A free referral network opens seats in Denver, Colorado Springs and Fort Collins, with a 45-minute weekly format and no dues

NexGen Lead Groups began accepting members on October 14 for three Colorado referral groups, covering the Denver metro area, Colorado Springs and Fort Collins. The network is free to join, holds one seat per trade in each group, and meets online for 45 minutes each week, with an optional in-person meetup once a month. Colorado is the first state with live groups; the network’s site lists the other 49 as open for a founding leader.

The network is operated by the publisher of Action Global News. That is disclosed at the top of this article and on our disclosures page, and it is why this piece is labeled as coming from our network.

What is a leads group?

A leads group, also called a referral group or networking group, is a standing set of business owners from different trades who agree to send each other customers. The idea is old and simple. A real estate agent meets people who just bought a home. A painter, a mover, an electrician and an insurance agent all want to meet those people. If the agent knows and trusts them, an introduction costs nothing and is worth more than most ads.

Groups usually limit membership to one business per trade, so members are not competing for the same introductions. The value comes from repetition. Members who meet every week learn each other’s work well enough to recognize a good referral when they hear one.

How the NexGen format works

The weekly meeting is structured in four timed blocks, according to the network’s published format:

• Wins, 5 minutes. Members report introductions that turned into work.
• Ask rounds in pods, 15 minutes. Small pods of four. Each person names one specific person or kind of customer they want to meet, and the pod answers with names.
• Power Pair huddles, 15 minutes. Members are paired with the trade whose customers most often need them next. Partners trade the week’s leads and follow up on last week’s.
• Hot seat, 10 minutes. One member brings one real problem, and the group works on it.

There is no round-the-table sales pitch. The network’s position is that members learn more from each other’s asks than from a rehearsed speech. Pairings can be changed any week.

Between meetings, members can use four browser-based tools the network makes free to everyone: a Power Pair board that shows how much two trades’ customers overlap, an Idea Machine that suggests partner trades and trigger moments from a keyword, a guided “Who Do I Know” exercise for building a referral list, and a Lead Card for handing off a referral with the contact’s permission.

*U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy, 2025 Small Business Profiles, as cited by the network.

What it costs, and what keeps a seat

There are no membership dues and no application fee. Optional donations fund the technology and the monthly meetups. In place of dues, the network asks for participation: weekly virtual attendance and real introductions. Its published contribution code says seats can be withdrawn from members who do not take part. A person reviews every seat request.

Because each group holds one seat per trade, the first business in a trade to join a group takes that trade’s seat there.

How to judge whether any referral group is worth your time

Whichever group an owner considers, the useful questions are the same:

• Do the members’ customers overlap with yours? A group full of trades that serve the same moment in a customer’s life, such as buying a home or opening a location, produces more natural introductions than a random mix.
• Is attendance consistent? Referrals come from trust, and trust comes from repetition. Groups where half the seats are empty most weeks rarely produce much.
• What does it cost, all in? Count fees, meals and time. An hour a week is roughly 50 hours a year.
• Can you measure it? Track introductions received and the work that came from them for three months. That is the only honest test.
• Are you giving as much as you ask? The members who get the most referrals are usually the ones who send the most.

Why Colorado first

Colorado’s economy is dominated by small firms. The SBA’s Office of Advocacy counts 730,887 small businesses in the state. The largest category is professional, scientific and technical services, followed by real estate, construction and transportation. Those are trades that depend heavily on word of mouth and on each other. The network’s publisher is headquartered in Denver.

How to join, and what comes next

Owners can request a seat at nexgenleadgroups.com/join by choosing their trade and the group nearest their customers. The network says new groups can form as membership grows, and that states outside Colorado open when someone steps forward to lead them. When more states go live, the site says, the featured state on its home page will rotate based on group activity, and that placement is never sold.