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Gaurav Sharma
I build & invest in SaaS products - JustCall & Helpwise
Professional Background
Gaurav Sharma is a dynamic entrepreneur and innovative product strategist, well-known for his extensive experience in the B2B and Big Data landscape. With a deep affinities for tech and disruptive ideas, Gaurav has made a remarkable name for himself by founding and co-founding multiple companies that have revolutionized sectors such as social media advertising, analytics, and SaaS (Software as a Service). Currently, he is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Justcall, a US-based SaaS startup that streamlines communication for businesses. Under his leadership, Justcall has quickly become an essential tool for over 130,000 businesses. Gaurav’s journey underscores a keen sense of entrepreneurial courage coupled with a strong commitment to technology and innovation.
Throughout his six-year entrepreneurial journey, Gaurav has founded or co-founded four notable companies, including:
- A financial games portal that captured the interest of over 100,000 university students, illustrating his ability to tap into younger demographics and create engaging platforms.
- A social media advertising platform that connected to over 60,000 publishers with a remarkable reach to more than 100 million internet users, showcasing his understanding of the digital landscape.
- A Pinterest analytics tool that attracted the attention of Science Inc., leading to its acquisition—a testament to Gaurav's ability to identify and nurture valuable business opportunities.
- A visual media advertising company that caught the eye of The New York Times, which led to a successful acquisition. Gaurav’s commitment to the principles of the Lean Startup methodology reflects not only his belief in efficiency and customer feedback but also his desire to foster innovation through experimentation and iterative development.
Before diving deep into the entrepreneurial world, Gaurav began his career at an investment bank, which provided him with essential insights into financial analysis and strategic decision-making. This blend of finance and technology has been instrumental in shaping his successful ventures, allowing him to expertly navigate the complexities of the startup ecosystem.
Education and Achievements
Gaurav completed his Bachelor of Technology degree in Chemical Engineering at the prestigious National Institute of Technology, Warangal. This foundation in engineering not only honed his analytical skills but also equipped him with a methodical approach to problem-solving and innovation.
Over the years, Gaurav has made a significant impact in the startup community, not only as a founder but also as an active angel investor, lending his expertise and financial support to promising early-stage startups in both India and the United States. His involvement helps nurture budding entrepreneurs and catalyzes new ideas in various fields, particularly in technology and education.
Gaurav has also contributed his knowledge and experience as a member of the Forbes Business Council, providing insights into the evolving landscape of technology and business while collaborating with other industry leaders. This platform allows him to stay at the forefront of trends and innovations, further enhancing his contributions to the startup ecosystem.
Achievements
Gaurav's entrepreneurial tenacity is mirrored in his achievements:
- Successfully founding and scaling multiple companies that have garnered substantial user bases and industry recognition.
- Establishing Justcall as a key player in the SaaS space, improving communication for over 130,000 businesses across various sectors.
- Leading multiple startups to acquisition, underscoring his expertise in identifying lucrative market opportunities and steering teams towards success.
- Influencing the next generation of entrepreneurs by actively participating in educational programs and startup initiatives focused on entrepreneurship and innovation.
- His strong belief in the Lean Startup methodology has propelled his success and allowed him to bring agile solutions to the market effectively, aiming for rapid growth and customer-centric products.
In his free time, Gaurav enjoys spending weekends experimenting with different hacks and prototypes, showcasing his ongoing passion for innovation and technology. His willingness to engage with first-time entrepreneurs not only highlights his commitment to mentorship but also fosters a greater ecosystem of support within the entrepreneurial community. His wealth of experience, leadership skills, and passion for technology position him as a notable figure, not just in the B2B and Big Data space, but throughout the startup landscape.
Highlights
"Because it won't work for you disgusting dot head Indian piece of shit."
This morning, I woke up to this insensitive message from one of our JustCall trial users to our customer support rep (FYI, all customer support emails are also forwarded to my inbox).
It's not a great start to a day when this is the first thing you read in the morning. But it definitely added more weight and significance to the whole mission and thesis with which we started JustCall and SaaS Labs over 8 years back—the agents are super under-loved and underserved. And we are going to solve that.
Sadly, this is not an isolated incident. For too long, customer service agents have endured high levels of anxiety and stress due to abusive, racist, and dehumanizing treatment from a minority of customers.
It's time for change. That's why I'm launching Agent Shield Initiative - an initiative to promote Support and Help for Integrity, Equity, and Lasting Dignity for Agents (SHIELD).
To kickstart this initiative and create a meaningful impact, we are pledging an initial contribution of $50,000 to build and grow the Agent Shield Initiative.
Our plan forward is to establish a system to report and track incidents of agent abuse, making this information publicly available along with 5 other sub-initiatives (more detail available on our website - website link in first comment)
I invite businesses, individuals, and organizations to join us in this crucial initiative. Together, we can create a more respectful, equitable, and dignified environment for customer service agents worldwide.
No one should face abuse or discrimination in their workplace. With Agent Shield, we're taking a stand. Will you join us? I will post the link to the website in the first comment.
Also, please tag or share this initiative with all the business leaders and customer experience leaders in your network to help us spread the word.
cc: Anushree Tayade Priyanka Tuteja Deren R. Aditya Murari Rajit Joseph Gaurav Nanda Anand Malto Tarandeep Singh Navaneet Madhoor
Let's talk about journeys.
The JustCall journey started with a vision to create a platform that makes sales and support agents' lives easier and help businesses grow. We spent countless hours chatting with salespeople, understanding their struggles, and brainstorming ways to make their lives easier.
Seeing JustCall become a go-to tool for so many businesses is truly humbling. But here's the thing: this isn't just our journey, it's yours too. We've been glued to your feedback – the good, the bad, and the "wouldn't it be cool if”. We hear you, loud and clear!
The JustCall team has been on a mission for the past few months. We've been dissecting how you use JustCall, diving deep into industry trends, and pouring our hearts into crafting something revolutionary.
We're calling it Project Apex! 🚀
Think of it as a UI redesign that reduces the clicks needed to get the job done, along with thoughtful quirks designed to deliver a big impact in less time.
Over the coming months, we'll share exclusive sneak peeks, behind-the-scenes updates, and stories from the team. We want you to participate in this process, give us your feedback, and help shape the future of JustCall.
We believe that #uiuxmatters and are committed to creating a customer communication platform you'll love using every day. Join us on this exciting adventure, and let's redefine how long an agent takes to get the job done. 🏎️
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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
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- 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.