I built Timewell Books - a platform where customers create hardbound photo books, record voice stories for each photo, and then scan a QR code printed inside the book to hear those stories back. Years later.

The concept sounds simple. The engineering is not.

━━━ The hard part nobody thinks about ━━━

The QR code is printed once - permanently, in the physical book. That means the link has to work reliably 10, 20 years from now. No dead links. No "this service no longer exists." No app install wall when grandma scans it at Christmas.

So I built:

→ A QR generation and resolution system that maps each code to a specific page and specific user. Not just a URL - a durable identity layer for a physical object.

→ A cold-open mobile experience: when someone scans the code, the audio loads instantly with no app install required. First meaningful paint had to be fast - this is often a grandparent at a family gathering, not a developer on fibre.

→ A media upload pipeline for audio and images, built to handle the real messiness of consumer uploads (variable formats, slow connections, retry logic).

→ An admin dashboard for order and content management, so the team can track every book, every QR code, and every piece of attached media end-to-end.

━━━ The product ━━━

Timewell Books → timewellbooks.com

Curious if anyone else has built something similar this product or want it....