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Gary Gil
Performance Marketing, Growth Marketing 🏆 CEO at Valuestream Digital Marketing
Professional Background
Gary Gil is a seasoned marketing strategist and entrepreneur with over 25 years of rich and varied experience in founding and leading startups. As a visionary founder of seven startups, including notable companies such as a lead generation firm, a digital marketing agency, and a DTC nutraceutical company, he has demonstrated a remarkable capacity to innovate and execute. Gary has assumed the role of CEO in five of these ventures, showcasing his leadership prowess and strategic insight throughout his career.
His entrepreneurial journey has been both rewarding and educational, marked by one successful exit and a variety of experiences ranging from marginal successes to spectacular failures. Each endeavor has provided Gary with deep insights into the startup ecosystem and invaluable lessons that continue to fuel his growth and adaptation in a rapidly changing market environment. Currently, as of March 2024, Gary is actively seeking new opportunities where he can leverage his extensive expertise, particularly within small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), established organizations looking for skilled marketing leadership, or promising startups with traction.
Gary is also a passionate advocate for artificial intelligence and an early adopter of generative AI technologies. He is constantly exploring new methodologies to harness AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude to create innovative marketing strategies. His mission is to incorporate these advancements into practical applications that yield superior results while optimizing efficiency and performance.
Education and Achievements
Gary holds a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in Business Administration/Finance from San Diego State University, providing him with a solid foundation in both financial management and strategic business planning. His academic background is complemented by a wealth of real-world experience, making him adept at transforming theoretical knowledge into actionable results in the marketplace.
Throughout his impressive career, Gary has honed specialized skills in direct response marketing and copywriting, enabling him to develop highly effective marketing campaigns tailored to specific audiences. He excels at leading and assembling high-performance teams capable of driving growth and implementing strategic initiatives from conception to execution. His experience includes deep involvement in:
- Growth marketing strategies
- Leadership and team building
- Data-driven decision-making
- Building and scaling DTC marketing campaigns
Gary's comprehensive knowledge also covers various aspects of marketing and operational management, including lead generation,
• customer acquisition and retention, A/B testing, and more.
Skills and Expertise
Gary's technical and operational skills are matched by his ability to think creatively and outside of conventional norms. This has been key to his success in developing innovative solutions tailored to complex business challenges. In his various roles, he has successfully:
- Developed internal systems and processes that improve overall efficiency.
- Led development teams in the creation of high-impact marketing initiatives.
- Guided companies through the nuances of digital marketing.
- Managed sales, operations, and business development efforts in a variety of sectors, including health and wellness, financial services, and education technology.
His approach to hiring and training emphasizes the importance of building a cohesive team that is aligned with the organization's vision and driven towards achieving common goals. Gary believes that a high-performance team comprising motivated individuals is essential for success in today's competitive landscape.
Notable Affiliations
Gary has contributed to various organizations, displaying his commitment to the entrepreneurial community. He has been a former member of HYPCCCYCL, where innovative ideas and collaborative growth are champions. Furthermore, his roles as co-founder or chief marketing officer in other significant ventures demonstrate his ability to wear multiple hats and excel in various aspects of business management.
Some of his notable former positions include:
- Co-Founder / CMO at Investor Direct Capital
- Founder at Valuestream Digital Marketing
- Co-Founder at Entegrio
- Director at Airspeed Equity
- Founder at Podclass.com
- Founder at ActiveHealth.com
- Independent Marketing Consultant at SoCal Sports Supplements
- Founder at Vantage Mortgage Corporation
With a wealth of experience and an impressive portfolio of businesses, Gary Gil stands out as a dynamic and resourceful leader, eager to contribute to the next innovative venture he crosses paths with. His unwavering dedication to marketing excellence, combined with his enthusiasm for cutting-edge technology and methodologies, positions him as a prime candidate for companies eager to unlock their growth potential through strategic marketing and leadership.
Achievements
Gary Gil's journey through the entrepreneurial landscape is punctuated by notable achievements across various domains, underscoring his multifaceted expertise and innovative solutions. He has successfully spearheaded numerous projects that have yielded tangible results, showcasing his aptitude for fostering growth and overcoming challenges. One of his most distinguished milestones includes orchestrating a successful exit from one of his startups, a testament to his ability to navigate the complexities of business development and sustainability.
In addition to that achievement, Gary's commitment to learning from both successes and failures has afforded him a profound understanding of the rapidly changing dynamics of the modern marketplace. He has particularly excelled in leveraging AI technologies to enhance internal operations and customer interactions, establishing himself as a forward-thinking leader prepared to drive results in various business environments.
Gary's networking and collaborative efforts have also led to successful partnerships and increased visibility for the companies he has championed, making him a highly regarded figure within entrepreneurial circles.
Through his dedication, expertise, and relentless pursuit of growth opportunities, Gary Gil has firmly established himself as a prominent marketing leader and visionary entrepreneur, fully equipped to contribute to the ongoing evolution of businesses seeking strategic guidance and marketing excellence.
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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:
- 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
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.
Nexus is Clay'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.
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.