Eric Lagier is the founder and CEO of Memolane, the new service that allows users to pull together their history and memories from across the social web.

The service, which officially launched this month, acts as the user’s digital memory, collecting and connecting users’ social networking updates, pictures, messages and music into a timeline, allowing them to view their online history.

SMWF blog caught up with Eric and asked him to explain a few things about his exciting startup…

SMWF: What was the inspiration for Memolane?
 
EL: I realized that I was forgetting more and more great things I had done in the past, like the summer vacation with the family, the trip to Yosemite with my friends, and my brother’s wedding.

Though I knew I had pictures, tweets, Foursquare check-ins, and Facebook updates that described these moments, it was impossible for me to relive all those great memories without hours of work to pull them all together.

SMWF: What’s the problem that Memolane solves? 

EL: The number of people who spend more and more time using multiple social media services to post about their life is increasingly rapidly. Social media and digital culture happens now, now, now. Memolane captures all of these moments for you, and makes it easy to relive those memories and share them with friends and family.

SMWF: Was there a specific light bulb moment?

EL: We basically wanted to build a time machine for web. At Startup Weekend Copenhagen in April 2010 I pitched the idea, and two days later we already had a great prototype. It was so convincing that we ended up winning that Startup Weekend event, and within six months we managed to attract two major VCs, August Capital on Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley, and Atomico Ventures in London, whom invested $2million in September. For more on our history check out; http://blog.memolane.com/post/1474140074/from-this-moment-on
 
SMWF: What kind of people do you expect to use the service?
 
EL: The millions of Facebook, Twitter, and other social media users, who have been posting billions of moments from their lives over the last 5 years, and can now benefit from rediscovering and reliving those great memories. 

SMWF: How do you plan to grow your user base?
 
EL: Memolane is inherently viral. You want to invite your friends to share in reliving the many great memories you experienced together. At the same time you can create stories from your timeline of memories, which allows you to select your best memories and invite your friends to contribute to their memories from the same events. 
 
SMWF: Any interesting anecdotal feedback so far?
 
EL: It’s been very encouraging to see our users respond after their first trip down Memolane. The majority love the way Memolane makes is easy to see, search and share their life online. Many are saying that they will start using some additional social media services, and go back to services that they had stopped using because they can see how valuable it is to capture more moments of their lives and create memories on Memolane. 
 
Memolane was a finalist in the 2011 SXSW Interactive Awards. Our award category describes us as a, “cutting-edge and trend-setting destination that is pushing the envelope and challenging our perceptions of the web.” 

SMWF: Why would marketers be interested in the development of Memolane?
 
EL: Memolane is a natural intertwining of a brand’s existing social media efforts. Companies can now create their Memolane, allowing any of their customers to experience the history of the brand and the many highlights that represents the brand. 
 
You can see Eric Lagier talking about the processes and ideas beind setting up a social media startup when he takes part in the social media start-up panel on day two of SMWF Europe in the free-to-attend Social Media HUB. “I’m looking forward being inspired, listening to, and learning from very knowledgeable social media professionals, and also presenting my perception of the evolution of the Internet,” he says.  For more details, see the event agenda.