Mixbook

Mixbook is an Internet-based photo design tool and photo product service based in Palo Alto, California. Mixbook's service allows customers to design customized photo books, cards, calendars, canvas prints and photo prints through its online interface.^[1] Mixbook derives its revenues by printing customized photo products and shipping it to customers.^[2]

History

Mixbook was founded by Andrew Laffoon and Aryk Grosz, out of their college apartment, while attending The University of California, Berkeley. Both founders were featured in Inc.’s 2012 30 under 30: America’s Coolest Young Entrepreneurs.^[3]

The company initially created a solution to help high school groups and students create their own yearbooks.^[4]

Mixbook launched its photo book editor tool in 2009 providing consumers with a way to create fully customizable photo books with its easy to use design tools.^[5] Shortly after in 2010, Mixbook added calendars and photo cards to its product line.

Along with the acquisition of Scrapblog in 2011,^[6] Mixbook also grew four times in revenue and raised $10M from Level Equity.

In 2012, Mixbook released new features to their photo book editor tool which allowed users to customize their projects with Instagram. In the same year, Mixbook released a photo book app called Mosaic which allows users to build a printed photo book using photos found on their mobile device in minutes.^[7][8]

In 2013, Mixbook launched another photo book service called Montage,^[9] which offers a web-based interface, powered by patented image recognition technology that builds a premium quality book for you in minutes, streamlining the creation process.

Mixbook was named "one of the best photo book making sites" by CNET.^[10] Washington Post described Mixbook as “offering the ‘most customizable’ templates, fonts, and software—and also for options that meet any budget.”^[11]

In 2015, Mixbook launched two new product lines for photo prints and canvas prints. Montage and Mosaic were featured on The Today Show, where Mosaic was highlighted as a favorite gift of the season.^[12] Mixbook was also featured on Good Morning America as a great gift for the holidays^[13]

Company Divisions

Montage: Launched in 2013, Montage is a photo book service built using Google Dart technology,^[14] and developed as an alternative photo book service to Mixbook. The Montage photo book service automates the creation process and allows users to create a photo book in as little as 10 to 15-minutes.^[15]

Mosaic: Launched in 2012, Mosaic is a mobile app^[16] for making photo books in a matter of minutes,^[17] turning photos from your smartphone or tablet into lasting keepsakes.^[18] Mosaic addresses the time challenges consumers have with creating lengthy photo books and the shift from printing photos to creating personal photo products.^[19]

Awards and Accolades

• #43, America's Most Promising Companies, Forbes^[20]
• #176 on Inc 500, Inc Magazine^[21]
• "Second fastest growing company in Silicon Valley", Silicon Valley Business Journal^[22]

List of Acquisitions

• Scrapblog, acquired by Mixbook in 2011 - Scrapblog had raised $11.5M^[23] from Steamboat Ventures and Longworth Venture Partners, Disney's venture capital arm ^[24]
• Citrify, acquired by Mixbook^[25]
• Yobongo, acquired by Mixbook in 2012 - Yobongo had raised $1.35 million from True Ventures, Freestyle Capital, Mitch Kapor and others.^[26] The Yobongo team helped develop Mixbook's mobile app, Mosaic.^[27]

References