Meet Ana Benitez | Storyrocket Founder and Emmy Award-winning Producer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ana Benitez and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ana, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I came to the U.S. as a Cuban refugee when I was a toddler with my parents and grandparents. They owed the airline tickets that we flew with and settled in an impoverished area of Miami. Without knowing the language and culture, my young parents had no idea how they would start over. But they put faith in God and family and armed themselves with courage, perseverance and grit. They both left this earth over a decade ago leaving behind 3 highly educated children, 5 grandchildren, successful businesses, multiple homes and a nice estate. When my family “made it,” we started traveling. This was my mother’s passion, and I also inherited this zeal to see the world.

Fast forward a few decades, my husband and I were coming back from Thailand, after spending some time in France. The next big adventure would not be feeding the elephants or visiting Versailles it was a new kind of high, the launch of Storyrocket.com.

I grew up seeing faith and courage in action every day and I knew that I would lean into that when we started Storyrocket. Storyrocket is an aggregator of content… a global marketplace. Its goal is to showcase the work of writers to producers, agents and publishers looking for intellectual property. It was the first of its kind and we were taking the path less traveled.

So what was the thought process behind starting your own business?

In 2015, my partner and I saw a big void in the market. For the Entertainment Industry content is king. However, getting intellectual property into the hands of agents, producers, studios and content buyers was no easy feat, even for a best-selling author. We saw many talented writers sitting on the sidelines waiting for an opportunity to pitch their work.

On the flip side, producers are always looking for a great story and finding compelling content is a challenge. The proverbial needle in the haystack.

Production companies spend a considerable amount of time and money vetting scripts that come from a multitude of sources. On Storyrocket producers review pitches with the elements they’re looking for such as a logline, synopsis, main character descriptions, videos, elevator pitches, trailers, tags, registration numbers etc. Letting them evaluate works in just a few minutes instead of days or weeks.

So we thought of solving this through technology.

But here’s the rub. I’m an Emmy Award-winning producer and my partner, Ron Karasz, is a media executive and screenwriter. At that time, we had zero knowledge of programming and running a SAS company. With a huge learning curve ahead, we tapped into courage, perseverance and grit to get us through.

After market testing at universities and creating a minimally viable product (MVP), Storyrocket finally launched in March 2017. The goal of providing writers the opportunity to have their works showcased to decision-makers and ultimately get their stories optioned was a reality. I can still remember shaking, with nervous excitement, as I introduced Storyrocket to the world at one of the stages at SXSW.

Although we’ve had our share of challenges along the way, today we have a long-standing partnership with Bowker, one of the most respected companies in the publishing world. We’ve created masterclasses with a legendary screenwriter, J.V. Hart, whose credits include Hook, Contact, Brams Stokers Dracula, and many more. And our global Storyrocket community is over 10,000 strong.

We continue to champion writers and help them educate themselves about the Entertainment Business with a free professional development series called, “Storyrocket LIVE”. We also present paid full-day masterclasses to help writers on their book-to-screen journey.

Furthermore, besides providing producers with a great search engine, we offer content buyers “curating service.” They give us their mandates and we come back with a short list. So it’s a “win-win” for both writers and producers/content buyers.

In life there are no guarantees. I made up my mind a long time ago that every day needs to be a great day… filled with faith, love, gratitude, and kindness. Traveling, meeting interesting creative people, sharing a great meal, laughing, and having fun is what I like to do.

Although starting an online platform is not for the faint of heart. Storyrocket has allowed me to do the things I love. From speaking at Spain’s International book fair in Barcelona (LIBER) to meeting members throughout the U.S. and the World.

Although I still consider myself a Miamian, I continuously travel around the World and live coast-to-coast. I’m one of those people that can feel “at home” almost anywhere, as long as my family is by my side. I love travelling off the beaten path; from Ayutthaya, Thailand to secluded beaches in Brazil. Japan is next and I know there are still many more adventures and travels to unfold.

My greatest collection are the friends I’ve made around the globe. Many of them in the last few years, because of Storyrocket. This month, against all odds, Storyrocket turns 7 years old. As a woman lead tech company, I know I belong to a minority. This is something that I feel proud of. We’ve started speaking to investors to take Storyrocket to the next level and we can only dream of what’s to come.

I was told to enjoy the journey, and what a great journey this has been. Sometimes the road less travel can reveal some incredible places.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
My area is Venice Beach, I like doing a casual brunch at 26 Beach on Washington or if we’re in the mood for salads and juices The Butchers Daughter. Then a long stroll along the beach taking in the scene. After I would go for ice cream at Salt & Straw, the combination of different flavors may look odd, but they are just fantastic. Plus, you can get tastings. If we’re in the mood for shopping, I would take a stroll down Abbot Kinney and stop to see what’s new at Cuyana. They have the best leather totes.

Before heading back, I would stop to show her Erewhon, this grocery store is in steroids and it’s just something that needs to be experienced.

In the evening, I would venture out to Margot at Platform in Culver City. I’m a big fan of mediterranean food and the food there is just delicious. It also has a great terrace if you’re into outdoor dining. The decor is also great, mediterranean chic.

For a short getaway I love the area around Laguna Beach. I like the food and ambience at Mozambique, its South African fair. My future daughter law’s family is from S. Africa and introduced us to this place. There’s also a great view from the terrace to the water and always a great breeze.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Ron Karasz, my partner, has been both a cheerleader and our harshest critic these 7 years. Having different voices has helped us get stronger.

Long standing partnerships in the book business with Bowker, the ISBN company, has expanded our circle of influence. And screenwriting legend, J.V. Hart, and his incredible masterclass has helped our authors become screenwriters.

As a SAS company, our programming team deserves a big shout-out too.

Our Storyrocket Community, who today is over 10,000 strong, is represented by some amazing talent, such as agent extraordinaire Paul Weitzman from Culture Creative; producer and author Jenean Atwood Baynes; sci-fi writer Brian Fitzpatrick, POC writer Amy M. Le; speaker and writer James B. Flaherty at 88, who can easily run circles around us with his brilliance and too many more to mention. They all keep us motivated to show up every day and give it our best.

Website: https://www.storyrocket.com

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ana-benitez-karasz/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/GoStoryrocket

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gostoryrocket/