Who We Are

We're lifelong learners with a passion for all things books and now that we're parents, we wish to instill this virtue in our children. Amazed at the sometimes poor quality of existing children's literature and flabbergasted with how difficult it is for somebody to publish a good work, BookSprouting.com was spawned (or sprouted as it were) to be a community that fosters great work and makes it easy to bring this work to the masses. We love being in community and the myriad of benefits that arise from mass collaboration and so we believe that through your efforts all our children may be blessed.

Katie McCloskey — Having written a children's book at the wee age of 8, Katie brings a strong entrepreneurial spirit and a trained literary palate to the BookSprouting team. Having recently helped to launch a new campus magazine at McGill University, Katie's experience in viral marketing practices and the simple yet profound world of bootstrapping a publishing business has helped flavor our team with the right amount of gumption. Even though she is 3 time zones away she is an invaluable asset to our team. You can see Katie's BookSprouting profile under the handle 'KatieMac.'

Ryon Ellis — Ryon birthed the idea for BookSprouting.com while attending a partner conference for a software company; he shrugs his shoulders, acknowledging that stranger things have happened! The father of an animated child who, with her ravenous 'literary' appetite devours books even at the ripe age of two, Ryon needed an avenue to feed his daughter's mind. Starting a company seemed like the right approach. Tongue in cheek aside, Ryon hopes that both Estelle and indeed all children will benefit from the content produced by the users of BookSprouting.com Ryon's profile is found under the uber-creative ensign of 'Ryon.'

JD Montgomery — With four progeny of his own, JD obviously has a love for children and is passionate about feeding their minds. When he and Ryon met at Starbucks back in late 2006 to act as a sounding board for Ryon's idea, he not only offered great insight and advice but enthusiastically threw his hat into the ring and committed to helping out. Often acting as a sage counselor and keel of reason, JD has also helped to bolster the oft resource-strapped team. Without his involvement, BookSprouting would still only be an idea that could be; now it's an idea that is. You won't be able to find JD's profile because it doesn't exist; he's allergic to computers.