2024 Startups to Watch: Storytailor captivates global audiences with personalized, ‘diversity by default’ storytelling
January 3, 2024 | Taylor Wilmore
Editor’s note: Startland News editors selected 10 Kansas City scaling businesses to spotlight for its annual Startups to Watch list. Now in its ninth year, this feature recognizes founders and startups that editors believe will make some of the biggest, most compelling news in the coming 12 months. The following is one of 2024’s companies.
Click here to view the full list of Startups to Watch — presented with support from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, and independently produced by Startland News.
JQ Sirls envisions Storytailor as a platform that finally normalizes imagination and imaginative storytelling in children from all backgrounds, empowering them to see themselves in stories they create.
“Kids are just as complex as we are. They get what’s going on,” said Sirls, founder of Storytailor.
Elevator pitch: Storytailor is a diversity-first, “Imagination as a Service” (IaaS) platform for young readers aged 3 to 8, enabling them to become the heroes of their own unique stories. Our platform and tool gives life to diverse stories in communities that traditional publishing have long neglected. We operate on an affordable subscription model, costing less than one book per month, making inclusivity and quality storytelling accessible to all. We’re powering a new, inclusive generation of storytellers, authors, and educational businesses who speak for their own communities and in turn, redefine the children’s book industry.
- Founder: JQ Sirls
- Headquarters: Overland Park, Kansas
- Founding year: 2022
- Current employee count: 2
- Funding amount raised to date: $20,000
- Noteworthy investors: Digital Sandbox KC
- Noteworthy programs completed: Pipeline Entrepreneurs, Digital Sandbox KC, Techstars – Anjal Z Techstars Founder Catalyst
Observing the scarcity of minority characters in children’s books, Sirls sees Storytailor as a beacon for showcasing unique stories from diverse communities.
“In just three and a half months post-launch, we received over 8,000 stories globally, with a significant number from Saudi, China and India,” Sirls shared.
Sirls sees how Storytailor’s global exposure contributed to the platform’s momentum last year.
“Storytailor naturally encourages sharing, as most creators of these stories tend to share them with friends and family,” he explained.
That same momentum contributed to Storytailor being selected as finalist for Anjal Z Techstars Founder Catalyst, an Abu Dhabi based startup cohort, and growing to more than 1,600 users currently.
According to Sirls, 0.6 percent of books are made for Arab children, and almost zero percent are actually written by Arabs.
“They rarely find themselves represented in children’s books, and even more seldom are these books written by authors who share their backgrounds,” said Sirls.
“I’ve seen a growth for Storytailor because now kids are the center of their own story,” he added.
Sirls is also working on integrating Storytailor into children’s hospitals and elementary school curricula, he said. The platform, intentionally designed from a kid’s viewpoint, also allows a user to teach complex subjects, like math or science, in a fun, engaging way.
“You can make it as whimsical and as silly as you want to, but it’ll still teach that complex math problem in a way that matters to the kid,” said Sirls.
“I’m getting this feedback from teachers, that it’s helping a ton, kids are getting the big ‘aha’ moment because the lessons are from their perspective,” he continued.
In 2024, Sirls plans to launch a proprietary API for Storytailor. He plans to empower edtech publishers to integrate it seamlessly, offering options like Zapier.
Sirls aims to address issues seen in current API platforms, such as ChatGPT, where stories lack diversity by default and might include inappropriate content for children, he said.
“Our unique language model will offer a secure and inherently diverse API for children,” said Sirls.
Open to partnerships as the technology continues to evolve, the founder said he’d love to do a pilot program with Kansas City organizations or companies that might be a good fit for Storytailor.
“Every journey begins with a story,” Sirls remarked.
Kansas City Startups to Watch in 2024
[slide-anything id=”696451″]
Startups to Watch is possible thanks to support from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, a private, nonpartisan foundation that works together with communities in education and entrepreneurship to create uncommon solutions and empower people to shape their futures and be successful.
For more information, visit www.kauffman.org and connect at www.twitter.com/kauffmanfdn and www.facebook.com/kauffmanfdn
Taylor Wilmore
Taylor Wilmore, hailing from Lee’s Summit, is a dedicated reporter and a recent graduate of the University of Missouri, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Journalism. Taylor channels her deep-seated passion for writing and storytelling to create compelling narratives that shed light on the diverse residents of Kansas City.
Prior to her role at Startland News, Taylor made valuable contributions as a reporter for the Columbia Missourian newspaper, where she covered a wide range of community news and higher education stories.
2024 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
From Google to KC, Beth Ellyn McClendon’s advice to startups: Test everything
Don’t fall in love with an idea, Beth Ellyn McClendon said. “Test everything, especially your assumptions, and allow yourself to be persuaded by data,” said McClendon, a seed investor who formerly worked with Google, Android, YouTube, Cisco and Netscape. “Try to remember — tattoo it on your eyelids if you have to – anecdotes are not…
Bodyrite duo cooks meal prep into personal training concept
Don’t just go with the flow at a traditional gym, Jamil Nelson said. Go with Flo. “Treadmills and ellipticals are pretty archaic to us,” said Nelson — or “Mr. Bodyrite” to his wife, Florese. “A jump rope is way better because it’s going to blow up your heart rate.” Modern workouts are all about functional,…
Denise Kruse: So your startup wants to be acquired – now what?
Editor’s note: The opinions expressed in this commentary are the author’s alone. In the first column this three-part series, I discussed how a stellar strategy only gets your company halfway, but executing can take you to the finish line. Next, we took a deep dive into what startups should do after landing a first big…
Tech tracks workplace bias: It exists ‘whether you want to face it or not’
During a summer internship with a large Kansas City corporation, college student Louis Byrd was unexpectedly called into the HR office. Although the incident was about 10 years ago today, it has not yet left his mind, Byrd said. “I’ll never forget this,” he said. “HR told me that the people on my team had…