Grinnell couple awarded $15,000 for social media book venture

GRINNELL — A Grinnell couple was recently awarded $15,000 for their entrepreneurial business project, Recap Books.

Jeff and Amy Blanchard received the first-place prize for their book project at the University of Iowa’s Venture School Launch Day June 12. The event was held at the Olympic Southside Theater in Cedar Rapids.

Their winning project, Recap Books, provides a simple and safe way to preserve social media memories in a keepsake book.

“It is a complete book of your social media timeline, including every photo, caption and description organized in chronological order,” said Amy of Recap Books.

The idea for the book project came about last year when Amy, who has always enjoyed posting photos on social media as a way to keep in touch with family, started looking for a way to get the photos and captions back.

She started researching and figured out how to capture and save her data.

“It wasn’t in a usable format however,” she said.

Amy shared her idea with Jeff, a computational mathematics professor at Grinnell College, and asked him for help with her project.

Jeff, who has written computer code in the past, started digging into Amy’s project and found a way to make it work.

“I wrote software that will transfer the social media data so it can be turned into a book,” said Jeff.

“The software lays out the book,” added Jeff. “It figures out how to best layout the pictures on the page.”

It took Jeff four months to make the initial version of the software. That led to the couple starting a website, recapbooks.com, in October 2024.

The idea was to be able to help others save their social media data.

“It is something that people may not have thought about,” said Amy. “There is value in preserving their social media data.”

The book project led the couple to sign up and participate in the University of Iowa’s Venture School sponsored by the John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center as part of the Des Moines cohort.

“The statewide training program focuses on real-world experimentation, customer discovery and Lean LaunchPad methodologies,” noted information on the schooling.

“It has a mission to support enterprise and entrepreneurship,” said Amy.

It is a seven week intensive business course held at various locations and times across the state.

Attending the venture school opened the door for the Blanchards to attend Entrefest in Cedar Rapids, June 12 — 13.

“Every graduate of the venture school is able to apply for Entrefest, but only 10 are selected to compete,” said Amy.

It was at Entrefest that the couple was able to pitch their book project to judges and conference attendees.

The pitch project starts with 10 teams that are narrowed to five semifinalist teams, which included the Grinnell couple. The five finalists each give a five minute pitch about their projects to the whole conference.

“We then presented our book project to (a panel of) judges, who had five minutes to ask questions,” said Amy.

Amy said the judges picked their book project as the first place winner with a top prize of $15,000.

The couple said the money will be used to help their new business venture grow.

Saving your memories

The couple said the idea behind the business is to help people learn how to preserve their social media data and save it in a book format.

Jeff said the first step in creating a book is to visit the couple’s website, recapbooks.com, and learn how to gather their social media data. The website provides a “how-to” section on gathering social media data.

“We have a free tutorial on our website page,” said Jeff. “This works for gathering data on Facebook and Instagram.”

There are several levels that interested parties can purchase.

Prices start at $99 for an express recap. This option allows customers to receive an e-book of their social media data.

Many customers then choose to create an actual book of social media data.

“Depending on how you engage with social media, you may need one book or a multiple volume set,” noted the couple’s website. “Each volume typically holds 350 pages. Recap helps create the best layout for your memories. Processing your many years of social media, laying them out in your books, publishing an e-book, and printing your personalized case wrapped hardcover book with premium color printed on 80# white coated paper costs approximately $99 per hardcover book volume.”

Visit recapbooks.com to learn more about the process and available options.

Amy says having her social media memories in a book volume, brings her and her family endless joy to look at and reminisce and share with the kids.

“Our children really love it,” she said.