellen Goodwin (23:44):
You want to make sure people are properly covered
and you want to make sure theycan file claims very quickly,
right?
They've already artifacted them.
It's really easy to do Samewith estate planning.
Like they want to have reallygood conversations with you.
What matters?
What motivates you?
What do you want to have reallygood conversations with you?
What matters?
What motivates you?
What do you want to do witheverything down the line
philosophically right?
If you're into philanthropy, Iwant to know that.
So Artifcting opens up reallygreat conversations that way as
(24:06):
well.
So we do work on you know, ineven senior communities, it's a
great gift for someone who'smoving in because they have to
downsize to get there rightmoving in because they have to
downsize to get there right.
Gifting artifacts to those youknow communities and people on
their way is a lovely way toengage them before they move in
and know them better and helpthem in that process.
We also have an artifacts forprofessionals.
(24:26):
A lot of professionals are nowusing artifacting.
They're doing Artifcting as aservice.
So, someone who's organizing inyour home and helping you
declutter.
If I'm helping, I'm a movemanager, I'm a desk Whatever
your service is, you can nowactually do Artifcting for your
clients, which has been.
It was an innovation that wereleased just this year.
Gary Pageau (24:49):
Yeah, that's.
I think that's where I firstran into you was, or the company
was, at the photo managersconference.
That's right.
Yeah, Kathy Nelson has kind ofbuilt that whole photo
organizing business model around, you know, for years and she's
been doing a great job with thatbecause that's really something
people needed but didn't knowthey needed.
Ellen Goodwin (25:07):
Exactly.
Oh yeah, and a lot of our, our,our already pros do come from
the photo organizing industry,because, look, you get your
150,000 photos organized.
Now what?
Erin Manning (25:17):
Right.
Ellen Goodwin (25:18):
How do you?
You know, as a, as an adultchild, I don't want to inherit
150,000 photos and have tofigure out what any of them mean
, right Like I would love tohave the best of artifacted with
the stories behind it.
Not every photo is worth athousand words in the class.
Gary Pageau (25:33):
Bite your tongue.
Ellen Goodwin (25:35):
I know.
The example I love to give is,you know, my kid.
She's 14.
I have a million photos of thiskid swimming right here at UT
Austin.
But there's that one photo whenshe got her, you know, swim
time and like how do youremember in the you know all of
those photos in one moment andpair it with a video of the swim
, and right, like, how do youactually preserve those moments
(25:57):
and make those photos even morevaluable?
Gary Pageau (25:59):
Yeah, because I do think it could lead to, you know
, the actual dispensing of theactual physical prints once the
people I mean I know that's partof the culling process that
photo managers do and again it'sjust taking up space and
clutter because people justcan't let go of the physical
prints that they had printeddecades ago which, again, at the
(26:20):
time, was the only copy.
So they did have a lot morevalue.
Ellen Goodwin (26:24):
Absolutely.
Gary Pageau (26:25):
And Kathy.
Ellen Goodwin (26:26):
Nelson of the Photo Managers has a great she
teaches in her coursework shetalks about it's okay to have a
box of those photos and put alabel on it that says I couldn't
get rid of it, but I'm okay, ifyou do right, Giving the next
generation that permission slip.
And you know, when you createan artifact, one of the optional
(26:46):
fields that we include on theshort form is called in the
future.
In the dropdown it says I wantto sell it, I want to bequeath
it, I want to donate it.
One of the options is as youwish, I stole it from the
princess bride, right?
I won't haunt you.
Don't keep this in storage forthe next 30 years.
Do what you want with it.
You have my permission, that'syou know.
(27:08):
That's the beauty of artifacts.
Is that resonance of likechanging our relationships to
our stuff and really consideringwhat it means to us.
Gary Pageau (27:16):
Because really what matters is the emotional
connection and the story, notthe actual object itself.
Ellen Goodwin (27:23):
Yep, and let's.
Of course.
You know that vase that lookslike your daughter made.
It is actually a $45,000 pieceof artwork.
Please don't put it in thedonation bin.
And now you know you're welcome.
Gary Pageau (27:33):
I imagine there's quite a few of those kind of
stories.
Oh, there is.
Ellen Goodwin (27:39):
All the time.
I actually did a conciergeartifacting session here in
Austin and the gentleman and Iwere working through all the
things he wanted to artifact andone of them was a $45,000 vase
that looked like my daughtermade it and he's like be careful
with that one.
And I was like, okay, you takeit off the shelf, I'll take it
off, but you would never knowand that's the topic that we get
on as well, gary is thisintergenerational wealth
(28:02):
transfer?
It's a wealth in terms of thestories and the emotional and
sentimental value, but literallyyou can have hidden value in
your home that you don't evenknow.
Tell your loved ones.
This is why it mattered to me,or didn't?
I just held on to the thing.
But, fyi, it's really valuableif you don't want to sell it
right.
This is another way thatartifacts is a gift to your
loved ones is cluing them intosomething valuable.
Gary Pageau (28:25):
Or, on the other thing, people are holding on to
things that they think arevaluable and they're not.
You know those precious moments, figures that were hot, for you
know how many years are.
You know people thought theywere collectibles and they would
be worth something right?
Ellen Goodwin (28:41):
Oh, there's examples like the All the Time
or the person who had thisWoodstock ticket and thought it
was worth a fortune but didn'trealize that people like just
went into the event and leftthem in the field and people
collected all of the tickets andthey flooded the market with
them and they're worthless, soyou know like and that's one of
the areas where, at Artifacts,we are innovating on using image
recognition to give peoplefactual information about things
(29:03):
that they're artifcting,because you don't always even
know what something is and withAI they can give you a clue.
But you can also go into youknow there's a lot of great
resources that can look at pricehistories on things and you can
get that like reality check.
And so sorry, I know you thinkthis thing is worth a fortune
and it went for eBay on $5yesterday.
We're sorry, at least you know.
(29:24):
Yeah, exactly, and you canwrestle with your emotional
attachment Right.
Gary Pageau (29:30):
Well, that's great.
You've mentioned it a coupletimes, but for the last time.
Where can people go for moreinformation to reach out to, if
they're interested in partneringor learning more or just want
to sign up for artifacts?
Where can they go?
What's the direction you wantto point them to?
Ellen Goodwin (29:46):
Google will lead you astray with trying to spell
our name.
It's A-R-T-I-F-C-T-Sartifactscom.
We took out the second Abecause we wanted you to think
about artifacts.
But look what you artifact issomething meaningful to you.
So we took out that second A toreinforce that.
Go to Artifcts.
com, create a free account, giveit a try.
(30:07):
You just never know, I think,with any product until you try
it.
So that's what I recommend.
I also recommend downloadingthe app.
I usually make my artifcts onthe app because I'm working with
photos and videos already on myphone and then I go to the
desktop to add in on a biggerscreen more detail.
Go, try us out.
Reach out to hello at artifcts.
com if you're interested inpartnering with us or in package
(30:29):
deals on memberships.
We've had a lot of thoseinquiries during the holidays.
Gary Pageau (30:33):
I imagine sure.
Ellen Goodwin (30:35):
Yeah, absolutely Awesome.
Gary Pageau (30:36):
Well, yeah, absolutely Awesome.
Well, great, Ellen, thanks forspending time with us today, and
it's great getting to learnmore about artifacts and hearing
about your family, and Iappreciate the time.
Thank you so much.
Ellen Goodwin (30:47):
Thank you for having me, Gary.
Erin Manning (30:49):
Thank you for listening to the Dead Pixels
Society podcast.
Read more great stories andsign up for the newsletter at
wwwthedeadpixelssocietycom.
Welcome to the Dead Pixels Society podcast, the
photo imaging industry'sleading news source.
Here's your host, gary Pegeau.
The Dead Pixel Society podcastis brought to you by Mediaclip,
Advertek Printing, andIndependent Photo Imagers.
Gary Pageau (00:18):
Hello again and welcome to the Dead Pixels
Society podcast.
I'm your host, Gary Pageau, andtoday we're joined by Ellen
Goodwin, the co-founder ofArtifcts.
The company's in Washington DC,but Ellen's coming to us from
Austin, texas, today.
Hi Ellen, how are you today?
Ellen Goodwin (00:32):
Hey, good morning Gary.
Happy to be here.
Gary Pageau (00:35):
Everyone's going to say what is Artifcts?
So let's just get that out ofthe way first, because it's a
relatively new company serving avery long-needed service.
Ellen Goodwin (00:48):
Yeah, you got that right, Gary.
So what is Artifcts?
We are where stories and stuffmeet.
We all collect and accumulateand inherit, or will one day
inherit, a lot of stuff.
Gary Pageau (01:00):
How do.
Ellen Goodwin (01:00):
We know what it is, why it matters and what
we're going to do with it next.
So we wanted to make it assimple as social media, but
private by default, for you tocapture the stories and the
memories and the history behindit all, and the value.
Gary Pageau (01:12):
Tell me a little bit about why the company was
founded.
You and your co-founder said,saw this as a need.
Was there a personal story thatjump-started this, or was this
a boy?
There's a lot of boomers dyingand they got a lot of stuff and
this is a big market opportunity.
What was the reason behind thestarting of the company?
Ellen Goodwin (01:29):
Well, you aren't wrong, there's something like $3
trillion worth of durableassets that the boomers are
about to pass down, and that's aterrifying sum of stuff.
But yes, it was personal andmotivation.
My co-founder's mother passedaway unexpectedly.
She was only 65 years old.
Motivation my co-founder'smother passed away unexpectedly.
She was only 65 years old, shehad an estate plan, she had a
(01:52):
will, and yet where it said,what are we going to do with
your changeable assets?
It was blank.
And all it said was divideequally among three children,
and my co-founder being theeldest and only girl.
Her brothers looked at her andsaid not it, but don't get rid
of anything important.
And how do you know what thatis?
And, moreover, ultimately wedon't really want the stuff.
We want the stories and thememories, but we still have to
deal with the stuff in the room.
(02:12):
It took her over a year to gothrough a house, 5,000 square
feet of stuff, and make thosedecisions.
That's putting your life onpause.
That's putting your grief onpause, because you're tumbling
through all of this stuff andyou're reliving it as you go.
Gary Pageau (02:28):
It's a very, very painful process and the brothers
, of course, said, you knowbeing probably dudes going.
I don't want to touch thoseemotions.
Ellen Goodwin (02:38):
Oh yeah, they're like good luck with that, right,
but that's exactly it and looklike we have a stuff problem and
we're a very consumeristicsociety.
We accumulate a lot of it atevery life milestone.
This is not just about growingold and collecting a lot of
things.
We accumulate throughout ourlives.
We can transform ourrelationships to stuff and to
(02:58):
each other if we just pause andask ourselves what is it, why
does it matter and what am Igoing to do with it.
And that's what we wanted tobring to people.
And my co-founder said look, Idon't need an inventory, I don't
need to know every spoon sheetlamp in the house and I don't
need a journal with stories.
I need to literally bring thetwo together so I can make
(03:19):
better decisions about all of it.
And that's what she ended updoing.
She came to me and she saidlook, I have this problem and
we're going to solve it together.
And I said great, what doesthat look like?
And she said that's how youfigure out.
So I'm on the product side,dreaming up how we make this
really really easy, and we'vedone that right.
One of our top Artifctors she's76 years old.
(03:42):
She has over 600 Artifcts she'smade using our Android app and
she's delighted that she did itwithout any help, like she makes
a point about that.
So it really was one of thosethings where we had to make it
easy and fun so it can become apart of a habit, right?
My husband gave me a newnecklace for our anniversary.
First thing I did was artifactit, along with the documentation
(04:03):
, so if I ever need to sell itor insure it, I have it.
I also have the great story frommy anniversary to go with the
necklace when, one day, I giveit to my daughter.
Gary Pageau (04:12):
When you're talking about you know these things,
you're not always talking aboutthe monetary value, right?
So we're not talking about someof these home inventory things
that you see.
I mean there's all kinds ofapps for that.
Ellen Goodwin (04:27):
This isn't that right.
Gary Pageau (04:27):
So let's walk through what Artifact actually
does like the process, Becausethis is an audio podcast.
I strongly encourage people togo to your website, which we'll
talk about later, to learn more,but talk a little bit about the
process, of what people getwhen they sign up for Artifact.
Ellen Goodwin (04:46):
Yeah, absolutely so.
You'll go to our app or go toour website.
You'll create a free account.
You can create five Artifctsfree to give it a try.
But what it's going to have youdo is, let's say, you're on a
mobile app.
My friends always say, oh, itworks like a normal app.
Yes, it works like a normal app.
You know I talk about thesentimental in nature.
My daughter made me a card.
(05:07):
I was sick, right, so she mademe this beautiful card and she
gave it to me.
So I took a photo of it.
I selected that photo, I sharedit and I didn't choose
Instagram or Facebook.
I chose the Artifcts app and Ipopped that photo of the card in
it and I hit record on my phonein the app and I recorded my
daughter telling me mom, wishingyou well, blah, blah, blah.
I have her video there with thecard and.
(05:29):
I save it, I caption the card, Iadd a few details, I hit save
and it goes into my Artifctscollection and now it's one of
many Artifcts I have from amoment in my life that was
really amazing.
And that gives me two thingsright it captures that moment in
time, but also we literallycannot keep everything that
comes into our homes.
(05:49):
That would be, taken right.
So at some point you're going todeclutter and you're going to
downsize, whether you're movingor not, but like you can't keep
it all.
But this is a way to keep thememories, even if you don't keep
the stuff, and it's allinstantly organized and
shareable and downloadable, soit just puts the utility back in
your hands.
I don't have to.
You know, we tell people youtake a lot of photos.
(06:10):
You're from the photo industrybut you take a photo.
We take 5.3 billion photosevery day worldwide.
That's the number I read.
The average person takes 20 aday 20 a day, and then that
photo that I took of the cardwould be 20 back, 100 back,
thousand back.
I forgot I even took the photo,right?
I share it or do anything topreserve what it mattered to me.
(06:31):
And photos can't talk.
I mean we can animate them anddo interesting things, right,
but no one's going to be able tosay.
What does your daughter saywhen she gave you this card?
no one's going to know that theycannot read my memories yet,
but no one can AI their way intomy memories that's not me but
we can make it really easy tocapture it.
So when you create artifactafter artifact, you build this
collection and you can view itin a timeline fashion so you can
(06:54):
see moments of your life.
I can see when I went tograduate school.
I can see when I was travelingthroughout Africa right, All of
these moments come to life inthis timeline and it makes it
easy to share too, with like thevaluable stuff.
I will.
I'll make sure it's coveredunder my insurance policy, I'll
send it to my agent, I'll addthings into that tangible assets
memorandum in my will, sopeople not only inherit stuff
(07:15):
but the stories to go with itand maybe they'll actually want
the stuff.
Gary Pageau (07:18):
Right, because now they know what it means to you,
right, exactly when they get thenecklace.
You know this isn't just thenecklace from you know, you
picked up on one of your trips,but it was a present from your
husband and that was great andthere's this whole lovely story
behind it and that makes it moremeaningful.
Ellen Goodwin (07:35):
And how great that your legacy is all these
stories and memories, and notjust a burden that you're
passing down to your loved ones.
Here is all my stuff.
Go figure it out.
Like that's not fun.
This is a much betteropportunity for you.
Gary Pageau (07:47):
You've been on a great point, because when you
mentioned downsizing or that hithome to me, because my wife and
I downsized our home.
We went from a you know 3,300square foot home with four
bedrooms to, you know, basically, an apartment we're living in
right now.
We sold, you know, we'vedownsized the house and
everything, and we had bins ofstuff that we had saved for the
(08:09):
kids, like all theirkindergarten artwork, all their
stuff, the trophies, the medals,the participation ribbons, the
first place ribbons, the youname it.
We saved it and then we had thekids over before I moved in.
We were like here, take yourbin.
And they're like what?
I don't want this bin.
Of course we couldn't get ridof it, so the bins are in our
(08:30):
storage unit.
And now I'm thinking now I needan artifact thing to artifact
these things so I can get rid ofthe bins.
Ellen Goodwin (08:38):
One hundred percent, gary, and that is a
story we hear probably everyweek here at Artifacts.
And I've actually been workingon drawing a cartoon.
I've discovered I'm not acartoonist.
I need to hire one.
But for exactly that reasonit's like look, I saved this all
for you.
And it's literally a closet andthese boxes piled up with, like
you know, high school and Kthrough 12 and stuffed animals
(08:59):
and all these things, and you'relike, no, I don't want it, but
it's great if you remember.
You know our kids.
They don't remember being three, but we can remember for them.
We can catch those storiesbefore we donate those items.
Right, and we had one father.
He actually ended up writing anarticle for us.
He was going through that.
Just like you said, he wasdownsizing.
He told his kids you have untilthis date to come and get your
(09:21):
stuff.
Gary Pageau (09:21):
That's what we did, exactly.
Ellen Goodwin (09:23):
Yep.
And so that date came and heartifacted what he knew about
the things that he was gettingrid of because they didn't come
get him.
And then over Thanksgiving heshowed his kids his artifacts
timeline.
He's telling them all thesestories and he asked his four
kids.
He said what did you learn fromthis?
And his eldest said I learnedyou didn't have a kid named
(09:49):
Spencer, and he's like what it's?
Because the eldest was the onlyone that came and got his stuff
, so none of it was artifacted.
The others got all these greatstories, but not the eldest.
So, he's a little jealous anddad had to go back and create
some artifacts for his eldest.
Gary Pageau (09:59):
That hits home because one of my children is
named Spencer, so that's acoincidence, isn't it?
Ellen Goodwin (10:05):
That's wild.
It was not just for the record,everyone, it wasn't Gary.
That story was not about Gary.
Gary Pageau (10:10):
But it sounds very appealing at this point.
Anyway so you've got differentmarket segments you can appeal
to at this, because it's notjust the people who are passing
on a legacy, but even just like,like you said, the lower kids.
So is this something youdiscovered or was this part of
the pitch when you were, whenyou were looking for, you know,
(10:31):
the 32nd elevator pitch?
Was this part of it or did thisopen up?
When you discover it?
Ellen Goodwin (10:36):
We always envisioned.
Look, our slogan at the startwas gut stuff.
We all do so.
We always knew stuff issomething that crosses every
boundary demographic wise, butyou can't build a company going
after everybody.
That said, this has been aninteresting year at Artifacts,
so we've received a mom's choicegold award.
(10:57):
Why People are using us tocreate digital baby books, and
that's fabulous.
Why, people are using us tocreate digital baby books, and
that's fabulous.
Right, we won a genealogytechnology award this year.
Why?
Because if you're not agenealogist, genealogy software
can be really intimidating.
It's awful.
Gary Pageau (11:17):
Sorry, I use Mac Family Tree.
It's terrible.
Ellen Goodwin (11:18):
But getting your family to sign in and look at a
family tree or a gallery ofhundreds of photos or a gallery
of hundreds of documents andputting the burden on them to
connect the dots is really,really unpleasant.
And so genealogists discovered,oh on, artifacts.
Each artifact is a bite-sizedstory that connects the dots,
(11:38):
and I can get my family to payattention to that right.
So we have, along the way,picked up a lot of energy,
attention to that right.
So we have, along the way,picked up a lot of energy.
And even now we just announcedwe're working with a group of
veterans organizations, becauseexperimenting with using
artifacting is a PTSDintervention.
Gary Pageau (11:50):
Sure.
Ellen Goodwin (11:51):
Not because every artifact by default is private.
So you can capture thosememories and stories behind
photos and medals and uniforms,all of that, and you can share
it with whatever community youwant to, when you're ready.
And that's the key there isfinding a safe space.
It's the same reason we'redoing brain health study right
now with UMass Chan MedicalSchool right.
(12:13):
It's a cognitive healthcomponent to what Artifacts is
doing, as well as the behavioralhealth right People struggle
with.
You know, another spectrum ishoarding disorders, right?
How do you help people let goof the things?
Well, you can do it by honoringthe reason why they kept it in
the first place.
We all keep it.
You know, I interviewed agentleman, very wealthy
(12:34):
individual, and he was enamoredwith artifacts from his
collections.
He has a lot of very valuablecollections.
First thing he wanted toartifact it was a brick and it
was the week of bricks.
We had three other peopleArtifcting bricks that week that
shared them with us.
You know these things that arecompletely sentimental.
It was a trip that he and hiswife took for an anniversary and
they're rebuilding this pathwayand they swiped a brick from it
(12:57):
and they keep it and it's amemento of this very big trip
that they took.
Your kids look in your houseand they're going to be like why
?
Gary Pageau (13:06):
do you have a brick ?
Ellen Goodwin (13:07):
Like what's for the brick, dad Come on.
But that's another way where wedepart, because we actually
connect the digital stories withthe stuff in the room, because
you can print a QR code off ofyour artifact and actually
attach it to the physical item.
Gary Pageau (13:21):
Right.
Ellen Goodwin (13:21):
That way, someone comes across dad's brick, they
scan it and up pops the story,and that has a lot of legs with
it with all of those segmentsthat we just talked about.
We have a lot of users who areusing those QR codes to help get
organized and declutter, tohelp with managing a move, to
help on all these different ways, and so those QR codes that
became ubiquitous during COVIDera we built that in from the
(13:42):
start and we now have actuallyQR code stickers because people
are using them in such a volumeand they're like Ellen, it's
great that I can print it forfree from my artifact.
I don't have time to print andcut and stick.
Can you give me some stickers.
So, like we've been watchinghow our members are using us and
trying to make sure that we'remeeting them where they're at,
to make it easier and easier asthey go.
Gary Pageau (14:07):
One of the other things we've been covering a
little bit is, like the photoreminiscent therapy for
Alzheimer's patients, rightwhere people can re-engage their
brain, if you will, throughlooking at photos.
So I imagine Artifacts couldeven be part of that process.
Ellen Goodwin (14:19):
Yeah, absolutely.
Our brain health study is usingsomething a little different.
We're using biomarkers andvoice to detect cognitive health
changes.
But the NIH has funded multiplestudies on reminiscence therapy
and there's a lot of hope there.
And I tell people it'sinteresting and you and I were
talking before we startedrecording about these broad
questions that come out therethat we're supposed to ask our
(14:41):
family members to elicit familystories and history and they can
be really intimidating, likewhere do I start with such a big
question?
Our findings are completelydifferent.
If you just show someone anobject that they have right next
to them every day, and so askthem a very simple question,
just a truth what is this thing?
And then they can say, oh,that's a cat, is a cat?
(15:02):
Where did it come from?
Oh, I carved it.
You carved it, yeah, oh, I was16.
And the boys and girls schoolhad just merged together into
one high school and we had ashop class with the boys and I
carved this cat and the boysstill.
You know, an object can pullthe thread on memory after
memory in a really powerful way.
And then, on artifacts, youcapture that and it's shareable
(15:24):
for always and obviously you canattach the story to it.
So we see that all the time andeven in my life.
My mother has dementia and weartifact together all the time.
It's a safe space.
It doesn't have ads, it doesn'thave people trying to friend
you right.
Isn't these like hidden chatswhere they're swapping
(15:45):
information?
It's a safe space and it's ahappy space.
Right, I can sit there and gofrom story to story to story.
She can listen to audio andvideo.
She can, you know, call to me,Do you remember?
Yes, I remember.
You know like it's a safe space, friendly one, and you can step
out of that role of caregiverand you can just be
mother-daughter again and that'sreally, really powerful.
Gary Pageau (16:08):
Now, does your mom go back and revisit things she's
already artifacted, or is thatOver and over?
Ellen Goodwin (16:15):
Yeah, and that's part of it.
You know people with dementia.
There's a reason they like tolook at photographs and images
in general, but the ones thathave the reminiscence therapy
power that they're researchingare not general images.
It's not here's a dog, here isyour dog, that you have.
(16:35):
That's the more powerful imageis something very personal, and
so all of the artifacts arepersonal.
She's not browsing throughgeneric ones that the public
have made.
She's in her own collection andthings people have shared with
her.
So these all evoke memories forher and very positive emotions.
Gary Pageau (16:53):
So this is like a private network storage sharing
thing.
How is your plan to keep thisin perpetuity?
I guess that's a word I cannotpronounce, but I think you
understood what I just said.
You know that's the other pieceof it, right?
Is you hope this is here forgenerations?
What is your plan for that as acompany?
Ellen Goodwin (17:11):
Well, I think that you know.
It's interesting when we wereabout to launch, when the heic
files all of a sudden were thedefault on our phones, when the
HEIC files all of a sudden werethe default on our phones and we
immediately had to adapt.
Now, not all technology has.
Like, I upload my accountingreceipts and it still won't take
a HEIC file, and it's beenthree years, like what on earth.
(17:32):
But I think part of the answeris adaptation.
We're digitally native.
We're going to keep adaptingand we're even, you know,
looking at other things rightnow, like how do we bring in
hidden watermarks to protect thecontent that people add into
the artifacts, right?
So part of it is adapting.
We will never tell anyone thatsomething's permanent or forever
(17:53):
, because there's no such thing.
We don't know what forevermeans, right, as a human species
.
But we'll continue adapting, astechnology does.
And, furthermore, ourtechnology is built with a
couple of defaults in it.
One there's legacy contacts,right, a primary and a secondary
.
So if we don't hear from you orsomething happens, your
artifacts can be transferred andthey can live on, they can be
(18:16):
frozen in place, right, there'schoices.
But you know, I would hopeevery company, I don't care how
big you are or how small, has anexit plan.
If we needed to exit, the firstthing we do is contact all of
our members and say these arevaluable, these artifacts you've
created.
Here are any number of ways youcan take them with you.
Gary Pageau (18:35):
Right.
Ellen Goodwin (18:35):
That's the responsibility of every company
is to know how you protect thevalue of what your users have
created.
Gary Pageau (18:43):
Yeah, that's what I was getting to is that you know
, even though you're a privatevault I don't want to use the
word vault, but a privateenvironment and it's personal
and private it is exportable.
Yep absolutely Unlike a lot ofother things which we will not
mention.
You know it's not a proprietarydatabase, you can still get.
Will not mention, Right, youknow it's not a proprietary
database, you can still get atyour stuff.
Ellen Goodwin (19:05):
Exactly, and then human intelligible formats.
This is not a proprietary formatthis is you can take it as a
PDF, you can zip it and takedown your original photos,
videos, audio documents in theiroriginal formats.
We don't compress them.
You know how many times peoplecomplain to us oh, I put this in
photo in Facebook and now it'spixelated.
I'm like, well, yeah, theycompressed it when you uploaded
(19:26):
it right, and so people lose thevalue of their assets.
And so at Artifacts, we're like, yeah, we are not doing that.
You can download it in itsoriginal format, take it back,
and that supports a lot of otherthings too, but it makes it
easy to work with as well.
So a lot of other things too,but it makes it easy to work
with as well.
So a lot of our members we nowyou can print your artifacts to
a book if you want, with ourcustom designer, and it makes it
(19:48):
easy to do things like that too.
We don't want you to feellocked in.
Gary Pageau (19:52):
Right and that's where I was kind of getting to
is that you know output is apiece of this and of course my
audience loves the output piece.
I can imagine there's a lot ofactually opportunities where
people could create collectionsof things.
Let's say, you know grandma'swoodshop projects, you know her
cats and all her things and youcould just create a little thing
(20:12):
just to have it, just have atangible thing.
So you know not that your Website and app aren't great, but
you know it would be nice justto have a tangible thing you can
touch and this does allow forthat.
Do you plan on expanding thatsort of opportunity?
Ellen Goodwin (20:25):
Yeah, and that's something that you know.
I attended the Visual FirstConference, which is a big
photography industry conference,and you were there, and it's
definitely an area where makingthat easier and easier.
We know partners that supportan API, so our members can
simply export artifacts into abook builder and build their own
(20:45):
books if they wanted to.
Gary Pageau (20:47):
And put that QR code next to the.
Ellen Goodwin (20:49):
That's right.
Gary Pageau (20:51):
And that's how our books are designed right.
Ellen Goodwin (20:53):
So right now, if you do it with our partner right
now, you know she does thelayout for you, but you can
choose do I want the QR codes,and obviously then you're
reading the story up, pops audioand video as well.
It also means you can edit andadd to it without you know.
You don't have to reprint thebook necessarily immediately.
Ultimately, you might havevolumes one, two, three, four
over time.
(21:13):
I was thinking about thatmyself.
I've artifacted all theornaments on my Christmas tree
right, Tell the stories behindthem, but I get new ones every
year, so ultimately I'd need avolume two for all those
ornaments or things like that,and so I do think that that's an
area of overlap with folks inthe photo industry, and I
mentioned another, which is, youknow, the whole build of
(21:34):
watermark things discreetly aswell as things.
But there's a lot of crossoverfor us.
We're never going to be that wehave no desire to help people
post-process photographs oranything like that.
That's not what we're here for.
Gary Pageau (21:49):
And that actually kind of violates the
authenticity of the artifact isif you're laying on some filters
and some crazy stuff on there.
Ellen Goodwin (22:00):
That's exactly right.
People are coming to us forauthenticity, right, they're
just.
That's not what they're herefor in the artifacts community.
Gary Pageau (22:07):
So what's the business?
I mean, I understand thebusiness model is a subscription
, but just can you just kind ofwalk us through what that looks
like?
Is there an annual fee or astartup fee or a per gig fee, or
what's the?
Ellen Goodwin (22:20):
Absolutely Well and a lot of thought went into
that right, because what weobserved in the industry is
there's a lot of nickel anddiming going on.
Really, I'm shocked.
It can be hard to know at theend of this what am I actually
paying?
And that is not something wewanted to deal with.
So at Artifacts, anyone cancome to Artifacts
(22:40):
A-R-T-I-F-C-T-Scom.
We took out that second A.
Anyone can go to Artifactscom,create a free account and you
can create up to five artifactsfree.
This does two things.
One, you can try us for free,Try us on our mobile app, Try us
on your tablet, Try us on yourlaptop.
But it also means that anyonecan have a free account and view
the private artifacts someonemight share with them.
(23:00):
So that's how we make sure thatyou can have that privacy
guarantee.
Then we have two tiers we havea $45 a year for 30 artifacts
and we have an unlimited for 119.
And that unlimited also givesyou three accounts to give away.
So it's actually four accountsfor $119.
This is how people who maybehave dementia and don't have a
credit card anymore this mightbe my brother, who would put
(23:22):
everything in a dumpster, so Ican get him involved and add to
stories with me, so that's avery, very affordable option as
well.
But we also work directly withinsurance companies, estate
planners and those who wanttheir clients to be using
artifacts for different purposes, right.
Erin Manning (23:43):
If you're an insurance company.
Ellen Goodwin (23:44):
You want to make sure people are properly covered
and you want to make sure theycan file claims very quickly,
right?
They've already artifacted them.
It's really easy to do Samewith estate planning.
Like they want to have reallygood conversations with you.
What matters?
What motivates you?
What do you want to have reallygood conversations with you?
What matters?
What motivates you?
What do you want to do witheverything down the line
philosophically right?
If you're into philanthropy, Iwant to know that.
So Artifcting opens up reallygreat conversations that way as
(24:06):
well.
So we do work on you know, ineven senior communities, it's a
great gift for someone who'smoving in because they have to
downsize to get there rightmoving in because they have to
downsize to get there right.
Gifting artifacts to those youknow communities and people on
their way is a lovely way toengage them before they move in
and know them better and helpthem in that process.
We also have an artifacts forprofessionals.
(24:26):
A lot of professionals are nowusing artifacting.
They're doing Artifcting as aservice.
So, someone who's organizing inyour home and helping you
declutter.
If I'm helping, I'm a movemanager, I'm a desk Whatever
your service is, you can nowactually do Artifcting for your
clients, which has been.
It was an innovation that wereleased just this year.
Gary Pageau (24:49):
Yeah, that's.
I think that's where I firstran into you was, or the company
was, at the photo managersconference.
That's right.
Yeah, Kathy Nelson has kind ofbuilt that whole photo
organizing business model around, you know, for years and she's
been doing a great job with thatbecause that's really something
people needed but didn't knowthey needed.
Ellen Goodwin (25:07):
Exactly.
Oh yeah, and a lot of our, our,our already pros do come from
the photo organizing industry,because, look, you get your
150,000 photos organized.
Now what?
Erin Manning (25:17):
Right.
Ellen Goodwin (25:18):
How do you?
You know, as a, as an adultchild, I don't want to inherit
150,000 photos and have tofigure out what any of them mean
, right Like I would love tohave the best of artifacted with
the stories behind it.
Not every photo is worth athousand words in the class.
Gary Pageau (25:33):
Bite your tongue.
Ellen Goodwin (25:35):
I know.
The example I love to give is,you know, my kid.
She's 14.
I have a million photos of thiskid swimming right here at UT
Austin.
But there's that one photo whenshe got her, you know, swim
time and like how do youremember in the you know all of
those photos in one moment andpair it with a video of the swim
, and right, like, how do youactually preserve those moments
(25:57):
and make those photos even morevaluable?
Gary Pageau (25:59):
Yeah, because I do think it could lead to, you know
, the actual dispensing of theactual physical prints once the
people I mean I know that's partof the culling process that
photo managers do and again it'sjust taking up space and
clutter because people justcan't let go of the physical
prints that they had printeddecades ago which, again, at the
(26:20):
time, was the only copy.
So they did have a lot morevalue.
Ellen Goodwin (26:24):
Absolutely.
Gary Pageau (26:25):
And Kathy.
Ellen Goodwin (26:26):
Nelson of the Photo Managers has a great she
teaches in her coursework shetalks about it's okay to have a
box of those photos and put alabel on it that says I couldn't
get rid of it, but I'm okay, ifyou do right, Giving the next
generation that permission slip.
And you know, when you createan artifact, one of the optional
(26:46):
fields that we include on theshort form is called in the
future.
In the dropdown it says I wantto sell it, I want to bequeath
it, I want to donate it.
One of the options is as youwish, I stole it from the
princess bride, right?
I won't haunt you.
Don't keep this in storage forthe next 30 years.
Do what you want with it.
You have my permission, that'syou know.
(27:08):
That's the beauty of artifacts.
Is that resonance of likechanging our relationships to
our stuff and really consideringwhat it means to us.
Gary Pageau (27:16):
Because really what matters is the emotional
connection and the story, notthe actual object itself.
Ellen Goodwin (27:23):
Yep, and let's.
Of course.
You know that vase that lookslike your daughter made.
It is actually a $45,000 pieceof artwork.
Please don't put it in thedonation bin.
And now you know you're welcome.
Gary Pageau (27:33):
I imagine there's quite a few of those kind of
stories.
Oh, there is.
Ellen Goodwin (27:39):
All the time.
I actually did a conciergeartifacting session here in
Austin and the gentleman and Iwere working through all the
things he wanted to artifact andone of them was a $45,000 vase
that looked like my daughtermade it and he's like be careful
with that one.
And I was like, okay, you takeit off the shelf, I'll take it
off, but you would never knowand that's the topic that we get
on as well, gary is thisintergenerational wealth
(28:02):
transfer?
It's a wealth in terms of thestories and the emotional and
sentimental value, but literallyyou can have hidden value in
your home that you don't evenknow.
Tell your loved ones.
This is why it mattered to me,or didn't?
I just held on to the thing.
But, fyi, it's really valuableif you don't want to sell it
right.
This is another way thatartifacts is a gift to your
loved ones is cluing them intosomething valuable.
Gary Pageau (28:25):
Or, on the other thing, people are holding on to
things that they think arevaluable and they're not.
You know those precious moments, figures that were hot, for you
know how many years are.
You know people thought theywere collectibles and they would
be worth something right?
Ellen Goodwin (28:41):
Oh, there's examples like the All the Time
or the person who had thisWoodstock ticket and thought it
was worth a fortune but didn'trealize that people like just
went into the event and leftthem in the field and people
collected all of the tickets andthey flooded the market with
them and they're worthless, soyou know like and that's one of
the areas where, at Artifacts,we are innovating on using image
recognition to give peoplefactual information about things
(29:03):
that they're artifcting,because you don't always even
know what something is and withAI they can give you a clue.
But you can also go into youknow there's a lot of great
resources that can look at pricehistories on things and you can
get that like reality check.
And so sorry, I know you thinkthis thing is worth a fortune
and it went for eBay on $5yesterday.
We're sorry, at least you know.
(29:24):
Yeah, exactly, and you canwrestle with your emotional
attachment Right.
Gary Pageau (29:30):
Well, that's great.
You've mentioned it a coupletimes, but for the last time.
Where can people go for moreinformation to reach out to, if
they're interested in partneringor learning more or just want
to sign up for artifacts?
Where can they go?
What's the direction you wantto point them to?
Ellen Goodwin (29:46):
Google will lead you astray with trying to spell
our name.
It's A-R-T-I-F-C-T-Sartifactscom.
We took out the second Abecause we wanted you to think
about artifacts.
But look what you artifact issomething meaningful to you.
So we took out that second A toreinforce that.
Go to Artifcts.
com, create a free account, giveit a try.
(30:07):
You just never know, I think,with any product until you try
it.
So that's what I recommend.
I also recommend downloadingthe app.
I usually make my artifcts onthe app because I'm working with
photos and videos already on myphone and then I go to the
desktop to add in on a biggerscreen more detail.
Go, try us out.
Reach out to hello at artifcts.
com if you're interested inpartnering with us or in package
(30:29):
deals on memberships.
We've had a lot of thoseinquiries during the holidays.
Gary Pageau (30:33):
I imagine sure.
Ellen Goodwin (30:35):
Yeah, absolutely Awesome.
Gary Pageau (30:36):
Well, yeah, absolutely Awesome.
Well, great, Ellen, thanks forspending time with us today, and
it's great getting to learnmore about artifacts and hearing
about your family, and Iappreciate the time.
Thank you so much.
Ellen Goodwin (30:47):
Thank you for having me, Gary.
Erin Manning (30:49):
Thank you for listening to the Dead Pixels
Society podcast.
Read more great stories andsign up for the newsletter at
wwwthedeadpixelssocietycom.
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