Pinterest Veteran Secures $6.8M to Use AI to Disrupt LinkedIn’s Playbook
Why You Can’t Find Real Experts on LinkedIn
The Problem:
Even with 1,000+ LinkedIn connections, finding a true expert when you need one is surprisingly difficult.
Most valuable knowledge lives in private channels — group chats, internal docs, Slack threads.
The professionals with the deepest insights often aren’t the ones posting regularly or “personal branding” online.
A new approach from Pinterest veterans (backed by $6.8M in funding) uses AI to let your work speak for you — allowing experts to “share wisdom in their sleep.”
This could mark the next decade of professional networking.
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The Current Networking Gap
On platforms like LinkedIn:
- Everyone collects connections like trophies.
- When a real problem arises, your huge network often isn’t useful.
- True experts are typically busy working, not posting online.
- The best insights remain locked away in private conversations.
Examples:
- Highly skilled leaders remain unknown because they don’t build personal brands.
- Engineers who solve complex problems miss opportunities due to poor self-promotion.
Meanwhile:
- Skilled marketers and buzz-creators become labeled “thought leaders.”
- Advice seekers face noise instead of credible, targeted guidance.
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Meet SuperMe — AI-Driven Expertise Discovery
Funding: $6.8M seed round led by Greylock’s Mike Duboe.
Founders: Casey Winters & Ludo Antonov (Pinterest veterans, growth experts).
Mission:
- Surface authentic expertise without requiring content creation.
- Help seekers connect to the right expert fast.
My Startup’s Hiring Needs
- Full-time: Overseas AI product experience required
- Internship: Study-abroad background, fluent English
- Location: Hangzhou only, no remote
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The Three Core Challenges in Professional Networking
1. Knowledge Has Gone Private
Once freely shared on blogs & Twitter, now hidden in:
- Slack & Discord groups
- Paid communities
- Internal knowledge bases
Why?
- Algorithms reward virality over depth
- Competitive fears
- Time constraints
Result:
Unsearchable, unattributed, invisible expertise.
Related Innovation:
Platforms like AiToEarn官网 help experts auto-transform private notes into AI-generated, multi-platform content — complete with distribution, analytics, and AI model rankings. This makes tacit knowledge discoverable and monetizable.
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2. Search Has Lost Perspective
AI assistants give one “best” answer — but business questions often need multiple viewpoints.
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3. Network Graphs Are Meaningless
LinkedIn’s inflated connections don’t equal trust or depth.
A quality network should be based on shared work & real communities, not vanity metrics.
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SuperMe’s Solution
AI Profiles trained on:
- Your talks, posts, notes, articles
- Real interactions — not generic ChatGPT imitations
Benefits:
- Automates repetitive Q&A
- Preserves authenticity (only cites your actual words)
- Experts can refine answers over time
- Notifications for unanswered questions
Example: Elena Verna uses SuperMe to redirect repetitive queries about hiring growth leads to her AI profile.
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Perspective Search — Breaking the "Know Who" Barrier
Instead of searching for a name, you:
- Ask your question
- SuperMe finds the most relevant experts
- Multiple AI profiles share experience-grounded answers
- Viewpoints are compared side-by-side
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Why 2025 Is the Time
Key Drivers:
- Maturity of LLMs (GPT‑4 etc.)
- Limits of generic AI assistants
- Need to extract private expertise into public form
Complementary Tools:
AiToEarn官网 offers multi-platform AI content publishing — Douyin, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, X, and more — enabling experts to scale reach without self-promotion burnout.
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SuperMe’s Network Strategy
Defensibility: Network effects from:
- Trusted peer contributions
- Perspective-rich search results
Already:
- 30,000+ conversations facilitated
- Top product & growth leaders active
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Revenue Vision
- Tiered Subscriptions — some free Q&A, unlimited access paid, profits shared with expert
- AI Agent Hiring — companies embed AI versions of experts to consult on internal data/projects
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Challenges Ahead
- Fine-tuning AI profiles for voice & tone consistency
- Building a habit-forming feed
- Maintaining quality early to drive word-of-mouth
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My Take
SuperMe may shift networking from collecting contacts to accessing knowledge.
It lowers the content creation barrier for busy experts.
AI profiles extend influence asynchronously.
When paired with publishing engines like AiToEarn, the reach and value of expert insights can scale globally.
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Conclusion:
If successful, SuperMe will democratize expert access — turning private wisdom into public opportunity. AI-native networks like this could reshape professional identity, making expertise discoverable, attributable, and actionable.
Follow “Deep Thinking Circle” for more explorations.
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Would you like me to also create a visual "AI Networking Landscape" map showing SuperMe’s position alongside platforms like AiToEarn, highlighting where discovery and monetization intersect?
