A LinkedIn for LGBT Entrepreneurs

For lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender businessfolk, a new online network called dot429 offers unusual advantages

By Karen E. Klein

Corrects the first name of Thomas Harpointner in the fifth paragraph.

When Cathy Brooks, a strategic communications coach, was approached last year about becoming a founding member of a social networking group, she hesitated for a moment. She's already on Facebook and Twitter, she attends local chamber events and technology professionals meetings—how much could one more online network do to promote her San Francisco business, Other Than That?

Then Brooks learned more about dot429, a kind of LinkedIn for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals and their allies (429 spells "gay" on a telephone keypad). Dot429 claims to be unique in that it's national in scope, solicits members from across the gay community, and includes allies. Most other gay business networks cater primarily to gay men or lesbians and are regionally based or focus on a particular industry or profession. "I have been out as a lesbian for 10 years, but I saw that as something I didn't need to trumpet in my business," she says. "Then I realized I was speaking out as a Jew and as a woman, so why not this?"

For Jana Rich, a partner at executive recruiting firm Russell Reynolds, joining dot429 was a business necessity. "I'm a lesbian myself, but even if I weren't, this is part of my job. We're hired by businesses from small to very large, and they want us to find them senior-level executives. Any sort of professional networking group is quite valuable to my company if the people in it are accomplished," she says.

While she has not found any prospective clients yet—dot429 launched formally in April and currently has a mailing list of 55,000—she is talking to some potential candidates she has met in the group. Having a shared background facilitates relationships, Rich has found. "The more you have in common, the more one is likely to find the right person," she says. "If I'm not a member of an in-group and I'm trying to network with them, the odds that my efforts will be returned, or that I'll find quality people, are a lot slimmer."

Worries About Being Ghetto-ized

Affinity marketing—or what some are calling "narrowcasting"—is not an Internet phenomenon. Ethnic chambers of commerce and religious-based business directories have been around for years, founded on the premise that it is easier to sell to and buy from people like oneself, says Thomas Harpointner, chief executive of AIS Media, an interactive marketing agency in Atlanta. "Online social networking is simply replicating what's been in existence in our society for a very long time," he says.

The practice, however, can be a double-edged sword for small business owners. Yes, it's an opportunity to create a strategic message and market one's goods or services in a surgical manner, as opposed to carpet-bombing. But the Internet's ability to segment markets can also strand entrepreneurs in a kind of business ghetto, something that contributed to Brooks' concerns about dot429.

"As a woman in business, I face the fact that at the end of the day I'm already playing in a smaller sandbox," she says. "That's always a challenge when you look at any sort of niche community, whether it's based on gender, race, religion, or social experience. My concern is not putting time into something that doesn't make a difference in your business."

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