Club members try and make their connections add up at No. 8. (
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IvyConnect founders Philipp Triebel (third from left) and Beth Meric (cen ter, with beard), with their upper-crust IvyConnect gang. (
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It was the last Friday night in May and 300 young professionals were crammed into Meatpacking District club No. 8.
Everywhere you turned there was another pocket square stuffed into a navy blazer, or a tight, white sundress on a 20-something woman scanning the crowd. One pair, clad in straight-from-work attire, furiously made out in the corner.
“We’re not a couple,” they were quick to clarify.
Others tried to make small talk over blasting Rihanna: “Where did you go to school? What do you do?”
Really, the only two appropriate questions to ask, considering that they were attending Destination: St. Barths Cocktail Party, an event thrown by members-only club IvyConnect, which provides online professional and romantic networking, as well as offline services and events.
Lucy Wu, a member’s friend who was trying out IvyConnect for the evening, held court in the smoky upstairs Rec Room, raving about the radiologist and two AmEx employees she had just met.
“There are kind of cute guys here,” says Wu, 25, who works in health care and thinks IvyConnect could be beneficial for her career. “Everyone’s very easy to approach. The open bar definitely helps,” she adds, twirling a glo-stick in her drink.
If she plays her cards right, Wu might get to join the current 3,000 members coughing up a $500 annual fee.
Launched in November by two former Harvard Business School roommates, IvyConnect has an estimated 2,000 people on its wait list.
“We’re very selective,” explains 31-year-old co-founder Philipp Triebel, who grew up in Germany and has degrees from the London School of Economics, Cambridge and Harvard.
“And we do turn down people to ensure that we’re building a community of like-minded people,” he says, adding that he can’t disclose the rejection rate.
The founders stress that this “like-mindedness” is not based on industry or school, but on a certain attitude.
“It’s very important to us that our members are very open-minded and very accepting of different ideas,” says Triebel’s partner, 28-year-old Beri Meric, who was born in Turkey, raised in Scotland and holds degrees from Brown and Harvard.
“We want well-rounded people.”
Despite the club’s name, one need not have attended an Ancient Eight school to join.
Triebel points out that there are some members who are successful entrepreneurs — and (gasp!) haven’t even gone to college.
“Someone went to community college,” says Meric, proudly.
Attendee Ash Patel didn’t go to community college. He went to Boston University, but “figured I went to a good enough school [to apply],” he says.
“They asked what I did, and I e-mailed them, and they said, ‘OK, you meet our criteria,’ ” says the 36-year-old, who works as a software consultant.
Although the Fidi resident says IvyConnect is great for meeting educated New York professionals, he admits, “It’s a little bit stuffy.”
“I think it’s a little pretentious,” says Patel, who arrived solo to the No. 8 bash and set up camp by the corner bar.
“It plays into the whole New York social-climbing thing. That country-club atmosphere . . . when it comes to making a connection with people, that stuff’s not important.”
Well, it is a little.
At least enough that potential IvyConnect members’ applications include a résumé, a photo, a list of cities they frequently visit (there is a pull-down menu of 50 acceptable ones to choose from) and a checklist of personality traits. (When asked to fill out the form, Triebel checked off “open-minded” and “driven,” whereas Meric highlighted “adaptive” and “optimistic.”)
A membership committee of five individuals then reviews the applicants, who are selected “based on intellectual curiosity, accomplishments, and integrity,” according to IvyConnect’s Web site.
Once admitted, members have full access to the club’s dating site (should they opt in) and social events, including private art receptions (the most recent one courtesy of a gallery-owning member who was showcasing another member’s artwork), a supper club and trips, such as a recent 30-person jaunt to Mount Snow, Vt.
“We had a big room [in the lodge] where we could host everyone for après-ski drinks and snacks when we arrived,” says Triebel, who shares a Chelsea apartment with Meric.
“It felt like one big family trip.”
The club also has a rotation of talks and performances put on by IvyConnect members themselves, including lectures led by a former CIA agent and a CNBC anchor.
Triebel and Meric, who thus far have raised $2.6 million in individual investments, plan to roll out IvyConnect in DC come December, then Boston and Los Angeles. They will also launch IvyCareers, a networking/job-search engine for members, in July.
As for jabs that IvyConnect is a snobbish entity, members come to its defense.
“I think from the outside looking in, with a name like IvyConnect, sure, it seems elitist, but that’s taking the easy look,” says member Jean-Claude Homawoo, 33, an exec for e-commerce site The Cools. “Dating and social connections are always a matter of perceived affinities initially. It’s self-selected.”
“Is everyone going to be interesting? No. I don’t think so. But to each other they’ll probably be interesting.”
dschuster@nypost.com