How Clarify built and launched an autonomous CRM in 18 months

Startups are rarely short on opinions about the CRM space, but few are bold enough to try rebuilding the whole thing. Clarify is one of them.

I recently sat down with Austin Hay, founder of Clarify, to unpack how they went from idea to launch in under 18 months, what they learned along the way, and how they’re thinking about product, go-to-market, and AI—without the fluff.

We also got into how Thena became part of their scale-up playbook, especially in their push to deliver smarter support for their customers.

This one’s for anyone thinking about how to build category-defining software in the AI era.

Let’s dive in.

Why clarify exists: fixing the CRM from the ground up

Clarify calls itself an autonomous CRM, but that’s not just branding.

From day one, the team set out to replace, not just sit alongside, legacy CRMs like Salesforce and HubSpot. Their thesis was simple but contrarian: the best salespeople don’t win because they’re more persuasive, they win because they remember to follow up, take notes, and log data.

“The best sellers I knew were just great at administrative work,” Austin said. “Not because they were better at selling, but because they never dropped a ball.”

Clarify automates the entire administrative layer. It listens to your calls, reads your emails, understands what was said, and translates that into structured CRM data. It surfaces next steps, creates action items, drafts follow-up emails, and even updates deal records, all automatically.

It’s a CRM that runs itself, yet still lets humans steer the wheel.

Why now: AI changed the rules

Two things gave Clarify confidence it was the right time:

1. The AI unlock: Large Language Models meant that context, the thing buried in calls, emails, and Slack threads, could finally be parsed and structured. AI could now understand what’s happening inside a deal, not just store fields about it.

2. Static CRMs were cracking under pressure: Even at Ramp, where Austin managed $10M in tooling and a world-class growth engineering team, the CRM remained a bottleneck. Salesforce was a static database that created month-end reporting chaos and brittle workflows.

Clarify wanted to go past speed or UI upgrades. They wanted to finish what others started.

“We didn’t want to be another plugin. We wanted to build the CRM from scratch, the right way, with AI at the center.”

How they built it: fast, scrappy, and in public

Clarify was incorporated in January 2024. They hired their first engineer at the end of February. By March, they were writing production code. Their internal milestone? Get a live product into users’ hands by July.

That first version was raw.

“It was basically a slightly better Notion table,” Austin joked. “But it worked. It showed contacts, did a bit of enrichment, and pulled in emails.”

That MVP earned them 10 design partners. Within the next 12 months, they had converted over 100 paying customers, setting the stage for their public GA launch in June 2025.

This velocity wasn’t just about speed. It was about feedback.

“We’d all been at startups where you spend 12 months building and launching, only to hear crickets. We weren’t going to do that again.”

The Launch: tactics, execution, and lessons

Clarify launched publicly on June 25, 2025. The playbook was deliberate but not overproduced:

• Coordinated PR and podcast appearances

• Physical “retro CRM software boxes” sent to early users

• A desktop app embedded inside the box as a callback to old-school software installs

• 25–30 coordinated LinkedIn posts from team, investors, and customers

• Launching their self-serve PLG motion to let anyone sign up

They also coined the term “Autonomous CRM”, anchoring themselves to a fresh category instead of just “AI for CRM.”

The launch paid off:

• 5x increase in inbound leads

• Dozens of conversions from paid pilots to full customers

• A sharp rise in Clarify’s market visibility

What would they do differently?

Austin was clear: go even bigger on the narrative.

“Next time, I’d tell the Salesforce-killer story more explicitly. The market wants to hear something bold — something crazy. If you want attention, you have to earn it with a real contrarian vision.”

Fundraising: betting on the big play

Early investors weren’t immediately sold. Most pushed Clarify to build a wedge — a lightweight plugin or side tool. The team ignored them.

“We knew that if we started with a lead enrichment tool or outreach automation, we’d get stuck there. You can’t ask people to adopt you as a CRM later. That switch is too hard.”

They eventually raised from:

• Gradient Ventures, who backed Patrick and Andre’s last company

• Recall Capital, led by a former Clari exec

• And later, USVP’s Matt Garratt, who previously led Salesforce Ventures

Matt wasn’t just another check — he knew the CRM space inside and out. The fact that he believed in Clarify’s contrarian vision was a strong signal to the team.

“He’s seen every CRM fail and still backed us. That told us we weren’t crazy.”

Thena’s role in Clarify’s support stack

Clarify adopted Thena in January 2025, ahead of their GA launch, and leaned into Slack-first support.

Why Thena made sense:

• Clarify wanted to meet customers where they already worked, in Slack.

• They needed flexibility: turn chats into tickets, create async support loops, and scale without friction.

From January to April, Slack was their only support channel. But with the PLG motion, they added email support and AI-powered chat. Here’s what stood out:

• Thena became the unified interface across email, in-app chat, and Slack.

• Support was handled by just one person, who juggled onboarding, support, and success for hundreds of users thanks to Thena and AI workflows.

• Clarify now broadcasts product updates through Thena as well, leveraging Slack channels to share key releases directly from founders.

Austin highlighted that omnichannel + AI automation meant a single CSM could now do the job of what previously took a 3–5 person team at past startups.

“It used to take a village. Now, it’s one person with the right tools. Thena’s at the center of that.”

Takeaways for founders

Clarify’s journey isn’t about one big launch moment — it’s a blueprint for what modern, AI-native SaaS can look like:

1. Don’t wedge — Go big early if your category allows it

2. Build fast, ship faster — Velocity is your best moat

3. Narrative > Feature list — People remember big, bold visions

4. AI isn’t about replacing people — It’s about letting great people do more

5. Support is now a product surface area — Treat it as a growth channel

If you're building software in 2025 and beyond, Clarify's story is a masterclass in moving fast, thinking differently, and betting on AI not just as a feature — but as the foundation.