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

Series, a social networking app, announced that it raised a $5.1 million pre-seed round, with investors including Venmo co-founder Iqram Magdon-Ismail, Pear VC, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman, and GPTZero founder Edward Tian. The company was founded early last year by Yale students Nathaneo Johnson and Sean Hargrow, both still seniors at the university. 

Series considers itself to be a next-generation social networking platform, rather than an AI app, and hails itself as one of the first to work entirely through iMessage, Johnson, the CEO, told TechCrunch.

Users text a phone number (Series AI) on iMessage, explaining who they are and who they are looking to connect with. From there, Series AI messages the user back, offering what is called “shares”— or a carousel of 10 images that one can easily swipe through — of posts from other people also using Series AI looking to connect for a similar reason. Each carousel card includes a person’s photo and their ask, and users can press and hold the carousel photo to start a private conversation with another user in the Series AI chat, without sharing their personal number. 

Johnson, who is studying computer science and economics, is a founder during a unique time in tech history, marked by rapid AI advancements and more investor money than ever before. He’s part of the next generation of young founders whose businesses and mindsets are AI-first from inception, something investors say gives young founders a head start over incumbents and older founders who are trying to pivot and catch up. 

He sees the industry undergoing a massive technology shift from user interfaces to conversation interfaces, like from Google search to ChatGPT, “where you’re used to scrolling through libraries and clicking on websites versus conversing with AI or something else to quickly identify what you’re looking for.” 

Johnson and Hargrow met while working on a podcast in their freshman year at the Yale Entrepreneurial Society. Johnson said they used to interview founders and CEOs to gain insights into building a successful business, and through those conversations, “realized the power of warm connections.” 

“We then proceeded our freshman summer to start a business independent from the club and incorporate a company around that same thesis, using AI as a warm connection facilitator,” Johnson said. He and Hargrow, who studied neuroscience at Yale, went through multiple iterations of what is now Series. When they landed on a concept they liked, about a year after their first prototype, they began fundraising for it in March 2025, building a team of eight in the process. 

Johnson and his team decided to make a now-viral LinkedIn video about the launch of Series. “We came up with the trailer idea at 1 a.m. the night before, stayed up all night to shoot the video and posted it at 3 p.m. that same day,” Johnson said. Two days later, they met their first investor.

The platform recently opened up beyond its college-student base but still aims to target Gen Z and professionals. Most people use it for business reasons, Johnson said, though they have seen others use it for dating or to find friends. “Students use Series across more than 750 campuses,” he said. “Activated users on Series retain at 82% through Day 30, higher than early Facebook’s benchmark.” 

Others in this space include Boardy AI, which also uses AI to foster network introductions.

Series’ fresh capital will be used to hire more engineers and expand product capabilities. After graduation, the company will stay on the East Coast, and already works out of an office in Chelsea, New York (they make the two-hour commute from New Haven, Connecticut, where Yale is, to New York frequently, Johnson said).

“We have built an initial network for Series amongst the Ivy League and more prominently, schools in the East Coast. Also, we have a strong belief in Silicon Alley,” Johnson said of the decision to stay East, matching a trend of young consumer founders picking New York over Silicon Valley. 

Notably, he and Hargrow have not dropped out of college. Johnson said a good day is one where everything runs smoothly, but a bad one can be one where he has a bunch of exams and essays to write while also balancing running a team. He didn’t drop out, he said, because he felt he had time to both study and run a company. Seems he was right.

“Your extra time outside of your supposed obligation can be used to catapult what you’re truly meant to do,” he said. “People are often so scared to make use of their extra time.”