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Joao Borga
Professional Background
Joao Borga is a highly accomplished executive with a wealth of experience in entrepreneurship, business strategy, and innovation. Currently serving as the Executive Director at StartUP Portugal, Joao plays a pivotal role in fostering growth and entrepreneurship within the Portuguese startup ecosystem. His journey in the world of business began with a solid educational foundation, which includes a Master of Business Administration from the prestigious Alliance Manchester Business School, a Master of Science from Universidade Nova de Lisboa, and specialized studies in Entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland - Robert H. Smith School of Business, equipping him with the tools necessary to navigate complex business landscapes.
Over the years, Joao has amassed extensive experience working with various organizations, both in leadership roles and as a consultant. His growth can be traced through his impactful positions, beginning with his role as Executive Director at the CEI - Center for Innovative Companies, where he aimed to promote innovative practices and business solutions. His experience as Managing Director at Rede Nacional de Incubadoras further solidified his reputation as a driving force in entrepreneurship, where he was instrumental in establishing startup incubators across the country to support emerging businesses.
Notably, Joao served as a Special Advisor at the Ministry of Economy, where he contributed to national economic strategies focusing on industrial development. His work has not only influenced policy but also enhanced the entrepreneurial landscape in Portugal. Additionally, he has held various project management roles, including at STARTUP LISBOA where he developed strategic initiatives to support startups and foster connections between entrepreneurs and investors.
Education and Achievements
Joao’s academic journey is a testament to his dedication to continuous learning and growth. He earned his Bachelor of Engineering in Biotechnology at Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, which laid the groundwork for his technical and analytical skills. This was further enhanced by his Master of Science from Universidade Nova de Lisboa, coupled with an MBA from Alliance Manchester Business School, both of which provided him with a global perspective on business management and innovation. His studies in Entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland further enriched his understanding of global business practices and entrepreneurial frameworks.
Throughout his career, Joao has demonstrated exceptional leadership through various roles. As a former manager and partner at SOBE LDA, he utilized his engineering background to explore innovative solutions in business. His strategic foresight was particularly evident when he took the lead in project planning and development during his tenure at INSA - Institute Ricardo Jorge in Lisbon, as well as his impactful contributions as a Business Planning and Strategy consultant at UMIP - IFSensing, Lda.
Joao has also collaborated with multinational corporations such as BASF and Cisco Systems, providing valuable insights as a consultant on international business projects. His versatility is highlighted by his managerial role in the HSE, SHE Department for the Green Field Startup team at SABMiller - Coca-Cola, where he ensured operational safety and environmental compliance.
Achievements
Throughout his career, Joao Borga has made significant contributions to the entrepreneurship and business strategy fields. His most recent role at StartUP Portugal has allowed him to implement programs that empower startups, driving innovation and collaboration across sectors. His leadership has been essential in promoting initiatives designed to connect entrepreneurs with resources, mentorship, and investment opportunities, leading to sustainable growth in the Portuguese economy.
In his various roles, particularly his position at the Ministry of Economy, Joao has influenced key policy decisions that prioritize economic growth and development, supporting initiatives aimed at making Portugal a conducive environment for startups. His experience in managing incubators has directly impacted young entrepreneurs, providing them with the infrastructure and guidance necessary to launch successful ventures.
Joao’s diverse career and extensive education make him a leader in the startup community, renowned for his approach to fostering innovation, business acumen, and strategic partnerships. His future-focused mindset continues to guide his work, ensuring a vibrant entrepreneurial landscape.
With a rich blend of experience, education, and deep commitment to entrepreneurship, Joao Borga is a notable figure in the business community, inspiring others with his vision for a thriving startup ecosystem in Portugal.
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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
- 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.
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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.