Custom Trends x Skypod Founder and CEO Richard Jardine

1. So, Tell me Richard, what is a Skypod? 

A Skypod is a safe, secure, encrypted digital time capsule that allows people to deliver memories and messages to loved ones both during and after their own lifetime. When someone creates a digital time capsule using Skypod to send things that matter to loved ones, they designate as many recipients as they’d like and then set the date and time the recipients can open the time capsule.

Skypod’s software then immediately stores and encrypts the data and sends notifications to the recipients, letting them know they have a digital time capsule waiting for them.

2. What do you feel is the Biggest strength of your company right now?

Skypod’s biggest strength is our patent-pending software. The software stores and delivers digital time capsules in a way that maximizes both user security and experience. When a user creates a digital time capsule using Skypod, the user designates as many recipients as they’d like and sets the date and time the recipients can open the time capsule.

This serves three important purposes. 

First, it ensures senders that their messages will be delivered while locking down the message until the date and time they have set. No more waiting and hoping your message gets delivered. The sender and the recipient both immediately know about the digital time capsule.

Second, it enhances the user experience by building tremendous anticipation for the recipients. They immediately get notified that someone created a digital time capsule for them and the date and time they may gain access. Skypod’s users love this feature because it creates value both in the present and the future.

Third, it allows senders to create different age-appropriate digital time capsules that can be opened by the recipients over time. You can create multiple Skypods to send happy birthday messages, words of wisdom, or holiday greetings and then set the appropriate date and time for each digital time capsule to be opened. 

This creates months or even years of anticipation with family members as they wait to access their time capsules, knowing their loved one left messages for them to access in the future. 

3. What goal do you have for Skypod? 

Our long-term goal for Skypod is to do for people’s memories and messages what wills and trusts do for people’s material possessions. 

However, our primary focus right now is to help the people most impacted by the coronavirus pandemic around the world. To that end, Skypod is donating $3 Million in free Skypod credits to the first 30,000 first responders, healthcare workers, doctors, nurses, and people who have fallen ill with coronavirus anywhere in the world. To get the free Skypod credits in the hands of the frontline workers and coronavirus patients as quickly as possible, we created what we call the Skypod Challenge to spread the word. All you need is a smartphone, tablet, or computer with an internet connection to create your account and send digital time capsules.

The first 30,000 eligible people who set up a new account will receive $100 in credits to create Skypods. No credit card is needed. And there are no strings attached. Because Skypods can be created for as little as $1.99, their free credits will allow them to create multiple digital time capsules for their loved ones and send them during or after life.

To participate in the Skypod Challenge and help us spread the word, we are asking the public to share on their Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts a photo of someone they’ve lost and wish they could hear from again, adding the hashtags #SkypodChallenge and #SkypodTogether. We ask them to mention that Skypod is giving away $3 Million in Skypod credits to first responders, healthcare workers, and coronavirus patients at www.Skypod.com/Together. Finally, we ask them to nominate three other people to do the same to further help us spread the word about Skypod’s donation.

4. What more can I and the viewer at home do to help you achieve this goal?

The best way to help is to participate in #SkypodChallenge to help us bring awareness to Skypod’s donation of $3 Million in free Skypod credits to first responders, healthcare workers, and people who have fallen ill with Covid-19. 

Share with your friends and family about Skypod’s donation of $3 Million in free Skypod credits. That will help Skypod deliver the free Skypod credits to 30,000 first responders, healthcare workers, doctors, nurses, and people who have fallen ill with coronavirus. 

Each eligible person who signs up with a new account at www.Skypod.com/Together will receive $100 in Skypod credits to create digital time capsules until Skypod has given away $3 Million in Skypod credits. No credit card is needed. There are no strings attached. This is absolutely free. All a person needs to do is spread the word about it.

Because Skypods can be created for as little as $1.99, the free credits will allow you to create multiple digital time capsules for your loved ones anywhere in the world. All you need is a phone, tablet, or computer with an internet connection.

5. What was the path you took to get to where you are today?

I grew up in a multicultural family in public housing. I literally picked roaches from my cereal box in the morning. I barely graduated high school. My whole childhood, I wanted to break out of the systemic poverty and inequity my family faced. But I wanted more than that. I wanted to help other families do the same.

To start, I enlisted in the US Army National Guard and avionics school, where I graduated top of my class. After graduation, I built several successful businesses. While those businesses helped me become successful, that achievement didn’t get rid of my desire to help underprivileged families find safe, affordable places to live.

So, I used the profits from my businesses to buy some rental real estate and manage it using a neighborly, service-oriented approach. I put people over profits and have developed mutually beneficial relationships with the tenants.

Skypod was the natural next step for me to help people avoid another big weight I carry on my heart from my childhood. Skypod’s digital time capsules also allow me to ensure I leave my kids with precious memories and age-appropriate messages no matter what happens to me. 

6. Why did you start Skypod?

I traveled a lot early in my career. Whenever I did, I’d look out the window of the plane over the tops of the clouds and think of all the “what ifs” in life. What things would I want to tell my sons, wife, extended family, and friends, that I hadn’t yet said? What would I want to tell them if I could not be with them physically? What would I want them to know about me?

All of those questions stuck with me because I have wondered those same questions about my biological father, who died when I was a small child. I dreamed about what it would feel like to have some memory or message from my dad, a picture of him, or a video or audio message so I could hear his voice. Even a single letter from him sharing an encouraging word or something about our family history would be cherished. Skypod is my way of being able to provide that for my family and to help others do the same for theirs.

As time passed, I kept hearing stories about other people who wished they could have one more conversation with a loved one who has passed away. In 2016, for example, I saw Anderson Cooper and his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, on CBS News discussing their memoir, The Rainbow Comes and Goes.

Anderson’s father passed away when he was just 10 years old. On the show, Anderson said he clung to the fantasy that one day he’d discover a surprise letter from his father that, in his words, “would show up one day, telling me all the things I didn’t know about him and all the things he wanted for my life.” “Of course,” he continued, “there was no letter.” I know that feeling well.

Eventually, all of those stories became too loud to ignore. 

Now, through Skypod, anyone in the world can leave messages, videos, or family memories in a safe, secure way, preserving those memories for generations to come.

7. What are the biggest challenges you’ve had to overcome? 

Building a software business has its challenges, especially a business like Skypod that solves a problem as big as preserving family memories and helping people deliver things that matter to their loved ones for years to come, both during and after life.

What was most important to us at Skypod was that we had to ensure the platform was safe, secure, encrypted, and backed up in an equally protected way. Creators needed to be confident that their information would be delivered when they wanted it delivered and accessible only to the people they designated. User experience also needed to be top notch for both creators and recipients.

It takes a lot of moving parts and a dedicated team to make it work. From day one, we refused to compromise on security and user experience.

8. What are your outside interests?

I believe very strongly that people’s careers should be rooted in their personal interests. That’s what makes Skypod so special to me.

Outside of those ventures, I love spending time with my wife and my two boys. Family is the most important thing to me. I also love being outdoors. Most of my time outside of Skypod involves hiking, riding bikes, being on the water, traveling, and exploring new foods with my family and friends.  

We love learning about new people and places. That’s one of the best things about Skypod to me. Every time my family and I travel, I think about the memories we’re creating and the legacy we’re building. I know that the greatest gift I could give my family is to continue to create memories with them.

9. Closing - Any last words of encouragement for the viewers at home who would like to start their own company?

Being an entrepreneur has many ups and downs, yet it’s the most satisfying way to make a living if you build something you’re passionate about. If you know what you are passionate about and want to start your own company, start. Do it now. Way too many people wait for “the right time” to create a business. Let me tell you, the right time to start your own company is right now. If you wait for “the right time,” you may never take action.

There are thousands of reasons to push your dreams aside and wait for “the right time” to begin. But if you have done your due diligence about your dream and are passionate about making it a reality, you’re ready to start. Put your heart and soul into your business, and figure out the details as you go. 

The sooner you launch, the sooner you can help people with your business. Take Skypod, for example. Like Rome, Skypod wasn’t built in a day. Looking back, I wish I had built it sooner.

Skypod’s website is www.Skypod.com. Stay connected and follow Skypod on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter.