![\"Networkers](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/TFL-L-NETWORKING-02.jpg\")
Networkers gather at a Sunset Connect event in Fort Lauderdale. (Jacob Horwitz\/Courtesy)\nCommunity \u2014 but only if you\u2019re smart?<\/p>\n
More than 100 people descended upon an outdoor bar restaurant in Fort Lauderdale on a recent November night, lounging by the fireplace, sipping wine and snacking on chicken wings, talking and laughing. Some kept an eye out for romantic interests; others reconnected with old friends, or made new ones.<\/p>\n
But they weren\u2019t just there to have fun. They came to network.<\/p>\n
In a region known as \u201cWall Street South,\u201d networking might take on a negative connotation, depending on who you ask. But for many millennials and Gen Z South Floridians, events like the one in Fort Lauderdale have become more than just a transactional exchange that ends with a swapping of business cards. Now, they have become a third space, offering people a sense of community \u2014 sometimes serving as the only reason a given attendee left the house that day or had a social interaction in a post-COVID-19, remote-heavy work world.<\/p>\n
South Florida\u2019s workers have a need, and a wave of networking clubs and digital apps has risen to meet it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we started, I didn\u2019t think there would be a need for a networking event, because there\u2019s a million,\u201d said Esther Deutsch, 32, who co-founded Sunset Connect, which put on the recent Fort Lauderdale event. Deutsch moved to South Florida from New York during the pandemic, and quickly discovered many like her lacked community.<\/p>\n
\u201cClearly, there\u2019s a need of some sort,\u201d Deutsch said. \u201cSo, I think it\u2019s not about whether we need it, it\u2019s, is it fulfilling the need? And what could it do to fulfill more? Because there\u2019s a need.\u201d<\/p>\n
But some of these experiences have a barrier to entry. One buzzy new app accepts only those with sufficiently impressive resumes and offers its members \u201cmicro-communities,\u201d a more intimate form of networking that blends business with pleasure: pickleball clubs for healthcare innovators, book clubs for entrepreneurs, and cigar lounge meetups for people in finance. Other groups rely on word of mouth but also seem to self-select for white-collar professionals.<\/p>\n
Regardless, \u201cpeople are actually craving connection more than ever,\u201d Deutsch said.<\/p>\n
Economic anxiety<\/p>\n
The growing need for networking events and apps isn\u2019t just because South Floridians want community. Networking also presents an advantage in a job market that is both increasingly impersonal and difficult to navigate, especially for young people.<\/p>\n
Numerous reports have documented the growing struggles young college graduates face in the white-collar job market as layoffs increase and AI threatens entry-level careers. Some companies are predicting that 2026 will be the worst job market for college graduates in five years. Meanwhile, many job seekers find that their applications receive no response, sometimes screened only by AI, not a real person.<\/p>\n
For those trying to launch their careers, it feels as if doing everything right is no longer enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnybody can get a degree, anybody can get certification,\u201d said Brenda Chamizo, a Fort Lauderdale networking attendee who currently is in college studying psychology and works as a server. \u201cThe value of the degree is going down. So, what\u2019s going to make you different than everybody else?\u201d<\/p>\n
The current push for authentic friendships isn\u2019t just because people are seeking fulfillment. It\u2019s also strategic. Today, some say basic networking is no longer enough; career advice websites encourage people to form authentic relationships rather than transactional ones because they will have more success doing so.<\/p>\n
\u201cNetworking has evolved dramatically in the digital age,\u201d a \u201cNetworking Tips\u201d page on one career advice website reads. \u201cIt\u2019s no longer about aggressive self-promotion, rather about building genuine relationships, exchanging value, and creating authentic connections.\u201d<\/p>\n
The rise of apps and events is just the world catching up to that need, Deutsch said: \u201cthe world is finally realizing that everybody needs to network at every stage of their career and how important it is for jobs, for life, for growth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Networkers gather at a Sunset Connect event in Fort Lauderdale. (Jacob Horwitz\/Courtesy)
\nCommunity \u2014 but only if you\u2019re smart?<\/p>\n
Among the new approaches to networking currently taking hold in South Florida is an app that markets itself as only for smart people.<\/p>\n
The app is called Clockout, and it was founded by Krishna Dosapati in 2022. The beginnings of the app idea came to Dosapati after she graduated from New York University in 2016 and found herself increasingly frustrated with her social scene.<\/p>\n
The now 31-year-old said it was easy to constantly meet new people in college\u00a0 \u2014 especially people with whom Dosapati felt aligned, whether through shared interests, career pursuits or personality traits.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut then once I graduated, I kind of felt like that wasn\u2019t really there in the real world,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Dosapati wanted a way to meet other young professionals digitally that wasn\u2019t Facebook, Meetup or LinkedIn. Those platforms lack \u201cquality control,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n
So in 2022, she launched Clockout. On Instagram, the company has reached 70,000 followers, but remains private, emblematic of its ethos. Its description reads: \u201cA private network for (people with) ridiculously high standards\u201d and \u201cSmart enough to get in?\u201d<\/p>\n
The concept is a bit of a marketing strategy, Dosapati admitted: Exclusivity sells. The company has paid some influencers to make videos about the app on TikTok and Instagram. Several videos focus on the app\u2019s intelligence requirement and the controversy it\u2019s generating.<\/p>\n
But an element of exclusivity does exist. The app is, at this point, largely designed for white-collar professionals with college degrees. Those who don\u2019t check the boxes may find themselves rejected, unless they can prove their success in other ways, Dosapati said.<\/p>\n
Prospective users have to go through a short application process that asks where they work, in what industry they work, their job title, where they went to school and when they graduated. After inputting those details, the user receives an email a day or two later with their results.<\/p>\n
Dosapati said the goal is to ensure everyone using the app is an \u201cambitious professional,\u201d though what that looks like depends on the location. In New York, the typical user is someone in tech, finance or consulting. In South Florida, the app is full of small business owners and real estate agents.<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t have to be a \u201ccookie-cutter person\u201d to get in, Dosapati said \u2014 but \u201cif somebody hasn\u2019t gone to university, or maybe they\u2019re a bartender or a barista or a DJ, that doesn\u2019t mean those people aren\u2019t ambitious, it\u2019s just that they wouldn\u2019t be the right fit for Clockout.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, sometimes the AI makes mistakes, or people without the right boxes checked but who are worthy of joining the app might get rejected.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll definitely get DMs from people being like, \u2018I am so qualified and I was rejected,\u2019\u201d Dosapati said. \u201cAnd whenever we get those DMs, we actually really do go check that person and we\u2019re like, \u2018Hey, you know, we make mistakes.\u2019 So, let us go look into that, and if that person, they were ambitious or maybe they didn\u2019t fill out their application properly, then they do get approved and get access to the platform.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
As the app evolves, Dosapati\u2019s goal is to move away from the approval process and instead replace it with an automatic system that will \u201cfilter out relevancy based on who you are and your data,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not excluding people to be mean, we just want to build a platform that works, and once we find that it works, and we have those algorithms in place, then it will no longer be, you know, exclusive,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u2018I just like socializing\u2019<\/p>\n
On Clockout, South Florida users can create and join their own hyperspecific communities: the Law Runners Club, the Christian Environmental Professionals, the Entrepreneur Billiards Club, the Real Estate Tennis Club. Some have pointed to the rise of these micro-communities<\/a> as the future of networking. These groups offer genuine social experiences in contrast with the isolation of a remote job.<\/p>\n Uri Yudewitz, 47, started a sub-group on Clockout that meets monthly in Boca Raton, simply called Networking at Night. He felt he\u2019d \u201cgraduated\u201d from the other networking events he was attending, and sites like Eventbrite and Meetup felt too broad and didn\u2019t offer a real sense of community.<\/p>\n Yudewitz is happily established in his career as vice president of business development for a multi-national conglomerate based in Boca Raton. But as someone who works mostly from home, he simply doesn\u2019t get to interact with many people.<\/p>\n \u201cI just like socializing,\u201d Yudewitz said on a recent weekday evening at a gathering he helped organize along with another networking group called Sunset Connect. \u201c\u2026 I just want high-quality people who are interested in business, who I can connect, who I can trust and know that if somebody says I need a plumber, I need a mortgage broker, I need a whatever, that I have somebody in my network.\u201d<\/p>\n At the gathering, he reunited with one of those people: Marlen Rosales, 43, a friend he had made through networking, who also works fully remotely. She does business development and marketing for a health care technology company. Through Clockout, she was able to join a health care technology group that hosts pickleball events every month.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like because I\u2019m not in an office, I\u2019m missing out on the social aspect,\u201d she said. \u201cSo networking for me helps me to connect with professionals in the area.\u201d<\/p>\n But the connections aren\u2019t purely business. After one recent comedy open mic event she found on Clockout, Rosales said she and the group went out dancing.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can meet friends as well, you know,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just necessarily a business relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n Rosales also sees the events as a possible opportunity to meet a romantic interest. A date has yet to come out of a networking event, but she isn\u2019t discouraged.<\/p>\n