Yale University seniors Nathaneo Johnson and Sean Hargrow successfully closed a pre-seed funding round, raising $5.1 million for their startup Series. Investors included Venmo co-founder Ikram Magdon-Ismail, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman, GPTZero founder Edward Tian, and Pear VC. The project positions itself as a next-generation social network that foregoes a separate mobile app and operates exclusively within the Apple iMessage ecosystem.
Series' operational mechanics differ radically from traditional social platforms. Users send a text message to a special Series AI number directly in iMessage, describing themselves and who they want to meet. In response, artificial intelligence sends so-called "shares" — a carousel of ten images that can be easily swiped through. Each card contains a photo of another user with similar goals and a description of their request. If a person wants to start a conversation, they simply tap and hold the photo in the carousel. This action opens a private conversation in the Series AI chat, while the personal phone numbers of the interlocutors remain hidden from each other.
The idea for the service originated during their freshman year, when Johnson, studying computer science and economics, and Hargrow, specializing in neuroscience, met while working on a podcast for the Yale Entrepreneurial Society. Interviewing businessmen, they realized the power of warm contacts and decided to use AI as a tool to facilitate such connections. After a year of testing various prototypes and developing the final concept, the eight-person team began seeking funding in March 2025. The launch was accompanied by a viral video on LinkedIn: the students conceived the idea for a trailer at 1 AM, filmed it overnight, published it the next day, and met with their first investor within two days.
Initially, the platform focused exclusively on students, but recently expanded its audience, targeting Generation Z and young professionals. According to Johnson, while the primary use case is related to business contacts, some participants use the service to find friends or romantic acquaintances. Currently, students are using Series in over 750 university campuses. The startup demonstrates impressive engagement metrics: the 30-day retention rate for activated users reaches 82 percent, which, according to the CEO, surpasses early Facebook's metrics.
The emergence of Series reflects a massive technological shift from traditional user interfaces to conversational systems. Johnson compares this transition to the evolution from classic Google search, where one had to scroll through website pages, to direct dialogue with algorithms for quick information retrieval. Investors note that the concept of integrating neural networks from day one gives young founders an advantage over established companies trying to adapt to new market realities. In this developing niche of networking automation, the project already faces competitors, such as the Boardy AI platform.
The raised funds will be directed towards hiring new engineers and expanding the product's functionalities. Despite rapid business growth, the founders decided not to drop out of university, combining company management with exam preparation and essay writing. After graduating from university, the team plans to remain on the East Coast of the USA, betting on development in the so-called "Silicon Alley." Currently, the startup already rents an office in New York's Chelsea district, for work in which students regularly make two-hour commutes from their campus in New Haven.
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