Suggestions
Ryan Freed
Father / Husband / Entrepreneur / Business Consultant / E-commerce / Marketing / Finance
Professional Background
Ryan Freed is a dynamic early-stage entrepreneur with a robust track record of initiating and successfully scaling businesses since the tender age of 12. His experience spans a multitude of sectors including Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG), healthcare, agtech, utilities and infrastructure, fitness and wellness, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), education, and property technology (proptech). With a laser focus on social impact, Ryan adeptly navigates the complex landscape of business, helping companies find their product-market fit by enhancing their value propositions, optimizing sales processes, and constructing effective sales teams.
Driven by a mission to foster entrepreneurship, Ryan specializes in performance coaching, particularly for first-time founders. He understands the emotional intricacies of launching a business, and his approach offers not just strategic guidance but also personal support. His passion lies in empowering entrepreneurs to uncover what they truly want from their lives and how those insights can translate into their business endeavors. Through shared experiences and effective advising, he strives to fast-track their sales and fundraising processes while connecting them to vital networks.
Ryan has also held several prominent roles, contributing to his vast expertise. He was the Owner and President of Shop Conscious Beauty, where he cultivated an understanding of the beauty industry while advocating for socially responsible practices. He served as an Investor at Proximity and the Owner and President of LivingEarthBeauty.com, both experiences emphasizing his commitment to sustainability and conscious consumerism. As a Senior Consultant at Equity Methods, Ryan honed his analytical skills, ensuring robust financial planning and investment management strategies.
Education and Achievements
Ryan's educational foundation is rooted in his Bachelor of Science degree in Finance, Entrepreneurship, and International Business from the esteemed W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. This rigorous academic background provided him with the necessary tools to navigate various business environments and effectively understand international markets.
Alongside his educational accomplishments, Ryan's professional journey is marked by numerous partnerships and leadership roles. As a Partner at Abrams, he utilized his entrepreneurship knowledge to facilitate business growth and innovation. Further, he also functioned as a Supervisor at Chipeta Sun Lodge and Suites LLLP, where he acquired invaluable experience in customer service and operations management, further broadening his business acumen.
Achievements
Ryan is deeply passionate about health and wellness, often integrating outdoor activities into his lifestyle to enhance his mental and physical well-being. His commitment to longevity and holistic health reflects a broader philosophy that underpins his entrepreneurial spirit. Ryan believes that a healthy lifestyle not only leads to individual fulfillment but also translates into better business performance, creating a virtuous cycle that benefits both the entrepreneur and their ventures.
In his role as a mentor, Ryan emphasizes the importance of personal growth alongside professional development, understanding that the two are intrinsically linked. He embodies the belief that the journey of entrepreneurship is as crucial as the destination, and he brings this philosophy to life by enabling other aspiring entrepreneurs to navigate their unique challenges with confidence.
Throughout his career, Ryan Freed has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to fostering innovation and supporting emerging leaders in their entrepreneurial journeys. With deep expertise in a range of industries and a profound understanding of the entrepreneurial ethos, Ryan continues to make a significant impact in the startup ecosystem.
Highlights
Check out afterlife in The NY Times to learn a bit about our process of getting from picking up food waste to using fungi/mushrooms to decompose that waste. Excited for our growth coming now :)
https://lnkd.in/eFeDW_YQ
Reality vs. perception of early stage fundraising (pre-seed and seed)
I was at a pitch event last night and a couple pitches stood out to me. First slides were fancy logos of big name investors, advisors, universities, and former company pedigree. No where in the remainder of the pitch did I see anything about GTM/customer traction but they raised money to build their dream. This doesn't mean they didn't have customer traction. They were certainly good story tellers... although I would argue you need customer traction in that story.
The scenario above is a rare luxury and glorified version of most founders stories. Pre-seed money with a product in hand and the ability to pay yourself a salary at the onset is an incredible luxury for a founder to have.
Most founders I see are hustling to build a company first. They have traction, customers, a product, operations set up and usually a skeleton team. They have been at it for years.
The day-day is rough and taking the advice "go all in on fundraising is incredibly difficult" because you are operating a business. However if you want growth capital you do need to go all in on fundraising. This advice rings in my head from Caren Maio - one of my first mentors - and we very poorly executed on this b/c we were running a small business.
So how do you pull yourself out to fundraise:
-Get the help you need. Hire if you can afford to (although most can't at this stage) so figure out how to incentivize people in other ways or pick a few balls you can afford to drop. Alain Merville has done an incredible job at this. -some times this means slightly messy cap tables. But you have to do what you have to do at this stage and you won't mess it up enough to not attract capital.
-ZOOM OUT! Become a story teller like the companies I referred to above. Your business is not your day-day business. It is the vision and the passion of why you are building this. Tell this story and include your customer traction and business building skills as a point to why you can execute but it is not your story. Get help if you cant zoom out.
-Don't wait too long to make the move. Investors will take signals that you've been at it for too long and can't scale if you are plateauing... this is often wrong in my opinion and a lot of opportunities are missed b/c of this. I see so many founders who started 7 yrs ago and tell investors they actually started 3 yrs ago to show growth trajectory... you gotta do what you gotta do
-Run fundraising like a sales process. Build a database or list of investors. There are a lot of softwares out there. Work your network hard, work at it every day, attend events, and don't be afraid to send cold emails. They will most likely be ignored but its marketing. Regularly update investors so they can track your progress. Start this as early as possible. Build a network of founder friends. We all like to help each other :)
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.