Handpressions Pulls a Beyonce, Debuts Next Hot Parents App

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I don’t ever do app reviews.

For one thing, I’m on Android, so all too often I can’t download the newest app in the first place. (This is changing rapidly, though.)

I also don’t review apps because that’s what the App Store reviews are for and because what matters to me may not matter to you.

I say all this to point out that the fact that I’m basically writing an app review shows how awesome this app is.

When Carla Valdes whispered to me about her upcoming app at Everywhere Else Cincinnati, it sounded pretty cool. The app would take a picture of your child’s hand and create a handprint from it. Then you could plug the handprint into a template and create artwork with it: prints, bags, t-shirts. Grandparents love that kind of stuff.

When Handpressions launched last week, though, I realized that I loved the app more than I thought I would.

I’m not really the crafty kind of mom (and any illusions of grandeur in that area ended when I became a founder), but the Handpressions app is actually perfect for me. I just plop my kids down, beg them to be still for 2 seconds, and snap a picture of their hand. Personally, at the moment, I skip all the artwork part, but I have a handprint–measured and stored–that perfectly records those little hands right now.

how to capture handprints

When I spoke with Carla on the phone, she was excited about the future of Handpressions, which she sees evolving into a memory collection platform. Gone will be the days of scouring through 95 pictures of the beach, hoping to get just the right one to plug into the scrapbook software. Right along with Handpressions’ hand and foot prints, you can record pictures, tag them with the date, and be done.

“It will be so much easier for parents to collect those memories,” she told me. And for those of you who are crazy enough to be starting up and raising kids (like me!), this ease of use will change your life.

So, does all this tie into Beyonce, you ask?

If you’ll remember, recently the pop star released an album overnight on iTunes, no marketing, no fanfare. Just boom, new Beyonce album. While plenty of startups operate in stealth for awhile, Carla’s closest colleagues were impressed with her ability to keep things quiet while she oversaw the app’s development.

“Carla mentioned that she was working on a project last spring. I had no inclination as to what it might be but knowing Carla, it was going to be good,” Washington DC consultant Ijeoma Nwatu told me. “Handpressions has been in the works for quite some time and it is now available to the public. Carla, similar to Beyonce, did not drum up initial press or hype her own project she just delivered, allowing her work and diligence to speak for itself. ”

And, like every visionary, when I talked to Carla after the release, she was already focused on the next step.

“We’re going to release more templates, login in with Facebook, sharing on social media so people can share their artwork…”

If you’re a parent, check out Handpressions and let Carla and the team know what you think.

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