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David Schwister
VP, Strategic Partnerships | B2B & B2C SaaS & Digital Transformations | Helping Companies Acquire Users, Mitigate Churn, and Accelerate Revenue through Ecosystem-led Growth
David Schwister is an accomplished operating executive with over 20 years of experience in leading and growing high-performing global partnerships teams across various software industries.
He is skilled in developing comprehensive partnership strategies and creating strong ecosystems for B2B and B2C internet businesses, particularly in cybersecurity, cloud computing, AI/ML products, e-commerce, media, entertainment, and web hosting sectors.
David has a robust background in senior leadership roles encompassing strategic partnerships, corporate development, direct and channel enterprise sales, and product strategy.
His educational background includes a Doctor of Law - J.D. from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, an M.B.A. in Marketing and Entrepreneurial Management from Washington University in St. Louis - Olin Business School, and a BSB in Marketing and Entrepreneurial Management from the University of Minnesota - Carlson School of Management.
Previously, David Schwister has held key positions such as Vice President of Artificial Intelligence Partnerships and Strategic Alliances at Automattic, Executive Member at Partnership Leaders, Executive Member at Pavilion, and Syndicate Investor at Xoogler.co.
His professional journey also includes roles like Principal at DJS Advisors, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships and Global Head of Sales at Jetpack at Automattic, Senior Product Partnerships Lead at Facebook, Business Development at Dropbox, Senior roles at Google handling Android Pay, YouTube, and investment banking at Sandler O'Neill & Partners, L.P.
David Schwister has also served in various capacities at leading organizations such as Faegre Drinker, Northwest Airlines, Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc., and Farmer's Pride, Inc., showcasing his diverse experience and expertise across different industries and functions.
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Doug Lambert, lists on his LinkedIn profile that first and foremost, he's a human being. In fact, he's an incredibly self-less, intelligent, and compassionate human, whom I've gotten to know over the past 14 years.
Doug is battling fourth-stage cancer. Last year, he went through rigorous chemotherapy treatment to fight the disease, after which he and his doctors believed he was cancer-free, only to learn this spring that his cancer had returned and spread.
With a pile of medical bills exceeding $100K and not being able to take on as much work due to his illness, Doug needs our help. Doug has always been the one in the room to lift everyone up, be there to support people like myself, and put a smile on my face. He has done this for as long as I've known him as a friend and mentor.
If you yourself have experienced something like this and come out through the otherside, know a friend or loved one who has endured cancer, or just feel like doing a random act of kindness; please consider supporting Doug and his family with any amount that you can.
Doug - we're all pulling for you. Keep staying strong, fighting this thing like the champ you are, and know you've got so many people in the corner of your ring who are here for you, love you, and want more than ever to see you beat this thing. ❤️
https://lnkd.in/gmTK5XVk
#cancersucks #hope #beatcancer
Several people have asked me recently for advice on successfully negotiating strategic partnerships. So, I wanted to share seven tips I've picked up over the years.
1.) Prepare Thoroughly: Before entering any negotiation, arm yourself with as much pertinent data as possible. Grasp your objectives, the boundaries of what's acceptable, and delve into the other party's background and aspirations. This preparation lays the foundation for effective negotiation, enabling you to anticipate their arguments and prepare counterarguments.
- Build Rapport: Initiating a cordial rapport with your counterpart can significantly smooth out the negotiation path. Engage in light conversation and extend friendly gestures to foster a collaborative atmosphere. Establishing mutual respect and understanding from the outset can lead to more productive discussions.
3.) Communicate Clearly and Confidently: Your ability to articulate your needs and desires transparently and assertively is crucial. Ambiguity can lead to misunderstandings and stall negotiations. Confidence in your tone and stance can also influence the negotiation's outcome in your favor.
4.) Aim for Win-Win Outcomes: Negotiations should not be approached as a zero-sum game where one party's gain is the other's loss. Instead, aim for solutions that benefit both sides. This approach fosters goodwill, long-term relationships, and can turn adversaries into allies.
5.) Be Willing to Compromise: Flexibility is a virtue in negotiations. Understand that getting everything you want is unlikely, and be ready to make concessions. Know which points are non-negotiable and which you can afford to compromise on to reach an agreement that satisfies both parties.
6.) Use Silence as a Strategy: Silence is a potent tool in negotiations. It can signal contemplation, encourage the other party to fill the silence, often with concessions or additional information, and can be used to control the pace of the discussion.
7.) Understand the Power of 'No' and Know When to Walk Away: Recognize the strength in rejecting offers that don't meet your minimum requirements. A well-timed 'no' can bring the negotiations back to a more advantageous position. Equally important is recognizing when negotiations are unproductive and it's in your best interest to walk away. Engaging in an unfavorable deal can be worse than no deal at all. Know your best alternative to a negotiated agreement (BATNA).
I've found the following books to be great reads:
- Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It - by Chris Voss
- Getting More: How You Can Negotiate to Succeed in Work and Life - by Stuart Diamond
I'm interested in hearing from those who negotiate in their roles what you've learned throughout your career which makes you an effective negotiator. Share your tips!
If you've found this helpful, you can follow me at David Schwister for more Partnership content.
#negotiations #strategicpartnerships #BATNA
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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.