About
25 years experience helping build and lead three great software companies: Macromedia…
Articles by David
Activity
8K followers
-
David Mendels shared thisGreat write up on Agenda Hero! I recommend this app. (Disclosure, I am an investor.) https://lnkd.in/gr6BF8Xv Agenda Hero Caren Cioffi
-
David Mendels reposted thisDavid Mendels reposted thisDo you dream of a more peaceful future? We do! We believe that entrepreneurs can help us get there, one step at a time. Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon are doing exactly that. They bring everything they learned building successful businesses to a far more audacious project: building a peaceful future. They approach the future in the region the way founders approach anything: not waiting for politicians to sign an agreement, but working to make one inevitable. Please join us on Thursday Aug 13, 2026 as Aziz and Maoz join Our Generation Speaks (OGS) CEO, Heidi Rosbe, in conversation. You’ll want to hear their insights into what we can all do to build a better future together, what helped them build successful ventures in rapidly changing environments, along with how they grapple with grief and painful losses of beloved family members. https://lnkd.in/eHjx-9RsWelcome! You are invited to join a webinar: A Conversation with Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar.Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: A Conversation with Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar.
-
David Mendels reposted thisDavid Mendels reposted thisThank you Senators Creem and Mike Barrett for today's valuable hearing on the cuts to MassSave proposed by the MA House. Department of Energy Resources (DOER) Commissioner Elizabeth Mahony joined clean energy experts, contractors, affordable housing developers, and policy experts at a virtual Senate hearing today to defend the value of the nation-leading Mass Save program and warn against a proposal to slash $1 billion from the program’s budget and redirect 70% of Alternative Compliance Payments (ACPs) away from clean energy investments. A recording of the hearing can be accessed here: https://lnkd.in/e-5MTrYu
-
David Mendels reposted thisDavid Mendels reposted this📣 BDC’s Momentum Q1 | 2026 report is now available, with new data and other insights on how heat pump market momentum and rising gas costs are reshaping what households pay for energy. https://lnkd.in/gMNHZdsW Highlights from this quarter’s report include: 📈 Market momentum: Heat pumps outsold gas furnaces for the fourth year in a row in 2025 and outsold air conditioners for the first time ever in September 2025. 💲Gas system costs and affordability: In 2025, gas bills rose 60% faster than electric bills, and four times faster than the rate of inflation. Gas utility spending on distribution infrastructure has also more than tripled since 2010. ➡️Utility regulation and the shift away from gas expansion: States are beginning to unwind financial incentives for new gas expansion by eliminating gas line extension subsidies. ⚡ State action to scale equitable electrification: Minnesota, California, Massachusetts, New York, and other states are launching or considering new policies to accelerate their transitions to affordable, clean heat and cooling. Read the full report: https://lnkd.in/gMNHZdsW #BuildingDecarb #HeatPump #ThermalEnergyNetwork #NeighborhoodScale #FutureofGas #FutureofHeat #Utility #BuildingDecarbonization #BuildingElectrification #EnergyAffordability
-
David Mendels reposted thisDavid Mendels reposted thisPretty interesting new polling released today: views of data centers dramatically increase favorability when powered by clean energy. Voters *support* data centers powered by clean energy by a +25 point margin and strongly *oppose* those powered by fossil fuels by a -16 point margin. https://lnkd.in/gXjbueXa
-
David Mendels shared thisCool to see my former talented Brightcove colleagues Caren Cioffi and Tara Ryan, CPC featured in the Globe with their AI start-ups. (I’m an investor in Agenda Hero where Caren is CEO.) Smiling about the incredible concentration of super smart and nice people I got to work with for those years. https://lnkd.in/eS3fi_UbA working mom summons her ChatGPT superpowers - The Boston GlobeA working mom summons her ChatGPT superpowers - The Boston Globe
-
David Mendels reposted thisDavid Mendels reposted thisMy prediction is simple: 2026 is the year calendars join this century. The calendar touches everyone on the planet. Every continent, language, time zone, and device. Even newborns have appointments and schedules. The calendar is what brings us together. Yet despite being 25 years into the 21st century, calendars have been stuck in 1999. It's not for lack of trying. I can't tell you the number of founders who've reached out since learning we're building Agenda Hero, genuinely rooting for us because they tried to solve this problem and couldn't. Why has this been so hard? It turns out, Dates & Times are technically complex. Time zones, daylight savings, recurring events, just for starters. Unlike text-based docs, calendars contain structured data. This is why you’ve been forced to fill out a form every single time you create an event: Title, Date, Start Time, End Time, Location, Description. Calendars also sit at a unique intersection. Time is both spatial and structured. We’ve had beautiful calendar designs that have unstructured text, and we've had ugly structured blocks of time that aren’t beautiful. Calendars deserve to intelligently combine data and design, to be both structured and beautiful. One thing is clear: We shouldn't be spending so much time managing time. Calendars are deeply human. They represent what we choose to do with our time, who we spend it with, and where we go. They represent our most valuable resource: TIME. We should spend less time working on our calendars and more time enjoying what's in them. So what's changed? Why now? AI is the obstacle remover, the magic igniter that allows unstructured information to become structured without the field filling, without the form filling, without the tedious effort. We launched Agenda Hero Magic two years ago, and the world loves it. Agenda Hero has been trusted with over a million calendar events. People everywhere are united in our disdain for manual calendar work. But we're just getting started. In 2026, we will have the first comprehensive AI Platform for Dates & Times. - AI Calendar Events - AI Collaborative Calendars - AI Calendar Polls - AI Calendar Printables - AI Calendar Pages Agenda Hero is the first AI Platform for Dates and Times. I imagine this is what it felt like when spreadsheets were first introduced. People struggled through manual calculations, not realizing there was a better way. We're inventing a better way for Dates & Times. I see a future where there will be Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Dates. Join us for one of the world's most obviously needed innovations that's been too technically hard, until now. Calendars, welcome to the 21st century. People are going to love you.
-
David Mendels reposted thisDavid Mendels reposted thisOne of the things that gives me optimism these days is that we managed to sit together, Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza, and Jews from across Israel, and build a real product in a single weekend. A product that enables authentic communication (through a bot, admittedly. Be patient). This happened as part of a hackathon by Our Generation Speaks (OGS), an organization that promotes joint Palestinian-Jewish entrepreneurship. Not just talk. Not panels. Actual building. Before OGS, the only Palestinians I had met were during my army service. That wasn’t a friendly context. On the other side, for many of them, their main interaction with Jews was at checkpoints. When you look at things as groups versus groups, it’s easy to hate. Everything turns into one faceless block. But when you work together on something concrete, and momentarily put aside the “look what they did to us” narrative, one-on-one suddenly has names, personal stories, and listening. That’s exactly what we tried to build into the product. I’ll never forget a personal conversation with a woman from Nablus who told me about a soldier who took her grandfather’s prayer beads. If someone did that to my grandfather, I’d be angry too. For her, that meant “IDF soldiers.” For me, it was an exception. When you talk about armies and nations, things become complex, full of fear and hatred. When you talk one person to another, there’s a moment of humanity. What really surprised me isn’t that it worked. It’s how fast it happened. Not 100% baked, but not bad. I’d really appreciate feedback on the product (link in the comments). — For those for whom this is professionally relevant: OGS is currently looking for entrepreneurs, product and tech people, up to age 32. Applications are open until January 4. The program includes funding for a three-month stay in Boston and the opportunity for a $50,000 investment. (the photos are from a few years ago - a mutual trip to Jordan + a screenshot from the bot)
-
David Mendels reposted thisDavid Mendels reposted thisThere’s no better feeling than people discovering what you’re building, and loving it so much, they share it with the world. JR Raphael has shared Agenda Hero with the world, highlighting us as a Cool Tool in The Intelligence, with the most beautiful write-up I could possibly imagine. “Today’s Cool Tools discovery is a new and improved sliver of sorcery that swipes away all the effort from those sorts of situations and makes managing your calendar laughably easy — no matter what sorts of events you encounter. It might even, dare I say, be more useful than those futuristic robots.” Every person in our company took turns reading the article out loud, in awe of how well JR captured the magic. I would love it if you’d give it a read (link in comments) and share it. Because Agenda Hero Magic really can help everyone. 💜 Thank you, JR Raphael!
-
David Mendels liked thisDavid Mendels liked thisBig career update: after spending the past year working in Developer Relations at Resilient Coders, I’m excited to share that I’ve been promoted to Forward Deployed Engineer, GTM! I’ve been part of the RC community well beyond this past year, so getting to take this next step here means a lot to me. My path into engineering wasn’t exactly traditional. I came into tech after years in enterprise sales, bringing with me a community-first mindset and experience understanding people, problems, and what actually makes something useful. I carried that mindset with me as I learned full stack development, went deeper into ML, and started taking on work across engineering, community, partnerships, and GTM. Over time, I found myself building more of the systems behind that work too: internal tools, CRM workflows, automations, agents, and processes that help our team move faster and scale. The more I took on, the more I realized I didn’t have to choose between the technical side of my career and the people-facing side that came before it. That combination is the job. As a Forward Deployed Engineer, I’ll get to do more of both: understand what teams need, build solutions around them, and help scale the tools and systems behind our work. Resilient Coders has played an important part in my growth in tech. Its commitment to equity, access, and opening doors for people this industry has historically overlooked is a big part of why I care so much about the work we do here. I’m grateful to everyone here who has trusted me to learn and take on more responsibility over time. I’m excited to keep building in this new role. #ResilientCoders #ForwardDeployedEngineer #DeveloperRelations #SoftwareEngineering
-
David Mendels liked thisDavid Mendels liked thisThe California Legislature just passed the Home Energy Choice Act (AB 2313), which requires gas utilities to offer customers the option to electrify their home instead of getting their old gas service line replaced with the help of funds that would otherwise have been spent on pipeline replacement. Huge thanks to Assemblymember Berman for authoring this bill, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) for being terrific co-sponsors with Earthjustice and the over 100 groups that supported this effort! The bill is now before Governor Newsom for his signature. https://lnkd.in/gUGkzBx5
-
David Mendels liked thisDavid Mendels liked thisI'm a learner at heart. When something new shows up in this industry, my first instinct isn't to have an opinion about it, it's to want to know what actually happens when people use it. With AI dubbing, that data mostly hasn't existed yet. Now some of it does. 3Play Media published numbers this week from our YouTube dubbing work: over 30 million hours watched, and across 8 languages in a two month period, the AI-voiced local dubs held 24% higher average view duration than the original English. Higher than the source language ( ‼️ ) The industry conversation has been stuck on whether audiences will tolerate AI voices. While that debate has been running, YouTube has been conditioning the largest global audience in the world to expect dubbed content and to embrace AI voices when they're done well. That audience isn't staying on YouTube. Netflix's latest engagement report listed Ms. Rachel's first season as the No. 9 most-watched program on the service in the period, and Netflix keeps signing more creators. The viewers that broadcasters and streamers want are already being shaped on YouTube. Creators moved first because they follow the data. If a language underperforms the source, they stop investing in it. The data also shows that none of this works if the dub is bad. Our linguists shape voice, tone, timing, and cultural adaptation throughout the workflow, and that's the reason these numbers exist at all. So the question I'm carrying into the fall is who tips next, and when. I'll be at IBC - International Broadcasting Convention in Amsterdam September 11-14 at stand 14.D64, where we're showing how we tune dubbing to the goals and performance needs of different content types. If you'll be there, DM me. I'd love to hear how other teams are thinking about this. Full data in the comments!
-
David Mendels liked thisDavid Mendels liked this"In a two month period across 8 languages, we saw our AI-voiced local dubs achieve 24% higher average view duration than the original English tracks. These aren't just AI dubs, these are dubs voiced by AI with expert linguists refining the performance and adaptation for each target language. YouTube audiences are discerning and the data we've been unearthing from our experience gives us confidence that the audience is ready for more media to be adapted with ai voices directed by humans.
-
David Mendels liked thisDavid Mendels liked thisToday is a big day. JR Raphael, one of the world's best tech journalists, wrote what I can only describe (from my founder's perspective) as poetry about Agenda Hero in The Intelligence. JR uses Agenda Hero regularly in his own life and shares how it's the type of tech that makes a difference. "It actually makes your life easier, in other words — and it’s delightfully easy to use, both for you and for anyone you’re sharing with." What JR is writing about: you can now build a calendar of the dates you want to share and send it to anyone. They see those dates and only those dates, and they can add all of it to their own calendar, or print it, in a couple of clicks. Go show JR some love, and read how Agenda Hero is making calendar magic for everyday people. For the real world. Link in the comments. To the moon!
-
David Mendels liked thisMy kids got the hats. I got the Constitution. I’m still not sure who got the better takeaway from my recent visit to Anthropic. 😊 I was fortunate to spend some time at Anthropic and came home with a copy of Claude’s Constitution, which has been a fascinating read. Meanwhile, my kids scored “thinking” hats, which they are now slightly obsessed with. Somewhere between reading about the enormous amount of thought going into how Claude should reason, exercise judgment and act responsibly - and watching my kids proudly walk around in hats reminding them to think (an essential reminder for boys aged 11 & 13) - I found myself reflecting on something. As we teach AI to exercise better judgment, we need to make sure we aren’t exercising less of our own. The more capable these tools become, the easier it is to hand over not just the work, but the thinking. And that creates an interesting responsibility for leaders. We should absolutely encourage people to use AI to move faster, explore ideas, challenge assumptions and eliminate work that doesn’t need to be done by a human. And at the same time, we need to build organizations where judgment, curiosity and critical thinking become more important, not less. Making AI stick isn’t just about getting people to use it. It’s about helping people understand how to use it well - when to lean on it, when to question it, and when their own judgment needs to take over. AI should help us think better. It shouldn’t give us permission to stop thinking. Although judging by how often these two are wearing their new hats, I think they may already have gotten the message. 😉
-
David Mendels liked thisGreat write up on Agenda Hero! I recommend this app. (Disclosure, I am an investor.) https://lnkd.in/gr6BF8Xv Agenda Hero Caren Cioffi
Experience & Education
Languages
-
Japanese
-
Recommendations received
2 people have recommended David
Join now to viewOther similar profiles
Explore more posts
-
Jeff James Martin
"We've become so insular in who we talk to and listen to, and I didn't realize how much that was keeping me in tunnel vision and tunnel thinking." Seth Levine, Co-Author of Capital Evolution and Partner at Foundry, talks about seeking out more diversity of thought on Tech Scenes Unplugged. #venturebacked #vcbacked #venturecapital #leadership #ceo #founder #operatingsystem #peakOS #foundermode
1 Comment -
Effie Carlson
Rural healthcare doesn’t need shiny tools or good intentions. It needs durable infrastructure, workforce investment, and tech that fits reality—not possibility. We have a moment to leverage the changes and engage in a bit of systems thinking, but I'm worried the compressed timelines will put states in a "use it or lose it" headspace, with the potential of an unexpected bill in year six for the parts of our community that already struggle with sustainability. What do you think? Will the speed finally shake loose the innovation and new money these communities need, or be another moment where we funded first, aimed after, and missed the target? Would love your thoughts. Fast Company Fast Company Impact Council
1 Comment
Explore top content on LinkedIn
Find curated posts and insights for relevant topics all in one place.
View top content