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Most SaaS companies build a sales team first and a community second — if ever. Clay did the opposite. In this episode, Yash Tekriwal, Head of Ecosystem Growth at Clay, walks through the full ecosystem-led growth playbook that took Clay from nine people in a Williamsburg apartment to nearly 370 — without a traditional sales motion. From a certification program that actually proves competency, to 84 Clay Club chapters around the world, to IRL workshops where attribution is nearly impossible to measure but the results are undeniable, this is the blueprint for building a community that compounds into revenue.

In this episode, you'll learn:

The six subgroups of Clay's ecosystem and the specific metrics that govern each one
Why Clay's certification program looks nothing like any credentialing process you've seen — and why that's the whole point
How IRL workshops influence deal velocity and contract size even when you can't perfectly attribute them to revenue
Why Clay tracks two types of data — hard financial metrics and "the feeling" — and why both matter equally
How the reverse demo / PLG motion became the product extension of Clay's ecosystem philosophy
Why GTM leaders who can't tie community to pipeline are asking the wrong question

• • The honest truth about ecosystem ROI: indirect, unattributable, and absolutely worth it