Legacy Republic recruits 250 people to evangelize its digital home video service

In less than two months, Legacy Republic has hired 250 people to evangelize its digital video service where it converts home movies into online and digital video formats in the name of preserving your memories.

That suggests pretty good traction for Legacy Republic, which was unveiled on Oct. 1 with a $6 million investment from its parent company YesVideo. YesVideo takes your old home movies on 8 millimeter camcorder cassettes and other old formats. It converts them to DVDs or online videos, allowing you to more easily access the old memories. More than 8 million people have converted their videos using YesVideo, but the company believes there are tens of millions more people in the U.S. who could benefit from the service.

The YesVideo business has gotten traction in a lot of retailers such as CVS and Walmart. But the company wants to convert more videos at a faster rate, and Legacy Republic is the answer. The division is hiring evangelists to throw the modern equivalent of Tupperware parties to convince people to save their memories and show them how to send their old tapes off to the company.

The division has also hired new execs: Brian Knapp is head of Legacy Republic; Scott Haversen is head of field development, and Sandy Chang is director of product.

Legacy Republic has also recruited a high-profile advisory board that includes direct sales veteran Mark Bosworth, user research expert Eric Hackman, and memory preservation expert Genevieve Skory.

The 250 new evangelists come from 30 states, and they have signed on as Legacy Makers. They can earn an income by educating others about the importance of photo album and video digitization.

“The interest we’re seeing in Legacy Republic shows that America is ready for this new wave of entrepreneurism. Companies like Uber and Stella & Dot have seen great success because many folks want to take more control of their lifestyle and income and be their own boss,” said Knapp in a statement. “They want to make their own schedule and set their own goals. Legacy Republic lets these micro-entrepreneurs do that, and also provides a real mission: saving our family memories.”

Knapp hopes to have more than 1,000 Legacy Makers by the end of year and several thousand joining in 2015.

Knapp will continue to serve as Chief Revenue Officer of YesVideo while taking on this new role. Previously, Knapp was general counsel and vice president of business operations at Loopt, which was acquired by Green Dot in 2012.

“Almost everyone has an old box of memories sitting in their garage or attic waiting to be unlocked. However, many people tend to put off the digitization process until it’s too late – after time has taken its toll, or a natural disaster completely destroyed them,” said Chang, in a statement. “Legacy Republic provides a personal way for people to reach out to their friends and family to help them move their memories to the cloud. Many people don’t know what the cloud is or how it works, and these Legacy Makers simplify it for their customers and walk them through the entire process from start to finish.”

Many of the Legacy Makers are women in their 40s and 50s who are looking to supplement their incomes. One of them, Kris LeDonne, provided the video below.