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Eric Smith
Enabling inclusive, innovative entrepreneurs and technology ecosystems
Professional Background
Eric Smith is an accomplished professional with a diverse career dedicated to designing innovative policies, programs, and services that promote inclusive innovation and digitalization. He currently serves as the Director of the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the U.S. Economic Development Administration, where he plays a pivotal role in facilitating the transition of research into market-ready applications. Harnessing his expertise in science, technology, and entrepreneurship, he is committed to ensuring that these vital sectors contribute to improved health, prosperity, and quality of life for all individuals across society.
Prior to his current role, Eric made significant strides at NASA as the Chief Customer Officer for the SBIR/STTR programs. His innovative leadership helped advance the agency's efforts in fostering small business participation to drive technological advances, demonstrating his knack for creating impactful initiatives that benefit the wider community. His extensive experience at the U.S. Department of Commerce further highlights his dedication to economic development, where he served in various capacities, including Enterprise Operations Manager and Senior Policy Advisor. Eric's work within these esteemed organizations underscores his deep commitment to public service and enhancing the nation's economic landscape.
In addition to his role in government, Eric's foundation in technology and innovation is accentuated by his previous positions as a Patent Examiner at the USPTO and as a legal professional at Actimize. His early career included vital technical experience as a Software Developer at Rose-Hulman Ventures and Digonex Technologies, along with writing and supporting web applications at Joink LLC. These experiences contribute to his holistic understanding of the intersection between technology and policy, enabling him to craft effective strategies that drive innovation forward.
Education and Achievements
Eric's academic journey has uniquely equipped him for a career dedicated to public service and technological advancement. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the acclaimed Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, emphasizing his strong foundation in engineering and technology principles.
Furthering his education, Eric pursued a Juris Doctorate at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, followed by advanced learning at the University of San Diego School of Law. This combination of technical and legal education gives him a nuanced perspective when developing policies and programs aimed at transforming innovative ideas into successful market entities.
Additionally, Eric's international exposure comes from his studies at the Otto-von-Guericke University in Magdeburg, Germany. This diverse academic experience enriches his understanding of global market dynamics and digitalization trends, which are critical in today’s interconnected economy.
Achievements
Throughout his career, Eric has achieved notable milestones that reflect his dedication to inclusive innovation and public service. As the Director of the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, he spearheads initiatives that create pathways for researchers, inventors, and entrepreneurs to translate their ideas into viable products and services. Under his leadership, innovative strategies have emerged that significantly enhance the ingredients for economic development at all levels.
His tenure at NASA stands out as a highlight of his career. Leading the SBIR/STTR programs, Eric championed small businesses, providing them with the resources necessary to thrive in competitive technological arenas. His efforts not only foster small-scale innovation but are aligned with larger national goals of enhancing economic resilience through cutting-edge developments in science and technology.
Eric's experience at the Department of Commerce emphasizes his ability to influence policy decisions that directly enhance the economy and create job opportunities. His role has allowed him to engage with stakeholders, fostering collaborations that drive growth and innovation in communities across the United States.
Overall, Eric Smith's professional background is a testament to his commitment to fostering inclusive innovation and leveraging technology for societal benefit. His blend of education, extensive industry experience, and leadership acumen position him as a key influencer in the landscape of entrepreneurship and digitalization, making significant contributions to the quality of life and prosperity for diverse communities.
Highlights
Nearly two years ago, President Biden signed the CHIPS and Science Act into law, and we began developing policy for and designing the program that became Tech Hubs. Less than six months later, the U.S. Economic Development Administration was appropriated the first $500 million (just the first 5% of its envisioned $10 billion) for the program, and since then we’ve made this policy into reality. We announced the 31 inaugural Hubs—places with capacity and potential to become globally renowned not only in innovation but also in making and delivering those innovations—in October 2023. We worked with those Hubs for several months as they developed their best proposals to realize their visions, and, since the end of February, we’ve undertaken the truly difficult challenge of deciding which of those proposals to fund.
We received a phenomenal set of applications across the 31 Hubs, and we have been and remain committed to accelerating growth in them all. The President has requested the next $4 billion for the program in his budget request, which, if appropriated, will enable us to continue to pursue the program’s vision of up to $150 million in initial investments per Hub and up to $1 billion in any given Hub over the life of the program. We’ve seen incredible support for the 31 Hubs: collectively, they secured $4.4 billion in contingent commitments to complement their applications. And we’ve seen incredible industry engagement: the private sector makes up more than a third of the 31 consortia’s 1,400+ members.
Today, we announced $504 million of investment that we’re deploying into multiple projects in 12 Hubs. Making up just 5% of the program’s authorized level, we envision this as one of many rounds of investment across all 31 Hubs.
This milestone offers an opportunity not only to celebrate this accomplishment but also to recognize the scores of amazing humans who have made it possible, inside and outside the U.S. Department of Commerce. I’m grateful for and deeply appreciate everyone who has contributed to, supported, and cared about this program, which enables us not just to lead the world in innovation but also to realize the promise of that innovation: inclusive prosperity, national security, and global competitiveness. The #EDATechHubs team is large and growing.
Come work at EDA with Justin Tooley, Alex Jones, and the rest of the phenomenal Build Back Better Regional Challenge team! ⏰ Jan. 12 deadline to apply!! ⏰ More details here: https://lnkd.in/egzDJRnS.
EDA is looking for a curious, strategic-minded, problem solver who is eager to help communities rebuild their regional economy for the future. The $1 billion Build Back Better Regional Challenge is the marquee competition of EDA’s American Rescue Plan programs and aims to boost economic recovery from the pandemic and rebuild American communities by embracing equitable economic growth, creating good-paying jobs, and enhancing global competitiveness. This role will manage a portfolio of 5-7 regional coalitions across the country as they implement a set of inter-related projects to strengthen industry clusters.
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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.
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