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Fred Maahs, Jr.
Founder and Global Accessibility Visionary - Journeyable.org | Accessible Travel and Tourism Expert | International Disability Rights Advocate and Keynote Speaker | Board Member | Former Comcast Executive
Professional Background
Fred Maahs, Jr. is a trailblazer and pivotal figure in the realms of accessibility, inclusion, and disability rights, boasting over three decades of diverse experience that spans both the corporate and social sectors. As the Global Accessibility Visionary and Founder of Journeyable, Fred has dedicated his career to enhancing the travel experiences of individuals with disabilities, crafting a narrative around accessibility that resonates on a global platform. Through Journeyable, a social benefit company, he not only elevates stories of accessible journeys but also extends the reach of possibilities for travelers worldwide. His commitment to fostering inclusivity has shaped Journeyable into a vibrant storytelling platform and a nurturing community where accessibility is paramount, making strides towards a world where travel is not just an option but a reality for everyone.
In addition to his work at Journeyable, Fred took another significant step in 2019 by founding Maahs Travels, a consulting firm focused on enhancing accessibility measures and creating strategies that boost tourism revenues for organizations wishing to attract travelers with disabilities. His expertise has been invaluable to governments and businesses worldwide, helping them refine their accessibility frameworks to engage a broader audience. Recognizing the importance of customized experiences, Fred previously held the position of COO at Travel for All, a company specializing in tailor-made travel arrangements that cater to diverse needs.
Beyond his organizational roles, Fred shines as a globally-recognized motivational keynote speaker, sharing his inspirational insights and advocacy efforts at esteemed venues including the White House and the Lincoln Memorial. His influence extends to national policymaking as a former member of President-Elect Joe Biden's Disability Policy Committee, where he contributed his expertise to shaping future policies that advocate for disability rights. Fred has received numerous accolades and awards, underscoring his relentless pursuit of a more accessible world for individuals with disabilities.
Education and Achievements
Fred’s educational journey laid a robust foundation for his illustrious career. He earned his Bachelor's Degree in Business Marketing from West Chester University of Pennsylvania, complementing this with an Associate's Degree in Business from Widener University. To further his commitment to socially responsible business practices, Fred pursued Certifications in Corporate Community Involvement Leadership and Corporate Social Responsibility from the Boston College Carroll School of Management. These academic achievements reflect his dedication to merging business acumen with social impact, a theme that permeates his professional initiatives.
His career trajectory features a series of influential roles that highlight his versatile expertise and dedication to community impact. Prior to his ventures in accessible travel, Fred served in various leadership roles at Comcast, where he spearheaded efforts in community investment and partnership development. His tenure as Senior Director and Vice President of the Comcast Foundation saw him championing initiatives that significantly improved the lives of individuals within communities, demonstrating the powerful intersection of corporate responsibility and social advocacy.
Before Comcast, Fred played vital roles at ARAMARK, where he advanced community relations and corporate direction, as well as at Easter Seals, where he directed communications to advocate for individuals with disabilities. His early career also includes marketing leadership positions at CoreStates Bank and BNY Mellon, where he honed his skills in strategic marketing and community engagement. This extensive experience enhances Fred's capacity to tackle accessibility challenges effectively and innovatively, positioning him as a sought-after advisor and consultant in the field.
Notable Achievements
Fred Maahs, Jr.'s contributions to accessibility and inclusion have led to various recognitions throughout his career. His motivational speaking engagements have inspired countless individuals and organizations to consider the importance of accessibility in their operations. His work has transcended borders, impacting policies and practices around the globe, making travel possible for all. His leadership at Journeyable and Maahs Travels has resulted in a significant movement that empowers travelers with disabilities, advocating for rights and inclusion on an international scale. Fred’s commitment to innovating accessible solutions and inspiring others to join the movement speaks to the legacy he is building.
Fred’s vision continues to grow, engaging a community that is passionate about driving change and fostering inclusion within the travel industry. By joining fo
Highlights
Our mission, at Journeyable is to make the world accessible to everyone. Travel has the power to transform lives, and we believe that everyone, regardless of their abilities, should have the opportunity to experience it.
But we need your help to continue our work. Join us by supporting our Kickstarter campaign and help us break down barriers.
https://lnkd.in/eT7Hw-qi
#Journeyable #AccessibleTravel #Kickstarter #AccessibleCommunity #accessible #accessibletourism #inclusion #tourism #disability #hospitality #destination #DMO #Foundation
I was 18, just barely of legal age, and suddenly had to make a life or death decision…
On September 1, 1980, the last day of summer vacation and just 4 days before starting my first year of college, I dove from our family’s cabin cruiser into Rehoboth Bay in southern Delaware and broke my neck – C7/8. Instantly I was paralyzed from the chest down, struggling to get the strength to lift my face out of the water to get air – barely able to breathe.
I was flown to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. On the second day in ICU, I was told I had a 50% chance of surviving the first few days post-trauma, and if I chose to have surgery to relieve the pressure on my spinal cord with a spinal fusion, there was a 50% chance I would not survive the procedure. I was 18, just barely of legal age, and suddenly had to make an adult life-or-death decision.
After 13 hours in surgery, I woke up to an entirely new world – a world that wasn’t built for people like me. It was 10 years before the Americans with Disabilities Act. The college I had planned to attend was not accessible. I decided then I had to speak up and be part of the solution to advocate for a more inclusive world, for everyone, not just people who used a wheelchair.
During my 30+ corporate career, I led and was part of efforts on behalf of people with disabilities at the state, federal, and international levels to change minds, laws, and even attitudes to create a more accessible and inclusive world.
In 2019, I left my corporate executive role to devote my full time to disability advocacy. In January of 2022, I connected with friend and former colleague, Tony Colantonio, to create what is now Journeyable! At Journeyable, we believe that accessibility touches the lives of every single person in the world and that everyone should be able to travel, limitlessly.
We have made a lot of progress in bringing individuals, organizations, companies, governments, and destinations together to create a more inclusive world. But we need your help to continue hitting these milestones!
Please support our Kickstarter campaign with any amount you can give so that we can continue to do more work for everyone who wants to travel. I've included the campaign link in the comments.
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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.