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Will Yang
Chief Marketing Officer at Albert.io
Professional Background
Will Yang is a seasoned business leader with a rich history of fostering scalable growth across multiple domains, including sales, customer success, and digital marketing. With a profound understanding of the education sector, Will has dedicated six transformative years at Albert – a prominent organization renowned for its dedication to enhancing educational outcomes for students. Through his leadership of sales and customer success teams, Will has had a lasting impact on millions of students, helping them improve their academic performance and overall success in school.
As Chief Marketing Officer at Albert, Will is currently channeling his extensive experience into expanding the company's digital marketing footprint. His goal is to elevate Albert's monthly pageviews from several million to even greater heights. Will's expertise extends to executing effective go-to-market strategies that drive tangible results, whether the organization is in its pre-revenue phase or well-established with a focus on profitability.
Education and Achievements
Will's educational journey laid a strong foundation for his professional pursuits. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics with a concentration in Chinese Language and Culture, graduating Cum Laude from Northwestern University. This combination of economics and cultural studies equips Will with a unique perspective on market dynamics and consumer behavior, enhancing his ability to craft impactful business strategies.
Prior to his tenure at Northwestern, he completed the International Baccalaureate Diploma program at Winter Park High School. This rigorous academic background underscores his commitment to excellence and a global outlook on education.
Will's involvement in various organizations highlights his proactive approach to personal and professional development. As a Chief Revenue Officer at Albert, he played a pivotal role in shaping the growth trajectory of the business, leveraging his background in both business development and customer success to optimize their operations. He also previously held a position as a Vice President of Business Development and Customer Success, where he successfully orchestrated initiatives that drove customer loyalty and revenue growth.
In addition to his leadership roles at Albert, Will's prior experiences are remarkable. He began his career as an Account Executive, gradually climbing the ranks through various strategic positions such as Senior Account Executive and Business Development Manager, all at the same organization. His journey demonstrates his unwavering commitment to the mission and vision of Albert, illustrating how his early engagements have led to significant advancements in his career.
Notable Contributions and Achievements
Will has consistently focused on delivering value to his customers, teams, and the organization as a whole. This value-driven approach has been instrumental in establishing a customer-centric culture that fosters consultative selling and thoughtful implementation plans. Under his guidance, Albert has seen unprecedented year-over-year growth, empowering educators and enhancing student performance.
His specialties encompass a diverse range of skills that are vital for today’s dynamic business environment. Will excels in outlining and executing comprehensive business strategies and development plans. His knack for generating predictable revenue streams has proven indispensable for Albert's growth, implementing optimized operating processes that drive both efficiency and revenue.
Additionally, Will is adept at change management, an essential skill in a rapidly evolving marketplace. His emphasis on recruiting and developing talent has been crucial in building high-performing teams equipped to tackle the challenges of contemporary business landscapes. Will's ability to communicate value to clients and ensure client retention has solidified robust relationships, leading to an expansion in annual contract value.
Will also possesses a keen understanding of growth hacking, content marketing, and SEO optimization. These skills are increasingly relevant in today’s digital-first world and play a central role in his current focus on boosting Albert's digital marketing strategy.
As Will embarks on this new chapter in his career, his commitment to increasing awareness, rigorously testing hypotheses, and embracing the philosophy of continuous improvement (kaizen) will undoubtedly lead to substantial success for Albert and its stakeholders. With his innovative mindset and unwavering dedication, Will Yang is well-positioned to drive further growth and create a positive impact in the educational technology space.
Highlights
One of the easiest ways I'm improving my hiring pipelines has been writing on here occasionally.
I've noticed higher quality applicants do their research and embed different aspects of what I care about into their apps, giving me (and our screener) higher signal upfront.
Even better, I've seen positive effects beyond my immediate team.
An AE that just joined our team this week got her app to the front of the stack by sending a one-minute Loom video sharing three key metrics they drove at their most recent org.
Last weekend, a CSM candidate reintroduced themselves for a role they applied for in December.
Subject line: "3 ways I fumbled my application"
I loved this self-awareness. I also appreciated how they used a precise variant of a subject line I mentioned using over a year ago in a post.
They shared what they did wrong and how they've applied tips I previously wrote about to score several interviews since then.
Yet, despite this, they kept coming back to the idea of working for us.
Finally, they attached a fully personalized 25-second slideshow where every slide showed their attention to detail.
While I no longer am overseeing that pipeline, I immediately forwarded that app to the right person.
When I think about why this works, it's simple:
Each piece of content offers another data point for applicants to know what you're about and what you're not about.
From there, the best of the best know what to do with that.
It's no different than what VCs did in the early dot-com days writing online (and still do today).
They shared their thoughts and perspectives, and subsequently got access to the best deals.
The broader takeaway for those leading teams: share more about what you value and the folks you want on your team.
For job applicants: do your research when shooting your shot. It goes a long way and increases your luck surface area.
P.S. If you want that applicant's info for a CS / BD role, DM me. Happy to share it since I think they'd be great, but just aren't the profile we're looking for at the moment.
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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
- 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.