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Elise 陈逸玲
Director of Communications & Community - Vertex Ventures SE Asia & India
Professional Background
Elise Schuster is a dynamic entrepreneur and investor with a strong commitment to fostering the entrepreneurial ecosystem on a global scale. With a focus on nurturing the next generation of entrepreneurs, Elise has established herself as a key connector in the technology and blockchain investment sectors. She possesses an impressive network comprising over 2,000 early-stage tech investors and an equal number of blockchain-focused investors, spanning Asia Pacific, Europe, and the United States. Elise’s dedication has enabled her to facilitate numerous introductions between venture capitalists, family offices, and strategic angels to more than 100 portfolio companies across diverse verticals, including Blockchain, Healthtech, Artificial Intelligence, and FinTech.
Currently, Elise serves as the Director of Communications and Community at Vertex Ventures SE Asia & India—an organization that plays a critical role in investing in early-stage companies and supporting innovative startups. Before joining Vertex Ventures, she excelled in her role as VP of Investor Relations and Partnerships at LongHash Ventures in Singapore, where she collaborated with leading investment firms such as a16z, ParaFi, and Pantera Capital. Through her various roles, Elise has demonstrated her prowess in supporting startups at all stages of their funding journeys.
Education and Achievements
Elise Schuster’s educational background includes earning her MBA from INSEAD, which equipped her with the essential skills and knowledge to navigate the complex world of business and investment. Additionally, her early career saw her gaining valuable experience in various industries, including roles as a Global E-commerce Business Intelligence and Analytics Manager at Unilever, and as a Financial Analyst at Procter & Gamble. This breadth of experience has enriched her perspective in investment and startup environments, allowing her to bring unique insights to the table.
One of Elise’s notable achievements is her instrumental role in founding the Asia Startup Network (ASN), where she collaborates with like-minded peers to foster a thriving startup ecosystem. One of ASN’s flagship initiatives, the #Makanforhope Festival, brought together leading VC investors and seasoned entrepreneurs to participate in 30 virtual roundtables, successfully raising close to S$120,000 for Fei Yue Community Services, an organization that supports children with special needs and low-income families. This impactful event is just one example of Elise’s dedication to social responsibility and community-driven initiatives.
Another significant initiative led by Elise is #Mentorforhope, which she co-founded with Janet Neo. This campaign brought together over 300 tech startups and 250 mentors from the Asia Pacific region, facilitating over 520 hours of mentorship on critical areas such as business strategy and fundraising. As a result of this initiative, they raised S$43,000—enough to provide approximately 21,500 lunch meals for those in need.
Additional Involvements
Elise’s influence extends beyond traditional investment roles; she is immensely dedicated to promoting youth entrepreneurship in Southeast Asia. As an advisor to NUS Angels Ventures—Southeast Asia’s first student-run angel investment network—Elise helps guide young entrepreneurs as they navigate the complexities of starting and scaling their ventures. Her mentorship has enabled numerous startups to secure funding and achieve successful acquisitions, further underlining her impactful role in the startup ecosystem.
Elise has also supported startups rigorously through her previous engagements at the National University of Singapore (NUS) incubator, the Entrepreneur First program, and True Global Ventures. Her guidance has empowered countless founders, demonstrating her commitment to fostering innovation and entrepreneurship on all levels.
Throughout her extensive career, Elise has held various positions, further showcasing her versatility and adaptability within the investment sphere. Earlier roles include being an Investor at Intellect (Y Combinator S21), Curio Digital, and Epiphany - Product Discovery. Additionally, she has contributed her expertise as a mentor at various organizations, including RAISE SG and the Startup Leadership Program.
Conclusion
With her profound passion for connecting people and fostering the next generation of entrepreneurs, Elise Schuster is a true catalyst for change in the startup and investment communities. Her extensive network, combined with her unwavering commitment to social impact initiatives, has enabled her to make significant contributions to her field. As she continues to evolve in her career, Elise remains dedicated to further bridging gaps in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, empowering startups with the resources, mentorship, and connections they need to thrive in an increasingly competitive global landscape. Her journey is a testam
Highlights
"Are you living #yourbestlife yet?"
In May, we (Julie Lee , 李以琼, IHRP SP, MHCL Renee Chong Sarah W. Finnley Hui Yu, Lee Urvi Doshi) launched the #Remarkablewomen Women's Circles and yesterday it culminated in our event "Discover Your Ikigai: Passion Meets Purpose" at The Vermillion House! We appreciate our 26 ladies who made time to join us and thank our speaker Seok Hian Tang who shared her journey of getting to Ikigai as well as the essential frameworks in getting there.
Ikigai is the reason for being in Japanese. We often see the 4 circles chart when one mentions the Ikigai concept, but according to Seok Hian, that’s the western version of Ikigai.
Here's are my condensed takeaways to Getting to your Ikigai -
✨️ Overcome what’s holding you back As women, particularly in Asia, we grow up in an environment where we are taught to be submissive and accommodating.
Take back your power and control Remarkable women is about taking back your power)
✨️ Self reflections:
Ask yourself, what do you enjoy or do well in? What is/ are the things that I do best and generate the highest ROI? (eg. If you are evaluating your role as a mother, then which task you need to do versus outsource which gives you the greatest ROI)
✨️ Understand that getting to Ikigai stage is also about achieving Inner Congruence.
✨️ Getting to Ikigai takes time You may start with any of the 4 circles and work from there. It is like starting a company - you may have a hypothesis and assumptions at first so start testing them. You may also need to pivot a few times.
Seok Hian had an education in finance and was working in HR for 10 years before she left her company. She got to her ikigai after pivoting three times.
If you are a woman in tech or business, we welcome you to join our free community of 300 ladies across Southeast Asia where we organise regular networking events and workshops to support each other and grow together, and live our best lives. Simply sign up here bit.ly/remarkableW and we will add you to the group.
Thank you Wendy Hong for designing our Remarkble women logo!
#womenintech #girlboss #femalefounders Benson Lau
At the end of March, I started a women in tech and business whatsapp group (join us here 😀 https://lnkd.in/g4JDRC8h) for fun but unexpectedly, this germinated into a community of amazing women and friends 🧡
Over the past months, with the participation of like-minded, kind, loving women we organised many events such as Networking Breakfast (thanks Adeline Tiah 謝善嫻 for speaking), Hikes, Venture talks (thanks Kheng Lian Ho for sharing) and more. I deeply Appreciate our Women Circle leaders Renee Chong Finnley Hui Yu, Lee Sarah W. Urvi Doshi Julie Lee, IHRP SP, MHCL for leading our Women Circle initiatives from May to August!
Yesterday, together with Feihong Chen, ACC we put together Beyond The Grind: Exploring Fractional Leadership Success to demystify the Fractional CXO space at Justco Marina Square! Many Thanks to Singapore Global Network for supporting us. It was really amazing to hear from our speakers Moritz Kaffsack Davis Ng, CPA Eric See Seok Hian Tang, Sandeep Pal and the engaging questions from the audience. It was a 4hour long event but yet many stayed till the end. Thank you Julie Lee, IHRP SP, MHCL, Satakshi Gaur, Teen Fong Seng, Priyanka Nath, Carine Tan for lending us your time to volunteer and help make the event a success too! Thank you my cofounder Andrew Tan for always supporting and spreading the word for this event.
Some shoutouts: 👉 Mark Mullinix, CLMP™ is building a fractional directory - Early sign up here: https://lnkd.in/gGN8HkWv 👉 Our friend from Anapi Gabriel Tay Zhichao also shared about our newly launched low cost healthcare product!
There is still so much to be done. Looking forward to building the ecosystem and the Fractional csuite leaders community together with you.
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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.