Suggestions
Michael Mezzatesta
content + community + growth for media & tech brands
Michael Mezzatesta is a seasoned professional specializing in helping media and b2c tech brands expand their reach organically. With a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) with Distinction in Economics from Stanford University, his expertise lies in content strategy, community building, and audience growth.
He excels in guiding early-stage digital media and social tech founders towards enhancing organic (unpaid) growth. Michael thrives on identifying effective strategies and establishing scalable operations to support them. He is particularly drawn to collaborating with companies focused on economic justice and social impact.
Throughout his career, Michael has collaborated with notable brands such as Clubhouse, The Mighty, Bunch.ai, Human, UnPlatforms, among others. His diverse roles have included serving as the VP, People at TubeScience, Director of Growth & Operations, Chief of Staff at The Mighty, and as a Business Analyst at McKinsey & Company.
Currently working as a Startup Growth & Ops Consultant under his self-employment, Michael Mezzatesta is committed to driving growth and efficiency in organizations through his extensive background and passion for impactful work.
Highlights
Why is it that more of us are going to therapy than ever, but our mental health keeps getting worse? LinkedIn influencers will tell you that you just need to take more control of your life: Exercise, meditate, be more confident, make more money…
But our mental health crisis is BIGGER than you. It’s societal. In fact, it’s a natural consequence of the way our economy is set up.
It turns out the mental health crisis is linked to rising INEQUALITY during the past few decades… during which the top 1% has accumulated more than 40% of total wealth in the USA (see video below for the data + charts).
According to research by epidemiologists at the University of York and The Equality Trust, countries with less inequality (e.g. Scandinavian countries) have lower rates of social and health issues… whereas more unequal countries (like the USA and Israel) have worse health, more violence, and worse pollution.
Another interesting finding from the research is that even rich people are better off in more equal societies, with benefits including reduced risk of being victims of violence and children that are less likely to take drugs.
The mental health crisis is a complex topic, and the solutions are complex. But from a socioeconomic design perspective, the answer is actually pretty simple: We need to shift to an economic model that prioritizes social wellbeing over endless wealth accumulation for the rich.
Of course, we should also exercise and take care of ourselves! But big systemic problems like this require systemic solutions.
It’s well past time to admit that.
Huge thanks to my friends at Wellbeing Economy Alliance - WEAll – including Amanda Janoo, Michael Weatherhead, Simon Ticehurst, Frances Rayner, and especially the wonderful Kate Petriw – for helping bring this video to life! And of course, thanks to WEAll ambassadors Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson for leading the research.
#mentalhealth #mentalillness #wellbeing #economics #wellbeingeconomy #equity
This is a big win: A new Canadian law has established major incentives for entrepreneurs to transition business ownership to employees. This is encouraging for a lot of reasons:
1️⃣ Employee ownership can help ensure the benefits of future economic growth are better distributed, going to workers and local communities – instead of just the traditional beneficiaries (entrepreneurs and shareholders).
2️⃣ Worker-owned businesses have proven benefits: Per the Jacobin Magazin article cited in the video below, they have “less wage inequality, greater job security, higher job satisfaction, stronger community ties, and greater resilience during economic downturns.” We like these things, right?
3️⃣ The timing is great: During the oncoming “silver tsunami” – a term used to describe the wave of small businesses that will be sold by Baby Boomers reaching retirement age – this policy will help ensure more businesses are sold to workers instead of private equity or wealthy individuals.
For all these reasons, employee ownership will play an important and timely role in the transition toward a more just and sustainable economy.
Props to Canada for taking the lead on this. Thanks in particular to Jon Shell for your advocacy and for leading the conversation here on LinkedIn, along with organizations like Social Capital Partners, Canadian Employee Ownership Coalition and Employee Ownership Canada.
Towards the end of my video, I also mention some encouraging and relevant work by KKR here in the USA, as covered by Lydia DePillis at The New York Times. That work is being led by Peter Stavros in partnership with Anna-Lisa Miller of Ownership Works (and previously at projectEQUITY).
I recently gave KKR a hard time for their disappointing carbon emissions reporting record, but we need to be able to celebrate the good work they’re doing, too ⚖️ and I believe their push for employee ownership is worth celebrating.
#employeeownership #workerownership #canada #silvertsunami #privateequity #KKR
PS: Thanks Tharun Sonti for alerting me to this news! 🙏
People also viewed
Related People
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.