Turn your parent's spoken memories into a beautiful memoir and illustrated children's storybook. AI-powered voice recording, no writing required. Preserve their legacy today.
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Hunter
📌
I'm Nick, part of Hong Kong's startup community where I first came across Mawuli and Tellus.
This product hits on something I think a lot of us feel but never act on. Our parents and grandparents carry extraordinary stories. Lives lived across different countries, different eras, things we'll never fully know unless someone captures them.
The problem is there's never a good moment to sit down and record it. It feels formal. It feels like an interview. And then time passes.
Tellus removes all of that friction. Your parent just talks. And something lasting comes out the other side.
I think about my own family and how much I'd give to have my grandparents' stories preserved properly. Not just remembered, but actually written down and passed on.
That's what Mawuli has built here. Worth trying, worth sharing with anyone who has a parent or grandparent with stories worth keeping.
Congratulations on the launch!
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The three-generation gap framing is spot on — grandparents have the stories, grandchildren want them, but the format never existed to bridge that naturally. Turning voice recordings into both a memoir chapter and an illustrated bedtime storybook from the same session is a beautiful two-output approach. How does the AI handle stories told in multiple languages or with cultural context that might not translate directly?
@svyat_dvoretski thanks for the shout and great question!
Adapting to different languages was something we realised would be crucial for cross generation storytelling. Currently, the app starts in English but immediately switches to the language of the storyteller once the first story is told. All content: memoirs and children’s stories are in the language of the story teller.
Next on the roadmap is definitely localisation and translation
My dad is 73. He's lived an extraordinary life. Born in Ghana, fluent in Russian, witnessed Princess Diana en route to the royal wedding, built a bank from scratch. He always wanted a memoir. But he's not keen to type, so it never happened.
So I built the first version of Tellus for him. He talks, and it writes.
I now know so much more about my own father than I ever did. And most of the anxiety I had around losing him someday is gone, because I have his voice and his stories with me forever.
Then his grandkids, my nieces, wanted in. So we built a way to turn his memories into illustrated children's storybooks. Now they get to know their granddad at bedtime.
That's the three-generation problem. Grandparents have extraordinary stories. Grandchildren would love them. But the adult in the middle can't make the connection happen. There's no format for it. Journals stay blank. Recorders feel like interviews. Video is intimidating. So the stories quietly disappear.
Tellus fixes that. Each voice recording becomes a polished memoir chapter and an illustrated kids' storybook. One for their legacy, one for bedtime.
It's free to try. I'd love your feedback: what works, what's missing, what would make you actually use this every week.
This one means a lot to me.
Mawuli
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My paternal grandparents passed before I ever thought to ask about their lives. Where they grew up, what made them laugh, the hardships they carried quietly. Those stories are just gone. That void is exactly why I believe so deeply in what Tellus is doing.
I've had a front row seat watching this thing get built from the ground up. The late nights, the pivots, the moments of doubt and then breakthrough. Being by his side through all of it made me realise how personal this mission truly is.
All a grandparent (or parent) has to do is speak. No writing, no technology stress, just talking. And their voice, their memories, their legacy gets preserved for the grandkids who will one day desperately want to know who they were. Don't wait until it's too late.
So proud of you my love. Excited for the next chapter of this 💛
@cynthia_lamp yeah, I feel the same way about not getting to know my grandparents who passed away early. Precisely why we’re building this so every family can keep their stories forever 😊
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This is exactly the startup idea i would love to build few years back.. but no problem, I will recommend this product to someone in kids group. (lol I'm your secret target audience group anyways at 29 :P)
@mcarmonas thank you so much!
that’s a good question. Account recovery is always possible either with in app resets, or just contacting support.
Even more, Tellus works to give other selected family members permission to listed/read stories from their own account. So the stories will always be preserved in the family no matter what happens! 🙏
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This is both amazing and a little bittersweet. My parents and grandparents have always been incredible storytellers. When I was a kid, my father would share a different story with me every morning while dropping me off at school—stories about growing up in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, his early days in the United States, and his time in trade school. Hearing those stories shaped so much of my understanding of our family history. Knowing that these kinds of stories, from my family and so many others, can now be recorded and preserved is truly special. This is an incredible idea.
The three-generation gap framing is spot on — grandparents have the stories, grandchildren want them, but the format never existed to bridge that naturally. Turning voice recordings into both a memoir chapter and an illustrated bedtime storybook from the same session is a beautiful two-output approach. How does the AI handle stories told in multiple languages or with cultural context that might not translate directly?
Tellus
Tellus
Hey everyone, I'm Mawuli, the creator of Tellus.
My dad is 73. He's lived an extraordinary life. Born in Ghana, fluent in Russian, witnessed Princess Diana en route to the royal wedding, built a bank from scratch. He always wanted a memoir. But he's not keen to type, so it never happened.
So I built the first version of Tellus for him. He talks, and it writes.
I now know so much more about my own father than I ever did. And most of the anxiety I had around losing him someday is gone, because I have his voice and his stories with me forever.
Then his grandkids, my nieces, wanted in. So we built a way to turn his memories into illustrated children's storybooks. Now they get to know their granddad at bedtime.
That's the three-generation problem. Grandparents have extraordinary stories. Grandchildren would love them. But the adult in the middle can't make the connection happen. There's no format for it. Journals stay blank. Recorders feel like interviews. Video is intimidating. So the stories quietly disappear.
Tellus fixes that. Each voice recording becomes a polished memoir chapter and an illustrated kids' storybook. One for their legacy, one for bedtime.
It's free to try. I'd love your feedback: what works, what's missing, what would make you actually use this every week.
This one means a lot to me.
Mawuli
My paternal grandparents passed before I ever thought to ask about their lives. Where they grew up, what made them laugh, the hardships they carried quietly. Those stories are just gone. That void is exactly why I believe so deeply in what Tellus is doing.
I've had a front row seat watching this thing get built from the ground up. The late nights, the pivots, the moments of doubt and then breakthrough. Being by his side through all of it made me realise how personal this mission truly is.
All a grandparent (or parent) has to do is speak. No writing, no technology stress, just talking. And their voice, their memories, their legacy gets preserved for the grandkids who will one day desperately want to know who they were. Don't wait until it's too late.
So proud of you my love. Excited for the next chapter of this 💛
Tellus
This is exactly the startup idea i would love to build few years back.. but no problem, I will recommend this product to someone in kids group. (lol I'm your secret target audience group anyways at 29 :P)
Tellus
Humalike
Imagine we lose access to logged account / mail, how do you ensure that we will preserve all these memories?Congrats on the launch!
Tellus
This is both amazing and a little bittersweet. My parents and grandparents have always been incredible storytellers. When I was a kid, my father would share a different story with me every morning while dropping me off at school—stories about growing up in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, his early days in the United States, and his time in trade school. Hearing those stories shaped so much of my understanding of our family history. Knowing that these kinds of stories, from my family and so many others, can now be recorded and preserved is truly special. This is an incredible idea.