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Ashish Kumar
Impact Investing | Climate | Innovation | Design
Ashish Kumar, identified by the LinkedIn username "ashkr," is an Independent Advisor specializing in the Travel, Tourism, and Hospitality sectors. His profile highlights a focus on providing independent consultancy services within these industries, indicating a wealth of experience and expertise in these areas.1
In addition to his advisory role, Ashish Kumar is also involved in self-development and shares insights related to career advice on his LinkedIn platform.2 His professional activities suggest a commitment to fostering growth and development within his field.
For further details about his professional background and current projects, you can view his LinkedIn profile directly.
Highlights
The true warriors and stewards of Climate and Nature regeneration have already been working inconspicuously at the frontlines for centuries. A week's worth of immersion, discourse, and bonhomie with some of these nature stewards – the indigenous people and local communities (IPLC) of Arhuaco, Kogi et al in northern Colombia – and I'm still in awe of their ancestral wisdom and deep earthly conception on how to live 'with' nature, not 'off' it. Nestled in the biosphere reserve of Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (SNSM), these communities warmly refer to the modern western world as the 'younger brothers'. As I got a rare glimpse into uncovering their relentless pursuit of restoring 'natural law' over the centuries, the spiritual sophistication in their conduct and symbolism grew bold on me; while I continue to dwell on innumerable reflections I took home:
🌎 Vital region for nature and biodiversity conservation — SNSM is refuge to remarkable biological diversity: from mangroves on the coasts to not-too-far-out glaciers on the peaks – consisting of over 3000 plant species 600 bird species, many of them endemic. One of the reasons that lends SNSM the phrase 'heart of the world'. To me the term 'ancestral wisdom' loosely also refers to the region's IPLCs' mastery in regenerating land and biodiversity degraded over centuries by the 'younger brothers' (e.g. 90% of glacial ice eroded over the last 150 years).
🌎 Opportunity for 'Bio-region' based scalable investment models — Whilst there's been significant interest and capital mobilisation already towards regenerative agriculture across the asset classes (real assets - land regeneration; private equity - large scale agri-industrials; private debt - Agri-sme lending funds etc); there's limited decentralised financing mobilisation through the holistic 'Bio-regional' lens (agro-ecological zones) and IPLCs/community ownership centred models. This is central to the thesis of pioneering initiatives such as the Blue Dot Project, The BioFi Project, the Shakti Regeneration Institute (SRI) et al – and the latter is also spearheading the development of a capital market oriented Green Bond platform focused on Bioregional land assets acquisition and ownership transfer to the IPLCs with localised stewardship/governance models.
🌎 Long-term trust-building and intervention design requires the faculty to operate across layers of conception — Attending and co-facilitating sessions with these IPLCs and stellar multi-disciplinary teams made me further establish that intentional listening requires asking non-leading questions and the faculty to operate and swiftly traverse across layers of conception: spiritual layer, cultural layer, socio-political layer, economic value layer, asset class layer (from an investor lens), service layer et al. It's nearly impossible to apply skills and capabilities of highly multi-disciplinary 'tag teams' without the meta-positioning of conversations across such layers.
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The 2024 London Climate Action Week #LCAW was bigger and bolder than ever before. Over the years the breadth and pedigree of events and visiting institutions here has risen multi-fold. Here’s a non-exhaustive glimpse of what kept me running around the town in a particularly sweltering hotter-than-usual London week (if you get the hint) — across the climate finance spectrum:
🌍 𝐂𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡 𝐕𝐂/𝐋𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬: Geeking about First-of-a-kind (FOAK) financing with several leading ClimateTech VCs, Bankers, Foundations et al in a rapid brainstorming style session run by the fantastic ClimateImpact team. 𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐤𝐞𝐲 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲: VCs are slowly learning to evolve the valuation frameworks for hardware businesses; and the ‘sweet spot’ of asset-light/SAAS-led deals can’t form a basis of portfolio construction for the majority ClimateTech VCs.
🌍 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐀𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬: Co-organising and moderating a roundtable with folks working with the US and UK Pensions and others institutional allocators on enabling a just/inclusive transition while targeting risk-adjusted returns. 𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐤𝐞𝐲 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲: Tackling long-term climate risk and evolving net-zero goals are becoming an integral part of the long-term fiduciary duty, rather than a ‘distraction’. Watch out for an article soon.
🌍 𝐈𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞: Running a work-session with an inspiring set of The Earthshot Prize semi-finalists to help them on emerging models of impact scale finance. 𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐤𝐞𝐲 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲: Impact for-/non-profits can tailor their scale-up strategy early on to consider suitable financial instruments such as impact-linked debt, redeemable equity, guarantees et al; while impact-aligned commercial funders and foundations are on their learning curve to add more impact finance instruments/toolkits beyond traditional grant-making.
🌍 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐕𝐂/𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞: Geeking on the evolving climate impact frameworks for the early/growth VCs and other asset classes — with the Project Frame crew and host of leading VCs, Foundations and market builders. 𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐤𝐞𝐲 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲: Growth investors need a value-chain based 'investor adjustment factor' for their own GHG claims out of a deal/portco's total claims.
🌍 𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭: Attended the launch of a new USD African Sovereign Index at the London Stock Exchange — backed by US Govt Prosper Africa, UK Govt Mobilist, S&P Global, The Liquidity and Sustainability Facility (LSF) etc. 𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐤𝐞𝐲 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲: Tracking performance of 17 sovereign issuers to date, this ‘inclusive’ index can help boost liquidity and transparency of African Eurobonds in the repo market, especially given lack of passive products from Africa. Deepening public market instruments is critical to tackle the $trillions of SDG financing gap, and proliferation of such indices can boost bond liquidity and reduce sovereign interest rates (2.6x higher than DM equivalents).
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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.