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Josh Schollmeyer
GM + Editor in Chief, Cracked + eBaum's World
Professional Background
Josh Schollmeyer is a prominent media innovator and writer with an impressive track record in the publishing industry. As the co-founder and editor-in-chief of MEL, he shaped a platform recognized for its unique exploration of masculinity, steering clear of traditional stereotypes while maintaining a sense of style and charm. The New York Times hailed MEL as a standout men's magazine that investigates rather than enforces concepts of masculinity. Schollmeyer's vision for MEL caught the attention of both pop culture icons like The Rock and political figures such as Stormy Daniels, highlighting the magazine's widespread influence. Not only did MEL make waves in print media, but it also made a memorable appearance in an episode of "The Simpsons,” marking its cultural significance.
Josh's editorial portfolio is diverse and includes the creative concept behind the Kinja site, Playboy SFW. This initiative aimed to reinvigorate the Playboy brand’s commitment to social-sexual values with a modern twist, appealing to a contemporary audience. He also spearheaded the ebook series “50 Years of the Playboy Interview,” which featured the release of 50 Kindle Singles over 50 days, culminating in celebrated compilations of interviews with some of the magazine’s most iconic subjects.
Further showcasing his talents, Schollmeyer helped launch The Chicagoan—an exquisite coffee-table magazine that served as a love letter to his hometown. His creativity struck a chord, leading to the magazine selling out within a month of its release. This success mirrors Schollmeyer's approach to storytelling and media; he has an innate ability to resonate with readers by emphasizing cultural narratives and nostalgia.
Josh’s writing accomplishments are noteworthy, including his bestselling ebook “Enemies, A Love Story,” which delves into the intriguing relationship between film critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert. Recognized by The Atlantic as one of the 10 best oral histories in 2012, his work has garnered critical acclaim and serves as a testament to his storytelling prowess. Additionally, Schollmeyer served as a producer on the Oscar short-listed documentary “Life Itself,” directed by Steve James, which offers profound insights into Ebert’s life and legacy. The documentary was celebrated with multiple accolades, including an Emmy Award, demonstrating Schollmeyer’s ability to transition from print to visual media seamlessly.
Throughout his career, Josh has held key editorial positions at various notable publications. His tenure at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is particularly distinguished; under his editorial guidance, the publication secured a National Magazine Award for General Excellence. This accomplishment was underscored by The New York Times, which acknowledged the collective efforts of the editorial team in achieving this prestigious recognition.
Most recently, Schollmeyer has been acknowledged as one of AdWeek's Creative 100 media innovators, a testament to his impact on the landscape of modern media. Additionally, he was a finalist for Digiday's Publishing Exec of the Year, underscoring his role as a leader in the evolving digital content space.
Education and Achievements
Josh Schollmeyer laid the foundation for his illustrious career in media with a Bachelor of Science in Print/News Editorial Journalism from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His academic background laid a robust framework for his future endeavors in editorial work and content creation, equipping him with the necessary skills to excel in various writing and editing roles.
Throughout his professional journey, Schollmeyer has contributed significantly to journalism and media, with several notable publications and projects that have resonated deeply with diverse audiences. From taking on leadership roles in established brands like Playboy to creating innovative content platforms and documentaries, his influence is both expansive and impactful.
Achievements
- Co-founder and editor-in-chief of MEL, praised by The New York Times for its groundbreaking exploration of masculinity.
- Developed the Kinja site, Playboy SFW, reinvigorating Playboy’s social-sexual values with a modern perspective.
- Achieved critical acclaim with “50 Years of the Playboy Interview,” releasing 50 kindle singles in 50 days that captured the essence of the magazine's influential interviews.
- Launched The Chicagoan, a celebrated magazine that sold out within a month, highlighting his creative vision and connection to his hometown.
- Authored the bestselling ebook “Enemies, A Love Story,” recognized as one of the top oral histories by The Atlantic.
- Produced the acclaimed documentary “Life Itself,” which was short-listed for an Oscar and won an Emmy Award.
- Notable contributions to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, leading to a National Magazine Award for General Excellence.
- Featured in AdWeek's Creative 100 and recognized as a finalist for Digiday's Publishing Exec of the Year, reflecting his innovative influence in the media landscape.
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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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- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
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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 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.