Running Stories is the first entertainment platform that combines audio, fitness, and storytelling into one. Real-time data is incorporated into stories that users can run. The app turns runners into the protagonist of a fully immersive episodic story experience where what you hear is what you see.

A new way of personalized storytelling in motion and a new format for creators to explore.

With Running Stories there could be as many stories as there are running routes in the world. The goal? To motivate couch potatoes to stop binge-watching tv at home, and start binge-running their favourite shows.

Running is one of the easiest spots anyone can pick up. And let’s be honest, it’s also one of the most boring ones.

As all of us were put into lockdown in 2020, the WHO advised people to go out and run to help cope with stress and anxiety. It became the perfect moment to take a leap and launch this platform that integrates fitness, audio and entertainment.

After all, running helps reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases by 45% (WHO).

Running Stories is a first-of-its-kind entertainment platform created to motivate couch potatoes to go running, and casual runners to run more often. Simply by ‘enter-training’ them.

It mixes storytelling, fitness and audio into one customized audio experience that casts you as the protagonist of the story by using real-time data. It’s the ultimate personalized adventure or rom-com or thriller.

All plot points in the story are triggered as runners pass GPS markers, such as landmarks, shops, streets and buildings, incorporating them into the story. As well as using other live data points like date, time and weather.

The result is an augmented audio narrative that integrates with your surroundings making them fully immersive.

Stories are based on distance, not on time (episodes range from 1km to 2km),

motivating runners to head out again and again. Plots are designed to train you by asking you to sprint or change pace.

There is a market of 1.2 billion people who run once a week and have a smartphone. Yet few run regularly.

We saw an opportunity to create a product that goes beyond existing entertainment apps runners use to stay motivated (music, podcasts - all designed for passive consumption, neither personalized nor interactive).

We launched it as quickly as possible during lockdown as a test version and proof of concept. With the goal to get runners testing it to further improve the experience. A PR drive unsupported by money was meant to get brands, VCs and future partners interested to take the platform to the next level.

The end goal is a pay-per run platform that allows for endless brand integration. Either through product placement or bespoke activations like launching a product through a run, running a trailer of a new show or extending IPs in a fresh new way.

We launched Running Stories in October 2020 as an open beta on the app store. Subsequently we PRed the app through consumer media, tech blogs and forums.

The first story that could be run is called The Extraction and is about a secret agent’s worst nightmare: a crime lord whom he/she has stolen from is always 2 steps ahead. The runner now has to coordinate with two members of his team to avoid detection and solve the case. Episode 1 is a cat and mouse game/run where you as the protagonist have to run to an extraction point without getting killed. But things won’t go down that easily.

The app controls the story through a CMS backend that pushes hyper-localised custom audio tracks each time runners pass curated GPS markers along the running route.

It also pulls information from open APIs to incorporate weather, date and time into the story.

Running Stories has been covered by top international and technology press, such as BBC, Mashable, GQ, and Esquire, and also received positive reviews from top professionals in the tech and entertainment industry.

We have interest globally from runners and running clubs - from London to Iowa, from Oman to Paris. Big international brands in sports, entertainment and technology have also expressed interest in collaborating and investing.

In the upcoming 6 months, we’re building a smarter app by integrating more APIs to pull live data, and developing text-to-voice tech - powered by AI - to make it simpler for content creators to generate runnable stories for any route anywhere, turning it into an open source entertainment platform.

We are planning for ‘multiplayer stories’, where runners play different characters and interact with one another within the same story, and integration into wearable tech. These demonstrate the endless possibilities of this never-seen-before product.