Czech mom turns family story album into a Kč150m business

Monika Kopřivová, a pharmacist by training, came up with a way to preserve disappearing family stories while on maternity leave — and turned that idea into Familium, a publishing house with revenue of 150 million korunas that now operates in 22 countries.

The idea grew out of a simple fear: every family has someone who remembers everything — who brought the first car to the village, who never came back from the war, who lived in the old forester's lodge. When that person is gone, the stories no one else will ever tell go with them. It was this thought that kept Kopřivová up at night more than a decade ago.

At the time, she had no idea that trying to preserve her own family's memories would grow into a promising business. Today she is behind Familium, a publishing house that produces fill-in books, games and other products devoted to family, the relationships between generations and keeping the memory of loved ones alive.

Over the course of a decade, a small personal project grew into an internationally operating company, proving that even in an age of digital technology and the fight for users' attention, demand for simple, warm and genuinely human products remains high.