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Andrew Dumont
Operator and Investor
Andrew Dumont is an accomplished technology leader and entrepreneur, currently serving as the Founder and CEO of Curious, an investment and operating company based in Seattle. With nearly 20 years of experience in building and investing in software companies, Dumont has held multiple leadership roles throughout his career.
Career Highlights
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Curious: Founded in May 2017, Curious focuses on making minority investments in seed-stage companies and majority ownership in companies they operate. The firm has raised significant capital, including $16 million aimed at acquiring struggling software startups.15
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Stamped: Dumont served as CEO from January 2021 to January 2023 at Stamped, a SaaS company that provides reviews and loyalty solutions for e-commerce brands, achieving over $20 million in annual recurring revenue during his tenure.14
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Bitly: Prior to his role at Stamped, Dumont was the Chief Marketing Officer at Bitly from 2015 to 2018, where he played a crucial role in expanding the company's marketing efforts.24
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betaworks: He was part of the core team at betaworks, a startup studio known for creating and investing in notable companies like Giphy and Bitly, where he served as Head of Growth.13
Education and Recognition
Dumont holds an Executive Leadership certificate from Stanford University and a Bachelor of Arts in Finance and Marketing from Western Washington University. He has been recognized as one of Forbes' "30 Under 30" in marketing and appointed as an entrepreneurial delegate by the United Nations.12
Philosophy and Approach
Dumont's investment philosophy is shaped by his experiences in the tech industry, particularly his belief that many software companies have been mismanaged under traditional venture capital models. He advocates for a more sustainable approach to business growth, emphasizing profitability over rapid expansion.5
In addition to his work at Curious, Dumont is involved in mentoring and advising startups, reflecting his commitment to fostering innovation within the tech ecosystem.34
Highlights
Not enough is said about board composition in early-stage companies and the decisions they encourage founders to make.
Increasingly, we're seeing at Curious venture-backed companies loaded up with debt, equal to or greater than what they raised in venture. Most of these businesses have real revenue, in the millions of dollars, but are burning significant amounts of money each month. Not only are they not cutting burn, they're now also servicing debt in the tens of thousands of dollars each month. Clearly unsustainable for anyone that has any experience running a business.
It makes you ask the question, why? These aren't stupid people on the board or running these companies.
It is worth looking at the incentive structure. I wrote a few months ago about investor's increasing unwillingness to bridge existing investments that need more runway. There's better opportunities (and less history) with new investments. Companies that aren't rocket ships become stale and uninteresting for venture investors, both new and existing.
At that point, with additional investment capital unavailable, boards and founders are turning to debt. That's because it's all or nothing for the venture capital model. You're either a winner or a loser.
These boards would rather saddle the company with debt they know is unsustainable. This is a desperation move to bend the curve on growth in hopes that the business will then be attractive enough to raise the next round and continue the path of burn, in hopes of an inevitable exit. This is particularly true for businesses with less than $10M in revenue that haven't reached scale.
With boards predominantly made up of the venture capitalists that funded them, most of which have never actually operated a business, and who also require 10x+ type outcomes to fit their model, founders need to be aware of the decisions they're being encouraged to make and why.
It's devastating (and completely avoidable) to see these businesses shut down, with all of their employees losing their jobs and founders losing their company. Particularly with a real business with real revenue underlying them, and a clear path to operating sustainably.
This is broken.
If you're a founder in this situation, this is something you can say no to. Either through recapping the company or proposing a different operating path, there's ways to avoid this. It also stresses the importance of adding diversity to your board, both in terms of backgrounds and incentive structures.
Today is an exciting day. I recently sat down with the amazing Yuliya Chernova at the The Wall Street Journal to unveil the new Curious, a $16M fund dedicated to buying and operating software businesses for the long term.
Here’s the why behind what we’re doing.
Curious exists to provide a home for all of the great software companies that don’t fit the venture model.
As I look back on my nearly 20 years of operating VC-backed startups, there’s been a consistent theme — urgency and unsustainability.
The venture model has somehow convinced us to take the most cost efficient businesses in history — software — and turn them into cash incinerators, all in the name of growth. This is why countless companies have shut down, thousands of workers have been laid off, and so many toxic cultures exist. This is the human impact of the power law.
We started Curious to provide an antidote to that. Linear growth over exponential. Sustainable over unsustainable. Calm over urgent.
We’re dedicating the entire $16M fund, and future earnings, to buying and operating software businesses for the long term. When we buy a business, we intend to operate it for decades, keeping the original brand vision and mission in tact. The goal is to stop as many startups as possible from shutting down, providing liquidity to founders and investors, while injecting the business with a team of experienced operators and frameworks to turn it from unsustainable to sustainable.
Now to the ask, something that I don’t do often.
If you’re a founder of a software company looking for a long term partner, reach out to us at [email protected]. We’re looking for businesses in the $500K - $5M in ARR range, at or near profitability. We’re vertical agnostic, and aren’t scared of messy or distressed situations.
If you work in startups and are sick of the erratic nature VC funded companies, we’d love to hear from you. We’re always looking for future CEOs and executive level talent to step in and operate.
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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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