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Genie Gratto
Mission-Driven Communications Consultant with a Passion for Storytelling, Technology, and Social Change
Professional Background
Genie Gratto is a highly skilled and experienced communications professional with a strong commitment to helping nonprofit and mission-driven organizations tell their stories effectively. With an impressive background in brand strategy and marketing, Genie has built a reputation for developing clear, engaging brand messaging that resonates with key audiences. Her wealth of experience spans various roles, showcasing her versatility and adaptability in the communications field.
At Gwrite, her own consultancy, Genie focuses on crafting compelling narratives that align with each client’s mission, values, and strategic goals. Her approach emphasizes collaboration, ensuring that the messaging is not only clear but also deeply connected to the organization's purpose. Genie’s intricate understanding of audience segmentation means she works diligently to identify who the target audiences are and the best channels to reach them, fostering meaningful engagement.
Education and Achievements
Genie holds a Master of Arts in Writing from The Johns Hopkins University, a prestigious institution known for its rigorous academic programs and emphasis on developing strong writing skills. Additionally, she earned a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Mary Baldwin College, laying the foundation for her exceptional command of language and narrative.
Her professional journey includes an extensive list of influential roles. Genie served as the Senior Director of Marketing Communications & PR at AnitaB.org, where she played a pivotal role in elevating the organization’s voice within the tech community, particularly in relation to gender equity and the advancement of women in technology. Her efforts as both Director and Senior Director at the same organization reflect her deep commitment to impactful messaging and strategic positioning.
Before her tenure at AnitaB.org, Genie honed her skills as a Vice President & Communications Director at ChangeLab Solutions. Here, she further developed her ability to inspire and guide teams in producing communications that resonate with community stakeholders.
Genie’s proficiency extends to her previous positions such as Senior Project Manager at Geonetric and Communications Program Manager at Alliant Energy, where she contributed to creating clear and effective communication strategies that supported the missions of these organizations. Her experience with various communication teams across industries equips her with the insight needed to cultivate strong and resilient teams in her current consultancy role.
Notable Contributions
In addition to her significant roles within organizations, Genie has made substantial contributions to various publications. As a Contributing Editor at BlogHer, and previously the Food Section Editor, she showcased her versatility in writing engaging content that draws readers in. Her transformative contributions at BlogHer further reflect her expertise in content creation, digital engagement, and community-building in online spaces.
Throughout her career, Genie has consistently believed in the power of words to connect, inspire, and mobilize action. Whether crafting speeches, thought leadership pieces, or social media content, she maintains a keen focus on accessibility and engagement. Her passion for storytelling extends to managing the narrative around events, ensuring that vital messages are conveyed before, during, and after gatherings, fostering a continued connection between attendees, sponsors, and speakers.
Her cooperative and people-centric approach to leadership is evident in her mentoring capabilities; she has an innate ability to inspire communications teams, guiding them to identify their strengths and achieve their goals. Genie thrives on building teams that exceed expectations and deliver impactful results, steering them through transitions and bolstering their skill sets.
Based in Oakland, California, Genie has a flexible work style that allows her to work across time zones. Her dedication to fostering connections, regardless of location, exemplifies her commitment to dynamic communication strategies in the modern landscape.
Genie invites organizations to reach out and explore how they can leverage her expertise in transforming brand messaging into powerful narratives that resonate with their audiences. You can contact her at [email protected] to start a collaborative effort in sharing your organization’s unique story.
Education
- Master of Arts, Writing, The Johns Hopkins University
- Bachelor of Arts, English Literature, Mary Baldwin College
Professional Experience
- Communications and Marketing Consultant at Gwrites
- Senior Director, Marketing Communications & PR at AnitaB.org
- Director, Marketing Communications & PR at AnitaB.org
- Contributing Editor at BlogHer
- Food Section Editor at BlogHer
- Vice President & Communications Director at ChangeLab Solutions
- Senior Project Manager at Geonetric
- Communications Program Manager at Alliant Energy
- Senior Communications Coordinator for the Web at International Brotherhood of Teamsters
- Deputy Director of Communications at Police Executive Research Forum
- Communications Associate at NARAL Pro-Choice America
- General Assignment Reporter at Frederick News-Post
- Community News Editor/Staff Writer at The Connection Newspapers
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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.
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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.