Startup Deadpool

I first met Peter Johnston, the founder of consumer social website Polywork, in 2022 when he had just raised $28 million from former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman and other investors. Johnston was eager to tell me how Polywork would connect people with different professional opportunities, such as a coder who wanted to make angel investments or a designer who wanted to speak at events. 

This optimism about building a massive networking platform had faded by the time Johnston this week announced the seven-person company would shut down and return approximately $23 million of the $44 million it raised from investors, which included Caffeinated Capital and Andreessen Horowitz. In an interview, Johnston said the New York–based startup struggled to attract and retain enough customers after finding some initial success.