There were difficulties along the way to the Series. Johnson created the well-known Yale student orientation software Mix26 while still a freshman.
But a university administrator told him he didn’t “have what it takes to be a builder.”
Unfazed, he and Hargrow started The Founder Series Podcast, which has over 500,000 views and includes interviews with student entrepreneurs.
Initially a popular web chatbot that matched users based on shared values, that momentum developed into an early iteration of Series.
The AI Friend model and, eventually, the venture-backed Series were created as a result of the idea’s rapid success.
A LinkedIn clip that led to a conversation with Anne Lee Skates marked the start of their viral fundraising quest.
