C0-Founders
Adrienne Lindley
Before I entered the world of physical therapy , I was a caregiver. As a young adult, I helped care for my grandmother, and that experience taught me that caring for an older person is about more than helping with the practical things. It’s about being present, paying attention, and listening.
That understanding stayed with me throughout my healthcare career. I’ve spent my professional life working with older adults in retirement communities, and I’ve been fortunate to hear so many stories along the way: about childhoods, first loves, families, careers, adventures, hardships, and the ordinary moments that somehow become the memories we hold onto.
Some of my favorite moments with patients have happened when a therapy session turned into a conversation. I’ve learned that people carry entire worlds of stories with them—and that sometimes what they need most is simply someone willing to listen.
My grandmother’s stories are part of who I am, and I know how much I would love to hear her voice again.
That is what led me to EchoVault. I wanted to create a way for people to preserve more than the facts of a life. A recording can capture the laughter, the pauses, the expressions, and the unexpected memories that make a story uniquely someone’s own.
To me, EchoVault is a way of helping families hold onto something precious: not just the stories of the people they love, but the voices telling those stories.
Val Leeper
As a communications pro, I have spent much of my life focused on and listening to people talk: about their work, brand, vision, the places that led them to their goals. Over time I learned how they’ve lived, people they have loved, the weirdest night of their lives, their biggest risk, and the small details that somehow become the stories everyone remembers.
My grandparents were wonderful storytellers, and listening to them taught me early on that the best parts of a family’s history aren’t always the stories that are formally recorded, or even shared.
As a writer, I know that a story on the page can be shaped and polished. We choose the details, arrange the scenes, find the right words.
But an EchoVault conversation gives me something different: the person as well as the story. The pauses, the laughter, the turns of phrase, the memories that surface unexpectedly. A voice carries things that words on a page simply cannot.
That is what matters to me about EchoVault. These recordings aren't just about preserving someone's history. They preserve a little bit of the person telling it — for the people who love them, and for the people who will wish, someday, that they could hear that voice again.