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