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Larry Epstein
Professor Emeritus, Drexel University/ Board Member & Veep at Association of Arts Administration Educators
Professional Background
Larry Epstein is a highly accomplished academic and executive, known for his extensive expertise in media and arts management as well as entrepreneurship. With a rich career spanning several decades, he has been a prominent figure in both the academic and practical realms of arts administration and media planning. As a Professor Emeritus at Drexel University, Larry has influenced countless students through his innovative teaching methods and commitment to the advancement of arts education.
Throughout his career, Larry has held various vital positions that reflect his commitment to both education and practical application. He has served as the Vice President of the Association of Arts Administration Educators, contributing his insights to shape the future of arts education. His leadership experience on the Board of Directors for several organizations, including the Cornell Media Guild and WVBR, highlights his dedication to fostering growth and innovation in media organizations. Larry's extensive background in finance has empowered him to successfully navigate and manage complex financial landscapes in multimedia settings, making him a valuable asset in any leadership role.
Education and Achievements
Larry Epstein's academic journey is distinguished. He began his educational pursuit at Riverdale Country School and later attended Cornell University, where he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research. His passion for business and management led him to pursue an MBA at Cornell’s S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management, which he completed in 1978. This top-tier business education laid a strong foundation for his subsequent roles in finance and administration within the arts and media sectors.
Larry’s career in the media and arts landscape is marked by significant achievements. He has held various senior executive positions where he not only managed financial operations but also played pivotal roles in strategic planning and administration. As the Chief Financial Officer at Princeton Video Image and other notable companies such as Primestar Partners, LP and PVI, he was instrumental in shaping financial strategies that supported innovative media projects. His ability to combine financial prudence with creative arts management has won him respect across the industry.
Key Roles and Contributions
As a faculty member at Drexel University, Larry has spent a considerable part of his career dedicated to teaching and mentoring students. He has held several leadership positions, including Department Chair of Arts & Entertainment Enterprise at the Westphal College of Media Arts & Design, where he fostered a nurturing environment for aspiring media professionals. His dedication to education also extended to his role as Assistant Dean, where he oversaw several academic and administrative functions, ensuring the college's programs remained relevant to industry standards.
In addition to his teaching responsibilities, Larry served as the Director of Special Projects, a role that elevated the creative outreach and engagement initiatives of Drexel’s College of Media Arts. His insight into both theoretical aspects of arts management and practical industry experience enables his students to benefit from a unique learning experience.
Larry has left an indelible mark on the organizations he has been part of. His tenure at CBS News, where he was responsible for finance and business affairs, showcased his ability to integrate complex financial operations within high-pressure media environments. His earlier role as Marketing Assistant at Seagram helped establish a solid footing in the business sector before he transitioned into the media landscape, bringing a well-rounded perspective to the arts administration field.
Professional Involvement and Networking
Beyond his professional and academic commitments, Larry has actively participated in various organizations that contribute to the advancement of arts and media education. His role as Board Member for the Cornell Media Guild illustrated his commitment to supporting aspiring media professionals and ensuring they receive the education and opportunities necessary to thrive in an evolving industry.
His leadership within the Association of Arts Administration Educators has allowed him to collaborate with other thought leaders in the field, driving conversations about the future of arts administration education. By engaging with fellow educators and industry practitioners, he has played a vital role in reshaping arts education to better prepare students for the challenges of the media and arts landscape.
Summary of Skill Set
Larry Epstein's diverse skill set encompasses a range of expertise, including financial management, educational leadership, strategic planning, and a keen understanding of media dynamics. His historical experience with finance in highly competitive environments has made him a strong advocate for integrating financial literacy within the arts curriculum, equipping students to make informed decisions in their careers. As he continues to share his vast knowledge with future generations, his legacy in arts management and media education solidifies his position as a leading figure in the field.
Larry’s journey reflects a lifelong commitment to excellence in education and a passion for fostering innovation in arts and media management, ensuring that both emerging talents and established professionals can thrive in their careers. His contributions resonate within the halls of academia and across various media organizations, making him a respected leader in his field. Larry Epstein continues to inspire and influence the next generation of arts management professionals, preparing them for successful futures in an ever-changing industry.
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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.
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.