Why We Built Heirloy

When the founder of Heirloy lost his father, something hit him that he wasn't prepared for. It wasn't just the grief, it was the silence.

The questions he never asked. The stories he'd heard fragments of but never recorded. The childhood memories his father carried from a world that no longer exists. The struggles he overcame that shaped who he was. The wisdom he'd earned over decades of living.

All of it, gone in an instant.

He found himself desperately trying to piece together fragments: a story told at a family dinner, a passing comment during a drive, a half-remembered anecdote from a holiday gathering. But the details were fading. The voices were getting quieter. And the questions he wished he'd asked would never get answers.

That's when the idea for Heirloy was born. Not from a business plan, but from a deep, personal regret.

But we knew it couldn't just be a questionnaire. It had to feel like a real conversation. The kind where your grandmother leans back in her chair, smiles, and says "Oh, that reminds me of the time..."

So we created Eli, a gentle, patient AI guide who knows how to ask the right questions at the right time. Eli doesn't rush. Eli listens. Eli asks follow-up questions that make your loved one feel heard, not interrogated. And Eli speaks their language, literally, in over 15 languages and dialects.

We started with elder life stories, because that felt most urgent. Every day, we lose grandparents, parents, and elders whose stories deserve to be heard. But we quickly realized that the important moments in life don't just belong to our elders.

A couple's love story. A founder's journey. An immigrant's courage. A recovery from darkness. These are all stories worth preserving. Because at the end of the day, memories are what stay with us. They're what we pass down. They're what connect us across generations.

Heirloy exists so that no family has to wonder, "What was their story?" So that your children's children can open a book, hear a voice, watch a video, and know exactly where they came from.