With close ties to the nursing home and assisted living communities, Ginger Atwood and Ryan Gragg often heard older adults express regret for not talking more about the life issues and experiences that had been important to them. Children and grandchildren expressed similar regrets.

“My grandfather, parents and aunts and uncles were in the nursing home and assisted living business since the 1960s,” said Gragg. “We’re still involved to a lesser degree, since some were acquired. This came from an idea my mother had about six years ago. She said, ‘this is something technology should be able to solve.’ That wasn’t the right time for it, though.”

Six years ago, he notes, seniors had not adopted the Internet the way they have in the last few years.

“We saw a shift over the last two years as we were building this out with seniors using social media,” he said.

So, Atwood, 50, and Gragg, 30, who are mother and son, became business partners and started Raleigh-based MyWisdomLink.com, a site where people over age 50 – you have to be at least 50 to sign up – can post text, photos, videos, and so on.

The site launched January 1.

A company news release explained that the site serves as a hybrid time capsule and real-time sharing platform. Subscribers can catalog their life’s experiences and wisdom through text entries, videos, photographs and documents that can then be shared privately with family and friends whom they invite to be a part of their network.

After a 30-day free trial, users will be asked to subscribe at $99 a year, which is under $9 a month, but might keep some seniors out. Gragg admits that, but says if that’s too high, they probably don’t engage enough with technology to take full advantage of the site anyway.

“A service online has to be paid for,” according to Gragg. “It eliminates a chunk of our audience, but we decided not to sell advertising or data.”

The site is entirely bootstrapped. Gragg has another successful business, the Florida-based advertising and digital marketing firm The Alexis Agency.

Gragg said they have taken pains with security, following the advice of IT professionals on a number of levels. Also, the site can’t be searched for member names from inside or outside and it uses PayPal as a payment processor, so it keeps no credit card information on its servers.

His mother, Ginger Atwood said in a statement, “The beauty of the site is that it’s simple to use and it helps you tell your story as only you can – the way you know it should be told. Why wait for people to share your experiences after you’re gone, only to have them tell your stories incorrectly – or not at all?”