What Taylor Swift and My Daughter Taught Me About Messaging & Its Future. The Augmented Autograph is Born.

So there was my daughter Ana, an early ambassador of the lettrs app to Taylor Swift, summer 2014.  In that one interaction (which lit up my daughter's summer) I learned something about where things were heading for messaging, media authenticity and value...

Millennials don't seek the disposable media as much as we might think.  They seek proof of a personal interaction, a lasting touch, in person or even a thousand miles away.  And in a mobile medium they are even willing to pay for it.

Upon presenting Taylor Swift  with a commemorative lettrs app poster that my daughter made I observed what Ana was really seeking:  a moment, a momento, and something digital that would last.  Ana wanted not the physical memorabilia but the digital kind, a media moment and authenticated, signed message that would stay with her social profile for years to come.  

And so I went back to my cyber and biometrics background to further my original quest for the "meaningful message" and realized what was missing in mobile messaging was personalization but proof of the human touch, of the media originally touched, marked uniquely by human hand with bio-metric evidence, of proof that Taylor touched, signed, doodled a message to me, even if that touch was delivered and distributed from a thousand miles way.

And thus came the invention of "autografs," of the ultimate mobile message, a direct transaction from fan to celebrity.   This digital memorabilia model tips the balance of social power and mobile wealth to the talent directly, which is why it is so compelling as a business to me.

Using a unique application of bio-metrics we created a new class of media, digitally marked, uniquely created, with proof for digital memorabilia that even exceeds that of the physical.  Right in the app talent sets the price and limits of their autographs and then their fans - the market - decide on which ones to buy, collect and who knows...maybe one day trade.  This more direct conduit from mobile fan to talent creates the opportunity for personalized moments, of digtial autographs, that maybe could never practically happen for most fans in person.

This economic disruption for bio-marked media, for mobile autographs in favor of talent, ironically became the similar and fundamental call to action of Taylor against the music sharing platforms in 2016.   Just like wanting to own more of the music royalties I expect talent wanting to (and deserving to) own their original, digital marks, their mobile autographs - buyable directly by the fans.

This economic alignment with Taylor became my creed and mission for autographed messaging too, of our secret service autografs, coming out of the stealthy embers of lettrs and into the light of day later this summer.  

We will not limit authenticated autographs to just messages, but autographed and bio-marked, validated media of selfies, pictures, videos on our platform and others.  The A-a-a-S model (autographs-as a-service) model is born.   Early adopters will be rewarded handsomely with 75% of all proceeds going to them.

So Taylor, while I am not a cultural and respected pop icon, I am a father, thinking about the lasting moments in life that will matter for you, my daughter and your generation.  Why is physical memorabilia a $12B industry?  People want that human touch, that connection, even if distant from the original moment.  We will bring digital memorabilia to the Millennial generation in ways that will make $12B look small.

So I am following digital things that last, the original media and moments that matter, where new value is created for a business like ours.

The broader benefit? Without a doubt the mobile, proven autograph will elevate our state of fan communications just a little bit higher, ushering in a multi-billion dollar industry for celebrities and athletes at the same time.

Taylor, the autografs app PO Box 13 remains reserved for you and the thousands of autographs you will one day sign.