Darcy Crociata of Life Blinx
Darcy Crociata is the founder and CEO of
Life Blinx, a service she launched after being accepted into the Brandery startup accelerator.
She found the resources she needed to create the service that builds photo albums from images stored in Facebook account right here in Cincinnati, where she says, "the entrepreneurial network is doing great things."
How did you come up with the idea for your business?
Before having kids, I loved to scrapbook. After having three kids in two years, I had so many awesome pictures and memories that I wanted to savor, but I simply didn't have time to capture and organize them. As a mom, I needed a better way to capture my everyday, authentic memories.
Realizing that these "blinks in time" were already living within my Facebook page, I started to focus on finding a medium for connecting my digital "story" with a tangible memory book.
What local resources did you take advantage of and how did they help?
So many people have helped me with my Life Blinx journey. The
Brandery and
CincyTech were the gateway and played an integral role into my ability to launch Life Blinx. Without the seed-funding, mentoring and connections that my Brandery experience sparked, Life Blinx would have just remained a dream.
In particular, JB Kropp has been my biggest advisor. There are really too many people, businesses and resources to list, but what I can say is that the entrepreneurial network in Cincinnati is alive, intense and doing big things.
What would you do differently if you started your business again?
It was all such a whirlwind for me. I think I would have tried to find the time to more thoroughly learn the technology piece—to build websites, apps and code. The learning curve is steep when you are a web entrepreneur. I've learned more than I ever imagined, but you can never know enough, and things change quickly.
Last month, I presented Life Blinx to my daughter's second grade class after they studied inventions. If only someone had taught me about the invention process when I was in second grade, I'm sure I'd be just like Mark Zuckerberg by now.
What’s next for you and your company?
Life Blinx just relaunched with some software upgrades, and we are anxious to get those rolling, work out any bugs and begin making more improvements. We just want to help people capture their memories in a quick and easy way. That's what Life Blinx is all about.
Aside from initial seed-funding, Life Blinx has not sought funding. We are exploring the idea as we add more features to our products, scale the business and grow our staff. We're currently looking to fill part-time technology and business development roles.
SOAPBOX readers can use code SOAPBOX for 25% off a Life Blinx order. If you have any questions or issues while making your book, please email [email protected].
Interview by Sean Peters