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Seventy years of memories
Yarden's story starts long before him. In 1940s Baghdad, his grandfather Isaac learned the craft of photography through the keyhole of a film lab. In 1956 he opened his first shop, Photo Linof, and in the 1960s grandmother Rachel joined him. Yarden's father, Ofer, started working in the shop at the age of ten, filming events and weddings. In the 1980s, when video arrived, he went to the United States and opened a lab of his own there, Horizon Video.
Yarden and his twin brother Yuval grew up inside the lab. "I live this world from home," he says. "The family business, the photos, the films. I grew up in a world of memories, and I simply love nostalgia."
Linof is forever
Linof is also a family story, and it has a painful chapter. When Ofer was working at Horizon Video in the United States, his younger brother Ronen worked there with him. Ronen died at the age of thirty, a terrible tragedy for the whole family. Ofer came back, joined his parents at Linof again, and later opened Digito with them.
Ofer and Ronen always said that Linof is forever. "In memory of Ronen and Grandpa Isaac, it matters to me deeply that Linof will be forever," says Yarden. Linof.ai is his way of carrying that promise forward, to the next generation and to today's technology.
Two friends from WalkMe
Yarden and Ash met at WalkMe about six years ago. Ash worked there as a backend engineer, and Yarden in go to market and business development. From the very first moment they clicked, and they became friends.
After WalkMe each went his own way: Yarden to a cyber security company, Ash to another company. They stayed in touch. At some point they started talking about the same dream: leaving salaried jobs and going their own way. Ash took the first step and started a project, and Yarden was there beside him, helping and supporting.
From side project to dream
The idea for Linof.ai came from home. Yarden started it as a side project, and at some point he realised the time had come: to make the dream real and carry on Linof and its legacy. Ash loved the idea, and in 2026 he joined as co-founder. Since then they have been building Linof together.
The problem they wanted to solve is one every family knows. Families kept their photos and tapes carefully, and almost nobody watched them. Not because they did not care, but because turning a box of memories into something the family will actually sit and watch took an editor, a week of work, and real money.
The moment he almost gave up
They build the product together: running into technical problems, trying, failing, fixing bugs, and working on the design and the marketing. Ash, a programmer with rare talent, taught Yarden to code from scratch and to work with AI agents.
It was not always easy. "There was a stage when the frustration of working with the agents weighed on me," says Yarden. "I was in despair and wanted to give up. Ash was always there, teaching and helping, and that is a gift."
The family archive is the lab
In recent months Yarden has been living inside the family archive. Ofer filmed the family all his life, and there are tens of thousands of photos and films at home. Yarden runs every test of the films on this archive. "I go back to my childhood, to the nostalgia," he says, "and I see how beautiful life was when I was a child."
And he is not alone. Today Yarden and Ash see customers making moving films, and families moved by them.
Where it is going
Yarden and Ash's vision is for Linof.ai to be the place where families keep their family archive, photos and films, organise it easily, improve it, and create films from it for their events. And while they are dreaming, Yarden admits to an even further dream: one day, a small chip that connects to the brain and takes you back in time to see your memories from the inside.
In the meantime, the partnership works. "We have great dynamics," says Yarden, "and we want more and more customers to keep creating with us."
For the full family story, from the 1940s to today: Our story.
Questions
Who founded Linof.ai?+
Yarden Cohen, the third generation of the Linof family, and Ash Benyo, a backend engineer. The two met at WalkMe, and Ash joined as co-founder in 2026.
How is Linof.ai connected to the Linof lab?+
Linof.ai is the first product of the third generation of the family that opened Photo Linof in 1956. The family lab is still running, and Ofer, Yarden's father, still runs it.
What is Linof.ai's vision?+
To be the place where families keep their family archive, photos and films, organise it easily, improve it, and create films from it for their events, films the family will actually sit and watch.
Written by
Dana Fluskit
