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Bryan Velzy
Customer Experience Product Lead at Teachers Pay Teachers
Professional Background
Bryan Velzy boasts a diverse and accomplished career that spans various sectors, including education technology, music management, and online marketing. With a robust history of roles at prominent organizations, Bryan has developed a strong understanding of customer experience, technical support, and product management. Starting his career in the music industry, Bryan's early roles included online marketing and artist and repertoire internships at respected record labels. This foundation in music management allowed him to harness his creativity while learning the intricacies of the music business, especially in marketing and artist representation.
In the realm of educational technology, Bryan has made significant strides within Teachers Pay Teachers, where he held multiple positions, including Customer Experience Product Lead, Senior Technical Support Specialist, and Technical Support Specialist. In these roles, he demonstrated his ability to enhance user engagement and streamline support processes, earning the respect and appreciation of educators who rely on the platform for resources in their classrooms. His experience at Teachers Pay Teachers not only highlights his technical prowess but also his dedication to enhancing the educational experience for both teachers and students.
Prior to his tenure at Teachers Pay Teachers, Bryan contributed as Support Manager at Anchor and as Product Liaison at Meetup. His role at Anchor involved leading support initiatives that bolstered user satisfaction and product understanding, while at Meetup, he served to bridge communication between product teams and users, ensuring that the platforms met the needs of their communities. These positions emphasized his strengths in managing customer relationships and driving product improvements.
Additionally, Bryan’s creative side was expressed during his time as Art Director at Manhead, LLC, where he was instrumental in shaping the visual identity for various music projects, showcasing his artistic talents and enhancing brand storytelling. His early forays in the music industry through internships at Decaydance Records, Mission X Records, and Cordless Recordings equipped him with essential skills in online marketing, strategy, and artist relations, all of which are invaluable in today's digital landscape.
Education and Achievements
Bryan’s educational background in Music Management from Manhattanville University laid the groundwork for his passion for both music and business. His studies provided him with a robust understanding of managing artistic pursuits alongside commercial objectives, a skill set that has served him well throughout his career. Although he also explored Business Administration and Management at the University of Rhode Island, his focus on music management is where he found his true calling and direction. The combination of these educational experiences has proven to be a uniquely advantageous perspective, allowing him to blend creativity with strategic thinking.
Bryan's time at Lakeland High School fostered his foundational skills in communication and teamwork, traits that are essential for success in any field. After completing his education, Bryan jumped into the professional arena, ready to make an impact and contribute to various projects.
Achievements
Among his many successes, Bryan’s ability to enhance product-user experiences at Teachers Pay Teachers stands out. His leadership and innovative strategies were vital in optimizing customer engagement strategies, ultimately benefiting educators and their students. By focusing on user-centric solutions, Bryan has helped to reinforce the importance of customer feedback loops in product development, a testament to his forward-thinking approach.
Additionally, Bryan's creative contributions as Art Director distinctly illuminated the narratives behind music projects, showcasing his artistic vision and leadership abilities within collaborative teams. Whether it was through visually compelling art or effective audience engagement strategies in online marketing, his work has permeated various facets of the music and technology industries, reflecting a versatility that is rare and highly valued.
In summary, Bryan Velzy is a multifaceted professional whose journey reflects a passion for music, strong technical skills, and a customer-centric approach to product development. His ability to adapt and thrive in dynamic environments has allowed him to make significant contributions across various domains, particularly in the intersection of education and technology. Looking ahead, Bryan’s extensive background in both customer experience and artistic realms platforms him for future endeavors that will surely have a lasting impact on the industries he engages with.
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Clay 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, Clay centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Clay 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.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
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- 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
Clay 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.
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Clay 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. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay 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.
Clay 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. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay 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. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Clay 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. Clay 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, Clay 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.
Clay 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.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay 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. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay 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 Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay 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, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay 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. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay 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.
Clay 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 Clay instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Clay 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, Clay can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Clay is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay 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.
Clay'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. Clay 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 Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay'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, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay 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 Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.