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Justin Lake
Mobile Technologist - Strategist - CEO @ Skyllful - Co-Host @ Frontline Innovators Podcast - Helping Frontline Workers Embrace Essential Mobile Technology
Justin Lake is a second-generation mobile technology enthusiast with over 20 years of experience in the field.
His passion for mobile technology stems from his childhood, influenced by his father who worked in the first commercial cellular network deployment in the US in the 80s.
Justin thrives on empowering people to place-shift, enabling them to accomplish tasks wherever they choose.
With a background in Business Administration from Amberton University and Johnson and Wales University, Justin has a solid educational foundation.
As the CEO & Co-founder of Skyllful, Justin brings a wealth of experience, creativity, and a broad industry network to every client engagement.
He has a proven track record of providing innovative solutions across a wide range of mobile initiatives.
Justin's expertise spans from mobile technology consultancy to sales and business development, with roles in renowned organizations like DecisionPoint Systems, Inc., Stratix Corporation, and AT&T Wireless.
He has also been involved in podcasting as a Co-host of Frontline Innovators, showcasing his industry knowledge and thought leadership.
Justin Lake is dedicated to helping businesses save time and money while achieving their mobile technology goals efficiently.
By leveraging his experience and network, Justin offers clients access to a diverse pool of problem solvers and industry experts.
His holistic approach to mobile solutions ensures that projects begin with a clear end goal in mind, aiming to transform the way businesses operate.
Whether working on projects for 10 users or 10,000 users, Justin Lake is committed to delivering successful mobile solutions tailored to each client's needs.
Highlights
How one retailer's mobile app is costing them $40M/year
I'll tell you my story, then I'll show you my math. Then I'll provide my hypothesis on why this happened to them and what to do to solve it.
I can't validate these numbers across their system, but I've experienced this same situation with the same retailer TWICE over a period of 6 months. This isn't an anomaly, and it isn't unique to them.
I placed an order at retailerswebsite.com. (<<-- this is not the actual domain)
The website confirmed AVAILABLE inventory of all items in the order.
I later received an email explaining that one item (7 quantity) was CANCELLED from my order due to "out of stock". I was refunded $71.89 for this portion of my order.
I retrieved the rest of my order at the store. When I got home I found 5 quantity of the "out of stock" item in my bags. At a unit price of $10.27 each, that is $51.35 worth of product in my bag that I did not pay for (through no fault of my own).
This retailer has roughly 2250 stores.
If each store had only ONE of these incidents per day at roughly the same cost impact, this could equate to $40.5M of loss per year!
2250 stores $50 per incident 360 selling days per year $40,500,000
Could it be happening more than once per day?
Is the average impact more than or less than $50?
I can't be sure, but let me tell you why I think this happened.
The picker of my order is using a custom app on a custom mobile device to process BOPIS orders. When the picker realizes the full quantity of my order is not available, they have to indicate this in the app.
** THIS IS WHERE THE $40 MILLION IS LOST **
Rather than ADJUST the quantity, an option that I'm certain exists in this app, the user CANCELS the line item entirely.
Then the picker sticks the 5 units in my bags with other items on the order.
I'm sure this team member is just trying to do their job, has a million orders to process and never enough time to get them done. I'm certain they don't understand the implication of this little misstep.
*** I'd also bet $50 that if we asked this employee why they handled the transaction the way they did, they would say "no one explained that to me."
Too much focus is spent on the technology and not enough time is spent on the human who uses the technology.
We need to improve how we educate them about the business process and how that correlates to the use of the technology. Then we need to VALIDATE that they know the correct processes before we let $40M walk out the door.
I believe the best way to do this is through simulation training delivered directly through the technology they use in performance of their job. This provides them with a safe, fast way to learn and it gives YOU validation that they know how to handle each of these transactions.
This is what we're doing at Skyllful. If you think your company may be experiencing similar losses due to inadequate training on your tech, we'd be happy to talk through potential solutions.
I’m #hiring. Know anyone who might be interested?
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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
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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
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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.