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Richard Perrott
CoFounder // COO at ThreeFlow
Richard Perrott is the COO and Co-Founder of ThreeFlow, a Benefits Placement System startup based in Chicago.123 He has over 18 years of experience in the employee benefits insurance industry.1
Professional Background
Career Highlights::
- Co-founded ThreeFlow in January 2015, originally launched as WatchTower4
- Previously a Sr. Employee Benefits Representative at Sun Life Financial (July 2005 - June 2014)2
- Member of 1871 and Catapult Chicago tech communities2
Education
Perrott graduated from Western Michigan University with a Bachelor's Degree in Sales & Business Marketing and Economics. He was also a Varsity Soccer player during his university years.2
Professional Role
At ThreeFlow, Perrott serves as the COO, working alongside CEO Ryan Sachtjen and other executives to develop a platform that simplifies the employee benefits insurance placement process.134 The company aims to connect brokers, carriers, and employers through a shared digital system, addressing inefficiencies in the benefits industry.3
Perrott's LinkedIn profile indicates he has 500+ professional connections and is located in Chicago, Illinois.2
Highlights
Will brokers invite more carriers to an RFP when they use tech?
We get this question every so often from carriers. On the surface it’s a reasonable fear — they’re concerned brokers will shotgun the market when tech can enable them to do so, but we’ve observed this not to be the case.
It helps that we aren’t a reverse auction, and never will be. The digital pipes we’re building enable the benefits industry to flow more smoothly and drive better outcomes for brokers, carriers, and employers alike.
What we’ve found is that broker behavior remains largely the same when tech is added. Those who prefer to manage their book of business with a small stable of carriers maintain that position. Those who prefer to send their RFPs to more can still operate that way, but (with data) both parties have a clear view of that reality.
By analyzing over 5,000 RFPs we’ve learned that the average number of carriers invited to an RFP is 6, and the optimal number to find savings for your client is 4.
More data in our blog below. Track it yourself and see what feels right for you.
When faced with a problem, we tend to add when subtracting might generate a better outcome.
ThreeFlow has a complex business.
We’re a 2-sided marketplace (brokers & carriers) transacting an intangible good (insurance) over the internet in service of a 3rd party (the employer). Our industry is antiquated, regulated, and highly seasonal. Plus, we have a multivariate utilization-based revenue model.
I often find myself looking at the ceiling trying to find simplicity on the other side of the complexity.
Lately, I’ve been leaning into the principle of subtraction by asking myself these questions:
𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐞? ⛔ -> Kids don’t learn how to ride a bike with training wheels anymore. The new method is to remove the pedals and lower the seat so they can touch the ground. By removing the pedals they learn how to balance first (the hard part).
I personally stopped scheduling invites for quick syncs with teammates. I leave them an audio file or recording instead. This usually prompts them to start doing the same.
𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐟𝐭?💡 -> Airports place baggage claims several minutes away from arrival gates to reduce the perceived waiting time of retrieving your bag. The more time you spend walking, the less time you perceive waiting.
Our customers told us they prefer not to build their full book of business out in our system up front. We built workflows to to shift this to the moment of renewal receipt or decision to go to RFP. This aligns better with their needs.
𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐮𝐫𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐞? ♻️ → Once shipping containers reach their end of life, they usually sit unused in ports. Architects and builders are now repurposing them to create versatile living and working spaces.
ThreeFlow rotated a few members from our Ops team to our Support team during busy season last year. Their knowledge of our product and processes transferred beautifully, and the model is serving as an exciting new way to provide extra support to our customers while providing new experiences for our team.
𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭? ❤️ Our brokers want the analysis that comes out of our system to look EXACTLY like their own branded client deliverables. It makes sense, but building this level of in-app customization would add endless complexity (and likely still fall short of the customer’s needs). We stopped trying to solve this within our product, and found a way to solve it through post-processing AFTER the analysis exported from our system. This gives the customer what they really want.
𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐞 𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐞𝐫?✌ ThreeFlow is on a quest to create a keyboardless quote submission experience for our carrier partners (no manual data entry). More news on this will drop in the next 30 days.
There’s always more to simplify. What questions do you use to cut the noise?
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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.