Suggestions
Hans Lombardo
Startup Founder & GTM Strategist
Professional Background
Hans Lombardo is a multifaceted entrepreneur with a wealth of experience in various sectors, demonstrating an impressive trajectory in the fields of technology, mediation, and investment. With a passion for innovation, he has carved out a niche for himself as a prominent figure in the burgeoning world of tech startups. As the founding force behind Start Resolution, Hans has established a business consulting firm that specializes in advisory services and dispute resolution tailored specifically for tech startups, leveraging his expertise to foster their growth and navigate challenges.
In addition to Start Resolution, Hans serves as the founder, Chief Marketing Officer, and investor relations director of Blockpass, an innovative self-sovereign identity system and KYC-as-a-service provider. His vision for the future of digital identity and compliance has positioned Blockpass at the forefront of technological advancements within the identity management space. Hans also founded Chain of Things, a Hong Kong-based venture studio lab dedicated to nurturing groundbreaking tech startups, further illustrating his commitment to providing the necessary resources and support for transformative businesses.
Before these ventures, Hans held significant roles during the Internet boom, including managing the internet.com Venture Capital Fund in Asia, where he made strategic investments in a multitude of startups across Greater China. His invaluable experience from the late 1990s as a tech journalist, during which he interviewed influential figures such as Jack Ma and Jerry Yang, further solidified his reputation as a thought leader in the industry.
Hans' journey reflects not only entrepreneurial success but also a substantial foundation in academia and research, with a Ph.D. from the University of Hong Kong that underscores his rich background in political science and government. He has also contributed to the academic community as an adjunct professor, sharing his insights and experiences with the next generation of leaders.
Education and Achievements
Hans Lombardo's educational background is impressive, beginning with a BA in Government and International Relations from William & Mary, where he cultivated an understanding of political systems and global interconnectivity. His academic pursuits continued at the University of Hong Kong, where he earned a Ph.D. in Political Science and Government in 1997, with a concentration on analyzing political and social frameworks that impact technology and innovation. Notably, he was awarded the Sir Edward Youde Memorial Fellowship for the years 1995-1996, a testament to his outstanding scholarly achievements.
In addition to his Ph.D., Hans has further enhanced his credentials by completing specialized certificates in Professional Mediation at Cornell University ILR School and International Commercial Arbitration and Dispute Resolution at American University. These qualifications bolster his capabilities as a CEDR-accredited mediator, enabling him to navigate disputes effectively—an invaluable skill set for his ventures in tech startups where conflict resolution is often necessary.
Notable Contributions and Roles
Hans Lombardo's career is marked by a series of strategic roles across various influential organizations, showcasing his versatility and leadership in multiple capacities. He has successfully transitioned through different roles, including being a Founder and Director at Start Resolution LLC, where he helped tech startups scale and resolve conflicts effectively. As a Business Development Advisor at SOLV Technology PTE LTD, he extended his influence in the tech community, fostering growth and innovation. His role as Industry Advisor at Blockpass Identity Lab demonstrates his ongoing commitment to integrating advanced technologies into business practices.
As the founding director of Chain of Things, Hans remains dedicated to supporting startups with innovative ideas, ensuring they receive the guidance needed to flourish in competitive landscapes. His past experience as the Assistant Vice President and Chief Executive Officer/Director at Serold Hawaii Inc. showcases his capacity for leadership and strategic decision-making within organizations.
Hans' journey through the tech industry also includes his position as Managing Director-Asia at internet.com, where he played a critical role in promoting and investing in Internet startups across Asia during a period of rapid growth and change. His expertise in Government Requirements Analysis at Xerox ACS and roles in various tech companies highlight his ability to understand and navigate the complexities of technological advancement and legislative frameworks.
Not only has he excelled in the corporate arena, but he also made impressive strides in sports as a Professional Rugby Player for the Hong Kong Rugby Union, demonstrating that his talents extend beyond the boardroom and into physical prowess. This diverse range of experiences contributes to his well-rounded character and ability to lead in high-pressure environments.
Vision for the Future
Hans Lombardo’s vision for the future is firmly rooted in his belief that technology can transform industries and improve lives. His current work emphasizes creating innovative solutions that empower individuals and companies alike. With his extensive background in mediation and conflict resolution, Hans is uniquely positioned to help shape the future of tech startups navigating complex waters in today's dynamic landscape.
Hans remains committed to the advancement of technology and innovation, advocating for practices that prioritize ethical standards and responsible implementation. As he continues to drive forward with his ventures, Hans aims to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs, demonstrating the importance of resilience in the face of challenges and the value of effective collaboration in achieving success.
He stands as a testament to the incredible possibilities that arise when expertise, passion, and vision converge in the world of technology and beyond.
Achievements
Hans Lombardo is a CEDR-accredited mediator, an enthusiastic advocate for innovative technologies, and a successful entrepreneur with an extensive background in technology, investment advisory, and dispute resolution. His notable contributions include founding Start Resolution, Blockpass, and Chain of Things, and managing the internet.com Venture Capital Fund in Asia during the Internet boom. He has also contributed significantly as a tech journalist and academic, earning a Ph.D. from the University of Hong Kong and various certificates in mediation and arbitration.
People also viewed
Related People
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.