Heritage Makers Announces New Funding

Heritage Makers Announces New Funding
Investment Signifies Leadership in Digital Storybooking
July 25, 2007, Provo, UT - Heritage Makers, the national leader in digital storybooking announced today it has closed $1.15 million in bridge funding from a group of angel investors led by Tickle founder James Currier, serial entrepreneur Kenneth M. Woolley and T Minus 10 Ventures. Also, Kenneth T. Woolley of T Minus 10 will join the Heritage Makers Board of Directors.
Heritage Makers plans to use the financing to further advance its unique digital, web-based storybooking platform and more rapidly expand its “party plan” direct sales channel. The company reached cash flow breakeven in March 2007.
“This group of investors has a lot of experience in social networking and traditional scrapbooking,” said Christopher Lee, CEO of Heritage Makers. “They recognize the shift to the electronic scrapbooking model that is happening worldwide, but they also recognize the need for social interaction that drives the scrapbooking hobby, and that Heritage Makers is combining these two characteristics in a very unique way.”
Heritage Studio, Heritage Makers’ online storybooking program, contains everything necessary to construct a storybook -- backgrounds, borders, clip art, powerful text and photo editing tools and more. Users can create their own storybook, all the way through to high-quality hardbound printing, through the Heritage Makers’ website. Heritage Makers products and services are sold through independent sales representatives who demonstrate beautiful storybooks and the storybooking process to their clients.
About Heritage Makers
Heritage Makers, Inc. is a direct selling, party-plan company focused on storybooking, a rapidly growing new hobby for people to discover, preserve, and celebrate their unique family stories. With thousands of Heritage Consultants around the United States, Heritage Makers offers a wide range of products and services that help families use technology to tell their stories from the comfort of their own homes. Heritage Makers is a member of the Direct Selling Association.
For more information, please visit http://www. heritagemakers.com.
About James Currier
James founded Tickle, Inc. (formerly eMode) in 1999 as one of the first social networking and personal expression services on the web, grew it to profitability, and sold it to Monster, Inc. (NASDAQ: MSTR) in 2004. Currently, he is a board member for Linden Labs / Second Life. Prior to Tickle, James was an Associate with Battery Ventures. James holds a BA from Princeton University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
About Kenneth M. Woolley
Kenneth M. Woolley is Chairman and CEO of Extra Space Storage (NYSE: EXR). During his career as a serial entrepreneur, Mr. Woolley has also developed more than 7,000 apartment units, and has been the founder of several companies in the retail, electronics, food manufacturing, airline, and natural resources industries.. Woolley formerly served on the Board of Directors for Stampin’ Up, a $200M party plan direct selling business in the craft and scrapbooking industry. Early in his career he was a management consultant with the Boston Consulting Group. Mr. Woolley holds a BA in physics from Brigham Young University and an MBA and PhD in business administration from Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
About T Minus 10, LLC
T Minus 10 LLC is the investment arm of Kenneth T. Woolley and partners, investing in early to mid-stage companies in the financial services, real estate, and medical markets. Woolley was previously SVP of Acquisitions and Business Development for Extra Space Storage (NYSE: EXR), where he grew the company and in 2004 helped to take it public with over a $1B equity valuation. He currently serves as the 2006-2007 Chairman of the self storage industry Large Operators Council and as a founding board member of HealthEquity, Inc., a leader in consumer driven health care. Kenneth holds a BA from Brigham Young University and an MBA from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.
Kellie Stobie
www.pagesofalifetime.com