The professional social graph is a solved problem, until someone decides it isn't. In 2017, Dublin-based founder Eamon Leonard launched Cohort, an iOS app that promised to extract more value from your network by building its map from public data. The bet was simple: start with individuals, then wedge into teams and organizations. To back that bet, he pulled in a notable $575,000 angel round from investors including GitHub co-founders Scott Chacon and Tom Preston-Werner, Obama for America 2012 CTO Harper Reed, and Irish entrepreneur Ray Nolan [TechCrunch, May 2017]. The company was incorporated in the US but built in Ireland, a structure aiming for global reach from day one. For a founder with a history in cloud monitoring and angel investing, this was the move into a category-defining product.
The Wedge Into Teams
Cohort's go-to-market strategy followed a classic bottoms-up pattern. The app was free for individuals and for organizations with fewer than 50 people. The premium tier, priced for larger organizations and what the company called "community cohorts," was where the real business model would kick in [Silicon Republic, 2017]. The product's core differentiator was its construction method: instead of relying on user-generated connections and endorsements, it aimed to build a professional social graph by aggregating and analyzing public data from across the web. The theory was that this would create a more accurate and useful network map, one that could surface relevant professional connections and insights passively. For enterprise buyers, the promise was a tool that could map internal expertise and external relationships more effectively than manual LinkedIn searches.
The Investors Who Signed On
The angel round was less about the amount and more about the signal. The participation of GitHub's founders suggested a belief in a developer-adjacent, network-centric product vision. Harper Reed's involvement brought credibility in large-scale, data-driven systems. For a pre-launch startup in Dublin, this was a serious vote of confidence. The table below outlines the key early supporters.
| Investor | Known For | Role in Round |
|---|---|---|
| Scott Chacon | Co-founder, GitHub | Angel Investor [TechCrunch, May 2017] |
| Tom Preston-Werner | Co-founder, GitHub | Angel Investor [TechCrunch, May 2017] |
| Harper Reed | CTO, Obama for America 2012 | Angel Investor [TechCrunch, May 2017] |
| Ray Nolan | Founder, XSellCo; Angel (Hostelworld, SkyScanner) | Angel Investor [TechCrunch, May 2017] |
| Eamon Leonard | Founder, CloudSplit; Angel Investor | Founder & Self-Investor [TechCrunch, May 2017] |
Leonard was not a first-time founder. He had previously co-founded CloudSplit, a cloud cost-monitoring startup that pitched at TechCrunch50 in 2009 [TechCrunch, Sep 2009]. He had also been an active angel investor in companies like Circa and Sprintly [TechCrunch, Jan 2013] [TechCrunch, Jul 2012]. This background gave him operator experience and a network, but the jump from B2B infrastructure tools to a mass-market social network was a significant pivot.
Where the Bet Stalled
Despite the strong angel backing, Cohort's story is one of unmet momentum. At launch, the company was actively seeking a $1.5 million seed round [TechCrunch, May 2017]. That round never materialized in the public record. By May 2018, just over a year after its launch, the company was wound down. Founder Eamon Leonard confirmed the shutdown, citing an inability to raise the necessary seed funding [Fora, May 2018]. In a reflective post, he noted that useful IP from the venture would be made available, effectively closing the book on the operating company [Medium, 2018]. The shutdown reveals the core challenges of the bet:
- Network effects. Building a new professional graph requires overcoming immense cold-start problems. Convincing users to invest time in a new network, even one built from public data, is a steep hill when LinkedIn owns the default.
- The enterprise path. The freemium-to-teams motion is proven, but it requires rapid individual adoption to create pull within organizations. Without clear traction metrics or named pilot customers, the path to paid enterprise contracts remained theoretical.
- Funding runway. A $575,000 angel round is substantial for a prototype, but it's a short runway for building both a product and a network in a winner-take-most market. The failure to secure a seed round left no room for iteration.
The company's ideal customer profile was clear: it was built for the knowledge worker in a modern, distributed team, with the budget owner being a head of talent, HR operations, or even a team lead looking for better internal connectivity tools. The realistic competitive set, however, was daunting. It wasn't just LinkedIn. It included the internal directories built into Slack and Microsoft Teams, the emerging ecosystem of HRIS platforms, and any company tool that implicitly maps employee skills and relationships. Cohort was attempting to insert a dedicated, superior layer into a stack that was already consolidating functionality elsewhere.
Sources
- [TechCrunch, May 2017] Cohort is a new take on getting value from your professional network | https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/08/cohort-is-a-new-take-on-getting-value-from-your-professional-network/
- [Silicon Republic, 2017] Everything you wanted to know about Cohort, the newest networking tool | https://www.siliconrepublic.com/careers/cohort-networking-social-network
- [TechCrunch, Sep 2009] TechCrunch50: CloudSplit arrives to monitor those expensive clouds | https://techcrunch.com/2009/09/16/cloudsplit-arrives-to-monitor-those-expensive-clouds/
- [TechCrunch, Jan 2013] Circa Raises $750K From Group Including Lerer Ventures To rework Mobile News Delivery | https://techcrunch.com/2013/01/19/circa-raises-750k-from-group-including-lerer-ventures-to-rework-mobile-news-delivery/
- [TechCrunch, Jul 2012] Facebook's "Boz" And Other Fancy Angels Back Joe Stump's New Startup, Sprintly | https://techcrunch.com/2012/07/11/facebooks-boz-and-other-fancy-angels-back-joe-stumps-new-startup-sprintly/
- [Fora, May 2018] Irish LinkedIn rival Cohort is shutting down after failing to raise more money | https://fora.ie/eamon-leonard-cohort-2-3987802-May2018/
- [Medium, 2018] Shutting Down Cohort. Maybe I could have worked more hours… | https://medium.com/@EamonLeonard/shutting-down-cohort-6cd6bf949a8d