> log #05 — Clay enrichment woes
Or: how to not blow through all your Clay credits in less than 3 minutes.
Context: Building outbound list for cold email.
Original Source: Crunchbase CSV of companies.
Objective: Enrich with contacts at target companies → find verified work emails → use in a sequence.
Attempt 1: Pubrio Enrichment
Action:
Added column → Find People at Company (Pubrio provider)
Input = {Domain}
Title filters: VP of Sales, CRO, Head of Sales, Director of Sales, Sales Enablement, RevOps
Max results: 1
Result:
First pass: strong matches.
After editing filters mid-run → collapse.
Error: Error finding people at company in Pubrio.
Domains + LinkedIn URLs present ✅, still fails ❌.
Likely root cause: Pubrio API/cache failure.
Takeaway: High volume but brittle. Unusable for iterative work.
Attempt 2: Clay Native Enrichment
Action:
Added column → Find People at Company
Provider: Clay (native)
Input = {Domain}
Titles: VP of Sales, Head of Sales, Director of Sales
Limit: 1
Result:
Stable. No random failures.
Correct job titles.
Coverage thinner than Pubrio.
Feature buried behind provider settings — not obvious.
Takeaway: Reliable baseline. Should be default, not hidden.
Attempt 3: Waterfall to Personal Email (Accident)
Action:
Tried to backfill missing emails.
Added Find Personal Email Address
Input = {First Name} + {Last Name} + {Domain}
Result:
Credits burned finding Gmail/Outlook accounts.
Wrong enrichment for B2B outbound.
Clay does not warn → easy UX trap.
Takeaway: Lesson learned: never run Personal Email in this workflow. Deliverability risk + wasted credits.
Attempt 4: Apollo Integration (Fix)
Action:
Connected Apollo API in Clay (Settings → Integrations → Apollo → API key).
Added column → Find People at Company
Provider: Apollo
Input = {Domain}
Titles: VP of Sales, Head of Sales, Director of Sales
Limit: 1
Result:
Stable + deeper coverage than Clay-native.
Work emails surfaced directly.
All enrichment contained in Clay. No CSV shuffle.
Takeaway: Best combo. Clay workflow + Apollo dataset.
🔧 Recommended Clay Action Chain (Final w/ Apollo)
Input → Upload Crunchbase CSV (map Company, Domain, Employee Count)
Contact Enrichment → Find People at Company (Apollo provider)
Input = {Domain}
Titles = VP of Sales, Head of Sales, Director of Sales
Limit = 1
Work Email → Same Apollo enrichment returns work email + Email Status
Filter → Only keep rows where Email Status = Verified
Suppression → Import customer + active deal company domains as a separate table (Suppressions) and add a Compare Against Another Table column:
Input = {Domain} from outbound list
Compare to {Suppression Domain} in suppression table
Output = Yes/No
Filter to “No”
Export → Clean, verified, suppression-free list → CSV → Woodpecker
Why Suppression: Prevents accidentally sending cold outbound to current customers or accounts with active opportunities, avoiding embarrassing replies.
📝 Notes
Pubrio = brittle. Avoid for ongoing workflows.
Clay-native = stable fallback, but hidden + narrower.
Personal Email = wasted credits. Avoid at all costs.
Apollo in Clay = best workflow. No CSV roundtrips.
⚡ Outcome: messy but useful learning curve → final workflow = stable, scalable, ready for outbound.