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Aloona .
Growth | Product | Experimentation
Professional Background
Aloona is a passionate growth strategist dedicated to the art and science of driving success in tech startups. With a compelling journey that began in engineering, she has seamlessly transitioned into the world of business and growth, combining analytical skills with a deep understanding of consumer behavior. Her career has been marked by a series of impressive roles, most notably as one of the early hires at udaan, where she played an instrumental role in shaping the growth trajectory of one of India's fastest-growing tech startups. In her capacity as Head of Growth at udaan.com, Aloona not only led the charge in innovation but also cultivated the essential strategies that have positioned udaan as a major player in the tech landscape.
Aloona’s professional path is characterized by her commitment to understanding people—the key to unlocking business potential. Her work revolves around solving complex problems and turning ambitious visions into reality. This intrinsic drive to build from ground up has been a significant factor behind her successful initiatives in various organizations.
Before her impactful tenure at udaan, Aloona served as the Head of Growth at Upraised, where she demonstrated her capability to implement structured growth strategies that resulted in a remarkable increase in customer engagement and satisfaction. Further back in her career, she laid the foundation of her business acumen as a TAS Manager at the prestigious Tata Administrative Services, garnering invaluable skills in business operations and strategic planning.
Her journey reflects not just a career path but a fulfilling quest for knowledge, growth, and the satisfaction derived from innovation and problem-solving in the tech sector.
Education and Achievements
Aloona’s educational background is as robust as her professional experience, making her a well-rounded strategist in the business and growth arena. She holds a Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) in Marketing from the highly regarded SPJIMR (SP Jain Institute of Management & Research), where she honed her market analysis and consumer behavior skills. This academic experience provided her with a solid foundation to approach business challenges critically and creatively.
Aloona further enhanced her expertise by studying at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, known for its emphasis on practical learning through case studies, which has greatly assisted her in translating theoretical knowledge into actionable strategies in real-world business scenarios.
Her commitment to excellence led her to participate in specialized growth training at Reforge and the Growth & Product Bootcamp at GrowthX®, where she acquired advanced knowledge and cutting-edge techniques tailored for driving growth in tech startups. These educational pursuits illustrate her dedication to lifelong learning and personal growth, as she constantly seeks to stay ahead of industry trends and best practices.
Achievements
Throughout her career, Aloona has achieved various milestones that reflect her capabilities and contributions to the tech community. Joining udaan.com at a pivotal moment in its journey, she was essential in spearheading initiatives that propelled the startup into a leadership role within the competitive Indian tech sector. Her strategic thinking and innovative approaches facilitated relationships with customers, ultimately leading to enhanced loyalty and brand strength.
At Upraised, her role as Head of Growth allowed her to implement policies that significantly improved customer experiences and service delivery. She was able to transform customer feedback into strategic enhancements that resonated with users, ensuring the company’s long-term viability and alignment with market expectations.
In summary, Aloona is a growth-driven professional whose work is characterized by a keen perception of human behavior, a passion for tackling complex business issues, and a strong desire to build innovative solutions. Her journey is a testament to her skills, dedication, and the desire to foster growth both personally and professionally in the ever-evolving landscape of technology and business.
Highlights
Want to be a product leader one day? Or move to a product role right now?
If there is one skill you just can’t do without - its problem solving!
Annnd.. We are finally, finally doing a live session on this at Upraised
We always knew Movin Jain was the perfect person for this. But, you all know making your way on a founder’s calendar is not easy!
Hence the long wait.
Why only Movin, you ask?
-He has spent more than a decade solving complex problems at India’s most loved startups - PhonPe, Ola & Inmobi to name a few
-He is now building his own startup (Skydo), where he is solving the complex problem of cross border payments for b2b businesses.
-He has coached many young PMs on first principle problem solving
Not one second of this session is worth missing.
See you this Saturday, 12 noon (Link to join in comments)
Speaking to a lot of aspiring PMs from Tier 2 cities of India has been a large part of my work at Upraised.
Most of these incredibly talented, smart & hardworking people had no clue what product management was till they ‘accidentally’ stumbled upon it at some point in their life. Even after they discover PM-ing, breaking into the role is incredibly difficult for them - they don’t have seniors in the role to advise them, the right network for referrals or a clear understanding of how to upskill themselves.
They end up wasting 2-3 years of their lives, just figuring out what the role is and how they can transition into it. That's a big opportunity cost. That's 2-3 years they could have spent on the job becoming better PMs.
Unfortunately, This amazing role (like most coveted career paths) is accessible only to a privileged few who are from IITs & IIMs.
What if you are not from this pool? What if you dream of being a product manager but don’t know where to start? What if you don’t know if the role is the right fit for you?
We are building something to help you.
A FREE 50 min test, which you can take to understand if you have the right skills to become a product manager. Use it to uncover your strengths and blindspots.
Let who you are today, not where you have been, dictate your future. You got this.
(Link to the test in comments)
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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
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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
- 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.
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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.