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Apurva Davé
CMO | Advisor | Pretty Nice Guy
Professional Background
Apurva Davé is a distinguished content-driven product marketer who has successfully navigated high-growth, fast-moving technology environments. With a robust technical background coupled with over 15 years of experience in product marketing, Apurva has played an instrumental role in crafting strategies that not only resonate with target audiences but also drive significant business outcomes. He possesses extensive expertise in category-owning positioning and excels at designing inbound and outbound pipeline generation strategies. His comprehensive approach allows him to effectively guide organizations through the complexities of bringing their products to market, utilizing both open-source and commercial channels along with digital and offline marketing techniques.
Throughout his impressive career, Apurva has worked with a variety of organizations across different stages of their lifecycle—from pre-revenue phases to growth, IPOs, and M&A transactions. His dynamic approach and hands-on mentality allow him to roll up his sleeves and partner closely with sales teams, ensuring that the hard work gets translated into creating lasting and impactful brands. Apurva is a marketer who believes in forging strong alliances within the organization to drive meaningful results, making him a true asset in any high-tech or innovative company.
Education and Achievements
Apurva's educational background is as impressive as his career. He earned his MBA in Marketing and Real Estate from the highly prestigious University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business. Before that, he graduated with a BA in Computer Science and Organizational Behavior from Brown University, giving him a solid foundation that spans both technical and human behavioral spectra. This diverse educational background equips Apurva with the unique ability to understand both the technical aspects of products and the marketing strategies necessary to effectively communicate their value to potential customers.
In addition to his formal education, Apurva has amassed a wealth of professional experiences that has bolstered his credentials in the marketing domain. He has held numerous prominent positions in established companies like Google and Riverbed Technology, where he was pivotal in bolstering product marketing efforts. His work spans numerous roles, including Chief Marketing Officer and Vice President of Marketing, emphasizing his adaptability and broad skill set in the marketing arena.
Apurva has a proven track record, with notable accomplishments under his leadership including successful market launches and strategic acquisitions, demonstrating his capability to align marketing strategies with business objectives effectively. His strategic insights and proactive approach have frequently led to remarkable increases in brand recognition and market share across the organizations he has worked with.
Notable Roles in Apurva's Career
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Chief Marketing Officer at Aembit: In this role, Apurva implemented brand positioning strategies that elevated the company's visibility in a competitive market, effectively driving engagement and customer acquisition.
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Head of Marketing, Security Business Unit at Google Cloud: Apurva's stint at Google saw him lead marketing initiatives that significantly increased awareness and adoption of Google Cloud products within the security infrastructure sector.
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Chief Marketing Officer / Vice President Marketing at Productiv: He successfully redefined the product marketing strategy that not only enhanced customer engagement but also established Productiv as a thought leader in the productivity software space.
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Executive In Residence at Redpoint Ventures: Apurva contributed his expertise to mentoring emerging startups, providing valuable insights into branding and market strategy which bolstered their growth trajectories.
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Vice President of Marketing at Sysdig: During his time, he led the organization’s market penetration strategies that propelled Sysdig into significant growth, carving out a strong competitive advantage in the cloud-native security space.
Beyond these roles, Apurva has advised various organizations, including Women Who Ask and Dgraph Labs, where he has leveraged his marketing prowess to guide companies towards their strategic goals. Moreover, his contribution as a Contributing Author at the Forbes Communications Council showcases his thought leadership in the marketing domain. His insights and expertise have made him a sought-after figure for speaking engagements, panels, and workshops focused on marketing innovation and strategy.
Achievements
Apurva Davé is renowned for his ability to blend strategic insight with tactical execution, delivering measurable results. Some of his noteworthy achievements include:
- Successful Launches: Instrumental in the successful launch of multiple products that gained quick traction in their respective markets, demonstrating his knack for identifying market needs and equipping teams with the right tools and strategies.
- Driving Revenue Growth: Throughout his career, he has consistently driven revenue growth for companies through innovative marketing strategies that effectively engage consumers.
- M&A Expertise: With experience in navigating mergers and acquisitions, Apurva has helped companies seamlessly integrate and position brands post-acquisition, preserving their strengths while enhancing overall market presence.
- Mentorship and Leadership: His dedication to empowering and mentoring future marketing leaders is evident through his advisory roles in organizations aimed at fostering new talent in the industry.
- Thought Leadership: Apurva's contributions as a writer and industry speaker have established him as a respected voice in marketing circles, promoting best practices and innovative approaches to product marketing.
Conclusion
In summary, Apurva Davé stands out as a highly accomplished product marketer with a blend of technical understanding and strategic marketing acumen. With a comprehensive background that encompasses a diverse range of industries and roles, he has earned a reputation for demonstrating how effective marketing strategies can drive organizational growth and success. Whether launching new products, cultivating brand awareness, or mentoring the next generation of marketers, Apurva is a true leader in the field, adept at navigating the rapidly changing landscapes of technology and marketing.
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Clay is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Clay centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Clay is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Clay as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Clay offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Clay's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Clay makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Clay's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Clay isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Clay instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Clay is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Clay can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Clay is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.