Pineapple, a Gen Z networking app, launches today. Pineapple helps young professionals network with a visual story profile that’s like a digital portfolio. The platform is now iOS-only.
Pineapple
David Diamond, Pineapple’s 22-year-old co-founder, and CEO started in IT at 15 as a product design intern at Intercom. Intercom rejected Diamond’s paper résumé and told him he was too young. Diamond claims he earned the job after enhancing his credentials and portfolio.
Diamond told TechCrunch, “I started to think about how blessed I was.” “If I were to make a portfolio, what was my generation doing?” We envisioned developing a professional network for Gen Z. Other networks were misrepresenting Gen Z. Instead of building another jobs board, we wanted to help Gen Z network and get opportunities. “We wanted to provide users authentic profiles.”
Diamond and Oliver Cruise established Pineapple in 2020 to change Gen Z networking. Pineapple is ready to grow after 10,000 beta testers.
Pineapple’s core focus is user profiles, which let users express themselves visually to develop significant professional connections. The app’s profiles are a combination between LinkedIn and Instagram, showcasing a user’s introduction, experience, projects, and more.
Pineapple Communities helps users locate like-minded folks. There are communities for VCs, marketers, and designers. You may look for members in each community’s directory. Jams are 24-hour threaded discussions in Communities. Jams can deepen a topic. Founders can host Jams to answer questions about their path.
Pineapple’s Explore page features more Jams, people, and communities. TikTok-inspired For You page helps you stay connected.
Some envision Pineapple as “LinkedIn for Gen Z,” but Diamond argues the network has a ways to go. Pineapple helps people network differently than LinkedIn. Diamond said young people may use LinkedIn to locate a mentor, but Pineapple is where they can network with peers, learn new skills, and discover individuals for side projects. Diamond claims Pineapple isn’t focused on status/job updates or LinkedIn’s hustle culture.
Pineapple will prioritize growth before monetization. Diamond claims Pineapple would help creators earn money when it adds monetization tools. Popular producers can offer instructional content to users through creator subscriptions. Pineapple intends to partner with companies that can recruit through the platform.
Diamond: “We aim to be Gen Z and early-career professionals’ go-to network.” “We want Pineapple to be the obvious solution for career starters.” We need to improve our profile-building to do that. If you have Pineapple, you shouldn’t need a portfolio webpage.
F7 Ventures and 500 Global led Pineapple’s $1.1 million pre-seed round in April. Angel investors included Google’s VP of product and Facebook’s former VP of design. Diamond said the money went to R&D and early employees.
Pineapple’s seed round will end next year.
