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

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.

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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

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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/

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Where to find Varun:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vaanand/
• Twitter/X: https://x.com/vxanand

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Where to find Brett:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-berson-9986094/
• Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/brettberson

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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

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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