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Brent Johnson
I help businesses maximize participation in tax incentive programs.
Professional Background
Brent Johnson is a versatile and accomplished professional who has carved a significant niche in the field of tax consulting and software development. As the CEO and co-founder of Clarus R+D, Brent has established himself as a leader dedicated to empowering accounting professionals with the tools they need to streamline Research and Development (R&D) studies. Under his visionary leadership, Clarus R+D has developed innovative tax credit software designed to help businesses maximize value through affordable and fully compliant R&D studies. By ensuring oversight of client progress and compliance with IRS documentation requirements, Brent has positioned his company as a trusted partner in the tax consulting space.
Brent's journey into the world of tax and accounting began with his education, where he laid a strong foundation for his career. He co-founded Clarus Solutions, LLC, which set the stage for his future endeavors in tax credit consulting. His extensive experience includes pivotal roles such as Managing Partner at Clarus Partners and a senior managerial position at Deloitte, where he honed his skills and gained invaluable insights into the complexities of tax regulations and compliance.
Education and Achievements
Brent Johnson's academic journey has played a crucial role in shaping his successful career. He graduated from Upper Arlington High School with a robust academic background, which served as a stepping stone to higher education. Brent pursued his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA) with a major in Accounting at The Ohio State University. His education provided him with a firm understanding of accounting principles and strategic financial management.
To further his expertise, Brent continued his studies at Capital University Law School, where he focused on tax law (MT, Tax). This specialized education equipped him with the legal framework necessary to navigate complex tax regulations and offer informed guidance to his clients.
Brent's diverse educational background combined with his professional experience in the tax and accounting sectors has led to a remarkable career characterized by significant achievements and contributions to the industry. His work not only enhances the lives of his clients but also supports the broader accounting community in optimizing R&D tax services.
Additional Contributions and Involvement
Brent's commitment to excellence extends beyond his role at Clarus R+D. He formerly held a position as a member of Vistage, a peer advisory organization for CEOs and business leaders, where he collaborated with fellow professionals and engaged in high-level strategic discussions. His leadership skills are further evidenced by his role as a co-founder at Clarus Solutions, LLC, where he played an integral part in driving innovative tax strategies and solutions for clients.
Throughout his career, Brent has been involved in various leadership positions, including serving as the Assistant Vice President (AVP) of Tax at Safelite, where he was responsible for overseeing tax compliance and planning initiatives. Each of these experiences has contributed to his well-rounded approach to tax consulting, emphasizing efficiency and client-centric solutions.
Brent Johnson’s passion for his work is evident in the services provided by Clarus R+D, which focuses on simplifying the complexities of R&D tax credits. By leveraging technology and best practices, he aims to remove the burden of compliance from accounting professionals, allowing them to concentrate on growing their businesses and enhancing client relationships. His dedication to making R&D tax services accessible to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) speaks to his commitment to fostering economic growth and innovation.
Achievements
Brent Johnson has achieved several notable milestones throughout his career. These achievements include:
- Co-founding Clarus R+D, which has revolutionized how accounting professionals handle R&D tax credits.
- Developing tax credit software that not only simplifies compliance but also enhances the value offered to clients.
- Spearheading initiatives at various organizations that demonstrate his leadership and commitment to providing exceptional tax consulting services.
- His work has earned Clarus R+D a reputation for excellence and reliability within the accounting community.
Conclusion
Brent Johnson is a forward-thinking leader whose experience, education, and professional achievements have significantly impacted the tax consulting industry. Through his innovative approaches and commitment to excellence, Brent continues to make a positive difference for accounting professionals and their clients. His journey as the CEO and co-founder of Clarus R+D exemplifies the potential for growth and success in the R&D tax services sector.
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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:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
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- 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.
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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.
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.