Small Demons

Small Demons was a Los Angeles-based startup founded in 2009 by Valla Vakili and Tony Amidei, both former Vice Presidents from Yahoo. The company's genesis came from Vakili's personal experience while reading a novel; he found himself wanting to explore the real-world places, music, and even drinks mentioned in the story, which led him to alter his travel plans to immerse himself in the book's setting. This desire to connect the fictional world with tangible experiences formed the core concept of Small Demons. The company was later joined by publishing industry veteran Richard Nash, who served as the Vice President of Content and Community.

The platform operated as a web-based literary database that indexed the myriad of details within books—such as people, places, songs, movies, and brands—creating what it termed a "Storyverse". This service functioned as a discovery engine, allowing users to explore connections between different texts and the cultural artifacts mentioned within them. For instance, a user could look up a book and find a list of all the songs mentioned, with direct links to listen or purchase them on platforms like iTunes and Spotify. The platform was built to facilitate both digital and real-world exploration based on a book's content.

Small Demons' business model was centered on partnerships with major publishers, including Random House and Simon & Schuster. The company would receive digital files of books to index, and in return, it provided publishers with valuable metadata and analytics on reader engagement. The primary source of revenue was intended to be affiliate e-commerce, where Small Demons would earn a commission when users purchased related goods, such as music, movies, or other books, through the links on its platform. Despite raising over $2 million in funding, the company struggled to monetize its unique service effectively. After a potential acquisition by an international tech firm fell through, Small Demons was unable to secure alternative funding and ceased operations in November 2013.

Keywords: book discovery, literary database, Storyverse, content indexing, Valla Vakili, Richard Nash, publishing technology, book references, cultural connections, literary metadata, affiliate e-commerce, digital publishing, book data analytics, reader engagement, story details, connecting texts, book-related products, literature concordance, narrative data, defunct startup