Episode #6:
How storytellers are defining the future of the web with Ricky Robinson
In this episode of The Craft, our host Rachel Westbury welcomes Ricky Robinson, CEO of Shorthand.
Ricky explores the democratisation of storytelling, and how digital tools are allowing for continuous innovation online.
As Ricky says, “It might feel like we've already pushed the web to its limits, but there are whole new dimensions of magic to be discovered in what's possible within a web browser and how that translates into brilliant new ways to conjure emotion, transmit knowledge, and move minds and hearts. I know, because like we're hard at work on this stuff.”
Listen as Rachel and Ricky discuss making hard decisions as an entrepreneur, embracing emerging technologies, and his vision for the future of storytelling and for Shorthand.
How to listen:
This episode’s guest
Guest Name: Ricky Robinson
What he does: Ricky is the CEO of Shorthand
Company: Shorthand
Noteworthy: Ricky co-founded a couple of machine learning startups and spent eight-and-a-half years at Australia's premier technology R&D institute as a researcher and business developer.
Where to find Ricky: LinkedIn
Links from this episode
Episode highlights
The democratisation of storytelling
“The further we go, the easier it's gonna become to create much better-looking content. Anyone is gonna have the capacity to do that because platforms like Shorthand will do more and more of the heavy lifting in terms of design, the magic, and what's possible. And so, that's truly exciting because, I know it's an overused word, but it democratises the ability of people to do this kind of content.”
Taking leadership risks — but reaping the rewards
“Back in 2016 and 2017, we did the thing that you're never supposed to do: rebuilt the entire product from scratch. Several team members were keen to move our product onto a more modern stack, as some of the things that we wanted to build into the product probably would've been harder to do on the old stack.
“I figured, ‘Okay, I'm not gonna be in engineering anymore — I should let the engineers work on the stack that they want to.’ It was a classic disagree-and-commit situation. Anyway, six months turned into a year, which turned into an extremely short cash runway.
“And we barely survived. But thankfully, sales were going gangbusters at that time — and we do have a lovely product at the back end of it all. But one wonders about the opportunity cost of that decision. It was a big early lesson in CEO-ship for me.”
Creating tools for master storytellers
“Our approach to storytelling is to be the people who make the best tools for storytellers to use. There's this popular notion in marketing that, as a provider of products and services, you’re supposed to be the expert in your customer's field.
“And I agree with that to an extent, but I don't quite see it like that altogether. We're never going to be as good at your job as you are. Because your job is nuanced, and it relies on like this tacit knowledge that's been shaped over time.
“Our customers are the master storytellers, and we provide them with the best tools to tell their stories — tools we pour our hearts and souls into. So our relationship with our customers is this beautiful symbiosis, and the great news about Shorthand is that it can make everyone look like content creation virtuosos.”
Built with Shorthand