“Without the CONTENTshift accelerator, we wouldn’t have been able to achieve what we did”.
Using digital storytelling to transform fictional worlds into interactive environments for readers: the innovative startup Gamebook Studio prevailed over its four fellow nominees in the final round of the CONTENTshift accelerator 2024. An interview with the co-founders.
From out of a group of 35 startups from several different countries, Gamebook Studio was able to capture the title of “Startup of the Year” at the CONTENTshift Accelerator 2024! Co-founders Ulrike Küchler and Thomas Langhanki, who launched their startup in 2021, won over the high-calibre jury with a concept that takes the vivid literary worlds contained in printed books and extends them to the digital universe, where readers can then enjoy interactive experiences. At the award ceremony held during this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, Gamebook Studio prevailed in the final round over its fellow nominees, which included MyBookNet Pro, Equalizent, Kompreno and Queludra.
When asked about the jury’s ultimate decision, CONTENTshift spokesperson Carla Scheunemann (Community Editions/Bastei Lübbe) explained that “Gamebook Studio combines traditional reading with exciting elements drawn from the world of gaming”. Scheunemann pointed out that the idea of telling stories “creatively, individually and serially” dovetails with the media-consumption habits of young people especially, thus making it a playful way to promote reading skills. On the other side of B2B, she noted, Gamebook Studio offers publishers an opportunity to further develop their new and existing brands and to gain direct access to their communities through a “low-threshold, modular web platform”.
Scheunemann was joined on this year’s CONTENTshift jury by Jonas Konrad, her colleague at Community Editions/Bastei Lübbe, as well as by Martina Fiddrich and Olaf Carstens (Cornelsen Verlag), Alexander Woge (KNK Customer Engagement), Stefanie Penck (TeNeues Verlag), Nina Hugendubel and Per Dalheimer (Buchhandlung Hugendubel), Leif Göritz and Detlef Büttner (Lehmanns Media/Buchhandlung Thalia), Philipp Lindinger (Herder Verlag), Ronald Schild (MVB) and Lennart Schneider as an independent strategic advisor and external partner to the programme. The CONTENTshift Accelerator 2024 was also accompanied by Harald Henzler (International University SDI München) and Okke Schlüter (Hochschule der Medien/University of Applied Sciences Stuttgart) in an advisory capacity.
Sergiy Grushko (Booknet)
Monika Haider and Georg Tschare (Equalizent)
Ulrike Küchler und Thomas Langhanki (Gamebook Studio, Gewinner 2024)
Jochen Adler (Kompreno)
Susanne Friese (Qinsights, Qeludra)
Jurysprecherin Carla Scheunemann (Community Editions)
Gruppenbild CONTENTshift-Accelerator 2024
What were you looking to achieve for Gamebook Studio by participating in the CONTENTshift accelerator?
In early 2024, as we were starting our collaboration with Ueberreuter Verlag, we decided to take a close look at the way book publishers work in Germany, just so that we could determine whether the services we offer with our Gamebook Hub might be of interest to other publishers as well. That’s when we first came across CONTENTshift. We spontaneously decided to apply for the programme. We were hoping the accelerator would provide us with a better understanding of how book publishers in Germany operate and whether there were any particular challenges facing the market at that moment. We combined this with the hope that Gamebook might be able to offer solutions to some of those challenges. To our great delight, we were not disappointed
Are there any specific insights you’ll be taking away from the workshop and the overall programme?
That’s a great question. Over the course of the year, the CONTENTshift accelerator took on a very special meaning for us. Thanks to the multiple coaching and mentoring sessions, and most of all the workshop days in Frankfurt, we really developed as a group with all the other startups.
Without the CONTENTshift accelerator, we wouldn’t have been able to achieve what we did during that time, both as an individual startup and in unison with the others. We especially benefited from the openness and expertise of the jury members and coaches and the way they supported each startup individually. We’d never experienced anything like that before in any other accelerator programme. Thanks again to everyone involved.
Did you think you’d actually win “Startup of the Year” at CONTENTshift 2024?
We asked ourselves that question many times, of course. Probably all the other startups did too. But somehow we never saw ourselves actually winning or being on stage receiving the award. What we did instead was to make a bet on which of the other startups was going to win. Naturally, we were all the more delighted when Gamebook was suddenly named as the winner.
What’s next for you and your company, and to what extent will this award impact your future?
In the days and weeks after the Frankfurt Book Fair and all the excitement about being awarded the top prize, we received a lot of enquiries and encouragement from people in the entire book industry. For us, however, this award is first and foremost a great motivation to continue on the path we set for ourselves when we first started participating in the CONTENTshift accelerator. Most of all, we’re eager to draw on our Gamebook Hub to develop new offers for the book industry and to work together with them to expand the value chain and reach new target groups on a more regular and worldwide basis. We’re very passionate about this at the moment. We’re in contact with various partners in the book industry to see if we can develop the right solutions together.
Interview and text: Isabella A. Caldart
Translation: Julie Hagedorn
Images: Christof Jakob