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Alison Go
Chief Product Officer | Startup advisor and consultant | Climate tech | Ex-Amazon, Facebook | Columbia adjunct faculty
Alison Go is a Resident Scholar at Gigantic, an accomplished executive and educator with extensive experience in product management, strategy, and advisory roles across various sectors.1 She has worked at prominent tech companies, including Meta (formerly Facebook) and Amazon.23 At Gigantic, Alison is involved in teaching leadership and product management courses, where she shares insights on forming vision, articulating strategy, and making mindset shifts necessary for effective leadership.23
Highlights
🌎 Your climate tech startup probably shouldn’t do product-led growth
In conversation with climate tech founders, I’ve been surprised to field so many questions about product-led growth (i.e. “PLG”). “Should we do PLG? If yes, how?” My answer is almost always the same: No.
Here’s why.
❓What is product-led growth❓ PLG is a marketing/sales strategy for B2B SaaS companies in which the product itself drives expansion, with supposedly no need for a traditional sales or marketing team. PLG companies are industry darlings because when it works, it really, really works.
❓Why should climate tech startups avoid PLG?❓ Some notable PLG companies include Zoom, Survey Monkey, and Calendly.
One thing you’ll notice is that all these products share these qualities: 👩🏭 Industry agnostic: The revenue from PLG products tends to be modest – $10 to $50/month/user — so you need a huge user base to run a viable business. Most PLG products are used across many industries, giving them a large enough market to financially work. 🤝 Collaborative: PLG products typically have inherent viral dynamics, where users invite others to the platform as part of using the product itself. (You can’t use Zoom by yourself.) 🆓 Freemium: To capitalize on network effects, most PLG products use the freemium model. Freemium means a company offers basic services for free while charging a premium for advanced functionality. The free version gets a foothold in a company or industry – with the hope that companies and power users eventually pay and subsidize everyone else.
Climate tech products don't fit this mold. ❌ One vertical: Climate tech companies are, by definition, vertical specific, with a small number of potential users (compared to, say, Zoom). ❌ Single player: Climate tech use cases are not particularly collaborative. Yes, multiple people may use a tool, but it’s often a closed system, used by only people within one company. ❌ Restrictive IT: Based on my experience working in climate, freemium offerings are a mismatch with industry procurement processes. The corporations and governments using climate tech software often have the strictest cybersecurity protocol and are extremely restrictive regarding which tools their employees can use. For example, a company I worked with had such robust firewalls, we could barely email each other (we ended up using LinkedIn messaging). This kind of company is not going to allow employees to use any tool they want.
❓What should climate startups do instead❓ The alternative strategy is honestly quite boring. Traditional enterprise sales is likely the answer. Your customer base is going to be relatively small (dozens or maybe hundreds of clients; not thousands), each paying enterprise-level prices (not consumer prices).
Instead of investing in PLG, I almost always suggest to my climate tech clients to re-focus their product team to build a great product that deserves a high ticket price. Sometimes, the old-fashioned way really is best.
One of the most stupidly obvious things that people who care about climate change can do is simply talk more about climate change.
I think a lot about this chart – in 2022, 22% of people said they were dismissive or doubtful of global warming. That’s a lot of people … and it’s depressing to think about. But the other portion of this chart should not be ignored … that 78% are convincible or are already convinced. This is ACTUALLY a lot! Like literally more than the nonbelievers. The long-abused optimist in me is constantly reminding myself that we can solve the problem with just these people.
But where are all these folks and how can we find each other to prove how numerous we actually are? Now that much of my work is currently in climate tech, I find that people are deeply curious and knowledgable about climate change – they just needed to be prompted to come out of the shadows.
So here's my prompt for today: a rambling list of things I do as a climate nerd and a call to hear more about what others are doing. 🎁 I give: Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Earthjustice are my go-to environmental nonprofits. 🎓 I learn: I’m a podcast girlie, so I highly recommend Volts, Drilled (esp. Season 3), How to Save a Planet, and a Matter of Degrees (the last two are defunct, but the back catalog is great). I also took part in the Terra.do program, learning so much from both experts and my peers. 👩💼 I work: For the last year, I’ve been doing fractional/interim CPO work primarily with climate tech companies. The work is deeply fulfilling and just plain interesting. Thanks to Daniel Hilson, Christophe C., Phillip Parker, Max Zaporoshenko, Karthick Rajamani, Ole-Erik Endrerud, Emily Owen, Andrew Pearson, Jemima Woolverton, Shilpa C., Wilson Morse for allowing me to work with you. 🌈 I dream: I have a proposal for a nonprofit local news startup focused on climate change in my back pocket. It’s on the backburner, but if you have $5-10 million to spare, let’s talk! 💰 I invest: On top of the philanthropic giving, I’ve also invested in an early-stage venture fund focused on climate. Russell S. at Virta Ventures will be happy to tell you more about it. ♻ I consume less and better: My shopping is mostly secondhand, I look for non-plastic and low-water alternatives, I am trying (but mostly failing) at being vegan-ish, and so on. 🤝 I connect: I so appreciate the Women and Climate community created by Michelle Li and I fully depend on the NY Climate Tech newsletter by Alec Turnbull and Sonam Velani to meet climate nerds in NYC IRL. Building communities is not for the faint-hearted!
Would love to hear where your efforts have led you. My DMs are open or feel free to leave comments on suggestions for more media, tools, and ideas.
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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.