2 days ago
The Platform That Could Change How Every Professional Connects
'Around 2022, I started noticing a major shift in LinkedIn. Thought-provoking content was being replaced with shallow business ideas. There was a rise of generic advice, more ads started creeping into my feed, and people would connect with you but refuse to follow-up or respond to DMs,' shared Louis Byrd. Louis, along with his wife Arlene Byrd, started a professional connection platform called Hiyer. Louis explained, 'How Hiyer works is straightforward. It's a professional elevation platform…dedicated to helping independent professionals elevate their business through curated relationships with other independent professionals, while providing them the tools necessary to focus on business outcomes and mindset shifts.'
Hiyer has a unique model—the platform is invite-only and community members must vouch for others they believe will be a great addition to the community. When someone in the community vouches for you, you're able to receive an invite. Hiyer incorporates elements of Clubhouse, a platform that initially gained popularity based on its invite-only structure, along with aspects of the world's largest professional networking platform, LinkedIn. What sets Hiyer apart is the thorough vetting involved when a member seeks to join the community. 'It's an invite-only community,' Louis explained, 'Where an existing Hiyer member vouches for another entrepreneurial person they believe would be a great addition to the community and sends them an invite.'
The Byrds also integrated an AI-powered business coach, Sage, into the platform to help users create an optimized profile and set competitive prices for the services they offer. Arlene shared, 'We hope founding members will help us shape a culture of genuine reciprocity and transparency that's completely missing in the business world today.' For $100, founding members can join the Hiyer community. 'Our $100 founding membership is our pre-launch rate, used as an incentive for early adopters,' Arlene indicated. 'Once we launch, the annual membership fee will change, and we'll introduce additional tiers. There will be no free-mium model, and that's intentional.'
Unlike LinkedIn, Clubhouse and most social media platforms currently available, to access Hiyer, users must pay. Arlene explained the rationale behind this. 'The expectation of free isn't valued. When something is 'free,' you don't take it seriously. For business owners just starting their venture, it's unrealistic to ask them to offer their services for free. You can't live and support yourself without finances, and you have to invest in yourself first before you can invest in others.' Arlene went on to explain how she and Louis are curating the platform to reflect the values they want founding members to embody: 'Know your worth, charge accordingly, share openly, and practice genuine reciprocity with peers,' she said.
Although the platform hasn't launched yet, there is a lot of anticipation from professionals who see Hiyer as a chance for something different. 'I want change, and I'm committed to doing my part in every way possible to make it happen,' shared Shari Gribbin. Gribbin is a managing partner at her firm CNK Solutions Group. 'We need leaders with different values to have more control over our social platforms for professional and personal use. It is clear the only way we will make that happen is to fund it ourselves. Too many of our information sharing sources are dominated by a handful of corporations and individuals running them in the same way; inauthentic, algorithmic-controlled, pay-to-play priority platforms that suppress or amplify preferred content for profit.'
For professionals from underrepresented and historically excluded groups, Hiyer may offer deeper and more meaningful professional connections. 'Most LinkedIn connections don't really 'connect,'' shared Kevin S. Brokenbrough. Brockenbrough is the lead strategist and imagination architect for Clever Ideas, LLC. 'Finding work in advertising while being both Black and gray-haired has been damn near impossible. Racism and ageism are real and consistent. I have many well-respected connections on LinkedIn, but many won't return a call or direct message…and the overwhelming majority don't take the time to get to know you. When I was job hunting, I would call up the ones I knew the best and ask them to make an introduction and nine times out of 10, they would say 'We're connected on LinkedIn, but I don't really know them that well. I've never actually spoken with them.'' The intentionality behind community-building is what drew Brockenbrough to the platform. 'If you make just one connect that is good for your business, the membership will have paid for itself.'
Louis explained, 'We're focused on building a platform dedicated to the independent professional, not the employee. Independent professionals' needs are completely different from career employees. We don't need recruiters and job boards or suppression when we make our offerings or have an ask. We need qualified leads, less noise and focus, people to bounce ideas off of, and not the pressure of spending hours either by hand or with GPT trying to craft the perfect post, hoping it will connect with someone who wants what we have.'
The Byrds emphasized that one of the unique features of Hiyer is a focus away from the vanity metrics that have become commonplace on social media. 'So much of what we experience on social media networks is theater…more performance than reality,' Louis shared. 'We're building a space where all the performative aspects of social media aren't necessary.' He stressed that Hiyer wasn't necessarily created to compete with LinkedIn but to occupy a different space altogether. 'It's a completely different experience, for a completely different audience, fulfilling a specific need, by design.' For years, social media users, especially those from marginalized communities, have highlighted patterns of suppression online. In a time when discord and disconnection are rampant, Hiyer was created to offer something different—a chance to market your skills, find professional opportunities, and build community intentionally.
