First Block: Interview with Varun Anand, Co-Founder of Clay

First Block: Interview with Varun Anand, Co-Founder of Clay

From Notion Podcast by Notion

July 22, 2025 · 28 min · Season 2 · Episode 2

About this episode

Varun Anand discusses his journey with Clay and insights on navigating the startup landscape.

Welcome to First Block, a Notion series where founders from the world’s leading companies tell us what it was like to navigate the many firsts of their startup journey — and what they learned from that experience. In this episode, we spoke with Varun Anand, Co-founder of Clay, one of the most exciting companies at the intersection of GTM and AI that’s redefining what modern go-to-market looks like. Varun shares insights on the journey to finding product-market fit, how Clay went from horizontal spreadsheet tool to specialized go-to-market platform, and why following your curiosity matters more than traditional startup wisdom. For video, transcripts, and custom Notion Clay templates, please visit: https://ntn.so/7i8hzv To learn more about how Notion is supporting startups, please visit: https://ntn.so/udg5vz Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:20 Finding PMF 07:48 Reverse Demo Strategy 10:50 Scaling with Intent 16:04 Reinventing Sales Roles 19:58 Hiring for Potential 21:48 Clay's Operating Culture 23:56 AI Pressure 25:37 Advice Block

People in this episode

Host: Notion

Guest: Varun Anand

Topics covered

  • startup journey
  • product-market fit
  • go-to-market strategy
  • AI
  • hiring
  • company culture

Keywords

  • startup
  • product-market fit
  • go-to-market
  • AI
  • hiring
  • company culture
  • entrepreneurship

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Clay

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