In Depth

Inside Clay's unconventional path to $1.25B: Rethinking GTM, pricing, and enterprise sales | Varun Anand (Co-founder and Head of Operations)


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Varun Anand is the co-founder and Head of Operations at Clay, a GTM development environment that combines data and AI to help over 5000 companies power everything from CRM enrichment to highly targeted outreach campaigns. Clay recently announced their Series B expansion, raising $40M at a $1.25B valuation. Before Clay, Varun was the Director of Operations at Newfront and the Head of Expansion at Candid. Varun also spent four years working on Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

In today’s episode, we discuss:

  • Clay’s unconventional GTM machine
  • 3 changes that unlocked Clay's upmarket motion
  • Layering enterprise customers on top of PLG
  • Scrappy sales tactics: WhatsApp groups, Reddit threads, and reverse demos
  • Thinking long-term about brand and content
  • Building an elite team of people who are “technical enough”
  • Clay’s contrarian take on compensation
  • Much more
  • Referenced:

    • Anthropic: https://www.anthropic.com/
    • Clay: https://www.clay.com/
    • Clay’s Series B expansion: https://www.clay.com/blog/series-b-expansion
    • Eric Nowoslawski: https://www.linkedin.com/in/outboundphd/
    • Figma: https://www.figma.com/
    • Jesse Ouellette: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesseoue/
    • Kareem Amin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kareemamin/
    • Nick Merrill: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-merrill-64562310/
    • Notion: https://www.notion.com/
    • Oyster: https://www.oysterhr.com/
    • Pave: https://www.pave.com/
    • Rippling: https://www.rippling.com/
    • Snowflake: https://www.snowflake.com/
    • Verkada: https://www.verkada.com/
    • Webflow: https://webflow.com/
    • Yash Tekriwal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yashtekriwal/
    • Where to find Varun:

      • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vaanand/
      • Twitter/X: https://x.com/vxanand
      • Where to find Brett:

        • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-berson-9986094/
        • Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/brettberson
        • Where to find First Round Capital:

          • Website: https://firstround.com/
          • First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/
          • Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/firstround
          • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRoundCapital
          • This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast
          • Timestamps:

            (00:00) Teaser + Introduction

            (03:13) Turning traditional GTM on its head

            (05:37) How Clay hustled for its first customers: Reddit threads & WhatsApp groups

            (08:53) Unpacking Clay's credit-based pricing

            (14:29) Building Clay's self-serve engine

            (16:54) Why Clay rejected the usage-based model

            (19:04) Clay’s big bet on content

            (23:59) How "reverse demos" win enterprise deals

            (27:49) 3 changes that unlocked Clay's upmarket motion

            (36:59) How to build trust with enterprise buyers

            (38:49) Applying the land and expand model

            (40:40) Hiring people who are “technical enough”

            (46:33) Inside Clay’s hands-on interviewing process

            (48:15) Why Clay invested in brand from day-one

            (50:21) Clay’s contrarian take on compensation

            (58:35) The person who shaped Varun’s career

            ...more
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