Our pitch:
StoryMax engages children and youth with the digital reading by publishing universal classic books as apps (iOS and Android; tablets and smartphones) complete with texts, animation, sound effects and educative content focused on the United Nations SDG. Our focus is to generate reflection, learning and social action starting on schools: children and young readers with the mediation of a teacher.
In this way, our readers and their educators are experiencing and learning about media education and media literacy, global citizenship, empathy, problem-solving, collaboration and social responsibility, besides languages, literature, arts, history, biology, and chemistry.
This series is published in Portuguese, English, and Spanish and you can download it for free in the app stores to read independently or to use in classes or groups. There are already three published stories – in a total of 17 – and they have reached more than 100,000 readers from every part of our country and in more 67 countries.
This year we entered into an agreement with a state education government policymaker (that attends 4,000,000 students) and these app books are now recommended for classroom use. We are already in every state of the country, and when we translate the books, they are discovered and retold by educators, parents, journalists, children and young people in many countries, as it’s still happening with the apps we have already published.
That’s why our audiovisual digital and interactive books have already received much national and international recognition: ComKids Prix Jeunesse Iberoamericano, Hypertext of Technologies in Education, twice Jabuti Awards, Opening-up Reading Digital Fiction UK, the Chinese Little Hakka Awards (finalist) and the Distinction Seal from UNESCO Chair in Reading.
Our team has already been selected between hundreds of startups to participate (and become alumni) in the main business ecosystem programs nationally and internationally: SEED MG, Google Campus Residency, Oxigenio Accelerator, BlackBox Connect Female Founders and Demand Solutions IADB.
Where our solution team is headquartered or located:
São Paulo, SP, BrasilThe dimensions of the Challenge our solution addresses:
What makes our solution innovative:
StoryMax is revolutionizing reading and putting companies together in the transformation of the world role. Publishing around the 17 SDGs, StoryMax engages companies, schools, and students altogether.
Publishing - StoryMax focuses on creating a special reader’s experience, about the main themes and worldwide availability.
Education - StoryMax offers the opportunity to love Reading, from the mobile devices and resembling games and animations, which is appealing and engaging. For educators, StoryMax offers a new way to encourage the reading habit.
Communication - "Storymaximizing" is the best way to generate awareness and to engage with a topic.
How technology is integral to our solution:
In our app books (iOS/Android, tablets/smartphones), children get deeper into reading through of interactivity with text, animation, and sound, as well as informative content about the UN's SDG.
Our data analysis system allows us to know how much readers are reading, which allows us to measure accurately the size of the impact generated. Today we know that StoryMax apps have brought education and social reflection and action to every state in Brazil (including the most remote and poor), many states in the US, a dozen countries in Latin America, in Europe and several in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
Our solution goals over the next 12 months:
Now we have na agreement with a state education government policymaker (that attends 4,000,000 students), our SDG app books are recommended for classroom use. We are starting a teacher training programme to incentivize educators to use the technology and media confidently, working transversal contente and generating social action to reach all the neighborhood.
We want to expand the collection of app books, publishing new SDGs related stories and to reach more 800 teachers with our training, so indirectly, we will reach more 16,000 students.
Despite that method, we will certainly reach more teachers and readers all over the world organically.
Our vision over the next three to five years to grow and scale our solution to affect the lives of more people:
StoryMax will continue telling why classic stories are relevant - building bridges between generations to act around the most relevant humanistic causes.
But despite that, we are working to make StoryMax a loved brand that means all about storytelling to children, kids, and adults. We want to encourage intimacy between parents and toddlers, to show kids different cultures and realities and to tease reflection on humanitarian challenges... so we want StoryMax as a storyteller brand who guides kids and teens learnings, that they can know as the perfect format to think and organize social action to change the world.
Our promotional video:
The key characteristics of the populations who will benefit from our solution in the next 12 months:
The regions where we will be operating in the next 12 months:
The countries where we currently operate:
Where we plan to expand in the next 12 months:
How we will reach and retain our customers or beneficiaries:
StoryMax publishes digital interactive books as apps, so we are worldwide availability through the Android and Apple app stores (for tablets and smartphones) and with translations into Portuguese, English, and Spanish.
We have started the model of government partnerships to reach the formal education spaces this year in São Paulo and this has been an interesting way of getting closer to our readers and their local reality. Probably we will replicate this model too.
How many people we are currently serving with our solution:
This series is published in Portuguese, English, and Spanish and you can download it for free in the app stores to read independently or to use in classes or groups. StoryMax have reached more than 100,000 readers in 67 countries.
This year we entered into an agreement with a state education government policymaker (that attends 4,000,000 students) and these app books are now recommended for classroom use. We are already in every state of the country, and when we translate the books, they are discovered and retold by educators, parents, journalists, children and young people in many countries.
How many people we will be serving with our solution in the 12 months and the next 3 years:
We are planning to have 200,000 readers and teachers reached in the next 12 months and, in 3 years, with new books and partnerships, 800,000 readers and teachers reached.
We will continue giving them literature as a start to reflect and act around the main humanitarian challenges and so we hope to have many social action documentation too - today we have some published by the students and schools through social network and video platforms.
How our solution team is organized:
For-ProfitHow many people work on our solution team:
5How many years we have been working on our solution:
3-4 yearsThe skills our solution team has that will enable us to attract the different resources needed to succeed and make an impact:
StoryMax's founders have more than a decade of publishing and media experience and, moreover, are educators, authors of children's literature, and programmers.
We received the most relevant awards in the areas of reading, education and content for children and youth: ComKids Prix Jeunesse Iberoamericano, two Jabuti Prizes for Literature, UNESCO Chair of Reading Seal, Reading Digital Fiction UK and Hypertext for Technologies in Education.
The StoryMax team was already accelerated by SEED MG and was resident at Oxigênio Aceleradora, Google Campus São Paulo and BlackBox Connect Female Founders (Silicon Valley, just one founder per country).
Our revenue model:
When StoryMax publishes around the 17 SDGs, it's creating a way to engage companies, schools, and students in the world transformation for the better.
StoryMax's business models include partnerships with companies, institutions, and government - to create relevant content for free distribution with measurable social impact.
Our data analysis system allows us to know how much readers are reading, which allows us to measure accurately the size of the impact generated – this is very relevant and clear data to investors and sustainability reports companies do to the market.
Why we are applying to Solve:
The four international training, networking, and business programs I've been able to attend have been tremendously impacted by the development of StoryMax: SEED MG Acceleration, Google Campus São Paulo Residency, Blackbox Connect Female Founders, and IADB Demand Solutions.
I believe that Solve can bring me great opportunities for understanding the international scene and new approaches to StoryMax, as well as new business partners, social impact investors and credibility for what I am building - since working with social impact measurement needs a lot of credibility and knowledge.
The key barriers for our solution:
Most of the challenges relate to:
1) Financial sustainability, since acting in the B2B market to obtain funds depends on long negotiations, making the scenario challenging for a startup
2) Measurement of impact, because our system enables measurement through digital interaction (input), but only the locations where our teams or partners can reach can be measured in the medium-term. Currently, 2/3 of the initial impact (input) generated by our books has as maximum track back from the documentation we receive from schools and youth groups, usually posted on blogs on the internet or on video platforms
The types of connections and partnerships we would be most interested in if we became Solvers:
Solution Team
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Our tagline:
StoryMax engages kids with reading and social action by publishing books as interactive apps (iOS/Android), focused on the UN's SDG.