Suggestions
Minal Hajratwala
Founder & guiding coach, Unicorn Authors Club 🦄 Changemaker Authors Cohort 🦄 Helping authors to change the narrative 🦄 Want to finish your book in a supportive, pro-BIPOC community? Join us!
Minal Hajratwala: A Trailblazer in Writing and Coaching
Minal Hajratwala is an accomplished author, writing coach, and founder of the Unicorn Authors Club, a unique sanctuary designed specifically for authors of color and their allies. With over 25 years of experience in the literary realm, Minal has dedicated her career to supporting writers in overcoming obstacles and crafting their narratives. Her deep understanding of the challenges faced by marginalized writers, combined with her extensive knowledge in professional editing and writing coaching, has made her a prominent figure in the writing community.
Minal’s passion for writing and editing has driven her to work with hundreds of writers across various backgrounds. She possesses a remarkable ability to nurture talent and foster creativity, ensuring that every writer's voice is heard and celebrated. The Unicorn Authors Club, which Minal founded, embodies her commitment to creating a supportive and inclusive environment for writers who often find themselves navigating a landscape filled with biases and inequities. This magical sanctuary not only offers resources and educational opportunities but also fosters a sense of community among authors seeking to finish their much-needed works.
Professional Background: A Commitment to Education and Mentorship
Minal’s professional journey has been marked by an impressive array of roles that underline her expertise and dedication to the literary arts. She has served as a board member at Hedgebrook, an organization that champions women's voices in literature, bringing the importance of representation to the forefront of her work. Additionally, Minal's experience as the founder and writing coach at Write Like A Unicorn showcases her entrepreneurial spirit, as she equipped writers with the tools they need to succeed in their creative pursuits.
Her editorial prowess is evidenced by her past role as editor-at-large for Zócalo Public Square, where she contributed to in-depth discussions on civic affairs and culture, further enriching her insights into the complexities of storytelling. Minal's literary influence expanded during her tenure as a poet and co-founder of The (Great) Indian Poetry Collective, where she developed a collective voice for Indian poets.
Minal's experience as a senior associate at Interweave Consulting Pvt Ltd allowed her to merge her skills in consulting with her passion for storytelling, while her faculty position at the Voices of Our Nations Writing Workshop at UC-Berkeley enabled her to provide mentorship to up-and-coming writers in a prestigious academic setting.
Having been a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar and an author of 'Leaving India: My Family's Journey from Five Villages to Five Continents', Minal’s literary works often reflect her personal journey and commitment to exploring cultural narratives.
Her diverse roll is also highlighted by her time as interim editor of Turning Wheel magazine at the Buddhist Peace Fellowship and as a patient educator at Project Prepare.
Minal’s early career was marked by her contributions to the San Jose Mercury News, where she served in various capacities including perspective editor, reader representative, reporter, and copy editor. This extensive grounding in journalism has fortified her comprehensive understanding of narrative construction and the power of words.
Education and Achievements: A Foundation of Knowledge
Minal's educational background is as impressive as her professional journey. She began her academic pursuits at Plymouth-Canton High School before moving on to Stanford University, where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Communication. This foundational knowledge in communication laid the groundwork for her future endeavors in writing and editing.
Further honing her skills, Minal participated in the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism as a fellow, where she deepened her understanding of arts journalism and its role in society. This prestigious fellowship enriched her perspective, allowing her to bridge the gap between writing quality and journalistic integrity.
Notable Achievements: Leaving a Mark in the World of Literature
Minal Hajratwala's contributions to literature and writing education are profound. She has authored significant works, including 'Leaving India: My Family's Journey from Five Villages to Five Continents,' a powerful narrative that resonates with many readers and encapsulates her family's cultural heritage.
Through initiatives like the Unicorn Authors Club, Minal has created a space for authors of color to thrive and transform their writing journeys into successful realities. Her coaching philosophy revolves around nurturing each writer's unique voice while cultivating their skills in a supportive environment.
Minal’s accolades are not merely derived from her literary accomplishments but also from her unwavering commitment to advocacy for
Highlights
Sometimes you're just in the right place at the right time, wearing the right outfit.
I admire Stormy Daniels, not just for speaking out fearlessly despite attempts to shame and silence her, but also because from what I can tell, she's quite a savvy businesswoman. Porn stars and other sex workers don't get enough credit for what they do entrepreneurially, economically, and strategically. Love the honesty about the exchange, the power dynamics, and the hustle.
🗓️ This is day 3/30 of the #JustSayTheThingsChallenge, where the goal is simple: Share what's on your mind for 30 days. No overthinking. No complex strategy. Just have fun! Feel free to use the hashtag to start your own 30 days at any time and we can cheer each other on!
🖥 TECH friends: Who wants to consider my awesome super smart niece for a summer internship? She's a Barnard/Columbia junior who's on the Dean's List, studying computer science, with an aptitude for Neural Network/AI programming. I don't understand most of her résumé 🤣 but happy to share it with you. Languages: Python (NumPy, Pandas, Matplotlib), JavaScript (React, WebAudio API), Java, C/C++, Haskell. She has retail job experience and tutors other CS students in the campus Computational Science Center. Open to any location. This would be her first summer of corporate work, and I'd love for her to have a great experience!
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.