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Michael Onghai
Professional Background
Michael Onghai, CFA, is a distinguished entrepreneur and investor with an impressive track record in value investing and innovative entrepreneurship. With a deep-rooted passion for harnessing data in advertising and a keen insight into financial markets, Michael has made significant contributions across various industry sectors. As a general partner at Alpha Sigma Capital, a digital assets arbitrage hedge fund, he brings expertise in cryptocurrency investments and a focus on strategic investment opportunities. Michael is known for his role as a seed investor in Coinbase, a platform that has revolutionized the way people interact with digital currencies. His insights and analyses have earned him recognition from leading financial news outlets, including Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal.
As the founder and Chairman of AppAddictive, Michael has fostered a dynamic team dedicated to transforming social advertising through data-driven strategies. Under his leadership, AppAddictive has garnered an impressive user base of over 50 million Facebook users and has developed social applications that empower over 40,000 businesses. His company’s commitment to results-oriented social advertising ensures that clients can harness the power of data analytics to boost their brand presence effectively.
Michael’s career boasts a unique blend of experience in both analytical roles and executive management. Previously, he managed a value-oriented hedge fund focusing on Asian companies, where he specialized in identifying opportunities in online businesses, corporate spin-offs, post-bankruptcies, and tender offers. His engagement strategy in investing emphasizes long-term value creation rather than short-term activism, making him a respected figure among hedge fund managers.
His impressive background includes multiple accolades, such as being a multiple winner of the "Best Investing Idea" at ValueInvestorsClub.com, a prestigious community reserved for elite hedge fund investors. Additionally, he ranks as a top analyst on SumZero, where he has generated remarkable investment ideas directly impacting the market.
Michael’s specialty lies in event-driven situations in Southeast Asia—an area where his cultural upbringing and established relationships provide him with a strategic advantage. This foundation has enabled him to identify and capitalize on spin-off ideas long before larger funds, like Greenlight Capital, make their moves. His abilities as a forward-thinking analyst and investor have been validated by time-stamped proof of his pioneering write-ups.
Michael is also a devoted follower of Warren Buffett, attending the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting each year. He draws inspiration from industry visionaries such as Tom Murphy, James Sinegal, and the founders of Ben & Jerry's, reflecting his commitment to ethical and impactful business management.
Education and Achievements
Michael Onghai's educational background is a source of pride, showcasing his technical acumen and analytical capabilities. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from the renowned University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). His educational journey started at Xavier High School and continued at Xavier School, setting the foundation for his future successes in technology, finance, and entrepreneurship.
Michael's career trajectory is marked by several key roles across well-known organizations. He was an early employee at GeoCities, where he served as a Senior Software Developer. GeoCities, a pivotal player in the early internet landscape, was later sold to Yahoo for $3.5 billion in 1998, providing Michael with invaluable experience in the tech industry. He also worked at the Capital Group, one of the largest money management firms globally, where he honed his skills as a Business Analyst.
Over the years, Michael has held several prominent positions, including:
- Chief Executive Officer at Looksmart and Snowy August Management: In these roles, he focused on driving growth, innovation, and client satisfaction, consistently delivering exceptional results.
- Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder at 123Jump: Michael played a vital role in raising $15 million for this venture, demonstrating his ability to attract investments and foster a thriving company culture.
- Advisor at Oneqube and Contributor at various investment forums: His insights and guidance have contributed to the growth of startups and investing communities.
Aside from his professional endeavors, Michael is actively engaged in mentoring future investors and entrepreneurs. He is the moderator of a value investing group inspired by his mentor, Marty Whitman, nurturing a network that promotes informed investment practices.
Notable Achievements
Michael Onghai's career is rich with notable achievements that highlight his expertise as an investor and entrepreneur. He has been interviewed and quoted in prestigious financial publications, establishing his authority in the field of investment management. His keen analytical skills and visionary investment strategies have consistently attracted recognition and accolades from peers and industry leaders.
His notable accolades include:
- Winning the "Best Investing Idea" at ValueInvestorsClub.com on multiple occasions: This recognition is awarded to innovative and promising investment ideas submitted by high-caliber investors, reflecting Michael's ability to identify transformative opportunities in the market.
- Top-ranked analyst on SumZero: This platform is known for connecting investment professionals; Michael’s ranking underscores the respect and admiration he commands in the investment community.
- Seed investor in Coinbase: As a pioneer in the cryptocurrency space, Michael's support for Coinbase signifies his forward-thinking investment strategy and acknowledgment of the potential in digital assets.
- Community Leader: His role as the founder and chairman of AppAddictive not only highlights his entrepreneurship but also emphasizes his commitment to empowering businesses through social advertising and data-driven insights.
Michael's journey as a 2x entrepreneur, investor, and author serves as inspiration for many aspiring business leaders. His diverse skill set, combined with his dedication to ethical investing and community involvement, places him at the forefront of the investment industry, making him a trusted voice in financial matters. As he continues to explore new ventures and technologies, Michael Onghai is poised to make a lasting impact in the world of finance and entrepreneurship.
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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.