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Julian Baring
Commercial Leader & Exec | SaaS Sales, Marketing, P&L Ownership | B2B/B2C, Enterprise Software, AI | Adtech & Internet OG | Investor & Board Member
Professional Background
Julian Baring is a visionary business leader with over 25 years of in-depth global operating experience spanning multiple functional areas such as Sales, Business Development, Operations, Corporate Development, Strategy, and Marketing. His career is marked by a passionate commitment to building successful teams and keenly managing P&L for high-growth commercial opportunities. Julian's strategic approach to business is anchored in his expertise in defining product/market fit and scaling various commercial activities aimed at fostering growth and facilitating turnarounds in business ventures.
Throughout his impressive career, Julian has played a pivotal role as a founding team member in eight different successful growth and startup ventures across diverse sectors including Mobile, B2C Travel, Advertising Technology, and SaaS Enterprise Ventures. His ability to lead market entry and expand the global footprint of companies is exemplified by his success in scaling business functions for a $100+ million revenue global adtech firm.
Achievements in Business Growth
Julian's contributions in the business realm are not just limited to startups; they extend to corporate environments as well. He has astutely built and nurtured profitable businesses within the UK and European markets for publicly listed Australian companies and expertly guided U.S. market entries, culminating in successful acquisitions and seamless integrations by other ASX listed entities. His ability to reverse the fortunes of a loss-making European business, rendering it profitable within just four months, showcases his extraordinary business acumen and operational excellence.
With considerable P&L responsibilities across a variety of businesses characterized by different scales and operational sizes, Julian has consistently demonstrated his prowess as a startup founder and as a leader in early-stage high-growth ventures. His acumen as an angel investor and advisor has seen him involved in multiple early-stage startups and growth enterprises, further solidifying his reputation as a linchpin in the business ecosystem.
Global Experience
Julian’s extensive operating experience across geographical landscapes of the U.S., Europe, the UK, and Australia has equipped him with a rich understanding of diverse markets and a profound ability to tailor business strategies around local nuances. This global perspective informs his approach, as he consistently seeks to create value and foster innovation in every venture he undertakes.
Education and Achievements
Julian Baring boasts a strong educational background that underlines his analytical capabilities and strategic thinking. He pursued his MBA in Finance at the prestigious Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford, a hallmark of academic excellence that has bolstered his financial acumen in the corporate sphere. Furthermore, Julian studied for his Bachelor of Arts in History at the esteemed Brown University, where he honed his critical thinking and analytical skills.
His educational journey also includes a semester abroad at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), showcasing his commitment to obtaining a global perspective and fostering international networks early in his career. Earlier in his academic life, Julian attended The Lawrenceville School for his high school education, which laid the foundational knowledge and skills that have served him well throughout his professional endeavors.
Professional Affiliations and Roles
Julian has held several notable positions throughout his career, reflecting his versatile experience and adaptability. He served as an Executive in Residence at Progress Partners and as a Senior Advisor for GTM at Relate Research and Technology Company, where he provided strategic insights and contributed to the growth of innovative technologies.
His strategic acumen was further recognized in diverse roles, including serving as a Strategic Advisor at Mushroom and as a Board Member at Bionic Advertising Systems, where he provided guidance on strategic growth and corporate governance.
In terms of executive leadership, Julian's tenure as SVP of Business Development and later as Regional President for the Americas at Adform underscores his ability to bridge various business functions to achieve significant growth milestones. As the Executive Vice President of Partnerships at Adslot and the Global Executive Vice President at Facilitate Digital, he exhibited an exceptional knack for fostering partnerships that drove growth and enhanced business outcomes across multiple regions.
Additionally, Julian served as Senior Managing Director for the UK and Europe at Facilitate Digital, and as a Partner at Portobello Ventures, where he leveraged his operational expertise and strategic vision to drive value. He also held positions as Director of Operations for FAST/Microsoft’s Platefood and Operative, as well as European Business Developmen
Highlights
Generative AI is everywhere - it feels like the early days of the internet. There is this exciting, game-changing, shiny new object that is going to revolutionize everything we do and impact all aspects of business, culture and society, but the universal challenge is how do companies and people adopt and capture the benefits that Generative AI represents?
My working hypothesis is that new AI propositions need to seamlessly integrate into existing workflows and organizational processes and need to produce proprietary output that is unique to the user or company, in order to fulfill the promise and realize the benefit of this technological breakthrough.
Since September last year, I've had the pleasure of working with one company that has cracked the code on how AI can deliver significant benefits to users - Relate Research and Technology Co.
Relate is a comprehensive meeting enablement platform, rooted in the objective measurement of the most important element of any business relationship – Trust.
Embedded into Relate is Sandi - a Generative AI coach who provides structured feedback on all aspects of business meetings, measuring 58 different criteria to standardize and objectively measure the development or erosion of trust. Sandi quantifies the Trust Equation, popularized in the best selling book, “The Trusted Advisor”, (Galford, Green, Maister) which means that Relate provides your organization and users with the continuous measurement and coaching on the process of building trust, as well as the full spectrum of meeting enablement benefits that generative AI offers. The benefit of Relate is that it reinforces your existing processes by encouraging human connection, while maximizing the discipline and rigor essential to building trust and the successful management of business relationships.
I'm very excited about what we are building and I look forward to sharing more about Relate and Sandi soon. Please reach out if you would like to learn more?
https://trustrelate.com/
On International Women’s Day #iwd2024 I want to share a recent article about my daughter’s experience coming through heart surgery.
This little woman inspires me every day. She embodies what so many women I admire and have had the privilege of learning and growing from over the course of my life and career share - resilience, grace and power of spirit or fortitude.
It is no surprise that the organization that saved my daughter’s life is the Lucille Packard foundation, named for another incredible woman.
If you feel touched by the article please consider making a donation to the Lucille Packard Foundation for Children’s health - I will post the link in the comments.
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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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