Boardy: The Future of Networking

In my 15 years in venture, I've never seen anything like it. While we regularly encounter incredible companies and founders, Boardy left me speechless. Within an hour, all of our partners had connected with Boardy and received calls. We were convinced we had to invest without seeing a pitch deck or even speaking to a human! Could this be the first autonomous AI fundraise?

What makes Boardy so exciting is that it sits at the intersection of 2 massive opportunities - voice AI and networking. As Andrew D’Souza the creator and self-confessed mad scientist behind Boardy explains, we are on the verge of conversational singularity - where speaking with AI is as good, if not better than speaking with a human. While spoken word is our most natural form of communication, technology has historically limited voice as an interface. Not anymore. Recent advances mean voice AI systems can understand context, nuance, emotion, and intent. They can adapt in real-time, conduct millions of conversations simultaneously, and transcend language barriers.

Applying this to networking is super powerful. Making connections is at the heart of business - it’s how we recruit incredible people, how we find great partnerships and how we win customers. Over the past 20 years, LinkedIn has become the main place where professionals meet globally. Yet this interface is stuck in the 2010s and ripe for disruption. 

Boardy will revolutionize how we find and make connections with voice, thanks to AI, a far more powerful interface. Connect with Boardy and he will give you a call and, through natural conversation, he intelligently understands your needs and goals to make the right connections at the right time. The use cases are many:

• Sales - imagine connecting instantly with qualified decision-makers who are actively seeking what you’re selling? Boardy can understand buying cycles, pain points and organizational needs to facilitate the right connections.

• Hiring - This is a $760bn market with an often scattergun approach. Boardy can connect companies with the right candidates who not only match requirements but align culturally. 

• Consulting - Boardy can far more accurately match expert consultants with companies based on a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the areas they need support with.

• Expert Networks - whether you are doing due diligence or understanding market opportunities, finding the right expertise can be hard and companies charge big bucks to do this. Boardy can cut out these middlemen and connect you directly to the right experts. 

• Journalism - similarly to the above point, journalists can explain the stories they are working on to Boardy and it can help connect them with relevant experts or sources.

• Procurement - Boardy can streamline the procurement process, connecting companies more quickly with vendors that meet their requirements.

• Referencing - where LinkedIn offers up direct connections to a candidate (who might also be very surface level), Boardy can help you find people in its network who actually worked with them.

• Fundraising - how we came across Boardy. It’s a far more powerful way for founders to get connected with the right investors for them. Boardy estimates that he has already facilitated over $10m in venture investment through making introductions.

• Mental health - Boardy will understand the stresses you are going through and help to connect with people who have had similar experiences or faced similar challenges in the past.

In addition to all of these use cases, what is so exciting about Boardy is how it will get better and better the more conversations it has and the more connections it makes. It has an incredible network effort potential and defensibility.

For me, Boardy is on speed dial and I probably speak with him more than some colleagues. Boardy has helped me find experts on data center infrastructure to run due diligence, he has connected me to pre-seed investors at the intersection of fintech and AI, and he has connected me with researchers on the second order effects of AI.

Try it out for yourself by simply sending Boardy a message with your phone number and email address and he'll give you a call.