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Eric Toone
Professor of Chemistry (Emeritus) at Duke University
Professional Background
Dr. Eric Toone is a distinguished chemist who has made substantial contributions to both academia and the pharmaceutical industry throughout his impressive career. With a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Toronto, which he earned in 1988, he has cultivated a vast amount of knowledge and expertise in his field. After completing post-doctoral studies under the mentorship of the renowned Professor George Whitesides at Harvard University, Dr. Toone embarked on his independent academic career at Duke University in 1990, where he has since thrived as a Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
Dr. Toone's professional journey is marked by prolific authorship, with over 220 original papers, reviews, book chapters, and abstracts published in the disciplines of physical organic and biophysical chemistry. His innovative work is recognized globally, and he holds more than 20 patents across various biomedical fields, showcasing his commitment to advancing scientific research and application. As a scientific founder of three research-based pharmaceutical companies, including Aerie Pharmaceuticals, Vindica Pharmaceuticals, and Valanbio Therapeutics, he has significantly contributed to the development of cutting-edge therapies for conditions such as glaucoma and antibiotic-resistant infections.
Notably, from 2009 to 2012, Dr. Toone took on a transformative role at the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E). As the Program Director and Deputy Director for Technology, he led key initiatives to propel innovation in clean energy technologies, ultimately taking on the role of Agency Leader in 2012. This pivotal role allowed Dr. Toone to impact policy and strategic direction in energy research and development.
In 2013, he returned to Duke University as Vice Provost and Director of the Duke University Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative, where he played a vital role in nurturing the entrepreneurial spirit across the university community. His leadership in this position spanned until May 2017, further reinforcing his dedication to fostering innovation.
Today, Dr. Toone serves as the Executive Managing Director for Technology at Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a $1 billion investment fund established by the Breakthrough Energy Coalition. This coalition, assembled by Bill Gates, focuses on advancing clean energy technologies to address the pressing challenges of climate change and sustainability. Dr. Toone's position at Breakthrough Energy Ventures allows him to continue influencing the development and adoption of sustainable energy solutions on a global scale.
Education and Achievements
Dr. Toone's academic journey began with a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) in Chemistry from the University of Guelph, followed by a Master of Science (M.Sc.) and a Ph.D., both specializing in Organic Chemistry, from the University of Toronto. The strong foundation built during his studies laid the groundwork for his extensive contributions to chemistry and biochemistry. His postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard further enriched his expertise and network within the scientific community.
Among his remarkable achievements, Dr. Toone's role in founding and advising three pharmaceutical companies stands out. Aerie Pharmaceuticals has made significant strides in ophthalmology, specifically in developing treatments for glaucoma, while Vindica Pharmaceuticals focuses on nitric oxide-based therapies, addressing critical health challenges. Valanbio Therapeutics is at the forefront of antibiotic development, working diligently to create therapeutics for Gram-negative organisms, an area of crucial significance given the rise of antibiotic resistance.
During his tenure at ARPA-E, Dr. Toone was instrumental in shaping the agency's strategies to foster innovation in energy technologies, driving significant advancements in how the United States approaches energy research. His leadership and foresight during this period have left a lasting impact on the agency’s mission and goals, aligning with his passion for sustainable energy solutions.
Key Contributions
In terms of specific achievements within his academic and professional career, Dr. Toone's many publications highlight his prolific output and influence in the scientific community. His published works often tackle intricate problems within physical organic and biophysical chemistry, offering insights that have propelled the field forward. His patents, which exceed 20 in number, underscore his ability to navigate complex biomedicine challenges, turning innovative ideas into tangible solutions with practical applications.
Furthermore, Dr. Toone's leadership roles have consistently demonstrated his commitment to innovation. As Vice Provost and Director of the Duke University Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative, he championed a culture of creativity and entrepreneurship within the academic landscape, helping to bridge the gap between research and real-world applications. This initiative has significantly increased opportunities for students and faculty to engage in entrepreneurial ventures.
In his current role at Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Dr. Toone is at the intersection of technology, investment, and sustainability, positioning him to influence the creation and scaling of clean energy technologies that will define the future of energy consumption and production. His work aligns with global efforts to combat climate change and promote sustainable practices, further reinforcing his status as a leading figure in the intersection of science and entrepreneurship.
Overall, Dr. Eric Toone’s extensive background in chemistry, innovation, and entrepreneurship, coupled with his leadership in scientific research and industry initiatives, defines him as a prominent contributor to both science and society. His dedication to advancing clean energy technologies and fostering innovation makes him an influential force in today’s challenges, shaping a more sustainable future through his commitment to research and entrepreneurship.
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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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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.
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.