Zoe Berg

Over half a million messages have already been exchanged on Series, an app founded by two Yale juniors that connects users through an AI companion.

Created by CEO Nathaneo Johnson ’26 and COO Sean Hargrow ’26, Series asks users what kind of person they want to meet — socially or professionally — and pairs them with another compatible user through conversations hosted in iMessage.

“The ability to connect with anyone, and then within that, find the security and privacy of a one-on-one conversation with an AI, allows them to be more honest about who they’re looking for,” Johnson said. “In a private conversation, people are more honest and open with their feelings, so they describe more or less exactly what they’re looking for.”

Since its beta release in March, the platform has drawn more than 300,000 profiles, with its founders now seeking to expand the operation as they enter their senior year at Yale.

While the app can be used by anyone, its primary audience has been college students. Johnson and Hargrow said they view their commitment as long-term, hoping one day to bring the company to the stock market. For now, they are focused on growing the app’s user base and refining its technology.

“If we can just hire right and prioritize correctly, and listen to people using the product, we’ll get to our end goal one day,” Hargrow said.

Johnson and Hargrow said managing Series alongside their studies has been difficult. The pace of the startup has forced them to reevaluate how they spend their time.

“Although we’re on a mission for humanity, to reinvent and reimagine how our generation will be connecting into our later stages of adulthood,” Hargrow said, “our relationships are kind of falling by the wayside, whether it’s the ones we value the most, like mothers and girlfriends, all the way to the people that we’re able to meet.”

Reality TV in the Hamptons

Over the summer, Series hosted a reality television show, called “The Series,” in East Hampton, N.Y. Through LinkedIn and TikTok, the company recruited 12 students from across the country with entrepreneurial ideas and invited them to spend a week competing in challenges.

Some activities centered on their startup projects, while others, such as blindfolded obstacle courses, were designed to test teamwork and adaptability. A winner was selected based on the growth each contestant demonstrated from the beginning of the program.

“It was a pretty big project,” Fianko Buckle, Series’ chief technology officer since July, said. “None of us have really been involved in reality TV before, so it was definitely an experience.”

Buckle described how most of the Series team stayed in an Airbnb near the filming location, working throughout the week and taking part in the show here and there.

The reality TV show was a way to “put Series out there” and highlight how Series can get people “connected with others instantly,” Buckle said.

“We’re gonna start releasing those episodes, and hopefully whatever clips come out will go viral on Twitch and TikTok, and our goal of reaching a million profiles can be done with that level of impression throughout the first month of school,” Hargrow said.

David Ebosele was a contestant on the Series reality TV show. Ebosele, a student at the University of Michigan’s College of Engineering, thought the reality show would be a good opportunity to make connections and explore the world of entrepreneurship further.

On the show, Ebosele pitched a startup called Bazaar, which he described as a Facebook marketplace targeted at college students. Bazaar is in the very early stages of development, but Ebosele said he still valued the experience of meeting other contestants on the show.

“The most interesting part was just seeing people my age will be so successful,” Ebosele said. “So it was just pretty inspirational.”

Startup and studies

Over the past year, Johnson and Hargrow have traveled to colleges across the country to promote Series. Their visits typically last several days and include speaking at events, tabling on sidewalks and working with student clubs.

They’ve seen success particularly at large state schools with entrepreneurship programs, where students might not have easily available resources to connect them to parts of the startup world, Johnson said.

At Yale, though, usage has been more limited. Hargrow suggested this may be due to the heavy demands on students’ time.

“I think it’s because we are some of the busiest college students there are, right?” Hargrow said.

As they begin their senior year, Johnson and Hargrow said running a company from Yale has given them unique advantages. They pointed to access to alumni networks and opportunities to engage directly with students who represent their core users.

“It’s very convenient to know we exist in the audience we’re serving,” Hargrow said. “It puts us immediately out of touch with our users once we separate ourselves by disenrolling.”

A lot of startup founders “realize that college might be hindersome,” he added, “but I think that in our rare case, it’s only a bonus.”

Hargrow noted that some startup leaders, such as investor Peter Thiel, dismiss the value of a college degree. He disagrees, adding that Yale has helped him and Johnson form connections with other entrepreneurs, including alumni they once interviewed on a Yale Entrepreneurial Society podcast.

Johnson added that being Yale students also lends credibility to their venture, a quality he believes can support future growth. The team works primarily from New York City but sometimes coordinates remotely to accommodate their class schedules.

Johnson and Hargrow spoke about their Yale coursework, reflecting on how it has impacted their work at Series. Hargrow, a neuroscience major, noted that while his experience in wet and dry labs is less directly applicable, his work with behavioral psychology and social neuroscience are helpful.

“I think that’s feeding directly into how we approach branding, marketing, the integral network effect within the systems we’re engineering,” Hargrow said.

Johnson, a computer science and economics double major, said he believes the combination of both has given him tools to optimize Series’ code while considering its business model.

While they described Yale’s entrepreneurial culture as smaller than at schools like Stanford or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, they said the community they found has been valuable. As seniors, they hope to mentor underclassmen interested in startups.

Johnson said that, though he and Hargrow remain committed to their studies, they have committed a lot of time to Series that could have been spent getting involved in different clubs and organizations on campus.

Johnson added that as the company grows, he hopes he and Hargrow will have more flexibility to enjoy the process and spend time with people they care about.

Regardless, the hard work will continue — probably for their entire entrepreneurial careers, Hargrow said.

“We’re still kind of in the gutter,” Hargrow said. “But I think that if you don’t love what you’re doing, why do it?”
The Series co-founders raised $3.1 million for the startup in the spring.