We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Vanessa Quigley a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Vanessa , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

The idea for Chatbooks came from a mix of inspiration, practicality, and, honestly, a moment of mom guilt. I used to be a die-hard scrapbooker back in the ’90s, but by the time I had my youngest—my seventh child—I just couldn’t keep up. One day, he was flipping through a little photo album his preschool teacher had made, and he looked at me with tears in his eyes, saying he never wanted to grow up. It hit me hard because I realized I hadn’t printed a single photo for him outside of our Christmas cards. All my older kids had beautiful scrapbooks, and here he was with nothing.

That night, I turned to my husband, Nate, and said, “What if I could just print my Instagram?” I’d been documenting our family’s life on Instagram for years—our highlights, milestones, and everyday moments—but scrolling a phone isn’t the same as holding those memories in your hands. Nate and his team took the idea and ran with it, and within a week, they had a prototype. The response from people was immediate and enthusiastic—it was clear we had something special.

And while Instagram was at the heart of Chatbooks in the early days, things have evolved. Now, less than 2% of the photos we print come from Instagram because we’ve made it so easy to print right from your camera roll. Even though Instagram is no longer an option for printing due to recent changes by Meta, it’s OK—most of our customers already love printing their everyday moments straight from their phones.

That’s how Chatbooks was born: out of a real mom moment and a desire to make it easy for families to hold on to their stories, even in the busiest seasons of life. And that mission continues to guide everything we do.

Vanessa , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

About Me
I’m Vanessa Quigley—wife, mother of seven, and co-founder of Chatbooks, the company I started with my husband Nate in 2014. My background is in vocal performance and pedagogy, which might not sound like a typical lead-in to the tech world, but my passion for storytelling and cherishing family memories has been a constant thread throughout my life. My journey into entrepreneurship began unexpectedly, rooted in a moment of “mom guilt” that turned into a mission.

How It All Started
The idea for Chatbooks came when my youngest child, who was five at the time, was crying while holding a small photo book his preschool teacher had made. He told me he never wanted to grow up, and I realized he was clinging to the memories captured in that little album. As a mom of seven, I’d once been an avid scrapbooker but found that as life got busier, memory-keeping fell by the wayside. All my photos were now trapped on my phone or shared on Instagram.

That night, I marched downstairs and asked Nate if there was a way to print my Instagram photos automatically into photo books. That simple question sparked the creation of Chatbooks—a service that makes printing your family photos easy and accessible.

What We Provide
Chatbooks is a photo book subscription service that makes it effortless to create high-quality, affordable photo books directly from your camera roll or social media. We believe in simplifying the process so families can focus on what really matters: cherishing the moments that matter most. Our flagship product, Monthbooks, helps families effortlessly preserve their monthly memories in physical form, creating a legacy that’s easy to share and enjoy.

The Problems We Solve
Life is busy, and many parents feel overwhelmed by the task of preserving family memories. With Chatbooks, we eliminate the barriers of time, cost, and complexity. No more struggling with intricate scrapbooking or spending hours selecting and formatting photos. Our app does the work for you, delivering photo books to your doorstep with just a few clicks.

What Sets Us Apart
At Chatbooks, we’re about more than just printing photos—we’re about strengthening families through storytelling and connection. Our commitment to making memory-keeping beyond easy, super affordable, great quality, and paired with amazing service is what sets us apart. We also value our community, which includes a robust remote team of customer support specialists—our MomForce—who ensure every customer feels cared for.

Our viral “Real Mom” video campaign, created with the Harmon Brothers, also helped us stand out by hilariously capturing the essence of our target audience: busy moms who need solutions, not more stress. That video resonated with millions and helped solidify our brand as relatable and fun.

What I’m Most Proud Of
I’m incredibly proud of the impact Chatbooks has had on families worldwide. It’s deeply fulfilling to hear stories of kids flipping through their photo books, laughing, and reminiscing about special moments captured within their pages. I’m also proud of the work environment we’ve cultivated—Chatbooks was named the #1 place to work for women in the U.S. by Fortune Magazine in 2021, a reflection of our commitment to family-first flexibility and a culture of support.

What I Want You to Know
More than anything, I want people to know that memory-keeping isn’t just about photos—it’s about creating a narrative of your family’s life. Those stories, big and small, build connection, resilience, and a sense of identity. And you don’t have to be perfect or have it all together to preserve those memories. Let Chatbooks help you create something tangible that your family will treasure for generations.

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

One of my favorite and most pivotal marketing stories is the creation of Chatbooks’ Real Mom video with the Harmon Brothers. It was a bold move that changed everything for us, but at the time, it felt like an enormous gamble.

Picture this: we were a scrappy, growing company with a great product but limited resources. I vividly remember sitting in strategy meetings, grappling with how to tell our story in a way that would really break through. I knew we had something special—an app that could turn the chaos of digital photos into beautifully simple photo books—but explaining that to busy moms, our target audience, in a sea of competing messages felt almost impossible. We needed something big.

Enter the Harmon Brothers, famous for their viral video ads. Their approach was fresh, edgy, and highly entertaining—exactly what we wanted. But their services came with a price tag that, for us at the time, felt astronomical. Investing in this campaign meant putting all our chips on the table. My husband and I talked late into the night about the risk. We didn’t just have a business to think about; we had a family. What if it didn’t work? But we couldn’t grow without taking risks, so we decided to go for it.

The creative process was thrilling. We collaborated closely with the Harmon Brothers to write a script that was unapologetically honest and laugh-out-loud funny. The Real Mom character, a hilariously relatable everywoman juggling life, kids, and the mountain of digital photos on her phone, became the star. The humor was sharp, but at its heart, the story was rooted in something deeply emotional—the desire to preserve family memories without the guilt or stress.

When the video launched, I was equal parts nervous and hopeful. And then… it exploded. Within days, it was everywhere—shared by moms, reposted by influencers, and generating the kind of buzz we had only dreamed about. Watching the numbers climb, I felt both relieved and validated. It wasn’t just about the sales (though those came, and in a big way); it was about knowing that we’d struck a chord with our audience. Moms saw themselves in that video, and they trusted us to help them with something they cared deeply about.

That campaign didn’t just put Chatbooks on the map—it gave us a voice, a personality, and a connection to our customers that’s still central to our brand. Looking back, I remember how terrifying it felt to bet so much on one idea, but it’s also a reminder that the biggest risks often lead to the greatest rewards.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned through building Chatbooks is that resilience isn’t about never failing—it’s about how you respond when failure hits. And in those early years, it hit hard.

Before Chatbooks, we launched Just Family, a cloud-based memory-keeping app designed to help families organize and share digital memories. It wasn’t about photo books at all. But we quickly realized moms didn’t have time to “lean in” and do alot of extra work to curate memories –they just wanted a simple way to print their photos. We had missed the mark with our product and it was a devastating realization after pouring so much time, energy, and money into it.

Instead of giving up, we set aside everything that we built and started over. And boy was that daunting! Money was tight, and we’d already sacrificed so much. But we leaned into the challenge, trusting the feedback we’d heard. Every step forward tested our resilience, but as the first moms began to use Chatbooks, we saw something incredible: they loved it. It worked!

That pivot taught me that resilience isn’t just about persistence—it’s about being flexible, truly listening, and being brave enough to change course when necessary. Letting go of our original plan was hard, but it’s what made Chatbooks a success. That lesson continues to shape how we grow and adapt today.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://chatbooks.com
• Instagram: vanessaquigley, chatbooks