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Paul Allen
Founder & Executive Chairman at Embark
Paul Allen, a member of YPO (Young Presidents' Organization), is a seasoned entrepreneur and executive based in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. He is the Founder and Executive Chairman of Embark, a finance and accounting advisory firm that has gained recognition for its innovative approach and rapid growth, consistently appearing on the INC 5000 list for multiple years.1
Professional Background
Education and Early Career::
- Paul Allen holds a degree in finance from Oregon State University and a Master's from the University of Virginia.
- He began his career as a Financial Auditor with Ernst & Young before transitioning into recruitment at Robert Half International, where he specialized in finance and accounting roles for over five years.1
Entrepreneurial Ventures::
- In 2008, he founded Elevate, an organization aimed at helping former college and professional athletes leverage their skills to positively impact youth through training programs. However, after a brief run, Elevate was shut down to refocus his efforts on professional services.1
- In 2010, he launched Embark, which focuses on various financial services including capital market transactions, financial consulting, mergers and acquisitions support, and technical accounting assistance. Under his leadership, Embark has become an award-winning firm recognized for its workplace culture and performance.1
YPO Membership
Paul has been a member of YPO since June 2022. His involvement in this organization reflects his commitment to leadership development and networking with other executives who share similar goals.1
Key Skills and Interests
Allen describes himself as a "disruptor" and "problem solver," emphasizing his passion for building relationships within the business community. His diverse experience across different sectors enables him to approach challenges with a unique perspective.1
In summary, Paul Allen is an accomplished leader in the finance sector with a strong focus on innovation and community impact through his work at Embark and his engagement with YPO.
Highlights
Today the company I founded, Embark, ran a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal declaring that consulting is dead.
Embark IS a consulting firm, so why would we say that?
Here’s the story behind the ad:
Consulting is a $300 billion dollar industry that employs over 5 million people. But it’s an industry in desperate need of change. It has become the poster child for bad work culture. Consulting meme accounts on Instagram have millions of followers.
Before founding Embark, I spent five years recruiting for large consulting firms. I personally talked to thousands of consultants and what I witnessed was…
Bright young minds who were miserable in their careers.
I saw an opportunity. So, in 2010 I set out to create a different type of consulting firm based on a simple but radical idea:
That “happy” is good for business.
I wanted to create a next-gen firm where the health and happiness of our employees was the top priority, not just lip service. My thinking was that happy consultants would do better work, which would make for happy clients, fueling the growth of the business.
I called the company Embark because I knew it was the beginning of a long, difficult journey.
Everyone said I was crazy—that it wouldn’t work. And at first they were right. It took five years to reach just $1 million in revenue. But we learned and iterated on our formula.
Then something extraordinary happened…
Sales doubled. And doubled again. And again, and again.
Last year, Embark’s revenue topped $149 million and the company continues to outpace competitors.
When we measured our Net Promoter Score, it came in at 87 — 70% higher than the industry average and among the best companies in ANY industry.
It turns out that we were right—happy IS good for business!
In an industry that is a sea of sameness—where all of the firms look, act, and talk the same—Embark is an outlier.
We’re not normal, we’re FANATICAL. Fanatical about keeping our people happy so that they can deliver fanatical service to our clients.
Now it’s time to tell the world about Embark.
Despite being one of the fastest growing firms in our industry, Embark is a relatively unknown company. That needs to change, and it starts today.
Our goal is nothing less than to create the most iconic brand in our industry. We’re building the brand around our core belief that happy is good for business.
The new Embark brand is optimistic, bright, and happy—a breath of fresh air in a tired industry that hasn’t changed in 100 years.
This brings us back to the question:
Why would a consulting firm run an ad that says “consulting is dead”?
The consulting industry isn’t going anywhere—it’s critical to global business. But the OLD WAY of consulting IS dead.
Embark is ushering in a NEW ERA of consulting, where people do their best work because they’re happy.
Embark—the crazy idea I had 14 years ago—is living proof that…
Happy works.
And we’re just getting started.
#RIPconsulting #happyworks
It's really humbling to meet people like Barry and our other Board members that are unbelievably accomplished but aren't ego-tists. His and our other members willingness to jump in and help and get excited about Embark's future is really cool to see and experience.
We're going to continue to press against the narrative that profit is mutually exclusive to employee flourishing. We want our amazing humans to be happy and to serve clients in a way that makes them FEEL happy as well. It sounds corny or old school or whatever, but it's working in a LEGIT way and I couldn't be more thankful to be a part of the Embark team!
S&H
https://lnkd.in/gA4VBw3i
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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.
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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.
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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.
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