About Us

• The history of StoryCode
• What is StoryCode ?

The history of StoryCode

The history of StoryCode is one of patience and determination to succeed, driven by the simple desire to solve the perpetual problem: "What am I going to read today?"

The first step towards StoryCode was taken over a pizza in July 1997, when Steve Johnston and Christopher Norris realized that a millennium project called "Utopia" that they had worked on for the UK book trade in 1994-95 could be revived as an internet concept.

Between 1997 and early 2000, Steve and Chris were joined by Patrick and Roland Dunn, during which time they developed the project, now called "Utopia.org", in ways designed to attract incubator funding. Despite warm words from many quarters, including those of Dave Mutton (then at Amazon.co.uk), the lack of seed funding remained an obstacle.

Paradoxically, our breakthrough came in May 2000, after the dotcom bubble had burst earlier that spring. The executive team found a way of defining the profiles of stories, and making comparisons between them, that they were happy with, which led to the project being renamed "StoryCode". Roland then built a series of proof-of-concept prototypes and alpha versions of the software and processes that form the basis of the site today.

By May 2002, the StoryCode team included Andrew Rosenheim, Dave Mutton and Paul Youlten. A workshop took place to thrash out a revised code structure. Progress was limited by the spare time available to the team to work on the project.

By 2004, many key players within the team were running their own businesses, acting as consultants, or freelancing, which freed up quality time to develop full-blown business plans and website specifications for StoryCode.

In summer 2004, several significant steps were taken regarding the technological development of the code. By September 2004, after careful consideration, the team decided to self-fund the launch of StoryCode, initially by exhibiting at the London Book Fair in March 2005.

The fast growth of visitor numbers to the website in the first few months after launch led to the setting up of distinct yet related UK and US versions of StoryCode in June 2005, built (as was the original beta site) by Chris Russell.

StoryCode may have gone live to the public in 2005, but it has been an epic journey of over ten years to reach this point. And yet the next chapter in the story of StoryCode is only just beginning.

(The original StoryCode site, version beta 1.0, launched on March 1 2005; version beta 1.1 creating distinctive UK and US StoryCode sites, launched on June 21, 2005.)

What is StoryCode ?

’Imagine always having an answer to the question "What book should I read next?"

StoryCode is a great new service that takes the pain out of choosing books by offering rational, impartial recommendations, based on our unique analysis of the “DNA” of stories.

StoryCode is a unique database of structured story information built not on a minority viewpoint of experts but on the input and collective wisdom of ordinary readers.

StoryCode is built by book lovers for book lovers and our goal is to reduce the risk of choosing new stories, giving greater reader confidence and satisfaction.

StoryCode was inspired by the belief that the Book Trade, locally and globally, is failing it’s readers in the search for new stories and that the power of the internet and the passion of book lovers everywhere can combine into a unique service.

StoryCode was founded by a core management team which benefits from the collective experience of 75 years in the UK book industry and 50 years in internet businesses.

It includes Andrew Rosenheim, novelist and former MD of The Penguin Press, and Dave Mutton, whose previous roles include Group Promotions Manager for Dillons Bookstores, Head of Business Development for Amazon.co.uk and Head of Commerce for Yahoo! Europe.