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Michael Dempsey
Managing Partner at Compound
Michael Dempsey
Michael Dempsey is the Managing Partner at Compound, an investment firm based in New York City. He focuses on investing in frontier technologies such as robotics, machine learning, biology, crypto, and more, using a research-centric, thesis-driven approach at the seed stage.1234
Experience
- Managing Partner at Compound since September 20161
- Previously worked at CB Insights as part of the research and data analysis team from April 2014 to January 20161
- Worked as an Investment Analyst at Crane Partners from November 2011 to March 20141
Education
- Graduated from New York University with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics1
Investing Philosophy
- Focuses on investing in "former science projects" and crypto6
- Believes in developing specific year-by-year theses on how certain sectors will play out, acknowledging that 80% may be wrong but aiming for the 20% that are very right5
- Prefers building one big business in a massive market rather than "narrative expansions"5
- Invests in contrarian opportunities that are considered "too early or too ridiculous" with no real customers yet5
Personal
Highlights
We are incredible excited @compoundvc to launch Compound Reverie Grants today.
These are micro-grants for those exploring ideas at the edges, in a world that needs more support for strange and meaningful work.
Why Micro Grants?
The world needs more out of distribution ideas and people need more space to explore them.
Part of being a thesis-driven investment firm operating on long-term time horizons is to apply that same ethos towards helping build the world we want to live in. We find this is rarer than it should be, especially so within the echo chambers of technology and startups.
As we've thought about the kind of firm we want to build over the next decade, amongst our excitement, we also kept returning to a sameness we couldn't shake. Tech has grown insular, and respect for different types of thinkers feels improperly distributed. Dollars and belief flow to the most legible people, the ones who fit an overly obvious pattern, who match what a small few have decided success should look like. The less legible get passed over. This reality means we're narrowing the dispersion of what can be built and by who, while increasing the correlation of ideas and aesthetics that get funded or even just supported.
To help create a more imaginative future, we've created Compound Reverie Grants.
These are micro-grants to fund people exploring ideas that otherwise would not easily get funded through traditional means, but that we think are important for the present and future. They range from as little as $500 to as much as $7,500 each, in fully non-dilutive, no-strings-attached capital.
There are moments in life when a small amount of support, intellectual, emotional, and/or fiscal, matters more than anyone appreciates at the time. A month or two of runway. A few hours of debate. The cost of materials for a prototype. Enough breathing room to see if something is real. We hope these grants find people in those moments.
Reverie Grants are intentionally broad but there are two specific types of grantees that we know we want to help (and many others that we will learn we want to help that we hope apply).
The first are people going deep on something that touches the edges or possible fringes of areas we think about: machine learning, robotics, biology, healthcare, energy, crypto, and the places where those things blur together. These should not be ideas that obviously could be venture-backed companies. You shouldn't be starting a company (though it could lead you to one) but instead you should be working on research, building a prototype, writing, open-sourcing something, or tinkering on a strange project that resists easy explanation.
The second are thoughtful people who are simply in transition. Figuring things out. You might not have a thesis-aligned project, but you have a goal, a direction, something you're trying to understand or become and you could use support, a sounding board, a broader network, or a bunch of other things that equate to having people like us in your corner who can help with the complexities of navigating life's idea mazes. We know how hard that can be and we want to meet you and help you.
Our hope is that this first wave of grants are only the beginning and as we continue to expand both with other capital that is not just our own, as well as support from others in our sphere who want to be involved, we will get greater clarity and hopefully more scaled impact.
More and more we feel we are only creativity constrained and we want to help people who feel that their creativity is limited, under-explored, or not believed in because of its strangeness at a time in which we think the world needs these ideas most.
If you're in one of those moments, tell us about it below. If you'd like to refer someone or have any questions, feel free to email grants@compound.vc or DM us on Twitter.
Me going to yoga every week:
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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.
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.