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Juan Rubio
Chief Innovation Officer / Author & Speaker / CEO Thinkers Co.
Professional Background
Juan Gasca Rubio is a distinguished entrepreneur and educator in the fields of design, innovation, and business strategy. As the Founder and Managing Director of Thinkers Co., Juan has carved a niche for himself in the realm of innovative thinking and strategy development. His remarkable journey through various roles has allowed him to accumulate a wealth of knowledge and experience, making him a sought-after mentor and advisor in the startup ecosystem.
Before founding Thinkers Co., Juan held numerous significant positions that highlighted his passion for innovation in business and education. He has served as the Liderazgo Módulo Innovación at CEU IAM Business School and has also contributed his expertise as a Business Mentor at Conector Startup Accelerator. Juan has enriched the academic landscape by being an Associate Professor at ESIC - ICEMD El Instituto de la Economía Digital de ESIC and IE Business School, where he taught students about entrepreneurship, innovation, and design.
Moreover, Juan has been active in the entrepreneurial space as a Mentor - Google Expert at Google for Entrepreneurs and has participated as a cofounder and advisor of Aniento Fisioterapia y Bienestar, where he contributed his insights to enhance the business model and user engagement strategies. He has been recognized for his innovative teaching methodologies, which have included the integration of Design Thinking approaches in various academic institutions, including EOI and Impact Business School.
His extensive history as an instructor also includes contributions to universities across Spain, where he imparted knowledge in Master's programs focused on digital business, agile thinking, and customer development. Throughout his career, Juan has embraced various roles in academia, including Lead Instructor at SpinUp Unizar, where he guided aspiring entrepreneurs through the intricacies of startup culture.
Education and Achievements
Juan Gasca Rubio's educational background is as diverse as his professional journey. He has pursued several advanced studies that complement his career as a thought leader in design and innovation. He started his academic journey at the Universidad de Zaragoza, where he earned a degree in Technical Engineering specializing in Industrial Design. This solid foundation in design principles has allowed him to intertwine creativity with business acumen throughout his career.
Further enhancing his expertise, Juan completed a Master's program in Design Management at the Escuela de Organización Industrial, followed by another Master's in Industrial Design Engineering from the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), where he also undertook a Doctorate focusing on project design and management in industrial contexts. This rich educational background provides Juan with a thorough understanding of how design impacts business and innovation.
Adding to his impressive skills, Juan has further developed his expertise by studying Venture Capital, Investing & Fundraising in High-Growth Companies at IE Business School and The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing, also at IE Business School. Additionally, he underwent specialized training at Stanford University and completed a Design Thinking Program at the prestigious Hasso Plattner Institute, which has become a cornerstone for his teaching methodologies and consulting practices.
Juan's dedication to education has resulted in innovative curricula that introduce students to cutting-edge concepts in entrepreneurial strategy, and he has shared this knowledge in several prominent institutions throughout Spain.
Moreover, his extensive body of work includes being an author at Designpedia, where he has shared insights and strategic approaches to design management and entrepreneurial thinking.
Achievements
Juan Gasca Rubio's career has been punctuated with significant achievements that reflect his passion for innovation and education. He has been integral in launching initiatives that promote entrepreneurial thinking and design innovation across various sectors. His contributions as a mentor and educator have positively influenced numerous startups and aspiring entrepreneurs around Spain.
As co-founder and advisor of BYDSEA, Inc., Juan played a pivotal role in developing strategic frameworks that advanced both the business’s objectives and user engagement strategies. His expertise in Design Thinking has allowed him to facilitate workshops and training sessions that focus on unlocking creativity in business environments.
In addition to his advisory roles, Juan's participation in high-profile projects, such as the Design Thinking project at Daimler in collaboration with HPI, showcases his ability to integrate design thinking into practical applications within corporate environments. His work has not only benefited startups but also established companies looking to innovate and adapt in the evolving market.
His proficient guidance within the academic landscape has been recognized, leading to his invitation to be a member of the Scientific Committee for the INDITEC Congress, where leading discussions on innovation and technology have taken place.
As Juan continues to shape the next generation of thinkers and leaders, he remains committed to fostering an environment where creativity meets strategic decision-making. His impactful journey is a testament to the power of combining education with practical experience, making him a luminary in the fields of innovation, design, and entrepreneurship.
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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.