A city chapter of a global entrepreneur network

A city chapter of a global peer network for business owners: more than a hundred members who join for the connections. The chapter wanted a better version of member matching, with intentional introductions based on what each member needs this quarter and none of the coordination work that wore members down last time. North Group built the program and runs it as the chapter's in-kind technology partner.

The challenge: A past program, all coordination left to members

The chapter had run a one-on-one connections program before. Members got an introduction and then did the rest themselves: find a time, write the first message, work out why the two of them had been paired. Members who had been through it said it was too much work.

The problem was never the quality of the members. It was knowing who to connect with and when, across more than a hundred businesses at different stages, in a way that respected members' time and their data. The board's first question was whether the privacy of every member could be guaranteed.

The solution: One profile, seven weighted factors, two matches each

A member fills in one profile, once: industry, business stage, what they are strong at, where they want help, interests, season of life, how they like to connect, and a booking link. Each quarter they add a single line: the challenge on their plate right now.

When the window closes, the matching runs as one pass over the whole chapter. Every member gets two matches, pairs are mutual wherever possible, nobody is over-asked, and nobody is left out. The seven matching factors and their weights came from the chapter's board.

Each member gets one email: two people worth their time, what each brings and wants, why the two of them, and what they have in common, with a pre-written introduction ready to send and a button to book time. No coordination lift.

A person reads every email before it goes, and the chapter manager sees the full pairing list first. Contact details are copied from what members wrote, never generated. The form carries the chapter's own branding, and members opt in to the use of their existing chapter profile.

The outcomes: A quarterly cadence, review before every send

A chapter program that runs on a quarterly cadence: announce, collect, match, review, send. The board's privacy question has an answer built into the process, with review before every send and nothing invented.