Two college kids raise a $5.1 million pre-seed to build an AI social network in iMessage

Series, a societal networking app, announced that it raised a $5.1 cardinal pre-seed round, with investors including Venmo co-founder Iqram Magdon-Ismail, Pear VC, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman, and GPTZero laminitis Edward Tian. The institution was founded aboriginal past twelvemonth by Yale students Nathaneo Johnson and Sean Hargrow, some inactive seniors astatine the university. 

Series considers itself to beryllium a next-generation societal networking platform, alternatively than an AI app, and hails itself arsenic 1 of the archetypal to enactment wholly done iMessage, Johnson, the CEO, told TechCrunch.

Users substance a telephone fig (Series AI) connected iMessage, explaining who they are and who they are looking to link with. From there, Series AI messages the idiosyncratic back, offering what is called “shares”— oregon a carousel of 10 images that 1 tin easy swipe done — of posts from different radical besides utilizing Share AI looking to link for a akin reason. Each carousel paper includes a person’s photograph and their ask, and users tin property and clasp the carousel photograph to commencement a backstage speech with different idiosyncratic successful the Series AI chat, without sharing their idiosyncratic number. 

Johnson, who is studying machine subject and economics, is simply a laminitis during a unsocial clip successful tech history, marked by accelerated AI advancements and much capitalist wealth than ever before. He’s portion of the adjacent procreation of young founders whose businesses and mindsets are AI-first from inception, thing investors accidental gives young founders a caput commencement implicit incumbents and older founders who are trying to pivot and drawback up. 

He sees the manufacture undergoing a monolithic exertion displacement from idiosyncratic interfaces to speech interfaces, similar from Google hunt to ChatGPT, “where you’re utilized to scrolling done libraries and clicking connected websites versus conversing with AI oregon thing other to rapidly place what you’re looking for.” 

Johnson and Hargrow met portion moving connected a podcast successful their freshman twelvemonth astatine the Yale Entrepreneurial Society. Johnson said they utilized to interrogation founders and CEOs to summation insights into gathering a palmy business, and done those conversations, “realized the powerfulness of lukewarm connections.” 

“We past proceeded our freshman summertime to commencement a concern autarkic from the nine and incorporated a institution astir that aforesaid thesis, utilizing AI arsenic a lukewarm transportation facilitator,” Johnson said. He and Hargrow, who studied neuroscience astatine Yale, went done aggregate iterations of what is present Series. When they landed connected a conception they liked, astir a twelvemonth aft their archetypal prototype, they began fundraising for it successful March 2025, gathering a squad of 8 successful the process. 

Johnson and his squad decided to marque a now-viral LinkedIn video astir the motorboat of Series. “We came up with the trailer thought astatine 1 a.m. the nighttime before, stayed up each nighttime to sprout the video and posted it astatine 3 p.m. that aforesaid day,” Johnson said. Two days later, they met their archetypal investor.

The level precocious opened up beyond its college-student basal but inactive aims to people Gen Z and professionals. Most radical usage it for concern reasons, Johnson said, though they person seen others usage it for dating oregon to find friends. “Students usage Series crossed much than 750 campuses,” helium said. “Activated users connected Series clasp astatine 82% done Day 30, higher than aboriginal Facebook’s benchmark.” 

Others successful this space see Boardy AI, which besides uses AI to foster web introductions.

Series’s caller superior volition beryllium utilized to prosecute much engineers and grow merchandise capabilities. After graduation, the institution volition enactment connected the East Coast, and already works retired of an bureau successful Chelsea, New York (they marque the 2 hr commute from New Haven, Connecticut, wherever Yale is, to New York frequently, Johnson said).

“We person built an archetypal web for Series amongst the Ivy League and much prominently, schools successful the East Coast. Also, we person a beardown content successful Silicon Alley,” Johnson said of the determination to enactment East, matching a inclination of young user founders picking New York implicit Silicon Valley. 

Notably, helium and Hargrow have not dropped retired of college. Johnson said a bully time is 1 wherever everything runs smoothly, but a atrocious 1 tin beryllium 1 wherever helium has a clump of exams and essays to constitute portion besides balancing moving a team. He didn’t driblet out, helium said, due to the fact that helium felt helium had clip to some survey and tally a company. Seems helium was right.

“Your other clip extracurricular of your expected work tin beryllium utilized to catapult what you’re genuinely meant to do,” helium said. “People are often truthful frightened to marque usage of their other time.”