The Linkedin for zoomers is what Pineapple hopes to become
The platform landed $1.1 million in the pre-seed round in April
Pineapple aims to become an app to reinvent the professional networking for zoomers. With Pineapple, young professionals will have a way to network with others via a visual story profile that functions almost like a digital portfolio. The platform is only available on iOS.
David Diamond, the CEO and co-founder of Pineapple, is 22 years old and came up with the idea for the professional network while working as a product design intern at Intercom when he was 15 years old. Diamond was first turned down by Intercom after submitting a conventional paper CV and being told he was too young. Diamond claims he was successful after enhancing his portfolio and resume.
In 2020, Diamond and Oliver Cruise created Pineapple with the goal of modernising networking for zoomers. Pineapple is now poised to grow after finishing a beta test with 10,000 users.
Diamond claims that Pineapple’s main emphasis is on user profiles, which provide users the opportunity to express themselves aesthetically in order to promote deeper and meaningful interactions. They present a user’s introduction, experience, projects and other information in a way that is comparable to a visual story, the app’s profiles resemble both Linkedin and Instagram.
Communities, another important Pineapple feature, are created to help users find others who share their interests. For a range of topics, including VCs, marketers, and designers, there are specialist forums. By looking through the member director for each community, you can make contact with specific individuals.
The app has a ‘For You’ option that was developed in response to TikTok and is designed to keep you in touch with your contacts.
Diamond contends that despite some people considering Pineapple to be the Linkedin for zoomers, it still has a ways to go before attempting to compete with Linkedin. At the moment, Pineapple is more interested in helping people network than Linkedin is. Diamond says users can use Pineapple to network with their peers, learn new skills, and find collaborators for their side projects, whereas some young users use Linkedin to find mentors.
A $1.1 million pre-seed round of funding for Pineapple was jointly led by F7 Ventures and 500 Global in April.
