Suggestions
Olivia Cotes-James
Founder & CEO LUÜNA裸月- Forbes 30U30
Olivia Cotes-James is the Founder and CEO of LUÜNA naturals, a B Corp-certified social enterprise focused on advancing gender equality through natural period and symptom care products.3 Born in New Zealand in 1991 to a Hong Kong-born mother and British father, she grew up in the UK.4
Cotes-James founded LUÜNA in June 2019, driven by her personal experiences with menstrual health issues and a desire to provide safer, more sustainable period products.34 The company offers organic tampons, liners, and pads, as well as educational programs to destigmatize menstruation.13
Key achievements and recognitions for Olivia Cotes-James include:
- Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree in 202135
- Cartier Women's Initiative Fellow in 20233
- Regional Debating Champion in 20093
- International Public Speaking Champion in July 20103
Under her leadership, LUÜNA has grown to reach over 300,000 employees and students across the Asia-Pacific region with their products and educational programs.2 The company operates in multiple countries, including Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom.1
Highlights
The ‘likeability double standard’ and the Golden Globes.
Two nights ago comedian Joe Koy hosted the Golden Globes. His performance as host has divided the internet. But we're not here to critique his comedic efforts.
One moment from the night has stood out in post-event commentary, leading to criticism of Taylor Swift. Her wrongdoing? Sipping her champagne and looking unamused in response to a joke, about her, that she clearly didn't find funny.
While many have defended her (Swifties and others alike), she is facing substantial backlash, with derogatory comments online labelling her 'a bitch' and worse, alongside even well-known public figures, like hosts of The View, criticizing her for not smiling (ok, I've never watched The View so maybe this take is true to their usual form - I don't know).
Simply the 'price of fame,' a price all actors must pay, some might argue. Yet when we look at other moments from the night, we see a clear double standard emerge that proves all actors are not subject to the same expectations.
For example, I haven't seen one criticism levelled at Ryan Gosling who, as one review of the night pointed out 'didn’t even attempt niceties, staring point-blankly at Koy' in response to the jokes about the Barbie Movie, in which Gosling acted.
Regardless of whether you think Swift and Gosling are well within their rights not to laugh (I’m in this corner, for what it’s worth), or you think they should have a been ‘good sports’ and at least smiled along, the issue here is the pervasive double standard.
This double standard has been extensively studied, especially in the workplace. Known as 'tightrope bias', it describes the narrow line women must walk between being assertive for respect and amiable for likability – a balance not demanded of men. Naz Beheshti explored this in 2019 Forbes piece (linked in comments) that is still relevant today:
"When asked to evaluate the hypothetical onboarding of a new manager, volunteers evaluated a high-powered woman as more unlikable than a man with identical qualities and background. Interestingly, those biases are held by both men and women...perceptions of women pit likability and competence against one another as if they were mutually exclusive."
She goes on to state that this "can create a challenging and unfair dynamic where women may face more scrutiny and backlash for their communication style than their male counterparts."
This bias is evident in the Golden Globes commentary. Swift is criticized for not displaying a warm, amiable response to jokes she didn't enjoy, while Gosling's similar reaction has been totally overlooked.
In moments like this, it's a good reminder to think about how we might personally react differently to men and women in similar situations, be it celebrities, managers, colleagues or acquaintances?
And on top of that, let's please stop telling women to smile. I promise you, it still happens.
This isn't just dull; it's dangerous.
Yet another instance of biased media reporting, where a company's hurdles are attributed to a woman.
Reese Witherspoon built a billion-dollar business and then sold it to one of the world's leading investors. Though the sale was in 2021, in a number of recent articles, headlines ascribe current business challenges to the woman behind its inception.
Why is this important to call out?
Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, female founders persistently face doubts about their ability to lead successful ventures. This sentiment manifests as biases throughout the business world, including - but not limited to - vastly unequal funding opportunities.
So why not a more accurate headline? "Two years post-acquisition, Blackstone strategies fail to advance the company Reese Witherspoon founded."
OR
"Amidst a challenging economic environment and media landscape, Blackstone plans for Reese Witherspoon-founded company meet roadblocks.'
Once such gender-biased media narratives are seen, they're hard to un-see.
I wrote about this last year, after The New York Times published an article that read, "The Sunsetting of the Girlboss Is Nearly Complete: Emily Weiss, the founder of Glossier, will no longer be the beauty company’s chief executive."
Due to caption limitations on LinkedIn, let's just sidestep the use of the term 'Girlboss' on this occasion.
Emily Weiss, who founded a multi-million-dollar beauty empire, helmed it as CEO for nearly a decade. Positioning a founder-CEO stepping down after this duration as a death knell for female leadership, rather than totally normal, is not just wildly inaccurate, but in this context, unveils the deeply-rooted gender biases in how female entrepreneurs are portrayed in the media.
There are very real world consequences of these biases, so let's absolutely call them out when we see them.
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.