Writing My Reality
During the year 2021 of the pandemic, right after we built what we could of the MyLibrarian private beta and demo (with PPP, revenue and angel funds) I decided to create a book which we could use as a marketing experiment. When all your passions are going towards the same end result—reaching readers with life-changing stories—it’s a natural evolution of work.
Since I am a creator who is unable to remain idle, and the type of person to make the most of any pause in the external world, I wrote a novel, Be There, every other day in the late afternoon when work on MyLibrarian wrapped. Fundraising for a tech product can be challenging and writing helps me stay grounded.
It’s been 7 months since finishing Be There, and we’ve gained a COO, focused completely on our business and fundraising, doubled the amount of funding raised from angels, increased revenue streams and now have this book with which to do experimental marketing. You’ll be able to read the results of these tests in an upcoming blog.
We’ve been fundraising the MyLibrarian pre-seed round, to bring the app and API to public beta, for about 15 months now during a pandemic, and remain undaunted. The book is about a tech entrepreneur who successfully raises a pre-seed round, by the way. And so will we. MyLibrarian’s pre-seed is mostly spoken for, yet we would love some value add investors to help cinch the deal.
Here’s a list of other recent wins:
-An order to license our API from a huge enterprise client.
-4 total LOIs from B2B clients who are interested in partnering.
-Book club partners, high profile authors and a video chat every month for the last three years.
-A provisional patent pending and development of valuable IP.
-Scaling our community through Librarian Influencers, Authors and Book Club curation.
-Experimental book marketing for the novel, Be There, via digital collectibles and other innovative methods.
-Giving back through events with the fundraising collective SheFundraises.
Here’s what value-add investors could give MyLibrarian:
-Introductions to more bookseller partners, with whose online interface we could integrate the MyLibrarian API, to sell more books.
-Any warm intros to investors, advisors or potential team members.
Lastly, ITS true, no one can do what we do. MyLibrarian is solving book discovery in a whole new way, and the future we’re shaping is totally technological.
The field of startups who want to be the new Goodreads may be crowded but it’s more of the same. Echo chamber communities and book clubs by people who are all reading the same books, who may be booklovers (God love them) but are not experts.
It’s time for a real wild card pick. MyLibrarian not only has the brain, but is sexy as well.
I’m a surfing librarian, a former fashion magazine editor and journalist, writer and coder. Before I came to San Francisco, I worked for Hearst Corp in NY for nearly a decade. Here’s how that experience and my alternative lifestyle influences and enriches my current projects.
I love books and at MyLibrarian we’re determined to transform book discovery and the future of work in libraries to change and improve the perception of librarians. We’re bringing the reference desk experience online, in an app that funnels book recommendations into bigger entertainment storytelling picks for tv, film, audio, and interactive gaming. Our Librarian Brain data set is essential for shaping more democratic AI for books. This is the future of work—taking the librarian brains out of the library and with you wherever you go, in a consumer app.
MyLibrarian: Ahead of ITS Time
In the Stacks and MyLibrarian has always been ahead of ITS time. Our best content In the Stacks doubles as mini ads for books and MyLibrarian services; additional revenue streams come through these ads running on planes, taxis, elevators, on cable, and also serves as lead magnets.
Writing a book about a founder who is successful at fundraising was a great diversion in 2021 into early 2022, now we’ve gotten more serious about making product progress at all cost. We’ve increased our revenue streams to cover basic expenses and are recruiting constantly, conversing with the best tech talent available, researching the latest technology and how to use it in low-cost ways and be more efficient.
I personally have selected a new apartment in San Francisco and will be there more than half of the year. I’ve been a resident of SF for 19 years in June and plan to settle permanently once again and improve the lifestyle for everyone in the city through philanthropy-based In the Stacks efforts and with SheFundraises. More on this in decades to come.
Thank you for reading! XO—Michelle