Startup wants to collect your memories

INDIANAPOLIS – While two friends researched business opportunities in 2009, they identified a lack of a memory-dedicated platform on the Internet.

In September 2010, Jason Becker and Brandon Sokol co-founded Remember.com, a site they describe as a Wikipedia for memories.

"What sets Remember.com apart is that it's not just social networking," said Becker. "It's social collaboration."

The website is a digital media platform made up of crowd-sourced memories. Anyone with an account can write, record and post their first-person experiences related to a person, place or topic.

The site organizes these under searchable categories in a layout inspired by newspapers and Pinterest.

The 29-year-old Indiana natives, who attended DePauw University together, launched a beta version of the site in March for the university's 175th anniversary.

Because neither of them is experienced with coding, Becker and Sokol hired four Midwestern software engineers to build the site. Friends and family invested in the Indianapolis-based company; the site currently isn't generating any funds.

"Our priority is to create value first. If we can create a community that generates content, commerce will follow," Becker said.

They are considering having organizations sponsor topics, enabling them to influence the content generation through prompts and questions.

Their original business plan was completely different in 2010.

"We were building the world's most awesome digital timeline," Sokol said. "That September, Facebook premiered their version."

The two decided not to try to compete directly with Facebook, opting instead to redesign their site.

"It was the longest working day of our lives," Sokol said.

Becker and Sokol are working toward having a place for any memory on the site within 10 years. They're currently in talks with World War II and Holocaust remembrance organizations.

They have recently added several Indiana-related categories such as Peyton Manning, John Mellencamp, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indianapolis Colts.

"The way that Remember.com is organized is not predicated on the connections you have with other people," Becker said. "It's moving beyond the idea of social networking."

Ken Owens, executive director of media relations at DePauw, said the community response has been good so far. But they still have fewer than 1,000 registered users.

"A lot of the challenge is to get people to become aware of it and get them to try it," said Owens. "It's a place that requires interaction to be successful."