Is anyone using a similar tech stack? I’m looking to avoid pitfalls I am working with an early stage startup and we’re in the process of consolidating their disparate systems into a single source of truth. These are the functions/tools we use
cold calling/apollo
list building/sales nav&clay
Meeting recording/ granola
Crm/attio
Linkedin DMs for warm intros/ kondo
We’re hesitant to invest too much into clay and do too many workflows until we have everything integrated together. So far none of the systems speak together
That’s smart Clay can centralize data but doesn’t natively sync with all those tools, so you’ll need webhooks or Zapier to connect them until native integrations or Attio syncs are available.
and yes, the above are good things to consider.
Thanks all. Willy H. good shout. I specifically'm fractional earlystage GTM generalist. My client is a vSoftware business that sells a commercial due diligence tool into management consultant firms that do commercial due diligence for private equity firms Pre-seed. Existing processes are slim. My main objective is fill top of funnel. In the process I'm trying to prepare the business to leave founder led sales and bring on specialists
Let me know what other context is relevant or helpful for you
makes sense -- wanna jam?
That’s a really solid early-stage GTM stack 👏. A few of us have run something similar, and the biggest pitfalls tend to come from data sync and ownership rather than tool choice. Here are a few lessons from experience:
Use Clay as your enrichment & orchestration layer, not your CRM. Keep Attio as the source of truth and pipe enriched data into it via API or CSV syncs.
Standardize IDs early (email, domain, or LinkedIn URL). That’s what’ll keep Apollo, Clay, and Attio aligned.
Avoid duplicating workflows across tools. Let Apollo handle cold calling and Clay handle sourcing — don’t try to overlap.
Document your flow. Early clarity on “who owns what data and where it lives” will save you a massive headache later when integrations get messy.
If you wire Clay → Attio with a simple automation, it can still give you clean, enriched contact info without risking duplicate systems.
What usually creates friction here isn’t the tools themselves, but how early data ownership and flow get defined. With a stack like this, the biggest pitfalls tend to be fragmented sources of truth and logic spread across too many automations before volume even shows up. A pattern that’s worked well in similar setups is keeping Attio as the single source of truth, letting Apollo and Clay focus on sourcing and enrichment, and avoiding heavy workflow logic early. Standardizing IDs (domain, email, LinkedIn URL) upfront makes a huge difference in keeping cold, warm, and inbound motions aligned. If you want to move forward without over-investing yet, a lightweight real-time sync between Attio and the rest of the stack can help keep data consistent without building fragile Zapier/Make chains. Some teams do this with tools like Stacksync, where changes in Attio are reflected automatically in downstream tools (and vice versa) without embedding business logic into multiple workflows. That keeps the CRM authoritative while reducing long-term integration debt as the team scales.
