Zachary Hamed - How using AI and design thinking made Clay the next generation rolodex!

Nov 6, 2024

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👉🏼 About the Guest:

Zach Hamed is a design-focused engineer who enjoys designing, building, and selling software. He is currently co-founder and co-CEO of Clay, a beautiful and private home for your personal and professional relationships. Previously, he helped build the product team at Goldman Sachs, co-founded a startup in the enterprise developer tools space, and writes blog posts.

👉🏼 About the Host:

Sharath is a founder, creator, and community builder. He is also a serial maker who built and shipped 15+ projects using no-code tools. His SaaS product Shoutout generated $30k ARR, which was sold to a UK-based product studio. Prev, Sharath worked for world-changing startups like Product Hunt and On Deck, where he helped build and nurture communities. He also grew his audience on Twitter from 200 to 24,000 using give-first principles and creating high-value content. He recently sold his second SaaS product, GuestLab, and he is working on a startup idea while hosting this show.

👉🏼 Sponsor Corner:

Shoutout to Acquire.com for sponsoring The Undefeated Underdogs podcast! They’re the best online marketplace to buy/sell startups and I know many founders who have sold their businesses there. If you're looking to wind down your business and cash in some of your founder chips, check them out - https://try.acquire.com/sharath/

👉🏼 Description:

Listen in as Sharath and Zach discuss going from a startup to corporate and back to startups, identifying A players, design thinking, and more!

👉🏼 Timestamps:

00:00: Episode Highlight
00:30: Shoutout to Acquire.com
02:56: Intro to Zachary Hamed - co-founder at Clay, a beautiful personal CRM, contact manager, and rolodex for people across industries who want to be more thoughtful with the people they know
05:35: Why Zach is building a startup in NYC vs Silicon Valley
10:38: Zach's experience going through the Thiel Fellowship
13:29: Going from building a startup to working at a large corporate
19:51: A process at Goldman Sachs that serves Zachary well today
25:15: Growth frameworks for Clay
33:53: How to spot and hire talent smarter than you
40:40: How to find A players
46:30: Why does Clay use .earth for their domain?
49:55: Why Zachary pursued a consumer-first approach
57:50: How AI is revolutionizing Clay's people-first approach
1:03:45: Using AI in Clay to catch up and schedule follow-ups
1:09:25: How Zach is building Clay using design thinking
1:17:35: Outro and closing thoughts

👉🏼 Resources:

Link to Acquire.com: https://try.acquire.com/sharath/
Sparrow: https://sparrow.en.softonic.com/mac
Mailbox: https://www.theverge.com/2015/12/8/9873268/why-dropbox-mailbox-shutdown
Thiel Fellowship: https://thielfellowship.org/

👉🏼 Where to find Zachary:

Website: https://zmh.org/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/zmh
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zacharyhamed
Clay: https://clay.earth/

👉🏼 Where to find Sharath:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/5harath
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@5harath
Website: https://5harath.com/
Newsletter: https://5harath.substack.com/
Founder Gigs: https://foundergigs.com/