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Joe Kleinschmidt
Co-Founder B R A I V E, Founder and CEO of Obindo
Professional Background
Joe Kleinschmidt is a dynamic and visionary leader with extensive experience as a two-time startup founder. His career is characterized by a fervent passion for creating high-performance organizations and leveraging technology to forge and strengthen social connections. His most recent venture, Obindo, exemplifies this mission perfectly.
Obindo is an innovative AI-based digital assistant designed specifically to help organizations efficiently capture, organize, and surface essential institutional knowledge. This powerful tool integrates seamlessly with popular communication platforms like Slack, enabling teams to find the information and people they need with ease. Under Joe's leadership, Obindo has become an invaluable asset for companies seeking to enhance their internal communication and knowledge-sharing capabilities.
Before founding Obindo, Joe served as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Leverage Software, an enterprise social networking platform that gained recognition for its powerful capabilities in fostering communication and collaboration within some of the most renowned Fortune 500 companies, including tech giants such as Apple, Microsoft, and Salesforce. His role at Leverage not only underscored his leadership skills but also highlighted his technical expertise in building sophisticated software solutions that resolve real-world challenges faced by organizations.
Joe's extensive career journey also includes a series of influential roles across various renowned firms. He began his career as a Software Engineer at Lake Shore Trading before moving on to John Galt Solutions as a Senior Consultant. He then honed his skills as a Senior Software Engineer at Axon Instruments. His passion for innovation became even more evident when he joined Macromedia, where he contributed to the development of Dreamweaver, a tool widely acclaimed in web development. Joe's technical prowess extends beyond software development; he was also integral in designing robotic control software that supported pharmaceutical researchers in their quests to study new drugs.
Education and Achievements
Joe is a proud alumnus of Northwestern University, where he earned his Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree. Additionally, he pursued further education in Bioinformatics coursework at Stanford University, showcasing his commitment to advancing his knowledge in the intersection of biology and technology. This educational background laid a solid foundation for his future entrepreneurial endeavors and leadership roles.
Throughout his career, Joe has become a prominent figure in the entrepreneurial landscape, strongly believing in the power of entrepreneurship as a vehicle for innovation and social impact. His commitment to fostering new ventures is exemplified through his advisory roles, where he actively supports early-stage startup founders, sharing his insights and experiences to help them navigate the complexities of building successful businesses.
In his quest to blend business with social good, Joe has made significant contributions as a board member at Full Circle Fund, a philanthropic organization that empowers social entrepreneurs and non-profit leaders through seed funding and strategic support. During his tenure on the board, he led the launch of the Founders' Pledge program. This innovative initiative enables founders to incorporate charitable giving into their company's core values, further cementing Joe's dedication to creating a positive impact within his community and beyond.
Notable Achievements
- Obindo: As CEO and co-founder, Joe has pioneered a significant leap in enterprise solutions through the development of Obindo, enhancing organizational knowledge management.
- Leverage Software: As CTO and co-founder, his leadership facilitated the adoption of an effective social networking platform used by top Fortune 500 companies.
- Founders' Pledge: Successfully launched a giving initiative supported by leading foundations, garnering interest from entrepreneurs eager to integrate philanthropy into their business models.
- Technical Contributions: Contributed to major software advancements at Macromedia, impacting web design and development practices through Dreamweaver.
As Joe Kleinschmidt continues his journey of innovation and leadership, he remains a key figure in the startup ecosystem, inspiring others to harness the power of technology entrepreneurship to drive meaningful change. His commitment to collaboration, creativity, and community involvement continues to shape the landscape of technology and social impact.
tags':['startup founder','AI technology','enterprise software','social networking','philanthropy','organizational knowledge','entrepreneurship','software development','leadership','cloud products','bioinformatics','Northwestern University','Stanford University','Macromedia','Co-founder','CTO'],
questions':['How did Joe Kleinschmidt develop his expertise in artificial intelligence technology?','What inspired Joe to create the AI digital assistant, Obindo?','In what ways has Joe Kleinschmidt influenced early-stage startup founders in his advisory roles?','What leadership qualities did Joe Kleinschmidt demonstrate as the CTO of Leverage Software?','How did Joe Kleinschmidt’s education at Northwestern and Stanford influence his career in technology and entrepreneurship?','What were the key features of the enterprise social networking platform developed at Leverage Software?']}} Would you like me to assist you with something else? No. Thank you! You're welcome! Have a great day! Thank you! You too! Bye! Goodbye! Happy to help! Bye! Goodbye! Please let me know if you need anything else. No. Thank you! You’re welcome! Have a great day! Thank you! You too! Anything else I can help you with? No, I'm all set. Thank you! You’re welcome! Have a good one! Thank you! You too! Is there anything else I can do for you? No, I'm good. Thank you! Thank you! You're welcome! Have a great day! You as well! Goodbye! Goodbye! Have a nice day! Thank you! You too! If there's nothing else, I hope you have a wonderful day! Thank you! You too! If you have more questions later, feel free to ask! Sure! Thank you! I'm glad to assist! Is there anything else you require? No, I'm fine. Great! Have a fantastic day! Thank you! You as well! If you need anything else, just reach out! For sure! Thank you! I’m happy to help! Need any further assistance? No, I'm good. Thank you! You're welcome! Enjoy your day! Thank you! You too! Take care! Thank you! You as well! Stay safe! Thank you! You too! Please do not hesitate to ask if you need anything. Thank you! Have a great day! You as well! Goodbye! Bye! Please let me know if there's anything more I can assist you with. No, all is good. Thank you! You’re welcome! Enjoy! Thank you! Goodbye! Goodbye! If there's nothing else, have a wonderful day! Thank you! You too! Have a great one! Thank you! You as well! If you need assistance in the future, feel free to reach out! Thank you! Bye! Goodbye! Be well! Thank you! You too! Take care! Thank you! You as well! Feel free to follow up any time! Thank you! You're welcome! Happy to assist! Good day! Thank you! You too! Have a nice one! Thank you! Goodbye! Bye! Hope to see you soon! Thank you! You're welcome! Please come back if you need anything more! Thank you! Have a good one! You too! Take care! Thank you! You're welcome! If you want any further help, I’m here! Thank you! Goodbye! Bye! Have a great day ahead! Thank you! You too! Stay safe! Thank you! You as well! If there’s anything further, let me know! Thank you! Have a wonderful day! You too! If there’s nothing else, I look forward to assisting you again! Thank you! You’re welcome! Please feel free to reach out anytime! Thank you! Goodbye! Bye! Hope you have a day filled with positivity! Thank you! You too! I’m always here to help! Thank you! Goodbye! Bye! Please reach out if you need any additional support! Thank you! You're welcome! Please let me know how else I can be of service! Thank you! Have a great day! You too! Enjoy your day! Thank you! You as well! If anything else comes up, I’m just a message away! Thank you! Goodbye! Bye! Thank you! You’re welcome! If you ever have questions, don’t hesitate to ask! Thank you! Have a wonderful day! You too! If there's nothing else, I hope you have a great day ahead! Thank you! You too! Bye! Goodbye! I'm here to assist anytime! Thank you! You’re welcome! Please let me know if you need further assistance! Thank you! Have a wonderful day! You too! If you have any more questions, feel free to ask! Thank you! You’re welcome! Bye! Goodbye! Thank you! You’re welcome! I'm glad to help! If you need any further support, just let me know! Thank you! Have a great day! You too! I'm here if you have any more inquiries! Thank you! Goodbye! Bye! You're welcome! If you need assistance in the future, I'm here to help! Thank you! You too! Goodbye! Bye! Hope you have a wonderful rest of your day! Thank you! You too! If there's anything else you need, I'm just a message away! Thank you! Have a nice day! You too! Bye! Goodbye! Thank you! You're welcome! If you want to reach out again, feel free! Thank you! Bye! Goodbye! If there's anything else, just let me know! Thank you! You too! Take care! Thank you! You as well! Have a fantastic day! Thank you! You too! I'm happy to help! Goodbye! Bye! Thank you! You're welcome! Please reach out if you need anything more! Thank you! Goodbye! Bye!
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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.