While opinions on Colin Kaepernick have always been polarizing, one thing you cannot take away from him is his intent to help and provide value. After multiple human rights initiatives and helping the poor fight against police brutality, Colin is back adding value to society, albeit this time using the power of AI (Artificial Intelligence) with the backing of Serena Williams’ husband, Alexis Ohanian.
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Yesterday, Colin took to Instagram to announce the launch of his “newest baby,” an AI tool called Lumi Story AI. As the name hints, the tool is designed to democratize content publishing and distribution to individual creators.
With Lumi, content creators, and storytellers now don’t need to spend time and resources on third-party assistance and research as the groundbreaking tool allows them to “independently create, publish, and merchandise their stories both digitally and physically”.
The project is truly exciting and unsurprisingly received funding from venture capitals and high-profile angel investors like “Mariam Naficy (founder of Minted), David Sze, Chamillionaire, and tech execs from Meta, Anthropic, ContextualAI, Sleeper, Pave, and more.”
The most notable sports-related investor is Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit and husband to tennis legend Serena Williams. Since 2020, his venture capital firm, Seven Seven Six, has been championing tech-forward storytelling. Unsurprisingly, Lumi received backing from Seven Seven Six, leading the initial seed round and raising a substantial $4M in venture capital funding.
That said, while the project does sound groundbreaking, what’s even more interesting is the ‘why’ behind Colin’s Lumi Story AI.
Why Did Kaepernick Start Lumi Story AI?
According to Kaepernick and his team, Lumi’s problem statement is that, in today’s world, only a few organizations control the global content narrative. The former NFL star intends to change this notion, which is why he began working on Lumi, aiming to help every individual creator look like ‘Disney,’ the well-known media company.
Stories emerge from the creators, and it’s heartening to see an initiative that helps more stories to develop by making life easier for the creators. As per the company website, Lumi Story AI is a one-stop solution for all the logistical needs of a creator. So in essence, a storyteller only has to worry about the content, as Lumi is there for everything else.
Most importantly, Lumi is close to Colin’s heart because he faced the challenges of high production costs, long production timelines, and gatekeeping within the industry when he began getting into content publishing after his NFL controversies.
The former NFL quarterback knows the struggle of an independent creator, which is why he created Lumi to address “an unnecessary dependency on gatekeepers that slows creators down.”
That being said, the project sounds exciting and exciting for storytellers around the world. In today’s growing content creation economy, Lumi Story AI is certainly a valuable addition.
