Don't Buy Clay.com!

If you were on LinkedIn yesterday or follow The New York Times, you probably saw some posts about Clay.com Series C funding round.

There were rumours circulating some months ago and then yesterday I got notified through Alex Lindahl CLAYMATION newsletter that landed in my inbox.

Alex does a great deep dive into The GTM Engineer role and the new AI-Native Workforce.

It also helps Alex is a GTM Engineer at Clay so the numbers he shared below about Clay are very compelling:

• Number of employees: 180

• Paying customers: 10,000+

• Revenue: $100M by EOY

• GTM Engineering Reddit: 900+

• Clay Clubs around the world: 60

• Dataproviders + Integrations: 150+

• Number of GTM Engineer job openings going live each month: 100+

Before diving into why you shouldn’t buy Clay here are 3 major moves this week that took place across tech and startups that may have been overlooked:

• 🚀 Ramp’s $500M round continues fintech’s enterprise AI push.

• 🔬 MapLight’s $372.5M Series D marks biotech’s growing GTM profile.

• 🛡️ Noma Security and Observe both closed $100M+ rounds—AI and cyber GTM deals are accelerating.

• 🔗 Anaconda, Fullcast, Celigo, and ZoomInfo all made strategic moves, from leadership hires to new product and event launches, shaping what’s next in GTM and SaaS.

Why You Probably Shouldn’t Buy Clay (Yet)

Yes, I run a Clay agency.
And yes – I’m telling you not to buy Clay…at least not yet.

Clay solves a lot of problems. But it won’t fix your GTM motion if:

• You haven’t nailed your ICP

• You don’t know who your personas are

• You haven’t decided what “good” looks like in a lead

• You haven’t tested your assumptions manually and have had success

Do not automate and spend a lot of money working with a Clay agency for the sake of it.

It’s hard when it seems like everyone is doing it so we must do it, too.

Last week someone told me:

“Our ICP is basically…infinite. We can sell to everyone. Like, millions of companies.”

This is red flag number 1.

The truth? You can’t automate what isn’t crystal clear.

Tools That Can Actually Help

One tool we’ve started leaning on is Octave HQ.

Why? Because PEG starts with clarity.

And Octave helps you build clarity around your ICP, personas, value props, and messaging really fast.

How We Use It at Cabot Insights

We have used Octave to build and house structured GTM playbooks:

• Persona briefs — so agents understand who they're targeting and why

• Use case references — so messaging hits relevance on day one

• Product breakdowns — so enrichment and qualification agents can map relevance at scale

This foundation work adds so much clarity and value. What used to take weeks and months of work and reiteration can now be completed in hours.

We haven’t perfected the process yet and still getting familiar with the tool but so far it’s been worthwhile for the playbook development and the qualify agent.

These new developed assets plug directly into Clay:

• ✅ Qualify Person Agent — to confirm if someone fits your ICP before outreach

• ✅ Sequence Agent — to generate personalised messaging using real persona context and real-time research

• ✅ Prospector Agent — to find lookalikes based on what “good” actually looks like

The Impact

We’ve found that using Octave upstream cuts ICP definition time by 50%+ and lets us deploy agents faster — because they’re running off real context, not guesswork.

Think of it like this:

If you’re trying to scale GTM systems but you haven’t clearly developed your playbook yet — this is worth checking out.

For a more detailed overview of what it actually looks like to build a scalable, signal-driven, AI-powered GTM motion that doesn’t depend on adding more headcount read this post:

The Death of Generic GTM: What Top Revenue Leaders Are Doing Differently

When to Buy Clay

1. You’ve Mastered Your Foundations

• ICP & Persona Clarity
  You can describe, in plain English, who your ideal buyer is and ­why they buy.

• Value Prop Defined
  You know the 3–5 core pain points you solve and how to articulate them.

• Basic GTM Signals in Place
  You’re already tracking job changes, funding rounds or web visits in a spreadsheet or simple tool.

• Case Studies

  You have case studies, returning customers and have proven ROI for your clients

Why it matters: Plugging Clay into a half-baked motion just multiplies noise. PEG demands you automate only what you’ve already validated.

2. You’re Ready to Go Beyond Templates

• You need dynamic, persona-driven messaging at scale (not one-size-fits-all cadences).

• You want to swap admin chores—data cleansing, enrichment, basic copywriting—for high-leverage strategy time.

• You’re building a repeatable playbook with clear inputs (signals) and outputs (meetings).

Why it matters: Clay shines when you use it as an orchestration layer—turning real-time ICP context into action without manual handoffs.

3. You’re Committed to the PEG Mindset

• Efficiency > Volume
  You’d rather 3× your pipeline from the same headcount than hire more SDRs.

• Precision > Spray-and-Pray
  You measure success by CAC reduction and meeting-to-opportunity conversion, not by “sequences sent.”

• Systems > Heroics
  You celebrate when your AI agents book meetings, not when your team pulls all-nighters.

Why it matters: Investing in Clay now means investing in your future GTM OS—an engine built for profitable, efficient growth, not just predictable revenue.

Partnering with Cabot Insights

When you partner with us, you get:

1. Playbook Design — We codify your ICP, signals, and value props into a living Octave-backed playbook.

2. Agent Engineering — We build, test, and optimise Clay agents (Qualify, Prospector, Sequence) so you skip the trial-and-error.

3. PEG Scorecard — Insights into your efficiency gains: less admin work, amplified rep output, faster deal cycles, more revenue per head, and a lower CAC.

4. Ongoing Ops-as-a-Service — Weekly sprints to iterate on new signals, prompt engineering, and automation tweaks.

The best time to buy Clay is when you’re serious about shifting from “add bodies to hit numbers” to “engineer systems that hit numbers.” That’s PEG in action—and Cabot Insights can be your execution partner.

P.S. for those wondering: Cabot Insights blends autonomous AI agents with proven outbound playbooks—helping sales teams triple pipeline velocity, slash manual work and scale smarter, not headcount. Ready to 3× your pipeline without hiring more reps? Let’s chat about your PEG plan.

– Stephen 

www.cabot-insights.com