College founders raise $5.1M for AI social network in iMessage

A new social networking platform built entirely within iMessage has raised $5.1 million in pre-seed funding, attracting notable investors including Venmo co-founder Iqram Magdon-Ismail, Pear VC, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman, and GPTZero founder Edward Tian. The company, called Series, was founded early last year by Yale students Nathaneo Johnson and Sean Hargrow, both of whom are still seniors at the university.

Series positions itself as a next-generation social networking platform rather than an AI app, and it claims to be one of the first to operate entirely through iMessage, according to Johnson, who serves as CEO. Users simply text a phone number labeled “Series AI” on iMessage, describing who they are and whom they hope to meet. The AI then responds with what the company calls “shares” , a carousel of 10 images that users can swipe through , featuring posts from other Series AI users looking to connect for similar reasons. Each card includes a person’s photo and their request, and users can press and hold the image to start a private conversation directly within the Series AI chat, without revealing their personal phone number.

Johnson, who is studying computer science and economics, is building his company during a unique moment in tech history, defined by rapid AI progress and unprecedented investor capital. He represents a new wave of young founders whose businesses and mindsets are AI-first from inception, a quality that investors believe gives them a head start over incumbents and older founders trying to pivot and catch up.

He sees the industry undergoing a major shift from user interfaces to conversation interfaces, comparing it to the transition 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 explained.

Johnson and Hargrow met while working on a podcast during their freshman year at the Yale Entrepreneurial Society. Johnson said they interviewed founders and CEOs to learn about building successful businesses, and through those conversations, “realized the power of warm connections.” They spent their freshman summer starting a business independent from the club and incorporated a company around that same idea, using AI as a facilitator for warm introductions. Johnson and Hargrow, who studied neuroscience at Yale, went through multiple iterations before landing on the concept that became Series. About a year after their first prototype, they began fundraising in March 2025, building a team of eight along the way.

Johnson and his team created a now-viral LinkedIn video to announce 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 expanded beyond its initial college-student base, but still targets Gen Z and professionals. Most users engage with Series for business purposes, Johnson said, though some have used it for dating or finding friends. “Students use Series across more than 750 campuses,” he noted. “Activated users on Series retain at 82% through Day 30, higher than early Facebook’s benchmark.”

Other players in this space include Boardy AI, which also uses AI to facilitate network introductions.

Series plans to use its fresh capital to hire more engineers and expand product capabilities. After graduation, the company will remain on the East Coast, operating out of an office in Chelsea, New York. Johnson said they frequently make the two-hour commute from New Haven, Connecticut, where Yale is located, to New York. “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, reflecting a trend of young consumer founders choosing New York over Silicon Valley.

Notably, Johnson and Hargrow have not dropped out of college. Johnson described a good day as one where everything runs smoothly, while a bad day might involve juggling exams and essays alongside running a team. He chose not to drop out because he felt he had time to both study and run a company. “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.”