Clay

Clay feels a bit like a spreadsheet that went to engineering school. Each row is a company or person, and each column can pull in data from a different provider, run an AI prompt or transform what's already there.

We found it brilliant for building hyper-specific lead lists, such as companies that just hired for a certain role, then asking AI to write a custom opening line based on what it found. Its waterfall enrichment checks several sources in turn until it locates an email, which saves a lot of manual hunting.

The flip side is that it takes a while to click. There's a real learning curve, and credits disappear fast once you start chaining providers. The free plan is good for experiments; serious use starts at $149/mo.