What inspired the founders to create Evaheld?

The inspiration behind Evaheld comes from two deeply personal journeys that converged into a shared mission.

Michelle Gomes's revelation came during the COVID-19 lockdowns through an unexpected source: a community food pantry. When she helped establish the Newtown Blessing Box—a simple cupboard filled with food for those in need—she witnessed something profound. Hundreds of people visited daily, but Michelle noticed that the pantry served a purpose far deeper than providing sustenance. People lingered, chatted, connected. The food was important, but what people really craved was connection to each other and to community.

This observation echoed her earlier experiences helping terminally ill people create content for loved ones. Just as the food pantry was a conduit for connection rather than being about food, she realised her legacy work had little to do with the videos, letters, or recordings themselves. It was about connection—connecting present to future, connecting love across the boundary of death, connecting families through shared memory and understanding. This insight became foundational to Evaheld's design: we're not building a storage platform for content; we're creating a conduit for connection across time.

Michelle Costa's inspiration was more personal and painfully immediate. After her father's death following a decade-long battle with dementia, she was left with only old family photos. No videos. No voice recordings. No way to hear his laugh, see his expressions in motion, or share his presence with her children who would never truly know their grandfather. The finality of this loss—not just of her father, but of any tangible way to experience him again—haunted her.

She would have given anything to have captured his voice, his stories, his advice. To have asked him questions while he could still answer. To have recorded moments of connection that could be revisited. The regret was overwhelming, and she vowed that if she could spare even one family this same painful absence, she would dedicate herself to that cause. Through Evaheld, she's keeping that vow, helping families preserve not just memories but the living presence of their loved ones before it's too late.

Together, these experiences created Evaheld's DNA: technology serving human connection, compassionate guidance through difficult conversations, and the urgent recognition that tomorrow may be too late to preserve what matters most. The founders didn't just identify a market opportunity—they lived the pain their platform prevents and witnessed the profound human need their platform serves.