I’m Clay.

I’m many things, but they all start with being thoughtful, hardworking, and appreciative.

I grew up solidly upper-middle-class. There were no worries, but I shared a room with my brother type of set up. (I’m better for it, just painting the picture here.)

What was “expected” was always high - respectful, studious, full-effort - but the canvas was mine.
School came easy and I grew into sports, ultimately becoming respectable at both.

When D1 football dreams didn’t quite work out, I graduated from UW-Madison in 3 years to pursue my own ventures. Thanks to a 10-week internship, I knew I wasn’t quite ready for standard corporate America just yet.

The overarching idea in pursuing both football (I’m a 5’9” white dude) and startups (didn’t know a single person in tech prior to college), was that I’d rather go for something big and fail than take the safe route.

With that, I set off on a journey into the startup world. I remember weekly grocery bill of $25. The cushy entry-level jobs I passed on looked pretty good then!

I look back at those days fondly. I built awesome things with smart, driven cofounders. I created my own strategies from nothing. I sold brand-less software to people twice my age. It created an insane amount of growth in a short period of time.

By the time I stepped into a company where selling was all I had to do…it was easy. (I’d highly recommend falling on your face and making your own mistakes than being babied in an entry-level role, if you can)

A quick aside to any manager who levels a former founder lower, or foregoes them entirely, because “they didn’t carry a quota” or “haven’t been in sales role before”: spare me. You just lost out on the reps with the highest business acumen.

I’ve learned so much from my parents, friends, cofounders, work mentors, having the unique opportunity to be an SME overlay to 20+ reps at once, and work at organizations with genuinely nice people. There’s only been one reason I’ve ever left an organization: I stopped growing.

With a never ending hunger for growth and learning more about the world, I’d love to hear what you’re building and how I can help.

Please shoot me a note and let’s see what you’ve got cooking.

Outside of work, I like sports (Football, MMA, Track), hiking, sudoku, lifting, being with my family & friends, the lake, my dogs, strategy card games, country music, driving with the windows down, a good negroni, and competing in basically anything.