“Series App,” an emerging social media platform that has gained widespread popularity across campus, announced that it has successfully raised $5.1 million in a pre-seed funding round with participation from elite names in the tech sector. The list of strategic investors includes Venmo co-founder Ikram Magdon-Ismail, prestigious venture firm Pear VC, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman, and GPTZero founder Edward Tian.
The company was founded early last year by Nathanio Johnson and Sean Hargrove, both senior undergraduates at prestigious Yale University, who successfully captured investors’ attention with their innovative technical vision.
The next generation of social media platforms
Nathanio Johnson, the company’s CEO, considers his platform to represent a next-generation social network, preferring this precise description over being called a traditional AI app. In statements to TechCrunch, Johnson emphasized that the platform stands out as one of the first networks to operate fully and exclusively through the built-in messaging app on iPhones.
The user experience begins in an innovative and very simple way: users send a text message to a dedicated phone number powered by “Series AI,” explaining their personal or professional identity and the type of people they are looking to connect with. Based on these inputs, the platform’s artificial intelligence responds instantly, offering an innovative feature known as “Posts.”>
These posts take the form of a carousel featuring 10 photos that users can seamlessly browse and swipe through. These cards display posts from other people using the same system who are looking for similar networking goals. Each card in the display strip includes the person’s photo and the request they are looking for, and the system allows users to press and hold a specific photo to start a private conversation via AI chat without needing to share personal phone numbers, ensuring maximum privacy and security.
The founding journey: From student podcast to technical innovation
The story began when Johnson and Hargrove, who studies neuroscience at Yale, met while working together on a podcast during their freshman year within the Yale Entrepreneurship Society. Johnson explained that they were conducting regular interviews with startup founders and CEOs to gain practical insights on how to build successful businesses, and through those deep discussions, they fully realized the power of relationships and effective communication.
“We set out the summer after our freshman year to launch a business independent of the university club, founding a company centered around this very idea, using artificial intelligence as a tool to facilitate building genuine, warm networking relationships.”
The duo went through several development stages and repeated experiments to reach the current version of the “Series App.” About a year after launching their prototype and reaching the ideal concept that won their admiration, they began a fundraising campaign in March 2025, successfully building an 8-person team through the challenging process.
In a bold marketing move, Johnson and his team decided to produce a promotional video via LinkedIn to announce the official launch of the platform, a clip that achieved incredible viral reach. Regarding this experience, Johnson says they came up with the idea for the promotional clip at 1:00 AM, stayed up all night filming it, and posted it at 3:00 PM that same day. Just two days after posting the clip, they met their first investor.
A new vision for the AI era
Johnson, who studies computer science and economics, is a founder in a unique historical phase witnessed by the tech sector, characterized by rapid and successive advancements in artificial intelligence technologies and unprecedented inflows of venture capital.
He represents the next generation of young entrepreneurs whose businesses and mindsets are built on an AI-first principle from the moment of inception. Investors point out that this mindset gives young founders a clear advantage and a major competitive edge compared to incumbent companies and older founders who are now trying to adapt their businesses to catch up with the tech curve.
Johnson believes the entire industry is undergoing a radical technological shift from traditional user interfaces to interactive conversational interfaces—a transformation akin to moving from traditional search engines to advanced conversational models, where the user transitions from scrolling through massive libraries and clicking on websites to speaking directly with artificial intelligence to pinpoint what they are looking for with precision and speed.
Record numbers and astonishing future expansion
Recently, the platform expanded its reach beyond the college student base, though it still targets the younger generation and young professionals. While Johnson notes that most people use the platform for professional and business purposes, it has also been observed being used for other purposes such as making new friends or dating.
Johnson proudly noted that students currently use the platform on more than 750 college campuses worldwide. He added a detail reflecting the platform’s strength, stating that the active user retention rate on their app reaches 82% by day 30 of use, an astonishing figure that outperforms the benchmark metrics achieved by Facebook in its early days.
With competitors in this growing field, such as the AI platform Pardy, the new capital will be directed toward hiring more brilliant engineers and significantly expanding product capabilities to maintain its technological leadership.
Balancing studies and startup management
After graduation, the startup plans to remain on the U.S. East Coast. Notably, they already operate from an administrative office located in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City, where they must make a grueling two-hour commute from New Haven, where their university is located, to New York frequently.
Regarding the decision to stay on the East Coast, Johnson said they built a strong initial network for the app among prestigious Ivy League universities, and more clearly in schools located on the East Coast. They also have a firm belief in the importance of being in New York’s “Silicon Alley,” which aligns with a growing trend among young consumer product founders choosing New York over traditional Silicon Valley.
Most interestingly, Johnson and Hargrove have not dropped out of college, contrary to the common narrative of tech entrepreneurs. Johnson describes a good day as one where everything runs smoothly at work, while a bad day is one crowded with numerous exams and academic essays he must complete, all while trying to balance study demands with managing the company team.
Regarding why he did not drop out of university, he explained that he felt he had enough time to do both, and he seems to have been entirely correct in his decision, proving that extra time outside presumed commitments can be used to forcefully drive a person toward achieving great goals, away from fear and hesitation.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the “Series App” and how does it work?
It is a modern social media platform that relies entirely on artificial intelligence and operates through the built-in messaging app on smartphones. It allows users to connect safely and privately by browsing profile cards without needing to share personal phone numbers.
How much funding did the company recently secure?
The startup secured funding in a pre-seed round worth $5.1 million, with the participation of an elite group of prominent tech leaders and investors around the world.
Who are the founders of this innovative app?
The platform was founded early last year by young entrepreneurs Nathanio Johnson and Sean Hargrove, both of whom are senior undergraduate students at prestigious Yale University.
How does the new app outperform traditional social platforms?
The app has recorded exceptional engagement levels, maintaining an 82% retention rate of active users through day 30 of usage, figures that exceed the benchmarks achieved by major platforms like Facebook in their beginnings.
