This is Article 7 of the Female Founder Economy series.

In this series, I define and document the Female Founder Economy: the goals, priorities, revenue models, and growth patterns of entrepreneurial women who are building their companies primarily online. Topics explored across the series include, but are not limited to, visibility, leadership, team and scale, revenue and economic impact, emotional and mental well-being, relationship capital, and AI.

The Future of Networking Looks Nothing Like Networking

I have been the woman at the “After 5” mixer holding a drink I don’t want, half-listening to a roofing company owner tell me about his slow season. He can’t refer me business. I can’t refer him business. Everyone in the room knows it’s a waste of time within the first ninety seconds, and yet we all keep talking politely anyway because that’s what you’re supposed to do at a networking event. Two hours later I go home with eleven business cards and zero relationships.

The same night of that particular networking event, the event organizer added me to a text list, an email list, and a call list I never agreed to. Within a week he was trying to sell me third-party LLC filing services. I already have an LLC. Several, actually.He never asked.

That is traditional networking working exactly as designed. Mass volume, minimal results. Lots of time wasted. And it is why an entire generation of founders is walking away from it.

The room itself is the problem. Most networking events are built on volume, not fit. Nobody vetted the guest list for shared values or complementary skill sets.

You show up with an elevator pitch memorized and rehearsed, you deliver it to whoever’s standing closest, and you hope something sticks. It rarely does. Bizzabo’s 2026 event marketing research found that 78% of professionals still call in-person events their most impactful channel, but only 15% rate the networking itself as effective. People know the room matters. They also know most rooms fail them.

Women feel this gap more acutely. A 2025 survey from Monday Girl and Environics Research found 60% of women don’t believe traditional networking events help them build strong connections, and 67% find them outright awkward. 83% percent said they want networking designed by women, for women.

Vetted, curated women-only, private networking is offered by my company, The Power Table, and dozens of other women-only brands and business communities across the US. 

At Power Table events, we curate every room on purpose. Every woman in that space shares a level of ambition and a set of values with the woman next to her. Nobody is scanning name tags looking for someone worth talking to. We’ve done that work before anyone arrives.

That is the entire difference between our events and the after 5:00 pm mixer: intention before the room ever opens.

I have watched what that intention produces. A breathwork facilitator sat next to a franchise owner at one Power Table Weekend. That conversation turned into a contract. The facilitator was invited lead an integrative session for the entire leadership team and every franchisee at the company’s corporate offsite. Nobody pitched anybody. They just ended up at the same table because we made sure they would.

The mindset shift matters as much as the room. Traditional networking runs on “what can I get from this relationship.”

The female founders of my generation run on the opposite question: how can I add value here first.

One woman in my community has built her entire visibility on this. She invites other experts onto her top podcast constantly, no ask attached. A podcast guest slot became her business card. That generosity is why people show up for her. She has sold out events, been invited onto other people’s stages, and landed corporate sponsors, all traced back to relationships she built by giving first. When she opened her calendar for coffee chats at our last in-person conference, 32 people booked a call with her on the spot. People move fast for someone who has already shown them what reciprocity looks like.

As we continue to feel more disconnected, isolated, and inundated with AI-created content, sales will get harder, trust builds slower, and relationship-first communities will replace traditional networking, not sit alongside it.

As more founders get burned by the mass-pitch version of networking, they will migrate toward smaller, vetted, values-aligned rooms, especially once they’ve built something worth protecting. Depth becomes the asset people are actually optimizing for. Quantity of contacts & leads isn’t the flex it used to be.

The elevator pitch is on its way out because it was never built for trust. It was built for volume, and volume is exactly what the next generation of founders is done chasing. The women building the most durable businesses right now are not the ones who worked the most rooms. They’re the ones who switched to the private networks where everyone actually follows through on real relationships.

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Sources: Bizzabo, 2026 Event Marketing Statistics; Monday Girl / Environics Research, March 2025

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This is Article 7 in the Female Founder Economy series.

I write this series from what I see firsthand: the rooms, the private conversations, and the businesses women are actually building. The entire article series can be found on my website, www.taylorsmithonline.com

For media inquiries, interview requests, or speaking opportunities, use the contact form on my website or reach me directly at taylor@taylorsmithonline.com.