How Archie Came to Be
Hi, I’m Stef Caldwell, co-founder of Archie.
And this is my family.
I’m a wife to Ronnie, and a mother to two beautiful girls, Charlie and Margaux, the muses and heartbeats behind Archie.
The idea for this work didn’t arrive as a business concept. It arrived as a loss, a conflict, and an opportunity.
Years ago, I went searching for our wedding video, only to discover that the company who filmed it had gone out of business. I was devastated. After days of digging, I managed to recover a screen-recording of our wedding trailer. I’m grateful to have it… but it isn’t the same. That moment stayed with me, the sinking feeling of realizing something irreplaceable was suddenly gone.
Then there’s my husband, Ronnie. He is very private. I love making playful home videos, capturing the behind-the-scenes joy of our everyday life, but he values discretion, and prefers to keep those moments off the internet. I found myself torn between sharing our joyful memories and protecting our privacy.
And then came my grandmother’s handwritten memoir, something I thought was gone forever until I found it tucked away during a moment when she was hospitalized, when we weren’t sure how much time we had left with her. Holding those pages in my hands felt like holding our family’s history, fragile, precious, and utterly irreplaceable.
Somewhere in the middle of all of this, I realized what I was craving:
A place worthy of our memories.
Not another app. Not another feed. Something just for us. A private, intentional, beautifully curated home for:
our treasured family photos
our joyful, imperfect home videos
our campy Christmas cards
my grandmother’s memoir, preserved digitally
the voicemails from loved ones that we never want to lose, including my late grandparents
heirloom family recipes
So I built an archival site for our family — a living, evolving home for our story.
Friends began to notice. They’d ask to see it… and then they’d ask, “Could you help us build one for our family, too?” One by one, I began creating archives for others — with the same care, discretion, and reverence I brought to my own.
That is how Archie was born.
Today, my team and I serve families who want their stories preserved with intention. Families who want a digital home for their most cherished memories, milestones, and dreams, and the peace of mind to know that nothing meaningful will be lost to time, platforms, or chance.
It is our honor to help you remember, celebrate, and inspire your living legacy with the care it deserves, and the love only a family story can hold.
If you’re interested in learning more about how we can help your family, reach out.
