Go-to-market · first 90 days · proposed
Launch to families in time for the holidays.
A 90-day plan to take Memri from private beta to a holiday gift-year launch. We sell to the adult child, prove that parents use it in the first 48 hours, and open two senior-living partnerships. Day 1 is Monday 5 October 2026; day 90 is Saturday 2 January 2027.
Pre-launch Every target on this page is a goal we set, not a result. Market figures are sourced and dated; budget lines are estimates.
01 · Target buyer
The adult child pays. The parent uses it.
Buyer
Sam, 40s to 50s
Lives a flight or a long drive away from a parent who lives alone. Works. Has children. Already buys gifts that hold memories.
- 54% of Americans in their 40s and 45% in their 50s are sandwiched between an aging parent and children (up from 36% in 2021).
- 63M family caregivers in the U.S.; seven in ten are employed.
- Uses Facebook (80% of 30–49s) and YouTube (92%).
User
Ruth, 75+
Lives alone with a drawer of letters and a shelf of photographs. Has a smartphone, uses it for calls and pictures of the grandchildren.
- 43% of women 75+ live alone; 38% of all adults 85+ do.
- 78% of adults 65+ own a smartphone.
- 64% of older adults feel technology isn't designed with their age in mind: large type and one button per task are not optional.
Sources: Pew Research Center (Aug 2026); AARP & NAC, Caregiving in the US 2025; Pew Social Media Fact Sheet (2025); Census Bureau (2024) and Census CPS via KFF; Pew ACS 2023 analysis (Dec 2025); Pew Mobile Fact Sheet (2025); AARP tech for aging at home (Jan 2025).
02 · The 90 days
Beta, pilots, then the gift year.
Three 30-day phases. Each one has a single question it must answer before we spend more.
Fixed dates · Weeks start on the Monday shown.
Days 1–30 · Learn
Does she use it without help?
- Invite 50 beta families from the waitlist; run the 5-email onboarding.
- Watch the first 48 hours: where does the invite stall?
- Counsel reviews disclosure copy, voice consent and deletion before any public launch.
- Apply to the AgeTech Collaborative pitch events.
Days 31–60 · Prove
Does anything bring her back?
- Measure week-4 use by the parent and weekly note opens by the family.
- Run the first senior-living "letters and photos" sessions.
- Start small paid-social tests with real family stories, filmed with consent.
- Open the pricing experiments.
Days 61–90 · Sell
Will families give it?
- Launch the $119 gift year on Black Friday, 27 November.
- Scale only the ad sets that beat the activation bar.
- Push the day-14 "keepsake box" moment: grandchildren home for the holidays.
- Submit to the NIA Start-Up Challenge (opens 1 December).
03 · Channels
Where the buyer already is, and why we think so.
| Channel | Sourced signal | What we do in 90 days | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paid social Facebook, YouTube | 80% of adults 30–49 use Facebook and 92% YouTube; among 50–64s, 74% and 85%. | 30-second films of a letter being read aloud, with consenting families. Test three hooks: the letter, the photograph, the keepsake box. | Core |
| Gift buying holidays | Adult children already buy memory gifts for parents: Storyworth reports 1M+ books printed since 2013. | $119 gift year with a printed card and the first photo or letter free; landing page built for the giver, not the user. | Core |
| Senior living activity programs | U.S. senior housing occupancy reached 89.9% in Q2 2026. | Two free pilot sessions; residents' families invited only with the resident's consent. | Core |
| Genealogy communities | Ancestry has 3M+ paying subscribers (page undated). RootsTech is the category's main event (2026 edition: 5–7 March, Salt Lake City and online). | Creator partnerships with family-history channels; plan a RootsTech presence for the next edition once dates are confirmed. | Test |
| Press | People 60+ reported $7.7B in fraud losses in 2025, including voice-clone "grandparent" scams. | Lead with the trust story: an AI that never uses a cloned voice and will never ask for money. | Test |
| Employer caregiving benefits | Seven in ten family caregivers are employed. Inference, not a sourced finding. | No spend. Two discovery calls to learn how benefits teams buy. | Later |
Sources: Pew Social Media Fact Sheet (2025); Storyworth home page (accessed Sep 2026); NIC (Jul 2026); Ancestry company facts; RootsTech newsroom (2026); FBI IC3 2025 Annual Report; AARP & NAC (2025).
04a · Launch moments
The dates families already give on.
| Date | Moment | Signal |
|---|---|---|
| 27 Nov – 24 Dec 2026 | Holiday gift year | The Storyworth buying pattern: adult child buys for parent. |
| 9 May 2027 | Mother's Day | Record $38B forecast for 2026; 39% of shoppers put "creating a special memory" first. |
| 12 Sep 2027 | Grandparents Day | First Sunday after Labor Day. Senior-living sessions nationwide. |
Sources: NRF (Apr 2026); Old Farmer's Almanac; Storyworth. Mother's Day 2027 falls on the second Sunday of May.
04b · Partnerships
Partners first, payers later.
| Partner | In 90 days | Precedent |
|---|---|---|
| Senior-living communities | Two pilot sessions | 89.9% occupancy, Q2 2026 |
| AgeTech Collaborative from AARP | Pitch event application | No fees, no equity |
| Photo-scanning services | One co-marketing test | Families have boxes waiting to be digitised (MyHeritage Reimagine) |
| State aging agencies | Research only | NYSOFA bought ElliQ for 800+ older adults |
| Medicare Advantage plans | Research only | More than 65 plans signed with Papa after 2020 |
Sources: NIC (Jul 2026); AgeTech Collaborative; MyHeritage Help Center; NYSOFA (Aug 2023); KFF Health News (Mar 2022).
05 · Pricing experiments
Four tests, one change at a time.
Baseline: $12.99 a month or $119 a year, first photo or letter free. Recommended by our research as an analyst estimate, not yet tested.
| Test | Variants | We learn | Decide by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly price | $9.99 vs $12.99 vs $14.99 | Paid conversion after the free first item; month-2 retention | Day 75 |
| Gift year | $119 vs $149 with a printed keepsake of her recorded stories | Gift conversion and average order value in the holiday window | Day 90 |
| Sibling seats | Included vs $2.99 per extra family member | Families with 2+ tending members; referral rate | Day 90 |
| The free first one | First photo or letter free vs 7-day trial | Activation within 48 hours; paid conversion | Day 60 |
Source: Memri foundation research, pricing recommendation (Sep 2026). Photo animations use paid AI video, so every plan caps them; MyHeritage caps LiveMemory at 20 a year on its Photo plan (Incarn, 2026).
06 · Metrics
We count conversations with family, not minutes in the app.
Activation
First three told
The parent tells the story of her first three photos, ideally with family beside her, within 48 hours of the invite.
Target: 60% of invited parents
Retention
Still using it
The parent uses Memri in week 4 and week 8; the family opens the weekly note.
Target: 40% of activated parents weekly at week 4
Keeping
First story kept
She records a story in her own voice and the family opens the keepsake box.
Target: 25% of activated parents by day 14
Referral
Given onward
A gift year, a sibling seat or a pilot resident's family joining.
Target: 1 in 5 paying families
Trust measures, reported every week
Share of sessions that open with the AI disclosure (must be 100%). Requests for money, codes or personal details (must be zero, by design). Face-removal and deletion requests, and days to complete them. Voice recordings on file with documented consent (must be all of them).
What we will not optimise
Time in app. An MIT Media Lab and OpenAI study of about 1,000 people found heavier daily chatbot use went with more loneliness and emotional dependence. Sessions end by pointing back to people: "Shall I send this story to Sam?"
Targets set by us for the pre-seed plan and to be revised after the beta; not industry benchmarks. Source for the MIT study: MIT Media Lab (Mar 2025).
07 · Budget
$21k–$46k for 90 days.
Estimate Ranges, not quotes. Salaries are outside this plan and sit in the proposed pre-seed use of funds.
| Line | What it buys | Low | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paid social tests | Facebook and YouTube, three hooks, scaled only past the activation bar | $8,000 | $15,000 |
| Family film production | Short films with consenting beta families; cut-downs for each platform | $3,000 | $6,000 |
| Trust and privacy review | Counsel on disclosure, voice consent, biometrics and state privacy law | $3,000 | $8,000 |
| Senior-living pilots | Devices, travel, printed cards, adviser review | $2,000 | $5,000 |
| Genealogy creator partnerships | Two or three family-history channels | $2,000 | $6,000 |
| Gift-year fulfilment | Printed gift cards; keepsake print test for the $149 variant | $1,500 | $4,000 |
| Tools | Email, analytics, attribution | $1,500 | $2,000 |
| Total | $21,000 | $46,000 |
08 · Grants & programs
Non-dilutive, status checked.
Status as verified on 28 September 2026.
| Program | Status | Terms | Our move |
|---|---|---|---|
| AgeTech Collaborative from AARP: Accelerator | Active | 8 weeks, virtual; no fees, no equity; 4 cohorts a year of up to 15 startups; entry through pitch events. | Apply in days 15–35. |
| 2027 NIA Start-Up Challenge & Accelerator | Opens 1 Dec 2026 | Submissions 1 Dec 2026 – 15 Jan 2027; webinar 3 Dec. $24,000 to up to 21 finalists plus a 5-month accelerator; $70,000 more to each of 7 winners. U.S. citizens, permanent residents or U.S. entities. | Submit in days 58–90. |
| NIA SBIR / STTR | Active again | Lapsed 1 Oct 2025; reauthorized 13 Apr 2026 through 30 Sep 2031; new notices 29 May 2026. Nearly $150M a year to small businesses. The last listed receipt date (5 Sep 2026) has passed. | Needs an evaluation framing; check Grants.gov for the next receipt date. |
| Techstars Future of Longevity | Not confirmed | Not among open programs in Techstars' December 2025 update. | Do not plan around it. |
Sources: AgeTech Collaborative from AARP (accessed Sep 2026); NIA blog (2 Sep 2026); NIA Small Business Programs page; Crowell & Moring (Apr 2026); Techstars (Dec 2025).