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Josef Brunner
CEO at Relayr
Professional Background
Josef Brunner is a highly accomplished entrepreneur, investor, and mentor in the tech industry, known for his significant contributions to the field of digital transformation and security. As the founder and proud CEO of Relayr, a prominent Internet of Things (IoT) company, Josef has been instrumental in driving innovation and creating solutions that make the world a better digital place. Relayr's success culminated in its acquisition by MunichRE, showcasing Josef's exceptional leadership and vision in the tech sector.
Before establishing Relayr, Josef was deeply involved in the tech landscape, having founded JouleX, a leader in energy management solutions for data centers and enterprise IT. His efforts with JouleX led to its successful acquisition by Cisco, where Josef continued to make his mark as Chief Architect of Cisco Services. His tenure at Cisco saw him influence the way the company approached IT services, contributing to advancements that integrate sustainability into technology management.
Josef’s career also includes significant roles in security and networking, having served as Director of Security Sales for Central and Eastern Europe and the Asia-Pacific region at Enterasys Networks. His time at Enterasys was marked by strategic initiatives that strengthened the company’s position in the global security market. In addition, he has held prominent roles in companies like Bastille Networks, where he served as Founder and CTO, and Azlan, where he was the Head of Security. These experiences have endowed Josef with a rich understanding of the challenges and opportunities present in the tech industry, particularly in security and IoT domains.
Education and Achievements
Josef Brunner’s educational background laid the groundwork for his illustrious career in technology and entrepreneurship. His commitment to continuous learning, innovation, and his passion for technology have always propelled him forward. Though the specifics of his formal education may not be widely publicized, Josef has continually sought to acquire knowledge and skills that align with the fast-evolving tech landscape, ensuring he stays at the forefront of industry trends.
Throughout his career, Josef has been an advocate for sustainable and responsible technology practices. He believes in the power of technology to not only enhance operational efficiency but also contribute positively to society and the environment. This philosophy is evident in the solutions offered by both JouleX and Relayr, which focus on optimizing resource utilization and fostering connectivity in a responsible manner.
Achievements
Josef Brunner's journey is marked by numerous noteworthy achievements. The founding of JouleX stands out as a pivotal moment in his career, where his vision for energy efficiency in IT infrastructure took shape. The acquisition by Cisco not only validated his innovative approach but also expanded the reach of JouleX’s technology to a global audience.
At Relayr, his leadership has inspired a culture of innovation and collaboration, enabling the company to thrive in the competitive IoT market. Under his guidance, Relayr developed groundbreaking IoT solutions that empower businesses to maximize their operational efficiency and transform their business models. The acquisition by MunichRE further emphasizes the value Relayr brings to the insurance and financial sectors, where IoT is increasingly becoming a key component in risk assessment and management.
Josef has also made significant contributions to the field of security through his various roles, particularly at Enterasys Networks and Bastille Networks, where he has been at the helm of technological advancement and strategic positioning. His efforts in enhancing security frameworks and promoting innovative network solutions have played a crucial role in shaping the industry's landscape.
In addition to his roles as a leader and entrepreneur, Josef is also a dedicated mentor and investor. He actively invests in and supports emerging technology startups, sharing his wealth of experience and knowledge with the next generation of tech innovators. His commitment to mentoring exemplifies his belief in the potential of technology to effect positive change.
Josef Brunner is not only shaping the future of technology through his own companies, but he is also empowering others to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams, fostering a collaborative environment where creativity and innovation can flourish. His journey is a testament to the impact one person can have on the tech industry and the world, continuously striving to make it a better (digital) place.
Highlights
Wisst Ihr, wie viel Zeit ein Bäcker mit Bürokratie verbringt❓
12,5 Stunden in der Woche❗️
Also 1,5 Arbeitstage in der Woche gehen für das Ausfüllen von Formularen drauf.
Der Grund, warum mich das so sehr bewegt, ist dass ich immer mehr sehe und verstehe, warum wir mit unseren politischen Entscheidungen Großindustrien fördern und Kleinbetriebe gefährden.
👉 Die Agrarpolitik fördert überproportional großindustrielle Betriebe mit (oftmals) Monokulturen 👉Die Bürokratie trifft Kleinunternehmer überproportional, weil es viele Auflagen und wenig Profit gibt. Speziell in der Lebensmittelindustrie.
Damit möchte ich wichtige Bereiche wie die Lebensmittelsicherheit, den Arbeitsschutz, die Betriebssicherheit und Soziales nicht wieder in die Steinzeit katapultieren, aber ich würde mir wünschen, dass wir unsere Kleinunternehmer, die leider keine Stimme haben, mehr hören würden.
Bereiche, in denen wir etwas mehr Pragmatismus gebrauchen könnten, wären unter anderem: 👉 die Bonpflicht (die auch umwelttechnischer Wahnsinn ist) – Stichwort digitaler Bon 👉 Eine einheitliche Plattform, über die die teils überlappenden Bürokratieanforderungen dokumentiert werden könnten – für alle Behörden! 👉 Dem Behördendeutsch etwas mehr Verständlichkeit beibringen 👉 Informationen, die sich nicht ändern, nur einmal übermitteln 👉 Braucht es die gesetzlich festgelegte Arbeitszeitdokumentation für Kleinbetriebe wirklich 👉 Lebensmittelhygiene vereinheitlichen und vereinfachen (u.a. automatische Kühlprotokolle aus den Systemen ziehen)
Ich würde sehr gerne mal die entscheidenden politischen Stellen einladen, kleine Betriebe zu besuchen. Nicht für ein schickes Wahlkampffoto, sondern um mal zu verstehen, unter welcher Last diese Betriebe stehen.
Vielleicht wäre es auch schön, wenn man nicht immer das Schlimmste von den Selbstständigen denken würde (Steuerhinterzieher, keine Hygiene und Arbeitsausbeuter), sondern etwas mehr Hochachtung vor der Lebensleistung von Kleinstunternehmern hätte. Sie leisten aus meiner Sicht Enormes für den gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt. Mehr als so manches DAX Unternehmen.
Und wenn das alles nicht hilft, sollten wir uns mal die absurden Kosten anschauen, die auf staatlicher Seite für die Bürokratieverarbeitung entstehen. In Zeiten, in denen wir über Investitionen in Infrastruktur sprechen müssen, haben wir hier enormes Einsparungspotential.
Wenn der letzte kleine Bäcker aufgeben hat, die letzte Landkäserei in der Bon Ausgabe erstickt ist und die letzte Gastronomin den Schlüssel zum Restaurant unter dem Formular-Dickicht nicht mehr findet, kann ich Euch sagen, werden wir gesellschaftlich viel vermissen.
Ich möchte nicht in einer Wirtschaft, die nur durch die Großen definiert wird, leben und werde daher meine Stimme in Zukunft respektvoll, inklusiv und freundlich im Ton einbringen.
Wie seht Ihr das?
Menschen. Es sind immer die Menschen, die Unternehmen erfolgreich machen. #culture Sie sind es auch, die die unternehmerische Reise besonders, lehrreich und erfüllend machen.
Ich durfte während meiner Karriere viele besondere Menschen kennen lernen. Einer, der mich dabei geprägt hat, wie wahrscheinlich kein anderer, ist Tom Noonan.
Tom hat in seinem Leben Enormes erreicht. Unternehmen an die Börse geführt, Firmen für viele Milliarden verkauft und US-Präsidenten in Sicherheitsfragen beraten. Seine größte Errungenschaft ist es allerdings, die Leben der Menschen, die er getroffen hat, zum Positiven zu verändern.
Von Tom habe ich gelernt, wie wichtig Firmenkultur ist. Auch meine Liebe zu Marketing und Vertrieb wurde durch ihn inspiriert. Es ist völlig egal, wie bahnbrechend dein Produkt ist. Wenn es keiner kauft, ist es irrelevant. #marketing #sales
Tom hat in meine Firmen investiert. Aber viel wichtiger: er hat in mich investiert. Etwas, das ich niemals vergessen werde.
In den letzten fast zwei Dekaden ist aus einer ehrlichen, verbindenden und lehrreichen Geschäftsbeziehung eine enge Freundschaft entstanden. Eine Freundschaft, die ich als die größte Dividende unserer beruflichen Zusammenarbeit sehe und für die ich wahnsinnig dankbar bin!
Das letzte Kapitel unserer unternehmerischen Reise wurde noch nicht geschrieben. Die Reise geht weiter. Ich freue mich sehr auf das nächste Kapitel und könnte mir keinen besseren Partner an meiner Seite vorstellen!
The best is yet to come! One. More. Thing! Packen wir’s an! Es gibt viel zu tun.
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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.
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