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Alan Manning
Committed to helping people BE BETTER, together.
Alan Manning is the Co-Founder and President of StraightLine Health, a company established in August 2021 that focuses on accelerating meaningful health innovation for startup health companies. The organization aims to help these companies realize their potential, develop clear paths to success, and democratize access to customers, investors, and partners.1
Manning's professional journey reflects a deep commitment to improving healthcare through various roles. Prior to his current position, he was the Executive Vice President at Planetree, where he oversaw multiple business functions and contributed to developing a patient-centered model of care that emphasizes holistic healing.1 He is also the Principal at Progressus, LLC, which focuses on enhancing team dynamics and productivity through people-centric strategies.1
His educational background includes a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Sociology from Gettysburg College and a Master's in Public Administration from Fairfield University.1 Manning’s passion lies in helping individuals and organizations achieve their best by fostering connections and facilitating transformative experiences.
Highlights
Let me start with this- healthcare is full of well-meaning, committed, and caring people. However, the healthcare system doesn’t always work optimally, because we don’t always solve for the right “X”. We continue to make such incredible advancements, but I still think we struggle to "lock in" on the most basic things…human behavior. My son was in the hospital for 7 days last week; thankfully he is fine. Overall, the care was good, and in some ways, great. However, his stay reaffirmed my belief that we need to remain focused on the basics of human care. Someone smarter than me will continue to push new technologies and devices. I’ll be over here, asking folks to:
1. Please be aware of your tone when my 11 year old calls you on the monitor and meekly asks you for ice. I appreciate that you are busy, but please don’t make his request an audible inconvenience.
2. If and when you do say you will do something, do it. When my 11 year old says, “the doctor said I could have water 2 hours ago and they still haven’t brought me any (after asking a few different folks…and having not had a drink for 72 hrs).” We can do gemba walks, we can do trust falls, and we can do process improvement events, but I defer to one of my favorite mantras: “I am here. I can help. I will help.” Sometimes we just need to make sure we are accountable.
3. When you walk in the room, do me a favor, remind me who you are with a simple introduction. I met a lot of you today and I'm sorry I can't always tell who is who! 4. Finally, and most importantly, if rest is so integral to my son's recovery, why do you take his vitals in the middle of the night every night (he wasn't critically ill)? My 11 year old used the term “my non-vital vitals.” Beyond that, on the night before discharge, who thought it was a good idea to pull his IV @4AM?
I don’t want to be cranky, nor oppositional. I want to underscore that technology and science continue to advance at rapid rates. We need to make sure we are bringing our human interactions along at the same pace. More pressingly, we need to make sure we are committing the same time and energy to these opportunities. This is not about patient experience scores, it’s about the patient’s experience. It’s about my son (and your daughter, and husband, and father-in-law…). We had such uplifting moments with the therapy dog and healing garden and video game system that they wheeled into the room. All of these signature moments were so positive. Let's make sure we don't damage all of those "goods" by missing some of the simplest aspects of human interaction.
This was me with my Mam and Dad and my girlfriend the night before I left Ireland at 17 years old...25 years ago, today! Some of the journey has been incredible and some has been heartbreaking. But today, I sit here humbled, thankful and excited for the next 25 years. I have learned a LOT and here a few of the highlights:
IT'S ALL ABOUT THE JOURNEY. Finish lines are fickle and fleeting. The memories and education I have gained while on the road to those finish lines have been invaluable. The road has taken many twists and turns and it all led me to this point. If I hadn't messed up my knee in high school, I'd never have met my wife!
I AM ONLY HERE BECAUSE OF THE SUPPORT I HAVE GOTTEN ALONG THE WAY. I wouldn’t have even made it out of the airport in Boston if it wasn’t for Mr. Farley (my host family), convincing me to give my school a try for a week. I was so overwhelmed I wanted to get back on a flight home. I did what he said. I guess I extended the week a little! Since then, I have had many more people support, encourage, motivate and inspire me...it takes a village.
LIFE ISN'T FAIR AND LIFE ISN'T EASY BUT LIFE IS GOOD! Two and a half decades can’t go smoothly, and I feel like I have endured some rough seas. Having a beautiful daughter undergo multiple open-heart surgeries before dying at 6 months old is every bit as awful as you might think. There’s no silver lining nor deep learning. There’s no explanation nor justification. It just sucked, and it still sucks 13 years later. That said, life is still GOOD! I have amazing memories of little Katie and I see her in her younger brothers every day. It melts my heart when my youngest son tells people that he has a brother and a sister, without shame nor awkwardness.
MY WARTS, WRINKLES, AND IMPERFECTIONS ARE OKAY. I like me more now than I did then. I used to feel so awkward in so many settings. I’m happy to say now that now I feel really comfortable in my own skin. I have also shed the chip that I had on my shoulder; the constant need to prove myself to everyone is gone and I feel lighter because of it. I have figured out my priorities and I make sure my actions map to those priorities. I feel like I am closer to being the man and dad I want to be...aspiring to be like my dad was for me growing up.
IF YOU'RE GOING TO BET, BET ON YOURSELF. Work hard, make plays, and let the chips fall where they may. We all have different goals and aspirations. We have different measures of success. But, no matter what your goals are, it’s going to be even harder to reach them if we don’t support ourselves- physically and emotionally. We are all riddled with doubts and concerns, but in the end of the day I will always “default to action” and DO things that I think will help me to be more successful. Lamenting, perseverating and excuse-making won’t help me be the best me that I can be.
Here's to 25 more years of memories!
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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
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
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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