MyYearbook.com was founded in 2005 by Dave and Catherine Cook. Catherine was 15 years old at the time and a self declared nerd. She got the idea for My Yearbook by flipping through the pages of her own year. She came up with the idea of creating a social site as a way to connect with members of her high school. Read the whole story of myyearbook.com here!

1. Case Study of
MyYearbook.com

2. Overview
MyYearbook.com was founded in 2005 by Dave and
Catherine Cook. Catherine was 15 years old at the time
and a self declared nerd. She got the idea for My
Yearbook by flipping through the pages of her own year.
She came up with the idea of creating a social site as a
way to connect with members of her high school.
In fact, Catherine and her brother were complaining
about the photos which had been chosen and wished
they could have picked their own. Then an idea sparked
about making the yearbook available online, and from
there things grew like wildfire.

3. My Yearbook has now become the leading online
community for teens. It has over 20 million users and is
growing by an estimated 20,000 users per day.
According to CEO Geoff Cook, the company ended
2009 with an annual revenue run rate of $20 million
(meaning its revenue for the most recent 12 months) —
up 70% from 2008. Most of that comes from virtual
currency within games that the company has built, with
titles like Blind Date, Owned and Quiz.
Overview

4. How the Company Started
Catherine and David received investment from their
brother Geoff of $250,000. He had already created two
successful online websites, and liked what he saw.
Once Catherine got the idea of creating a website she
started developing a basic outline of what she wanted
on the site. This included:
•Classes
•Groups
•Profiles

5. Knowing that she would be competing with the likes of
Facebook, she wanted to give her users more than
just a way to find friends. She had to decide who her
target market was and then design the site
accordingly.
Catherine targeted her site to teenagers and added
specifically designed core features. Many of the
features that are on the site today are based upon
ideas and suggestions from users.
How the Company Started

6. Creating My Yearbook
Each page of the site was initially drawn by hand
until a basic outline was developed. Then Catherine
and David hired a team of developers from India to
design the site.
This involved long hours and many discussions at
4am in the morning. They got very little sleep but
were committed to the project.

7. Why it Works
Content is widgetized and can be posted on
Facebook, MySpace, Xanga and more. This helps
spread the word about the site and the quality of
the features. Two popular core features are Battles
and Quizzes.

8. Promotion:
Made t-shirts - promoting the site and wore them
everywhere.
Membership - is gained by word of mouth and
listening to members and giving them what they want.
Advertising - Securing advertising with big companies
brings in huge revenue amounts.

9. Features:
Leader board popularity gives users the chance to
vote.
Gold Stars are used instead of Likes. Ability to share
likes and dislikes, music, favourite movies and
restaurants and more.
Virtual Currency – This feature allows users to earn
Lunch Money. This is done by completing activities on
the site or by buying it with real cash. The Lunch Money
can then be spent on virtual gifts or donated to
charities.

10. Features:
To date, My Yearbook has helped save 3 million square
feet of rainforest, sent 22,000 books to Africa and
bought 40,000 pounds of rice to feed the hungry. Lunch
Money can be donated by using the Causes function.
A third of the site’s revenue comes from the Lunch
Money feature. That is almost an eight figure number.
There are now over 40 games that incorporate easily
with the Lunch Money feature. Certain games provide
the chance for users to earn bonus currency.

11. Within the first month of installing games on the
site, there were over 1 million games being played daily.
Chatter – This feature incorporates media sharing and
gaming to bring members together. Inside this stream
there are many games that can be played by members
including Ask Me, Rate Me and 2 Truths and a Lie.
This feature allows members to meet each other. The
Chatter feature was installed in April 2009 and by April
2010 1 million posts were being made each day!
Features:

12. Time Line
•Officially launched in April 2005 from their home in
Skillman, New Jersey.
•First launched in their high school Montgomery High
School in New Jersey.
•November 2005 allowed all schools nationwide to join. By
2006 opened an office in New Hope, PA, with a staff of 12
developers.
•2006 – Signed a contract with Cliffs Notes to provide study
guide free for all members.
•2006 - Had raised $4.1 million from U.S. Venture Partners
and First Round Capital.

13. •2006 – Was voted by Nielsen Net Ratings to be among
the top sites for kids between 12 and 17.
•April 2009 - the site added the Meebo instant
messaging client in order to provide real time chat.
•January 2010 – A new site design was released for
more mass appeal. This sign was chosen through
member interactions.
•February 2010 - My Yearbook reported that the
company ended 2009 with a $20 million dollar run rate.
Time Line

14. Time Line
•May 2010 – iphone, iPod Touch, and Android
applications were added to bring the Chatter feature
to real time mobile devices.
•December 2010 - my Yearbook partnered with
Viximo service to provide better gaming
opportunities for users.
•July 2011 – My Yearbook was bought by Latino
social networking site Quepasa for $100 million in
cash and stock.

15. Revenue Sources
My Yearbook draws its revenue from three main sources:
•Advertising
•Virtual-currency sales
•Monthly subscriptions
Advertising makes up two-thirds of its revenue, with the
other sources making up the rest. It has an established
sales office based in New York City and Los Angeles.
My Yearbook attracts such advertisers as Neutrogena and
Disney.

16. Lessons Learned
Listen to your members and users and then act on it.
Take their ideas and turn them into viable on site
features.
Specifically target one market.
[Our site is] specifically for high school students, and we
really listen to the suggestions of our members.
Current membership stands at over 20 million members
with 60% being female.

17. Recent Awards
My Yearbook Co-founder Catherine Cook and CEO Geoff
Cook were recently named the Ernst & Young
Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2011 Greater Philadelphia
Award Winners.
This award is chosen by a panel of independent judges
and was awarded on June 15 of this year.
In her acceptance speech Catherine shared her vision for
the future of the company.

18. Recent Awards
"After six years of building My Yearbook into a
profitable business with $30 million in revenue, we
are thrilled to be recognized by such a prestigious
organization," said Catherine Cook. "We have big
mobile plans this year with 40 percent of our visits
now coming from mobile. We plan to mark the next
six years, continuing our pursuit in making My
Yearbook the best place to meet new people,
online and on mobile devices."

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