As Online Business Networks Grow by the Millions, Anthillz.com Asks Networkers to Think Small

Philadelphia-based startup Anthillz.com announced today the launch of its business networking website, designed exclusively for the close and trusted relationships that have the most impact on a professional’s career success.

“We created Anthillz because, as power networkers ambitious about our careers, we found ourselves connecting with the wrong people on networks like LinkedIn,” says CEO Blake Jennelle, referring to the Mountain View, CA-based professional network with over 25 million users.

“It seemed like every day we were responding to requests from people we hardly knew. Instead, we should have been focusing on the trusted relationships that were actually paying off for us.”

Anthillz encourages professionals to connect only with their most “trusted colleagues,” and it does so with a simple mechanism. Professionals must write recommendations of each other’s work before they can connect. These recommendations are then featured on the professionals’ Anthillz profile.

A completed Anthillz profile might have only 20-30 trusted colleagues, reflecting a professional’s most important relationships. In contrast, a typical network on competing sites might have hundreds of connections, including many people with little or no professional history together.

Anthillz’ focus on peer recommendations also helps its users build an online reputation they can use to market themselves to potential clients and employers.

“If I have 30 contacts on Anthillz, my profile will show 30 detailed recommendations side-by-side, signed by the colleagues who wrote them,” says Jennelle.

“It’s hard for me to think of a more powerful sales tool.”

While Anthillz shares the same goals as other professional networking websites, it approaches these goals with a very different philosophy.

“The bottom line is this: All professional networks exist for the same basic reasons—to create new business opportunities through referrals and introductions, and to help professionals build a reputation in their community.”

“What other networks seem to have forgotten, in their aggressive pursuit of growth, is that hundreds of random connections are not going to help you achieve those goals. Instead, what matters are the trusted colleagues who are willing to refer you business, introduce you to the right people, and recommend your work to potential clients and employers.”

Jennelle acknowledges that competing with large and well-funded players in this space will not be easy. He says that what matters to him is not the ultimate size of Anthillz, but the impact it has on online professional networking.

“We figure that in the best case, we’ll create a thriving alternative for professionals like us. And in the worst case, we’ll inspire the big fish to do a little better themselves.”