IOUBig is the brainchild of a journalist, a publicist and a professional guitar player, who, sitting around a table one day, began talking about the people who had said or done something that turned their lives in a whole new direction.

“My brother-in-law brought his banjo out to California when he came to visit us,” said the guitar player. “I was 9 years old. And as soon as I heard him play, I knew I wanted to be a musician. Glad I got to tell him what a great impact he had on me.”

“Well,” said the journalist, “I never said it in person, but I did send a long thank-you letter to the guy who got me my first job writing for a big magazine. Of course that was 25 years after the fact. But he still seemed to appreciate it.”

“I’ll bet there are a lot of people like us,” the publicist said, “who’d like to thank their ‘inspirers.’ Maybe we could set up a website and give them a forum to do that. In fact, their letters would probably inspire other people. It could catch on.”

And so IOUBig was born.