Clay

Founding GTM Solutions Engineer

Bardeen

Solutions Engineer

GameChangerSF

Sr. Growth Marketer

Jump 450

EPCVIP, Inc.

BlitzMetrics

Managed a team of media buyers, copywriters, and ad budgets.

Growth Marketing Manager

Managed large Facebook ad campaigns for Golden State Warriors, Ashley Furniture, and Purple Mattress.

Sr. Media Buyer, Performance Marketing

Copywriter

Draper University

Entrepreneur-in-Residence

TYLT Ventures

VC Analyst

Product & Growth at Bardeen.ai ($15M Series A from HubSpot, Insight, & 468Cap) I share automations you can use for work & life

3 reasons you should read my LinkedIn profile & connect:

1. I enjoy helping others 
2. I love to collaborate and discussing fresh ideas around GTM, AI, and CLAY!
3. I’ve helped 500+ businesses implement AI, nocode, and Clay.

I consider myself a lifelong student and SHARE what I learn.

If you've made it this far. Connect with me here and say hello. 
I love to chat all things tech, social media, fitness, or AI. 
If Twitter is more your thing tweet me at: @chrisviglietta

Chris Viglietta

Want to automatically monitor brand mentions and competitors on Reddit?

That's what I'm covering in this week's newsletter

Don't miss it - link in my profile 👆

Want to monitor brand mentions & competitors on Reddit?

Here's how with Clay:

Full video below.

As a bonus, use GummySearch to find top subreddits for your niche. This tool is pretty slick and I enjoy using it. I only wish that I could use it more!

You can find the template and guide in my newsletter

link in my profile 👆

Want to monitor brand mentions & competitors on Reddit?

Here's how with Clay:

I just shared the workflow in today's newsletter:

link in my profile 👆

i'm in SF this week

who from the clay community is in town?

shoot me a dm or comment here 

idk how this will turn out

let's see!

such an interesting breakdown of GTM plays by Kyle Poyar!

I'm curious:

1. what intent triggers do people want?
2. what signals are people struggling to setup?

Alex Lindahl

Limited Partner

GTM Development Environment use by OpenAI, Anthropic, Square, and many others

GTM Engineer

Companyon Ventures

Venture Partner

Claymation

The fastest growing newsletter on GTM Engineering: claymation.io 

Workflows, templates, automation guides, and AI for GTM every week.

Writer

Preface Ventures

Cake

Angel Investor

Rewind AI

Personalized AI powered by everything you're seen, said, or heard.

Appsmith

Career Break

Chainguard

Enterprise Account Executive

Digraph

AI-powered Infrastructure as Code security platform.

Angel Investor (Acquired by Datadog)

Chainguard | Secure-by-default Containers

Early GTM / Sales hire (Series A) at 4 unicorns: Acquia ($1B), Snyk ($8B), Chainguard $1B), Clay ($1.3B)

I write 2 newsletters on GTM Workflows + AI in Sales: claymation.io and theaugmentedseller.com. 

These cover templates, step-by-step guides, AI workflows, and automations every week:

🛠️ How to build with Clay & AI
🚀 How the best GTM & Sales teams use AI
💡 How to built no-code automations & workflows
🕵️‍♂️ The newest GTM tech to modernize
🎨 The latest claymation artwork

Some of my Angel Investments incude:

- Digraph (Acquired by DataDog)
- Dooly.ai (backed by BoldStart)
- AppSmith.com (backed by Insight Partners, Accel)
- Rewind.ai (backed by Andreesen Horowitz)
- Cake.ai (backed by Primary Ventures)
- 

Venture Capital:

- Limited Partner, Preface Ventures
- Venture Partner, Companyon Ventures

GTM Advisory:

- Endor Labs
- Spiky.ai

Community:

- Underscore.vc Sales Core
- Boston College SSV Venture Partner

Regional Sales Director

Founded by the industry's leading experts on open source software, security and cloud native development, we are on a mission to make the software supply chain secure by default

I recently caught up with Andreessen Horowitz on GTM in the AI era.

As GTM Engineer at Clay, I'm witnessing how buyers and selling motions are changing & adapting.

Partners Seema Amble and James da Costa summed up these changes really well in their recent post:

"𝘕𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘚𝘱𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘈𝘐 𝘚𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘴: 𝘈𝘐 𝘋𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘑𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘚𝘦𝘭𝘭. 𝘐𝘵 𝘈𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘴 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘚𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘐𝘵.”

Some of my favorite, most useful takeaways to think about in GTM: 

💰 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲'𝘀 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝘆𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁, 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻.

It's no longer just about "what you do" and its becoming way more important to show "how quickly and reliably you do it it."

⏳  𝗕𝘂𝘆𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗔𝗜 𝗻𝗼𝘄, 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲'𝘀 𝘁𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗙𝗢𝗠𝗢 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗽𝗲𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀.

This means that speed of deployment and value creation needs to be faster than ever.

According to another one a16z's surveys: 𝟳𝟬 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗯𝘂𝘆𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗱𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝗳𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗔𝗜 𝘃𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗼𝗿𝘀.

🔒  𝗧𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱𝘀.

Software used to be just a conduit to something else (Airbnb helps you find houses to book), but now tech/AI is the product.

This means that trust needs go from "𝘄𝗲 𝗹𝗼𝗴 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘀 𝗱𝗼 𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝗼𝗳𝘁𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲" to "𝘄𝗲 𝗱𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗵𝗼𝘄."

📖  𝗕𝘂𝘆𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳 𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗴𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗱𝗲𝗲𝗽𝗲𝗿.

You need to come to the table with:

• A stronger, more thought out point of view
• A personalized demo that gets to a 'light bulb' moment faster
• Need to show tangible value earlier (before the traditional POC)

⚙️  𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹

"Instead of understanding the people using your software, AEs need to understand the technical details of how agents will actually do the work of humans."

At Clay, we collapsed the AE & Solution Engineering roles to provide a better customer experience and to help with points 1-4. We're called GTM Engineers.

👷‍♀️  𝗙𝗼𝗿𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗱𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗱 𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 & 𝗳𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀. 

AI-native success teams work directly with customers to design prompt logic and data integrations while passing feedback to GTM and product teams. 

Decagon calls this an Agent PM; 
Harvey calls it a Solutions Architect.
Clay calls them Growth Strategist

Check out the post for more insights in the comments.

GTM Engineer | VC Scout | GTM Engineering Newsletter: claymation.io

Want to land one of today's hottest new GTM roles?

There's 261 open GTM Engineer jobs today on the new Claymation.io job board. (V1 more to come...)

I teamed up with Rafael Guerreiro 🚀 who is building Sentrion, a new jobs data provider that aggregates job openings from over 230 job boards.

He built the app for me that uses:

1. Sentrion that aggregates over 230 job boards as a data provider
2. Clay as a backend
3. Replit as the app builder

The job board is updated daily and you can find it on Claymation.io.

Open jobs are pretty interesting because they can tell you a ton about what's happening in the company:

✅ Jobs to be done
✅ Tech stack composition
✅ Job functions are scaling
✅ Skills that are needed
✅ Technology investments
✅ Geographic expansions
✅ Problems the company is solving

Still need to make some improvements to the board... more coming soon!

Joining a startup can make or delay your career. How do you effectively evaluate? Last night, leaders from Clay , Cursor , Kleiner Perkins & Sensei Agent shared strategies to determine what's worth joining + likelihood of a startup achieving breakout success. 👇️ 

𝟭. 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗦𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁

✅️ Validate market loves the tool, not just tolerates it. How strong is PLG?

✅️ Look for "𝗥𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗱 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗿𝗲": Do users base have intense, fanatical love for the product? Ex: sentiment around Clay and Cursor & early days of Gong or dbt Labs .

✅️ The "𝗧-𝗦𝗵𝗶𝗿𝘁" 𝗧𝗲𝘀𝘁: Do people wear the brand? Are they posting organically?

✅️ Conduct 𝗥𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗖𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘀: Call many users/ current employees. Nothing bad to say = strong signal of PMF.

𝟮. 𝗔𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 "𝗠𝗼𝗮𝘁" 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗗𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆

Liam Mulcahy, a Partner at Kleiner Perkins shared his framework to assess product stickiness + potential longevity. Pillars of durability:

🎯 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗳𝗹𝗼𝘄𝘀: Does the product fundamentally change how work gets done (10x faster/easier)?

🎯 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀: How deeply does it hook into existing tech stacks? More roots = harder to rip out.

🎯 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝘅𝘁: Does product build a unique context window based on the user's data?

𝟯. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 "𝗩𝗶𝗯𝗲 𝗖𝗵𝗲𝗰𝗸" (𝗖𝗿𝘂𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀)

For sales, a BIG risk is joining technical founders who view sales as a necessary evil rather vs strategic partner.

𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗰 𝘃. 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆: Determine if the founder is hiring sales b/c they genuinely believe it accelerates growth, or b/c "the board told them"

𝗥𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲: In early-stage startups (Seed/Series A), the 1st sales hires should report directly to the Founder/CEO. Anything else = "canary in the coal mine" that you will not be empowered.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 "𝗥𝗶𝗱𝗲-𝗔𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴" 𝗧𝗲𝘀𝘁: Ask how involved the founders are in closing deals.

🟢 Good Sign: They join calls, take coaching from the rep, and actively try to drive the deal.

🔴 Bad Sign: They show up, multitask, or steamroll the rep with "founder magic" without following a process.

𝟰. 𝗘𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹 "𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗧𝗶𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗲"

Assess relationship between Engineering/Product and Sales.

𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝟭𝘀𝘁-𝗖𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀 𝗖𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗲𝗻: When was the last time engineering shipped a feature based specifically from sales feedback. If they can't answer, the teams are siloed.

𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀: Ask if you will have access to usage data (PLG data). If sales is walled off from seeing how users are actually utilizing the tool, you are flying blind.

𝗧𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗗𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘁𝘆: Who is joining? Top performers from other successful companies? High talent density usually indicates smart people have already done due diligence.

Thanks to Chris Balestras for hosting and to Becca Lindquist, Allegra Hensley, Liam Mulcahy, & Zach Lagod for sharing wisdom

No alternative text description for this image

There's a phrase in Thailand... "same same, but different"

Cool to see the GTME community taking off 🚀

𝗚𝗧𝗠 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗜 𝗘𝗿𝗮. Enter GTM Engineering. The same applies to VC, which is 1 reason Primary Venture Partners and I co-hosted the first "𝗚𝗧𝗠 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝗩𝗖" meetup last week.

𝗪𝗲 𝘄𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗮 𝗳𝗲𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀:

1. How venture capital firms are using Clay and other tools

Deal sourcing
Network monitoring
Portfolio tracking
Recruiting
TAM sourcing
Platform differentiation
Founder tracking (when they leave companies)
Fundraising & LP Identification

2. Why Primary Venture Partners is building a GTME practice

3. Demo: How to use Clay to analyze startups & founders of YC F25 at scale

4. Demo: How to layer AI on top of a Clay table for an 'AI Analyst'

5. Demo: How to setup signals from Reddit, X, RSS feeds, and other sources

6. New tools that VCs are recommending to their portfolio companies

Someone asked why I wanted to put this on. Honestly, it's just a lot of fun and enjoy working with folks who are building on the frontier of what's new + possible.

Special thanks to Jason Gelman, Joe L., and Jordan Fox for hosting! You guys are awesome and excited to do more!

Thinking about the next one in SF and/or Boston in the coming months.

Give me a shout if you're in venture and interested to join the next one.

I'll be sharing more of what I demo'd in upcoming @Claymation.io posts.

GTM Engineering in Venture Capital Use Cases

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