Born in Salzburg, Austria in 1972, Hannes Steiner is a complete story obsessive and the founder of story.one. In his youth he was an enthusiastic swimmer and active in the Austrian national water polo team. After graduating from high school, he studied law and business administration at the Leopold Franzens University of Innsbruck. During this time he worked in his parents' bookstore, where he hosted many author and speaker events. Even back then, he was excited that all these people he invited had a unique story to tell.
In his late 20s, Hannes founded Ecowin Verlag. In a short space of time he was twice voted Publisher of the Year. He later worked on projects at Red Bull Media House and became Red Bull's Chief Content Strategist after selling his publishing company to Dietrich Mateschitz in 2013 to pursue his passion on a larger scale.
For years, as a book publisher, he had the privilege of guiding authors to the top of bestseller lists, but his enthusiasm eventually began to wane. The system had reached its limits. His desk was increasingly piled up with thousands of unpublished manuscripts, sent to him unsolicited. Although they weren't all perfect for a long book, most contained extraordinary stories.
More and more he longed to create a platform for all these great stories. With some courage, passion and a large slice of idealism, he decided to offer every storyteller in the world a place to turn their great stories into books. This is how story.one was born, which ever since has been growing and growing and, above all, inspiring.
Hannes lives with his family in Vienna.