Marketing Stunts That Helped this AI Company Raise $100M

7 Dec 2025 · 27 min
Episode

7 Dec 2025 · 27 min

0:00

Varun Anand, CEO of Clay, talks about the AI company's unconventional marketing moves, including city billboards and a full-time claymation artist, that helped it raise $100M. Clay started as a self-filling spreadsheet and evolved into a go-to-market platform used by OpenAI, Rippling, and Vanta. The company hires new grads through a rotational Wheel program and employs a "schemer in residence" named Jessica.

Questions this episode answers

September 30, 2025, live in San Francisco at HubSpot Inbound.

A ~$3.1 billion valuation; investment referenced from Google's growth fund and Sequoia.

As "a spreadsheet that would fill itself."

The Wheel.

A roughly five-person brand team and a full-time claymation artist; a "schemer in residence" role (Jessica).

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