Pace is every part in startups, and Nathaneo Johnson and Sean Hargrow discovered that firsthand. In simply 14 days, the 21-year-old Yale juniors raised $3 million for his or her AI-powered networking platform, Series.
However their story goes past a quick fundraising spherical — it is about two younger Black founders navigating an trade the place folks like them are still underrepresented.
“We’re 6’5″, Black and technical — a direct foil to the Harvard story,” Johnson says, referencing Facebook’s origin story. “And that distinction is the explanation Sequence tells a brand new story of how folks join on-line.”
Johnson and Hargrow jumped into the world of entrepreneurship with the deep perception that synthetic intelligence can reimagine how folks construct relationships on-line. They believed that skilled networking faces a serious difficulty as a result of social media platforms are stuffed with meaningless numbers and futile connections.
Sequence was born from that perception: a platform constructed to problem legacy social networks by facilitating significant connections through AI.
Associated: One Question Changed This Entrepreneur’s Life — Now She’s Leading a Movement for Women in Music
‘Serendipitous’ luck
Johnson, a pc science and economics main, and Hargrow, a neuroscience main, weren’t going into entrepreneurship completely blind. They hosted The Founder Series podcast, the place they interviewed profitable founders and entrepreneurs, specializing in school entrepreneurship.
One frequent theme emerged in these interviews: the significance of luck.
“Luck is what led to their first funder, the primary buyer, their first investor,” Johnson tells Entrepreneur. “So we thought, that is considerably serendipitous, but it surely finally ends up being the difference-maker. How might we engineer that luck?“
That concept turned the foundation for Series. Their platform makes use of AI-driven brokers, or “AI pals,” to facilitate introductions. Somewhat than counting on cold outreach or probability conferences, like one would do on LinkedIn, Sequence’ customers practice their AI brokers on iMessage to know their wants and join them with the fitting folks of their prolonged community.
In different phrases, customers can textual content and practice their “AI good friend” and describe the type of connection they want — whether or not it is a cofounder, investor, mentor or good friend — and the AI then searches the Sequence community to discover a appropriate match.
Associated: How AI Is Democratizing Innovation and Entrepreneurship
The anti-Fb or the subsequent metric of human connection?
Sequence gives a contemporary, “anti-Fb” answer to social networking. It is not making an attempt to be a more moderen, cooler Fb — it is making an attempt to repair what Fb and different platforms get unsuitable. Whereas conventional social media focuses on sharing content material and posting about yourself, Sequence is constructed round non-public introductions. “Social media is nice for broadcasting, but it surely does not essentially show you how to meet the fitting folks on the proper time,” Johnson says.
Picture credit score: Sequence
Somewhat than broadcasting to followers or curating content material, Sequence is constructing what Johnson describes as “the subsequent iteration of human connection.” Conventional platforms, he says, are rooted in networks and presentation.
“You are posting photos on Instagram, you are posting movies on TikTok, and also you’re posting job posts on LinkedIn… and that is the place you basically have this micro-influencer syndrome,” Johnson says.
In different phrases, present platforms — whether or not deliberately or not — stress customers to appear polished and curate posts. Sequence’ customers work together with sentient AI pals who “can get to know you on an intimate stage” and permit for true authenticity.
Somewhat than projecting a picture, customers can obtain steerage and assist based mostly on their true personalities. They will then be matched with actual individuals who may turn out to be mentors or pals.
“We’re not making an attempt to switch real-world relationships — we’re making an attempt to make it simpler for folks to seek out the fitting relationships within the first place,” Hargrow says.
Associated: Is Social Media Making You Less Social and More Lonely?
The fundraising battle
Johnson and Hargrow come from completely different components of the nation — Irvine, California, and Queens, New York, respectively — however discovered frequent floor at Yale, the place each had been drawn to entrepreneurship.
Johnson has been constructing issues since childhood, together with making strolling sticks for visually impaired folks when he was 8. Hargrow, a former athlete, noticed startup life because the closest factor to the grind and unpredictability of sports activities.
The 2 perceive the best way to inform a compelling story to be able to promote a startup concept. What began with chilly emails and heat intros shortly was a crash course in pitching, studying from preliminary “nos” and determining the best way to promote greater than only a product.
They caught with their core and positioned Sequence as the subsequent step in human connection. In addition they discovered to current Sequence with “moral confidence.”
“If I’m approaching a lady, I am not going to inform her, ‘Effectively, I am okay, however there are numerous scorching guys on the market as nicely,'” Hargrow says. “I’ll discover a method to ethically inform her I am the perfect man ever.”
Picture credit score: Sequence
At Yale, the 2 have immersed themselves within the college’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, becoming a member of startup golf equipment and networking with different founders. They shortly realized that success wasn’t nearly intelligence or laborious work. Entry performed an enormous function.
“Being at Yale provides us an unprecedented stage of entry to networks we would not have had in any other case,” Hargrow says.
One pivotal connection led to Anne Lee Skates, a widely known Bay Space investor. After an impulsive determination to take a flight 36 hours later to California and a dinner that sealed the deal, she turned their lead investor.
Then, momentum picked up. They met with VC teams within the Bay Space, and inside two weeks, they secured $3 million in funding, attracting buyers wanting to wager on the way forward for AI-powered networking.
“That dinner modified every part,” Hargrow says. “I am going to at all times keep in mind it as a million-dollar dinner, fairly actually.”
Associated: I Wish I Received This Advice as a Young Entrepreneur
‘Do not write anybody off’
For Johnson and Hargrow, two younger Black founders, constructing Sequence has at all times been about extra than simply tech. It is about illustration, entry and creating the type of connections they want they’d had as youngsters.
“After I was youthful, I did not see lots of people who I might look as much as as a result of they did not appear like me or construct what I used to be constructing,” Johnson says. “I can see my childhood self wanting as much as me now.”
As communication shifts towards AI-assisted interactions, Johnson and Hargrow are betting that individuals will embrace a platform that prioritizes real connection as a substitute of over-curated on-line personas.
“Do not write anybody off,” Hargrow says. “In constructing a platform that depends on you actually not taking somebody’s face worth however truly attending to who they’re… that requires somebody who’s down with the concept of by no means writing anybody off.”
This text is a part of our ongoing Younger Entrepreneur® sequence highlighting the tales, challenges and triumphs of being a younger enterprise proprietor.
