Suggestions
Ben Gaddis
Digital Services CEO and Investor
Ben Gaddis is a prominent figure in the digital marketing and technology sectors, currently serving as a Board Member at CQL, a company focused on digital commerce and technology solutions. Based in Austin, Texas, Gaddis has a rich background in digital innovation and marketing, which he has leveraged throughout his career.
Professional Background
- Current Role: Board Member at CQL, where he contributes to strategic decision-making and governance.
- Previous Experience: Gaddis is also the President of T3 (The Think Tank), an agency known for its early adoption of digital marketing strategies. He has extensive experience in managing digital projects for major brands such as American Airlines and Nokia, and has been involved in mobile marketing during its formative years.13
Expertise
Gaddis is recognized as a thought leader in the fields of digital strategy and brand innovation. His insights often revolve around the integration of technology with marketing practices, emphasizing the importance of agility and cultural fit within organizations. He believes that fostering a positive company culture significantly influences overall success.12
Contributions to Industry
As a member of the Forbes Agency Council, Gaddis shares his expertise on growth strategies and innovative brand activations. His work often highlights the evolving landscape of design thinking and its implications for businesses navigating technological advancements.4
Overall, Ben Gaddis stands out as a key player in driving digital transformation and strategic growth within the marketing industry.
Highlights
The biggest part of the enterprise about to be disrupted by digital transformation isn’t IT or marketing. It’s the Office of the CFO.
The role of the CFO is on the brink of a significant transformation, driven by the rapid adoption of cloud technologies and AI.
Historically, CFOs have been focused on cost containment, financial health and planning, risk management, and compliance.
But the rapid tech advancements coming will reshape these responsibilities and bring with them much higher opportunity and expectations.
CFOs are about to pivot to a much different and more strategic role. And it’s going to be fun to watch.
Future Roles of the CFO:
Strategic Advisor: -50% of CFOs are involved in capability-building programs across their organizations, emphasizing the shift towards strategic leadership roles (McKinsey) . -CFOs will increasingly contribute to setting the strategic direction of the company. They will use advanced analytics and data insights to inform and guide long-term business strategies, ensuring alignment with overall corporate goals.
Data-Driven Decision Maker: -67% of CFOs are now using advanced analytics for real-time decision-making, significantly enhancing their predictive capabilities (Gartner) . -Leveraging AI and machine learning, CFOs will harness real-time data for more accurate forecasting and predictive analytics. This capability will enable them to anticipate market trends and make proactive, informed decisions.
Business Growth Facilitator: -CFOs who actively engage in strategic initiatives report a 20-30% higher alignment between ESG initiatives and strategic goals, demonstrating their role in driving business growth (McKinsey) . -CFOs will play a crucial role in identifying new business opportunities and revenue streams. By integrating financial planning tools such as Anaplan and OneStream, they will drive growth initiatives and support business expansion strategies.
Technology Integrator: -Two-thirds of finance-related processes have been digitized or automated, showing the critical role of CFOs in technology integration (Deloitte) . -CFOs will soon oversee the integration of cloud technologies and modern ERP systems to enhance operational efficiency across the enterprise. They will be responsible for ensuring that financial processes are seamlessly integrated with other business functions, promoting a unified and agile operational framework.
The CFO role is about to go through a big shift. And that evolution will position CFOs as not just financial stewards, but as pivotal strategic TECHNOLOGY leaders within the C-suite.
My design friends will love this but here goes. IDEO just laid off 1/3rd of their staff and it’s being dubbed the “end of design thinking”.
I, more than anyone, hate seeing a services firm have to let people go. But I honestly believe this is more a result of the increasingly out of touch evolution of the design thinking brand than a damnation of the entire discipline.
Over the past decade I’ve sat in rooms where clients were told that they “didn’t understand their users” when in fact their entire job was talking to users. What started off as a consistent drip of feedback from design thinking practitioners morphed into an all too predictable reflex response.
There was a call to be more agile and iterative. This became code for clients needing to spend millions on research over 6-9 months only to uncover insights they probably already knew dressed up as “human truths.”
It’s not all on IDEO. The industry fell in love with the methodology versus the outcome and it became a religion that couldn’t be questioned.
Design Thinking as a concept actually makes a lot of sense. Design Thinking as an orthodoxy on the other hand makes no sense.
This isn’t the end of design thinking. It’s a moment when design agencies that are ACTUALLY agile (speed + quality, not method) will win. And I think we are going to see some small to mid-size shops break out this year.
Design is absurdly important. Always has been. Always will be. But instead of Design Thinking, I think we need an entirely new way of thinking about design.
But there are a lot smarter people than me on this topic. What say you Christian Barnard Andrew Hogan Hilton Barbour Mike Debnar Stephen P. Kinch Leah Allen Mehreen Shams Ian Goodwin?
People also viewed
Related People
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.