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Ginny Coles
Looking to provide securities and governance legal guidance to a recently public or soon-to-be-public company
Professional Background
Ginny Coles is a highly accomplished legal professional with extensive experience across various sectors, including corporate law, governance, and securities. With a strong foundation in law and psychology from two prestigious Stanford institutions, Stanford Law School and Stanford University, Ginny has built an impressive career trajectory, serving in various in-house and consulting capacities at reputable technology firms and law practices.
Currently, Ginny is providing her expertise as in-house counsel on demand at her own practice, Coles Law, where she offers tailored legal services that cater to the specific needs of her clients. Her vast experience in the legal field has uniquely positioned her to work directly with organizations facing complex corporate legal challenges.
Before establishing Coles Law, Ginny held the significant position of Senior Attorney at Dorsey & Whitney LLP. During her tenure there, she was instrumental in providing guidance on various legal matters, shaping strategies that align with corporate objectives while navigating the intricate world of compliance and governance. Her role required a blend of technical legal expertise and a thorough understanding of corporate dynamics, showcasing her adeptness in fostering professional relationships and delivering outstanding legal advice.
A noteworthy aspect of Ginny's career is her extensive in-house experience within core technology firms. She served as Independent Contractor, Corporate Securities and Governance Legal Advisor at Cypress Semiconductor Corporation, where she supported the legal team by advising on corporate governance issues, securities regulations, and compliance matters. Ginny's ability to liaise with multiple stakeholders made her an invaluable asset to the organizations she worked with, as she provided legal insights that directly influenced business decisions.
In addition to Cypress Semiconductor, Ginny has held senior corporate counsel positions at various innovative companies, including Rocket Fuel Inc. and Intermolecular, Inc. Her contributions involved crafting and managing corporate governance policies, advising on securities compliance, and steering complex legal agreements.
Furthermore, her role at Accuray as Corporate Counsel involved significant oversight on legal operations and compliance strategies. Through her various positions, Ginny demonstrated an unwavering commitment to ensuring legal adherence across all business functions, thereby mitigating risks and protecting corporate interests.
Ginny’s diverse experience also includes legal consulting for industry giants like Apple, McAfee, and Shutterfly. Each role provided her with an opportunity to lend her expertise to different teams while embracing the fast-paced, ever-evolving tech landscape. Moreover, as Assistant General Counsel at Intuit and Good Technology, Ginny took a proactive role in legal strategy, compliance, and risk management, ensuring that legal ramifications were thoroughly considered in every business venture.
Apart from her corporate roles, Ginny was a Partner at Virtual Law Partners, where she combined her entrepreneurial spirit with her legal acumen to offer flexible, innovative legal services focused on pricing efficiency and client-specific needs.
Education and Achievements
Ginny Coles is a proud graduate of Stanford Law School, having earned her Doctorate of Jurisprudence (JD), where she honed her legal skills and developed a robust understanding of legal principles. Prior to her legal studies, she completed her AB in Psychology at Stanford University, gaining critical insights into human behavior and decision-making processes, which greatly enhanced her ability to navigate complex legal landscapes.
Her educational background synergizes beautifully with her first-rate legal capabilities, allowing her to approach problems with a broad perspective that considers both legal ramifications and human factors.
Furthermore, Ginny is a former board member, treasurer, and committee chair for the ACC (Association of Corporate Counsel) - San Francisco Bay Area Chapter from 2005 to 2009. In this role, she contributed to the development of the organization, focusing on enhancing the value proposition for in-house counsel and fostering a community of legal professionals dedicated to advancing their careers and maximizing their contributions to businesses.
Achievements
Throughout her career, Ginny has achieved many significant milestones, showcasing her expertise and impact in the legal field. Her work has ensured compliance with intricate securities regulations and corporate governance best practices, paving the way for myriad organizations to thrive while operating within the law.
Ginny's ability to combine sensitivity to corporate culture with her legal prowess has made her a trusted advisor among her colleagues and clients. This has often led to Ginny being sought after for her insights on legal strategy within corporate governance.
In her various roles, especially as a senior-level attorney, Ginny has not only provided legal guidance but has also acted as a mentor to upcoming lawyers, contributing to their professional development and ensuring they are well-equipped for the dynamic landscape of corporate law. Her commitment to fostering new talent in the legal community speaks volumes about her character and dedication to the profession.
Overall, Ginny Coles represents the quintessence of a legal expert, with a comprehensive background, a proven track record of excellence, and a friendly yet professional demeanor that has made her successful in an incredibly competitive field. Her journey through academia and her illustrious career makes her a respected figure in law, especially in corporate legal matters, governance, and compliance. Ginny continues to empower organizations across various industries to navigate their legal obligations confidently and effectively, embodying the dedication and expertise that define the best in the legal profession.
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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.
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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.
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.