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Michael Baum
Lover of Life
Professional Background
Michael Baum brings a wealth of expertise at the intersection of AI and Voice of the Customer (VoC) research, consistently designing both digital and human experiences that enhance product strategies for significant business growth and customer loyalty. With a remarkable ability to decipher the keys to success, Michael excels in aligning senior leadership and stakeholders, ensuring transformations are executed efficiently and effectively.
His career is marked by various notable positions across a spectrum of industries, including technology, retail, and manufacturing. For instance, at a leading technology company, Michael adeptly led a team that assessed, designed, and deployed comprehensive experience transformations and change management strategies for end-to-end interactions. The success of this initiative resulted in a remarkable double-digit increase in portfolio expansion and retained revenue, underscoring his talent for managing cloud migrations and change management in complex environments.
Michael has also championed Voice of Customer-based digital product development. At another technology firm, he spearheaded initiatives to gather invaluable customer and partner insights that directly informed adjustments to existing products. This endeavor not only elevated customer satisfaction and renewals but also unveiled new opportunities for product development. Under his leadership, the team designed and launched new products surpassing sales expectations, demonstrating his commitment to excellence and innovation in product strategies.
In the realm of experiential service design, Michael played a pivotal role for a Fortune 50 retailer. Here, he led a comprehensive assessment of the omni-channel experience, resulting in a groundbreaking redesign of both customer and employee experiences. The outcomes were significant: increases in customer repeat sales and employee satisfaction, alongside reduced store operating costs—validating Michael's expertise in creating easy-to-navigate growth strategies.
Additionally, his experience in channel and customer relationship management shines through his contributions at a manufacturing company. Michael assisted in leading a cross-functional team to design a digital subscription program that successfully heightened renewals and annual recurring revenue (ARR) from customers and partners, illustrating his capacity to harness digital transformation to drive business results.
At a private equity firm and global manufacturer, Michael directed a detailed assessment that recommended transformative changes to operating models and facilitated the migration to cloud infrastructures. His development of comprehensive business cases capturing the return on investment (ROI) of these digital support transformations persuaded leadership to embrace the recommended investments, showcasing his strategic acumen in data-driven transformations.
Another highlight of Michael's career is his work on a customer loyalty program for a notable North American big box retailer. He not only conceived and developed the program but also achieved remarkable results, increasing the share of wallet and customer retention, with the program being recognized as "best in class" by a leading online publication.
As a leader of a business unit, Michael achieved a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 36% over three years, reflecting his effective business management capabilities.
Education and Achievements
Michael's educational background is as impressive as his professional trajectory. He has studied Analytics and Artificial Intelligence at the renowned Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, where he honed his skills in data analytics and strategic decision-making. Furthermore, he holds a certificate in Digital Marketing from Columbia University, equipping him with the latest tools and techniques in the ever-evolving digital landscape.
His MBA, obtained from the University of St. Thomas – Opus College of Business, underscores his robust foundation in business administration and management principles. Additionally, Michael holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from San Francisco State University, enabling him to effectively communicate ideas and strategies across various stakeholders.
Michael's commitment to education extends to his role as an adjunct faculty member and lecturer at prestigious institutions including the University of St. Thomas, St. Catherine University, Montreat College, and AB Technical College. His ability to share knowledge and mentor the next generation of professionals speaks volumes about his dedication to the industry and education.
Notable Achievements
Michael's career is decorated with a series of remarkable achievements that demonstrate his expertise and leadership in the field. Among these accolades are:
- Successfully led change management initiatives that resulted in double-digit growth and improved customer retention rates across multiple industries.
- Drove the design and launch of new products that not only met but exceeded sales targets, showcasing an impressive track record of successful product innovation.
- Redesigned omni-channel experiences for a Fortune 50 retailer, which increased customer repeat sales and employee satisfaction, thereby enhancing overall operational efficiency.
- Launched a highly recognized customer loyalty program that significantly improved customer retention and increased the share of wallet for a leading retailer.
- Achieved an impressive CAGR of 36% over three years while managing business units, showcasing his effectiveness in driving organizational growth and performance.
Michael Baum continues to be a valuable asset to any organization, bringing with him a diverse skill set that encompasses employee, customer, and partner experience management, product lifecycle management, digital transformation, and more. His focus on researching customer and partner insights ensures that his strategies are aligned with market needs and customer expectations.
Let's connect to explore solutions for your most pressing business challenges and discuss how Michael's expertise can drive transformative success in your organization.
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Clay is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Clay centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
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
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- 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.
Nexus is Clay's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
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.