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Francis Lu
Brand Manager at When I Work
Professional Background
Francis Lu is a highly skilled and accomplished creative professional with a robust design portfolio that spans both traditional and digital mediums. Drawing on years of multidisciplinary experience, Francis has a unique ability to tackle diverse design challenges ranging from branding for small businesses to intricate web applications. His broad expertise encompasses a variety of areas including branding, web design, UI design, art direction, creative direction, print design, illustration, photo retouching, presentations, and environmental graphics. With a career that reflects a commitment to excellence and an eye for innovative solutions, Francis has played pivotal roles in many design projects and initiatives.
As a strong leader and collaborator, Francis excels in project facilitation, ensuring transparency and performance across teams. His holistic and strategic approach allows him to analyze challenges deeply and identify creative solutions that transcend the immediate problem. He believes in the power of teamwork and collaboration, asserting that the best creative outcomes stem from the merging of ideas across different departments and backgrounds. This philosophy not only enriches the creative process but also leads to more dynamic and effective designs.
Francis's entrepreneurial spirit drives him to embrace risk-taking and challenge the status quo, continually searching for fresh approaches to design. This mindset has allowed him to not only adapt to evolving market demands but also to set trends and innovate within the field. His versatility as a designer, coupled with his deep understanding of both print and digital platforms, positions him as a transformational figure in any creative team.
Education and Achievements
Francis Lu's academic journey began at Iowa City West High, where he laid the foundation for his passion for design and creativity. He further honed his skills by pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design from the University of Iowa, where he received a comprehensive education that equipped him with both technical skills and critical design thinking abilities. His time studying at Washington University in St. Louis also contributed to his diverse educational background, providing him with valuable insights that he has utilized throughout his career.
Francis has held several notable positions in the design industry, showcasing his talent and expertise in various capacities. As Brand Manager at When I Work, he played a key role in shaping the organization's brand identity and ensuring consistency across their marketing efforts. His previous experiences as Freelance Design Director at Fluid and Interactive Design Director at Riley Hayes Advertising allowed him to further develop his strategic thinking and design leadership skills.
In addition to his position as Senior Interactive Designer at Riley Hayes Advertising, Francis also served as Director of Interactive at LaBreche, contributing his innovative design perspective to this dynamic agency. His earlier roles, including Senior Designer at Spyglass Creative and Art Director at Riley Hayes Advertising, reflect his commitment to excellence and ability to deliver results-driven design solutions.
Achievements
Throughout his career, Francis Lu has successfully led various design initiatives that have significantly impacted the brands and organizations he has worked with. His experience as Chief Creative Officer at Archemedia highlights his leadership skills and vision, where he guided creative teams to deliver high-quality work that resonated with clients and audiences alike. Moreover, as a Graphic Designer at Imaginality, Francis's contributions helped elevate the creative standards of the organization, resulting in impactful branding and marketing materials.
Francis remains active in the design community, continuously seeking opportunities to enhance his skills and contribute to creative projects that challenge him and inspire others. His philosophy of collaboration and open communication has not only enriched his professional relationships but also fostered a creative atmosphere where ideas can flourish.
In conclusion, Francis Lu stands out as a versatile and innovative creative professional with a wealth of experiences and achievements in the design field. His ability to bridge the gap between traditional and digital design, coupled with his strategic vision and collaborative approach, makes him a valuable asset to any team. As he continues to push the boundaries of design and explore new creative avenues, the impact of his work will undoubtedly be felt across the industry for years to come.
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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 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.
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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.