Speed is everything in startups, and Nathaneo Johnson and Sean Hargrow learned that first hand. In just 14 days, Yale Juniors of 21 years raised $ 3 million for its networks with AI, Series.
But its history goes beyond a fast fund collection round: these are two young black founders who sail for an industry in which people like them are still sub -present.
“We are 6’5”, Black and Technical, a direct sheet of Harvard’s story, “says Johnson, referring to the Facebook’s history of origin.” And that difference is the reason why the series tells a new story of how people connect online. “
Johnson and Hargrow jumped into the world of entrepreneurship with the deep belief that artificial intelligence can reinvent how people build online relationships. They believed that the professional network faces an important problem because social networks platforms are full of meaningless numbers and useless connections.
The series was born from that belief: a platform created to challenge social networks inherited by facilitating significant connections through AI.
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Luck ‘fortuito’
Johnson, computer and economy student, and Hargrow, a neuroscience student, did not go to the totally blind venture. They hosted He Founders series podcast, where they interviewed successful founders and entrepreneurs, focusing on university entrepreneurship.
A common theme arose in those interviews: the importance of luck.
“Luck is what led to its first financier, the first client, his first investor,” says Johnson Entrepreneur. “Then we think, This is something fortuitous, but it ends up being the manufacturer of the difference. How could we design that luck?“
That idea became the Foundation for the series. Its platform uses AI -promoted agents, or “Friends of AI”, to facilitate presentations. Instead of trusting cold dissemination or casual meetings, as would do it on LinkedIn, the series users train their AIsage AI agents to understand their needs and connect them with the appropriate people in their extended network.
In other words, users can send text messages and train their “friend AI” and describe the type of connection they need, be it a co -founder, inverter, mentor or friend, and the AI seeks the series network to find an adequate coincidence.
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The Anti-Facebook or the next human connection metric?
The series offers a fresh solution and “antifacebook” to social networks. He is not trying to be a newer and fresher Facebook: he is trying to fix what Facebook and other platforms are wrong. While traditional social networks focus on sharing content and publishing about you, the series is based on private presentations. “Social networks are excellent for transmission, but it doesn’t necessarily help you meet the right people at the right time,” says Johnson.
Image credit: series
Instead of transmitting followers or healing content, the series is building what Johnson describes as “the next iteration of the human connection.” Traditional platforms, he says, are rooted in networks and presentation.
“You are publishing photos on Instagram, you are publishing videos on Tiktok, and you are publishing LinkedIn work publications … And that’s where you essentially have this microinfluencers syndrome,” says Johnson.
In other words, existing platforms, whether intentionally or not, press users to seem polished and cure publications. The users of the series interact with intelligent friends of AI who “can know you at an intimate level” and allow true authenticity.
Instead of projecting an image, users can receive guidance and support based on their true personalities. They can then be paired with real people who could become mentors or friends.
“We are not trying to replace real world relationships, we are trying to facilitate people to find the right relationships first,” says Hargrow.
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The fundraising battle
Johnson and Hargrow come from different parts of the country: Irvine, California and Queens, New York, respectively, but found a common land in Yale, where both were attracted to entrepreneurship.
Johnson has been building things since childhood, including the manufacture of sticks for people with visual disabilities when he was 8 years old. Hargrow, a former athlete, saw the starting life as the closest thing to the routine and the unpredictability of sports.
The two understand how to tell a convincing story to sell an starting idea. What began with cold emails and warm introductions quickly became a launching course, learning from initial “us” and discovering how to sell more than a product.
They stayed with their nucleus and positioned the series as the next step in the human connection. They also learned to present series with “ethical confidence.”
“If I approach a girl, I’m not going to say: ‘Well, I’m fine, but there are also many hot types,” says Hargrow. “I’m going to find a way to tell you ethically that I am the best guy.”
Image credit: series
In Yale, the two have immersed themselves in the business ecosystem of the university, joining start clubs and in networks with other founders. They quickly realized that success was not just intelligence or hard work. Access played a very important role.
“Being in Yale gives us an unprecedented level of access to the networks that we would not have had otherwise,” says Hargrow.
A fundamental connection led Anne Lee Skates, a well -known investor in the Bay area. After an impulsive decision to take a flight 36 hours later to California and a dinner that sealed the agreement, it became its main investor.
Then, the impulse collected. They met with risk capital groups in the Bay area, and in two weeks, they obtained $ 3 million in funds, attracting investors eager to bet on the future of networks with AI.
“That dinner changed everything,” says Hargrow. “I will always remember it as a one million dollars, literally.
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‘Do not cancel anyone’
For Johnson and Hargrow, two young black founders, the construction series has always been more than just technology. It is about representation, access and creation of the type of connections that would have had as children.
“When I was younger, I didn’t see many people I could admire because they didn’t look like me or built what I was building,” says Johnson. “I can see my childhood admiring now.”
As communication changes to the interactions assisted by AI-AI, Johnson and Hargrow overshadow that people will adopt a platform that prioritizes a genuine connection instead of overloaded online people.
“Don’t cancel anyone,” says Hargrow. “By building a platform that is based on you Literally do not take someone’s nominal value But actually get to who they are … that requires someone who has the idea of never ruling out anyone. “
This article is part of our ongoing Young Entrepreneur® series that highlights the stories, challenges and triumphs of being a Young business owners.
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