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Laurie Ainley
Co-Founder & CTO at Poplar Studio
Professional Background
Laurie Ainley is a distinguished product and engineering leader with an impressive career spanning over 15 years, primarily concentrating in the video, augmented reality (AR), non-profit, and gaming industries. Her journey has been marked by a rich tapestry of experiences that showcase her immense talent for building innovative teams and products centered around technology-driven solutions.
In her current role as Co-Founder and CTO of Poplar Studio, Laurie is at the forefront of AR marketing and commerce. She leads a diverse team that periodically connects brands with a community of over 1,000 expert AR creators. Their collaborations include notable names like BBC, Fox, Disney, L'Oreal, Warner Brothers, King, Universal, Lego, Speedo, and Sony Music. Through Poplar, Laurie is not only enhancing marketing strategies but is also fostering creativity in the realm of augmented reality, highlighting her fascination and passion for this transformative technology.
Prior to her role at Poplar, Laurie played a pivotal role as the first employee at Rightster, which is now known as Brave Bison. Her impactful contributions helped the startup grow from infancy to a robust organization with over 250 employees spread across 13 locations. Under her watchful eye, Rightster made a significant leap forward, culminating in a successful IPO in November 2013 with a market capitalization of around £70 million.
Laurie's entrepreneurial spirit shines brightly through her founding of Donative, a forward-thinking charity fundraising platform that distinguished itself among 900 startups by being selected for the prestigious MassChallenge UK accelerator. This initiative speaks volumes of her commitment to leveraging technology for social good and empowering non-profit operations.
As a seasoned Product Director at Level Up Media, Laurie designed and developed multiple business-to-business products that opened new avenues for growth and innovation. In each of her roles, she has combined her technical prowess with strategic thinking, resulting in successful projects that drive real impact.
Education and Achievements
Laurie Ainley earned her BSc in Computer and Business Studies from the University of Warwick, a comprehensive program that provided her with a strong foundation in both technical and managerial domains. This dual focus has been instrumental in her ability to bridge the gap between technology and business.
Laurie's achievements are manifold. Besides her pivotal roles in various startups, she actively advises multiple emerging companies, providing guidance and insights drawn from her extensive experience. Furthermore, she is dedicated to mentorship, engaging with both kids and adults to inspire and teach coding as well as startup methodologies. Laurie also pursues personal projects like Charity Catalogue and Covers for Others, demonstrating her ongoing commitment to innovation and philanthropy.
Achievements
- Co-founded and currently leads Poplar Studio, connecting brands with AR experts, promoting creative AR solutions that impact the marketing landscape.
- Played an integral role in the growth and IPO of Rightster (now Brave Bison), significantly contributing to the media and content sector.
- Founded Donative, a charity fundraising platform recognized for its innovation and selected for the MassChallenge UK, showcasing her dedication to social impact through technology.
- Served as Product Director at Level Up Media, where she successfully designed vital B2B products and expanded the company's business portfolio.
- Actively mentors aspiring entrepreneurs and young tech enthusiasts, fostering the next generation of innovators.
- Engages in diverse side projects, including the Charity Catalogue, furthering her mission to leverage technology for good.
Laurie Ainley stands out as a leader not just because of her substantial accomplishments, but because of her passion for creating impactful technologies that elevate brands and support charitable causes. Her expertise in augmented reality, combined with her cross-disciplinary skills, positions her as a valuable asset in the fast-evolving tech landscape.
Highlights
I’m excited to introduce Scaper, our new product that makes creating compelling product video ads cheaper and quicker than via traditional means - and entirely virtually!
📈 With the rise of video advertising opportunities across retail media networks, digital out-of-home screens, social media etc., the need for video production at lower cost has never been greater. Simultaneously, the capabilities of browsers to handle 3D graphics and video content have been rapidly developing over the past few years.
📹 This led us to develop Scaper, a web platform that allows product videos to be generated in minutes, not months. By working from templates that combine 3D models with other customisable necessities such as text, images, audio and 360 backgrounds, it's possible to create short form videos in the browser by simply dragging and dropping.
🤔 But this is more profound than just a change in workflow. By switching to virtual rendering, an updated brand identity, a new range of products or entering a new international market no longer represents a major content headache. And as a web application, it brings with it the benefits of fundamentals such as rapid prototyping, iterative development, dynamic content and personalisation at scale - available from anywhere without any professional software or expertise needed.
From a technical perspective, the application would not be possible without three.js, React Three Fiber and a number of other incredible foundational open source technologies.
Sound interesting? Join the waiting list on the website to be first to get access. We’re offering a free trial for a package of videos to be produced for a small number of brands this month - so get in touch if you’d be interested in this or know someone who would.
My thanks to Laurence O'Brien and the many people who have helped scape (sic) the product up to this point Ethan Oliver David Ripert Fred Soneya Nigel Morris
We’ll be sharing more about the features over the coming weeks so make sure to follow Scaper to come along for the journey.
#innovation #digitalmarketing #sustainability #marketing #startup #3D #video #product #motiongraphics #advertising #retail #brands
Gaussian Splatting (what?) is a revolutionary new technology that we’re currently seeing some amazing demos of, but we were keen apply it to a real world use case to explore its potential.
Fortunately, living in London we didn’t have to travel far! We paid a visit to The British Museum and captured a handful of artefacts without any special lighting setups or display conditions (roughly 3-5 mins per capture).
We processed the images using Luma AI and Polycam, and then cleaned up the results in PlayCanvas’ very helpful Super Splat tool.
Using our own video editing tool, we added a 360 background of the museum, added descriptive text, 3D elements and a narrative track, allowing us to create a video portal (in multiple languages!) to improve visitors’ experience and help advertise exhibitions to the public - all for a fraction of the cost and effort that would usually be required to produce this kind of content.
Gaussian splats are particularly interesting because they combine the best of both worlds from photogrammetry and NeRFs - real time rendering with high realism.
If you’re interested in learning more or chatting about this, get in touch with us at Poplar Studio – Powering virtual commerce! Additional props to Jonathan Stephens for the excellent content on his YouTube channel and kudos to Laurence O'Brien for his many contributions.
#gaussiansplatting #photogrammetry #3D #pointcloud #3dmodelling #AR #VR #museums
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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.