Though the exact amount has not been disclosed, the lucrative investment in the already successful online media and marketing property will allow the GORP community to move into its next generation. That means enriching the community through building up its editorial, adding features that encourage visitors to interact with each other, and personalizing the experience to fit a visitor's interests and personality. This effort, combined with additional management talent and a community-driven e-commerce model, will catapult the award winning web site into a major one to one, customer-relationship-building cyberattraction. "GORP's mission has always been to help people pursue an outdoor lifestyle," said CEO, Bill Greer, who founded the company in 1995 with his wife, Diane. "Toward that goal, we aim to provide information and inspiration and to connect people with the products and services that help them pursue that lifestyle."

The creativity exercised by the Greers in their development of the site is one of the key attractions for the new investors. The Greers are voracious travelers and collectors. Tapping their own experiences, they created a web site that offers the freshest and most unique destinations, logging more than seven million page views per month and taking "visitors" literally around the world.

In true 1 to 1 interaction, GORP's visitors recount their own experiences and share information through a variety of online forums, contests, discussions, and cross marketing initiatives.

As an early innovator on the web launched over four years ago, GORP has built the leading outdoor and adventure brand on the web and a prime audience of active and affluent adults. GORP provides advertisers and sponsors such as Chevrolet, REI and Amtrak with a targeted marketing vehicle for reaching this prime demographic group.

Now, with additional funding, GORP will initiate their own aggressive marketing and advertising campaign to establish brand recognition, putting themselves in a position to enhance their site and provide major competition for other evolving Internet outdoor/travel/recreational sites. "As outdoor fanatics ourselves," says Greer, "we have found it enormously exciting to use the power of the Web to get people participating in everything from an afternoon hike to a weeks-long biking adventure. Now we will set ourselves apart by building one-to-one relationships that help GORP visitors pursue their particular outdoor passions."

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