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Empowering VCs: How Clay Transforms Capital Sourcing and Engagement

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Hi Clayton’s, Are you like me in disbelief of the power of the Clay - a marketplace for the equally left and right-brained to do and create amazing things. For context and don't judge, I’m a partner in a decent-sized VC Fund that invests in B2B SAAS and looking for advice from you all if you'd be so kind. Perhaps many don’t realize, but it’s a slog in the selling capital business! Most won’t admit it but all VCs /PE are salespeople who sell a commodity product. To execute on the slinging of capital, we have hired thousands of (our equivalent of BDR’s and SDR’s) Analysts and Associates to comb multiple six digit/ per year data sources for “investment opportunities” which are ICP’s. Then, we deploy little or no tech with antiquated cold outreach tactics (you know who you are!) and pretend to “source”. And that's for the most advanced. Clay = game over in every industry and slinging capital/VC included. With many sleepless nights and my new partner Claygent, People Data Labs, we have identified and scores and prioritized them for ICP fit, generated personalized outreach at scale. This old guy (me) and my Claygent have executed the output expectation for a team of 5 (expensive) BDR’s for a year in a month with <100,000 golden nuggets of happiness. I was in a board meeting today basically doing a demo of Clay and built the CRO a lead list. Jaws. Dropped. Adding value! Thanks Claygent that was really cool. Based on that demo, by an old PE guy, yours truly, I hope you have a lot of coins to sell Clay because it’s going to be an avalanche of $ looking for those lovely coins! Anyway, here’s my question that I could use some help. I know that the competition in the slinging capital game would get tremendous value from Clay but they don't know about it. Obviously it would make more difficult the task of selling my already increasingly commoditized product to said ICP and to boot it’s such an anti-thing to do in our industry to share anything let alone best practices on how to find, prioritize and engage our ICP. But that's exactly what I want to do in my bones. I’m like a 5-year-old kindergartner who found a silver dollar over the weekend. I can't wait for show-and-tell on Monday at school. I want my struggling VC/PE frenemies to have the same fun. I know they need it and will find joy in using it to improve their sourcing. I know verbose but should I help them unleash decades of creative thoughts to action and have fun? Any quick thoughts appreciated!

  • Avatar of David G.
    David G.
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    Hi Scott, interesting approach... would love to chat with you about this. I'll DM you.

  • Avatar of Dan K.
    Dan K.
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    Hahaha! Great post Scott! I see a bit of this world as involved in buy side PE advisory and have had the same thoughts. Made me giggle! 🤜🔥🤛 Will DM