(FORTUNE Small Business) – You mean you don't know Auren Hoffman? Well, get to know him--it will cost you somewhere between $5,000 and $10,000 a month--and pretty soon you'll be wondering how you made new contacts and managed existing ones without outside help. "I'm in the business of introducing people to others for their mutual benefit," says Hoffman, who along with an administrative assistant makes up the Stonebrick Group, a San Francisco consulting firm. "I connect people." Can he be serious about that? Well, last year the firm grossed about $600,000.

Hoffman, 31, has built a business by identifying yet another function that smart CEOs can now freely outsource: networking. Despite the ubiquity of BlackBerries, the convenience of e-mail, and the popularity of Friendster and other social networking sites, making genuine (read: useful) connections still requires patience. If you believe Hoffman, civilization has reached the absurd point where humans can no longer interact without a professional on hand. The entrepreneurs who hire him don't have time to make new contacts. "Running a company is a full-time job," says Jason Mandell, co-founder of LaunchSquad, a five-year-old San Francisco public relations firm. For Mandell, focusing on day-to-day operations at his eight-person company distracted him from replenishing his inventory of useful acquaintances. He estimates that Hoffman's introductions added more than six figures to his company's bottom line in 16 months.

Some of Hoffman's clients employ him to meet people they need to know but have no obvious way to reach. "I know the Valley's business culture, but I didn't know its political landscape," confesses Michael Howse, a 20-year Silicon Valley veteran whose company, PacketHop, makes secure wireless networks for first responders such as EMTs and police and fire departments. Two years ago Howse hired Hoffman to help him make contacts at the Department of Homeland Security. Howse met local, state, and federal officials, including outgoing FCC chairman Michael Powell. And Hoffman helped Howse describe PacketHop's intricate technology in a way that, well, even politicians could grasp. "Auren's definitely Mr. Connection," notes Howse, who credits Hoffman with helping sew up contracts.

Hoffman puts a client within reach of dinner with President Bush, lunch with Google CEO Eric Schmidt, or cocktails with top venture capitalists. As the ultimate yenta, Hoffman hosts luncheons where policy wonks and business types converge. "I'm not sure I'll do business with everyone Auren introduces me to," says Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and now a managing partner at Clarium Capital Management, a hedge fund and private-equity firm in San Francisco. "But then again, you never know from where or whom the next big idea is going to come."