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Sam Molina
Principal | CEO, Board and GTM | B2B SaaS
Professional Background
Sam Molina is a distinguished global software headhunter with a profound focus on securing board-level positions, CEOs, and General Management roles for private equity portfolio companies and publicly traded businesses. With an extensive footprint across both the EMEA and US regions, Sam has successfully navigated the competitive landscape of executive recruiting, demonstrating exceptional expertise in the identification and placement of high-caliber leadership talent.
At the heart of Sam's professional endeavors lies a specialization in B2B Software as a Service (SaaS), where he showcases a unique affinity for core applications. His keen insights are particularly evident in sectors such as Edtech and HR, Business Productivity, Workflow, Martech, Industrial sectors, Supply Chain, and the burgeoning field of Horizontal AI. Sam has adeptly positioned himself and his team at True Search, the fastest growing dedicated technology headhunter in the world, to harness these niches.
Sam’s role at True Search has been integral to the company’s ascendant trajectory in the recruitment space, where he has harnessed a multifaceted approach to talent acquisition, one that combines innovative methodologies with rigorous execution. The principles that guide True Search have been significantly influenced by Sam’s strategic vision and industry insights.
Innovation at True Search
True Search operates three primary pillars that encompass their recruitment strategy. These pillars include:
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Search: This pillar emphasizes key leadership hires across True's 20 global offices. Sam leads initiatives that focus on aligning client needs with top-tier talent, ensuring a seamless match that drives organizational success.
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Thrive: This powerful talent management platform has been integrated into True Search and is designed to serve as a dedicated product for global enterprises. Under Sam's guidance, Thrive has gained widespread usage among top-tier companies for internal management of talent, enhancing retention and development initiatives.
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Synthesis: Recognized for its market-leading candidate assessment practice, this aspect combines the expertise of qualified coaches with sophisticated data analytics. Sam advocates for a data-driven approach to recruitment, advancing the selection process with empirical founding processes which provide measurable insights.
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AboveBoard: As part of True Search's commitment to diversity and inclusion, this innovative digital platform accelerates the hiring of diverse candidates at the C-level, an initiative that reflects Sam's dedication to fostering a culturally rich and inclusive workplace environment.
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True Equity: This dedicated investment arm operates exclusively within the ecosystem that True Search serves, allowing clients to leverage additional resources through strategic investment, enhancing overall organizational capabilities in a competitive environment.
Education and Achievements
Sam Molina’s academic scholarship set a foundation for his successful career in the recruitment and technology sectors. He received his BA (Hons) in Historical Tripos from the prestigious University of Cambridge. This educational background provided him with critical thinking, analysis, and interpretative skills, which have immensely benefited his approach to headhunting, particularly in intricacies that require deep industry understanding and insight.
Sam's career has seen an impressive ascent. He has held various key positions at Blackwood Group prior to his prominent role at True Search. Starting as a Headhunter in the Consumer division, he honed his recruitment skills, transitioned to become an Associate in Software and Technology Services, and eventually progressed to the role of Consultant. Here, he engaged with numerous high-profile clients, strategizing on executive placements and building a network that has proven invaluable in his later endeavors.
Furthermore, Sam’s tenure as Principal, CEO, and Board member at True Search showcases his dynamic leadership capabilities. Under his stewardship, not only has True Search achieved remarkable milestones in growth and scalability, but it has also cultivated a thriving community of talent that spans industries and geographies.
Achievements
Throughout his illustrious career, Sam Molina has been at the forefront of executive search innovation in the technology space. His numerous achievements include:
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Driving True Search’s Global Expansion: Under his leadership, the company has rapidly grown its footprint and client base, solidifying its position as a trusted partner in technology recruitment.
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Implementing Cutting-Edge Recruitment Solutions: By leveraging tools like the Thrive platform and Synthesis assessments, Sam has encouraged a more sophisticated, data-driven approach to recruitment that has improved outcomes for clients.
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Advancing Diversity Initiatives: Through the AboveBoard platform, Sam has made significant strides in promoting equitable hiring practices in the technology sector, championing initiatives that elevate diverse candidates into leadership roles.
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Building Strategic Partnerships: His ability to connect with industry leaders and influential organizations has facilitated lasting partnerships, enhancing True Search’s credibility in the tech recruitment field.
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Thought Leadership: Sam frequently participates in industry conferences and discussions, sharing insights on trends within technology recruitment and the essential qualities of leadership in today’s business environment. His expertise is sought after, and he contributes to the dialogue around technology evolution and executive hiring.
In conclusion, Sam Molina represents an innovative force in the realm of executive search, particularly within the technology and software industries. His dedication to elevating leadership talent through a strategic, data-driven approach sets him apart. Whether through True Search’s multifaceted offerings or his commitment to industry-wide diversity initiatives, Sam continues to redefine norms, drive growth, and foster inclusive recruitment practices. His commitment to excellence and visionary leadership assures ongoing success as the landscape of global recruitment continues to evolve.
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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
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- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
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- 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.