AI storytelling for families

Oct 29, 2025

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Guest: Ricardo Vice Santos, CEO and co-founder of DreamStories.ai

Topic: Agentic content studio, personalized children’s books, character-consistent AI imagery, subscriber-style publishing economics

Episode Overview

How DreamStories.ai turns kids into the hero of their own beautifully illustrated adventure. Ricardo explains the “agentic content studio” model, why he started with physical books, how he achieves character consistency at scale, and the unit economics behind paid acquisition and repeat purchase behavior.

Time-Saving Highlights

DreamStories.ai basics: Upload photos → AI creates a consistent main character → choose a template → get a printed book
Why books first: proven category, premium willingness to pay, repeatable nightly ritual, durable margins
“Intimacy at scale”: personalization that feels one-of-one, delivered with production reliability
Team and traction: lean engineering-heavy team, strong repeat purchase behavior, moving toward broader creative tools
Market approach: US-first, added non-Latin scripts to expand globally
Paid growth reality: Facebook as the steady workhorse, ROAS math, and the path from novelty to service

Key Takeaways (Founder-Focused)

Personalization moat: Character consistency is hard; solving it is a defensible advantage
Service over one-off product: Episodic books drive retention and higher LTV
Physical-first strategy: Consumers expect digital to be free; physical goods sustain CAC and margins
Distribution truth: Paid acquisition is an auction—win by superior LTV and repeat behavior
Taste matters: Make the creation flow enjoyable for parents, not just the final artifact for kids

Ricardo’s Playbooks and Frameworks

1) Agentic Content Studio Framework

Input: photos + light preferences
Orchestration: model mix (open-source + proprietary) for character consistency
Output: stylized, on-brand illustrations across pages
Feedback: human-in-the-loop edits and text control
Scale: “Infinite content” goal with guardrails

2) Intimacy-at-Scale Loop

Personal artifact → nightly family ritual → social proof at school and with relatives → referrals and repeat gifts → episodic upsell

3) Retention Through Episodes

Series structure rather than one-off novelty
Age-aware prompts and evolving language difficulty
Seasonal and milestone triggers (birthdays, holidays, grade changes)

4) Paid Media Unit Economics

Expect CAC ≈ AOV at the start
Unlock winning bids via higher LTV (repeat, bundles, subscriptions)
Use episodic content to justify continuous repurchase

5) Brand-Safe Personalization Guardrails

Restrict IP where necessary
Style and conduct policies for cameos and co-characters
Human review points for edge cases

Resources and Links

DreamStories.ai: https://dreamstories.ai
Ricardo Vice Santos on LinkedIn: search LinkedIn for “Ricardo Vice Santos”
The NeverEnding Story (reference)
Choose Your Own Adventure series (reference)
WILD Foundation: https://wild.org

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