Why We Built Next Level Networks

I kept showing up to networking events and leaving feeling like I had wasted my time.

Not because the people were bad. Most of them were great. But the room was not built for anything real. You walk in, you do your 60 seconds, you collect some cards, you leave. And two weeks later you cannot remember the name of a single person you talked to.

I knew a lot of people. I still do. You could scroll my phone and find a contact for almost anything. But if I am honest, most of those relationships were surface level. We would run into each other at an event, say we should grab coffee, and never actually do it.

That kind of loneliness is real in business. People do not talk about it much, but it is there.

So Jakob and I started building something different. Not a referral group. Not a leads machine. A room where people could actually get to know each other. Where you could say what you were struggling with and someone in the room might actually know how to help. Where showing up every week meant something because the people in the room were showing up too.

We started in Mount Airy with a small group of people who were willing to try something that did not have a proven playbook. What happened surprised even us. People started calling each other between meetings. Members started making introductions without being asked. Guests came in skeptical and left asking how to join.

We are not trying to reinvent networking. We are just building rooms that are worth showing up to.

That is still exactly what we are doing.

If that sounds like the kind of room you have been looking for, come see it for yourself.

Stephen Bass
Co-Founder, Next Level Networks