| Upstream is a new breed of professional networking platform that goes beyond LinkedIn and helps professionals make ‘meaningful’ connections. “You don’t go to LinkedIn to meet people. You don’t hang out and spend meaningful time there,” said Alex Taub, co-founder and CEO of Upstream. $2.75M seed round. The company recently raised $2.75 million in a seed round led by Ibex Investors and including 8-Bit Capital, Human Ventures, NYVP and Converge Venture Partners. Hosting digital events. One way Upstream helps members make connections is by hosting digital events which are led by a speaker and followed by breakout sessions that are set up by the company to connect the speaker with a few other members. It’s an interesting concept but is not an entirely new one in the professional networking market. We wrote a story here at The Scroll back in December 2020 about Cooper.app, another company looking to go beyond LinkedIn in connecting professionals. Upstream now has more than 200 communities each with around 15-500 members each based on our brief review of their website. According to Techcrunch, about 75% of the people who attend their first Upstream event come back for a second one. Founders. The company was founded by Alex Taub and co-founder Michael Schonfeld. They previously built and sold Social Rank for an undisclosed amount before launching Upstream in October 2020. “When COVID-19 hit and the job market took a dive last March, the number of requests for help I received increased 100X. I noticed quickly that my speed of responding to emails and brain capacity to connect the dots became the limiting factor in getting people help,” he said. Upstream is an interesting place to go to make new virtual connections, but it will be interesting to see how it weathers the post-pandemic environment. |
Easy peasy to share this story with your peeps
