Nassim Abdi knows the power of storytelling.
Growing up during the Iraq-Iran war and working as a journalist in Tehran, Abdi found her way to the silver screen after a director cast her to play the lead in Secret Ballot, a 2002 Sony Pictures film about the story of a woman's quest to count every vote during an election. That film, which won several Venice film festival awards and appeared on Netflix and Amazon Prime, led Abdi to participate in Q&A sessions with audiences to promote the movie.
It was in those sessions where Abdi realized the power of documentary film and the impact of making personal connections with an audience.
"When people watch a story and someone from that story walks outside to talk to them, it creates a magic sauce for engagement," she said. "The conversations are so candid and real."
Abdi is bringing that same engagement to the workplace in her startup Storybolt, which connects companies with documentary films, along with Q&As with the filmmaker, to educate employees around topics like implicit bias; racial injustice; mental health; diversity, equity and inclusion; and more. Abdi co-founded the startup with Babak Shahmansouri, a serial entrepreneur based in Toronto.
Employees are shown a cut of the documentary, which is followed by a live chat with the film's director. The end result is an engaging and immersive experience for workers who gain increased empathy around topics designed to build a more inclusive workplace.
"It creates an ecosystem for understanding each other," Abdi said. "Because of that story, because of watching that story, it becomes a prompt to talk about things people are usually not comfortable talking about."
Storybolt has access to a library of more than 4,000 documentaries from over 100 countries, including Emmy winners and other award-winning films. Its customers include companies like Amazon, Discover, Google Cloud and Paylocity.
The startup shares a cut of its revenue with filmmakers, which has come at an important time for directors as movie theaters are closed and film festivals have been canceled across the world, Abdi said.
Storybolt first began selling to enterprise clients in January 2020. It was a pivot from the previous iteration of its company, which was called Docademia. That business connected universities with documentary films to help keep students engaged, but Abdi quickly realized that companies were in need of more authentic ways to educate their employees about inclusivity, and could benefit from the startup's platform. The startup has raised a pre-seed round of funding, and it's currently raising a seed round.
In a way, Storybolt is turning the traditional instructional company culture video on its head, replacing dusty VHS tapes about harassment and workplace behavior with documentaries with rich storytelling and live conversations with filmmakers.
"We're excited about being a platform to make meaningful change for a company's culture," she said.
