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Sumaiya N.
Product & Strategy Leader | Product Management & Growth-PLG | AI driven B2B & B2C Products | 40Under40 | ex-IBM | Startup Advisor | Fulbright Scholar | Advisory Board Member, Judge, Coach & Speaker | Views are my own
Professional Background
Sumaiya N. is an outcome-driven professional renowned for her contributions at the intersection of technology, strategy, and product development. With extensive experience working across various sectors, she has a profound impact on organizations and governments by harnessing exponential technologies to facilitate business transformation and foster growth. Sumaiya excels in developing and delivering customer-centric products that address the unique pain points of clientele, enhancing their overall experience. Her career journey reflects a strong commitment to innovation and excellence.
With a robust history of collaboration, Sumaiya has successfully managed teams across six continents, drawing from her experience living on four different continents. This global footprint, combined with her C-suite leadership experience, gives her a unique perspective on driving innovation within both Fortune 100 companies and dynamic startups. She has effectively led and supported cross-functional teams to achieve innovative solutions that lead to high-growth outcomes.
As a Fulbright scholar—one of the most prestigious and competitive scholarship programs in the world—Sumaiya achieved her MS and MBA in International Business, Strategy, and Human Resources from Purdue University, where she graduated in the top 10%. She has further augmented her expertise with certifications in Product Management, Digital Strategy, and significant hands-on experience as a software engineer. Her technical proficiency covers an array of transformative areas, including Cloud applications, AI, IoT, as well as SaaS products tailored for diverse markets.
Education and Achievements
Sumaiya’s educational background showcases her commitment to learning and growth. She holds an MS and MBA in International Business, Strategy, and Human Resources from the esteemed Purdue University, where she distinguished herself as a Fulbright Scholar and graduated in the top 10% of her class. Additionally, she further studied Digital Strategy, Transformation, and Entrepreneurship at INSEAD, benefiting from employer-sponsored programs that align academic pursuits with practical implementations.
Her academic journey included studying Business Operations and Management Information Systems at the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) and completing the Fulbright Pre-Academic Program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Sumaiya also earned a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer and Software Engineering, concentrating on Artificial Intelligence and Electronics from the National University of Modern Languages (NUML).
Her remarkable credentials and commitment to education make her a role model for aspiring professionals, particularly in the tech and business sectors.
Notable Roles and Contributions
Throughout her career, Sumaiya has held influential positions, underpinning her extensive experience and expertise. She has served as a Fractional VP of Product & Engineering at Mpowa and not too long ago was the Chief Product Officer at Confinity. Sumaiya was also a Google Women Techmakers Ambassador, actively supporting and empowering women in technology, an initiative vital to addressing gender disparities in tech.
Beyond these roles, Sumaiya has dedicated significant time to education and mentorship, having been a Faculty member for the Graduate Business Program at NUST. Her excellence as a speaker has seen her commanding stages at notable forums, including a presentation at the US State Department to delegates from 47 countries, alongside members of Congress. Furthermore, she spoke at the prestigious Grace Hopper Conference, attended by over 30,000 global technologists.
In her various roles as an advisor, public speaker, and jury member, she has made substantial contributions to startup ecosystems and large enterprises. Her previous positions include Senior Advisor for Product & Growth strategies in technology startups and Chief Product Strategy Officer at letus (formerly RentMoola). Her understanding of product management extends from artificial intelligence to digital transformation, establishing her as a sought-after expert in the areas of product development, customer experience, and operational strategy.
Community Involvement and Advocacy
Passionate about uplifting others, Sumaiya champions women's rights, education, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. She embodies the philosophy of continuous learning and actively promotes the empowerment of women through her various speaking engagements and mentoring efforts. Her grit and humility have allowed her to overcome adversity, demonstrating that background doesn't define one's path but rather the commitment to grow and impact others positively.
As an avid supporter of human rights, Sumaiya has not only developed significant insights into technology but also deeply understands the importance of maintaining a focus on human elements within business transformations. Her work aligns with her belief that in the end, we all transition into stories, and she actively participates in creating narratives that inspire and uplift communities around the world.
Specialties and Skills
Sumaiya possesses a suite of specialties that contribute to her success in product strategy and development, operational leadership, and customer experience. Her skill set includes:
- Product Strategy and Development: Adept at guiding products from idea conception through market fit and implementation across varying maturity stages.
- Human-Centered Design: Focused on user experience to solve customer pain points and enhance satisfaction through design thinking methodologies.
- AI & Digital Strategy: Extensive knowledge of transformative technologies and digital frameworks that empower organizations to innovate.
- People Management and Leadership Skills: A strong advocate for talent acquisition and operational strategy, fostering growth and collaboration among diverse teams.
Conclusion
Sumaiya N.'s journey is a testament to her commitment to excellence in product development and her passion for empowering people. With her global experience, rich educational background, and dedication to driving positive change, she continues to lead initiatives that blend technology with impactful human narratives. As she seeks opportunities to further elevate customer-centric solutions and collaborative strategies, her mantra remains to uplift others while fostering innovation and growth across all sectors.
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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.