Kansas City Startup Storytailor Is Helping Everyone Craft Custom Stories for Kids

Storytailor was born from a desire to reshape the narrative landscape for children. Its founder, JQ Sirls, an experienced illustrator and author, noticed a significant gap in the publishing industry. Despite his passion and talent, his imaginative stories were frequently rejected by publishers because he says they didn’t fit the expected narratives about the Black experience. 

“When I first wanted to become an author, I started learning everything about how agents work, how publishers work, how manufacturing works,” JQ says. “And when I did, I quickly discovered that publishers would deny me, often saying my stories didn’t capture the Black experience enough because my stories were mostly about imagination.” 

Recognizing the high costs and barriers associated with self-publishing, JQ envisioned a platform that democratized storytelling. He saw an opportunity to leverage AI to bridge gaps in the publishing industry. By training AI with his storytelling expertise, Storytailor was born.

“Instead of just helping aspiring authors and illustrators get published, I realized that many people simply want to create a story for their kids, not necessarily to become professional authors,” JQ says. “So, I decided to focus on empowering everyday parents, uncles and grandparents to create stories for the children they love.” 

Storytailor’s platform enables parents, teachers, certified child life specialists, child therapists, to create personalized stories for (and with) children in under a minute. Their child-safe AI, trained on JQ’s writing and art framework, incorporates the user’s inputs, ensuring that the stories reflect their unique preferences and experiences.

Users visit the site, create an account and select from various story types such as adventure, mental health, bedtime or learning a new language. They can customize the story’s characters, setting and unique attributes, personalizing each story. The entire process takes just a few moments, and the platform generates a complete story with screen-free, real-world activities related to the story to enhance the child’s experience. 

Since launching, Storytailor has seen remarkable adoption, with significant user bases in the United States, United Arab Emirates, China and India. The company now has over 3,500 users around the world and nearly 12,000 crafted stories. 

Taking advantage of entrepreneurial resources 

JQ received project funding from Digital Sandbox KC, marking a significant milestone for Storytailor. The project funding from Sandbox helped pave the way for further advancements and opportunities for the company. 

Adding to this momentum, the  company particiapited in the winter 2023 cohort of the Techstars Founder Catalyst. Storytailor then received a $100,000 investment from NMotion, a startup accelerator based in Lincoln, Nebraska. Storytailor was one of six companies to join the accelerator’s 2024 cohort. In addition to the $100,000 investment, Storytailor participated in NMotion’s intensive 12-week, cohort-based accelerator program. 

Storytailor was also accepted into Pipeline Entrepreneurs’ 2024 Fellowship and was recently included on Startland News’ list of 2024 Startups to Watch. 

Advice for other entrepreneurs

Action over analysis 

One of the biggest challenges for new entrepreneurs is overanalyzing everything. The understandable urge to research everything and be fully prepared can hold you back, but the reality is that you will never be completely ready. There will always be more to learn and tasks that need to be done. 

“People get this analysis paralysis, where they want to research absolutely everything because they want to be so prepared,” JQ says. “And the truth of the matter is, you’re never going to be fully prepared, and there’s always something to do, and you’re always behind on 16 different things. And honestly, to some degree, there is an element of ignorance that works in your favor.” 

Embrace failure as a learning experience 

Failure and success are two sides of the same coin, and embracing failure can be a valuable learning experience, JQ says. 

“Whether you fail or succeed, there’s always opportunity to learn something from it,” JQ says. “And whether you’re a first-time founder or a third-time founder, you’re going to fail. So, accept that it’s going to happen, and nothing is wrong with you. And then take those failures and use them as lessons that you can learn from.”