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Natasha Prasad
COO, Venture Investor
Natasha Prasad is the Chief Operating Officer at TURN - REUSE, a company focused on reusable systems and the circular economy.12 She is a tech entrepreneur, executive, investor, and advisor with over 17 years of experience in building and scaling businesses.1
Professional Background
Natasha's career spans various roles in the technology and sustainability sectors:
- Current Role: Chief Operating Officer at TURN - REUSE, based in the San Francisco Bay Area23
- Experience: Over 17 years in building and scaling businesses1
- Education: Harvard Business School graduate1
Expertise and Interests
Natasha's professional profile suggests a strong focus on:
- Technology entrepreneurship
- Sustainable business practices
- Circular economy initiatives
- Scaling startups
Recent Activities
As of August 27, 2024, Natasha shared insights on startup hiring and scaling, drawing from her personal experience and encounters in the industry.4 This indicates her active involvement in the startup ecosystem and her willingness to share knowledge with others in the field.
Company Overview
TURN - REUSE, where Natasha serves as COO, appears to be a company dedicated to developing reusable systems for the circular economy.56 The company is likely involved in creating sustainable solutions to reduce waste and promote reusability in various sectors.
Natasha Prasad's role as Chief Operating Officer at TURN - REUSE, combined with her extensive experience in the tech industry, positions her as a key figure in the intersection of technology and sustainability.
Highlights
You’ve achieved product market fit, demonstrated repeatability, scaled to impressive revenue, and received accolades along the way. Congratulations! There's likely a line around the block to work at your company.
But now, how do you figure out who to hire? 🤔
And how do you ensure that the people joining your rocket ship are doing so for the right reasons?
Over the last two weeks, I’ve discussed the unique challenges of hiring at the earlier stages of your startup journey. Today, we’ll dive into finding the right talent as your startup matures.
As your company becomes more established, there are major shifts in how you're perceived by talent, and how your hiring processes need to evolve.
The generalists and athletes, who were eager to wear multiple hats and do whatever it takes, are ready for reinforcements. The cavalry, at this time, consists of specialists and sharpshooters—deep domain experts who have seen scale.
The action-oriented doers now make way for strategists and thinkers who can deftly toggle between detail-oriented planning and high-precision execution.
At this stage, you’ll also encounter more pragmatists than believers. Later-stage startups attract high-quality talent eager to apply their expertise to an “established brand and high-growth company that won’t go out of business”™. While this influx of talent is promising, it also means you'll need to navigate the potential pitfalls of attracting mercenaries and opportunists who may be more motivated by personal gain than by your company's mission.
If you're contemplating a new role, take time to reflect on what excites you, what truly matters, and the kind of environment you thrive in. This self-awareness will help you find the right fit, and avoid the dreaded talent-stage mismatch.
Having been a founder, early-stage, and late-stage startup executive, I've navigated these challenges from both sides of the table.
Here’s Part III of my "Archetypes and Stereotypes" framework:
COMPANY STAGE: Series C and D WHO: Strategists and Specialists ✳️ Excited to: Apply deep expertise and build world-class capabilities ✳️ Unfazed by: Navigating multi-layered orgs and complexity ✳️ Less concerned about: What other departments are doing ✳️ Inspired by: The pursuit of excellence ✳️ Things you won't hear them say: We’ll figure it out as we go! ✳️ Ideal work culture: Clear structure and expectations ✳️ Keen to know: The long term vision and detailed goals and objectives ✳️ Excel at: Strategy, planning and executing on goals with high precision ✳️ May describe themselves as: Strategists, analytical, experts ✳️ Won’t describe themselves as: Generalists and athletes ✳️ Mindset: "Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat" ✳️ Strong desire to: Leverage their unique skills for a lasting impact
I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences—what has worked or not worked for you? Share your insights in the comments below! 👇🏽
#StartupHiring #ScalingStartups #SeriesC #SeriesD
You've navigated the chaotic early stages of company-building: you've found product-market fit, achieved repeatability, and have some revenue to show for it. Now, you're ready to pour gas on the fire. But how do you scale your small team to tackle this next phase of growth? 🤔
Last week, I shared insights on hiring at the Seed and Pre-Seed stages. Today, let's dive into the challenge of bringing in the right talent at Series A and B.
At this stage, hiring can be tricky as you search for "player-coaches"—seasoned, low-ego leaders who can build a department while still operating effectively as a team of one. You still need action-oriented builders, but they should also be “unbuilders” – comfortable critiquing and changing existing (often beloved) processes, ways of work, and teams.
Additionally, it might be time to bring in specialists who can go deep on key areas and set new standards of excellence.
So, how do you identify this type of talent?
And if you are looking for your next role, how do you know which stage is right for you?
Reflecting on what excites you, what matters (and doesn’t) and what kind of environment you thrive in will help you hone in on the right fit for you – and avoid the dreaded talent-stage mismatch.
I've been a founder, early-stage, and late-stage startup executive, and navigated these questions from both sides of the table.
Here’s Part II of my "Archetypes and Stereotypes" framework for hiring during this critical growth phase:
COMPANY STAGE: Series A and B WHO: Player-Coaches, "Unbuilders" and Specialists ✳️ Excited to: Take what’s working and prepare it for scale; fix or jettison what’s broken ✳️ Unfazed by: Chaos and the constant change that comes with scaling ✳️ Less concerned about: Departure from tradition ✳️ Inspired by: Going from good to great ✳️ You won’t hear them say: "Why doesn’t that already exist?" ✳️ Ideal work culture: High-autonomy environments that value strategic thinking alongside execution ✳️ Keen to know: The history behind current processes and structures—how and why things were set up the way they were ✳️ Excel at: Building for scale, creating order from chaos, bringing rigor and rhythm ✳️ They might describe themselves as: Process-builders, problem-solvers, and culture-shapers ✳️ They won’t describe themselves as: Rigid, or resistant to change ✳️ Loyal to: The company’s mission and long-term vision ✳️ Mindset: "Leave things better than you found them" ✳️ Strong desire to: Make things better, faster, more efficient
Are you at the Series A or B stage and grappling with these hiring challenges? Or are you a candidate considering a role at this phase?
I’d love to hear your experiences—what has worked or not worked for you? Share your thoughts in the comments! 👇🏽
And stay tuned for Part III, where we’ll explore hiring at the later stages of startup growth ➡
#startuphiring #hiringchallenges #playercoach #unbuilders
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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.