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Don DiMonte
Treasurer at Ontario Craft Distillers Association
Don DiMonte is the founder and owner of Last Straw Distillery, a craft distillery located in Vaughan, Ontario, Canada.12 Here's a profile of Don DiMonte:
Background and Career Transition
Don DiMonte initially worked in the family construction business, primarily focusing on sewers and water mains.1 After years in construction, he became interested in the alcohol production industry, initially considering opening a craft brewery.2 However, upon discovering that Ontario had only one recent distillery startup at the time, he saw an opportunity in the distilling business.1
Founding Last Straw Distillery
Don founded Last Straw Distillery with his wife, Ana Simoes, in 2013.5 The distillery's name was suggested by Ana as a joke, referencing both the grain-to-glass nature of distilling and the potential financial risk they were taking.1 It took them three years to navigate through regulatory challenges before officially opening the distillery's doors in August 2016.15
Distilling Approach and Products
Don took a hands-on approach to learning distillation, experimenting with different grains and processes.1 This experimentation became a core part of Last Straw's identity, leading to unique products such as:
- Gin Twenty-One
- Blackstrap Rum
- Dark Side of the Moonshine
- Darker Side (a whisky product)
Industry Involvement and Mentorship
Don DiMonte is actively involved in the craft distilling industry:
- He serves as the treasurer of the Ontario Craft Distilling Association.4
- He has become a resource for aspiring distillers across Ontario, sharing his knowledge and experience.1
- Last Straw Distillery has incubated several other distilleries, including Durham Distillery, O'Kenny Craft Spirits, and Pepprell Distilling.1
Distillery Growth
Under Don's leadership, Last Straw Distillery has expanded from its initial location:
- The distillery moved from a farm in Hillsburg to Vaughan for better retail access.3
- It has grown from one unit to two and a half units, with separate spaces for distillation, barrel storage, and bottling.3
- The company has acquired a large 7,000-liter pot still located in Collingwood, which they are working on integrating into their production.3
Don DiMonte's journey from construction to distilling demonstrates his entrepreneurial spirit and passion for craft spirits. His approach to distilling, which emphasizes experimentation and quality, has helped establish Last Straw Distillery as a notable player in the Canadian craft spirits industry.
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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.
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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.
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.
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