Storyboard secures $4.5 million financing to bring consumer podcast boom to the enterprise

Storyboard, the enterprise podcast and audio platform, has announced the closing of $4.5 million in seed funding led by CRV, which is known for investing at the earliest stage of high-growth companies like Airtable, DoorDash, Twitter and Zendesk.

The funding also includes participation from Harry Stebbings of 20MinuteVC, Operator Partners, Slack Fund, Dave Ambrose, and Matt Ziskie.

The company will use the new capital to accelerate its rapid growth, develop its audio platform, and to continue building out Storyboard’s talented team.

Storyboard is transforming how teams collaborate and engage through the creation of internal audio content. In its first year, over 1,700 companies around the world, including Delta Air Lines, DHL, HelloFresh and many others, launched channels on Storyboard. Companies are providing corporate updates, distributing coaching and training materials, sharing goals and OKRs, and engaging remote team members via the Storyboard platform.

JP Gooderham, Founder, Storyboard: “In a world where distributed teams are fast becoming the standard, companies are looking for new ways to engage employees and help them collaborate across time zones and distances. Audio captures the voices, personalities and heart of a company. It’s significantly easier to produce and far less taxing to consume than video, which makes it an effective way to keep employees engaged without requiring them to spend more time staring at their screens.”

Like podcasting, Storyboard enables creators within a company—executives, managers, or employees—to record and launch on-demand audio content that can be accessed from anywhere and at any time. These channels can reach hundreds and thousands of employees at once or on-demand, and employees can engage with the content minutes or days after it’s released.

Anna Khan, General Partner, CRV: “As consumers, we’ve been immersed in the world of podcasts in our personal lives for years, but there hasn’t been a direct analog for enterprises to engage with audio, other than the old school conference call. JP and the Storyboard team have demonstrated the power of audio in the enterprise—surfacing yet another way we are witnessing the consumerization of our enterprise tools and workflow. Podcasts provide a more intimate and effective way to communicate with a distributed workforce at an enterprise scale—whether you’re a fast growing startup or a large airline company like Delta Air Lines. CRV has a long track record in identifying high-growth, early-stage startups that will transform the enterprise, and Storyboard is one of those companies.”

Companies have full control over the platform and employees are free to listen to important company updates or training sessions at their convenience, whether they’re commuting into an office or walking around their neighborhood.

 This is a vastly different experience from email, which often has low engagement, and video conferencing, which is typically time dependent. Storyboard also allows text and voice comments within the platform, creating an engaging experience for the organization.

Storyboard provides all the production tools needed to record, edit, share and refine content all in one place. Users can access content on iPhones, Android devices, and the web through Storyboard’s apps. Enterprises can trust their content on Storyboard as employees access through Single Sign On including services like Google gSuite, SAML, Microsoft Azure, and others.

www.trystoryboard.com