About Impression Vault
For years, the vision stayed in the background.
Then came a moment when it was impossible to ignore.
There was a deep pull to either act on the idea or let it go entirely.
Letting it go wasn’t an option.
Working with a small group of talented collaborators, we developed an app capable of scanning a hand with precision. From that scan, we created a carved hand imprint. In our laps was something tangible, permanent, and deeply personal.
The first one we made was my dad’s.
At the time, I had a simple belief: if all I ever created was my dad’s hand on my wall so I could remember him, then I had already won.
While we were refining prototypes, something happened that changed everything. A young woman connected to one of our team members shared that she had lost her husband. We couldn’t go back in time and capture his handprint—but she asked if we could create one for her daughter.
In May of 2024, she called me in tears. They had given the imprint to her daughter. Her daughter placed her hand inside it and talked to her dad for half an hour.
That phone call changed my life.
I still get goosebumps telling the story. In that moment, I understood exactly what I was meant to do.
For years, I joked that I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up. On that day in May, with goosebumps on my arms and tears in my eyes, it became
clear.
That was the true beginning of Impression Vault.
Founder and CEO
Andy Rhodes
Almost a decade before Impression Vault became a company, it
was simply an idea that wouldn’t go away.
At first, the concept felt technical. We explored building specialized scanners and hardware to capture handprints, assuming that was the only way to do it right. But the more we looked at it, the more it felt wrong.
The heart of the idea wasn’t about machinery. It was about memory.