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Kaleen Baker
Manager, Talent Experience and Enablement
Professional Background
Kaleen Baker is a dedicated talent acquisition professional with extensive experience in creating and managing candidate experience initiatives. Currently serving as the Manager of Talent Experience and Enablement at Vercel, Kaleen has a deep understanding of what it takes to build successful teams and develop effective talent acquisition programs that attract top-tier candidates. Her expertise extends to promoting internal mobility within organizations, ensuring that employees have opportunities to grow and transition into new roles as their careers progress.
Before her current role at Vercel, Kaleen honed her skills at Procore Technologies, where she ascended through various positions, starting as a Technical Recruiter and advancing to Staff Talent Acquisition Program Manager. Her years at Procore have equipped her with a robust knowledge of the technical hiring landscape, enabling her to connect companies with the right talent at the right time, and embed a culture of continuous improvement in the hiring process.
Kaleen's career journey began at Sonos, Inc., where she started as a Senior Talent Specialist and transitioned to a Technical Recruiter. This experience allowed her to grasp the nuances of recruiting for technical roles and provided her with a strong foundation in sourcing and identifying candidates who not only meet the job qualifications but also embody the company culture. Kaleen's journey into the realm of talent acquisition was further enriched by her internship at the Muscular Dystrophy Association, where she began developing her understanding of the importance of candidate experience and mobility within the nonprofit sector.
Education and Achievements
Kaleen completed her studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she focused on Political Science and Sociology with concentrations in International Relations and Global Development. Through her academic pursuits, she cultivated strong research and analytical skills, enabling her to approach talent acquisition from a strategic standpoint. This educational background has proven invaluable as she navigates the complexities of recruiting for diverse industries, especially in a world increasingly influenced by global dynamics and socio-political trends.
Her educational achievements, combined with her professional experiences, have positioned her as a thought leader in the talent acquisition field. Kaleen is particularly recognized for her commitment to enhancing the candidate experience, and her innovative approaches to developing internal mobility programs demonstrate her understanding of employee engagement and retention.
Achievements
Throughout her career, Kaleen Baker has made significant contributions to each organization she has been a part of. At Vercel, she continues to lead initiatives that improve the overall candidate experience, creating a workplace where candidates feel valued and empowered. Her focus on internal mobility has fostered an atmosphere of growth and encouragement among team members, enhancing productivity and satisfaction.
During her tenure at Procore Technologies, she successfully managed and launched numerous talent acquisition programs that streamlined processes and increased the quality of hires. Kaleen is well-regarded for her ability to align recruiting strategies with broader company goals, ensuring that talent acquisition serves as a key business driver.
As a former Senior Technical Recruiter and Staff Talent Acquisition Program Manager, her contributions led to reduced time-to-fill for key positions and improved engagement metrics among candidates. Her growth within the ranks at Procore underscores her ability to not only perform effectively in her recruiting role but also to influence and enhance the recruitment strategy through innovative solutions and data-driven insights.
In her previous role at Sonos, Kaleen played a pivotal part in sourcing and securing top technical talent, which contributed to the company’s rapid growth and expansion into new markets. Her experience at the Muscular Dystrophy Association has also shaped her perspective on community and candidate experience, fostering her passion for establishing meaningful connections in every aspect of the recruitment process.
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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.
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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'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.