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Brad Struss
Founder and CEO at Bigger Boat Consulting || Salesforce-based solutions for housing and human services nonprofits
Brad Struss is a highly accomplished individual with a wealth of experience in the field of Salesforce consulting and technology solutions for nonprofits.
As the founder of a Salesforce consulting firm, Brad focuses on using Agile methodologies to provide innovative solutions for nonprofits in the human services and housing sectors.
With a strong educational background including an M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Washington and a B.S. in Computer Science & Math from the University of Puget Sound, Brad possesses a solid foundation in technology.
Brad Struss is a 4-time Salesforce MVP, having received the prestigious award in the summers of '14, '15, '16, and '17. He is also recognized as a Salesforce Certified Sales Cloud and Service Cloud Consultant, showcasing his expertise in Salesforce solutions.
Throughout his career, Brad has been involved in various organizations and roles, including being a member of the Program Management Design Partner Program and the Partner Advisory Board at Salesforce. He has also served as the Founder and CEO of Bigger Boat Consulting, demonstrating his leadership abilities.
Brad's contributions extend to the nonprofit sector, where he has led the Nonprofit ISV Partner User Group and co-led the Seattle Salesforce Nonprofit User Group. His background includes managerial roles at NPower Northwest and Judy's Book, as well as serving as a Founding Board Member at Summer Search Seattle.
With extensive experience in the technology industry, Brad has held positions at reputable organizations such as Microsoft, where he has been a General Manager for Denver Sidewalk.com and a Group Manager for Developer Relations.
Brad Struss's diverse professional journey reflects his commitment to leveraging technology for social good and his expertise in Salesforce consulting, Agile methodologies, and nonprofit solutions.
Highlights
Loved seeing this profile on our client Homeless Prenatal Program and interview with executive director Shellena Eskridge. Last year alone, they provided support to more than 3,500 families. Also excited to see their collaboration with another client Mercy Housing: they’re teaming up to provide 74 more housing units in San Francisco! The city sorely needs these efforts.
Learn more about their critical work here: https://lnkd.in/gtbamNUx
Today Salesforce announced its “new Nonprofit Cloud” products, some of which will be available to customers this week. This new bundled suite of Salesforce products marks an architectural and price-point departure from the open-source mainstays like the Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) and Program Management Module (PMM).
Here are the key takeaways for existing Salesforce customers (new customers face different decision points):
- You can continue using your current architecture, licenses, and products without any change.
- Salesforce continues its Power of Us donation program, which provides 10 free licenses to qualified 501(c)3 nonprofits.
- Salesforce reiterates its commitment to maintaining and keeping available NPSP, PMM, and Nonprofit Cloud Case Management. Given the large user base for the existing products, we expect that commitment is a long-term one. This support is critical to the operation of tens of thousands of nonprofits that have invested heavily in Salesforce over the years. I expect new features or enhancements to these products to be limited going forward.
- The 3 times per year Salesforce releases will continue to enhance the platform for existing nonprofit customers. If I look back over the past several years, features like dynamic forms and automation enhancements via Flow represent some of the most significant improvements to the user experience.
- The license cost for the new Nonprofit Cloud products is significantly higher than licenses required for existing products that can use Sales Cloud or Platform licenses. After the first 10 free licenses, the price for the new Nonprofit Cloud is $60/user/month ($720/user/year).
- The new Nonprofit Cloud products will be available in stages over the next year. This week marks the initial release of the program and case management product. The fundraising and outcomes products are slated to be released later this year. As these other products are released they will only be sold as part of the single bundle of products.
- Moving to these new Nonprofit Cloud products will require a full data migration to a new instance and rebuilding any customizations from your current system. The new products look architecturally similar to today’s products but are different enough that it will still be a significant effort.
- One benefit of the new Nonprofit Cloud products is a single unified platform with access to program and case management, fundraising, and outcomes functionality all under one license. It is also bundled with advanced features such as Omnistudio and Data Processing Engine. While this package may be attractive for new customers with more ambitious intentions for Salesforce, we believe the increased cost and significant migration effort will not be worth it for many organizations.
I’m happy to set up a call to discuss these changes with anyone who is trying to understand the impact of this announcement.
https://lnkd.in/d4-evC2K #salesforce
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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.