Meeting Title: ABC Project Weekly Sync Date: 2026-01-14 Meeting participants: Awaish Kumar, Robert Tseng, Uttam Kumaran, Amber Lin


WEBVTT

1 00:01:00.860 00:01:02.040 Uttam Kumaran: Hello, sir.

2 00:01:03.610 00:01:04.250 Robert Tseng: Hey, guys.

3 00:01:06.110 00:01:07.120 Uttam Kumaran: That’s everything.

4 00:01:07.510 00:01:08.260 Awaish Kumar: Hello.

5 00:01:10.140 00:01:10.690 Robert Tseng: Good.

6 00:01:13.670 00:01:16.460 Robert Tseng: I saw you were… were you at the timing gym yesterday, Richel?

7 00:01:17.610 00:01:19.230 Uttam Kumaran: Me? No, why?

8 00:01:19.700 00:01:20.279 Robert Tseng: Oh, I don’t.

9 00:01:20.280 00:01:24.010 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, you saw my… you saw my… on my location? No, I’m… I saw your kid.

10 00:01:24.010 00:01:26.870 Robert Tseng: And, yeah, I was just like, I was like, whoa.

11 00:01:27.290 00:01:31.339 Uttam Kumaran: No, there’s this, like, little Japanese-style coffee shop.

12 00:01:31.700 00:01:32.260 Uttam Kumaran: Dude…

13 00:01:32.590 00:01:50.800 Uttam Kumaran: 8pm, I’m at the coffee shop. I’m not at the climbing gym. No, I was… I was, I had a very… actually, like, dude, this… even today, I have no client meetings. I was, like, gonna cry, like, in the last meeting. I was like, what the fuck? This is crazy.

14 00:01:51.170 00:01:59.499 Uttam Kumaran: But, no, I was… I just, like, got out of the house, and it’s really cozy there, so I, like, needed to do some, like, life-splating, like…

15 00:01:59.900 00:02:02.860 Robert Tseng: Nice. Let me just get out of the house and do that. It’s funny, because…

16 00:02:03.080 00:02:07.350 Uttam Kumaran: My girlfriend, she’s out of the house all day, so she comes home and, like.

17 00:02:07.350 00:02:08.589 Robert Tseng: He wants to just be at home.

18 00:02:08.590 00:02:18.820 Uttam Kumaran: I’m like, do you want to go to the coffee shop? She’s like, absolutely not. And I’m like, well, I’ve been sitting in this room all day, I would like to just see.

19 00:02:18.990 00:02:22.109 Uttam Kumaran: Just go somewhere and chill, so… it’s funny.

20 00:02:22.870 00:02:23.670 Robert Tseng: Yeah.

21 00:02:24.060 00:02:32.639 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I think I’m opposite of you now. I try to start my mornings outside of the home, and then I end up going back, probably, like, for lunch in the afternoon right there.

22 00:02:32.640 00:02:39.170 Uttam Kumaran: Well, now I’m doing a good job, like, I’m on a walk again with the dog, and I’m trying to just go outside during these, you know, which is good.

23 00:02:39.290 00:02:44.160 Uttam Kumaran: But, like, today I have, like, it’s mostly market… it’s, like, mostly marketing, sales, and…

24 00:02:44.390 00:02:49.319 Uttam Kumaran: Sort of preparing for tomorrow day for me, so it should be a chill day. Yeah.

25 00:02:49.550 00:02:54.490 Uttam Kumaran: And I have 3… actually, I have 3 interviews. Other than that, pretty chill.

26 00:02:55.270 00:02:57.080 Robert Tseng: Who are you, who are you in, or what roles?

27 00:02:57.670 00:03:05.000 Uttam Kumaran: It’s all for… it’s, like, couple for strategy CSO. It’s people that we… Okay. From our poaching campaign last…

28 00:03:05.000 00:03:07.149 Robert Tseng: Yeah. In December, that we just didn’t get to.

29 00:03:07.370 00:03:10.239 Uttam Kumaran: And then I think there’s one technical

30 00:03:10.730 00:03:14.320 Uttam Kumaran: person as well. And then Jody put me in touch with

31 00:03:14.660 00:03:18.780 Uttam Kumaran: you know, like a more of a data CSO,

32 00:03:19.030 00:03:22.590 Uttam Kumaran: And I’m gonna reach back out to Emily, so, yeah, I’m like…

33 00:03:22.920 00:03:26.389 Uttam Kumaran: Typically calling, like, one or two people every day this week, this week, next week, so…

34 00:03:28.180 00:03:28.970 Robert Tseng: Okay.

35 00:03:29.100 00:03:29.950 Robert Tseng: Nice.

36 00:03:32.140 00:03:43.379 Robert Tseng: Well, yeah, I mean, I don’t really know if we have too much to talk about on this call. I feel like the ABC stuff, I already met with Amber, I gave her my review, she made some… Okay. She’s gonna make some changes, and then…

37 00:03:43.380 00:03:46.320 Uttam Kumaran: How do you… what’s, what’s the, like, give me, like, the TLDR.

38 00:03:46.730 00:03:47.660 Uttam Kumaran: On the feedback.

39 00:03:47.660 00:03:51.959 Robert Tseng: Tldr was, I think she just…

40 00:03:53.420 00:03:57.690 Robert Tseng: she… I mean, she just looked at, like, revenue…

41 00:03:58.340 00:04:01.710 Robert Tseng: By service line, and by geography.

42 00:04:01.880 00:04:14.000 Robert Tseng: But then, yeah, I kind of just, like, helped her outline a bit more, like, what… where, like, what she could drill into. So, there’s, like, wasn’t much of a story. She was just, like, throwing a bunch of random slides, so… Okay.

43 00:04:14.310 00:04:33.869 Robert Tseng: Yeah, so we just spent our time kind of outlining, like, what the next steps of the slides were. The part where she took stuff from Zoran and she tried to bring it into the deck, I think she was unclear a bit on what Zoran was doing, but I think now she’s spent some time there, and… or, I mean, she’s… I think she just came on, but yeah, I think I’m just expecting another iteration.

44 00:04:33.910 00:04:37.329 Robert Tseng: Of the deck, probably today or tomorrow, that I can review.

45 00:04:37.330 00:04:37.920 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.

46 00:04:38.250 00:04:42.869 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, I’d like to… I’m gonna… I’m gonna cherry-pick some slides to put in tomorrow.

47 00:04:43.070 00:04:53.509 Uttam Kumaran: We have our typical, like, weekly call, so I’m gonna cherry-pick a couple just to show, like, broader progress, but we will… we’ll probably end up meeting with them, I think, on…

48 00:04:53.830 00:05:01.250 Uttam Kumaran: Friday, and then again, maybe twice next week. So, I’m just… I sent some emails about this call.

49 00:05:01.370 00:05:08.090 Uttam Kumaran: figure out the schedule, but I feel on track overall. And then, yeah, I called Cutter. He’s also interested in helping.

50 00:05:08.090 00:05:08.530 Robert Tseng: Great.

51 00:05:08.530 00:05:11.430 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t… I don’t honestly think he’s gonna…

52 00:05:12.100 00:05:15.600 Uttam Kumaran: Probably care too much about, like, charging us until, like.

53 00:05:15.800 00:05:18.560 Uttam Kumaran: If we… unless we land a deal, so, like, I mean…

54 00:05:18.760 00:05:25.509 Uttam Kumaran: like, he kind of used to run the agency, kind of knows the drill, so I told him, like, look, like, me, you, Zoran, and Amber will kind of get together.

55 00:05:25.640 00:05:27.719 Uttam Kumaran: And we’ll kind of give you the lay of the land.

56 00:05:27.940 00:05:31.060 Uttam Kumaran: I’m more interested in him kind of being, like.

57 00:05:31.210 00:05:35.770 Uttam Kumaran: You, like, giving reviews, but also… Working on the recommendations.

58 00:05:36.010 00:05:37.319 Uttam Kumaran: For each slide? Yeah.

59 00:05:37.740 00:05:42.470 Uttam Kumaran: For each deck, and then also working with me and Clarence on the final menu of options.

60 00:05:43.240 00:05:52.459 Uttam Kumaran: like, where I want to use Cutter is less on, like, the execution. I think he could be a perfect, like, lieutenant for whoever’s gonna come in as CMO.

61 00:05:54.470 00:06:03.109 Uttam Kumaran: And… but, like, kind of has a good executive presence, so… And then on Element, it’s probably too early to bring him on, but, like.

62 00:06:03.110 00:06:03.830 Robert Tseng: Okay.

63 00:06:03.830 00:06:07.039 Uttam Kumaran: A good way for us to leverage him is sort of, like.

64 00:06:07.450 00:06:14.519 Uttam Kumaran: Anytime going to talk to, like, a growth person, we, we just have him along…

65 00:06:16.240 00:06:20.110 Robert Tseng: For example, next time we call Carlos, which may not be until next month.

66 00:06:20.110 00:06:26.210 Uttam Kumaran: I’m just like, hey, this is, this… I’ll just… I can just…

67 00:06:26.610 00:06:31.659 Uttam Kumaran: better, like, a really good hourly deal with Better, and we just don’t stop quoting us that we usually do.

68 00:06:32.890 00:06:37.160 Robert Tseng: Yeah. I told him I’m very interested in him doing anything, like, doing the work.

69 00:06:37.160 00:06:38.910 Uttam Kumaran: Right, we need people that are, like, near…

70 00:06:39.840 00:06:44.870 Uttam Kumaran: Dude, he also said, like, Tigran was his person, there’s another woman.

71 00:06:44.870 00:06:45.350 Robert Tseng: Yeah.

72 00:06:45.350 00:06:48.829 Uttam Kumaran: So… He has some good contacts as well, like…

73 00:06:49.000 00:06:53.409 Uttam Kumaran: Maybe me and you can discuss, like, how far we want to go into, like, doing growth…

74 00:06:53.920 00:06:57.909 Uttam Kumaran: Type stuff, where… I basically was like, I’m not sure yet how far we wanna, like.

75 00:06:58.410 00:07:00.520 Uttam Kumaran: Actually do the work in this world.

76 00:07:01.160 00:07:05.969 Uttam Kumaran: But having a subject matter expert on it is super, super helpful for us.

77 00:07:07.430 00:07:12.549 Uttam Kumaran: And all those people, they really need data people, like, meaning his work is only really…

78 00:07:12.770 00:07:16.299 Uttam Kumaran: Does… he can only translate his work and do his work with great…

79 00:07:16.340 00:07:17.860 Robert Tseng: Data inputs?

80 00:07:18.120 00:07:21.440 Uttam Kumaran: And so it’s kind of, like, yeah, it’s… it’s interesting, so…

81 00:07:21.440 00:07:23.430 Robert Tseng: It’s a good partnership, yeah.

82 00:07:23.430 00:07:23.910 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.

83 00:07:24.210 00:07:44.080 Uttam Kumaran: I had a very similar conversation with Tim from Pool Parts. She’s probably more on the execution side, I would say, but also has, like, really good executive presence. Like, she’s worked with, like, tons of brands in beauty and now home services, and so… Again, like, this whole convent of, like, subject matter experts that, like.

84 00:07:44.750 00:07:50.389 Uttam Kumaran: basically, we can kind of white-label the conversations as we need, so… I mean, next time I chat with Carlos.

85 00:07:50.590 00:07:53.919 Uttam Kumaran: I’ll try to tap Cutter into that conversation. I can look at these kids.

86 00:07:56.050 00:07:56.460 Robert Tseng: Okay.

87 00:08:03.450 00:08:04.190 Awaish Kumar: Okay.

88 00:08:06.060 00:08:10.570 Uttam Kumaran: And then… I don’t know if Greg got back to us on default, and…

89 00:08:11.650 00:08:13.799 Robert Tseng: So I need your stuff were ready to execute.

90 00:08:14.480 00:08:19.009 Awaish Kumar: Yeah, he replied, I think, in the HRA channel.

91 00:08:21.700 00:08:25.699 Awaish Kumar: But he’s… yeah, he’s, like, he replied on my message.

92 00:08:25.930 00:08:28.400 Awaish Kumar: Regarding context, but yeah.

93 00:08:28.520 00:08:33.030 Awaish Kumar: No, no, if, if it’ll be done… it will be done by today or not.

94 00:08:34.860 00:08:35.780 Uttam Kumaran: Well, can you.

95 00:08:35.789 00:08:45.049 Robert Tseng: Not really sure what hangup is. I already kind of rewrote it for him, so, like, he just needed to merge some changes, and then that was it. Like, I feel like it’s, like, a 30-minute deal, max.

96 00:08:46.080 00:08:57.520 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, so I think, like, I would… I think Awash, like, just try to grab time with Sandra. Call Greg, try to just tell him, like, when can I grab time with Sandra? Ideally, tomorrow.

97 00:08:58.980 00:09:16.340 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I mean, from Awasha’s conversation, he said Sandra wants 20 hours a week. At 20K a month. Our proposal is $30K a month, so Greg needs to bridge the gap between pitching the hourly versus, like, the, you know, the change that we made to the scope. We’re not… yeah, I mean, I gave him, like, a more

98 00:09:16.630 00:09:20.399 Robert Tseng: I… wait, I basically voted for him, so, like.

99 00:09:20.460 00:09:21.170 Uttam Kumaran: Fair.

100 00:09:21.170 00:09:28.039 Robert Tseng: The ask from him yesterday was, like, are you comfortable pitching this in front of her? Like, if he’s not.

101 00:09:28.720 00:09:38.150 Robert Tseng: and we… I don’t feel like we should do a dry run, like, I should just be on that call. Like, I’m… I just… I’m, like, a little bit unsure, like, will he actually be able to take it and execute it?

102 00:09:38.630 00:09:45.479 Uttam Kumaran: Well then, let’s, we have a… we have a meeting later for, like, doing just presentation dry runs. Let’s just, like, try to tackle this there.

103 00:09:46.100 00:09:56.900 Uttam Kumaran: And then… Awat, can you just… let’s… either way, let’s just grab time with her tomorrow. If he can’t make it, me or Robert will go, and we’ll just close this out.

104 00:09:57.120 00:09:58.610 Uttam Kumaran: Don’t want to do it on Friday.

105 00:09:59.280 00:10:02.799 Awaish Kumar: Okay, let me… Talk to Sandra.

106 00:10:03.680 00:10:05.390 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, cool. Yes.

107 00:10:05.770 00:10:08.760 Uttam Kumaran: And then just let… just kind of let her know, like, what we’re,

108 00:10:08.910 00:10:16.389 Uttam Kumaran: what we’re thinking, like, we’re gonna… we’re on track, on board with the, with the 20 hours for…

109 00:10:16.520 00:10:20.609 Uttam Kumaran: analytics work, and then we want to share with her thoughts on product analytics, so…

110 00:10:21.090 00:10:21.910 Awaish Kumar: Okay, yeah.

111 00:10:22.550 00:10:27.020 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, cool. And then, Demi, Demolade’s out on default.

112 00:10:27.190 00:10:30.460 Uttam Kumaran: Still, I can… I can facilitate the conversation, so…

113 00:10:30.680 00:10:34.619 Uttam Kumaran: like, I may go ahead and grab That’s on.

114 00:10:34.770 00:10:39.550 Uttam Kumaran: Alright, gotta check when our scheduled meeting is, and just push it for tomorrow, so…

115 00:10:39.680 00:10:42.139 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, either way, we’ll close both of these tomorrow.

116 00:10:42.520 00:10:43.700 Uttam Kumaran: One way or another.

117 00:10:49.960 00:11:00.560 Robert Tseng: Okay, yeah, we should want to talk a little bit about the element, like, what I’m… I see the notion, but, like, is there anything else you can give me for the review? Like, I’m not really sure what you’re trying to get out of it for me.

118 00:11:01.590 00:11:03.460 Awaish Kumar: Yeah, so…

119 00:11:03.740 00:11:11.620 Awaish Kumar: from my side, like, what I shared with, Amber was, like, we met with retail, like, CRO, Will.

120 00:11:11.810 00:11:13.130 Awaish Kumar: And,

121 00:11:13.710 00:11:20.509 Awaish Kumar: like, kind of, we have the retail data sitting in Snowflake, but they don’t have any visibility into the data.

122 00:11:20.690 00:11:22.560 Awaish Kumar: So they don’t know what’s in there.

123 00:11:22.720 00:11:25.430 Awaish Kumar: They are maybe just relying on some…

124 00:11:25.530 00:11:36.770 Awaish Kumar: reports they get from retail partners, but they, yeah, they’re not utilizing the data which is there. And their data includes, like, it’s kind of very granular, like, we can do

125 00:11:36.870 00:11:40.649 Awaish Kumar: Analyzes… analyzes are, like, up to the school level.

126 00:11:40.820 00:11:45.820 Awaish Kumar: And on a store level performances, we can see item performances.

127 00:11:45.950 00:11:50.459 Awaish Kumar: And we can… Look at the sales and revenue and things like that.

128 00:11:51.210 00:11:55.259 Awaish Kumar: So… and that’s what he’s also interested in, like,

129 00:11:55.670 00:11:58.500 Awaish Kumar: Will isn’t interested in, like,

130 00:11:59.600 00:12:09.419 Awaish Kumar: understanding the store performances, along with, like, school level, like, how… he said, like, some of our…

131 00:12:09.630 00:12:12.710 Awaish Kumar: For example, for some of our,

132 00:12:13.090 00:12:16.020 Awaish Kumar: Items with, like, different flavors are selling

133 00:12:16.170 00:12:22.020 Awaish Kumar: Like, really good in some stores, but other flavors are not selling as

134 00:12:22.190 00:12:24.780 Awaish Kumar: Com- as good as compared to the other ones.

135 00:12:24.780 00:12:26.039 Uttam Kumaran: They want to…

136 00:12:26.130 00:12:29.760 Awaish Kumar: Do kind of comparative analysis of those scores, which are selling

137 00:12:30.000 00:12:34.760 Awaish Kumar: Better versus others, and how and why there’s a gap, or things like that.

138 00:12:38.100 00:12:46.850 Robert Tseng: Okay, so yeah, I mean, I’ve read through this talk before, I’m assuming there’s a couple calls that I can kind of reference for what you guys have talked about already.

139 00:12:47.230 00:12:49.200 Robert Tseng: I mean, generally… of, like, what is…

140 00:12:49.200 00:12:51.089 Uttam Kumaran: The one… the one call with Will?

141 00:12:51.570 00:13:03.060 Uttam Kumaran: Like, he literally explained exactly, like, what he’s looking for, and forwarded us what the report he’s getting from… from the retail partner that owns this data, and it’s, like, kind of trash.

142 00:13:03.060 00:13:05.019 Robert Tseng: We’re saying what we can do differently, yeah, okay.

143 00:13:05.020 00:13:08.240 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, the problem here is that on a typical usual…

144 00:13:08.240 00:13:08.980 Robert Tseng: expansion.

145 00:13:09.760 00:13:21.280 Uttam Kumaran: Well, like, on a tip… on a usual client, like, I would be… like, we’d be like, let’s go with this, and they’d be like, yeah, just present something to Will. On this one, like, everything needs to go through Shivani, so…

146 00:13:21.280 00:13:21.700 Robert Tseng: Okay.

147 00:13:21.700 00:13:34.010 Uttam Kumaran: I’m gonna… we’re just gonna keep treating it that way, so I’m gonna put in front of Shivani an outline for an analysis. The goal here is to actually show our capabilities on the analysis side.

148 00:13:34.150 00:13:39.470 Uttam Kumaran: So that we win the future… so that when I… when I work on the post-Feb scope.

149 00:13:39.720 00:13:44.599 Uttam Kumaran: we bake in a bunch of analysis items. Additionally, it’s a start to distract her from

150 00:13:44.830 00:13:48.939 Uttam Kumaran: spending too much time with me, overall. So I do want, like.

151 00:13:48.940 00:13:49.660 Robert Tseng: Sure.

152 00:13:49.660 00:13:56.610 Uttam Kumaran: To get other people involved in this, because she’s spending too much time on the data engineering stuff, which, like, doesn’t require any input from her.

153 00:13:57.480 00:14:00.569 Robert Tseng: Yeah, so you want, you want slides for her by tomorrow?

154 00:14:01.150 00:14:04.699 Uttam Kumaran: No, like, I… I… we could send this in the Google Doc, like…

155 00:14:05.230 00:14:14.060 Uttam Kumaran: I guess it’s… it’s up to you, like, I’m… I’m more wanting to present, like, an outline of the analysis we’re gonna do, like, what questions we’re going to answer, and then for her to be like, cool, go ahead and…

156 00:14:14.300 00:14:15.629 Uttam Kumaran: Go ahead and do it.

157 00:14:15.790 00:14:17.769 Uttam Kumaran: And I’ll go get time with Will.

158 00:14:18.680 00:14:19.999 Uttam Kumaran: Okay. You see, kind of see what she sees?

159 00:14:20.630 00:14:22.029 Uttam Kumaran: Strategy a little bit? Yeah.

160 00:14:22.030 00:14:29.360 Robert Tseng: I’m gonna take this, take the call, and then I’m basically gonna put out something that’s, like, ready to share with her. Like, I think that, to me, is, like, what I… what you guys need from me, right?

161 00:14:29.360 00:14:40.400 Uttam Kumaran: Exactly, exactly. So it’s like, hey, if… can we get another hour with Will? This is what we’re planning on presenting. We should have it ready probably in a week and a half.

162 00:14:41.800 00:14:51.429 Uttam Kumaran: we want to blow that away, so that Will becomes like, yo, that was sick. They went end-to-end on this data that we previously had no, like, insight into.

163 00:14:51.670 00:14:55.459 Uttam Kumaran: like, these guys are great. When I work on the post-Feb scope.

164 00:14:55.630 00:15:14.249 Uttam Kumaran: there’s gonna be data engineering stuff, data modeling stuff, and strategy stuff. So, I’m gonna start to expand. The… this is a similar thing I’m kind of hoping to do with Cutter. If Cutter can come on and sort of be a good subject matter expert for us on, like, hey, this guy has grown a shit ton of brands, like.

165 00:15:14.410 00:15:19.890 Uttam Kumaran: Through ads, and like… I’m like, hey, there’s a kind of a path towards us helping

166 00:15:20.140 00:15:33.520 Uttam Kumaran: Carlos and marketing just get better at data, and bridging the gap between us and them, right? Having, like, someone like Cutter. So I’m just trying to, like, tee up as much in the next month and a half, so that we, like, blow the scope open.

167 00:15:33.770 00:15:35.060 Uttam Kumaran: Post-February.

168 00:15:35.870 00:15:36.910 Robert Tseng: Okay, cool.

169 00:15:37.020 00:15:46.780 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I mean, I typically block off Wednesday afternoons for this, where I have my heads down, no meetings time, so I probably won’t join the CSO dry run. I’m gonna make sure I finish this.

170 00:15:47.980 00:15:58.139 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, then for the CSO dry run, then I’m gonna have… I’m gonna have Greg just do a dry run with me on… on Hydra and default, and then if it doesn’t go well, I’ll take… I’ll… me and you can take…

171 00:15:58.140 00:15:59.500 Robert Tseng: You’ll take over, yeah.

172 00:15:59.690 00:16:01.289 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, yeah, okay. Okay, great.

173 00:16:01.290 00:16:01.840 Robert Tseng: Okay.

174 00:16:02.210 00:16:03.020 Robert Tseng: Oof.

175 00:16:03.550 00:16:07.609 Robert Tseng: Alright, yeah, I think that sounds good to me.

176 00:16:08.160 00:16:09.260 Awaish Kumar: Okay, crap.

177 00:16:11.500 00:16:12.790 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, perfect.

178 00:16:12.790 00:16:13.310 Robert Tseng: Thanks, everyone.

179 00:16:13.310 00:16:14.139 Uttam Kumaran: Thanks, everyone.