_____________________ ECHOES LIVE WHERE YOU STOOD: Your memories don’t just float in the cloud. They live on sidewalks, rooftops, by the river, waiting to be found. FEEL MEMORIES by interacting with Echoes in real life, yours or someone else’s, and leaving your feelings behind for others to discover! MAP moments by anchoring Echoes to time and place. Swipe through them like a spatial diary you can revisit and reshape! SHARE your Echo experience by taking photos with them, like digital time capsules with social gravity! MARK your traces on the world, one Echo at a time. _____________________ Note from the Founder: Hi! If you’re reading this part, it means you’re really interested in learning about Aako. That’s super cute! We really appreciate that. The idea for Aako started three years ago, when a close friend of mine said: “It would be so cool if I could leave sounds at the places I’ve been.” That thought instantly sparked something in me. I remembered standing on top of Mount Shasta, looking out at the view, soaking in the breeze, my feet on gently sifted rocks. In that moment, I needed more than just a picture to share what I felt. Especially today, when anyone can pull up a 4K HDR video of Mount Everest, pictures and videos alone just aren’t enough. You can only truly feel what someone else felt when you’re exactly where they once stood. If I left a photo or a voice recording at the mountain, and three weeks later another hiker found it, listened to that memory while standing in the exact place. Then that’s when it becomes real. That’s when it makes sense. This idea echoed in my mind for a while, until two years ago, when I was working in Thailand. The job was pretty easy, so I had a lot of free time. I traveled around, but I also wanted to build something meaningful. That’s how Aako started. Over the past two years, Aako has gone through pauses and progress. I took a break during college, then picked it up again with more people joining along the way. Some team members came and went, but even those who left for school or work were just as excited about Aako as we were. I’ll be honest: there were countless times I thought about quitting, or moments when we all felt like we were building something that just wouldn’t work. But after many iterations and a lot of hard work, here it is. The Aako we’ve been dreaming of is finally real, and we’re so excited to share it with the world. It’s honestly surreal to see something that once lived in your imagination come to life. And we can’t wait to see what you make with it. From our whole team: we really believe Aako is something different, something new. We’re building the future, and we’re so happy you’re in it with us. Lastly, I want to thank everyone who helped make Aako possible: Yolanda Xing and Alexon Hu, for co-founding Aako with me. Alex Xu, Alexis Liang, Beckham Lee, Boson Chang, Bryan Iglesias, Jackie Zhong, Jeannie Kim, Kiran Keertipati, Prachi Heda, Shad Reyes for helping with Code. Anastasia Meadows, Anna Hoang, Heather Jang, Helen Xie, Huy Le, Nainika Neerukonda, Nina Yu, Oswaldo Medina, Renato Pimentel, Rency Visperas, Samantha Sayson for helping with Design. Jinmao Wang, Tony Meng for your extreme passion and deep insights into Aako. Poyu Lee, for your amazing 3D models, animations, and visual effects. Professor Jim Hollan and Professor Steven Dow, for your guidance and advice. Our Ukrainian development partners, for assisting with RealityKit issues. Slava Ukraini! And to my friend Jenny Yu, who planted the original idea :) Thank you, and let’s connect immersively. Cheers, Yasushi Oh
