StartupCafe

After a year in EPIS and probably thousands of hours of preparation, MemoBase is launching a photo scanning service for the UK market. Just in time for the holidays it seems! A quick google search suggests this is a competitive market at the moment, so we were curious what the buzz here is behind this photo scanning flurry. The folks behind the company are Bartek Kubiczek & Michal Wiacek, and we posed some questions to them as they’re in the midst of their big debut.

So what’s MemoBase all about?

MemoBase is the UK’s most secure, innovative and quality driven photo scanning service. Our mission is to help people preserve their precious family photos from natural decaying by digitalisation. Scanned pictures can be shared on-line, showcased on digital photo frames or professionally reprinted in large format. Whether you are  building amazing family tree, looking for touching gift or professional preservation of the most valuable moments – MemoBase is for you.

How did you go about setting up the company?

Over one year ago, when scanning our own family archives we  realised how difficult and time consuming task it is. For achieving good quality scans in reasonable time one requires high-end equipment and technical skill. We understand that most people will not be interested in spending large amount of time and money on digitising their photos even if they are aware of the advantages.  That is why we decided to set-up a business which would serve that need in the most innovative, secure and professional way. With help of  the University of Edinburgh and EPIS program MemoBase is now ready to preserve memories of thousands of families.

What has been the most difficult step?

The most difficult step was to make proper market research and to take the right conclusions of it.  We left our jobs and contributed our resources without certainty that the market is ready and big enough for our services. This is probably the most difficult step for many fresh entrepreneurs.

So you’re launching shortly… what are your exciting advertising plans?

First we aim to target people interested in genealogy and history of their families, who use modern social tools like family web 2.0 and genealogy portals. Those people already feel the need to explore, preserve and share their family memories, and our service can be a perfect solution for them. It will be also very interesting to see how traditional, old photography fits into web 2.0 reality. We’re also looking at professional and amateur photographers who might have large volumes of not-yet digitised negatives and slides or who still fancy the charm of spending time in darkrooms.

What would make you happy one month from now?

A few thousands of digitalised, retouched and relived photographs and the honest smile of our customers  who would recommend our outstanding services to their friends and families.