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Gene Epshteyn
Professional Background
Gene Epshteyn is an accomplished and innovative senior product marketing professional with over a decade of experience in driving success across the mobile and security industries. With a wealth of knowledge in market research, analysis, and product positioning, Gene has honed his expertise in developing compelling messaging and value propositions that resonate with target audiences. His strategic mindset and thorough understanding of global go-to-market (GTM) planning have enabled him to construct integrated marketing campaigns that are not only effective but also adaptable with testing and optimization capabilities to ensure maximum impact.
Throughout his career, Gene has demonstrated a remarkable ability to draft and manage essential documents such as requests for proposals (RFPs), market requirements documents (MRDs), and thought leadership pieces. His experience includes creating engaging demos, videos, and case studies that showcase product strengths and address the needs of potential users. As a product marketing leader, he has played a critical role in developing integrated marketing strategies aimed at increasing product uptake, expanding user bases, and enhancing engagement through effective cross-selling and up-selling.
Education and Achievements
Gene Epshteyn has a rich educational background that supports his professional endeavors. He attended the United Nations International School (UNIS) where he completed his High School education, earning an International Baccalaureate diploma. He furthered his studies at the prestigious London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), earning a Master of Science in Theory and History of International Relations, which has provided him with a keen understanding of global markets and cultural nuances. Gene also holds a Bachelor's degree in History and Russian Language from Columbia University in the City of New York, from which he gained a robust analytical framework and communication skills that serve him well in the marketing field.
His professional journey has taken him through various esteemed organizations, where he has held significant positions in marketing and product management. As a Senior Product Marketing Manager at Mindtickle, he has been instrumental in developing marketing strategies that align with business goals. Previously, at Panoply and Mytime, Gene continued to exhibit his skills in crafting effective go-to-market plans that enhance product differentiation and competitiveness. His leadership as Head of Product Marketing at Juvo involved managing overall product strategy and execution, underscoring his capability to lead teams towards achieving marketing excellence.
Gene has also worked with AVG Technologies in various roles, including Global Senior Marketing Specialist for Mobile Partnerships and Channel Sales, where he successfully managed relationships with partners and optimized marketing initiatives for mobile products. During his tenure at AOL, Gene focused on mobile product marketing, leveraging his skills to enhance market penetration and user engagement strategies.
Achievements
Throughout his distinguished career, Gene Epshteyn has achieved notable successes that reflect his proficiency in the marketing domain. One of his key achievements includes the development of distinct positioning, messaging, and value propositions that have significantly enhanced the competitiveness of the products under his purview. His strategic approach has led to the successful execution of global and regional integrated marketing campaigns, demonstrating a unique ability to tailor strategies to diverse market segments.
Gene's aptitude for effective partnership and vendor management is evident through his seamless coordination with clients and 3rd party creative agencies, ensuring the successful delivery of marketing initiatives. His analytical mindset has empowered him to conduct in-depth business intelligence research, which allows for a nuanced understanding of B2B, B2C, and enterprise market dynamics, complemented by a keen awareness of buyer personas and cycles.
In addition to his strategic marketing contributions, Gene has been proficient in creating additional revenue channels and value-added services, demonstrating an innovative approach toward expanding business opportunities. His experience in pre- and post-sales support has further reinforced his capability in direct user acquisition and retention marketing, which are essential in today's competitive landscape.
Core Competencies
Gene Epshteyn's core competencies include expertise in Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Search Engine Optimization (SEO), App Store Optimization, and social media advertising. His comprehensive knowledge of mobile advertising and marketing campaign management has made him a leader in crafting successful marketing strategies that drive results. His proficiency in customer relationship management (CRM) software enables him to effectively manage customer interactions and enhance customer satisfaction.
Moreover, Gene is adept at project management and coordination, a skill that allows him to oversee multiple initiatives simultaneously and ensure that all aspects of a campaign are running smoothly and efficiently. This combination of technical skills, strategic mindset, and innovative thinking has positioned Gene Epshteyn as a trusted consultant and leader in the product marketing arena.
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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:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
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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.
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.
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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.