Startup Spotlight #150: Intros.ai
Intros makes personalized introductions between members of your community over Email, Text, or Discord.
Author’s Note: I’m so happy to have reached this milestone of covering 150 startups on Founder to Founder! A big thank you to all of my F2F readers who have stuck with me this far. I wouldn’t have accomplished this feat without you all.
Here’s to more stories of founders making an impact in our world! - Soda
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I got the chance to speak with David Kobrosky, co-founder and CEO of Intros.ai, about what he’s working on at his startup, and any advice he has for emerging entrepreneurs.
"Before diving into the story, I am excited to announce an experiment I will be running in the next few weeks making 1:1 introductions between you all (aka F2F readers). Matches will be made based on similar industry interest (worth 40% of the match), what type of people you’d like to meet (40% of the match ), and years of experience (20% of the match). Fill out this 30-second form to join! or click the button below!"
Early ideas for intros formed when Gary Vaynerchuck flew Kobrosky out to New York and hired him to build products for his creator community. At 19 years old, he learned the ins and outs of digital communities and was fascinated by the way fans found creative ways to connect.
A year later, the pandemic hit, and the world entered a period of loneliness. So, he and his now co-founder Rob started to make 1-on-1 introductions between members of their own community over text messages and helped schedule video chats. Introductions were never random - their algorithm matched people based on shared goals, interests, and personality traits. Over the following months, they automated the whole process and their little project called MeetSunday became the main social life for a handful of users.
By the end of summer 2020, they discovered that other communities were manually introducing their members for conversations using massive spreadsheets. After 100+ interviews with community managers, they started automating their introductions too. That's when MeetSunday became Intros AI, making personalized introductions between members of online communities.
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Startup Spotlight: Intros.ai
Problem: Current social platforms connect you to other people's content, not to other people. In order to meet someone relevant today, you need to scan through Twitter, craft an awkward DM, hope the person responds, and then coordinate a time to chat.
Market: Nearly a billion people are participating in over 30 million online communities on a monthly basis across Facebook groups, Discord, and Reddit alone. We've found these communities are growing ~35% YOY and quite a few are trying to find new ways to monetize.
Solution: Intros makes personalized introductions between members of your community over Email, Text, or Discord. Long term, we're looking to build introduction infrastructure for a variety of use cases.
Team: I've been building communities for nearly a decade and have an engineering/product background at companies like 1Password, DataRobot, and Roll. My co-founder Robert Levy was a lead developer for Goldman Sachs’ commodities trading platform before joining me full-time on Intros this past spring.
Recent Success:
Kobrosky: We do two things well. First, we've built the market's most customizable introduction algorithm. Second, we enable seamless integration into your community. Intros is as simple as filling out a type form and the rest happens over existing communication channels like text message, email, or the DMs of your favorite community platform.
Recent Struggle:
Kobrosky: We've had to say no to a lot of strong features for the sake of simplicity. One example here is a member directory. Multiple clients have requested a directory for their members, but we're afraid it would make the product feel too heavy. Long term, we believe the lighter-touch product will win in this market. It's been tough saying no to some of our best clients, but sometimes we've needed to focus on vision more than customer demands.
Founder Advice:
Kobrosky: Ask yourself who you want to build for, not just who currently likes your product. When it comes to product-market fit, too many founders focus on their existing customers. The more excited you are about the people you're building your product for, the better! There's a chance that if intros targeted large corporations we'd make more money in the short term, but the opportunity simply isn't as exciting (or as fast-growing) as the community space.
Three Cool Founders You Should Know About:
Kobrosky: Here are three founders you should check out next!
Sheridan Clayborne, Founder of Lendtable: Lendtable gives you money to take advantage of your employer's 401(k) match.
Michael Houck, Founder of Launch House: Launch House is a community built to connect and support the world’s most ambitious entrepreneurs and creators.
Nadya Okamoto, Founder of August: Making Period products cool and personalizedWho should I profile next? Leave your suggestion in the comments:
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