Meet Andrew Hall | Co-Founder of No Story Lost

We had the good fortune of connecting with Andrew Hall and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Andrew, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?

We help people capture their parents’ amazing life stories.

My Grampa was a LEGEND!

He had the very BEST stories and he loved telling us about everything from pushing over outhouses to ski jumping in Kimberly on old wooden planks.

If your family is anything like ours, you’ve talked about how you NEED to write down all the stories from a particular loved one! But it just never seems to happen.

Well, a few years ago I finally sat down with Grandpa and recorded all his best stories and advice and turned it into the very first No Story Lost book!

Sadly, my grandpa passed away 2 years ago. His book is now the closest thing we have to hearing him tell his stories. It’s priceless to our entire family and we’re SO glad we made it happen. My business partner and I KNEW we were onto something.

We wanted to help OTHER families keep the memories of their loved ones alive, so we started No Story Lost. You see, we realized that the product was incredible to have, but that the process was very complicated to do on your own – and procrastination takes over for most families until it’s too late. So, we built a model that could bring this magic to other people.

Customers sign up, and then we record a series of interviews with their loved one over the phone. From there, we transcribe the interviews, clean up the writing, add their photos – and then print a beautiful coffee table book for their family to cherish forever.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?

My Co-Founder (Jeremy – he’s also my cousin) and I would like to think that what sets us apart is that we run businesses that are good for the world.

Our first venture was Mealshare – a buy-one, give-one non-profit that partners with restaurants to provide meals to youth in need. We built this from the age of 23 to 30, and recently passed it off to a new executive director. We learned a ton working at Mealshare – we consider it our free MBA. We grew it to a team of 18, and learned lessons across a huge number of aspects of business. There were lots of challenges with Mealshare – being really young entrepreneurs, trying an entirely new business model, trying to grow without being able to sell equity, etc.

Along the way, we started wondering what we’d want in our next business. We put down a few essential criteria – like being able to work remotely, work in partnership together again, and that our business would be good for the world and something we’d be proud of.

We’re excited that No Story Lost fits our criteria. We’ve already seen the deep meaning it has for families – capturing stories before families lose loved ones, seeing relationships re-opened after years apart, and generally hearing about families crying happy tears.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.

When a friend visits Phoenix, here’s what I like to show them!

– Nature: The quick and easy one is Camelback – great 360 city views, and doable in a couple hours. I also love getting lost in the Mountain Preserve or up in the McDowells.

– Nearby travel: Tuscon, Sedona, and the Grand Canyon – there are amazing day trips around here! When someone’s never been, we almost always do an early wakeup, drive to the canyon, and come back that evening. It’s a whirlwind!

– Food: I have a few favorite Mexican spots in Scottsdale. There’s actually also incredible pizza around.

– Other outdoor things: Golf year ’round, pickleball, walks, mountain/road biking, and jogging!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?

Our friend, Stef Grieser, who was an early customer and champion, and also worked with us on No Story Lost for a few months

Matt Corker, who was also an early customer and shared our product widely!

The people at CBC and Dragon’s Den, who got us in front of thousands of people last year, including our producer, Amy!

And of course, or parents and grandparents, who are the inspiration for the project.

Website: nostorylost.com

Instagram: instagram.com/nostorylost

Linkedin: https://ca.linkedin.com/company/no-story-lost

Twitter: twitter.com/nostorylost

Facebook: facebook.com/nostorylost