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Ellen Choi
Cofounder at Aiwyn | Serial tech entrepreneur bringing the best of Silicon Valley to the accounting profession
Ellen Choi is a seasoned tech entrepreneur with a knack for integrating Silicon Valley's best practices into the accounting sector.
Having experience as CEO, Chief Product Officer, and COO of various startups, Ellen is a versatile professional comfortable with leading board meetings, managing JIRA tickets, and engaging in sales calls.
Ellen is on a mission to revolutionize professional services, optimize time and resources, and champion the future of work through innovative AI-driven technology solutions.
Her educational background includes a BA and MS in Economics, Management Science & Engineering from Stanford University, and an MBA in General Management from Harvard Business School.
Ellen has been involved with notable organizations such as Aiwyn where she held roles like Cofounder, Chief Innovation Officer, COO, and Chief Product Officer.
She has also been the Founder of CareerLark and an Advisory Board Member at Global Glimpse.
Ellen's career journey includes significant positions such as Sr. Director of Product Management at Booyah, and roles in Product Management, Business Analytics at Siri, Inc., and Ops Management, Business Analytics at Google, Inc.
Highlights
CalCPA hosted myself, Kacee Johnson, Rudy Avila, and Jennifer Warawa for a panel on the intersection of #AI and #accounting at the Members Club Summit. I always enjoy the opportunity to share my learnings from Aiwyn with our profession, and this was no exception.
My thoughts on some of the interesting questions asked:
❓ Enterprises have their own dev teams and resources to innovate and build for AI. How can smaller firms keep up?
While it's true that large enterprises have dedicated #technology development teams, I don't believe this necessarily puts smaller firms at a disadvantage. In fact, one could argue that mid-market and SMB firms might have an unexpected edge because smaller firms can be more #agile, quickly partnering with innovative #tech leaders and implementing latest generation #genAI solutions. The key is leveraging the AI-powered automation tools that leading vendors are already offering today (may I suggest Aiwyn? :)
❓What skills do we need to develop to stay current in this rapidly changing AI landscape?
We discussed how a curious, growth-oriented mindset is crucial, as is developing strong prompt engineering skills for #chatbots like #ChatGPT.
One underrated skill however, is "people" skills - specifically, the ability to be an effective "people manager". There is a future state where we all have a personal and professional assistant (in fact armies of them… AI agents that specialize in different tasks). Even the intern will have their own #AI interns.
In this brave new world, the ability to "coach" them, iterate with good feedback, ensure they have the proper context, understanding where they may make mistakes (just as humans do) will become ever more critical.
❓What are some practical ways accountants can keep up with technology?
#Accountants are great at academics - studying, analyzing, and number crunching.
However, when it comes to keeping up with AI, this isn't enough. While reading and studying are critical, the learning has to be experiential as well. Get your hands dirty and play in the mud. I personally have a calendar invite for myself every week to experiment with AI tools. This combination of "book learning" and hands-on experience is key to truly leveraging these new technologies.
I'm curious to hear your thoughts. How are you keeping up with this AI-driven shift in our profession?
#accountingTech #generativeAI #practiceAutomation #digitalTransformation #tech
People ask me why I still live in San Francisco, when I have the flexibility of remote work and there are many other lower-cost, lower-crime city alternatives.
A part of that answer is in-person events like this fireside chat with Ross Biestman (CRO of ServiceTitan) that Bessemer Venture Partners organized for founders and #gtm execs. As a #founder, being part of an entrepreneurial community that support, learn from each other in IRL, and ultimate push each other to be our best is invaluable.
Some incredible insights from this chat on building a scalable GTM machine, moderated by Byron Deeter and Tony Rodoni, were:
🧐 Prioritizing the "How" Leads to High Performance
Placing equal importance on non-direct sales activities such as reviewing calls and continuously analyzing improvement areas is critical to building a scalable machine that results in predictable, hypergrowth outcome.
Ross Biestman talked about how he's codified this explicitly with process (i.e. within 3 business days of sales commission period end, have full compliance report for the retro) and aligned with incentive mechanisms.
This resonated from what we see at our Aiwyn team on how some #cpa firms are so heads-down on #clientServices work that they don't carve out the mental bandwidth to improve and automate their processes. Spending time on non-revenue generating activities could seem like a luxury, but in reality it's necessary for revenue growth, happy clients, and a thriving work and personal life.
💪 Culture, Culture, Culture
Intentional culture is the foundation of a high-performant team and Ross Biestman talked about various ways the leadership creates a high-performant culture.
One example he gave was the "Entitled to nothing, grateful for everything" mindset. There's no excuse for a seller to fall short on pipeline goals, regardless of internal/external factors. It's on her to get it done.
As capacity remains a challenge in the #accounting profession, this was a good reminder that #culture has a huge impact on how productive and engaged the team members are.
🎯 Laser-Focus on ICP, Allow for Exploration with ACP
Ross Biestman discussed the importance of creating a very detailed Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and being disciplined in executing against this, to the point of actively turning away prospects that want to buy from you.
To explore adjacent and/or new revenue opportunities, he introduced the concept of Acceptable Customer Profile (ACP), a framework to explore additional markets and understand the opportunity vs. cost (both R&D and GTM).
Many #cpa firms are even going a step beyond not taking on non-ideal clients to intentionally "firing" clients along the scoring of A/B/C, which is yielding positive outcomes.
Thanks to the Bessemer team, including Melissa Bezruchko and Elena I., for putting together this great event!
#practiceAutomation #tech #founders #b2bSaaS #practiceManagement #culture
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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.