Earlier this week, Anthony Pompolino found himself with two openings for a private dinner party.

Pomp, as he is known, tweeted an invitation.

“I am hosting a dinner tomorrow night for 20 founders in NYC. I have 2 spots available for someone new that I don’t know yet. Recommendations?”

Two hundred people responded.

It’s evidently harder to get into a Pomp party than Harvard, which has a 5% acceptance rate.

“Things quickly got out of hand,” he wrote.

He followed up by publishing a link to a Google Doc to manage the overflow.

Pomp, it should be noted, has 1.6 million Twitter followers. So it’s not a huge surprise he can give away two free tickets to what would likely be an amazing networking opportunity.

Still, I think there’s something here worth unpacking.

Younger entrepreneurs are using the Internet in general and social media in particular to network in a way that Boomers and Gen X never did and probably never will.

Instead of reaching out to specific people who have been hand selected and pre-vetted, they make the invitation public – even for private events. The goal is to meet people they don’t know.

It’s like throwing bottles into the ocean and waiting to see where they wash up.

Of course, there is still a selection process. Pomp picks the two out of the 200.

But adopting a crowd-sourced approach to connecting with new people offers the promise of discovering talent that’s been overlooked. Or more likely, talent that was less socially connected.

That’s particularly interesting for someone like Pomp, who focuses on early-stage investing.

And he isn’t the only one doing it.

Michelle Volz, an investment partner at A16Z tweeted in late January: “Have a few spots left for a NYC tech founder dinner I’m hosting in Tribeca tomorrow – DM me if interested!”

Morgan Barrett, a venture capital lawyer, posts on Twitter to invite people to join a breakfast club for early-stage founders and investors he runs in New York. There is also a chapter in Los Angeles.

Business groups such as Rotary have sponsored meetups for decades, of course. But those tended to be limited by geography or the social networks of their members.

Social media has created the possibility to network in a totally new way.

And ironically, the people who do it best are emphasizing meeting in real life.