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Episode description
Inside Clay's unconventional path to $1.25B: Rethinking GTM, pricing, and enterprise sales | Varun Anand (Co-founder and Head of Operations)
In Depth
Jan 23, 2025
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1 hr 3 min
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Episode description
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
Inside Clay's unconventional path to $1.25B: Rethinking GTM, pricing, and enterprise sales | Varun Anand (Co-founder and Head of Operations) | In Depth podcast - Listen or read transcript on Metacast
