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Cristina Flaschen
CEO and Founder at Pandium- We're hiring!
Cristina Flaschen is the CEO and Founder of Pandium, a company that specializes in providing a platform for building and supporting software integrations, particularly for B2B SaaS companies. With over 15 years of experience in the technology sector, Flaschen has a strong background in managing technical implementation and integration projects across various organizations.
Professional Background
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Early Career: Flaschen began her career in 2004 as a Sales Representative at Castle Branch, Inc. She subsequently held positions at Sanberg and Sikorski as a Senior Project Manager, where she led a significant ERP implementation project. She also worked as a Dynamics AX Consultant at Arbela Technologies, specializing in trade and logistics.
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Leadership Roles: Before founding Pandium, she served as Manager of Implementation at Booker Software and later as Director of Professional Services at Handshake Corp. In 2017, she founded Greenwood Tech, a consultancy focused on system integration solutions, which later evolved into Pandium.
Pandium
Founded in 2017, Pandium aims to facilitate seamless software integrations for businesses, allowing them to create integrated app marketplaces that enhance customer experiences. The platform supports various integration approaches, including low-code and no-code solutions, to cater to different user needs.123
Education and Certifications
Flaschen holds a Bachelor's Degree from the University of North Carolina Wilmington and has certifications in Microsoft Dynamics AX, enhancing her expertise in software integration and management.24
Current Focus
Under her leadership, Pandium emphasizes the importance of interoperability in the tech ecosystem, helping companies maximize their revenue potential through effective integration strategies. Flaschen is known for her insights into the evolution of eCommerce tech partnerships and the challenges faced by B2B companies in growing their partner ecosystems.13
Highlights
Y'all, I gotta be honest for a second about something that makes me sad.
I've been working in the SaaS integration space for a very long time. I've talked to hundreds of SaaS companies over the years, (well before Pandium,) who struggle with losing sales and having a poor customer experience because they lack integrations.
When we talk to companies who are interested in upping their integration game, they so often start super enthused about the idea of opening up new lines of business, but end up losing steam when the rubber meets the road(map.) Not only are integrations often not seen as core to business success (wrong) but no one wants to own them as it's not considered a sexy project.
And so they do nothing. For weeks. For months. For literally years.
At least once a month I'm catching up with someone who I spoke with years ago who's team said they were working on this "next quarter" or they already had a plan to "build in house" and they are in exactly the same place they were three or four years ago.
They're battling customer churn. Struggling to differentiate from competitors. Losing deals so often that sales may have stopped even asking the old fateful "can we integrate with xyz?"
WHY?! I truly don't understand.
It's been shown that partner-influenced deals close faster and have a higher ACV. Once signed, those customers churn less and are more likely to adopt more features.
Pandium aside, why do companies continue to struggle with this? Why is it acceptable to do nothing?
Honestly, someone help me understand.
👀 👀 👀 👀 👀
TikTok has officially announced TikTok Shops and FulFilled by TikTok in the US.
https://lnkd.in/ea2xjjqp
This is huge news for merchants- not only a new channel to sell through but also fulfillment managed by TikTok so they don't have to deal with the logistics headaches of packing and shipping things. Through their network of partners, merchants will be able to compose their entire business around their TT shop. Wild to see this launching in the US.
If you're an ecommerce company who isn't looking at a TikTok partnership right now, you're going to be behind.
No eng bandwidth? We've got you covered there, too, with our App Team. We're an extension of your team, offering boost capacity to help you launch more apps when in-house engineering time may be tight. Why wait for your busy product and engineering team to make time to work on this partnership when you can work with our App Team to get it done ASAP?
We are not a dev shop and you get full code ownership when the project is complete, which means you aren't tied to our services arm forever.
We've worked with companies who have never had a partner before all the way to fortune300 commerce platforms to make sure they're able to continue to deliver integrations and partnerships, regardless of what the market brings and independent of their in-house experience. We've been called a "godsend" and have had customers ask to speak at our companywide meetings to share their successes and thank the team for their hard work.
I share this not to brag, but to show that we know how to get things done with TikTok and beyond, and we've been solving real business problems for real companies from the very start.
You know you want to chat. DM me or feel free to check out Pandium's website to learn more and to get ahead of the game!
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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
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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
- 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.