Alex Lindahl

Limited Partner

Clay

GTM data & orchestration platform used by the world's fastest and most innovative GTM teams.

GTM Engineer

Cake

Angel Investor

Rewind AI

Personalized AI powered by everything you're seen, said, or heard.

Appsmith

Career Break

Spending time with family. Also started a newsletter: https://www.gtmfoundry.vc/

Chainguard

Enterprise Account Executive

Digraph

AI-powered Infrastructure as Code security platform.

Angel Investor (Acquired by Datadog)

Dazz

Dazz provides a Cloud Security Remediation platform that simplifies and automates cloud security.

Enterprise Account Executive, New England

Snyk

Dev-first security: SCA, SAST, Containers, IaC.

Enterprise Sales Director, New England

Scalr - Enterprise-Grade Cloud Management Platform

Cloud Management & Cost Optimization software.

Director of Sales

Chainguard | Secure-by-default Containers

Sales Leader & Enterprise Account Executive with 15 years of experience bringing new products to market at 6 Series A startups. Typically, I'm one of the first sales hires. I have a passion for helping customers adopt & be successful with new technologies within OSS, the cloud, & security (AppSec & CloudSec). 

Some startups have been wildly successful like Acquia (sold for $1B) and Snyk ($7.4B valuation). I saw these companies go from $0 to $100M and $5M to $125M+ in 3-5 years. Both were wild rides and learned a ton about what it takes to scale a venture (and what "really good" looks like).

In my free time:

Author of GTM Foundry Newsletter - strategies & frameworks for building GTM and bringing new technologies to market. The newsletter is read by Founders, Venture Capitalist, & GTM Leaders.

Angel Investments:

- Digraph (Acquired by DataDog)
- Dooly.ai (backed by BoldStart)
- AppSmith.com (backed by Insight Partners, Accel)
- Rewind.ai (backed by Andreesen Horowitz)
- Cake.ai (backed by Primary Ventures)

Venture Capital:

- Limited Partner, Primary Ventures

GTM Advisory:

- Endor Labs
- Spiky.ai

Community:

- Underscore.vc Sales Core
- Boston College SSV Venture Partners

Regional Sales Director

Founded by the industry's leading experts on open source software, security and cloud native development, we are on a mission to make the software supply chain secure by default

You probably haven't heard of 50%+ of these apps

I use these 10 daily for productivity as GTM Engineer & creator:


10 AI productivity apps for modern sellers, GTM Engineers, and content creators:


1️⃣ Hoop - Automatically captures tasks across Zoom, Email, Slack.

2️⃣ Clay - The best data to power GTM automations & workflows.

3️⃣ Perplexity - Search reimagined with AI.

4️⃣ Kondo - Superhuman, but for LinkedIn.

5️⃣ Superhuman - The fastest way to do email. Period.

6️⃣ Tana - AI native note taking app designed for workflows.

7️⃣ Xnapper - Beautiful screenshots.

8️⃣ Screen Studio - Auto edited videos that are captivating.

9️⃣ Puzzle - Easiest way to document workflows for your customers.

🔟 ChatGPT - Duh. But did you know you could take screen shots of your competitors customer page and then ask ChatGPT to compile that list?


I covered how I use each of these in more depth in the latest issue of The Augmented Seller. Link in comments to check it out.

GTM Engineer, Clay ⚙️ Claymation.io for weekly GTM AI & Automation Guides

There's no alpha in running your GTM like everyone else.

Finding alpha requires constant experimentation. But, that's not all that's changing in GTM today.

We were asked to present our observations to GTM leadership at a $40B tech company last week.

Their VP of Business Development was seeking to answer the question "What does the future of PG (pipe generation) look like and how can we prepare?"

And, a follow up question to that was "what will be the canary in the coal mine?"

To summarize what we're seeing:

1. GTM Experimentation is key for finding alpha.

2. GTM Engineering is a practice that that's here to stay.

3. The GTM Engineer is a new role that supports 1 & 2.

4. CEOs aim to empower their sales reps to become "modern sellers"

5. Data & account intelligence is shifting from an AE/SDR responsibility (think about all of the manual research) to central operations.

6. Just-in-Time enablement for sellers. Think research docs that are provided to reps just before their calls so they are fully prepped.

7. Signal driven outreach is beginning to power more effective outreach

(I will show you how a recent campaign got a 40% reply rate in the next The Augmented Seller post)

8. AI is getting integrated into every step of the sales funnel

9. New skillsets are required for GTM teams to build GTM systems. Think prompt engineering, no code automations, and adoption of new tooling like Clay.

10. Smaller teams capable of doing much more via automations, workflows, and using AI in practical ways to drive efficiencies.


What other trends are you seeing that I should add to the list?

I'll add your commentary to the upcoming post and link back to you.

Thanks to all that joined Clay [club] Boston last night & to Companyon Ventures for hosting. The engagement, interest, and passion for GTM Engineering is wild. Lots of great questions around building signal driven outreach (topic of the night). What should we focus on next time?

4 🦄 s. But, I was burned out. Sick of tech. Exhausted from the sales grind.

Then I realized what needed to change.


I needed an outlet for creativity.

It's a human need. 

It's a part of our drive as humans—fostering resilience, sparking joy, and providing opportunities for self-actualization.

When it's gone, you feel stuck.

But, why?

If you think about creativity it is:

📍  the discovery of new things and ideas
🔍 finding hidden connections that unlock possibilities
⚙️ combining parts to develop new solutions
🪄 reimagining for what's possible
🔃 applying concepts from one area to another
🏗️ designing and building
🚀 exploration of the unkown

All of these things are deeply meaningful.

Clay unlocked all of this for me. 

I can't stop building. Reimagining what's possible in GTM. Helping customers think creatively to solve problems. Creating new workflows. Etc.

It's so good to be back.

I chat about all of this with Nathan Lippi 🥾 , including GTM Engineering at Clay, how to select the right company to bet on, and much more.

Check out the podcast in the comments.

Thanks again for having me Nathan!

The future of BDR roles isn't what you think it is.

I had an eye-opening chat with a customer recently that strengthens my view on where business development is heading.

Here's the problem they were dealing with:

Traditional BDRs don't have technical skills. And technical folks? They tend to shy away from customer-facing roles.

But wait - they came up with a smart solution that's catching my attention 👇

1️⃣ The New BDR Model

Their fresh approach? Split the role right down the middle:
- Getting hands-on with technical tools
- Running outbound activities

2️⃣ Why This Makes Sense

Let's face it - selling tech today needs someone who can wear multiple hats:
✅ Know their way around data enrichment
✅ Set up and manage automation workflows
✅ Keep tabs on social signals
✅ Craft personalized outreach that hits home
✅ Build real connections

3️⃣ The Game Plan

Instead of trying to:
- Push traditional BDRs into becoming tech wizards
- Make technical folks suddenly love customer interactions

They found someone who naturally fits both worlds.

I think we're looking at what tomorrow's sales teams might look like - where tech smarts and people skills come together in one role.

What do you think? Are you noticing this shift in your company? 

Drop your thoughts below 👇

What is signal driven GTM and how do you implement it? Come join Everett Berry (Head of GTM Engineering at Clay), Companyon Ventures, & Clay Community to learn & network. Next Wed, 3/5: 6PM. Signup in comments

Did you know you can now use DeepSeek AI in Clay.

But how good is it at copy/writing? Better than Anthropic's Claude?

I made this table to experiment with prompts and specifically how 'temperature' impacts the creativity & accuracy of the outputs.

With a couple tips sprinkled in...

Happy to share the table so you can copy & play around. Just let me know!

I had an interesting chat with leadership recently about selling to executives, and it hit me - there's something really telling about what drives executive buying decisions.

While conversations with operations teams naturally focus on day-to-day improvements and features, I've noticed executive decisions consistently come down to four key priorities:
- Driving Innovation
- Reducing Costs
- Increasing Revenue
- Growing Market Cap

What's really interesting is how this completely shifts the sales conversation. Rather than jumping into product features or technical specs, success comes from showing how your solution directly impacts these core priorities.

Here's a real example - I was talking to a CRO about data solutions recently. Instead of leading with data coverage stats, we focused on how smarter data management and workflows could could drive go-to-market efficiencies, approach and give them a unique edge over competitors who are stuck using the same old tools.

I've found the best conversations with executives happen when you can connect the dots between your solution and these big-picture priorities. It's not about having the shiniest features - it's about driving change that moves these four key metrics.

Quick reminder: Executives aren't just buying tools; they're investing in outcomes that transform their business.

Community has been at the heart of Clay’s journey for the start. Today, we’re strengthening that bond even further with a community equity offering!

Clay has had a meaningful impact both professionally and personally to many.

For me, joining Clay and the Community has meant a few things:

⭐️Finding a creativity outlet that keeps me up at night (in a good way).

⭐️Making new friends and connections who share a common passion and enthusiasm for pioneering GTM Engineering. 

⭐️Building a side project (Claymation & The Augmented Seller) that are fun and enable me to teach others about Clay and AI in sales/GTM.

⭐️A day job that I wake up excited for.

⭐️ Working on something that doesn’t feel like work.

⭐️ A never ending journey of discovery for building and figuring out what’s possible in Clay

⭐️Colleagues that are simply the best.



Community is a superpower, and it’s certainly powered Clay’s growth and prosperity if many.

Super cool to see this offering.

Link in comments for more info.

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Frustrated with the same cold outreach playbooks? — Here’s how a founder switched up his approach and 4X’d Response Rates

Every salesperson has been there—painstakingly crafting cold emails, optimizing subject lines, and adding just the right touch of personalization… only to be met with silence.

Nouman Khan, founder of OBoundFirst, was no different. His team was reaching out to VPs of Sales, but response rates were painfully low. Then, he asked a simple question:

"Are we talking to the right people?"

Instead of chasing decision-makers, he tested a different approach—engaging the end users first.

Instead of pitching a VP of Sales on his data enrichment platform, he reached out to SDRs and AEs, the ones prospecting every day, and offered them something real:

"Before reaching out to your VP, I’d love your feedback. Here’s a free enriched list—tell me if it’s better than what you’re using. If it is, maybe it’s worth bringing to your team."

No pressure. No pitch. Just a value exchange.

The results?

🚀 Response rate jumped from 3-5% to 12%
🚀 43% of responses were positive (vs. 20-30% before)
🚀 6 deals closed in a week
🚀 SDRs and AEs forwarded emails to their sales leaders without being asked

One SDR initially dismissed the message with, "If there's a cost, we're set."
But when Nouman clarified, "No cost—just a free enriched list. If it’s better than what you’re using, great. If not, no worries."—the SDR gave it a try.

The verdict? "I didn’t think this would be much better than what we had… but I was surprised. The coverage and accuracy were solid—definitely worth a look."

The lesson: The real gatekeepers aren’t always the ones with the title. They’re the ones doing the work.

Today's The Augmented Seller newsletter will break down the full strategy step by step including a template of the Clay workbook and 6 AI prompts Nouman leveraged to automate the entire process. 

Sign up for the newsletter in the comments.

Ever enter an opportunity and your competition is already there?

Here's how you beat em to the scene with custom signal radar in Clay:


👉  Clay just announced scheduled runs. 

🚒 As you know, you can search for account smoke signals by sourcing almost any data point with Clay. But, this is just a point in time.

🔄 What if the data changes?

🔴 For example, a company today doesn't have any AI Engineers...

🟢 But tomorrow, suddenly they post a slew of job openings for that role.

💡 You could deduce that they are likely have an important AI initiative internally.

There are thousands examples just like this one, and now you can create these custom signals with scheduled runs in Clay.

Here are 10 ideas of how to use it:

1️⃣ Check monthly for new earning calls at your name accounts > analyze for mention of key initiatives related to your products or services > provide a slack alert to your reps with a summary.

2️⃣ Check weekly to see if a company started hiring a specific role.

3️⃣ Did a technology drop off or pop onto their sub-processor list?

4️⃣ Perhaps you want to gauge company health to give your CX team a heads up. Have they announced any layoffs in the past month?

5️⃣ Are product updates slowing down or speeding up over time?

6️⃣ Where is a company ramping up their regional sales teams?

7️⃣ Have any executives shown up in any podcasts?

8️⃣ What are the new product announcements from the last month?

9️⃣ Is there any new compliance regulation that your company can help with?

🔟 Has a new technology popped up?


These are all data points that you want at any given time AND to check for for continuously.

This is how you build the ultimate signal engine to beat your competition to the signal.

Me: I use AI for many things, but not building PPTs

Oscar-Wyett Moore: you don't? Let me show you how it works. Ron Masi from Seismic just showed me his workflow

Me: ok, show me what you got...

This is one of the most fun times in GTM and Sales.

We get to explore how AI can be applied in ways to make our lives easier.

It's like we just got access to the internet via dialup. We're still in AI's earliest innings. All will improve over time.

One thing that people get wrong is they try out a new tool, give it a simple prompt like "build me a POC deck" and then throw stones at the results.

In reality, using AI takes iteration and tuning. 

There is upfront work that requires experimentation.

It also requires research, such as finding the best frameworks to use. I just found the JOLT framework via Nate Nasralla that helps you think about how to setup a strong POC & then deliver the recommendation. Except from SellingSherpa who developed it:

(𝗝)𝘂𝗱𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻:  High performers qualify opps based on externally observable criteria (e.g., use case fit, industry attractiveness) Research reveals  they also qualify opps based on less observable but critical criteria based on the customer’s ability to make decisions. 

(𝗢)𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: The approach most salespeople take is to rely on needs diagnosis. High performers know that customers who are indecisive are looking for guidance, not more choice. Rather than asking confused customers what they want, they instead tell them what they should buy.

(𝗟)𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Average sellers indulge every request they have for more info (white papers, another demo) High performers know that no amount of additional info will ever satisfy the customer’s desire. High performers limit the exploration by controlling the flow of info, anticipating needs & addressing unstated objections, and practicing radical candor when customers dig in and insist on superfluous amounts of info.

(𝗧)𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗸 𝗼𝗳𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲.: Customers fret about outcome uncertainty —  average performers tend to counter this concern by directing the customers’ attention away from what they might lose and back toward what they stand to lose by not making the purchase.  To overcome the customer’s outcome uncertainty, high performers focus not on scaring the customer into buying but on coming up with creative solutions that limit downside risk (e.g., additional pro services support, contract carve-outs).

This is 1 of the frameworks that Oscar-Wyett Moore & Ron Masi use to train AI as part of automating a POC deck. 

Curious how to leverage this framework within  OpenAI ChatGPT to create a deck Gamma?

Check out the latest edition of The Augmented Seller for the 4 step workflow: https://lnkd.in/eK4sTxJC

I was chatting with a customer yesterday who manages enterprise sales, and he brought up a real challenge around personalizing messages at scale.

His team sells complex enterprise software where a single account might have 12+ different buyer personas - from directors of learning tech to leadership development heads. Each needs different messaging and approaches.

Right now, his reps spend 2-3 hours just collecting and reviewing information before they can even begin writing personalized messages. As he put it: "We're spending too much time researching and not enough time actually engaging."

Here's what I suggested:
1. Start by mapping out your key personas and their levels (Above Director vs Below, Technical vs Business etc.)
2. Write down what messaging works best with each group based on past wins
3. Use AI tools to spot patterns in successful communications
4. Build system-level prompts that capture your company's voice and value props
5. Automate the initial research and message writing, but have your team review and polish

The point isn't to remove the human touch, but to "repurpose their efforts from researchers to actors" as my customer so nicely put it.

What's worked for you when it comes to personalizing at scale?

From 𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙧𝙞𝙗𝙡𝙚 AI emails to 𝙜𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩 𝙘𝙤𝙥𝙮.

These are 6 prompt secrets I've learned at Clay:


It all comes down to prompt engineering techniques.

This is also why AI SDRs are falling flat. You can't iterate on prompts with a black box.


𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝟲 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗶𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝘁𝗿𝘆:


𝟭. 𝗚𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗔𝗜 𝗮 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮

•  “You're a copy writer with 10 years of experience”

𝟮. 𝗔𝗱𝗱 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘁𝘀 

• “The email should be no more than 4 sentences." 
• "Each sentence should be no longer than 12 words.”
• "Each sentence should be it's own line"
  
𝘕𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘩𝘳𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘴 

• "I'm emailing you to..."
• "I hope you're well..."
• "I'm just following up..."
• Plus all variations of the above. I typically give it around 10-15 examples of what not to use and expand on the prompt to get creative with the opening or hook.

𝟯. 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝘅𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘀 

•  “This is an example outbound email that has performed well in the past: [insert email]”
• Provide 2 or 3 emails examples (ideally from your top reps that perform well)

𝟰. 𝗨𝘀𝗲 𝗮 𝗦𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗽𝘁

• Add context on the subject matter. This is where you can provide details of the challenges you solve, case studies, links to specific website pages, etc.

𝟱. 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗧𝗼𝗻𝗲 & 𝗦𝘁𝘆𝗹𝗲

• “Use a friendly tone and succinct, direct writing style"
• "Write in the style of David Olgivy"
• "Write as if you are speaking live human to human"

𝟲. 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗧𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲

Temperature is a variable that helps determines the balance of creativity vs. accuracy. 

My latest post Claymation dives deeper on this and how to explore / determine what temperature you should use.

• A Clay table you can copy
• Example outputs of copy based on temperature
• A step-by-step guide 
• Tips you can use in Clay

Check it out here:

claymation.io

How Temp Impacts AI Email Copy

Is breaking through noise the challenge? Or, is it finding your GTM competitive advantage? GTM needs to be differentiated similar to products these days. So how do you find your GTM alpha?

Experimentation.

This is one of the 8 trends I'm seeing in GTM today while working at Clay

Most GTM teams aren't setup to run many experiments. 

They aren't built like product or engineering teams.

And this my friends, is why GTM Engineering is catching on (2nd Trend).

Which of course has brought about the rise of the GTM Engineer (3rd Trend)

What are the 5 others?

Comment "GTM Engineering" and I'll send you my guide.

It covers the 8 trends (and observations) you need to be aware of, tracking, and implementing to succeed in 2025

LetterOps: GTM Engineering, but for Newsletters. A sneak peek for my webinar with La Growth Machine on Thurs: https://lnkd.in/ek4cFXbe

Sales frequently miss opportunities when execs travel.

They don't want to, it's just A LOT of info & people to track.

Setting up onsite meetings with key executives at companies that are currently in your pipeline.

A perfect example of this recently popped up...

One of our co-founders will be in San Francisco in a couple weeks. Our Head of GTM Engineering will be in Boston. And there's another potential trip to Chicago - all in the coming weeks.

I'm running close to 20 opportunities.

I don't want to miss these opportunities to get our exec team in front of our champions and decision makers.

However, 20 opps and people spread across cities makes it hard to figure out where everyone is.

That's why I decided to automate this.

The workflow is as follows:

1. Input companies into Clay
2. Find all of the contacts that are Director+ in each city
3. Select who I want contact info for
4. Find recent, exciting news to mention while onsite

I put together a detailed walkthrough of how to set this up + Clay table you can copy. 

Link in comments.

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