Startup Story #1: StoryTourist

For the first post in our Startup Stories series, we’ll be sharing the story of a startup that shares stories: Malmö-based StoryTourist, an app that tells a story while guiding the user around the city the story is set in. We talked to co-founders Johanna Forsman and Andreas Jansson about testing their product, learning to pitch their concept, and the role that timing plays in a company’s success.

Once upon a time…

It all started with a book: at fifteen years old, future StoryTourist co-founder Johanna Forsman was having trouble understanding Franz Kafka’s The Trial. At the time, she had the thought that it might have been easier to understand the book if she were to be in Prague, able to visit the places described in the story.

This idea stuck with her for many years. When she met Andreas Jansson, who was to become StoryTourist’s co-founder and — because every good story has a little romance — her real-life partner, Johanna decided to put the idea to the test while the couple was vacationing in Berlin together:

“It was an analogue StoryTour,” she says. “I sent Andreas to places where [Christopher Isherwood’s novel] Goodbye to Berlin was set, and let him read there.”

Johanna’s original idea was to create a series of guidebooks that mimicked the same experience, but she later decided to explore using an app, instead. Through some experimentation with different forms, including a project with the Arts Council of Sweden to encourage literacy in children using digital methods, she and Andreas fine-tuned the idea that would become StoryTourist.

The plot thickens…

At first, it was difficult for Johanna and Andreas to explain the concept to potential backers.

“It could take twenty minutes just to describe what we were trying to do,” says Johanna.

But then a plot twist in the form of a new location-based app which took the world by storm, Pokemon Go. By capitalizing on Pokemon Go’s popularity, Johanna and Andreas were able to more quickly and concisely pitch the concept of StoryTourist.

“People didn’t know what augmented reality was… but then, after Pokemon Go came out in the summer of 2016, we could compare it to Pokemon Go for stories and that was it; people understood,” says Johanna.

Interest in StoryTourist began to grow, and they secured a spot at Renew the Book, an Amsterdam-based accelerator for companies in book innovation.

The importance of good dialogue…

Asked if he had any advice for other startups, Andreas says:

“Talk to people! As a startup, there’s no point in being secretive… people are helpful, as long as you make the effort to seek people out for help they’re usually willing to help.”

He went on to cite the benefits of being based at Minc, where there are frequent opportunities for interaction between startup people.

Happily ever after…

Now, a few years after Johanna sent Andreas on his book-based Berlin tour, putting the reader into a story’s setting is still the idea at the core of StoryTourist — though there are some digital additions. The prototype version of the app (which is scheduled to launch this spring) boasts a moving map with both 2D and 3D viewing options, audiobook recordings to accompany the on-screen text, and even a camera feature which lets you compare the way the story’s city looks at present to the way it looked during the story’s time period.

StoryTourist is currently developing their business model and preparing for the launch of the app, which will involve a Stockholm-based StoryTour and will be backed by a large Swedish publisher; they couldn’t give too many details, since they’re still in the process of finalizing aspects of the deal. And besides: mystery is an integral part of storytelling.