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Koen Thewissen
Strategic communications consultant / Founder at weareDaniel
Professional Background
Koen Thewissen is a seasoned communications expert and brand strategy consultant with a rich tapestry of experience spanning over two decades. His passion for communication is not just a profession; it is an inherent part of his identity, as he actively seeks to influence how organizations, brands, and companies communicate with their audiences. In his current role as a Brand Strategy Consultant at weareDaniel, Koen continues to push the boundaries of how organizations can effectively change the way people think, feel, and act.
Koen’s illustrious career is marked by his entrepreneurial spirit, exemplified by his founding of the Belgian Advertising School. This initiative reflects his commitment to shaping the future of communication by nurturing the communication talent of tomorrow. His dedication to teaching is matched only by his enthusiasm for learning; he has gained invaluable insights and knowledge from his students, which he often cites as a source of inspiration in his own work.
Throughout his career, Koen has held several notable positions in prestigious firms, including serving as the Strategic Director for BBDO Belgium, where he led strategic initiatives aimed at enhancing brand presence and consumer engagement. He has had the unique opportunity to work on high-profile projects, including the People’s Car Project for Volkswagen in China, demonstrating his ability to navigate complex marketing landscapes.
In addition to his strategic roles, Koen has been deeply involved in mentoring and supporting the next generation of communicators. As a member of the start-up accelerator mentor team at Idealabs, he has guided numerous budding entrepreneurs in refining their communication strategies to ensure business success. His experience as a partnership director at Hyper Island further emphasizes his dedication to education and collaboration in the field of communication.
Education and Achievements
Koen Thewissen’s quest for knowledge is reflected in his diverse educational background. He embarked on his academic journey at Sint Jan Bergmanscollege Genk, where he studied Latin and sciences, laying a solid foundation for his future endeavors. His curiosity led him to pursue Creative Prototyping at HOWEST - University College West Flanders, which sharpened his skills in creating innovative communication strategies.
In addition, Koen participated in the Young Management Program at Vlerick Leuven-Gent Management School, enhancing his managerial acumen. Recognizing the importance of international perspectives, he enrolled in a trilingual MBA in International Management at the University of Deusto. Furthermore, Koen’s legal education at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, where he completed a Master’s in Law, complements his strategic communication expertise, allowing him to navigate complex legal landscapes that intersect with branding and communication.
Moreover, he holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Law and Business from the National University of Ireland, Galway, underscoring his commitment to understanding communication within a global context. This extensive educational background, combined with his practical experience, makes Koen a well-rounded professional capable of tackling the intricacies of communication and branding in today’s fast-paced world.
Achievements
Koen Thewissen has made significant contributions to the fields of communication, brand strategy, and education. His most noteworthy achievements include:
- Founder of the Belgian Advertising School: As the founder, Koen has played a pivotal role in shaping the curriculum and mentoring young talents in the advertising sector, ensuring a steady pipeline of skilled communicators.
- Brand Strategy Consultant: At weareDaniel, he has successfully assisted numerous organizations in redefining their communication strategies, focusing on effective messaging that resonates with their target audiences.
- Strategic Lead for the People's Car Project (VW): His strategic direction in this high-profile project helped Volkswagen effectively engage with diverse markets in China, showcasing his ability to integrate strategic marketing with cultural understanding.
- Mentorship and Teaching: Koen has been a guest speaker on various platforms, including Thomas More University, where he shares his expertise in strategic planning and communication. His contributions to education reflect his commitment to empowering others.
- Leadership Roles: Over the years, Koen has held various leadership positions, including his role as Strategic Director at BBDO Belgium, where he contributed to driving successful campaigns that reinforced brand loyalty and consumer trust.
Koen’s work transcends mere communication; it is a harmonious blend of strategy, creativity, and an unwavering commitment to making a difference, both in business and in the lives of those he teaches and mentors.
In conclusion, Koen Thewissen stands out not just as a communications expert, but as a beacon of inspiration for many in the industry. His multifaceted background, ranging from legal expertise to strategic leadership in advertising agencies, equips him with a unique perspective on the dynamics of effective communication in an ever-evolving world. He embodies the spirit of continuous learning and collaboration, demonstrating that true success in communication comes from understanding that some things — like the power of effective communication — remain timeless. Koen endeavors to leverage this understanding to help others and to create a positive impact in the realm of communication – reminding us all to cherish beauty, kindness, and the values that truly matter.
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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.