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Jonathan Flesher
Head of Business Development at Discord
Professional Background
Jonathan Flesher is a highly esteemed business development executive known for his strategic foresight and exceptional leadership in the technology and gaming industries. Currently serving as the Head of Business Development at Discord, he plays a pivotal role in shaping partnerships and expanding the platform's reach in the vibrant landscape of online communications. Jonathan’s remarkable career is characterized by his commitment to fostering innovation and growth, as well as his ability to adapt in a rapidly evolving marketplace.
Before joining Discord, Jonathan made significant contributions to Baobab Studios, where he served as the Head of Business Development & Partnerships and was also an Advisory Board Member. His expertise in cultivating relationships that drive business success was instrumental in the studio's efforts to create immersive storytelling experiences using cutting-edge technology. His tenure at Skillz Inc. saw him take on the role of Chief Revenue Officer, a position that further honed his skills in revenue generation and strategic planning. Jonathan's extensive experience spans various leadership roles, including Executive Vice President of Business Development at Betable, Vice President and General Manager of Business Development at Zynga, and Senior Director of Business Development at Electronic Arts. Each of these roles has provided him with a deep understanding of the gaming industry's unique demands and opportunities.
Additionally, Jonathan has held significant positions at prestigious organizations such as KKR & Co. L.P., where he served as a Vice President, and M/C Partners, where he worked as a Venture Capital Consultant. His early career commenced at JPMorgan, where he developed a robust foundation in finance as a Vice President in Investment Banking, and earlier as an Associate at Dain Rauscher. Jonathan's impressive trajectory in investment banking laid the groundwork for his eventual transition into the technology realm, showcasing his versatility and analytical prowess across sectors.
Education and Achievements
Jonathan Flesher's educational background is a testament to his commitment to excellence and lifelong learning. He earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the prestigious UCLA Anderson School of Management, where he sharpened his business acumen and leadership skills in a collaborative environment. His studies equipped him with the tools required to tackle complex business challenges and strategically drive growth within organizations.
Prior to his MBA, Jonathan obtained a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree from Pomona College, an esteemed liberal arts institution known for its rigorous academic programs. The diverse curriculum and rich campus culture at Pomona contributed significantly to Jonathan's holistic development, enabling him to approach business from a well-rounded and multifaceted perspective.
Throughout his illustrious career, Jonathan has been recognized for his ability to forge valuable partnerships and deliver impactful results. His strategic insights and innovative approaches have been key to the success of numerous initiatives within the organizations he has been a part of, particularly in business development roles where he has consistently exceeded performance expectations.
Achievements
Jonathan Flesher's career is adorned with notable achievements that reflect his expertise and commitment to innovation. His leadership at Discord has been marked by the implementation of successful business development strategies and collaborations that amplify the platform's capabilities and user engagement. Under his guidance, Discord has solidified its position as a leading communication platform in the gaming community and beyond.
At Baobab Studios, Jonathan's contributions were vital in establishing key partnerships that enhanced the studio's reputation for groundbreaking storytelling through interactive experiences. By focusing on building relationships with industry leaders and potential collaborators, he helped position the studio at the forefront of virtual reality and immersive entertainment.
During his tenure at Skillz Inc., Jonathan not only bolstered revenue streams but also played an essential role in shaping the company’s overall strategic direction. His ability to analyze market trends and customer needs enabled him to create robust revenue models that supported sustainable growth.
Moreover, his executive roles at leading companies such as Zynga and Electronic Arts further showcase his capacity to navigate fast-paced environments and deliver results under pressure. Jonathan has a knack for integrating creative solutions with business strategies to drive innovation in game development and monetization techniques.
Jonathan’s impressive advisory experience with various startups highlights his commitment to mentoring the next generation of innovators and game changers in the industry. His insights and guidance are sought after by entrepreneurs looking to establish or grow their businesses in technology and entertainment, making him a respected figure among peers and aspiring professionals alike.
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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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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 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.
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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.