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Stephanie Desanges
Vice President at HarbourVest Partners
Professional Background
Stephanie Desanges is a results-driven and strategic business executive with an impressive track record that spans over a decade in the financial services industry. She has held pivotal roles at prestigious firms such as HarbourVest Partners, PayPal, Goldman Sachs, and JP Morgan. Her global experience encompasses significant exposure to diverse markets in the Middle East, UK, and Europe, showcasing her ability to operate across different economic environments. With a profound understanding of financial markets, Stephanie specializes in developing successful business initiatives focused largely on alternative asset classes including Credit, Equities, Real Estate, Digital Assets, and Private Equity.
Her career journey began after acquiring her Bachelor of Science in Finance from Northeastern University, followed by her endeavor in pursuing a Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) from the renowned Wharton School, which laid the foundation for her exceptional financial acumen. Stephanie further expanded her horizons by obtaining a Master in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School and enhancing her cultural perspectives with a study abroad program in Paris. This diverse educational background has equipped her with the necessary tools to navigate the complexities of international finance effectively.
Having served as Vice President and Direct Co-Investment Product Specialist at HarbourVest Partners, Stephanie has been instrumental in driving business development and client acquisition. Her entrepreneurial mindset and creative problem-solving skills have enabled her to identify client needs accurately and advise them on intricate financial products efficiently. One of her notable contributions at HarbourVest Partners was her role in delivering tailored investment solutions to meet the diverse requirements of various clients, further strengthening the firm’s market position.
Stephanie’s career has also seen her excel in roles focused on alternative investment business development at PayPal, and as an Associate in Private Equity Portfolio Management at H.E. Alabbar Private Investment Portfolio, where she contributed strategically to operations and value creation. Her previous positions at respected organizations such as Kuwait Food Company (Americana) and Goldman Sachs have honed her skills in corporate strategy, transformation, and business development services. Her early days at JPMorgan Chase as an Investment Banking Analyst in Real Estate Credit and as an associate in Alternative Investments demonstrated her ability to engage with multiple asset classes within the financial sector.
Education and Achievements
Alongside her extensive work experience, Stephanie Desanges thrives academically with a well-rounded educational background. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Finance from Northeastern University, where she developed a solid foundation in finance and investment principles. Her pursuit of further excellence led her to earn her M.B.A. in General Management from Wharton, one of the most prestigious business schools in the world, providing her with cutting-edge knowledge and insights into modern business practices.
At the Harvard Kennedy School, Stephanie acquired a Master in Public Administration, further sharpening her abilities to address public policy challenges through a business lens. This unique combination of finance and public policy expertise allows her to engage with clients from various sectors and recommend sustainable financial strategies.
Additionally, her enriching experience studying abroad at The American University of Paris adds a cultural dimension to her profile, showcasing her ability to work with international clients and her adaptability in dynamic environments. Throughout her career, Stephanie has continuously refined her leadership and analytical skills, contributing to her reputation as a go-to expert in her field.
Achievements
Stephanie Desanges's accomplishments are a testament to her commitment to excellence and her proactive approach to addressing challenges in the financial landscape. With her extensive cross-sector experience in hospitality, e-commerce, fintech, and financial services, she excels at driving innovative strategies and fostering long-term client relationships, ensuring a dynamic and successful business development environment.
Her expertise in communicating complex financial concepts has not only built trust and engagement with clients but has also positioned her as an influential thought leader in alternative investments. Stephanie's creative problem-solving capabilities have resulted in successful initiatives across her various roles, particularly in driving operational efficiencies and enhancing value creation for firms she has been part of.
Under her leadership at HarbourVest Partners, Stephanie played a crucial role in expanding their co-investment strategies, reinforcing the importance of collaborative investment approaches in today's fast-evolving financial markets. Her contributions significantly impacted client satisfaction and retention, elevating the company's standing in the competitive asset management landscape.
With an extensive network built through her career, Stephanie remains dedicated to mentoring rising talent in finance and supporting initiatives that promote diversity and inclusion in the sector. Her longstanding commitment to professional excellence, combined with her adept adaptability in various market scenarios, keeps her at the forefront of the industry, as she continues to inspire others while leading successful financial strategies.
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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
- 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.
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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.
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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.