Kellstadt MBAs Website Makes Online Connections Real
Rob Pasquesi wanted to come up with a better way for young professionals to build working relationships while he was studying entrepreneurship at DePaul University’s Kellstadt Graduate School of Business. His idea to take someone’s online network and connect it to the real world has grown into NextIntro.com, a free website that helps young professionals form connections online and suggests ways for them to meet face to face.
“LinkedIn is a great tool but a lot of people use it as an electronic Rolodex—they accept invites but nothing happens,” says Pasquesi, MBA ’10. “I’m taking LinkedIn to the next step. You’ve accepted an invite, now let’s meet in person.”
Members of NextIntro.com create a personal page based on their LinkedIn profiles (or from scratch) and receive emails suggesting other professionals they might want to meet in person. Even more importantly, the site recommends nearby restaurants or coffee shops will best serve as a meeting place. Sereiously. The site, which has been mentioned in Crain’s Chicago Business and ChicagoNow, has nearly 10,000 members in four cities: Chicago, Boston, Denver and Austin.
The website’s homepage explains it all: “remove the anxiety from business introductions by matching your profile to other like-minded business professionals who share your interests.”
Pasquesi, who now works as an audit senior manager at a top 6 international accounting and tax firm, started planning for NextIntro while at DePaul, and he credits the school’s business professors with helping him refine the concept. “They really taught me how to analyze, take a step back and think about everything,” he says. “Even now I reach out to them and they’re always available to help out and take me to the next step.”
