SumZero didn't begin as a Wall Street matchmaker. Narendra, who previously worked at Credit Suisse and hedge fund Sowood Capital, founded SumZero in 2012 as a place for buy-side analysts to share stock research. Analysts can only see others’ work if they post their own. Non-contributors pay anywhere from $10,000 to six figures a year for access to the research, depending on the size of their firm.  As the company signed up members, it began getting calls from institutional investors looking to use the site to scout promising fund managers. Narendra began seeing SumZero as a social network for the investment community.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-16/hedge-fund-manager-puts-profile-on-social-media-lures-20-million