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Edmond Lau
Co-Founder at Co Leadership, Author of The Effective Engineer
Edmond Lau is a co-founder of Co Leadership, a company he started in January 2018.1 He is an experienced software engineer and leader who has worked at prominent tech companies such as Google, Quora, and Quip.1 Lau is also the author of "The Effective Engineer," a book that has become required reading for many engineering teams.2
Lau's professional background includes:
Work Experience
- Co-Founder at Awakened Partnership (March 2023 - Present)1
- Co-Founder at Co Leadership (January 2018 - Present)1
- Engineer, Architect, and Leadership Coach at Quip (May 2014 - January 2018)1
- Engineering Lead for User Growth at Quora (August 2010 - June 2013)1
- Staff Software Engineer at Ooyala (June 2008 - August 2010)1
- Software Engineer at Google (August 2006 - June 2008)1
Education
Lau graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).1
Skills and Interests
Lau is multilingual, with native or bilingual proficiency in English and Chinese, and elementary proficiency in Spanish.1 He is passionate about empowering engineers and technical leaders with tools and mindsets to perform at their highest levels.2 In recent years, Lau has shifted his focus towards teaching about the power of intimacy and human connection to create true freedom in people's lives.3
Lau's work now involves writing, traveling, and building an institute with his wife to create experiences for personal transformation and human connection.3 He maintains a newsletter called "Intimate Reflections" where he shares personal stories and insights.3
Highlights
My daughter Ember turns 100 days old today!
The other day, when a friend asked me how the first 100 days of fatherhood were treating me, the word that came to mind was “flourishing.”
Yes, there have been chaotic days, moments where I've lost my shit, fights with Kiki, times when everything seemed to unravel.
But it’s all unfolded against what’s been one of the most profound spiritual journeys in my lifetime.
Kiki and I have embraced an approach called Aware Parenting. In this practice, babies cry for two distinct reasons: to express immediate needs (hunger, sleep, touch, etc.) and to release and integrate deeper emotions. When all immediate needs are met, our role isn’t to stop the crying or fix anything.
We’re simply there to hold space with our grounded presence, creating a container of safety where any emotion can be felt fully. We don’t shush or swing or offer a pacifier — all of which just teach babies to suppress their feelings rather than move through them.
Instead, we transmit through our nervous systems: you are held, you are safe, you are loved, everything is okay.
And then, inevitably, once she finishes her emotional release, the transformation comes: her tiny body relaxes, her nervous system does a parasympathetic reset, her face softens into a smile, and often she drifts into peaceful sleep.
As I hold space for Ember's tears, I’m learning what it truly means to be held by something larger than myself — call it the divine, the universe, or simply life itself. The message is the same: no matter how intense things get in any given moment, you are fundamentally okay.
And with that knowing deeper in my body than ever, I’m able to show up to life in way I haven’t been able to before.
I’m learning to hold myself, even as I let myself completely fall apart. On days where I hit my limit, I can feel the heartbreak of having no more to give and even scream into the void, all while trusting I’ll be okay. And that capacity to fall apart lets me lean into the intensity of life even more.
I’m learning to embody my sword of truth, to step into the fire of intensity, and trust that I will be okay. That’s allowing me to break so many internal loops as well as patterns that Kiki and I have been stuck in relationally. It’s been beautiful to experience ourselves being more securely attached to ourselves and each other than ever before.
I’m learning to break my heart open to more love, to what’s already here. There have been so many moments where I will just hold Ember and cry, feeling the immense love I feel for this perfect little being and for our amazing life.
I’m learning to trust the creativity that’s moving through me, rather than needing to get somewhere. It’s showing up in a completely different relationship cooking, where I’m feeling inspired and creating so much deliciousness in my renaissance as a chef. It’s become my new way of loving on Kiki and on my friends.
And really through it all, I’m learning what it means to be securely attached to life itself — not chasing or avoiding any intensity in the present moment, but embracing it fully. In the same way that I’m teaching Ember, as I hold her, that it’s safe to feel all that she’s feeling.
Here’s my full reflection, on my first 100 days of fatherhood, called The Art of Being Held:
https://t.co/dgmXhkXtC0
People say that being a new parent is hard. And it’s not that it’s not hard.
The nights of interrupted sleep, the few moments of delirium, the three days where my wife and I had long relational ruptures from the strain — they’ve been hard, for sure.
But as my daughter turns one month today, I realize there’s also a new parent story that I haven’t been told by parents before me, that I’m starting to discover. A story that shatters conventional narratives and reveals magic.
It’s the story of how in one month:
- I feel more connected to my friends and community than I’ve ever felt. Rather than creating isolation and loneliness, a baby has actually magnetized more care, love, and support into our home.
- I feel more love and attraction for my wife than ever before. Rather than losing our connection, a baby has only deepened my sense of devotion and divine union.
- I feel more connected and at ease with my mom, who’s living with us for two weeks, than I could’ve imagined.
- I’m experiencing a newfound simplicity and presence in life. Rather than making life more complex, a baby is actually helping to focus energy on what’s important.
- And surprisingly, I’m actually feeling more grounded freedom as a father than before. Rather than feeling trapped, I’m finding more space in the simplicity of life to notice and catch the subtle and invisible patterns that once trapped me.
When I zoom out to the big picture, the hard moments seem more like blips in the overall terrain of the month.
The new parent story that we’re creating seems so different than the story I’ve been told. I can’t help but wonder if we’re pioneering a new way of parenting — or at least rediscovering how humans were meant to raise children all along.
Read the full reflection and tribute to my first month of fatherhood:
https://t.co/MjkAo7hx8u
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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.