Peerlist Raised $1.1M to Build The Most Credible Professional Network
Today we're thrilled to announce we’ve raised $1.1M in a seed round led by Dharmesh Shah and other prominent investors.
Today we're thrilled to announce we've raised $1.1M in seed from a group of investors led by Dharmesh Shah (Co-founder and CTO of HubSpot), Manoj Gupta (Founder and CEO of Plotch.ai), Kumar Puspesh (Co-founder and CTO, Moonfrog), Suumit Shah (Co-founder and CEO of Dukaan), and Mohan Rao (entrepreneur and angel investor).
Our Origin Story
18 months ago, Yogini and I started Peerlist as a side project to effectively showcase our proof of work, a problem we faced firsthand. We realized that LinkedIn, a prominent Professional Network, is not catering effectively to the current generation of professionals.
To make the matter worse, it is slowly turning into a social network full of spammy content on the feed, controlled by an engagement-driven algorithm. We believed (and more so than ever) that a professional profile has to be more than job titles, past companies, and education; it has to be proof of work.
We launched our closed beta in August 2021. Back then, it was just a simple work profile. But Peerlist users loved it and started using it as their primary portfolio and sharing it with recruiters and hiring managers while applying for open roles.
We ended 2021 with an angel investment from Vishwesh and Akshay of SifarVC. In the year 2022, we started building Peerlist full-time.
Path forward
We're here to change the notion of the professional network from content to career, from influencers, to professionals, and from popularity to credibility.
We are heading towards building the world's most inclusive, authentic, and enriching network of professionals and organizations.
We aim to firmly establish Peerlist as the premier destination for verified professionals, replacing every LinkedIn profile with a Peerlist profile. Furthermore, we plan to significantly advance three other key areas within 6-12 months.
1. Going mobile and staying more connected.
We ensure you do not miss that life-changing opportunity from your dream company or a potential hire to close that open role. Stay connected with your network, as Peerlist will be available at your fingertips.
2. Supporting the needs of teams and recruiters.
The next phase for Peerlist sees us building for companies with an emphasis on employer branding, hiring, and collaboration. We've already launched Peerlist Hire, enabling recruiters to post open roles and hire the most (in)credible talent. In addition, we're building a strong hiring vertical to help companies hire vetted, verified, and proven talent.
We will be rolling out early access for Company Profile soon. If you want your company to be part of our first cohort, contact me at akash[@]peerlist.io
3. Invest in the community.
Peerlist's success is mainly due to the support of its community. Without the community, it's very unlikely that a team of 5 could have been able to build this platform. We will continue to build in public.
Lastly, we're excited to build more of the features you've been asking for, including custom domain support and more ways of sharing work on Peerlist Scroll. Stay tuned for more.
Now back to the funding news. This funding gave us financial resources and the valuable opportunity to receive mentorship from prominent figures to help us reach our above objectives and beyond.
As we strive to create a world-class company, we simultaneously focus on building a successful business.
On a closing note, we would like to thank
All the beta users who gave feedback helped fix bugs in the early version of Peerlist without complaining.
To all our peers, friends, and super peers who always boosted our confidence.
Our investors, who believed in our vision and put a bet on us!
We appreciate all the support we've received from everyone who spread the word about Peerlist on Twitter, told their friends and colleagues, and helped us in every possible way.
Upwards and onwards 🚀
