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StoryTap
Techstars '18Port Coquitlam, CA · Founded 2015 · 12 employees on LinkedIn · 4 known investors
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StoryTap is a video platform that helps brands collect and share authentic video stories to build trust and engagement with audiences. The company serves organizations seeking to gather and distribute real customer and community narratives.
Also known as StoryTap Inc.
Founders & leadership
StoryTap was founded in 2015 by Bernadette Butler and Sean Braacx.
Investors · 4
How we know: press coverage · Not right? Tell us
How we know: Stand Up Ventures's portfolio page · Not right? Tell us
How we know: the Techstars portfolio · funding news · open dataset · Top 3000 Accelerator Startups (no YC) 2026-08 · open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Not right? Tell us
How we know: press coverage · Not right? Tell us
Company profile
researched Sep 2026StoryTap operates a software platform that automates the collection, moderation and distribution of user-generated video testimonials and stories for brands. The system prompts customers, members, students, staff or fans for video at defined points in their journey via automated email (compliant with CASL and CAN-SPAM), custom links or QR codes, then uses a patented guided recorder that runs in a browser on phone, computer or tablet without an app download. Custom prompts direct what the speaker talks about, and collected videos are auto-edited, automatically captioned, reviewed by AI and optionally by StoryTap staff before publication.
Output videos can be shared to social channels by the contributor or the brand, syndicated to YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, indexed for video SEO, and embedded on a customer's website with a single line of code. An in-product editor creates clips and highlight reels with music and captions, and reporting tools track video impact and sync with Google Analytics. The company also markets a sentiment-analysis capability that treats the collected video corpus as research data, letting brands track customer emotion by location, event or over time.
Product packages are organized by use case: social content for marketing teams, website video for digital teams, video reviews on product detail pages for ecommerce teams, fan video capture around sporting events (including sponsor-enabled formats), and student/alumni testimonials for education programs. A dedicated customer success team assists with campaign setup, curation and results tracking.
Founding story
Bernadette Butler founded StoryTap in 2015 after a corporate career at a major Canadian telecom company, initially as a platform for collecting the life stories of baby boomers, inspired by her personal experience gathering family memoirs and by running a large personal-finance book club. With little upfront capital she hired full-stack developer Sean Braacx for freelance design work and offered him a co-founder role after three weeks. The pair later pivoted the company from baby boomer story collection to customer-generated video testimonials and advocacy.
Business model
StoryTap sells access to its video platform to brand and organization marketing, digital, ecommerce and communications teams, complemented by a customer success team that helps run collection campaigns, curate videos and report on results. A self-serve entry point offers the first three customer videos free.
Software platform sold to brands; a free sign-up tier provides the first three customer videos at no cost. Published pricing pages are password-protected.
Traction
Referenced customer outcomes include Hartz collecting over 350 videos and tripling engagement in six months, AAA Club Alliance increasing social views by 154%, and a spotlight campaign capturing 70+ videos in 10 minutes. The company reports more than 10 years of operating experience in video testimonials.
Latest developments
The company markets AI-driven review and auto-editing, a built-in social clip editor, embedded trust signals aimed at discoverability in AI search, and published a guide to video testimonials for 2026.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history
Market position
A Techstars portfolio company positioning itself as a specialist in automated, authentic UGC video testimonials, citing use by brands including Samsung, Danone, AAA, Hartz and UCLA.
The company emphasizes patented guided recording technology, 100% real and human-verified customer video that it states is never altered to change the story, brand ownership of the resulting footage, and an automated workflow requiring no film crew, editing or integration work.
Technology
A patented browser-based video recorder guides contributors through structured prompts without requiring an app. The platform layers AI review and moderation, automatic captioning, auto-editing and clip/highlight-reel creation, one-line-of-code website embeds, video SEO indexing, social syndication, sentiment analysis and analytics that integrate with Google Analytics.
Go-to-market
Demo-led enterprise sales ("book a demo" and contact forms) supported by case studies, customer highlights, G2 verified reviews and content marketing such as a guide to video testimonials, alongside a free self-serve sign-up offering three videos.
Brand marketing, digital, ecommerce and social teams; consumer product companies, membership organizations, sports teams and event organizers, non-profits, and colleges and universities seeking student and alumni testimonials.
Geography
Canadian company with offices in Vancouver and Toronto; a third-party listing gives a Vancouver, British Columbia address at 555 West Hastings Street. Serves global brands.
History
Founded in 2015, StoryTap started with small angel funding that carried a clause preventing the founder from drawing a salary, then bootstrapped for several years while adding platform features and growing its customer base before deciding to raise outside capital to fund growth plans. The company pivoted from its original baby boomer memoir concept to brand video testimonials and has since built patented recording technology and expanded into social, website, ecommerce, sports and education use cases.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Related companies · 1
Companies working in the same space as StoryTap.
Timeline · 3
launches, deals, and filingsStoryTap received small angel funding at inception; the investor included a clause barring the founder from drawing a salary from the capital. The company bootstrapped for several years afterward before deciding to raise additional capital.
After Braacx joined full-time, the founders pivoted the company from baby boomer story collection to a platform for collecting customer-generated video testimonials and advocacy.
Bernadette Butler founded StoryTap in 2015 to collect the life stories of baby boomers, hiring full-stack developer Sean Braacx as a freelancer and making him co-founder three weeks later.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
In the news
▸Research sources · 8
primary sources listed
- StoryTapstorytap.com · web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does StoryTap do?
- StoryTap is a Canadian video platform that automates collecting, editing and publishing customer video testimonials for brands.
- Who founded StoryTap?
- StoryTap was founded by Bernadette Butler, Sean Braacx in 2015.
- Who are StoryTap's investors?
- StoryTap's investors include Refinery Venture, Stand Up Ventures, Techstars, StandUp Ventures.
- Where is StoryTap headquartered?
- StoryTap is headquartered in Port Coquitlam, CA.