In the first of a new series we invited some of Univ’s entrepreneurs to talk about what inspires them and how they got started on their entrepreneurial journey.

Nadia Odunayo (2010, PPE) is the Founder and CEO of the book tracking and recommendations hub, The StoryGraph. Billed as an alternative to Goodreads, they recently launched out of beta: app.thestorygraph.com. She was previously the Co-Founder/Director of Ignition Works, a software consulting company. Prior to that she was a Software Engineer at Pivotal Labs, working as a consultant on apps and websites for startups, and she also worked on Pivotal’s Platform-as-a-Service, Cloud Foundry.

“My experience at Univ, and Oxford in general, is part of what gave me the desire and confidence to approach entrepreneurial ventures. After all, it was while at Univ that I started, alongside fellow Univite Andrea Jansson, the first version of The StoryGraph, which was an online creative e-writing publication. I was surrounded by a whole range of creative and inspiring people and I had a wonderful support network and community around me.

“I’ve always been interested in books and reading, and The StoryGraph, as it exists now, was born out of a small side project that helped you to create, track, and share your own personal reading lists. It was intended to be a companion app to something like Goodreads, but through continual customer research and user feedback it has evolved into something a lot bigger!”

Web: app.thestorygraph.com
Twitter: @thestorygraph
Instagram: @the.storygraph

This feature was adapted from one first published in Issue 13 of The Martlet; read the full magazine here or explore our back catalogue of Martlets below:

Published: 2 July 2021

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