Founding Respectance

With its official launch in July of 2007, Respectance is the world's first social media approach to sharing memories.

The company is the first to use emo-social media, the combination of rich media combined with relevant content, to provide an outlet for emotional expression. With emo-social media, Respectance has created a dedicated venue for sharing emotions and memories online, unlike all-purpose social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook, that are inappropriate for personalized tributes.

Production of the web site began in the summer of 2006 and the company received a Series-A round of funding in the summer of 2007, led by Solid Ventures and Big Bang Ventures. The funding, gathered in the "pre-user" stage of the company, will be used to continue development, drive user adoption, and expand the company's international presence through additional partnerships, including media companies, advertisers, e-commerce partners and other distributors.

Todd Wilkinson, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer

The idea for Respectance was related to a personal experience. Todd had been working in Europe for several years when his mother passed away. On the road in Eastern Europe, Todd didn't find out about her death until it was too late to book a flight back for her funeral.

Todd recalls: "At the time, I made separate phone calls to family members and friends in which we shared touching memories. Many of the stories I heard about my mother were new to me and showed me her life through the eyes of others. Though I found the experience enriching, I thought it a shame that each of these conversations was closed between individuals and not available for others to share. Working in internet, it only made sense that we use the Web as a way to share memories with people - no matter where are."

Prior to Respectance, Todd, together with Richard Derks, founded iizt (pronounced "east") in Amsterdam in 2002: a web production agency for the advertising industry in the Benelux. Todd began in internet with World Online and Tiscali, both pioneering pan-European Internet Service Providers. He also served as European Content Manager for 12Move, a joint-venture ISP with Shell Oil. Todd holds a B.A. from McGill University in Montreal and an M.B.A. from the Rotterdam School of Management in the Netherlands.

Richard Derks, Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer

Richard and Todd met in 2000 while Richard was Marketing Manager for a new start-up called KaZaA. Based in Amsterdam, KaZaA went on to become the world's most downloaded software.

Prior to KaZaA, Richard had gained valuable B2B marketing experience leading the rollout of Dutch broadband services for the Finnish telco, Sonera and more than tripling the growth of Vergeer Kaas product exports to Benelux nations and France.

Richard also served in marketing management for Ernst & Young Netherlands, where he launched EY online. Richard is now chief marketing officer at Respectance where he oversees all strategy, marketing and sales for the company.

Richard holds a degree from Lyceum Dominicus College Nijmegen, in the Netherlands, a degree in international marketing at the Amsterdam Business School and is a level 3 multimedia engineer from the College of Multimedia in Amsterdam.