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Nick Freiling
Director - InsightsHub (QuestionPro)
Professional Background
Nick Freiling is an accomplished market research professional, product builder, and entrepreneur with a rich history in data analysis and consumer insights. In 2016, he took a bold step into entrepreneurship by founding PeopleFish, a market research company that gained remarkable traction in just a few years. Starting with nothing more than two credit cards and a budget laptop, Nick navigated the early challenges of business development with resilience and innovation. By the year 2021, PeopleFish achieved impressive milestones, having surveyed over 1 million consumers and provided valuable insights to more than 300 clients. His contributions in powering several top-tier consumer brands underscore his capability and commitment to the industry. Partnership with startups and innovators showcases his dedication to fostering growth and driving creativity in market research. And as a nod to his journey of growth, Nick humorously notes that he has since upgraded his laptop.
Currently, Nick serves as the Director of InsightsHub at QuestionPro. In this pivotal role, he collaborates with Insights Directors to refine workflows, manage extensive data sets, and synthesize research findings that contribute significantly to User Experience (UX), Customer Experience (CX), and Market Research Experience (MRX) teams. His role demonstrates his in-depth understanding of dynamic market conditions and client needs.
Beyond his core responsibilities, Nick has also made meaningful contributions as a consultant on various high-profile survey projects. His client portfolio features renowned organizations such as Procter & Gamble, SpaceX, Getaround, Axios, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His expertise in market research has not only been sought after by these industry giants but has also led to features of his writing and speaking on market research in popular platforms like Startup Grind, SeedReady, and Wordcamp.
Away from the desk, Nick treasures quality moments spent with his children, indulges in playing the piano, and loves to discover the stunning beaches of North Florida. His balance between professional endeavor and personal joy is a testament to his well-rounded character and commitment to life’s pleasures.
Education and Achievements
Nick’s educational background lays a strong foundation for his success in market research and economics. He earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Grove City College, where he honed crucial analytical skills and developed a robust understanding of economic principles. Following this, he pursued advanced education, completing relevant coursework for a Master’s Degree in Economics at George Mason University and achieving a commendable GPA of 3.6. This combination of practical and theoretical knowledge has undoubtedly contributed to his impactful career in various analytical roles, setting him apart in a competitive industry.
Throughout his career, Nick has built an impressive trajectory. Before founding PeopleFish, he served as a Survey Analyst at Hanover Research, where his analytical skills were put into practice in analyzing and deriving insights from extensive data sets. Nick also held a position as a Financial Markets Analyst at Enhancing Capital, a role in which he further delved into the intricacies of market dynamics. His career journey also saw him as a Project Analyst and Assistant to the CEO at UniqueSource Products & Services, where he gained valuable experience in project management and operational analysis. Additionally, his role as Editor-in-Chief at The Collegian allowed him to fine-tune his communication skills while engaging with a broader audience.
These positions not only speak to his capability but also reflect his versatility and adaptive nature in various roles throughout his professional life.
Notable Achievements
Nick Freiling's career is marked by several notable achievements that highlight his status as a thought leader in the market research space. Founding PeopleFish is a landmark achievement, showcasing his entrepreneurial spirit and strategic vision. This pioneering effort not only placed him at the forefront of market research innovation but also laid the groundwork for subsequent success.
Under Nick’s leadership, PeopleFish emerged as a trusted partner for diverse clients, bringing critical insights into decision-making through effective consumer surveys. His ability to turn complex data into actionable insights has made a lasting impact on various trusted brands and innovative startups worldwide.
As Director at InsightsHub, Nick continues to facilitate the synthesis of research processes, enhancing data-driven decision-making in teams equipped to tackle the evolving challenges of modern market research. His role directly influences how organizations leverage data into strategic advantages, cementing his reputation as a leading force in the industry.
Nick’s thought leadership extends beyond his professional roles. His insights have been sought after across various platforms, positioning him as a knowledgeable voice in market research discussions. This engagement highlights his commitment to sharing knowledge and best practices with peers and aspiring professionals in the field.
Overall, Nick Freiling's journey reflects a wholesome blend of education, entrepreneurship, and a continued commitment to enhancing market research practices. His achievements and contributions to the industry will undoubtedly inspire the next generation of market researchers and innovators.
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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
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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.
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.
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