Experience Project Surpasses One Million Life Experiences and Raises
Three Million in Funding
Experience Project, the Leading Social Experience Website, Announces
Its First Round of Institutional Funding on the Strength of Over One
Million Documented Life Experiences
SAN FRANCISCO (Business Wire EON/PRWEB ) May 13, 2008 --
Today Experience Project,
the leading Social Experience Website, announced its first round of
institutional funding from The D.E.
Shaw Group’s venture capital unit in the
amount of three million dollars. Existing investors include premier
investment firms Maples
Investments and Baseline Ventures. The funding came on the strength
of the Experience Project’s growth to over 1
million user experiences documented on their social experience web site.
Experience Project members have now shared over one million life
experiences, a tremendous milestone representing first-person stories,
people, and resources on nearly every aspect of life. The site allows
people to share and connect on all the “life
experiences”—ideas,
issues, situations, hopes, and events—that
matter most to them, all while remaining anonymous. The site uses these
to connect members who share multiple experiences, building a community
where who you are is more important than who you know.
Enjoying tremendous growth since the launch of its public beta in
mid-2007, EP attracts a diverse community of contributors looking to
connect with like-minded people, as well as readers looking to explore
life experiences through first-person stories.
“Achieving such a remarkable milestone in a
short period of time is an indicator of the powerful need for people to
connect anonymously over the topics they are most passionate about,”
notes Armen Berjikly, CEO of Experience Project (EP). “The
D. E. Shaw group’s involvement will
allow us to greatly enhance our offering and extend our leadership role
in this important new space, and we’re very
excited to work with a partner of this caliber.”
"We believe that Experience Project is redefining the way users interact
online by creating a forum that is substantive yet anonymous; it
presents a unique opportunity for brands to effectively communicate
highly targeted messages to a very receptive audience,”
says Michael Banks, a senior vice president within the D. E. Shaw group’s
venture capital unit.
EP members rave about the benefits of being part of a positive,
supportive, and open community where all their experiences matter by
introducing them to others like them. “EP is
helping me in ways I can't fully describe…this
site has allowed me to genuinely express my feelings and to learn new
things about myself,” says one user. Another
notes, “With EP, I now feel like I am not
alone. It's so nice to finally be in a place where I can be me....I have
found so much acceptance and understanding here.”
At EP, members can explore over a million life experiences, share their
own stories anonymously—both triumphs and
challenges—and feel free to be themselves
among new friends who ‘just get it.’
In contrast to traditional social websites, EP members engage through
the experiences, ideas, and issues important in their lives, rather than
through popularity or appearance, building new friendships rather than
reinforcing pre-existing ones. From marital dilemmas to having pets,
health problems to raising children, EP is the only place where people
share all the topics that matter most to them.
EP stands at the nexus of the most important trends shaping the
Internet: blogs, user generated content, social networks, and new media.
EP brings together pieces of each, wrapped in anonymity, to create a
dynamic and authentic community to support and facilitate personal
development amongst its members. With consumer and individual privacy
under increasing attack, anonymity unleashes the freedom to share all
the things that truly matter, enabling new, meaningful relationships
from people who understand each other.
EP was created by Armen
Berjikly, a Stanford graduate. Inspired by a close friend’s
diagnosis with multiple sclerosis (MS), Berjikly created an online
support community for those afflicted by the condition. As the site
blossomed, the most powerful tool turned out to be the anonymous chat
forum, giving people often suffering in misunderstood silence the
opportunity to be open among friends who shared and understood their
challenges. Recognizing that no one is defined by any one experience,
and that connecting with people who understand each other through a
multitude of shared experiences can be incredibly powerful, Berjikly
created Experience Project.
About Experience Project:
Experience Project is the first Social Experience Website where you can
anonymously share and connect around the life experiences that are
important to you. Explore over one million life experiences, share your
own stories anonymously, and find like-minded people who are open,
supportive, and just “get it”.
Experience Project is the first place on the web where who you are
is more important than who you know. Experience Project can be
found at http://www.experienceproject.com.
See the original story at: http://eon.businesswire.com/releases/experience/project/prweb939494.htm
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