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Mara Gerstein
CEO & Co-Founder
Professional Background
Mara Gerstein is a dynamic and innovative entrepreneur with over 20 years of extensive experience in numerous fields including digital marketing, experiential marketing, content development, and project management. Throughout her career, she has played pivotal roles in various organizations, contributing to their growth and success. Mara's diverse skill set is complemented by her in-depth knowledge of political digital advertising, where she has significantly impacted campaign strategies and outcomes through effective use of digital platforms.
In the recent phase of her career, Mara founded an AI technology startup, Loupe, which aims to revolutionize the way individuals access and utilize feedback from their peers and communities. With a focus on self-awareness and optimized performance, Loupe is poised to redefine personal development in both professional and personal contexts. Mara invites those interested in learning more about this innovative platform to visit www.askloupe.com and connect with her for a demo.
Education and Achievements
Mara's educational journey laid a strong foundation for her successful career. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in History from Brown University, a prestigious institution known for cultivating critical thinking and analytical skills. Following this, she pursued a Master of Arts in Media at The New School, where she honed her capabilities in communication and media strategy. Her academic background, combined with her formative education at Stuyvesant High School, has equipped her with a unique perspective and expertise that she brings into her professional endeavors.
Throughout her career, Mara has held various significant positions in different renowned organizations. As Co-Founder and CEO of Loupe Ventures, she took the initiative to harness her extensive knowledge and experience into an entrepreneurial venture. Her role as Executive Director at The People PAC showcased her leadership capabilities and commitment to advancing political causes through digital engagement. Additionally, her tenure as Senior Director of Digital Experience at TIAA-CREF highlighted her knack for enhancing user experiences and streamlining digital communications for clients.
Mara's previous experience also includes creative and strategic roles, such as Studio Director at Second Story Interactive Studios and Director of Interactive at SapientNitro. These positions allowed her to combine her creative talents with strategic planning to deliver impactful marketing solutions. Furthermore, her stints as Senior Project Manager at Punchcut, Senior Producer/Director at Antenna International/Discovery Communications, and Business Development Manager at Antenna Audio are testaments to her versatility and effectiveness in diverse settings.
Notable Achievements
Mara Gerstein's career is decorated with a series of impressive achievements that underline her expertise and commitment to excellence. Her work in digital marketing and project management has established her as a trusted leader in her field. Not only has she been instrumental in scaling new ventures, but her innovative approaches have often set new industry standards. By creating a startup focused on leveraging technology for personal development, Mara is addressing a critical need in the market for tools that foster continuous growth and improvement.
Her ability to blend the art of storytelling with strategic execution has made her a sought-after leader and collaborator. With her extensive network and a proven track record in both client management and organizational leadership, Mara continues to inspire others in the tech and marketing worlds alike.
Mara’s journey is a compelling case study in adaptation and growth, driven by an unwavering belief in the power of feedback for personal and professional development. She stands as an exemplary figure for those looking to make meaningful contributions in technology and marketing, paving the way for future innovators in the space.
Highlights
Last week I had the honor of presenting Loupe at #Converge2023 to a ballroom full of coaches and coaching leaders. While we didn’t set out to make a platform for coaches, Loupe turns out to be of great interest to the coaching industry. Here’s why:
Until now, coaches have had an inherently limited view of what happens outside the walls of their practice. When working with clients, they typically rely on “self report” — strength and personality assessments, outdated 360 tools that rely on up to 80 ( !!) quantitative questions, and the stories clients tell about behaviors, interactions, performance, dynamics. Sometimes there is initial or follow-up input from managers. There are few quantifiable ways to know if coaching has helped, and exactly what the impact has been.
In developing Loupe, we've spoken with dozens and dozens of coaches, and found them to be wise, passionate, and deeply committed to their clients. They also sense that yesterday’s tools are not cut out for the new world of work.
At Loupe, we created something new, based on the latest research, to facilitate the exchange of candid feedback data for growth. The result is a platform that helps coaches orient their engagements, empower their clients, and then follow up to see what’s working and what isn’t, so they can course correct, and measure impact. If you missed Converge and are wondering where the AI comes into all of this, at the moment, it’s primarily in the way that we identify and present feedback patterns drawn from each user’s qualitative data to ensure that every person on the platform comes away with totally personalized, actionable insights.
We are so excited to put Loupe into the hands of coaches and trainers who are dedicated to helping their clients achieve deeper self-awareness and chart an informed path for growth. If this is your mission, please reach out to us for a demo. 👋🏼
I had the privilege and honor of speaking alongside truly esteemed colleagues at the forefront of AI and coaching - Alex Pascal, PhD, Kelly Griffith, Dr. Nicky Terblanche (PhD) (with a H/T to Alex Haitoglou), with Dr. Woody Woodward, PhD, PCC giving a masterclass on the landscape of AI and coaching and brilliantly engaging the audience in thinking through and sharing our fears, hopes, and dreams for where AI tech can take us. Thank you for including me, and thank you, coaches, for being open to bringing Loupe, and with it, a new world of growth, development, and connection to your clients.
#feedbackloupe #selfawareness #selfdevelopment #professionaldevelopment #purpose
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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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