Ex-Apple Designer Raises $7 Million to Create Visual Stories on the iPad

Mark Kawano knows his apps. For more than two years, he worked as Apple's user experience evangelist, helping developers around the world design their apps for iOS.
He's seen his fair share of applications for sharing photos and videos, but he felt that no one had succeeded in building a simple tool for quickly creating and sharing visual-focused stories on mobile. So he decided to build it himself.

See also: The Slow Evolution of Apple's Online Store

"So many people were creating content browsing apps that we just didn't think were taking advantage of the technology in the right way," Kawano told Mashable in an interview earlier this month. What he wanted was an application that mixed content creation and consumption.
After leaving Apple in late 2012, Kawano decided to partner with Timothy Donnelly, a designer and iOS developer who worked on The Daily, the first iPad-only publication, which eventually shut down. Kawano had been involved with The Daily, which he describes as "a really important project for Apple at the time."
The cofounders released Storehouse at the beginning of this year. The free iPad app makes it easy for users to combine text, photos and videos into a story that can be shared with friends or the Storehouse community. The experience is specifically designed for the iPad's touch gestures and scrolling.

Think of it as Medium, but with a clear focus on visual and mobile.

Think of it as Medium, but with a clear focus on visual and mobile. Since launching, the app has been used by everyone from the former National Geographic photo editor to a woodworker explaining his craft.

Image: Storehouse

On Thursday, Storehouse announced raising a $7 million Series A round of funding led by Sherpa Ventures. The plan is to use the funding to hire more engineers and designers and eventually expand onto other platforms beyond iPad.
"We're very bullish on the iPad and tablets just continuing to grow," Kawano says. "All that being said, we started around the iPad, but we have plans to expand onto other platforms."

Storehouse is based in San Francisco and currently has 10 employees on staff.
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