Legacy Republic launches with $6M from YesVideo

Legacy Republic is a new division of YesVideo that empowers regular people to become sellers

Most people I know have a ton of home movie sitting around, gathering dust. But many, like my mother, are likely reluctant to have them digitized, in fear of having them lost or damaged. I totally understand this feeling; there are tapes of my father, who passed away, that my aunt lost while moving a few years ago. There really are things that can't ever be replaced. 

But what if someone that you trusted could show you how the digitization process works? And could walk you through the process. I'm betting that would help immensely with putting at least some of those fears to rest.

That is the idea behind Legacy Republic, a new business division of YesVideo, which launched on Wednesday. It allows regular people to become what are known as "Legacy Makers;" they are trained on how digitization works, and then sent out to sell the process to their family and friends.

The idea is to make the experience personal, Brian Knapp, head of Legacy Republic, explained to me in an interview. By putting it into the hands of someone that is both known and trusted, it will open up the door for more people to feel comfortable with the digitization process."

"Video been around for 15 years. YesVideo can fix and repair video, and ensure the quality is there, but a key insight for Legacy Republic is that there are a couple of billion photo albums and videos out there," Brian Knapp, head of Legacy Republic, told me in an interview. "There is more work to be done than in a lifetime. If we can unlock that opportunity we will have more velocity than we’ve been able to before."

The company has been testing out 20 Legacy Makers for the last nine months, and added another 30 in just the last week, simply by word of mouth. 

There are Legacy Makers that come from two different camps, Knapp said. First, the company is finding those that are passionate about family history, the type who are scrap bookers. They people have spent time doing this in the past but haven’t made money, he explained.

Second are people who have been in direct sales as career, and who can recognize a new and unique opportunity. 

To become a Legacy Maker, all a person has to do is sign up online, but most people will come through referral, Knapp said. The Legacy Maker buys a starter kit, which has credits towards a YesVideo transfer. It is a requirement for them transfer their own videos, so that they have had the experience themselves.

Once they are trained in how the process works, they are asked to to create a social selling experience around a party format, which they host, bring friends over, and play their own family videos. They are also trained on how to safely package videos. Legacy Makers then earn a commission for any sales they generate.

The idea for Legacy Republic came about two and half years ago, when CEO Michael Chang took over for YesVideo. 

"He had a vision of ultimately becoming a solution for preserving legacy and memories. He knew that the current YesVideo platform could only get us so far and that we needed a breakout idea," Knapp said. "We hit on the social selling concept while looking at marketplaces like Uber and AirBnb."

Those two companies, and the sharing economy in general, have started to become mainstream, allow people to become micro-entrepreneurs. They can earn income in a flexible way, which is also mission behind Legacy Republic.

"We are also mission based: we believe there’s a mission to be had here by ensuring family legacy, and saving memories on these media types," said Knapp. "It was always a part of the new vision to get there as fast we wanted to, and to take on concerns by empowering individuals to go sell this service to family and friend. That has really unlocked the market for us."

The company is launching with a $6 million investment from YesVideo, which Knapp says its only a "minimum investment," and will likely be a lot more going forward. 

While Legacy Republic will run as a separate business unit, it will leverage the core digitization technology of YesVideo,

YesVideo, which was founded in 1999, lets customers to either mail their home movies or go one of 13 of YesVideo's retail partners to have their home movies digitized. The retail partners include Walgreens, CVS, CostCo, Walmart and Sam's Club. That amounts to 34,000 total retail locations across the country.

The company has raised $26 million from Kodak, LSI Logic and ROVI.

Here's a short video on how Legacy Republic works: