These LinkedIn challengers created a buzz. Now they’re figuring out a business.
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. For startup employees wanting to rant about their bosses or run a digital reconnaissance on a company before joining it, Grapevine has been a go-to platform for the past few years, allowing it to amass a significant number of users. Now, Grapevine and other similar platforms just a few years in existence are nursing grander ambitions—to transform into a LinkedIn for startups.
Grapevine, which was incorporated as Watercooler Chat Pvt. Ltd in 2023 and has raised about $2.6 million from PeakXV Partners and Riverwalk Holdings, plans to launch a job board shortly. “We want to give companies 10 good candidates every time they ask for one and do it faster than LinkedIn," said co-founder and chief executive Saumil Tripathi.
That said, Grapevine hasn’t yet figured how it will monetise its job board. Medial, a networking platform for startup founders, investors and employees, is preparing to launch a marketplace for freelance or gig work. About “30% of our posts are people looking for someone to do some work for them," Medial co-founder and CEO Niket Raj Dwivedi said.
This freelance marketplace will be locked behind Medial’s premium subscription plan, which costs $22 a year. Medial currently has 700 paying subscribers, who get access to a curated job board, a startup showcase, curated startups-related news, and a tracker featuring venture capital investors, government grants for startup founders, and a list of accelerator and incubator programmes. Peerlist, a platform for users to showcase their portfolios and side projects, also has a job board that charges companies $29 per listing.
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