Intro, a tech startup out of LA that connects people to in-demand experts on everything from interior design to astrology, just announced that it got $10 million in seed funding from Andreessen Horowitz and Alexis Ohanian’s VC firm Seven Seven Six. The round also included investments from Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, 23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki, basketball star Kevin Durant, and award-winning comedian Tiffany Haddish, as reported by TechCrunch.
“Access has always been a luxury reserved for the few, but today we can start chipping away at these invisible walls,” Intro’s CEO and founder Raad Mobrem said in a recent Twitter thread. “Today is our day one and we have so much to do. We’re grateful for our experts, customers, investors, and everyone else helping us make progress towards fulfilling our mission.”
That mission is to provide everyday folks with access to people who are at the top of their game in a given field. Users can browse Intro’s marketplace of design, fashion, beauty, wellness, business and astrology experts and book any one of them for one-on-one video calls that last from 15 minutes to an hour. Some of its top experts include celebrity stylist Rachel Zoe, interior designer Nate Berkus, and Alice Bell, a resident astrologer at British Vogue.
On the expert side, Intro helps them with everything from scheduling to payments. It also lets them set and modify their own prices and manage their availability. The company takes a 30 percent commission for calls it brings in, or 10 percent when an expert initiates a call through their booking tool.
Mobrem first came up with the idea for Intro many years ago as an aspiring entrepreneur. While out with a friend, he bumped into Kinko’s founder Paul Orfalea and picked his brain for 15 minutes. That conversation inspired Mobrem to take action, and he wound up founding a startup called Lettuce, which went on to be acquired by Intuit in 2014.
Fast forward to 2020 when the pandemic hit. Like many of us, Mobrem was bored, stuck inside and decided to start redesigning his home. He longed to hop on the phone with a professional designer for some tips, and realized that there were lots of people out there with burning questions, and lots of experts who could answer them. So, he created Intro to connect the two.
“Our hope is that people will use Intro and get their simple questions answered well, from interior design tips to entrepreneurial advice,” Mobrem said in a statement on the company’s website. “But our dream is that someone’s life will change because they got access to the person they admire, learned valuable information, and were inspired to make the world a better place. That would be a great day!”
To get there, Intro is growing its team, with several open tech positions available now. The company is also recruiting for more experts to join its platform.
