In 2022, NC State University graduate Josh Guter started working as a program manager with the NC State Entrepreneurship Clinic. As he saw his professional network expanding in this capacity, he realized his usual tracking tools weren’t cutting it.
“At the time, I’d been using a spreadsheet to manage my entire network,” Guter said. “And I was sick of it.”
Guter began to wonder how to better manage his growing network—and whether there were better tools available than the typical spreadsheets.
In January of 2024, Guter launched an app called “Connectar,” a side project programmed with a low-code software he learned with help from from startup advisor Unbiased Thoughts CEO Tom Collopy (editor’s note: Tom Collopy was once interviewed on GrepBeat’s “For Starters” podcast show).
The platform rebranded later that year into what is now Elephants.
The Solution to “networking neglect”
Named after the species with the best memory, Elephants is an emerging startup that amounts to Guter’s solution for networking neglect. It is primarily targeted at professionals who wish to maintain a strong professional network and foster better relationships with new connections.
“When we go to conferences, network, and connect with people on LinkedIn,” Guter said, “we’re constantly starting relationships we would like to develop. And then work gets in the way, we forget to do something, and we end up forgetting.”
The Raleigh-based startup sits somewhere between the categories of productivity-based service and a personal customer relationship management (or CRM) system, according to Guter. Instead of helping people track customer interactions, it manages a user’s relationship with a colleague or someone new they meet at a work event.
Users can keep track of relationships by inputting contacts themselves or via the Elephants AI feature. This feature allows the user to include any information related to the subject at hand (such as location, occupation, or how they met). The user can also log tasks, with the option to receive a digest via email for relationship-related tasks.
Beyond these core features, there is also a texting assistant. Guter recalled once being told by a mentor that if he wanted to help people with network management, Elephants should be using this sort of tool. He thought it might be impossible at first, but agentic AI ultimately changed his perspective.
Today, the texting assistant—which Guter now considers to be the central product of Elephants—enables users to create tasks, notes, and relevant relationships for the bot to remember via SMS. One effectively texts the system and the information gets saved to their account, accessible via the app or website.
The platform achieves this via the use of APIs that take language messages from users to convert them into tasks, notes, and contact details.
Through the free trial, users can track up to five relationships with limited access to the texting feature but unlimited tasks and notes. A $15/month “basic plan” adds 200 texts a month, an in-app AI assistant, and task notifications via text. And the $30/month “Plus” subscription adds larger contact imports.
Expanding the herd
Since Elephants is at this stage a fairly new venture, the startup is as of now entirely bootstrapped, and Guter has yet to take part in any accelerator programs himself. However, the founder believes he’s gained much-needed exposure from working at the NC State Entrepreneurship clinic and specifically with the Andrews Launch Accelerator.
Since its rebrand, Elephants has prioritized listening to its current users and identifying what works best for them. This user experience research has shown an appreciation for the platform’s features, particularly concerning the utility of the texting assistant.
More specifically, Guter has also seen Elephants being adopted by other startup founders in the Triangle ecosystem. Nearby Nearby and Trakid are two of many examples of area startups at which people have adopted Elephants to manage the connections they’re building as they aim to network and grow.
“It feels like I’m building something that people genuinely need and want and are benefiting from,” Guter said.
QUICK BITS
Startup: Elephants
Founder: Josh Guter
Founded: 2024
Team size: 1
Location: Raleigh
Website: www.joinelephants.com
Funding: Bootstrapped
Currently, the CEO is hosting workshops for colleges running programs for student networks (mentorship programs, entrepreneurship programs, classes, etc.), and has been able to promote the productivity platform on occasion. With more funding down the line, Guter hopes to work with marketing experts to boost his budding startup’s reach.
Through that extended reach as the company grows, Guter wants to see how many communities he can help with building better networks, and doesn’t intend to stop within the triangle area.
“If Elephants can lead to you checking in on an old friend once a month, that leads to a coffee with you wouldn’t have otherwise had. To me, that’s success.”
