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Ania Korsunska
Founder @Zemlia 🌍 | Empowering individual action for sustainability | PhD, Information Science
Ania Korsunska is the Founder and CEO of Zemlia, an early-stage startup focused on simplifying sustainability decisions through data and technology.13 With over a decade of experience in interdisciplinary research, data science, user-centered design, communications, and community building, Ania brings a wealth of knowledge to her role.4
Zemlia's Mission
Zemlia aims to address the challenge of information overload in sustainability and holistic living. The company is developing a tool that takes a higher-level approach to help people think across all areas of their lives when it comes to sustainability.1 Their goal is to leverage data and AI to benefit individuals and society as a whole, giving users insights based on their own data to inform better decision-making.1
Recent Achievements
In January 2024, Ania and Zemlia were awarded a $10,000 Startup Grant from WomensNet.1 This recognition highlights the potential impact of Zemlia's innovative approach to sustainability.
Professional Background
Ania's diverse skill set includes:
- Interdisciplinary research
- Data science
- User-centered design
- Communications
- Community building
Her experience spans over 10 years, providing a strong foundation for her role as a startup founder.4
Entrepreneurial Journey
As a startup founder, Ania has embraced the challenges that come with building a new company. She views her role as one that requires constant problem-solving, strategic shifting, and fundraising.1 Her approach to entrepreneurship involves being prepared for various contingencies and adapting quickly to new situations.
Work Environment
Ania is a member of Kiln, a co-working space that she describes as her "home away from home".2 This environment likely provides her with networking opportunities and a supportive community for her entrepreneurial endeavors.
Ania Korsunska's LinkedIn username is akorsunska, where she shares updates about Zemlia and her entrepreneurial journey.2
Highlights
🎙I've been cooking up a little side project, and I'm ready to tell you a little bit all about it 👀
Not only because I recently completed my PhD focusing on how to drive knowledge creation in complex systems, but also because I've had conversations with dozens and dozens of people in the sustainability space, and I've come to the conclusion that there is a lack of sharing of lived experiences.
There are SO MANY things we can all be doing to improve our lives and shape a better future, but many of these things are hard, confusing, time consuming and potentially risky. Though we absolutely need to raise awareness about all the wonderful choices that exist, we also need to be better about sharing all the messy details of implementation. This helps create a shared understanding and de-stigmatize the struggle.
The struggle is real, and valid, and we do not need to go alone. There are a million factors to consider when getting an EV, a heat pump, or solar panels; there are so many ways to transition to work in climate; there are a million different new products and services to try out. We make so many decisions daily, and knowing which is the best one or the right one, seems almost impossible at times. Especially when it's about something new or different. It's hard to go first, and go alone, or at least feeling like you're alone.
Everybody who has gone through some experience is a goldmine of information, regardless of whether they succeeded or failed. Their lived experience can help others not have to reinvent the wheel over and over.
So, not only is this one of the core tenets of Zemlia, but now also 🎙 a podcast called Along The Same Lines, coming to a device near you on September 16th! Stay tuned for more.
If you have a story to tell, send me a message! 😎
Over the past several months, I've had the honor and joy to help co-organize Climate Hikes - a fun, active, quarterly networking event series with Lisa Siems, in partnership with Climate Curious here in Portland, OR 👟 👟
While trying to organize the summer hike, we've been hit with the realities of climate change: 1️⃣ We had originally been scheduled for July 7th - we had to cancel due to the severe heat wave. 2️⃣ Rescheduled for July 28th - and had to cancel due to the trail being literally on fire that weekend. 3️⃣ We are now scheduled for September 22nd. While exploring some potential trails for the event, we found that some trails are unrecognizable - one "lake" trail we visited - the lake was completely gone.
Hoping to finally be able to bring us all together to walk, chat, make connections and bond over the state of the planet and what we're all doing about it on September 22nd. If you want to join, RSVP at the luma (link in comments!) Hope to see you there 🤗
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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:
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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.
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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.
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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.
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