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David Shepherd
Market Lead, Retail & CPG, Google
Professional Background
David Shepherd is an accomplished retail leader with a dynamic career spanning multiple industries, showcasing his expertise in eCommerce. With a passion for creating exceptional customer experiences, he employs a combination of technology, data, and design thinking to drive innovation and success in the retail sector. His dedication and strategic mindset have led him to achieve significant results in various roles over the years.
Throughout his career, David has held several senior positions that highlight his expertise and versatility. As the former Market Lead for Multi-Channel Retail & CPG at Google, he played an instrumental role in shaping the future of online retail by leading transformative projects that leveraged Google’s advanced capabilities in technology and analytics. This position allowed him to develop a deep understanding of consumer behavior, which is critical in today’s rapidly evolving retail landscape.
In addition to his tenure at Google, David’s extensive experience includes serving as a Strategy Consultant for Hello Molly, one of Australia's leading fashion retailers. His insights and strategic recommendations helped enhance the brand's market presence and improve its eCommerce functionality. This reflects his ability to adapt to different business environments and collaborate effectively with diverse teams.
David has co-founded and directed several successful businesses, including Sparrow Flights and Digital Massive, both of which underscore his entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to excellence. In particular, Sparrow Flights focuses on innovative travel solutions, while Digital Massive delivers cutting-edge digital marketing services tailored to client needs. His background in founding and managing startups speaks to his leadership skills and his capacity to inspire teams toward shared goals.
With a proven track record in eCommerce strategy consulting, David has also worked for Bing Lee Electrics, one of the largest electronics retailers in Australia. His strategic advice in this role emphasized the importance of integrating technology into consumer experiences to create emphasis on customer satisfaction. David’s multifaceted career has enabled him to hone his skills in areas pivotal to retail success, including market analysis, consumer engagement, and digital transformation.
David began his career as a Network Engineer at Amplus IT, where he gained valuable technical expertise that serves him well in his current endeavors. His varied roles, including work at E-Web Marketing, where he ascended from Account Manager to Team Lead, illustrate his commitment to growth and development. These experiences paved the way for his impressive transition into consulting and entrepreneurship.
Throughout his career, David has maintained a steadfast presence in eCommerce, demonstrating a relentless passion for understanding consumer needs and continuously improving business strategies. His involvement in the Army Reserve with the 2nd/17th Battalion affirms his leadership and commitment to service, further enhancing his profile as a multi-disciplinary leader.
Education and Achievements
David Shepherd completed his Higher School Certificate (HSC) at St Aloysius College, where he laid the groundwork for his robust academic and professional journey. The education he received there was instrumental in shaping his analytical thinking and problem-solving skills, vital attributes for his future roles in the fast-paced retail and consulting industries.
Over the years, David has garnered a reputation as a results-driven professional whose customer-obsessed approach has consistently led to enhanced business performance and customer satisfaction. His diverse career not only highlights his adaptability but also reflects his curiosity and willingness to embrace new challenges in a rapidly changing environment.
With a commitment to lifelong learning and growth, David keeps up with industry trends and emerging technologies. He often attends workshops, seminars, and industry events to stay at the forefront of eCommerce innovations.
Achievements
- Innovative Project Leadership: At Google, David spearheaded initiatives that transformed the approach to multi-channel retail, enhancing the customer journey.
- Entrepreneurial Success: Co-founding businesses such as Sparrow Flights and Digital Massive demonstrates his ability to identify market needs and introduce effective solutions.
- Strategic Insight: His role as a Strategy Consultant for notable brands showcases his keen analytical skills and ability to implement effective retail strategies.
- Technological Expertise: David’s early background in IT and engineering positioned him as a forward-thinking leader who understands the role of technology in retail evolution.
In summary, David Shepherd is a visionary retail leader who thrives on creating better experiences for customers through innovative strategies and technology integration. His diverse experience across various sectors, combined with his educational foundation from St Aloysius College, underscores his dedication to excellence in everything he does. With a strong focus on eCommerce, David continues to lead transformative initiatives that shape the future of retail and provide long-lasting value for consumers and businesses alike.
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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.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Clay 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 Clay 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 Clay 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.
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 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. Clay'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.
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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.
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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.
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