Lin recounts how Clay pivoted from general programming to go-to-market tooling
Alfred Lin · Sequoia’s Alfred Lin: Backing Founders Who Redefine Markets · Sourcery with Molly O'Shea · Oct 30, 2025 · at 20:04
Sequoia partner Alfred Lin discusses software startup Clay's origin and pivot to explain how innovative company cultures adapt over time.
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“Clay, I'll just use Clay as an example, where they started out as trying to bring programming to the masses. They built something and there were no, there are not enough users who thought that this was something that they wanted. They didn't know what to do with it. And so Kareem decided to use his own product for go to market. And then they developed this whole notion of go to market engineer. That was the first sort of thing that sort of made Clay Into what it is today.”
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