With 99% of Brazilian companies classified as small and medium-sized, and 78% of their leaders pointing to networking as the main source of new business, a growing movement is transforming how entrepreneurs access knowledge, connections, and opportunities: the rise of networking clubs outside major financial hubs. In a continental country like Brazil, most entrepreneurs are not in Faria Lima, nor do they have easy access to the same type of capital, training, or visibility. But this doesn’t mean they aren’t ready to scale. On the contrary, they want what was once a privilege for the few: practical education, visibility, and high-level networking. This pursuit of growth and qualification has been observed more strongly in mid-sized cities and regional hubs, which concentrate thousands of rising companies with high scaling potential.
In Brazil, 41.7% of entrepreneurs point to investment in education as the best strategy to face periods of instability and maintain competitiveness. At the same time, the number of groups, communities, and platforms offering immersions, mentorships, and events focused on business generation is growing, combining high-level relationships with content applicable to the daily operations of SMEs. In Latin America, the phenomenon is even broader. The region already has over 100 million people involved in entrepreneurship, and has seen an explosion of business events focused on training and networking. Countries like Mexico, Chile, Argentina, and Colombia have been incorporating networking as a tool for economic development, often associating mentorships, immersions, and practical content with the creation of business communities. In 2024, Latin America surpassed 76 million 5G connections, accelerating business digitization and market integration.
It is in this context that Grupo X has established itself as one of Brazil’s leading hubs for business education, with an international presence and operations in countries such as Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, and England. With revenue of R$ 30 million in the last 12 months, 167,000 businesses impacted and R$ 350 million generated by its students, the proposition is clear: to take entrepreneurs out of regional isolation and put them on the map of the new economy. “Networking isn’t just about exchanging business cards. It’s about exchanging vision, learning from those who’ve made mistakes and succeeded, and growing faster together. We have many billionaires spread across the country who don’t have access to connections. Brazil isn’t just Faria Lima,” says Jorge Kotz, CEO of Grupo X. For him, the strength of networking clubs reveals a new entrepreneurial elite that doesn’t emerge from the top but from the base. These are entrepreneurs who grew up behind the scenes, far from the spotlight of São Paulo or Brasília, and who now have real tools to scale. “The strength of networking clubs reveals a new entrepreneurial elite that doesn’t emerge from the top but from the base. And now, they have the tools to scale.”
