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John O'Brien
Founder at 540
Professional Background
Jarrett O'Brien is a visionary leader in the realm of technology innovation, uniquely positioned at the intersection of government and enterprise. With a robust background in both the Department of Defense (DoD) and the corporate sector, he has dedicated his career to transforming outdated practices within technology projects and advocating for a more agile and responsive approach. Recognizing the chronic inefficiencies and failures prevalent in many federal technology projects, Jarrett founded his current company, 540, with the mission of empowering clients to adopt methodologies similar to those utilized by start-up companies. He emphasizes the importance of rapid development cycles, iterative learning, and user-centric design in delivering value-producing technology solutions at unprecedented speeds.
His journey speaks volumes about his commitment to innovation and results. Jarrett's extensive experience spans various roles, including strategic leadership positions, technology development, and project management, making him a sought-after expert in the technology sector.
Education and Achievements
Jarrett O'Brien's academic credentials are a solid foundation for his successful career. He obtained his Master of Business Administration from the esteemed University of Maryland, specifically from the Robert H. Smith School of Business, where he honed his skills in business leadership and strategic thinking. Prior to this, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Florida, equipping him with a strong technical background that complements his business acumen.
In the realm of professional achievements, Jarrett notably founded TwapperKeeper.com, a pioneering Twitter archiving application that caught the attention of technology leaders and was acquired by Hootsuite in September 2011. This accomplishment underscored his ability to identify market needs and create effective solutions. Additionally, as a co-founder of Twangu, a group buying Facebook application, Jarrett demonstrated his entrepreneurial spirit and his desire to explore innovative solutions in the rapidly evolving digital landscape.
His tenure at the Department of Defense was marked by several significant roles, including serving as the Chief Information Officer and Chief Technology Officer, where he led various initiatives aimed at modernizing DoD operations and technology systems. His influence as Program Executive Officer for Enterprise DoD Supply Chain Systems further highlights his strategic oversight capabilities in managing complex projects.
Notable Positions
- Founder at 540: At 540, Jarrett focuses on driving technological transformation across government and enterprise sectors, ensuring projects are built and delivered in a timely, efficient manner.
- Formerly Founder at FedAPI: A platform that aimed to simplify access to U.S. government data, demonstrating his commitment to transparency and accessibility in technology.
- Director of Technology Services at Hickory Ground Solutions, LLC: In this role, he was instrumental in guiding technology service delivery and enhancing operational efficiencies.
- Senior Leadership Roles at the DoD: His experience as a Special Assistant to the Agency Director, as well as Chief Information Officer, underscores his extensive knowledge in governmental technology systems and transformation efforts.
Achievements
Jarrett O'Brien has amassed a wealth of achievements throughout his career. His commitment to excellence has facilitated critical advancements in both enterprise and government tech projects. His approach to technology focuses on achieving quick results through agile methodologies, which stands in stark contrast to traditional bureaucratic processes. His prominent achievements include:
- Founding and successfully leading multiple technology companies, showcasing his ability to innovate and execute.
- Delivering transformation projects within the U.S. Department of Defense that have modernized operational systems and improved performance metrics.
- Garnering wide respect and recognition within the tech industry for his strategic insights and thought leadership, particularly in fostering the collaboration between governmental and technological realms.
Jarrett’s mission with 540 is not just about technology; it’s about creating a cultural shift in how government and enterprise organizations approach technology projects. By leveraging the agile methodologies that characterize successful start-ups, Jarrett aims to reshape the landscape of technology deployment, making it faster, more effective, and aligned with user needs. He is committed to helping clients navigate the complex challenges of technology implementation, with a firm belief in the power of collaboration and agility to “#getshitdone.” His work is a testament to the idea that with the right mindset and strategies, technology can truly dri
Highlights
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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.