Inkitt is a San Francisco-based AI-powered publishing and entertainment company that uses reader data and machine learning to identify breakout stories before they become hits. Writers upload fiction to Inkitt's community platform; the platform's algorithm tracks reader engagement to surface manuscripts with bestseller potential. Top stories move to Galatea, a premium immersive reading app offering ebooks, audiobooks, and chat-style fiction, and then to CandyJar, a short-drama streaming app. The result: a story-to-screen pipeline with 33 million users, a new million-dollar novel produced every four weeks, and 40x the hit-rate of traditional publishers.
Ali Albazaz is the founder and CEO of Inkitt, a San Francisco-based AI-powered publishing platform that uses reader engagement data and algorithms to identify and publish bestselling fiction. Born in Baghdad and raised in Germany, he bootstrapped Inkitt from a Berlin startup after 140 investor rejections into a $400M+ valued company with 33 million users across three platforms: Inkitt (writer community), Galatea (immersive reading app), and CandyJar (video entertainment). Inkitt has raised $116.8M in total funding, including a $37M Series C led by Khosla Ventures in February 2024.
Chris Cockreham is the founder of beewise Media LLC, a Fort Lauderdale-based digital and creative consulting firm. Drawing on years of hands-on experience as a content producer, editorial associate, and designer at companies like Ecomii and DermApproved, Cockreham built beewise Media around the idea that the best creative work, like a beehive, emerges from collaboration and collective intelligence. The firm delivers web design, branding, marketing, and content services, positioning itself as an embedded creative partner for clients seeking to grow their digital presence.
David Gaughran is an Irish author, self-publishing strategist, and indie author advocate who turned 18 months of rejection letters into a career dismantling the gatekeeping machinery of traditional publishing. Through his 'Let's Get Publishing' series of books, a free 27-lesson course, a weekly newsletter, and relentless watchdog journalism exposing predatory vanity presses, he has helped tens of thousands of writers navigate the digital publishing revolution. A nomad by habit — Dublin, Prague, London, Lisbon, southern France — and a storyteller at heart, he writes historical adventure fiction under David M. Gaughran and was awarded the 2020 Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award by SFWA for distinguished contributions to the science fiction and fantasy community.
Joanna Penn is a British author, podcaster, and entrepreneur who turned a miserable IT consulting career into a multi-six-figure independent publishing empire. Writing thrillers as J.F. Penn and teaching the business of writing as Joanna Penn, she has sold over a million books across 176 countries, runs one of the world's top 1% podcasts (10.6M+ downloads), and is among the most prominent voices on ethical AI adoption in the creative community. Based in Bath, England, she competes in powerlifting, pursues a Masters in Death, Religion and Culture, and embodies her own mantra: measure your life by what you create.
Stephanie Chandler is an American author, entrepreneur, and community builder who traded a Silicon Valley software career for a bookstore, stumbled into publishing, and ended up founding the Nonfiction Authors Association — a membership community helping writers publish, market, and monetize nonfiction books. Author of ten books and founder of Authority Publishing, she runs the annual Nonfiction Writers Conference (since 2010) and advocates openly for suicide loss survivors.
David Kadavy is a bestselling author, designer, and creative productivity expert who reverse-engineered design principles for developers, advised a startup that Google acquired, and built a location-independent career from a Nebraska cubicle. His books - including Design for Hackers, Mind Management Not Time Management, and Digital Zettelkasten - have sold 100,000+ copies in 13 languages. He lives in a cabin outside Medellín, Colombia, publishes his income reports publicly, and argues that creativity is about managing your mind, not your calendar.