What was the inspiration for Fondfolio ?

The primary inspiration came from our good friend Christina who, back in 2014, wanted to do something special for her husband’s 30th. She reached out to us with the initial idea to send out a few questions to all the important people in his life and do something with the results and, working together, we helped her to create what eventually became a book. The whole process from start to finish was such a joy, receiving and reading the contributions every day, seeing it all come together and witnessing everyone’s warm reaction to it when it was revealed at the party. Not to mention our own personal delight that we and others felt from expressing those words to our dear friend. That experience stuck with us, and we realized quite soon after that we wanted to turn this into something that anyone could create for anyone else.

As well, we looked at our own lives and realized that the keepsakes we treasured were the ones with great personal significance – the birthday cards with really thoughtful words inscribed (as opposed to just the “have a great day” sentiment), or the handmade scrapbook that Fiona’s 16 year-old Scottish friends made her before she and her family immigrated to Canada. These were things that we would read and re-read, and each time be filled with the same feeling of warmth and love we experienced when it was first given to us.

Fondfolio simply would not exist if we didn’t have friends and family who were willing to offer themselves and their life events to us for practice, so the biggest thanks to them all for being good sports. These early prototypes really helped us figure out what to focus on.

We so rarely get the chance to tell those closest to us how we really feel about their enriching value in our lives, tragically these words are often not expressed until that person is being eulogized. Fondfolio is an opportunity to tell someone how much they mean to you, right now.