StoryCo raising $6 million: Tell Your Story in DAO Form

StoryCo Financing $6 million: Creating the Next Marvel Universe with Hobbyist Power

Source: Empower Labs

Original author: Chao

If you're a big Marvel fan, have you ever wished you had a piece of the Marvel IP? If you love to write, have you ever felt the urge to continue writing a novel you love?

Have you ever shared the outrage on social media when your favorite story was turned into a trashy movie: "This is not what we wanted!"

Throughout the past, good stories have had the power to bring people together. With the help of the developed entertainment industry and modern communication technology, the spread of stories has become more rapid, thus having a more profound impact on the public and society. Almost everyone becomes A fan of stories, whether it's the three-body problem, the Marvel Universe, Doraemon, or 1984. They loved the stories so much that they spontaneously rewrote them, even putting themselves in as characters. A lot of times we feel like we own the stories, but the truth is -- we never have the stories we love.

Due to the lack of resources, relationships and communication channels of large organizations, it is difficult for fans to make an effective voice and almost impossible to influence the subsequent development of love IP. As a result, the content is becoming less representative, talented creators within the community have a hard time finding representation, and story creators miss out on the opportunity to connect and interact with fans on a deeper level.

The existing Hollywood creative model

So that creators and lovers can create, jointly own, and jointly operate, develop a new story universe. That's what StoryCo, which just closed a $6 million funding round, is trying to do.

StoryCo mode

StoryCo is an open media platform where people can publish their story ideas, create interactive and immersive story telling experience, and realize the sales of corresponding digital works. When a story is told, the IP and corresponding governance organization are formed. But it's not the end, it's the beginning. IP expansion will enter a more open phase, where everyone can contribute new characters, story branches, and the community decides whether to adopt ideas, how to reward them, how to allocate funds to develop the IP, and which Hollywood studios to partner with to bring the IP to the screen.

Team background

StoryCo was founded by two brothers. J.P. Alans is a Hollywood veteran who worked in several Hollywood production companies. He once founded a DTC Media platform named Golf Media. Before starting StoryCo, he was an executive of Whalerock Industries. The company is the producer of a number of shows on the Discovery Channel, HBO and Netflix platforms, as well as a studio specializing in science fiction, supernatural and fantasy audio programming. While producing audio programming, the company has also expanded its base IP into TV, film and other areas. And the business development based on basic IP is a very important link in the future StoryCo ecology.

His brother Justin Alans is a tech entrepreneur and investor. Owns a small investment fund that has been running for nine years, started a technology company related to real estate leasing and sold it in 2018. Since then, he has focused on Web3 and the community. He joined MetaCartel Venture, one of the first VentureDAO operating with a compliance architecture, and later met Jess, the founder of SeedClub. And remain active in the SeedClub ecology.

Other members of the founding team also have their own specialties. Some have worked with a number of sports and entertainment industry stars on business ideas. There are people who have rich experience in developing AR/VR experiences, interactive video products. There are people who have worked on dozens of movies at Universal Pictures and others who have thought deeply about smart contract development and Web3 applications.

How do you create IP through the StoryCo platform -- Disco Ball as an example

Four professional roles are defined on the StoryCo platform --  Story architect, story artist, story musician, producer.

The story architect is the core creator, coming up with story ideas and writing novels or screenplays. The artist is responsible for the visual presentation of the text, and the musician is responsible for the music. The producer acts as a bridge between the creator, the community, and Hollywood once the IP is formed, helping the project get funding and resources, building Hollywood partnerships, and overseeing the production of content.

StoryCo is currently incubating a story called "The Disco Ball."

This is a multi-universe science fiction story. Its story architect was Hollywood producer Kyle Killen. He is a well-known writer and producer, having served as showrunner and executive producer on the game adaptation Halo, which has a budget of $10 million per episode.

Based on the story Kyle created. Several visual artists and musicians, also from Hollywood, are working on visual presentations and associated soundtracks. The trio, with the support of the platform, turned the script into an interactive visual novel with multiple chapters.

Community time

Through the StoryCo platform, Disco Ball released its StoryPass, a free to apply but non-tradable NFT. With the pass, users can follow the main character Alma captain aboard the International Space Station, embark on a story journey across dimensions.

Disco Ball Story Pass

Not only do you get to enjoy a story, but you also have the opportunity to interact a lot, decipher clues together, give advice on the main character's problems, decide on the direction of the story branch together, and even have an offline puzzle-solving experience. Such interaction will greatly strengthen the emotional connection between the audience and the story. Through the interaction and contribution of the audience in the process of exploring the story, the data called "story moments" are formed, which are recorded in the passport as the proof of participation and future rewards.    

Interactive experience design corresponding to the story (details can not be disclosed, so the author has blurred processing)

When the interactive exploration of the Disco Ball story is complete, a set of NFT called the Astronaut will be released and the Disco Ball DAO will be officially launched. The most active users in the Story Discovery interactive will have the opportunity to receive a gift astronaut NFT. The rest of the NFT will be sold, and the amount sold will form the initial Treasury for the Disco Ball DAO.    

Astronaut collection representing membership in the Disco Ball DAO

If the Disco Ball story is well received, it means that the DAO has had a high-quality IP from day one, an active community, and a modest amount of money in the coffers to grow the IP. All future income generated around this IP, such as subsequent NFT sales, royalty fees, IP licensing fees, etc., will be returned to the vault of DAO, and everyone will decide how to use it.

The past is just the prologue, and the story of Disco Ball will continue to evolve under the joint stewardship of the community. Through the StoryCo platform, storytellers around the world can fan create based on Disco Ball's main narrative, branching out into new branches or characters. If the creation is approved by the DAO, it will be rewarded, and the best work will be added to the main storyline, and the submitter will also get rich rewards including IP ownership.

Daos can also publish tasks based on their IP expansion needs, such as story filling for a particular side story or character. The plot often requires the help of a professional, such as a science consultant in Interstellar. The missions will be public, and anyone can claim them for a reward.

For community enthusiasts who are unable to create content, they can also participate in the construction of the story through feedback, voting, etc.

StoryCo tries to avoid using obscure Web3 domain terms like NFT DAO in the system, and instead uses pass, organization, and story vault.From these speculations, the future platform should provide some proxy solutions, so that users who have no contact with the crypto wallet can enter without barriers, so as to enter the broader mass market.

Multiple possibilities

Of course, Disco Ball was started by an organization incubating and inviting professional producers, but StoryCo is an open platform where any ordinary person, including you and me, can initiate a story and play the role of story builder. As long as the story is liked by others and can form a community consensus, it can be promoted and IP can be created.

After a communication with the founder JP, I learned that IP creation based on StoryCo will have the following four forms

1.          StoryCo incubation IP.

2.          Completely community-created IP.

3.          Existing mature IP expansion.

4.          Story fillers based on published NFT projects, such as creating stories for Bored Apes.

Each of these four directions will have the opportunity to produce some success stories. When I communicated with the team in November, I learned that I had been communicating with several familiar film companies. The goal was to cooperate with their existing film and television IP and put them into StoryCo platform for community expansion, among which there were some superhero movies we were familiar with.

StoryCo, the producer community, and the Disco Ball DAO

The original name of StoryCo was StoryDAO, which may have caused too many difficulties in understanding. Before the official announcement of the first IP, the project was renamed to StoryCo, with Co as the meaning of co-creation. But DAO's fingerprints are still everywhere, and until now the legal entity of StoryCo's parent company was Delaware-based Story DAO labs Inc.

But from the introduction above, there is no doubt that StoryCo is not a DAO, at least not yet. But it is also highly relevant to the DAO.

At the beginning of the StoryCo project, it opened a project calledApplication for "Producer community"", screened out thousands of applications for 300 applicants with different cultural backgrounds and skills, and targeted the release of "producer" NFT to these applicants. There are directors, screenwriters, lawyers, artists, investors, and Web3 participants. I was lucky enough to be involved at that time, which is why I have a relatively deep understanding of the project.

But the community that forms around StoryCo doesn't own or control the platform. It's more of a repository and a pool of ideas to support the platform and Disco Ball. This is a very typical attempt by businesses and communities to interact and support each other. Community members will be able to participate in the creation, governance, and product development, and will also receive some exclusive incentives in the future, such as receiving NFT, exclusive events within the community, being invited to the premiere, and possibly even being given a part of the ownership. There is a good chance that Disco Ball will eventually make it to the big screen as an episode or film, but it is now certain that all members of the "producer community" will be co-producers, at least nominally, of "Hollywood producers."

The "producer community" is more than a community. At the beginning, when the "producer" NFT was created, everyone paid 0.1ETH. This money was not taken away by anyone, but went into the Treasury jointly managed by everyone. So the "producer community" is also a DAO with a micro Treasury. However, in addition to supporting and participating in StoryCo platform and promoting community creation, it is still unclear how to position and develop this DAO and whether it will be rewarded with part of the ownership of StoryCo platform in the future. Most of the work around StoryCo in the past has focused on platform development, and not much has really involved the community. In the future, with the launch of the platform and the promotion of IP incubation of Disco Ball, there will be more opportunities for participation. The community application, which has been closed for half a year, will be reopened soon, accepting new members at a rate of 7 people every month.

Although the community was not active in the past, they have started to help the development of StoryCo in their own ways. We have discussed relevant compliance and copyright solutions needed to promote the business, made suggestions on the casting of DiscoBall in the future, and many people have offered their industry resources to help the team. I also introduced some high-quality IP holders and related business teams to StoryCo, so that we could learn from each other and discuss the possibility of cooperation. The "producer community" had several proposals of its own, such as whether to reopen the application, community review system, and invested some money to solicit and vote on an artist from the community to create the villain in Disco Ball.    

Community proposal

The "producer community", as the supporting community around StoryCo, does not own and control the platform. But it is so deeply involved in the development of the platform, especially the first IP, that it will play a more important role in the future. It may take quite some time for us to sort out the various relationships. This is also a common phenomenon among DAOs that I have observed in other communities around brands.

But people come together because they believe in the power of community-driven creativity, appreciate the vision of StoryCo, and are able to learn from day one, observe, participate, and contribute where they can. As a community, members gradually get to know each other, learn from each other and support each other. The journey itself is a reward.

All kinds of community activities

In contrast to the less clearly defined "producer community", the Disco Ball DAO is very clear. It is an independent DAO, the community organization that owns and operates the Disco Ball IP.StoryCo is creating a compliance architecture that allows the community to share IP ownership in this way.Disco Ball will not be the only DAO on the StoryCo platform. In the future, with the generation of new IP, more DAOs will be born and grow, and maybe eventually grow into the Star Wars and Marvel universe belonging to the community.

Write at the end

StoryCo is a bold experiment, but also an innovative co-creation project. StoryCo is off to a good start in terms of its investors and advisors, its team, and its supporters in the community.

But there are always successes and failures in exploration. I don't have the answer to how much creative energy this model can unleash, whether it can be replicated on a large scale, and whether it is difficult to develop purely community-created IP without relying on strong resources to get started.

But one thing I know for sure. Story lovers want to be part of the building, they have the ability to make contributions that deserve to be rewarded, and shared ownership and incentives will better connect lovers to the stories they love and create a more open story universe.

Note: StoryCo has only opened registration for DiscoBall pass, the interactive experience section is not yet available. Most of the information in the article comes from public sources, internal community meetings, and direct communication between me and the two founders. It does not include much subjective speculation, but there may still be some parts that do not match the description of the article when the platform is launched.

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