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dan barker
CMO, non-exec, consultant, etc.
Professional Background
Dan Barker is a digital technology professional with over two decades of robust experience in various roles, showcasing a stellar career trajectory that highlights both breadth and depth in the tech, marketing, and consultancy sectors. Starting as a software engineer, Dan transitioned through numerous roles including data and marketing, eventually founding his own consultancy. His expertise spans advising more than 200 brands across a spectrum of industries such as technology, fintech, retail, media, venture capital, private equity, travel, and software as a service (SaaS). His deep knowledge and passion for digital marketing have led him to hold significant positions, including the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) for a fintech and ecommerce company. Additionally, he has played a pivotal role in turnaround activities for various businesses, culminating in successful exits.
Dan’s commitment to social impact is apparent in his involvement with organizations that align with his interests in homelessness and social mobility. His guidance has been sought after as a trustee and board member in multiple organizations that pursue both financial and non-financial objectives. Dan's career features diverse experiences, demonstrating his versatility and ability to adapt to dynamic environments.
Education and Achievements
Dan Barker's educational journey reflects his dedication to lifelong learning and professional development. He earned a First-Class Honours degree in Software Engineering from Sheffield Hallam University, establishing a strong foundation in technical skills. In pursuit of advanced knowledge, Dan obtained an Executive MBA with Distinction from HEC Paris, one of the top-ranked business schools globally, where he specialized in Board Governance and International Business.
He further augmented his leadership skills by participating in the Leadership in Practice program at UCLA Anderson School of Management and completed an Executive MBA program focused on FinTech Innovation at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). Additionally, his commitment to leadership excellence is illustrated by his completion of the Leadership Programme at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Dan has demonstrated a continuous commitment to enhancing his skills with various certifications such as a Certificate in M&A from HEC/Credit Agricole and a Certificate in Digital Marketing and Data for Marketing from the Institute of Data & Marketing (IDM). His multidisciplinary approach to education, which includes studies in journalism, creative writing, and law from The University of Sheffield, underscores his well-rounded expertise.
Achievements
Beyond his impressive educational background, Dan has made notable contributions to several organizations. He has proudly served as a trustee for the St Martin-in-the-Fields Trust, focusing on homelessness, music, and heritage buildings. In his role as a Non-Executive Director at St Martin-in-the-Fields, which serves one million customers annually, he efficiently contributed to the strategic oversight of a significant community resource in London.
Dan is a familiar face at various UK, European, and global industry awards, having acted as a judge across multiple categories, including ecommerce, social media, search, and digital marketing. His ability to assess and recognize excellence in these fields speaks volumes about his proficiency and respect in the industry.
His consultancy work has earned him recognition as an Associate Consultant with reputable firms such as Practicology, EY Seren, Applied Web Analytics, and Reform Digital. Dan has also spearheaded digital transformation efforts at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), where he applied his skills strategically to evolve the organization’s digital capabilities.
Through his career, Dan Barker has demonstrated a remarkable ability to blend technology with marketing, utilizing his extensive experience to help brands to thrive in a challenging digital landscape. His dedication to positive societal change and community engagement, coupled with his passion for professional growth, marks him as a significant contributor to both the business and social sectors.
Highlights
Here are ninety two "2024 Trends" decks from Accenture, BlackRock, EY, Expedia, Fidelity, Gartner, Goldman, Mercer, WGSN and many more: https://lnkd.in/ew2966FN
As ever, part of this is a marketing effort from those involved, but - even from that point of view - it's useful to see what they are each trying to put across.
Big thanks to Iolanda Carvalho from Havas, Amy Daroukakis who runs Culture Concierge, Ci En L. from Publicis, Gonzalo Gregori from PHD for their work gathering these together. If you have other decks like these, either from your company or elsewhere, do please share with them/here.
In a few days, a tool that more than 75 million websites have used to guide their digital results will disappear. Google Analytics is one of a handful of software tools that quietly defined the shape of the web in the western world, used by more website owners than almost any other.
Second to search, Google Analytics is perhaps Google's most successful product from a market share point of view. And, as their global ad revenue approaches quarter of a trillion dollars a year, it's worth remembering that's in part off the back of Google Analytics: Though far less dramatic than the 'history is written by the victors' quote, Google Analytics was responsible for telling website owners exactly what was driving their results each day, and whether to spend more or less on particular ad methods, and it happily overstated Google's results for many years vs other tools (through providing specific default reports devoted to Google Ads, and not for other tools, and through its standard 'last non-direct click' attribution model, which - to those who did not understand the nuance - always overstated the effects of both organic and paid search, where Google dominated).
In Google's terms, Google Analytics is not going away, it is simply being replaced by a new version (called 'GA4', replacing the previous version 'Universal Analytics'). But the new version is so different from the old it is basically a different tool in everything but name and loose appearance. The 'old' version provided info virtually anyone could understand to steer their business, with minimal setup; the new version still (6 years after its rollout first began, as 'Google Analytics for Firebase') needs a bunch of setup and orchestration, and even the most savvy of users still complain about it. The change is a little like your favourite takeaway switching from delivering cooked pizzas, to delivering raw ingredients, and expecting you to prepare and cook them yourself in your own pizza oven: arguably that may make a better, healthier pizza, but not everyone has a good pizza oven, and not everyone has the time to cook every day.
In the grand scheme of things of course it means little. Outside of a narrow segment, few people will likely notice the direct effect of its disappearance. But, like many changes that Google has made over the years, it's another of those little tweaks that makes it harder for smaller companies to control their destiny and compete and, like the death of Google Reader 10 years ago, takes away something useful that millions of people use on a daily basis. Sad for Google too: They acquired & built one of the best products in the world and, possibly without really realising all of the ramifications, they are now flicking the 'off' switch.
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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.