YesVideo announced a new initiative today that aims to recruit an army of “Legacy Makers” to help digitize family photos and videos.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with YesVideo, the company was founded back in 1999 and focuses on converting videos (in formats like VHS and 8 millimeter film) to digital, then making the content available online and on DVD. With Legacy Republic, the company is expanding that mission to include photos. In a bigger shift, it’s also building a salesforce of independent contractors who handle the work of digitizing the videos and photos.
Brian Knapp, who is YesVideo’s chief revenue officer and heads the Legacy Republic team, described these contractors as “micro entrepreneurs,” similar to an Uber driver or an Airbnb host. Legacy Republic trains them and provides them with iPad apps, then they split the proceeds from their sales with the company.
Knapp said this approach will allow YesVideo to dramatically expand its efforts to tackle what he called “a fundamental problem for many households in the country.” The company estimates that there are 2 billion “non-digital” videos and photo albums stored by US families, but it says that the physical media is deteriorating quickly, and it needs to digitized if it’s going to last.
So Knapp said he’s hoping these Legacy Makers won’t just be interested in making some extra cash, but also attracted by the “mission-driven opportunity.” Apparently the company has been beta testing the program with about 20 initial Legacy Makers for the past nine months.
YesVideo is also announcing that it’s funding the initiative with $6 million. Since Legacy Republic is owned and operated by YesVideo, it’s not really an equity investment like most of the deals we cover on TechCrunch, but more of a financial commitment.