Meeting Title: Brainforge <> Alnu Follow Up Date: 2025-10-10 Meeting participants: Robert Tseng, Max Elrad
WEBVTT
1 00:01:12.650 ⇒ 00:01:14.249 Max Elrad: Hey, Robert, how’s it going?
2 00:01:14.410 ⇒ 00:01:16.599 Robert Tseng: Hey, Max! Long time no see!
3 00:01:16.600 ⇒ 00:01:18.800 Max Elrad: I know, right? Great to see you again.
4 00:01:18.800 ⇒ 00:01:21.699 Robert Tseng: Yeah. How long you been in the city?
5 00:01:22.220 ⇒ 00:01:24.580 Max Elrad: I’ve been here for almost 5 years now, which is crazy.
6 00:01:24.580 ⇒ 00:01:25.230 Robert Tseng: Wow.
7 00:01:25.230 ⇒ 00:01:25.819 Max Elrad: How about you?
8 00:01:25.820 ⇒ 00:01:42.490 Robert Tseng: Okay, less than you, so I think a year and a half, not too long ago. When I just moved here, I mean, I was connected to a couple people, I think, like, Emily Marucci and Alex are still here. I think they still are. But anyway, and, like, Jack Dolgan, if you remember him.
9 00:01:42.960 ⇒ 00:01:47.139 Robert Tseng: Yeah, we did a little LBW get-together. I didn’t know you were around, unless I totally would have.
10 00:01:47.140 ⇒ 00:01:47.530 Max Elrad: That’s.
11 00:01:47.530 ⇒ 00:01:48.380 Robert Tseng: finish that.
12 00:01:48.380 ⇒ 00:01:52.569 Max Elrad: I was invited to an LBW, maybe it was the same one.
13 00:01:52.570 ⇒ 00:01:53.620 Robert Tseng: Oh, no way, okay.
14 00:01:53.620 ⇒ 00:02:00.100 Max Elrad: I was invited to, like, a lunch or something with, like, Emily Zen as well, like, was she there?
15 00:02:00.430 ⇒ 00:02:05.009 Robert Tseng: Oh, yeah, oh yeah, Emily Zen was, was, she wasn’t in town for this one, it was probably separate.
16 00:02:05.010 ⇒ 00:02:07.750 Max Elrad: Yeah, that was, like, a while ago, too.
17 00:02:07.750 ⇒ 00:02:08.240 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
18 00:02:08.240 ⇒ 00:02:11.940 Max Elrad: right… That was, like, maybe 2022, so…
19 00:02:11.940 ⇒ 00:02:12.820 Robert Tseng: Okay.
20 00:02:12.820 ⇒ 00:02:15.789 Max Elrad: That’s so funny. Wait, who else have you seen recently?
21 00:02:15.790 ⇒ 00:02:19.480 Robert Tseng: I ran into, Max and Stuart.
22 00:02:19.480 ⇒ 00:02:20.560 Max Elrad: Oh, nice.
23 00:02:20.880 ⇒ 00:02:30.249 Robert Tseng: Yeah, oh, the other Macs, yeah. And then, yeah, we, I mean, yeah, I guess that was, like, during the Tribeca Film Festival, so that was, like, earlier this year.
24 00:02:30.960 ⇒ 00:02:32.030 Max Elrad: Very nice.
25 00:02:32.030 ⇒ 00:02:34.760 Robert Tseng: Yeah, there’s some people kind of just, like.
26 00:02:34.760 ⇒ 00:02:43.820 Max Elrad: Yeah, I’ve, like, ran into, like, a bunch of people, like, I was at, like, a birthday party in Miami, like, two years ago, and then also last year, I ran into, like, Elliot Sassooni, if you remember him.
27 00:02:43.820 ⇒ 00:02:44.430 Robert Tseng: Oh, yeah, yeah.
28 00:02:44.430 ⇒ 00:03:00.259 Max Elrad: I was like, oh, and he’s, like, happens to be good friends with one of my friends, I’m like, oh my god, like, what a small world. And then, like, just random people, like, I was on… I got, like, cold reached out to by, someone who works at, like, A16Z, and it’s, like, Daniel Steinman’s, like, sister or whatever.
29 00:03:00.260 ⇒ 00:03:01.740 Robert Tseng: Oh, no way.
30 00:03:01.740 ⇒ 00:03:03.549 Max Elrad: Small world, yeah.
31 00:03:03.740 ⇒ 00:03:18.590 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I went to school eventually with, Sean and Spencer, so, like, I still send those guys. Sean moved to the city recently, too, so, yeah, like, I’m… we’re doing some work with his company now, and it’s.
32 00:03:18.590 ⇒ 00:03:25.060 Max Elrad: Oh, that’s cool. I mean, if you went to LVW, like, you kind of were, like, ambitious, so…
33 00:03:25.060 ⇒ 00:03:25.690 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
34 00:03:25.690 ⇒ 00:03:31.080 Max Elrad: Like, who is spending their summers in high school? Like, go.
35 00:03:31.080 ⇒ 00:03:35.040 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I tell people, I was like, yeah, this is what I did in high school, and they’re like, what?
36 00:03:35.040 ⇒ 00:03:35.609 Max Elrad: Yeah, it’s like.
37 00:03:35.610 ⇒ 00:03:38.200 Robert Tseng: When I was 16, I was just doing, like, I don’t sports.
38 00:03:38.200 ⇒ 00:03:43.139 Max Elrad: I was building a business case, or whatever. Like, you didn’t do something more fun.
39 00:03:43.140 ⇒ 00:03:49.849 Robert Tseng: For sure. Yeah, good to see that you linked up with Jesse, he’s crazy, like, I ended up going to…
40 00:03:49.850 ⇒ 00:03:50.989 Max Elrad: You know Jesse.
41 00:03:51.130 ⇒ 00:03:57.600 Robert Tseng: He’s an alumni of the same program for me. He’s a year younger than us, I guess. I’m assuming we were both Class of 2018.
42 00:03:57.600 ⇒ 00:03:57.970 Max Elrad: Yeah.
43 00:03:57.970 ⇒ 00:03:58.480 Robert Tseng: Using…
44 00:03:58.480 ⇒ 00:03:59.270 Max Elrad: legacy.
45 00:03:59.610 ⇒ 00:04:07.619 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I guess, like, you know, honestly, LBW influenced me to apply for this program, but it pretty much felt like LBW for 4 years. It was just like.
46 00:04:07.620 ⇒ 00:04:08.630 Max Elrad: Oh, really?
47 00:04:08.630 ⇒ 00:04:11.679 Robert Tseng: Bunch of people, you know, we…
48 00:04:11.680 ⇒ 00:04:16.380 Max Elrad: Global business thing, Italy and Hong Kong, or… I think it was Hong Kong, right?
49 00:04:16.380 ⇒ 00:04:19.849 Robert Tseng: Yeah, yeah, Hawk on Italy. Yeah, so I was only at USC for a year. I actually did two years.
50 00:04:19.850 ⇒ 00:04:22.150 Max Elrad: Oh, what was your third year, or fourth year, where’d you go?
51 00:04:22.150 ⇒ 00:04:23.499 Robert Tseng: I went back to Italy.
52 00:04:23.500 ⇒ 00:04:28.419 Max Elrad: He did? Okay, because he said he went back to, he went back to USC for that.
53 00:04:28.420 ⇒ 00:04:28.970 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
54 00:04:28.970 ⇒ 00:04:29.490 Max Elrad: Whatever.
55 00:04:29.490 ⇒ 00:04:31.230 Robert Tseng: Yeah. So, I think we…
56 00:04:31.230 ⇒ 00:04:32.480 Max Elrad: money, right?
57 00:04:32.750 ⇒ 00:04:33.660 Robert Tseng: Yeah, Bocconi.
58 00:04:33.660 ⇒ 00:04:37.180 Max Elrad: That’s sick. Yeah. Okay. In Milan, that’s awesome.
59 00:04:37.180 ⇒ 00:04:38.410 Robert Tseng: Yep, exactly.
60 00:04:38.580 ⇒ 00:04:48.769 Robert Tseng: Yeah. So, yeah, small world, but I guess you guys got… you guys linked up and started working on this. It’s… I reached out to him when he made a LinkedIn post, and so we… we chatted a couple weeks back, and…
61 00:04:49.170 ⇒ 00:04:50.370 Robert Tseng: Yeah, here we are.
62 00:04:50.370 ⇒ 00:04:54.699 Max Elrad: Yeah, that’s awesome. Well, we’d love to hear about, kind of, what you’ve been working on as well.
63 00:04:54.700 ⇒ 00:05:10.759 Robert Tseng: Yeah, sure. So, I guess, kind of, you know, quick intro is, so I’ve been, I’ve been running Brainforge, we’re basically, like, a data and AI, like, consultancy, and, I guess, like, specifically the interest with working with your, with your team at All New is,
64 00:05:10.760 ⇒ 00:05:29.690 Robert Tseng: I guess you guys launched an app, and, like, on the product analytics side, that’s kind of, like, one of the… one of the things that we typically start with clients on, and, basically set… setting up everything, tracking reporting around, like, app usage or web app usage. And so yeah, I think that was, like, kind of the… one of the initial conversations.
65 00:05:29.690 ⇒ 00:05:43.070 Robert Tseng: Yeah, we end up kind of… our full range of services, we do the whole, like, data engineering build-out, we’ll, like, throw all your data in a data lake, build out BI reporting, and then, like, we basically are a fractional data team for some, you know.
66 00:05:43.070 ⇒ 00:05:51.810 Robert Tseng: multi-hundred million dollar brands as well, so… and then Eden was one of our… one of our clients, and I… I told Jesse I’d make an intro, so…
67 00:05:51.810 ⇒ 00:05:57.160 Robert Tseng: I’m hoping that, you know, they’ll connect soon, but yeah, that’s kind of where, like, our…
68 00:05:57.160 ⇒ 00:06:09.939 Max Elrad: you know, our paths are maybe overlapping in some of this. That’s awesome. Yeah, I mean, sure, Jesse gave you a rundown, but that’s super… like, so do you guys have your own platform as well, or you guys are a consultancy that uses other platforms, too?
69 00:06:09.940 ⇒ 00:06:28.810 Robert Tseng: Yeah, so I would consider us more like a SI or systems integrator. I mean, we… yeah, we kind of just will use whatever… I mean, we’ll help with the vendor selection if you don’t have tools, but otherwise, we are very opinionated about, you know, if you… what you should and shouldn’t use, and we kind of help build that up custom. But yeah, we don’t… we’re not really…
70 00:06:28.810 ⇒ 00:06:30.570 Max Elrad: Actually, you’ll do implementation as well?
71 00:06:30.570 ⇒ 00:06:31.300 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
72 00:06:31.300 ⇒ 00:06:35.300 Max Elrad: Oh, nice. That’s good. I mean, so I was at Accenture for, like, 7 years, so…
73 00:06:35.300 ⇒ 00:06:35.850 Robert Tseng: forecasting.
74 00:06:35.850 ⇒ 00:06:38.589 Max Elrad: So, like, I know the whole… the whole game.
75 00:06:38.590 ⇒ 00:06:43.040 Robert Tseng: Oh, great. Yeah, yeah. Maybe we’re going after the stuff that Accenture doesn’t want, but like, hey, they want.
76 00:06:43.040 ⇒ 00:06:43.500 Max Elrad: Exactly.
77 00:06:43.500 ⇒ 00:06:44.570 Robert Tseng: contract out to someone else.
78 00:06:44.570 ⇒ 00:06:46.260 Max Elrad: We don’t have a good enough margin, but…
79 00:06:46.260 ⇒ 00:06:48.989 Robert Tseng: Yeah. Well, we’ll take it, yeah, true.
80 00:06:48.990 ⇒ 00:06:53.670 Max Elrad: That’s awesome. That’s really exciting, though. Yeah. But I guess, is there… so, like.
81 00:06:53.980 ⇒ 00:07:00.690 Max Elrad: I guess from a conversation standpoint, like, it sounds like something that’s interesting for us. We don’t have an app on market yet, so it might not be.
82 00:07:00.690 ⇒ 00:07:01.170 Robert Tseng: point.
83 00:07:01.170 ⇒ 00:07:01.820 Max Elrad: Time for…
84 00:07:01.820 ⇒ 00:07:02.230 Robert Tseng: Totally.
85 00:07:02.470 ⇒ 00:07:16.210 Max Elrad: Yeah. But I guess, like, in general, like, how do you all typically work? Is it, like, you contract for a year? Is it, like, specific project-by-project basis? Is there any, like, area specifically that you’d say… I mean, you can say all of the areas, but, like, any area
86 00:07:16.540 ⇒ 00:07:25.700 Max Elrad: Like, we’re, like, really powerhouse at, and, like, kind of what differentiates us. Like, if you want this specific thing, like, we can, like, get that up in, like, 3 weeks or whatever, you know what I mean?
87 00:07:25.910 ⇒ 00:07:43.740 Robert Tseng: Yeah, totally. So, I think, like, product analytics is definitely one of the bread and butter. That’s, like, my personal expertise, kind of bringing it to this team, and so, like, I guess once your app is, you know, whenever you’re gonna go live with it, just making sure that that’s set up, very well, whether you’re using mixed panel, Amplitude, posthog.
88 00:07:43.740 ⇒ 00:07:45.100 Max Elrad: Yeah, we’re using Mixed panel right now.
89 00:07:45.100 ⇒ 00:07:49.689 Robert Tseng: Okay, great. Yeah, I mean, we’re like a top 5 mixed battle implementation partner, or whatever, so they send us these and stuff.
90 00:07:49.690 ⇒ 00:07:50.840 Max Elrad: panel, so…
91 00:07:50.840 ⇒ 00:07:54.659 Robert Tseng: Okay, yeah, so anything mixed panel related, I could, I could definitely help, help you guys.
92 00:07:54.660 ⇒ 00:07:57.580 Max Elrad: Do you like Mixpanel? Or are there other ones that you’d recommend?
93 00:07:57.580 ⇒ 00:08:16.900 Robert Tseng: I think from a feature standpoint, Amplitude is the best, but Mixpanel is… is great, in terms of, you know, if you have, like, a more non-technical kind of user base, or, like, kind of users, and it’s… it’s faster to stand up, so. But yeah, I think it’s… all these platforms are kind of converging, I think,
94 00:08:17.430 ⇒ 00:08:19.909 Robert Tseng: You know, they’ll all do pretty much the same thing.
95 00:08:19.910 ⇒ 00:08:21.609 Max Elrad: That’s all I want, exactly, exactly.
96 00:08:22.510 ⇒ 00:08:28.379 Max Elrad: Yeah, we’re, like, trying to do with the free version for whatever, but then we know we have to be HIPAA compliant at some point, so mixed panel.
97 00:08:28.380 ⇒ 00:08:28.780 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
98 00:08:28.780 ⇒ 00:08:46.910 Max Elrad: At least on the planet we have, so we’re just thinking through all of that as well. So, no, that sounds awesome. And then, I guess, like, just generally, like, how long have you been after at it? Like, just curious, like, how’s it going? Sure. Like, what’s the team, and any, like, just curious to kind of hear what you’ve been up to, basically.
99 00:08:46.910 ⇒ 00:08:57.699 Robert Tseng: Yeah, yeah, I mean, like, I’ve been at this journey, last in-house role was, like, two and a half, more than two and a half years ago, so, kind of went off, started doing, like, my own independent.
100 00:08:57.730 ⇒ 00:09:13.339 Robert Tseng: kind of freelancing consulting, eventually kind of got enough business that started to build out an organization. My business partner, I’d love to introduce you at some point, he was an early data engineer at WeWork, so he’s more technical than I am. I think I… my… I was, like, kind of
101 00:09:13.360 ⇒ 00:09:22.689 Robert Tseng: more, you know, traditional strategy and ops, kind of, in the industry, and then pivoted into analytics that way. But yeah, we kind of have complementary skill set in that way, so we’ve been able to
102 00:09:22.850 ⇒ 00:09:27.099 Robert Tseng: you know, build out this full, full-service offering, and .
103 00:09:27.100 ⇒ 00:09:27.830 Max Elrad: fighting.
104 00:09:27.830 ⇒ 00:09:35.520 Robert Tseng: Yeah, it’s been great. Yeah, we’re continuing to grow the team every quarter. We’re about 20 people right now.
105 00:09:35.520 ⇒ 00:09:37.320 Max Elrad: Oh, that’s awesome.
106 00:09:37.320 ⇒ 00:09:37.970 Robert Tseng: Trust, yeah.
107 00:09:37.970 ⇒ 00:09:40.240 Max Elrad: Like, insulting people, or are those…
108 00:09:40.610 ⇒ 00:09:41.720 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
109 00:09:41.720 ⇒ 00:09:44.369 Max Elrad: like, more, like, back-end build-out, like, what, like…
110 00:09:44.370 ⇒ 00:09:44.940 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
111 00:09:45.120 ⇒ 00:10:00.599 Robert Tseng: So, we’ve basically, and this is something we’re still kind of, implementing, like, kind of improving on for our delivery model. We’re actually heading more, maybe more towards, like, what you’d be familiar with, where we call it, like, a strategist, engineer, and analyst kind of model.
112 00:10:00.600 ⇒ 00:10:08.959 Robert Tseng: Before, we were running with more, kind of, a traditional, like, engineering team structure, where there’s, like, a project manager, and then, like, different levels of engineers.
113 00:10:08.960 ⇒ 00:10:22.599 Robert Tseng: But we actually have been finding that that’s maybe not the best approach for, like, a services org, just because scope does change, and, like, yeah, those teams move a little bit too slowly, and I don’t know, I think my opinion now is, like.
114 00:10:22.700 ⇒ 00:10:28.949 Robert Tseng: I think, like, whoever the engagement manager is, or the strategist on client should be able to project management team as well.
115 00:10:28.950 ⇒ 00:10:30.019 Max Elrad: 100%, yeah, you don’t need
116 00:10:30.440 ⇒ 00:10:42.019 Max Elrad: It’s, like, there to, like… Yeah. Like, you’re also doing the, like, you’re not just there to, like, be like, alright, we’re moving according to plan, like, making our weekly update, like, whatever, like, that’s just not…
117 00:10:42.190 ⇒ 00:10:45.280 Max Elrad: gonna be, like, beneficial, so, yeah.
118 00:10:45.280 ⇒ 00:11:00.669 Robert Tseng: Yeah, we tried so hard to try to, like, make it work. Like, we paid, like, top dollar for best project managers or whatever, but, like, I don’t know, I think I’m convinced after this most recent quarter, like, yeah, maybe this isn’t the way that we should… we should be running this.
119 00:11:00.670 ⇒ 00:11:01.330 Max Elrad: Yeah, yeah.
120 00:11:01.330 ⇒ 00:11:02.890 Robert Tseng: That’s still a work in progress, yeah.
121 00:11:02.890 ⇒ 00:11:05.559 Max Elrad: Finding people to bring on board.
122 00:11:05.880 ⇒ 00:11:08.100 Robert Tseng: Like, clients or, like, team?
123 00:11:08.100 ⇒ 00:11:12.390 Max Elrad: Both. Both? These are all me just, like, personal, like, I’m just curious.
124 00:11:12.390 ⇒ 00:11:13.060 Robert Tseng: Yeah, of course.
125 00:11:13.060 ⇒ 00:11:14.020 Max Elrad: Of his.
126 00:11:14.020 ⇒ 00:11:38.159 Robert Tseng: Client-wise, I mean, referral definitely helps now, but actually, we’re very, like, events-driven, like, we have, like, a… I mean, I basically run our go-to-market motion, and I would say, like, 60% of our budget goes around events, like, going to events, kind of, like, speaking and, like, marketing kind of around that. And then, I mean, we do have outbound channels, we’re bidding on RFPs and, like, kind of stuff like that.
127 00:11:39.050 ⇒ 00:11:45.300 Max Elrad: And then on the inbound side, it’s through partnerships, and then just referrals from your existing customers, so… Totally.
128 00:11:45.300 ⇒ 00:12:02.969 Robert Tseng: yeah, that’s kind of there. And then, on the team side, I think, I mean, we’re… honestly, some of our best folks, like, we got some, like, from random, like, Slack and Discord channels, like, you know, if they’re nerding out on, like, the best tools, like, in these communities, they’re probably pretty, like…
129 00:12:03.190 ⇒ 00:12:03.690 Max Elrad: Yeah.
130 00:12:03.690 ⇒ 00:12:05.240 Robert Tseng: They’re probably pretty good, so I feel like…
131 00:12:05.240 ⇒ 00:12:08.319 Max Elrad: If they spend their, like, free time on that stuff, too, they’re probably on it.
132 00:12:08.320 ⇒ 00:12:09.199 Robert Tseng: Yeah, so that’s…
133 00:12:09.200 ⇒ 00:12:09.749 Max Elrad: Did we win?
134 00:12:10.130 ⇒ 00:12:16.019 Max Elrad: like, we went to this with Jesse, like, found this, like, one guy, we’re, like, looking for, like, whatever, an engineer right now.
135 00:12:16.020 ⇒ 00:12:16.380 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
136 00:12:16.380 ⇒ 00:12:27.510 Max Elrad: There’s, like, one guy who, like, posted that, like, every Saturday he goes to this one coffee shop to, like, meet up with, like, aspiring engineers and, like, illiterate.
137 00:12:27.510 ⇒ 00:12:35.269 Robert Tseng: in 10 minutes, Jesse, like, then, like, literally went to the coffee. The guy wasn’t there that week, but, like, everyone else was there, so we, like…
138 00:12:35.270 ⇒ 00:12:37.059 Max Elrad: who’s spending their Saturdays, like.
139 00:12:37.220 ⇒ 00:12:42.629 Max Elrad: honing their engineering craft, like, only, like, dedicated people, so we’re like, oh, like, that’s perfect, like, if you’re gonna…
140 00:12:42.970 ⇒ 00:12:43.440 Max Elrad: Yeah.
141 00:12:43.440 ⇒ 00:12:44.170 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
142 00:12:44.170 ⇒ 00:12:45.430 Max Elrad: That’s awesome.
143 00:12:45.430 ⇒ 00:12:45.880 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
144 00:12:45.880 ⇒ 00:13:05.769 Max Elrad: I was just curious, because, like, I’m trying to think through if, like, from a strategy, project management, whatever, obviously people from Accenture would be relevant to that space, so I was just curious as to who you were looking to bring on, kind of, in the near term, if there was anyone that I knew there that could potentially be a good fit as well, so…
145 00:13:05.770 ⇒ 00:13:22.089 Robert Tseng: Totally, yeah. I mean, I would love… if you have anybody in your network that you’d love to make an intro to, I do think these, like, ex, like, engagement managers at, like, the Deloitte’s and Accentures of the world would be a great fit. So, like, I… you know, I would love to, you know, if you know anybody, I’d love to try to…
146 00:13:22.450 ⇒ 00:13:27.200 Robert Tseng: try to, you know, give them our pitch and see if they’re interested in coming our way, but .
147 00:13:27.200 ⇒ 00:13:29.650 Max Elrad: Yeah, but do you work in any specific industries?
148 00:13:30.200 ⇒ 00:13:32.730 Robert Tseng: Yeah, so yeah, I would say, like, healthcare is definitely…
149 00:13:32.730 ⇒ 00:13:35.569 Max Elrad: That was a great question. So that would be good, yeah.
150 00:13:35.580 ⇒ 00:13:57.830 Robert Tseng: Okay, yeah, so I think, like, on the healthcare side, we work with, you know, obviously GLP-1, direct-to-consumer company with Eden, but we also work with clinics, like, you know, they have physical clinics here in New York, we’ve helped set up systems for them, and then also, like, purely telehealth as well. We’ve done… we’ve done work with there. So, I feel like that’s been, like.
151 00:13:58.240 ⇒ 00:14:14.539 Robert Tseng: you know, not necessarily, like, where I chose to focus on at first, but something that we’ve been able to do well in. And then, like, my background is more in CPG, and, you know, my last in-house role, I was leading data at Ruggable, so I think, like, anything like CPG and
152 00:14:14.670 ⇒ 00:14:19.150 Robert Tseng: and SaaS, I think, is, you know, that rounds out our portfolio, so that’s really… those are the three.
153 00:14:19.150 ⇒ 00:14:24.720 Max Elrad: I was just curious, because I… all my people are, like, the digital health, life sciences, like…
154 00:14:24.720 ⇒ 00:14:26.889 Robert Tseng: Okay, digital health would be great, yeah.
155 00:14:26.890 ⇒ 00:14:28.700 Max Elrad: Like, that was my group there as well.
156 00:14:28.700 ⇒ 00:14:29.310 Robert Tseng: Okay.
157 00:14:29.310 ⇒ 00:14:42.670 Max Elrad: I mean, that’s how I got, like, involved with Jesse and all, whatever, but anyways. But, so I was like, alright, like, you were saying, like, oh, we need more, like, engagement manager kind of strategy plus project management people. I’m like, that was, like, literally my group, so…
158 00:14:42.670 ⇒ 00:14:43.380 Robert Tseng: Okay.
159 00:14:43.380 ⇒ 00:14:54.500 Max Elrad: It was, like, the people who… like, I would go to a project, and I would, like, execute, for non-technical projects, it would, like, execute the strategies, but also, like, am I capable of managing my own projects, too?
160 00:14:54.500 ⇒ 00:14:55.010 Robert Tseng: Totally.
161 00:14:55.010 ⇒ 00:15:16.800 Max Elrad: I don’t need someone else to do that, like, I can do that myself, so I’m trying to think anyone… I can try to think through anyone who is, like, similar to me in that situation, because those could be potent… and I don’t know, I mean, people are kind of trying to leave Accenture generally right now, so I’m just curious, I get to see if there’s any interest amongst any of my people as well, so if you’re open, I’m happy to do any referrals.
162 00:15:16.800 ⇒ 00:15:19.749 Robert Tseng: Yeah, no, I would appreciate that. That is something we’re looking for, so…
163 00:15:19.750 ⇒ 00:15:22.139 Max Elrad: Perfect. 50% referral fee, Rob.
164 00:15:22.140 ⇒ 00:15:40.349 Robert Tseng: Yeah, no, we do referral fees, yeah. We’ll pass something your way. I mean, Jessica told me a bit about your role. You basically run everything ops and strategy right now, right? On the partnership side, seems like you’re, you know, you’ve got deep networks, being able to get on board, kind of get, like, good,
165 00:15:40.420 ⇒ 00:15:45.960 Robert Tseng: I guess you’re going after, like, insurance groups, or possibly, or just kind of bigger…
166 00:15:45.960 ⇒ 00:15:51.370 Max Elrad: In the future, more like healthcare organizations, like clinics, healthcare organizations, things like, like, hospital.
167 00:15:51.370 ⇒ 00:15:51.750 Robert Tseng: there’s.
168 00:15:51.750 ⇒ 00:15:52.929 Max Elrad: you’ve got. Right now.
169 00:15:52.930 ⇒ 00:15:53.320 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
170 00:15:53.320 ⇒ 00:15:55.699 Max Elrad: So, get it out there, that’s obviously gonna be…
171 00:15:56.130 ⇒ 00:15:59.960 Max Elrad: Easier patient access than one by one by one person.
172 00:15:59.960 ⇒ 00:16:00.410 Robert Tseng: Totally.
173 00:16:00.590 ⇒ 00:16:03.139 Max Elrad: Getting in there, but, like, obviously…
174 00:16:03.400 ⇒ 00:16:08.550 Max Elrad: at a consulting, like, actually, I did specifically GLP-1 consulting, like, so…
175 00:16:08.550 ⇒ 00:16:09.950 Robert Tseng: Oh, very familiar.
176 00:16:09.950 ⇒ 00:16:13.650 Max Elrad: with, like… the clients at these companies, like, I’m…
177 00:16:13.970 ⇒ 00:16:16.349 Max Elrad: Friends with all of them as well, so, like, it actually worked out.
178 00:16:16.350 ⇒ 00:16:16.750 Robert Tseng: That’s weird.
179 00:16:16.750 ⇒ 00:16:31.520 Max Elrad: So, like, I’m used to this kind of role, like, leading kind of these partnership kind of things with, like, pilots, things along those lines, and establishing those. So that’s kind of, like, where I came in, plus all of the operational, like, back-end-y kind of stuff.
180 00:16:31.520 ⇒ 00:16:35.030 Robert Tseng: Yeah. Are you guys gonna be at, Health… Health USA?
181 00:16:35.030 ⇒ 00:16:35.620 Max Elrad: Mmm.
182 00:16:35.620 ⇒ 00:16:36.250 Robert Tseng: Oh, okay.
183 00:16:36.250 ⇒ 00:16:38.230 Max Elrad: Too expensive for us right now.
184 00:16:38.230 ⇒ 00:16:40.540 Robert Tseng: Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, it’s also… Are you going?
185 00:16:40.700 ⇒ 00:16:46.040 Robert Tseng: Yeah, we… I have one… I have one person from my team going. He’s gonna… they’re… yeah, so…
186 00:16:46.040 ⇒ 00:16:47.350 Max Elrad: Where’s that one in Vegas, right?
187 00:16:47.350 ⇒ 00:16:48.389 Robert Tseng: Yeah, the one in Vegas.
188 00:16:48.390 ⇒ 00:16:49.250 Max Elrad: Yeah.
189 00:16:49.400 ⇒ 00:16:51.039 Max Elrad: I don’t think we’re going.
190 00:16:51.040 ⇒ 00:16:51.640 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
191 00:16:51.640 ⇒ 00:16:52.160 Max Elrad: surprise.
192 00:16:52.730 ⇒ 00:16:55.040 Max Elrad: We gotta get an app on the market first, Robert.
193 00:16:55.040 ⇒ 00:16:58.479 Robert Tseng: For sure, for sure. Yeah, that’s important, that’s more important, yeah. Exactly.
194 00:16:58.480 ⇒ 00:17:01.179 Max Elrad: Exactly. Well, we can go next year, so…
195 00:17:01.180 ⇒ 00:17:01.770 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
196 00:17:01.770 ⇒ 00:17:03.579 Max Elrad: That’s so funny. Awesome.
197 00:17:04.040 ⇒ 00:17:04.720 Robert Tseng: Nice.
198 00:17:05.030 ⇒ 00:17:09.490 Robert Tseng: Yeah, and then, like, you guys said, you’re looking for engineering, or how else can it be helpful for… for right now?
199 00:17:09.490 ⇒ 00:17:18.139 Max Elrad: We are actively looking for a founding engineer, if you have anyone kind of in that pipeline. Sure. I mean, basically, it’s…
200 00:17:18.140 ⇒ 00:17:31.970 Max Elrad: Mobile is preferred, but okay, if not, we’re currently building… it’s on React Native on the front end, but we’re also open to changing that. Back-end Firebase, also open to changing if needed. Sure. Those are kind of where we’re at, and…
201 00:17:31.970 ⇒ 00:17:32.320 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
202 00:17:32.320 ⇒ 00:17:39.680 Max Elrad: Really just looking for someone to come on in and just be a leader in the engineering space, and not just, like, execute from a, like…
203 00:17:39.680 ⇒ 00:17:40.140 Robert Tseng: Yep.
204 00:17:40.140 ⇒ 00:17:48.800 Max Elrad: hands on keyboard, but also, like, has, like, ambitions to, like, lead teams and potentially, like, convert into a CTO kind of role as well.
205 00:17:49.080 ⇒ 00:17:54.269 Robert Tseng: Got it. Yeah, I do have someone in mind, actually. He’s, like, an early engineer at Found, if you’ve heard of that.
206 00:17:54.270 ⇒ 00:17:55.640 Max Elrad: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
207 00:17:55.640 ⇒ 00:18:02.669 Robert Tseng: Yeah. So, I know he’s looking to move, and you probably want to stay in the same industry, so I’ll see… I’ll reach out to him, see if he’d be interested. I’d love to make an intro, yeah.
208 00:18:02.670 ⇒ 00:18:04.660 Max Elrad: And what’s his name? If I were just like, oh, I’m.
209 00:18:04.660 ⇒ 00:18:10.899 Robert Tseng: Yeah, his name is Chris, I forgot his name, it might be Cheng, Chen, or Chang Chen, I don’t know, something like that.
210 00:18:10.900 ⇒ 00:18:11.959 Max Elrad: He’s at found, though.
211 00:18:11.960 ⇒ 00:18:12.909 Robert Tseng: Yeah, is that found?
212 00:18:13.110 ⇒ 00:18:15.910 Robert Tseng: Alright, I can probably figure that one out. Yeah.
213 00:18:16.140 ⇒ 00:18:16.830 Max Elrad: Correct.
214 00:18:16.830 ⇒ 00:18:20.039 Robert Tseng: and then CH something. I’m sorry about it off the top of my head.
215 00:18:20.970 ⇒ 00:18:21.550 Max Elrad: Alright.
216 00:18:21.550 ⇒ 00:18:24.600 Robert Tseng: We were, we were colleagues at a previous startup I worked at, so…
217 00:18:25.160 ⇒ 00:18:29.480 Max Elrad: Oh, very good. Well, yeah, let me know if he’s interested.
218 00:18:29.670 ⇒ 00:18:30.620 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
219 00:18:31.010 ⇒ 00:18:34.039 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I will, I will, I will make that intro. Yeah.
220 00:18:34.040 ⇒ 00:18:35.529 Max Elrad: Great. Cool.
221 00:18:35.630 ⇒ 00:18:48.099 Max Elrad: Awesome. Anything else that I can be… and let’s definitely stay in touch, because we’re not at the point right now, Robert, I think, where we’re… need this, but I think that in the future, that would be awesome to get our house in order a little bit more.
222 00:18:48.100 ⇒ 00:18:48.580 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
223 00:18:48.580 ⇒ 00:18:55.550 Max Elrad: Yeah, so definitely excited to keep the conversation going, and happy we were able to kind of reconnect as well.
224 00:18:55.710 ⇒ 00:19:00.219 Robert Tseng: Totally, yeah, I mean, I was telling Jesse, I mean, I picked his brain a bit on, like, kind of,
225 00:19:00.400 ⇒ 00:19:13.350 Robert Tseng: Well, I thought it was a kind of a… just a… you were doing mostly just consumer… consumer app, but obviously the B2B play makes sense. And I was giving him some context, at least with Eden and another… we’ve worked with,
226 00:19:14.030 ⇒ 00:19:19.199 Robert Tseng: I don’t know if you’ve heard it, they’re called DirectMeds, also kind of an Eden-ish company.
227 00:19:19.200 ⇒ 00:19:19.560 Max Elrad: Okay.
228 00:19:19.580 ⇒ 00:19:25.549 Robert Tseng: Yeah, but, like, they… you know, they both have, like, their own…
229 00:19:26.990 ⇒ 00:19:33.630 Robert Tseng: like, member programs, they’re built on, like, the community, like, the circle, you know, platform, community platform.
230 00:19:33.630 ⇒ 00:19:34.529 Max Elrad: Yeah, yeah.
231 00:19:34.530 ⇒ 00:19:40.820 Robert Tseng: like, not great. Like, definitely no… like, I can… I can say from just looking at their data, like, there’s not…
232 00:19:41.070 ⇒ 00:19:47.920 Robert Tseng: it’s not really driving any, like, any whatsoever or anything for them. Like, they’re very poorly designed programs, it’s typically just, like,
233 00:19:48.070 ⇒ 00:19:53.100 Robert Tseng: it’s not really something that they’re actively devoting a lot of resources to, so I do think that, like.
234 00:19:53.210 ⇒ 00:20:07.180 Robert Tseng: you know, being able to have something like an all-new, like, would be really great for… for those… for those folks, like… Yeah. Yeah, so, I mean, if you ever want to, like, kind of ask questions or connect with people who are, you know, members in that community, like, I’m…
235 00:20:07.390 ⇒ 00:20:10.370 Robert Tseng: I’m sure I could, you know, find a way to…
236 00:20:10.370 ⇒ 00:20:11.529 Max Elrad: That’d be awesome, yeah.
237 00:20:11.530 ⇒ 00:20:12.000 Robert Tseng: That’s more interesting.
238 00:20:12.000 ⇒ 00:20:23.130 Max Elrad: as we continue to roll out, I think that would be awesome, Robert, so let’s definitely stay in touch, and yeah, excited about this. And let me think through Accenture, people, because I know, like, I know people are, like, looking at…
239 00:20:23.840 ⇒ 00:20:24.380 Max Elrad: down.
240 00:20:24.380 ⇒ 00:20:32.030 Robert Tseng: I got a good buddy at Accenture, and he’s more in, like, kind of the sales enablement side. I think, his name’s Diego Gradderall, I don’t know if you’ve met him before.
241 00:20:32.030 ⇒ 00:20:36.130 Max Elrad: No, I thought you were gonna say someone else for a second, and I was gonna be like, no way you knew him, but…
242 00:20:36.130 ⇒ 00:20:36.980 Robert Tseng: Oh, okay.
243 00:20:36.980 ⇒ 00:20:39.639 Max Elrad: Diego, who I worked with forever, he actually.
244 00:20:39.640 ⇒ 00:20:40.290 Robert Tseng: Okay.
245 00:20:40.290 ⇒ 00:20:44.599 Max Elrad: potentially a good person for this, so I was like, no way that you just said his name to…
246 00:20:44.600 ⇒ 00:20:45.280 Robert Tseng: Oh.
247 00:20:45.280 ⇒ 00:20:49.220 Max Elrad: Yeah, like, that was, like, one person I was, like, off the top of my head, like, he would be great,
248 00:20:49.220 ⇒ 00:20:49.670 Robert Tseng: Okay.
249 00:20:49.670 ⇒ 00:20:51.830 Max Elrad: Penn with me, he’s 2 years above me, he went to Penn.
250 00:20:51.830 ⇒ 00:20:52.450 Robert Tseng: Okay.
251 00:20:52.450 ⇒ 00:20:58.669 Max Elrad: him, and he went to start a company, then… didn’t pan out, so then he went back to Accenture, and he, like.
252 00:20:58.670 ⇒ 00:20:59.230 Robert Tseng: Oh.
253 00:20:59.230 ⇒ 00:21:05.089 Max Elrad: of, like, the AI… he does stuff in, like, healthcare, too. Like, he was actually one of the people I was thinking of, so…
254 00:21:05.090 ⇒ 00:21:10.269 Robert Tseng: Okay. Well, yeah, I mean, yeah, I hope, hope, hope he’s interested.
255 00:21:10.270 ⇒ 00:21:16.210 Max Elrad: Exactly. I haven’t talked to him in a while. He was on… so he was on leave of absence when I left, so I would have to text him, because.
256 00:21:16.210 ⇒ 00:21:16.900 Robert Tseng: Okay.
257 00:21:16.900 ⇒ 00:21:19.060 Max Elrad: of his… whatever, but yeah, I will…
258 00:21:19.060 ⇒ 00:21:19.500 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
259 00:21:19.500 ⇒ 00:21:21.459 Max Elrad: We’ll keep you updated, Robert, but that’s awesome.
260 00:21:21.850 ⇒ 00:21:23.360 Robert Tseng: Appreciate it. Yeah.
261 00:21:23.360 ⇒ 00:21:24.010 Max Elrad: Cool.
262 00:21:24.940 ⇒ 00:21:37.590 Robert Tseng: Cool. Well, I mean, it’s just great, great catching up. Yeah, we’ll stay in touch. Let me know if we can be helpful in many ways, like, I’ll try to make these intros. And I’m just curious, like, kind of, you know, from a… I mean, it’s you.
263 00:21:37.810 ⇒ 00:21:47.220 Robert Tseng: Rosa, which I haven’t met, I guess she’s more head of product, right, or something, and then… and then Jesse. That’s exciting. I guess, yeah.
264 00:21:47.220 ⇒ 00:22:05.919 Max Elrad: And we have a few additional team members as well, but, like, those are the core ones. Then we have a dietitian coming on as of yesterday, which is exciting. She’s been engaged, though. She was an advisor, but she’s converting full-time, because she’s like, I want to do this, like, full-time, which is great, and then we have an additional engineer, plus we’re getting
265 00:22:05.920 ⇒ 00:22:08.650 Max Elrad: potentially some offshore team members set up, so we’re gonna try.
266 00:22:08.650 ⇒ 00:22:08.990 Robert Tseng: That’s.
267 00:22:08.990 ⇒ 00:22:10.160 Max Elrad: with that, so…
268 00:22:10.360 ⇒ 00:22:11.080 Robert Tseng: Okay.
269 00:22:11.080 ⇒ 00:22:13.789 Max Elrad: Nice. But good stuff overall.
270 00:22:13.790 ⇒ 00:22:14.260 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
271 00:22:14.260 ⇒ 00:22:19.649 Max Elrad: Hopper, glad to hear things are going well with you, and hopefully we can partner at some point in the future, then.
272 00:22:19.840 ⇒ 00:22:20.770 Robert Tseng: For sure.
273 00:22:20.880 ⇒ 00:22:27.650 Robert Tseng: Alright, appreciate your time, Max, and yeah, once again, good reconnecting. Talk soon. Yeah, talk to you later. See ya. Alright, see ya. Bye.