RootsBid, Inc. sprouted from our own experiences with our family history research when we realized we needed access to information in the United Kingdom and in Ukraine. Regrettably, the cost of traveling there was prohibitive. We did not know anyone we could ask locally, or in those countries, to help us. RootsBid was organized out of our need to easily access records in our ancestral locations.
Have you encountered these difficulties in your family history research? It is likely that you live far away from your ancestors’ locations and the needed records and resources. Even though many records and resources are accessible on the Internet, there is still substantial information only available from the actual places where our family history happened.
Introducing RootsBid—the online genealogical marketplace. We walk where your ancestors walked! This is how it works. Say for example, you want a copy of a church record from your great-grandfather's village in Ukraine. • You post your request on the RootsBid website for help • Your request becomes available on our website, and all users close to the requested Ukraine location (or who can provide the needed service) receive a notification of your post • Those interested submit a bid, including their price to complete your request • You review the bids on your project, including the feedback ratings from previous projects the responders have worked on • You select the responder you would like to work with from all the bids received, creating a win-win for both the requestor and the responder • You submit your payment to RootsBid, which holds it in escrow until the job is complete to your satisfaction by the responder, at which time payment is released to the responder • You provide a feedback rating for your responder which is added to their profile
RootsBid wants to breakdown the barrier of distance and connect people all around the world who are willing to help each other be successful with their family history. RootsBid is scalable to an unlimited number of users all around the world. We capitalize on ever-advancing technology and massively popular social networking systems to create a family history marketplace. It is modeled after very successful approaches done in other sectors such as products (e.g. e-Bay); jobs and errands (e.g. TaskRabbit); and places to stay (e.g. Couchsurfing and Airbnb).
RootsBid can dramatically increase the level of family history involvement and sharing across the world, thus making this work more accessible and user-friendly to the masses. The technology utilized through RootsBid creates a form of service networking that is familiar and attractive to younger generations. This will further increase interest from this growing demographic that will generate a greater level of excitement and involvement in family history.
RootsBid helps solve the problems that most people face related to the lack of time, money, and opportunity to access information and resources about their family history found in distant places. It enables family history enthusiasts of any experience level to share their time, skills, and experience to benefit people all over the world. All RootsBid users have an opportunity to earn money for the services they provide. This could particularly benefit responders from developing countries, which is often where family history research is harder to access.
RootsBid is developed on a PHP platform and was launched in beta form at RootsTech 2014. Since that time, we have been in negotiations with Reflective Practices, LLC (http://rpco.com/) and have entered into a joint venture agreement effective January 6, 2015. Reflective Practices is a business incubator specializing in the technology sector. As their part of the joint venture agreement, they are committing their expert team and financial resources to the ongoing development and support of the RootsBid platform as well as marketing the website, both online and offline.
Since the agreement January 6, 2015, we have been working together on a number of fixes and upgrades to the site. By RootsTech 2015, the site will be vastly improved in its functionality from the beta version, including: • Upgrading the responsiveness of the site so it renders well on all browsers and platforms • Integrating Authorize.net and Paypal to provide a reliable and trustworthy escrow and payment solution • Creating the function where registered users receive email notifications of projects posted in their geographic area of residence or relevant to their particular expertise • Integrating RootsBid with FamilySearch
Further plans for the ongoing development of the RootsBid platform in 2015 include: • Creating a function that makes RootsBid content translatable into multiple languages • Creating an app for mobile users
RootsBid offers free memberships for users. Working with Reflective Practices, we are projecting to grow to over 20,000 users by the end of our first year of joint operations.
The RootsBid business model is based on charging a percentage of each transaction happening through our platform. Based on our financial analysis, RootsBid anticipates becoming profitable prior to the end of our first year of operations (December 2015) with this joint venture.
Our marketing approach focuses on both the serious and occasional genealogist. We are planning: • a presence at major genealogical conferences in 2015 (RootsTech, NGS, IAJGS) to connect with genealogists and enthusiasts • a significant online marketing campaign utilizing Facebook, Google, and other platforms, scheduled to begin in March 2015 • working with Reflective Practices on international and grassroots marketing campaigns • having a dedicated content specialist write and promote the RootsBid brand on and offline • seeking out reviews of RootsBid by established family history bloggers • seeking out partnerships and advertising opportunities with established family history websites and other communication channels
We are entering the RootsTech2015 Innovator Challenge because RootsTech is the number one genealogy technology conference and winning the Innovator Challenge would give us invaluable exposure to conference attendees and within the industry. In addition, we would feature our success at RootsTech as a key component of our marketing efforts going forward. The cash prize would greatly contribute to paying for our development, conferences, and marketing costs.
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