Family Travel Start-Up MiniTime Acquires WeJustGotBack.com

Jan. 15, 2013 - PRLog -- MiniTime.com, the definitive resource for family travel and leisure, announced today that it has acquired WeJustGotBack.com (WJGB) and has named
WJGB’s Co-Founder and Editor-In-Chief Suzanne Rowan Kelleher as its Managing Editor.  Launched in November 2012, MiniTime.com is the first family travel and leisure site with personalized recommendations for parents based on the ages of their kids. MiniTime.com offers parents a unique combination of editorial curation, algorithmic rankings, a community of like-minded parents and powerful user tools to help parents plan, book and share their family travel experiences.

Launched in 2006, WeJustGotBack.com is an award-winning family travel site that The New York Times called “an authoritative voice on family trip planning.” Leveraging Kelleher’s expertise, WJGB built a loyal audience around deep, rich content, on all things family travel.

As MiniTime’s Managing Editor, Kelleher will oversee all MiniTime messaging and content, and serve as MiniTime’s media spokesperson. Kelleher brings over 22 years of experience as a travel writer and editor, including her work as co-founder and editor-in-chief of WJGB. Kelleher has written for numerous publications and outlets, including TravelandLeisure.com, NBCNews.com, Parents, Parenting, American Baby, Disney’s Family.com, and Good Housekeeping. Earlier in her career, Kelleher was senior editor and later Europe editor at Travel Holiday magazine and wrote several travel books.

“If you search for ‘family travel expert’, the answer is ‘Suzanne Rowan Kelleher’”, said John Smelzer, MiniTime’s CEO. “The combination of Suzanne’s unrivaled expertise and WJGB’s loyal audience and authoritative content will greatly accelerate our efforts to become the definitive resource for family travel and leisure.”

“I’m thrilled to join MiniTime at this exciting stage in its development,” said Kelleher. “MiniTime already offers the most comprehensive set of resources for parents planning family vacations, and I’m excited to leverage my expertise and the assets of WJGB to raise the bar even higher. ”

MiniTime was founded by entrepreneurs Nimrod Lev and Oleg Sandler (JCupid, kSolo, MySpace), is led by CEO John Smelzer (Yahoo!, 5to1, FOX Interactive Media) and has raised $1M in financing to date. Ross Levisohn, former interim CEO of Yahoo! and President of FOX Interactive Media, is a MiniTime investor and member of the Board of Directors.

MiniTime has curated thousands of family-friendly hotels and activities in North America and beyond, featuring age ratings and exclusive, in-depth information on kid-friendly amenities. Going forward, MiniTime will continue to curate and crowd-source major family travel destinations around the world.

According to research from eMarketer, PhoCusWright and Ypartnership, family travel comprises roughly a third of the $150 Billion US online travel market, with 36 million parents researching and booking online in the US alone.