In 2013, my wife Kimberly, 10 years younger than I and the healthiest member of our family was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. She was an athletic, non smoker, health conscious, beautiful woman. We fought the disease with everything we had – chemotherapy, lifestyle changes, alternative therapies, ancient medicines, and anything else we could find that looked like it may help. Things were looking good for awhile but, unfortunately, we lost the battle in late 2017 and Kim was gone. I was now a single Dad with 2 young children.
Since that time, one of the greatest regrets I have is that my future grandchildren, Kim’s grandchildren, will never get to really know what a special woman their grandmother was, her sense of humor, mannerisms, strength, sometimes fiery and amazing personality. All the wonderful things that made her so unique and special.
This is true of most of us. Everyday, we allow a little more of our family history to disappear, and as a result, we lose something very important: our human connection with all those great, unique people that made us who we are . . . our foundation.
Sure . . . we can tell our children and grandchildren stories, show them photos and possibly a home video or two but let’s face it, younger generations are no longer interested in looking at photo albums, reading diaries or journals, or watching hours of home videos. Those are becoming obsolete. Also, they really don’t teach us the true essence of our loved ones and ancestors. So . . . how do we engage future generations into caring about their past?
Introducing whoowe ( pronounced who-o-we).
whoowe let’s you create an automated voice controlled Q & A database of yourself that family, friends, and future generations can talk to, asking questions and hearing directly from you, as if in a video chat conversation. It gives them an artificial intelligence experience with the real life benefits of human intelligence. They will learn about their ancestors like nothing else can teach them.
Upload your family photos and important lineage documents to build a complete profile of yourself and link up with other relatives to create an amazing family tree that will live on forever.
So the question is . . . How will you be Remembered?
For over 18 years, I’ve lived in a small town in NY state. Our property, surrounded by woods, is home to many types of wildlife. In all those years, we’ve seen many types of animals and birds of many different colors come through but never the bright red cardinal.
In the spring following the loss of my wife, I was awakened one morning to the loud chirping of a bird just outside my bedroom window. It was so loud, it sounded like it was in the room. After listening for a while, I got up and went to the window. There, sitting on the deck railing was a beautiful cardinal. It stayed on that railing for almost an hour that morning and came back every morning that spring and summer. It prompted me to look up if there was a deeper meaning to it’s sudden appearance and I found out that the cardinal is seen as a sign of someone who has passed checking in on their loved ones.
Since then, the cardinal, which I’ve named “whoowe” has shown up each Spring for the last 3 years and is now part of the whoowe logo.
FOUNDER / CEO
Dan Qualiano is a creative inventor and innovator, with over 25 years of extensive experience in product innovation, design, product development, business development & management, medical & consumer marketing, sales, and advertising.
CTO
Michelle Peltzer is a versatile leader with a history of driving business transformations, including systems and organizational change for clients, with more than 20 years of experience in the health care, pharma, medical device, and IT industries. As a consultant, she has experience advising and working with cross-functional project teams in program leadership, process improvement, organizational design, transition planning, and workforce management. Her areas of expertise include IT infrastructure, business process improvement, continuous improvement, vendor and project management, as well as, cross functional leadership
Media Director
Anthony Geathers is an award winning producer/director bringing over 20 years of multimedia production experience to the Whoowe project. He’s produced comedy specials with Murphy Boyz productions, PBS-In The Mix, In The Driver’s Seat-ESPN, 13 episodes of New York Caribbean and directed live multi-cam productions with musical artists Jackson Browne, Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison, James Earl Jones, Crosby Stills & Nash and dancer Bill T-Jones. He currently produces numerous commercials, infomercials, music videos, live performances and multi-media campaigns for new media internet based entities
Innovation Director
Paul A Lauro is a senior development engineer at IBM Research. For the past 32 years, he has been a vital developer in the design and mechanical testing of integrated probe structures for chip testing and wafer level burn-in. Presently, designing and constructed unique equipment to help with product development, quantum computing and micro mechanical electronics. He is part of a team working on the world’s smallest computer technology. Paul’s education in mechanical engineering has enabled him to invent over 150 issued and pending patents covering various aspects of semiconductor packaging and testing. Served as an IBM Master Inventor for six years.
Investor & Advisor
A company I co-founded, SRS Network Inc. became a multi million dollar Information Technology corporation. For three consecutive years it was sited among the 500 fastest growing private companies in the USA. After successfully negotiating a merger for the above company, I went on to assume the position of Executive VP of Mercer Computer Systems and subsequently the COO of Pierre Audoin Consultants, one of the leading European IT business intelligence companies. After serving on the board of directors of the largest IT organization in the US, Information Technology Association Of America for six years, I served as an advisory board member of the same organization. I am currently an advisor to a few selected offshore companies that provides IT and BPO services from countries such as Russia, Romania Czech Republic Malaysia Mexico and India. Over the last 15 years I have also worked on both the buy and sell side of M&A with an exclusive focus on the IT software and services market. Currently I am one of the few non lawyer arbitrators serving on the commercial panel of American Arbitration association.
Investor & Advisor
As a graduate of the School of Visual Arts, Eddie Ortiz began his career as an illustrator and commercial artist. Eddie switched careers taking on graphic design and working as Art Director for DC Comics and Senior Graphic Designer for CB Richard Ellis and Univision Television to name a few.
In 2002, after the birth of his first son, Eddie immersed himself in web design and development. Self-taught, building navigations and wire-framing websites using raw code, has given Eddie the insight to provide the client with clean, comprehensive websites that stand the test of time.
His vast knowledge of SEO, social media and analyzation of market trends has given Eddie the ability to develop websites exceeding industry standards all while keeping the user experience on the cutting edge of technology.
