Tapestry

Who we are

Tapestry is a small technology company with the grand vision of enriching the lives of people of all ages across the world, by helping them stay connected to their families, their friends and their communities.

To help you understand what we’re creating, we could simply give you an excerpt from our very first business plan:

Our mission is to enrich the lives of older users, allowing them to utilize the rich communication capabilities offered by today's technologies with a product suite specifically designed to meet their needs and those of their families. Tapestry will provide a platform not just for social connectivity, but also for entertainment, health, welfare and community engagement.

But while all of this is still completely true, it strikes us as, well, a little dry, and doesn’t give you much of an insight to what’s behind the public face of Tapestry. And that simply won’t do. Our tagline, after all, is “Simply Connect”, and we really mean it.

Tapestry was created because we care. We care about staying connected to our own parents and grandparents. We care about families. We care about people. And we love working on products that make the world a better place.

Contact us

How to contact us, or receive support on purchasing and using Tapestry.

The Tapestry Story

The seed behind Tapestry was planted in 2010, when founder Andrew Dowling found himself in China studying population demographics for his Master's degree. Andrew came face to face with the two fundamental concepts which would come to drive everything we do at Tapestry.

The first: the realization that the biggest challenge for China in the decades ahead is the same one faced by all developed economies around the world. It's the biggest demographic trend in human history, one that will transform industries, governments and societies over the coming decades: the ageing population.

The second: Andrew's first encounter with the emerging field of social entrepreneurship, a field in which companies aim not only to achieve financial sustainability, but also to fulfil a social mission. To someone who had spent his entire life making products which make the world a better place, this seemed like the best idea he had ever heard.

Andrew proceeded to complete his Master's thesis on social entrepreneurship and founded Tapestry months later. The rest, as they say, is history.

At Tapestry we're trying to answer some simple questions. Is it possible to create a solution that can bridge the technology generation gap and get families across multiple generations connected again? Can we provide a simple way to address all the concerns that have prevented seniors from adopting all of today's technologies: concerns about privacy, security, complexity and the constantly changing nature of just about everything?

At Tapestry we believe the answer to these questions is "Yes".

The People Behind Tapestry

Andrew Dowling

Founder & CEO

A holder of multiple patents, Andrew has been a pioneer of Australia's technology industry for the past two decades, with a career spanning software and technology through to strategy consulting and everything in between. He has lived and worked at various times in Australia, India, China and the US, and is author of two books about his adventures throughout Africa, Asia and the Middle East. With MBA degrees from INSEAD in France and Tsinghua University in Beijing, and a Master's thesis on social entrepreneurship, it was about time Andrew decided to knuckle down and do something useful.

Travis Baker

Software Development Lead

Travis has been with Tapestry since the very beginning – if he had a use for business cards, he would get one which reads "Employee #00001". The fact he joined us when Tapestry was little more than an idea means he's either a visionary or completely insane; we're still trying to figure it out. Either way, he's been the foundation of the Tapestry development team and we couldn't do without him.

Helen Drew

Digital Marketing Lead

Helen is one of a rare breed: a visual designer who also comes equipped with a background in marketing. We're not too sure how those two skill sets manage to co-exist in the same brain without making it explode, but she somehow manages to pull it off with aplomb. Helen's broad skill set means she gets involved with everything from user interface design through to our online and offline marketing campaigns. How good is that?

Kara Neely

User Interaction Designer

A native Canadian with a background in user interface and digital communication design, Kara is responsible for making sure the products we build at Tapestry are beautiful and easy to use. Kara's passions include photography, collecting treasures and researching design trends in web, print, fashion and interior design. She is also a new mum, so apart from Tapestry she finds herself spending a lot of time creating new purées, baking finger foods, folding small clothes and playing peek-a-boo.

Phil Reither

Software Developer

Phil Reither has three passions in life: rock climbing, cooking and the web. Being the "front-end guy" for Tapestry quenches one of these three (guess which one?). While his tools may be jQuery, Backbone and CSS3, for Phil it’s all about making beautiful interfaces that he can be proud of. Oh yeah, did we mention he’s from Austria (we hear that’s somewhere in the mountains) and that he moved to the this side of the globe just to be with us?

Phil Willis

Business Development & Community Manager

For someone who began his career in software development, Phil has worked in a startling array of different roles, ranging from university lecturer through to animator for feature films and video games. Phil is a new parent, but he does what he can to watch as many movies as possible (just don’t get him started on the Oscars). He is a huge Philadelphia Eagles fan and has a sense of humor a mile wide (perhaps the two are related) and we love the fun and laughter he brings to the Tapestry office.

Robin Miller

Financial Controller

When Robin told us she loves nothing more than creating order from disorder, we knew she was the person to put some discipline into our accounting, ordering, payment and business administration systems. Running Tapestry without Robin would be like sailing a ship without a rudder: we would end up dashed on the rocks sooner or later.

About us