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Robert Chang
Building and investing at the frontier in people and technology for impact.
Professional Background
Robert Chang is a dynamic and impactful professional whose career spans over multiple industries and sectors. Based in New York, he excels at building products, teams, and companies with the potential to create significant positive change. As the Head of Growth and Innovation at Inverted AI, he plays a key role in a leading generative AI venture specializing in safely advancing autonomous vehicles and smart cities—an endeavor that requires a deep understanding of human behavior.
In addition to his leadership role at Inverted AI, Robert founded Sidetime, a modern white-label Software as a Service (SaaS) platform that connects recognized professionals with individuals seeking real-world expertise, mentorship, and education. This innovative platform aims to strengthen communities by engaging both individuals and organizations in meaningful ways.
As an investor and advisor, Robert lends his expertise to early-stage technology companies, focusing on opportunities with a global impact. He is a partner at Bitspiration, where he invests in science and technology ventures in the Central and Eastern Europe region. Robert also leads Blue Titan Ventures, an early-stage venture capital syndicate that supports startups founded by alumni of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy.
Throughout his career, Robert has also been deeply involved in the film industry, producing award-winning independent films. His most notable work includes "Advantageous" (2015), which won a Sundance Jury Award and was acquired by Netflix, and "Made by China in America" (2014), a short documentary featured in the acclaimed series, “We The Economy.”
In addition to his entrepreneurial ventures, Robert has a commitment to social causes. He serves as a board director at Vibrant Emotional Health, which operates the 988 emergency helpline to connect people in crisis to essential mental health services. He also serves on the board of the Chinatown Health Clinic Foundation to support health equity for underserved populations in New York City, particularly within the Asian American community.
Education and Achievements
Robert’s educational background is a testament to his dedication to learning and personal development. He earned his MBA in Finance from Yale School of Management, one of the most prestigious business schools in the world. Prior to that, he completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Chicago, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology.
Robert’s early education laid a strong foundation for his success. He attended the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, a highly respected high school, where he honed his analytical and quantitative skills. Further bolstering his expertise in technology, he obtained a certificate in web development technologies (including Javascript, Ruby on Rails, and SQL) through Fullstack Academy. Additionally, he explored Mathematics at Johns Hopkins Center For Talented Youth, demonstrating a lifelong passion for gaining knowledge and staying current with emerging industry trends.
Robert’s achievements span a variety of domains— from launching groundbreaking technology startups to supporting strategic initiatives across numerous nonprofit organizations. His ability to identify and nurture growth opportunities has enabled him to facilitate impactful changes in diverse markets.
Achievements
Robert’s collaborative and visionary approach has made him a prominent figure in both the technology and film industries. His film, "Advantageous," received accolades at the Sundance Film Festival, highlighting his ability to blend creativity with strategic planning in the arts. With its compelling narrative and strong themes, the film resonated with audiences and critics alike, bolstering Robert’s reputation as an independent film producer.
As an investor, Robert has facilitated the growth of innovative startups in the biomedicine and technology sectors. His track record at Bitspiration and Blue Titan Ventures showcases his commitment to supporting enterprises that not only strive for financial success but also aim to make a positive societal impact.
Robert's leadership on various nonprofit boards demonstrates his ongoing commitment to community service and social responsibility. His role at Vibrant Emotional Health marks a significant commitment to mental health advocacy, further emphasizing his belief in the importance of connecting individuals in need with the resources necessary for recovery and wellness.
As he continues to bridge the gap between technology and humanitarian efforts, Robert Chang exemplifies the power that innovative thinking and leadership can have in shaping a better future across multiple sectors. His multifaceted career highlights his dedication to creating meaningful change through collaboration, investment, and storytelling in all his endeavors.
Highlights
As we close out our celebration and recognition of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month, I’m excited to lead this critical, collaborative initiative to better understand and serve the mental health needs of our diverse community.
In recent years, suicide has been the leading cause of death for AANHPI youth ages 10 through 24 in the United States, and AANHPI youth are the only racial or ethnic group in this age category with this first leading cause of death. AANHPI communities have the lowest help-seeking rate for mental health services of any racial or ethnic group, with only 25 percent of Asian adults with a mental illness receiving treatment in 2021.
If you haven’t heard from me yet, please feel free to reach out as I’ll be engaging with many of you over the months ahead as we work together on community-based research, education, and outreach.
I'm excited to share that I've joined TenSky Entertainment as President, collaborating with the legendary Charlie Wen to create a global media and entertainment studio built on shared values and vision. We are focused on inspiring hope for a new generation.
I continue to be committed to my other roles and responsibilities, and TenSky aligns with my mission to improve access and hope to everyone - to expertise and social capital as well as healthcare, mental health, and financial capital in communities everywhere.
For those of you who don't know Charlie yet - you're likely familiar with his groundbreaking work over the past three decades in character development and world building. Charlie is best known as the founding head of visual development for Marvel Studios, and the creator of Kratos for God of War. You can see more at: https://lnkd.in/gS5PskM
We look forward to sharing the TenSky multiverse with you soon!
#entertainment #media #animation #gaming #blockchain
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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
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- 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.