In a world increasingly dominated by professional networks built for polished résumés and corporate jargon, Nathaneo Johnson, a 21-year-old junior at Yale University, is challenging the very architecture of online careers. With the launch of his AI-powered platform, Series, Johnson has raised $3.1 million in seed funding to take on tech giants like LinkedIn—armed with a bold vision and fresh Gen Z sensibility.
Series isn’t just another networking app. It’s an intelligent platform that reimagines what a professional journey looks like in the age of AI, portfolio careers, and digital storytelling. And in Johnson’s hands, it may be the most generationally resonant attempt yet to disrupt a space long dominated by outdated formats.
The Problem with LinkedIn? “It’s Not Us.”
Ask Johnson what inspired Series, and he doesn’t hesitate: “LinkedIn is a place where my peers feel like they have to pretend. It’s a performance, not a profile.”
According to the Yale student—who double majors in Computer Science and Cognitive Science—the professional world is undergoing a seismic shift. More people are building hybrid identities: part coder, part creator; part marketer, part activist. But legacy platforms haven’t evolved to capture these nuanced journeys.
“Series is about showing the whole you—not just where you work, but what you’re building, learning, failing at, and dreaming of,” he says.
What Is Series?
Series is a next-gen, AI-powered career platform designed to reflect the way Gen Z lives and grows professionally. Think of it as a living, breathing journal of your learning curve, creative projects, failed experiments, and micro-achievements—not just job titles and bullet points.
Core Features:
- Dynamic Career Storylines: Users build ongoing “series” documenting everything from launching a startup to mastering a new language, interning at a nonprofit, or recovering from a failed idea.
- AI Career Architect: A built-in assistant helps users map potential futures, suggests collaborators, and recommends skills based on goals, activity, and strengths.
- Show-Not-Tell Portfolios: Instead of listing achievements, users upload work in progress—snippets of code, sketches, pitch decks, videos, or research notes.
- Interactive Kudos System: Feedback comes in the form of constructive reactions, collaboration requests, and skill endorsements—designed to avoid vanity metrics like “likes.”
- Mentorship Matching: An AI algorithm pairs users with mentors based on learning trajectory, not prestige—favoring relevance and intent over résumés.
Series also offers privacy-first design principles. Users can control who sees which parts of their journey, with modes for peers, mentors, recruiters, and the public.
The $3.1M Backing—and Who’s Betting on Him
The $3.1 million seed round was led by Dorm Room Fund and Bedrock Capital, with participation from ex-Pinterest product leads, TikTok creators, and a surprising group of public high school teachers turned angel investors, all aligned with Johnson’s mission to democratize opportunity.
The backing is a testament to the belief that Johnson’s idea taps into a deep frustration felt by a new workforce that no longer fits into traditional molds.
Investors say they see Series not just as a startup, but as a social protocol for how people represent work in a world where résumés are increasingly irrelevant.
A Yale Prodigy with a Story of His Own
Born and raised in Newark, New Jersey, Johnson credits his early tech interest to a school Chromebook and the open-source coding community. He taught himself JavaScript at 13, built his first productivity app at 15, and interned with an edtech firm by 17.
At Yale, he became known not just for his academic performance, but for mentoring underclassmen and running weekend hackathons aimed at non-CS majors.
Peers describe him as a “builder-philosopher”—someone equally comfortable debating ethical AI as he is prototyping a career discovery engine in a dorm basement.
The idea for Series first took shape when Johnson couldn’t find an internship platform that allowed him to tell his story without sandpapering the messy parts. “I wanted a place where I could be in process—not just polished.”
Traction and What’s Next
Though the platform is still in private beta, early numbers are promising:
- 17,000 waitlist sign-ups, 60% of them Gen Z students and young professionals
- Over 2,000 micro-series already created during closed tests
- Pilot partnerships with three HBCUs and two community college networks
- Invitations to pitch at SXSW Edu and TechCrunch Student Startup Battlefield
Johnson plans to open Series to the public by Q4 2025, with mobile apps and Chrome extensions launching simultaneously. He also teased an “AI coach” that will help users turn their experiences into compelling narratives for jobs, funding, or co-founder pitches.
Why It Matters: Rewriting the Career Narrative
The Series philosophy flips the career narrative from “where have you been?” to “where are you going, and how are you evolving?” In doing so, it removes shame from detours, failure, and experimentation—offering a more humane, inclusive, and flexible model for what it means to build a life.
It also directly appeals to the creator economy, where many Gen Z workers don’t have traditional résumés but instead juggle freelance work, side hustles, self-study, and community projects.