Jean-Luc Nguyen is the founder of Storylation, a new mobile app developed in Malta, which aims to become the caring Twitter and altruistic Instagram of the social networks. Jean-Luc sees the social networks of tomorrow as highly focused on others rather than on ourselves. Driven by his desire to set up the first “positivity-centred” social media, he already managed to build a community of over a 1,000 users. The mobile app began development in March of last year but the idea behind Storylation came to the founder’s mind long before that.
Ten years ago, Nguyen tried to become a professional poker player in Las Vegas. He was playing every day for hours. It was at the end of a particularly bad day on the poker tables that something happened to Jean-Luc. A very human story, which had a profound effect on him and pushed him to set up Storylation. After buying some food at a local supermarket late in evening he left. Lost in thought about how he could have played better, he forgot his change in the shop. Thankfully, the cashier was an honest guy! He ran after Jean-Luc to give him back his money. His honesty surprised Jean-Luc! He would have loved to share what had happened to him on his social media but he couldn’t find the right place where the story would have repaid the cashier in some way.
That sparked the idea that he should create a new social network where people can say good things about others. A place where every story could be shared and, above all, kept as a golden book of memories. Beyond conveying kindness and gratitude, Jean-Luc believes that these little posts of kindness could be useful to the receivers someday.
In the current social media space, Jean-Luc thinks that gratitude, thankfulness and goodness are not often at the forefront. However, scientific studies have shown that gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity and build strong relationships. Following this idea of cultivating gratitude, Jean-Luc established a very simple concept! People who share fun facts, moments or memories they have had with others are kindly rewarded with karma. The more you give, the more you receive! This is the virtuous cycle of the law of attraction. Thus, Storylation helps people to stay connected and keep them close to each other, even when situations prevent it!
Why do you have to adopt Storylation on a daily basis?
- Being positive has never killed anyone
- You’re going to make someone smile and this is the best feeling ever
- You’ll rediscover your relatives through other storytellers’ posts
- You’ll be more grateful to people and they will be more grateful in return
- You’ll catch the happiness bug!
The official launch took place in August 2020. At the moment, the less than a year old network has hit a small bump in the road because of its lack of power and media visibility. However, regarding the first numbers, the app exceeded 1,000 users and users’ feedback has been very encouraging.
By changing the way people interact online, Storylation has the goal to go viral in Malta first, but then, also, internationally!
Jean-Luc’s biography
Jean-Luc Nguyen is a 37-year-old French-Vietnamese entrepreneur who was born and grew up in France. He studied at Epitech, the European Institute of Information Technology in Paris, where he learnt to be a computer scientist. However, Jean-Luc is not only a technology fanatic but also loves to bootstrap innovative projects. At 23 years old, he founded his first company: a remote IT support company. Three years ago, he came to Malta and fell in love with this Mediterranean island. His entrepreneur mindset, strongly fuelled by all his travels, led him to establish his second and current company, Storylation.