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Samuel Kaplan
MBA Candidate at University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business
Professional Background
Samuel Kaplan is an industrious and multi-talented professional currently making strides as a full-time MBA student at the University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business. His journey reflects a diverse career path rooted in innovation, creativity, and a deep understanding of various industries. With a passion for learning and a keen interest in both the arts and technology, Samuel has co-founded and led businesses that empower creatives in unique ways.
Before embarking on his graduate studies, Samuel co-founded Treble, an innovative professional network tailored specifically for the music industry. This venture allowed him to harness his skills in connecting individuals within the creative sector, fostering collaboration, and providing valuable resources that promote artistic expression and networking.
In addition to Treble, Samuel was the co-founder and CEO of Tangerine House, a pioneering co-living company designed for artists seeking environments that encourage them to live, work, and create. This concept not only filled a crucial gap in housing for artists but also cultivated a vibrant community where creativity could flourish.
Samuel's professional experience also includes a significant tenure at Amazon, where he contributed to the entertainment team of Amazon Alexa. In this role, he worked on integrating entertainment features that improved user experience, thereby expanding the Alexa ecosystem into new domains. His skills as a product manager were further refined during his time at Graphiq, a company he joined as an Associate Product Manager before its acquisition by Amazon. This experience provided him with invaluable insights into product innovation and how to successfully navigate the complexities of tech acquisitions.
Additionally, Samuel played a crucial role in the docu-series "The Last Dance," highlighted for its compelling storytelling and impact on fans worldwide. His work at the Creative Artists Agency (CAA) further cemented his reputation within the entertainment industry, exposing him to high-profile clients and helping him understand the nuances of project management and creative development.
Education and Achievements
Samuel Kaplan’s educational journey is as dynamic as his professional career. He completed his Bachelor's Degree in Near Eastern Studies from Cornell University, which provided him with a strong foundation in analytical thinking and cultural awareness. His studies were further complemented by coursework in Economics and Middle Eastern Studies at Boğaziçi University, enriching his perspective on global economic and cultural issues.
Currently, as a candidate for his MBA at the prestigious UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, Samuel is honing his leadership and business acumen. He is immersed in developing strategic thinking, financial analysis, and innovative business models that address contemporary challenges. His education equips him with crucial tools that can propel him towards impactful leadership in the creative and tech industries.
Notable Contributions and Organizations
Throughout his career, Samuel has held various significant positions that showcase his adaptability and leadership abilities. He previously served as a Strategy expert at Terabase Energy, where he contributed to strategic initiatives aimed at promoting sustainable energy solutions. His MBA internship at Third Sphere allowed him to deepen his understanding of consultancy and strategic development.
Samuel's experience also spans several internships and roles significant in technology and media. His tenure as a Knowledge Engineer at Amazon highlighted his technical skills and ability to work in a fast-paced tech environment. Additionally, his roles at Moxie Pictures, Mandalay Sports Media, and CAA underscored his expertise in managing projects in the entertainment domain.
As an Instructor at Project Hope, Samuel demonstrated his commitment to real-world education and mentorship, guiding others in their learning journeys. His diverse experiences across industries uniquely position him to offer valuable insights into the intersections of technology, media, and entrepreneurship.
Achievements
Samuel Kaplan's career is a tapestry of achievements that reflect his dedication to innovation and excellence. His co-founding roles at Treble and Tangerine House exemplify his entrepreneurial spirit and desire to create inclusive platforms for artists. His involvement in impactful productions, such as "The Last Dance," showcases his ability to contribute to culturally significant projects, elevating storytelling in documentary filmmaking.
In addition to his entrepreneurial and entertainment projects, Samuel’s academic pursuits at UC Berkeley Haas signify his commitment to continuous learning and professional growth. The knowledge and skills he acquires during this phase will undoubtedly pave the way for further impactful contributions in his future endeavors.
Overall, Samuel Kaplan stands out as a dynamic individual who harnesses creativity and technical expertise in his professional pursuits. With a profile marked by significant educational accomplishments and a passion for supporting the arts, Samuel represents the modern entrepreneur who embraces challenges and seeks to foster innovation across multiple domains.
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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:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
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- 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.