Storybird
The premise of Storybird was “art-inspired storytelling.” We curated gorgeous illustrations and writers used them as scaffolding—a way into the story and around a blank page. That simple idea led to a publishing platform with 10m members who created 35m stories within seven years, roughly 150x the output of the entire children’s and YA publishing industry. (I sold Storybird in 2017. This is a general overview of the product. Here are other highlights and a case study.)
Novels, picture books, and poetry all start with artwork
The editors are responsive and used across every device type
By 2017, some 900k classrooms used Storybird, many via tablets
The longform format, web view
Longform, mobile view
Mobile views of the Storybird marketplace
Every image in the 15k catalog could be turned into merchandise, instantly
The public library, which helped launch dozens of star writers
Challenges helped writers focus their talents and us build genre libraries
Courses were our “Masterclass” and became a key revenue driver
Simplicity, beauty, and an emphasis on content were the hallmarks of our design decisions
Storybird was used in over 100 countries and dozens of language without tutorials. A testament to the idea, UX/UI, and engineering.
