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Alan Fung-Schwarz
Software Engineer, Ruby on Rails, JavaScript/React, Python. Deaf, Cochlear Implant, Bionic Ears
Alan Fung-Schwarz is a Senior Software Engineer at BARK, where he specializes in analyzing systems and developing software solutions. He has a strong background in web application development, particularly with Ruby and Ruby on Rails, and is experienced in working across various technology stacks.1
In addition to his professional expertise, Alan is also an avid cyclist. He has participated in significant cycling events, including a 101-mile ride and a seven-day charity ride for AIDS/LifeCycle, showcasing his commitment to both fitness and community causes.23 Alan holds a degree from California State University-East Bay.1
As a deaf engineer, he advocates for inclusivity in the tech industry while demonstrating that diverse perspectives can enhance problem-solving and innovation.1
Highlights
This was hard! I managed to cycle 373 miles out of a total of 545 miles from June 2 to June 8 and I’m still thinking about it. I had to deal with my knees hurting, during which I had to have my bike and road shoes readjusted several times. I started each day getting on the saddle with enthusiasm, sometimes ended it with disappointment. There were more days I couldn’t finish the ride than days I could, but considering that I started training only in February, and that not everyone does this or can, I’m proud to have even been able to ride as far as I did. I kissed my bike for getting me 373 miles of the way. I’m honored to have been entrusted with a bike that had done ALC twice in 2018 and 2019 by a mentor who has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in his many years of fundraising for AIDS/LifeCycle. I think he saw that I really wanted to participate and I had an unsuitable bike for it.
I’m hoping to ride again next year and do the entire 545 miles. The fundraising page isn’t ready for donations yet, but I’ll update with a link.
I’m also looking to recruit more cyclists and roadies! Please contact me or go to https://lnkd.in/gQa5mGgr if you’re interested! And if you’re a first-time cyclist and are worried about fundraising enough money, they have a Community Fund for first-time riders who can raise at least half of the minimum of $3,500. They also want more diversity, so they especially encourage more BIPOC, women, Trans, non-binary, gender non-conforming individuals, and those disproportionately impacted by health inequities to join.
There are also organizations who can lend or give bikes to first-time riders. I didn’t have to rely on them, but it’s good to let people know there are ways.
I love being in the love bubble ❤️🫧 of ALC, feeling the support and gratitude of everyone who cheers each other on, and appreciating the community who got together in the darkest days of the AIDS epidemic. Despite things like PrEP and medications that have greatly extended the lives of many people living with HIV, the disease remains incurable and deadly, without the efforts and research done by San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the Los Angeles LGBT Center, which also provide things like services for mental health and substance use. The research done in HIV has also greatly enhanced our ability to understand and develop diagnostic tools for other viral diseases, including other retroviruses like SARS-CoV-2. Let’s end AIDS.
Last Sunday, I did my first century! I rode 101 miles in Marin County. https://lnkd.in/gJk6R7uk
I knew that it was going to be a long day, with my average biking speed of 11-12 mph, it would take 8-9 hours to complete this ride, not counting the rest stops and the lunch break. I was determined, and I made sure to prepare. I woke up at 5:37 am in the morning (because 5:30 was just too early), arrived at the park at 6:30, and we set off to ride at 7am. I wouldn't return home until 6pm.
I have done things like forgetting my helmet and even lost my front wheel. My experiences have taught me to use the techniques that I learned from reading Atul Gawande's "The Checklist Manifesto." As part of my pre-flight check, I used the Notes app to create a list of things I shouldn't forget, including not just my helmet, but also sunglasses, sunscreen, base layer, wind vest, chamois butt'r, protein bars, water bottles, spare tubes, a portable pump, my sensors (heart rate, speed, and cadence). I made sure I had everything before I drove to the park to meet the group to start my ride.
I am known to be very absent-minded, and for something as important to me as bicycling for AIDS/LifeCycle, I used a checklist to make sure I don't forget anything.
I'm wondering if other people have the same experience and what they use to prevent forgetfulness, whether in work or in hobby.
Donation page: https://lnkd.in/gnRAUrei
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Mesh is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Mesh centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
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Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Mesh's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.
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