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Chelsea Riggs
Founding Member & Global President at amika, Certified B Corporation
Professional Background
Chelsea Riggs is a dynamic and influential leader in the haircare industry, serving as a Founding Member and the Global Brand President of amika, one of the largest independent haircare brands in the United States. Her career at amika spans over 13 years, during which she has played a pivotal role in the brand's growth and success. Chelsea has been instrumental in building the brand's distribution from the ground up, focusing on empowering the hairstylist community while strategically expanding amika's presence to become a top-tier brand in such esteemed retailers as Sephora US. Under her visionary leadership, amika has achieved remarkable milestones, including solidifying its status as a top player within the haircare market.
In 2019, Chelsea refocused amika’s brand ethos to emphasize its commitment to being a friend to hair, hairstylists, consumers, and the planet. This purpose-driven repositioning reflects her dedication to sustainability and social responsibility, which has propelled amika into a forward-thinking brand that prioritizes ethical practices. amika's dedication to these values is validated through its attainment of B Corp Certification, Climate Neutrality, and a Clean+Planet Positive status with Sephora.
During her tenure, Chelsea has overseen an impressive tenfold increase in revenue growth, marking a period of substantial expansion and success for the brand. In the first quarter of 2023, amika emerged as a Top 10 NPD Prestige Haircare Brand, marking a significant rise of three positions from the previous year. This achievement highlights amika's rapid growth, attaining a remarkable 90% growth rate—significantly higher than the overall market growth rate. By establishing a loyal customer base, amika has risen to the number one position in hair masks and the second position in dry shampoos, with its Perk Up Dry Shampoo becoming the #1 Prestige Dry Shampoo as reported by The NPD Group in 2022.
Education and Achievements
Chelsea Riggs holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Florida State University, where she majored in Merchandising with a minor in Marketing. This educational background has equipped her with the skills and knowledge necessary to thrive in the highly competitive fields of retail and brand management. Chelsea's academic journey laid the foundation for her career in business development and marketing, enabling her to deftly navigate the complexities of the haircare industry.
Before her rise to prominence at amika, Chelsea held several significant roles that contributed to her comprehensive understanding of brand development and market strategies. She began her career as an Assistant Buyer at American Eagle Outfitters, where she gained firsthand experience in retail buying and product selection, honing her analytical and negotiation skills. Chelsea then transitioned to Covetedlist.com, where she served as the Marketing Manager, further deepening her expertise in branding and market positioning. As the Business Development Manager at amika, she played a critical role in establishing the operational and strategic blueprint that has driven the brand's growth.
With a talent for cultivating relationships and a keen understanding of market trends, Chelsea became the Vice President of Global Sales and Business Development at amika, where she was responsible for overseeing expansive business strategies, driving sales growth, and fostering collaboration with key partners. Chelsea’s career progression within amika underscores her dedication and her in-depth understanding of the company’s vision and goals.
Achievements
Chelsea Riggs's leadership success is reflected in numerous achievements that have established amika as a beacon of innovation and community support within the haircare industry. Not only has she driven a monumental increase in revenue, but she has also solidified amika's market presence as a trusted brand among consumers and industry professionals alike. The brand’s commitment to ethical practices, heightened under Chelsea's guidance, sets a new standard for others in the industry.
- Top 10 NPD Prestige Haircare Brand: In 2023, amika achieved a new milestone, becoming a Top 10 brand in the NPD Prestige Haircare category, growing its ranking by three spots—an impressive feat that speaks to the effectiveness of Chelsea's leadership and strategy.
- Revenue Growth: Over a span of just seven years, Chelsea steered amika to attain a tenfold revenue increase, marking significant progress that highlights her business acumen and industry insight.
- Market Leadership in Product Categories: amika proudly claims the title of the #1 hair mask brand and the #2 dry shampoo brand, with Chelsea's strategic vision driving these accomplishments. The Perk Up Dry Shampoo achieving the #1 Prestige Dry Shampoo status further demonstrates Chelsea’s ability to create compelling products that resonate with consumers.
- Sustainability Initiatives: Chelsea's dedication to sustainability and social responsibility led to amika becoming B Corp Certified, Climate Neutral, and Clean+Planet Positive. This transformation reflects a significant commitment to the planet and the communities that amika serves.
- Community Empowerment: Throughout her career, Chelsea has remained focused on supporting the hairstylist community, creating opportunities for growth and development while ensuring that their needs are met. Her efforts have helped foster a strong bond between the brand and the professional community.
In summary, Chelsea Riggs is not just a leader but a transformative force within the haircare industry. Her achievements and dedication to sustainability, community empowerment, and innovative growth strategies have solidified amika's status as a major player in the market. Chelsea continues to inspire both her team and the wider industry with her strategic vision and unwavering commitment to ethical practices, setting a shining example for future generations of entrepreneurs and brand leaders.
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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
- 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.