Announcing Storyhunter’s 2018 Team
In 2017, we witnessed a surge in demand for short-form video by brands and media companies. As a result, our freelance marketplace and…
In 2017, we witnessed a surge in demand for short-form video by brands and media companies. As a result, our freelance marketplace and management software generated more revenue for freelancers, and for our company, than ever before. Our community has grown to more than 20,000 people in 192 countries, supporting the full range of video and media production services.
Today, I am pleased to announce a new management team that is poised to lead Storyhunter on our quest to become the most prolific story marketplace on the planet.
David Berkowitz is joining us as our first ever Head of Marketing. As the former CMO at the creative agency MRY and VP Emerging Media at 360i, David has long understood the power of visual storytelling for brands. I am thrilled that he will be telling our own brand’s story to the world.
Dan Raveh is our new COO. Dan will be managing Storyhunter’s operations and preparing the company for scale. He was formerly a VC at Commerce Ventures and an Israeli special forces intelligence officer.
Storyhunter Co-founder Alex Ragir has been promoted to Chief Community Officer (CCO) to oversee the growth of Storyhunter’s global community and Screenup event program.
Doug Wehmeier, our VP of Engineering, will be leading the building of Storyhunter’s proprietary technology infrastructure and platform. He was the first mobile engineer and at Zoosk, leading 7 teams as their VP of Engineering.
Anne Hrubala, our VP of Sales and Success, will be focused on growing Storyhunter’s client roster and revenues. Anne has a background in both content production and media/advertising. She was formerly VP of Sales for Corbis, a Bill Gates company, and led the publisher sales team for Google’s Doubleclick ad serving platform.
Martin Konrad Gloekle joins us as our Head of Design. Martin will lead the design of our brand identity, web, and mobile applications. Martin was formerly Head of UX at Insightly.
Laura Turner Garrison is our new Head of Studio, providing full-service production management for brands and media companies. Clients include Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Expedia, and Essential. Formerly, Laura was head of Vimeo’s original content team.
Stephanie Lyman is our new Head of People. Stephanie will oversee all talent recruitment, employee happiness and human resources for the company. Prior, she was Head of Talent at Honeybook.
Jenny Ma is joining as a Product Manager. Jenny will lead product development of Storyhunter’s web and mobile platform. Prior, she was a senior product manager at UserZoom.
The Storyhunter team is now 24 people with offices in NYC and San Francisco, and we are still hiring. If you’re an engineer, account executive (ideally with video/media background), SDR, data analyst, or just a go-getter looking to contribute to a growing company, see open positions here.
What’s changed in the five years since we founded Storyhunter is this: Digital video is no longer the future of communications, education, entertainment, marketing and media. It is the present. Innovations in 360 degree video and virtual reality means that video is no longer confined to two dimensions. And due to the fact that digital distribution is now fully baked into social platforms, video is more ubiquitous than ever. Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, and Reddit all now have native video players built into their feed. This trend will only increase in coming years as the cost of production and hosting continue to decrease, while the ROI for quality production will only increase. Since there is not enough premium supply, we must grow rapidly to address the market’s need for a solution to make faster, cheaper, and better editorial and marketing videos, at scale, with no geographic limitations.
Thanks to widespread adoption of platforms like Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, and Task Rabbit, the efficiencies of software-based, specialized freelance service marketplaces are now clear to individual and corporate decision-makers alike. Just like drivers and Taskers, we’re not only organizing the supply side of the market, we’re also growing it. We are sustaining a remarkable community of professional storytellers, paying out millions of dollars to freelancers every year in more than 100 countries. Without us, many of these freelancers would not have the ability to showcase their talents and secure gigs in a global marketplace. Instead, more storytellers, filmmakers and journalists are making a living today than ever before. We call them Storyhunters.
I am so excited to bring together such talented and good people to lead Storyhunter into our next chapter. Together, we will continue building systems to empower and connect the boldest storytellers on the planet. Despite the remarkable rise of video in recent years, this is just the beginning of the story.
