A few years after my grandmother passed, my dad shared some recordings of her with me. Hearing her voice and her laugh again, after so long, brought her back in a way I didn't expect.

But then I noticed they were sitting in a Google Drive folder. No label, no context, nothing to make you want to open it. Just files. I thought about how our family would never find them, or wouldn't think to look.

Around the same time, my brother in law had started a tradition of recording his kids every year on their birthdays and sending them to the family on WhatsApp. They were so simple and yet so wonderful. Each one captured things like what grade they were in, their favorite activities, their top memories from the year. The problem was these precious recordings got lost in a sea of other messages and were really hard to find again.

There's something about audio that video can't replicate. Nobody is performing for a camera. Nobody is fixing their hair or waiting for the right angle. It's just a voice, in a moment, exactly as it was. The recording of my grandmother wasn't polished. That's what made it feel like her.

I wanted to build a home for these recordings. Not a cloud drive. Not a chat thread. Something that actually keeps them organized and safe in the way they deserve. That’s why I built leaf.

One of my favorite recordings is from when my youngest was 18 months old. She went around the dinner table saying everyone's names in this completely unhinged accent none of us could explain. We were all dying laughing. My daughters are now five and seven and we still listen to it regularly. The girls try to re-enact it and can never quite get it right, which is kind of the whole point.

Leaf is for parents who know their kids are changing faster than they can keep up with. It's for adult children who want to capture their parents' stories and wisdom. It's for anyone who has ever heard a voicemail from someone they've lost and thought: I need to keep this safe.

Leaf has brought my family so much joy and comfort. I hope it does the same for yours.

- Barrie, Founder & CEO of leaf