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Morgan Blake
@ShearlingCap, Ex-Etsy Payments & Corp Dev
Morgan Blake is the Director at Shearling Cap, a company based in the United Kingdom.23 His full name is Morgan Charles Deming Blake, and he was born in April 1982.34 Morgan currently holds the position of Chief Executive at Shearling Cap Ltd.45
Morgan Blake has previous experience working at oneshot.earth and Etsy.2 He is also listed as a Person with Significant Control (PSC) in the company.5 His correspondence address is listed as 46 Stokenchurch Street, London, England, SW6 3TR.4
According to his LinkedIn profile, Morgan Blake is involved in building a home for marketplaces and communities at Shearling Cap, and he previously held a position as Head of Payments.1 He also writes articles on making marketing services work effectively.1
It's worth noting that Morgan Blake is an American citizen who currently lives in England.5
Highlights
How can marketplaces turn IP takedown requests from a cost center to a profit center? Etsy removed 1.2M listings in 2023 due to IP infringement takedown requests, but back in 2015 it was a small but burgeoning issue. Enter the “licensing in” program:
The issue: Removing blatant infringing and non-special items is a no brainer. But what to do with the myriad of genuinely creative and unique creations that sellers came up with and want to sell, but are close enough to existing IP that they are taken down?
The thesis: Create a program for brands to easily license IP to sellers, which would empower sellers, boosts recognizable inventory, and ultimately drive GMV. Then pay a portion to the brand (which the seller funded), and everyone wins. Easy! OK, not so easy.
The test: We partnered with Lionsgate to officially license items inspired by The Divergent Series: Insurgent. We signed up some sellers, got their merchandise approved by Lionsgate, and launched a landing page. The test required no engineering, but lots of manual work on the back-end to make it work, which is fine for a pilot.
What happened? We launched, and we sold some items, but just not nearly enough to convincingly show that there was a major opportunity. In reality, this was a failure because of a couple major structural issues…
(1) brands are very strict about what can be licensed, not just to protect IP, but to protect the mega deals they already have in place for t-shirts, hats, etc. So they approved a small number of items. In an Etsy world where everything was handmade and typically low-volume, this was tough.
(2) Third-party brands weren’t part of the Etsy vision. Yes, creative renditions of various aspects of pop culture are actually quite prevalent on Etsy. But will Etsy ever be a place that openly advertises a third-party brand as a part of its product offering? Not really, because it’s actually a place for consumers to find new, independent brands and makers, rather than engage with existing ones.
So it didn’t work at Etsy, but I suspect this type of program could still work for someone! Read more about the Lionsgate partnership with the original press release:
How can a marketplace with a 10-20% take-rate compete with advertising spend of a retailer boasting 50%+ gross margin? This was the challenge I aimed to tackle at Etsy when I first proposed Offsite Ads back in 2012. Fast forward to 2023, and the impact has been huge, with Offsite Ads driving over $150M in marketing spend and over $1B of GMS for Etsy.
The original concept aimed at tapping into the marketing budgets of sellers and passing straight through to platforms like Google and Facebook. This would enable Etsy to advertise as if it had higher margins, and allow sellers to drive additional sales with little/no effort and at the efficiency/effectiveness of a big brand like Etsy.
The journey from idea to implementation, however, was no easy feat. Product spent 4 years iterating before finding the optimal solution. The first iteration launched in 2016 as an optional “Google Ads” tool for sellers to set a budget for off-site Google Shopping ads (then Google Product Listing Ads).
Complications would inevitably arise from a product like this: How do you run seller campaigns in parallel with marketplace-funded campaigns? What happens if a seller offsite ad campaign ends with the buyer purchasing someone else’s product? How do you get adoption to reach a scale that has material impact?
In 2019 Offsite Ads was re-launched as a combined tool with onsite “Promoted Listing” ads with a single interface called “Etsy Ads”. This brought it more to the forefront. But the pivotal moment came in 2020 when Offsite Ads transitioned into a standalone feature with automatic enablement, thus revolutionizing its impact. Despite some seller reluctance, it solved many of the challenges previously faced by switching to a % fee (rather than a fixed budget), by only charging sellers if the buyer purchased THEIR product, and by opting sellers into the program by default.
The results speak for themselves, even if I’m sure the team will continue to iterate and improve: $1B-$1.3B of GMS from >$150M of performance marketing spend in 2023 alone.
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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.
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Mesh offers several powerful features including:
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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.
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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.