Storing memories on The History Project just got easier

The company will be one of 8 startups pitching during Vator Splash Spring on May 12

Editor's Note: Our annual Vator Splash Spring 2016 conference is around the corner on May 12, 2016 at the historic Scottish Rite Center in Oakland. Speakers include Nigel Eccles (CEO & Co-founder, FanDuel), Andy Dunn (Founder & CEO, Bonobos), Mitch Kapor (Founder, Kapor Center for Social Impact); Founders of NextDoor, Handy, TubeMogul, TaskEasy; Investors from Khosla Ventures, Javelin Venture Partners, Kapor Capital, Greylock, DFJ, IDG, IVP and more. Join us! REGISTER HERE.

When Vator holds its Splash Spring event on May 12, along with all of our amazing speakers, we will also be holding our startup competition, in which eight young companies will get the chance to get on stage to pitch their ideas to key venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. The competition been a part of every single one of our events since we first started holding them back in 2010, and we've had some very successful and notable winners in the past, including Thumbtack and Apartment List. 

One of our competing startups this year is The History Project, a company that seeks to be a modern reinvention of the time capsule.

On Wednesday the company announced some key new features to help make its service more user-friendly.

One of the new features is a simpler way to add memories to timelines Before they could only be added to specific events, but now they be added directly to a project. Users can also add voice notes and metadata. The idea for these updates from user feedback, in which they told the company that they wanted an easier way to start and continue building projects. 

In addition, The History Project also introduced a new way to view memories that aren't associated with a particular project, as well as a new in-line editing feature, which makes updating names of events, dates, adding locations, and descriptions easier and with less clicks.

There is also a new overall design, and improved customization tools that include ability to control project/media liking, view counts, open contributions, and personalized project header bar color.

Another key feature requested by users was the ability to invite contributors to their project. Already 10 percent have already invited others, and 75 percent of those had accepted, so The History Project has introduced a Public Contributions feature, which gives users the ability to keep a project private, or open it up so that anyone contribute to it.

Since it launched in December, the company has had celebrities, including singer Jewel, create their own projects, and now she is using the Public Contributions feature to let fans contribute to the timeline for her current tour. 

"Today, memories are collected and shared in real time, in online communities and across various social channels. Important life experiences are shared daily, but there is no way to easily preserve important memories and in a way that is meaningful," Niles Lichtenstein, CEO and co-founder of The History Project, said in a statement. 

"People want to share the memories that are most important to them, in a way that is significant and easy to manage. It's like a Pinterest of emotional belongings."

Founded in 2014, The History Project connects memories and artifacts, which have been scattered over various digital, social, and physical platform, allowing users to collect them in order to collaborative, and interactive life narratives.

Users can import media, including YouTube clips, Facebook posts, even maps that can be layered on top of each other to see how multiple generations have crossed each other. It now has over 2,000 projects that have been started.

In the last few months, companies like the New York Times and The Associated Press have begun to leverage the platform,

The company has raised $2 million in seed funding from The New York Times Company, with additional investment by Matter Ventures and Altpoint Ventures, as well as several angels. Last month it raised an undisclosed amount of funding from The Associated Press, in an extension of its previous round. 

(Image source: pinterest.com)