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Tom Hale
CEO at ŌURA, makers of the Oura Ring
Tom Hale is the Chief Executive Officer of ŌURA, a company renowned for its innovative smart ring that monitors various health metrics. He has been in this role since March 2022 and also serves as a member of the board of directors at ŌURA. Under his leadership, the company has focused on enhancing health and wellness through technology, aiming to make health a daily practice for its users globally.12
Background and Career
Tom Hale has over 30 years of experience in the technology and consumer product sectors. Before joining ŌURA, he was the President of Momentive (formerly SurveyMonkey), where he played a crucial role in expanding the company's product offerings and guiding it through a significant acquisition process.12 Prior to that, he served as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Product Officer at HomeAway (now part of Vrbo), where he was instrumental in the company's acquisition by Expedia Group in 2015.24
Hale's early career included significant positions at Adobe Systems and Macromedia, where he contributed to product management and marketing strategies.4 He holds a Bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and is proficient in both English and French.4
Personal Journey with ŌURA
Hale's connection to ŌURA began personally; during a challenging period in his life marked by stress and sleep issues, he discovered the Oura ring. The positive impact it had on his sleep quality motivated him to pursue a leadership role within the company. His persistence led him to become CEO despite initial reservations about his background being more software-focused rather than hardware-oriented.23
Vision for ŌURA
As CEO, Hale emphasizes a data-driven approach to health management, believing that measurable data can empower users to improve their well-being. Under his guidance, ŌURA has launched advanced versions of its ring, integrating features such as continuous glucose monitoring and expanding its partnerships within the health sector, including contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense.23
Hale's leadership reflects a commitment to innovation in wearable technology, aiming to foster healthier habits among users while ensuring their data privacy and security are paramount.35
Highlights
Despite innovations in treatments, heart disease has been the leading killer of Americans for decades and continues to be the leading cause of death globally. It can be challenging to spot because it presents in a variety of ways—including things like coronary heart disease, heart attacks and strokes, chronic kidney disease, and other conditions—making it difficult for people to understand the state of their heart health before it’s too late.
We launched our first heart health features—Cardiovascular Age and Cardio Capacity—earlier this year for this exact reason. These features are designed to combine information about estimated arterial stiffness and VO2Max to give Oura Members an indication of their cardiovascular health today and a look into how that might impact them in the future. This is a unique perspective in wearables today.
That’s what we mean when we talk about Oura Ring as a “personal health companion.” Health is not just one aspect of your life. That’s why we aim to support our members’ health holistically across a range of needs, with the understanding that each part of a person’s physiology is inextricably intertwined and no two people are the same.
Health is not a one-size-fits-all proposition. While medicine is practiced on the average, we want to empower patients and clinicians (and the software that supports them) to understand health on a personal and individualized level. Oura Advisor, which learns and remembers what you tell it, is one small (large?) step in this direction.
Oura has the power to follow patterns and learn about you in a way that can help inform your behaviors today and predict how things might go for you in the future. We’re building the most scientifically validated smart ring that will support our members today and for a lifetime.
#withoura
Oura’s Cardiovascular Age feature has been out in the wild for a few weeks now, and already the feedback and learnings we’ve seen from the community are incredible. So far, we’ve learned that the majority of Oura members – nearly 80 percent – have circulatory systems that are aligned with their chronological age. No matter where you fall, our mission is to articulate what it means, why it matters and help people understand what they can do with this information because it’s changing all the time.
So how do we measure CVA? Oura Ring uses infrared photoplethysmography (PPG) sensors to estimate your pulse wave velocity (PWV), or the speed at which your heartbeat pulse travels throughout your body, the widely used gold-standard measurement of arterial stiffness. As arteries stiffen, the speed at which your blood flows through them (PWV) speeds up.
Pauli Ohukainen, is one of our research scientists who helps to distill this amazing science down into simple terms. He explains the arteries as shock absorbers. The large arteries of the body work to cushion the pressure waves generated by the heart, while the smaller arteries are not designed to handle such high forces. As large arteries stiffen, they lose their cushioning ability, and smaller arteries in sensitive organs, such as the brain, kidneys, and the heart itself, become subjected to increased physical strain.
Advanced arterial stiffness can lead to increased risk for several cardiovascular diseases including heart disease, stroke, and heart failure. Plus, it can be a contributor to other illnesses, such as kidney disease and Alzheimer’s disease.
We think of PWV measurements as being where HRV was 10 years ago. It’s lesser known but I think we’re going to start seeing it everywhere as a strong indicator of cardiovascular health.
So what’s the good news? At Oura, we build our features to be compassionate and empowering. CVA is a metric you can change with behavior modifications - and they’re more simple than you might think. Regular exercise, healthy diet, avoiding smoking and heavy drinking are all causally related to slower cardiovascular aging.
CVA is a game changer in wearables when it comes to unlocking real insights into how we’re aging. We’re pushing the category forward and doing right, with the science to back us up.
#WithOura
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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.