Christian is passionate about storytelling. He built Rakonto because every person is important, their stories matter, and they deserve to be preserved and shared in a way that honors them.
As a young boy, Christian worked for his grandfather as a carpenter and house painter, developing skills that have served him throughout his life. His grandfather was a master storyteller, and the years they spent fishing together gave ample opportunity for stories to be told and retold.
At the same time, Christian's step-father was a systems engineer and built his own computers, eventually opening a shop selling IBM PC clones and Atari ST systems. Christian loved working with computers, using WordStar 2000 and VisiCalc on a Kaypro II running CP/M to do his homework in junior high school in the early 80s.
Through carpentry and computers, Christian discovered the joy of creation and the desire to find a better, simpler way to do things. These twin motivators have driven Christian throughout his career, working in technology for Bell+Howell, IBM and the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the 2002 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
In 2015 Christian was asked to serve as an International Olympic Committee Knowledge Management Advisor. In that role, he delivered the IOC Structured Interview Project, conducting more than 1,200 interviews with local organizers, IOC staff and advisors, and stakeholders.
Fascinated by the behind-the-scenes stories shared of delivering the Olympic Games in these interviews, Christian launched the Salt Lake 2002 Retrospective podcast. He interviewed 100 of his co-workers to capture the story of the 2002 Games, as told by the people who organized them.
The love of story hit a roadblock when Christian realized he wasn't scalable. He wondered if there was a way people could record their own stories, without him, and share them without the negative side effects of social media. Thus Rakonto was born.
Christian created Rakonto to remove the friction that prevents people from recording and sharing stories, knowledge and experiences. It's a work in progress, as Christian and his team continue to find ways to simplify storytelling.
In the end, stories have a unique power to build community, connection and understanding. That's Christian's goal, to help people and organizations unlock the power of storytelling.
