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Aunnie Patton Power
Academic (Oxford, LSE), Author (Adventure Finance), Advisor (The ImPact, BEAM network, Jumo, Nyala Venture), Angel Investor (Dazzle), Founder (Impact Finance Pro)
Hi there! Just an FYI, if you are planning to send me a request for connection, please do include how we know each other (i.e. when we collaborated or worked together or when I had you as a student). Due to the volume of requests I receive, I don't accept invitations from people I haven't engaged with in some capacity. Please do feel free to follow me or subscribe to my newsletter at Intellimpact.com or adventure.finance!
I like to describe my work using the 4 As: I'm a Academic, an Author, an Advisor, and an Angel Investor.
Academic: Through my work as an Associate Fellow at the University of Oxford's Saïd Business School, Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Skoll Centre for Entrepreneurship, Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economic's Marshall Institute, I teach courses on innovative finance, impact investing and technology for impact. These include Executive Education short courses and courses on MBA, EMBA, MCOM, MPHIL and MLF programs. I also have two online courses on Coursera and GetSmarter. Finally, I guest lecture at a variety of other insitutions globally and am the academic director for the BEAM network.
Author: My book Adventure Finance was published by Palgrave Macmillan in June of 2021. It is designed to help purpose driven founders and funders understand their funding options and design their funding journey. It is the culmination of nearly a decade of work and I'm very proud of it! I've now started writing my next book on alternative fund structures.
Advisor: I offer advisory services to financial intermediaries, investment funds, family offices, foundations, governments and development institutions on innovative finance and social investment strategies, and exponential technologies for impact financing strategies through my work at The ImPact, a collective of families looking to use their wealth for positive social and environmental impact. I also advise employers and prospective talent on transitioning into impact careers through Impact Finance Pro, which I co-founded. I sit on several boards and investment committees including for Nyala Venture, Sanlam Investments and Jumo.
Angel Investor: I invest small checks into female founded businesses in South Africa through Dazzle Angels.
I have experience in both the mainstream and the impact oriented finance sectors in North America, Europe, Africa and Asia, a B.A. in International Political Economy from DePauw University and an M.B.A. from the University of Oxford's Saïd Business School.
Highlights
As Impact Investors, I think we've done pretty well at moving the perception (and often reality) of low income people from beneficiaries to producers and consumers, but I think we are still failing MISERABLY at the next step: creating wealth at scale.
This is particularly true when you look at wealth accumulation with a racial lens. Don't get me wrong, it is very important to support companies offering sustainable, affordable products so people are able to afford healthcare, education, food, housing etc., but who OWNS those companies? How are these companies contributing to households building wealth, not just consumption?
Worryingly, the racial wealth gap in many countries is actually growing because being able to consume products is far removed from owning assets (like businesses and homes). How can impact investing be geared to address this issue?
I'm excited to dive into this conversation next week with a Saïd Business School, University of Oxford webinar called Empowering ownership: investing to build wealth for all (Tuesday, September 17th 3PM BST). I'll be joined by a set of inspiring collaborators and co-conspirators in the ownership space:
Brian Boland who's work at Unlock Ownership uses investments and grants to support organizations committed to building wealth in historically underinvested households through home and employee ownership. https://lnkd.in/d7rpxvD9
Kavya Shankar from Trust Neighborhoods whose team has created and pioneered Mixed-Income Neighborhood Trusts (MINTs), which are operated by and accountable to existing community organizations to keep rent affordable for existing residents. https://lnkd.in/dXGpydDq
Todd Leverette from Apis & Heritage Capital Partners is attacking the racial wealth gap and helping restore dignity, status and the American Dream for low income workers across the country through employee ownership. https://lnkd.in/dhdgP5xy
Please join us for this fascinating discussion!
https://lnkd.in/dU9iQAgG Executive Education at Saïd Business School
P.S. These are the types of conversations we have all week long at my Oxford Impact Finance Innovations programme. 😉 https://lnkd.in/eceQj5zM
There are still a few spaces left on my Saïd Business School, University of Oxford Impact Finance Innovations course in November. It is going to be a powerful week with the most innovative impact financiers in the world diving deep into how we can make investment structures, processes and incentives more impactful and inclusive. Here is a peak into what makes it unique. 🌟
Our course requires a very different level of intellectual engagement from attending a conference or a training or a workshop. I absolutely love all of those experiences - getting to hear different viewpoints, learn from experts, engage with peers etc., but our short course pushes you further and deeper than you thought possible in a short period of time. How do we do it?
👩🏫 We have world class core faculty including Alex Nicholls, my long time collaborator and one of the most experienced teaching faculty on impact finance in the world, Karim Harji, a dear friend and one of the foremost global experts on impact measurement and management and impact strategy, and Chintan Panchal, one of the most innovative legal minds I've had the privilege to work with in this space. (And me, of course :). All of whom have extensive experience teaching impact investing.
📚 Most of our course content was created by these core faculty including my book Adventure Finance, Alex and Karim's many academic publication and Chintan's legal contributions. This allows us to build sessions that can provide comprehensive overviews as well as detailed, technical cases.
💻 The course design has been built, adjusted and redesigned continually over the years to create the optimal learning and connecting experience - working to make sure that participants are fully engaged throughout the entire week and are able to build meaningful relationships with experts and their peers that they can continue to develop post course.
🎓 The cohort. I'm incredibly selective around who is allowed on the course. The participants on the course are all senior level impact financiers with a desire to go beyond traditional structures to the next frontier of impact investing. Many have designed incredibly innovative structures already and the dynamic in the class is always so electric. Upon completion, they'll join an incredible set of alumni allocating billions of dollars of capital.
🪄Oxford magic. I'm afraid I can't explain it, but the spell is real. #hogwartzlearning
Now, I haven't even mentioned our amazing guest speakers or the invite-only networking events with industry leaders from across the UK and Europe. I'll need a completely separate post to do them all justice.
What do you think? Are you ready to explore the next frontier of impact investing? Feel free to reach out directly to hear more about the course.
Executive Education at Saïd Business School #impactinvesting #innovativefinance #sdg #emergingtech
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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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