Meeting Title: Brainforge x Snowflake Date: 2025-11-24 Meeting participants: Jarred Clifford, Holly Condos, Uttam Kumaran, Hannah Wang
WEBVTT
1 00:00:25.230 ⇒ 00:00:26.540 Holly Condos: Good morning!
2 00:00:27.180 ⇒ 00:00:28.330 Jarred Clifford: Hey, good morning.
3 00:00:29.180 ⇒ 00:00:34.550 Holly Condos: I’m Holly. I, am the Partnerships Lead at Brainforge. Nice to meet you.
4 00:00:34.550 ⇒ 00:00:36.059 Jarred Clifford: Nice to meet you as well, Holly.
5 00:00:37.160 ⇒ 00:00:38.240 Holly Condos: Where are you based?
6 00:00:38.760 ⇒ 00:00:41.589 Jarred Clifford: I am based out of Metro Atlanta, Georgia.
7 00:00:41.820 ⇒ 00:00:43.520 Jarred Clifford: Oh, wow. What about yourself?
8 00:00:43.870 ⇒ 00:00:45.230 Holly Condos: I’m in San Diego.
9 00:00:45.630 ⇒ 00:00:46.820 Jarred Clifford: Oh, awesome.
10 00:00:47.010 ⇒ 00:00:48.829 Holly Condos: Yeah. How’s your weather?
11 00:00:49.390 ⇒ 00:00:58.279 Jarred Clifford: Today is unbelievable. It’s, about 70 degrees, and sunny, and a light breeze.
12 00:00:58.890 ⇒ 00:01:01.819 Holly Condos: It… that’s not normal, is it?
13 00:01:02.630 ⇒ 00:01:14.380 Jarred Clifford: It’s kind of hit or miss this time of year. Like, there’s been plenty of Thanksgivings in Atlanta where it’s in the mid to high 70s, even the 80s, and then there’s other years where it’s 40 degrees.
14 00:01:14.790 ⇒ 00:01:19.870 Holly Condos: Yeah, yeah, interesting. I’m from Colorado originally, and it’s kind of like that.
15 00:01:20.400 ⇒ 00:01:21.920 Jarred Clifford: Yeah, what part of Colorado?
16 00:01:21.920 ⇒ 00:01:22.850 Holly Condos: Denver.
17 00:01:22.850 ⇒ 00:01:34.369 Jarred Clifford: Okay. I was actually, prior to around this time last year, my wife and I were living in Bozeman, Montana for 4 years. Oh, wow. We were used to seeing snow on Thanksgiving. This is a big change.
18 00:01:34.590 ⇒ 00:01:40.839 Holly Condos: Yeah, yeah, I can understand. I was so used to it, and when I moved here to California, it was a big shock.
19 00:01:41.340 ⇒ 00:01:44.960 Jarred Clifford: Yeah, there’s almost no snow ever in San Diego.
20 00:01:45.090 ⇒ 00:01:45.440 Holly Condos: Right.
21 00:01:46.590 ⇒ 00:01:48.189 Jarred Clifford: And what… is it UTAM?
22 00:01:48.190 ⇒ 00:01:49.070 Uttam Kumaran: UTOM, yes.
23 00:01:49.070 ⇒ 00:01:50.500 Jarred Clifford: But Tom, where are you based out of?
24 00:01:50.500 ⇒ 00:01:51.729 Uttam Kumaran: I’m in Austin.
25 00:01:51.730 ⇒ 00:01:55.049 Jarred Clifford: Austin, nice. And I’m sure it’s nice and warm there, too.
26 00:01:55.270 ⇒ 00:02:00.629 Uttam Kumaran: It started to get cold, which is good, because it is brutal for, like, all year, but…
27 00:02:00.800 ⇒ 00:02:01.300 Holly Condos: Hi!
28 00:02:01.300 ⇒ 00:02:03.990 Uttam Kumaran: I like the heat, so I prefer it to be hot.
29 00:02:04.110 ⇒ 00:02:04.620 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
30 00:02:04.620 ⇒ 00:02:12.070 Jarred Clifford: I’ve been to Austin a handful of times, and for whatever reason, it’s always in the middle of the summer. And I don’t…
31 00:02:12.070 ⇒ 00:02:14.990 Uttam Kumaran: It’s always middle of the summer here, for the most part.
32 00:02:14.990 ⇒ 00:02:20.940 Jarred Clifford: It feels that way. I don’t like heat and humidity either, and I grew up in Atlanta, where it’s always hot and humid.
33 00:02:20.940 ⇒ 00:02:22.030 Holly Condos: Yeah.
34 00:02:22.230 ⇒ 00:02:24.640 Jarred Clifford: But… that’s alright, I’m getting used to it.
35 00:02:25.010 ⇒ 00:02:25.630 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
36 00:02:25.630 ⇒ 00:02:27.890 Jarred Clifford: 33 years, I’m finally getting used to it.
37 00:02:29.980 ⇒ 00:02:32.369 Jarred Clifford: And Hannah, where are you based out of?
38 00:02:32.730 ⇒ 00:02:34.609 Hannah Wang: I’m in Los Angeles right now.
39 00:02:34.770 ⇒ 00:02:38.709 Jarred Clifford: Oh, okay, so two SoCal ladies on the call?
40 00:02:38.930 ⇒ 00:02:39.490 Hannah Wang: Yeah.
41 00:02:39.700 ⇒ 00:02:41.160 Holly Condos: Yeah.
42 00:02:41.800 ⇒ 00:02:43.180 Jarred Clifford: And what’s your role, Hannah.
43 00:02:43.920 ⇒ 00:02:54.300 Hannah Wang: I lead design, and I help with marketing, but also with partnerships, so just everything related to marketing and partnerships, I guess.
44 00:02:54.300 ⇒ 00:03:04.959 Jarred Clifford: Okay, cool. Well, I’m glad we could all get together today. I don’t know if Utam told you, I just randomly reached out to him on LinkedIn, figured it’d be worth us having a meeting. So…
45 00:03:05.270 ⇒ 00:03:20.800 Jarred Clifford: I’m assigned to… here, a quick, quick intro. Been with Snowflake about 11 months now. I have a background in data platform sales, so if any of you guys are familiar with the Hadoop space, I worked for both Hortonworks and Cloudera for quite a while.
46 00:03:20.900 ⇒ 00:03:25.899 Jarred Clifford: And then spent some time in DevOps. Snowflake.
47 00:03:26.070 ⇒ 00:03:44.610 Jarred Clifford: in my opinion, Snowflake’s a little difficult to sell, because you can kind of do whatever you want with it, but the platform itself is much easier than Hadoop-based infrastructure, so it’s fun getting to pitch the outcome as opposed to all the nuances of piecing together technology. But,
48 00:03:44.830 ⇒ 00:03:53.130 Jarred Clifford: really, the reason I reached out to Utam, first and foremost, I actually happened to cover Brainforge as, like, my account at Snowflake.
49 00:03:53.130 ⇒ 00:03:54.399 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, great.
50 00:03:54.400 ⇒ 00:04:02.500 Jarred Clifford: So, for instance, if Brainforge wanted to use Snowflake internally, I would be the person you guys would work with for any internal data and analytics.
51 00:04:02.500 ⇒ 00:04:06.939 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, we have an internal instance, but I think we’re on month-to-month, yeah.
52 00:04:06.940 ⇒ 00:04:07.640 Jarred Clifford: Right.
53 00:04:07.860 ⇒ 00:04:12.719 Jarred Clifford: probably not doing a ton of analytics internally, right? Because most of what you do is consulting.
54 00:04:12.720 ⇒ 00:04:15.600 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, it’s just a little bit, but mainly it’s, like, we want to
55 00:04:15.720 ⇒ 00:04:25.479 Uttam Kumaran: It’s sort of… we also use it as, like, a little bit of a partner instance, like, we test out new capabilities that we’re also going to market with, so, yeah. It’s just nice to, like, have our own.
56 00:04:26.150 ⇒ 00:04:33.060 Jarred Clifford: Yep, absolutely. Yeah, rather than, spinning up trials every single time and then losing access after 30 days.
57 00:04:33.060 ⇒ 00:04:33.820 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
58 00:04:34.170 ⇒ 00:04:54.149 Jarred Clifford: Yep, that makes sense. And then on the flip side, I also only cover accounts in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Arkansas. And I’m on a team with, 6 other account executives covering that same territory as well. Now, our team specifically is commercial accounts.
59 00:04:54.150 ⇒ 00:05:03.649 Jarred Clifford: And the way Snowflake does it here, it’s a little odd, first I’ve ever experienced, we only work with companies around 300 employees or less.
60 00:05:03.650 ⇒ 00:05:16.329 Jarred Clifford: Now, there are instances where we get to break the rules a little bit. So, for instance, one of my customers is an enterprise manufacturer of pet toys, and they have something like 1,500 employees.
61 00:05:16.670 ⇒ 00:05:20.030 Jarred Clifford: So there is a little bit of overlap, but
62 00:05:20.180 ⇒ 00:05:41.990 Jarred Clifford: you know, obviously, I would love to sit here, and you guys tell me, oh, we want to do all this internal analytics and stuff, and I can sell you a contract. I’m not expecting that to be an outcome, and Holly, I know we have you on the call for partners, so why don’t you guys kind of start by telling me a little bit about Brainforge, maybe some of the companies you work with, and your current go-to-market motion.
63 00:05:41.990 ⇒ 00:05:46.669 Jarred Clifford: And we can see if we can identify some opportunities for my team to collaborate with you guys.
64 00:05:46.670 ⇒ 00:05:57.830 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, sure. So yeah, by a bit of background, so yeah, I started Brainforge, a few years ago. I’ve worked with Snowflake since, like, 2019, so probably…
65 00:05:57.830 ⇒ 00:06:00.310 Jarred Clifford: implemented Snowflake, now, like.
66 00:06:00.710 ⇒ 00:06:12.419 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t know, 30, 40 times. Like, my whole career. Known a lot of… know a lot of people on the sales team there, like, I think a lot of them are probably pretty high up now.
67 00:06:12.670 ⇒ 00:06:18.119 Uttam Kumaran: But, so I’ve worked at Procure at Snowflake a bunch. I would say, to date.
68 00:06:18.120 ⇒ 00:06:32.840 Uttam Kumaran: you know, probably until recently, we were maybe too small to sort of get on the radar, but we are doing a lot of Snowflake business, and have the opportunity to sell a lot more into a lot of our clients. But we’re a data analytics and AI consultancy.
69 00:06:32.840 ⇒ 00:06:49.629 Uttam Kumaran: So we implement data infrastructure, and then we implement, you know, data models, BI, and then on top, we’re starting to layer on, AI use cases. So that’s sort of, like, what we do. Maybe I’ll even just, like, we put together a little bit of a deck, and I’ll just,
70 00:06:49.750 ⇒ 00:06:59.819 Uttam Kumaran: And I’ll share that with you, and I’m happy to send this over, after, so you have it, but here’s a little bit about, like, some of our, like, current,
71 00:07:00.600 ⇒ 00:07:05.270 Uttam Kumaran: like, Snowflake, you know, clients, folks that we’ve worked with that we’ve moved on to the…
72 00:07:05.340 ⇒ 00:07:22.430 Uttam Kumaran: onto the platform. So we’ve done a lot of Snowflake work. We have a few others internally that are trialing Snowflake. We often, you know, recommend either y’all or Mother Duck, typically. Mother Duck, they’re giving us a little bit more love on the partner side, so we’ve been sending a bunch of business their way.
73 00:07:22.430 ⇒ 00:07:33.029 Uttam Kumaran: But, you know, we have a lot of background in Snowflake. A lot of the folks on the team have used Snowflake for a number of years, so pretty well versed on, like, the product offering.
74 00:07:33.200 ⇒ 00:07:43.310 Uttam Kumaran: you know, how to implement, you know, end-to-end the tool. This is sort of, like, where it fits in a lot of the work that we do, so we help ingest stuff.
75 00:07:43.390 ⇒ 00:07:53.310 Uttam Kumaran: landed in Snowflake for… we layer on modeling and transformation on top, and then pipe that out to BI, or activate it in other ways for models.
76 00:07:53.420 ⇒ 00:08:09.010 Uttam Kumaran: You know, I think there’s a lot of opportunity for us to use Snowflake more and consolidate some of this stuff directly into the platform. We’re also starting to sell more, into large enterprise companies, so I think there’s, you know, a lot more business that
77 00:08:09.130 ⇒ 00:08:26.069 Uttam Kumaran: you know, we could totally do. Yeah, I mean, we can do… we do basically all the classic stuff on Snowflake. I would say we would like to get more into leveraging the AI features that are native in the platform, more than bringing something in externally.
78 00:08:26.490 ⇒ 00:08:33.790 Uttam Kumaran: You know, and then I feel like a couple things that we’ve already done, we already have, like, a zero-to-one snowflake offering, we’re in the partner network.
79 00:08:33.909 ⇒ 00:08:48.810 Uttam Kumaran: You know, we already have case studies highlighting a lot of the work that we do with Snowflake, so we’ve done a lot on our side on sort of putting together, like, you know, how we help clients get up to speed on Snowflake, and we work pretty quickly for folks.
80 00:08:48.810 ⇒ 00:09:00.070 Uttam Kumaran: So these are typically, like, in, like, a month or two, we can get people set up pretty well on Snowflake, entirely. And so, yeah, a little bit about, like,
81 00:09:00.240 ⇒ 00:09:01.410 Uttam Kumaran: sort of, like.
82 00:09:02.140 ⇒ 00:09:18.010 Uttam Kumaran: again, we partner with a lot of the folks that I’m sure you’re aware of in the data world across all those pieces of the stack, whether it’s for professional service support, we… of course, when we walk into a client, we typically help procure 5 to 10 pieces of
83 00:09:18.090 ⇒ 00:09:30.729 Uttam Kumaran: of software every time, and so we’re often either the primary decision maker or, like, the main, sort of, support at the table to make a vendor decision.
84 00:09:30.850 ⇒ 00:09:49.229 Uttam Kumaran: Which is great. And when we come into companies, we are driving towards outcomes that are supported by data or AI. So we’re not, like, a dev shop. We don’t, sort of do staff aug. A lot of our stuff are, like, owned relationships with these clients, where we’re coming in and driving
85 00:09:49.250 ⇒ 00:09:52.220 Uttam Kumaran: you know, digital transformation.
86 00:09:52.270 ⇒ 00:10:04.069 Uttam Kumaran: Which is great, so I feel like we have a lot of opportunity. We also work with a lot of clients across SaaS, e-com, you know, health, and sort of a variety.
87 00:10:04.070 ⇒ 00:10:19.789 Uttam Kumaran: So we have a lot of background in the first three, but, you know, have done a work in several other areas. In particular, in, like, in your region, really the only client here that we’re working with that is interested is ABC Home and Commercial. They’re a large.
88 00:10:19.790 ⇒ 00:10:28.749 Uttam Kumaran: home and commercial services company here in Texas. But I’m sure there are, you know, you might have coverage across oil and gas.
89 00:10:28.750 ⇒ 00:10:40.979 Uttam Kumaran: like, ag, manufacturing, industrials, that certainly, I’m sure we could help support either, like, the establishment of Snowflake, or, you know, expanding it within… within a client. So, certainly.
90 00:10:41.060 ⇒ 00:10:51.440 Uttam Kumaran: excited to chat if there’s, you know, any opportunities to collaborate, but yeah, I don’t know, that’s sort of a little bit of an overview of us and what we do.
91 00:10:52.040 ⇒ 00:11:02.690 Jarred Clifford: Yeah, and that’s great. I’ve actually worked with a partner similar to you guys in Q3 of this year, and they started in…
92 00:11:02.750 ⇒ 00:11:19.000 Jarred Clifford: January or February, so it was like a brand new kind of solution or system integrator type account, and worked with them on two customers in the automotive industry, and I really liked the motion where they were the product selector.
93 00:11:19.000 ⇒ 00:11:30.069 Jarred Clifford: Like, my contact at the end customer gave, like, deferred to them on almost all conversations. Yeah. So I was mostly communicating and collaborating with the partner to get the deal done.
94 00:11:30.070 ⇒ 00:11:42.349 Jarred Clifford: And they even took my recommendations for ETL and ELT. Yeah. And it kind of ended up being, I’m working with the people that are building this on behalf of the customer.
95 00:11:42.350 ⇒ 00:11:42.740 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
96 00:11:42.740 ⇒ 00:11:50.120 Jarred Clifford: And they communicate in the background, and then at the end, the customer just says, here’s our billing email to send the contract to.
97 00:11:50.170 ⇒ 00:11:51.379 Uttam Kumaran: Yes. Right? Like…
98 00:11:52.210 ⇒ 00:11:56.929 Jarred Clifford: That’s… that’s a really good sales motion, and it makes it a faster sale, in my opinion.
99 00:11:56.930 ⇒ 00:12:11.090 Uttam Kumaran: That was great, yeah. So for our partners, like, we… we… we crush it. I don’t know where we have, like… we’ve… we do a lot of our business alongside partners, and we generate a lot of revenue for…
100 00:12:11.240 ⇒ 00:12:13.180 Uttam Kumaran: Vendors that we bring in.
101 00:12:13.180 ⇒ 00:12:18.350 Jarred Clifford: It’s great, because a lot of the time, we’re bringing in folks that we would have brought in anyways, like the best-in-class tools.
102 00:12:18.380 ⇒ 00:12:25.380 Uttam Kumaran: And we’re not really going after… our client base are folks that want to grow and want to grow faster, so…
103 00:12:25.590 ⇒ 00:12:45.049 Uttam Kumaran: the… it’s not as much of, like, a price… they’re not as price sensitive, but they are sensitive to, like, due diligence and making sure that they’ve evaluated all the right tools, which is, like, something that we do so often. And then, exactly. For most of the time, we’re often the point of contact on bringing in the vendors, and the
104 00:12:45.180 ⇒ 00:12:55.430 Uttam Kumaran: the client, like, they care, but they, we drive it, right? We’re driving a lot of the data strategy and the establishment of the true, like, data platform.
105 00:12:56.360 ⇒ 00:13:06.669 Jarred Clifford: So, the first thing that comes to my mind that, like, I know we’re only halfway through the call, my first action item is I need to get you guys connected with the Snowflake partner rep.
106 00:13:07.000 ⇒ 00:13:10.340 Jarred Clifford: Do you guys have a contact like that already?
107 00:13:10.900 ⇒ 00:13:15.859 Uttam Kumaran: I think I had one when I first started, like, this was, like, almost 3 years ago.
108 00:13:15.920 ⇒ 00:13:20.790 Holly Condos: but we’re in a different spot right now, yeah, that would be great, for sure. Yeah, that would be helpful.
109 00:13:20.790 ⇒ 00:13:33.890 Jarred Clifford: So, her name is Connie Morris, C-O-N-N-I-E, Connie Morris. She works with all our systems integrator partners and implementation partners on collaborative efforts, so…
110 00:13:34.240 ⇒ 00:13:44.200 Jarred Clifford: That may be something like just getting material out to a client, or hosting a webinar, or hosting a local event in Austin, Texas, or something like that, where it’s co-sponsored.
111 00:13:44.200 ⇒ 00:13:44.790 Holly Condos: Perfect.
112 00:13:45.020 ⇒ 00:13:51.360 Jarred Clifford: It would be, like, Brainforge and Snowflake host a happy hour, and we invite people in Austin, Texas to come out.
113 00:13:51.650 ⇒ 00:14:01.430 Jarred Clifford: gives you guys an opportunity to meet some people, maybe get a 15-minute pitch out there over some drinks. And then, the other thing is Connie really helps
114 00:14:01.430 ⇒ 00:14:16.590 Jarred Clifford: spread messaging about our partner relationships. So, I don’t know if this is something you guys do, but a lot of our partners offer, free POCs to encourage Snowflake reps to bring them in. Or, we even have some
115 00:14:16.930 ⇒ 00:14:36.279 Jarred Clifford: where… I don’t know if you’re familiar with, like, Kippi, or Casmo, or Mast Tech. A lot of those are what are called True Blue, where they’re almost exclusively a Snowflake partner. Yeah. And they offer… I don’t know if this would fit your go-to-market model, but sometimes they offer free implementation for new Snowflake customers.
116 00:14:36.280 ⇒ 00:14:46.109 Jarred Clifford: And what that is, it’s like, if a Snowflake customer signs a contract at X dollar value, there’s usually 4 buckets.
117 00:14:46.130 ⇒ 00:14:55.849 Jarred Clifford: our smallest ones start at $10,000, not every partner does it that small, and then a lot of them start at 25, so it’ll be, like, 25 to 50 ACV,
118 00:14:56.160 ⇒ 00:15:02.380 Jarred Clifford: 100, 100 and above. And the higher the contract value, the larger the implementation package.
119 00:15:02.800 ⇒ 00:15:19.680 Jarred Clifford: The reason they do that is because, one, they get credit in the Snowflake partner portal, which allows them to receive more funding and programs from Snowflake, but two, it also allows them to potentially lend or land an extended client after implementation.
120 00:15:19.840 ⇒ 00:15:20.930 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
121 00:15:20.930 ⇒ 00:15:26.529 Jarred Clifford: So, like, for instance, they’ll put together a slide deck that showcases their…
122 00:15:26.660 ⇒ 00:15:33.130 Jarred Clifford: quick start package, or whatever. And when those get circulated across the sales organization.
123 00:15:33.230 ⇒ 00:15:45.879 Jarred Clifford: That, in our minds, we’re like, hey, if I have a company that wants to do this for $15K, and they don’t have a partner, or they have limited technical resources, I’m gonna call Brainforge, because they offer this package.
124 00:15:45.880 ⇒ 00:15:46.380 Uttam Kumaran: Sure.
125 00:15:46.380 ⇒ 00:15:48.680 Jarred Clifford: So you’ll see a lot of that getting brought in.
126 00:15:50.710 ⇒ 00:15:55.040 Jarred Clifford: Yeah, do you guys have any questions about that? Is there anything like that you’ve done in the past?
127 00:15:55.190 ⇒ 00:16:08.949 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, we do have a few offers right now. We do have, like, an AI workshop offering that we’re doing. We do have, like, sort of a zero-to-one for fast-growing SaaS companies. So we do have a few offers totally that we can get to.
128 00:16:08.950 ⇒ 00:16:19.120 Uttam Kumaran: And again, a lot of them revolve around Snowflake as the core data warehouse. But these are really, like, for folks who are like, we need a data warehouse, we need stuff landed and modeled fast.
129 00:16:19.120 ⇒ 00:16:32.000 Uttam Kumaran: like, there’s an opportunity. And then we’re… as we’re going into, you know, we also do a lot of great work on just, like, how do you establish Snowflake, like, well in the beginning, and, like, make sure you get rolls and warehouses.
130 00:16:32.000 ⇒ 00:16:44.449 Uttam Kumaran: and service accounts and everything set up, so there is… it’s all around, like, sort of starting. I think we’ve also done a lot of work on, like, you know, we have experience in the past on, you know, credit usage monitoring or cleanup work.
131 00:16:44.490 ⇒ 00:16:55.100 Uttam Kumaran: And so we can also put some around there. But if that’s what’s helpful, then totally we could put a few that are really focused on Snowflake, you know, and either send them to you or to Connie, for sure.
132 00:16:55.100 ⇒ 00:17:05.049 Jarred Clifford: Yeah, that goes a long way. Connie actually hosts… I don’t know if it’s once a week or every other week. Connie hosts calls for Snowflake reps, where it’ll be a partner spotlight.
133 00:17:05.109 ⇒ 00:17:11.009 Jarred Clifford: Right. And she usually gives the partner 30, 45 minutes, sometimes an hour.
134 00:17:11.030 ⇒ 00:17:21.109 Jarred Clifford: Yeah, it looks like we usually do 30 minutes. It basically gives the partner a time block to showcase how they collaborate with Snowflake, and how they work with Snowflake reps.
135 00:17:21.109 ⇒ 00:17:38.669 Jarred Clifford: And not everyone attends, but you’re usually gonna get between 15 and 25 Snowflake reps in that 35… 30 minutes to kind of talk about Brainforge, and be like, this is why you should work with us. This is the industry we’re really solid in. This is the territory we’re really solid in.
136 00:17:39.050 ⇒ 00:17:45.450 Jarred Clifford: that helps get the message out for other reps to consider, like, hey, maybe I should bring Brainforge into this account.
137 00:17:45.760 ⇒ 00:17:46.620 Jarred Clifford: Totally.
138 00:17:46.620 ⇒ 00:17:47.710 Holly Condos: That’s great.
139 00:17:47.930 ⇒ 00:17:54.689 Jarred Clifford: Yeah, it really is great, and going into those, like, obviously you guys would have a deck you’d present.
140 00:17:54.710 ⇒ 00:18:09.559 Jarred Clifford: But if you have packaged offerings, where it’s like, hey, here’s our AI Quick Start, or here’s our Zero to Snowflake package, Connie will link those in the email so that we have content related to the systems integrator.
141 00:18:09.830 ⇒ 00:18:14.890 Uttam Kumaran: Cool. So, I think that would be a good motion for you guys. Just get connected with her.
142 00:18:14.890 ⇒ 00:18:18.869 Jarred Clifford: Discuss what you do, how you operate,
143 00:18:19.080 ⇒ 00:18:28.060 Jarred Clifford: something I like about you guys is, like, it’s great having the True Blue partners that only work with Snowflake, right? They’re very specialized.
144 00:18:28.200 ⇒ 00:18:41.680 Jarred Clifford: But if we’re getting brought into an account based on a recommendation that did not have to be Snowflake, but you guys chose Snowflake, that feels really good, right? Because then the customer’s thinking.
145 00:18:41.910 ⇒ 00:18:46.809 Jarred Clifford: This wasn’t my only decision, it was just the best decision that they made on my behalf.
146 00:18:47.100 ⇒ 00:18:47.650 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
147 00:18:47.960 ⇒ 00:18:48.440 Holly Condos: Right.
148 00:18:48.440 ⇒ 00:18:50.350 Jarred Clifford: That gives us a lot of validation.
149 00:18:50.490 ⇒ 00:18:52.840 Jarred Clifford: Do you guys have any…
150 00:18:52.840 ⇒ 00:19:07.959 Uttam Kumaran: And we have a lot of, you know, we have a lot of materials that we give to our clients around procurement. Like, we have a data warehouse, and maybe, Hannah, you can send that over. Like, we have a data warehouse selection sort of guide. Across every part of the stack, we sort of guide people into those decisions.
151 00:19:07.960 ⇒ 00:19:14.460 Uttam Kumaran: And yeah, again, oftentimes we arrive at Snowflake as the offering, and again.
152 00:19:14.560 ⇒ 00:19:19.209 Uttam Kumaran: You know it’s a very sticky product, so it’s, like, a great decision for folks to make.
153 00:19:19.350 ⇒ 00:19:32.480 Uttam Kumaran: And we’re trying to move more of our business towards co-selling with partners, because it’s a… it’s, like, a huge win-win for us. But you’re right in that, like, one thing that we try not to… we don’t do much of is, like, we’re exclusive because
154 00:19:32.480 ⇒ 00:19:49.880 Uttam Kumaran: that’s why our partners bring us in, because we don’t have any strong, like, we only implement… we’re, like, we only implement Snowflake, because they want someone that’s often just, like, unbiased in that way, and we can run an evaluation for them. And then oftentimes, what we’re doing with other partners as well is, like.
155 00:19:49.880 ⇒ 00:19:55.360 Uttam Kumaran: Even if that kickback that we would get, we oftentimes are like, hey, can we put that towards
156 00:19:55.360 ⇒ 00:19:59.460 Uttam Kumaran: Like, a marketing development fund, or can we put that towards an event?
157 00:19:59.460 ⇒ 00:20:15.589 Uttam Kumaran: Because I’m not… it’s not really meaningful for us to even get, like, the 5K or 10K to be more biased in that way. I was like, let’s put that towards co-hosting an event, or something we can do where the money ends up, like, working for both of us, versus just, like.
158 00:20:15.920 ⇒ 00:20:24.669 Uttam Kumaran: here’s, like, 5 grand, you know? And so that’s, like, that’s what we’re also super, super interested in, and then, yeah, we just have, like, a long background in Snowflake, like.
159 00:20:25.030 ⇒ 00:20:37.639 Uttam Kumaran: spent a lot of money on Snowflake in the past, and like, you know, it’s something that we’re… we want to continue to promote y’all, but also align towards whatever your, like, product and sales objectives are. Like, if it’s…
160 00:20:37.640 ⇒ 00:20:45.390 Uttam Kumaran: If it’s enabling a certain set of features, or things like that, it’s something that we’d love to hear, like, what those themes are, and how we can
161 00:20:45.510 ⇒ 00:20:47.810 Uttam Kumaran: Align our go-to-market, you know, to those.
162 00:20:47.810 ⇒ 00:20:54.809 Jarred Clifford: Absolutely. So, like, the first thing that pops in my head is Snowflake Intelligence has been a huge conversation starter.
163 00:20:55.000 ⇒ 00:21:11.040 Jarred Clifford: I met with the CIO of that pet company, and he’s worked at other, you know, like, Fortune 1000 organizations before. I want to say he was even the CIO of Vitacoco at one point, which is interesting. Oh, that’s cool.
164 00:21:11.310 ⇒ 00:21:28.039 Jarred Clifford: he and his team, he had 2 or 3 engineers with him and a data scientist, they spent about a month and a half or two months demoing, natural language chat solutions created by Snowflake, Databricks, IBM, Oracle.
165 00:21:28.040 ⇒ 00:21:32.260 Jarred Clifford: Mongo, like, literally all of them. And on the call, he said.
166 00:21:32.260 ⇒ 00:21:38.289 Jarred Clifford: This is the best one that we have seen yet, and the only one that seriously worked.
167 00:21:38.440 ⇒ 00:21:46.139 Jarred Clifford: And so when that came up, that was a real eye-opener for me. I’m like, man, maybe we do have the best natural language solution out of the box.
168 00:21:46.140 ⇒ 00:21:46.490 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
169 00:21:46.490 ⇒ 00:21:58.879 Jarred Clifford: So I’ve been leading with that at a lot of my customers, saying, like, hey, you guys want a chatbot that serves as a data analyst, so you don’t have to go spend $100,000 to hire someone.
170 00:21:59.250 ⇒ 00:22:03.399 Jarred Clifford: deploy Snowflake Intelligence and start asking questions about your data.
171 00:22:03.400 ⇒ 00:22:03.900 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
172 00:22:03.900 ⇒ 00:22:08.220 Jarred Clifford: That’s a real quick fire starter for deals.
173 00:22:08.540 ⇒ 00:22:18.189 Jarred Clifford: you know, throughout this call, I’m just thinking, obviously, any opportunity where you guys bring a client to Snowflake, that’s the easiest thing for us as sales reps.
174 00:22:18.190 ⇒ 00:22:18.630 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, yeah.
175 00:22:18.630 ⇒ 00:22:26.299 Jarred Clifford: how can we encourage you to do that more often by bringing you things? Yeah. That’s how I think about it, and
176 00:22:26.410 ⇒ 00:22:36.110 Jarred Clifford: while we were talking about your budget allocation towards events and things like that, something I thought of is, it’s great to host
177 00:22:36.110 ⇒ 00:22:49.760 Jarred Clifford: a happy hour that’s just Snowflake and Brainforge, where we invite as many of our contacts as possible. It’s another thing where Brainforge sponsors, like, a larger Snowflake event. So, for instance.
178 00:22:50.100 ⇒ 00:22:57.050 Jarred Clifford: We did a series called Snowflake World Tour. It went to most of the major cities across the world, so.
179 00:22:57.050 ⇒ 00:23:00.399 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I’ve been to the one the last two years here in Austin, yeah.
180 00:23:00.400 ⇒ 00:23:03.000 Jarred Clifford: Yeah, so think about events like that, where…
181 00:23:03.690 ⇒ 00:23:23.359 Jarred Clifford: we’re gonna have attendance at that event, regardless of whether we invite people or not, because Snowflake’s sending out the invite, and people see it, and they’re like, oh, big event, I wanna go to that. Brainforge sponsoring that type of event drives a lot of engagement without reps necessarily needing to invite someone to an exclusive happy hour.
182 00:23:23.360 ⇒ 00:23:24.050 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
183 00:23:24.340 ⇒ 00:23:35.060 Uttam Kumaran: And the thing… think about, like, what we found, though, is, like, we actually do a lot of event work with some of our partners, and we… we end up, like, handling all the invites and, like.
184 00:23:35.120 ⇒ 00:23:45.550 Uttam Kumaran: end up really throwing a great, you know, event. And we’ve sort of avoided doing sort of the generic tech events, where it’s just, like, you don’t even know who’s paying for the bar tab.
185 00:23:45.550 ⇒ 00:24:03.269 Uttam Kumaran: it’s sort of like, we kind of say, hey, we want to throw an event on a theme, it’s co-sponsored with a vendor, and then we kind of go find, like, 15 to 20 CIOs, CTOs, VPs, and then we invite them and sort of bring them on. So we’ve actually…
186 00:24:03.440 ⇒ 00:24:21.010 Uttam Kumaran: not had much issue doing that, and I think that that’s the sort of stuff that we’re hoping to do with more vendors, and we’ve had a lot of success where people have come to those events and immediately booked a demo and gotten interested in the tools, you know? And for us, we’re consultants, so…
187 00:24:21.100 ⇒ 00:24:35.389 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t even really pitch at these. It’s just the fact that, like, we’re there having conversations. For me, it’s… it’s more about, like, how do we differentiate Brainforge versus just, like, hey, we’re a Snowflake partner and we get a booth.
188 00:24:35.500 ⇒ 00:24:42.520 Uttam Kumaran: for me, it’s like, when we throw an event like this, and I shake everybody’s hands, and we’re talking about, like, true data platform solution.
189 00:24:43.250 ⇒ 00:24:55.579 Uttam Kumaran: people immediately are just like, okay, how do we… how do I… how do I pay your company to have us work… to work with us, right? So it’s… it’s… that’s the sort of stuff that I don’t think many SI partners have the…
190 00:24:55.580 ⇒ 00:25:04.439 Uttam Kumaran: like, marketing capacity, or, like, the expertise around how to actually execute one of these, that I feel like we’re… we started really focusing on doing
191 00:25:04.440 ⇒ 00:25:21.909 Uttam Kumaran: And this would be something totally, even in your territories, even if you’re like, let’s go to Oklahoma, or let’s go to wherever the tech hubs are in these areas where Snowflake never comes, or there’s never any tech events, and let’s go run one there. But that’s the thing about Austin that’s also fun, is there’s not a lot
192 00:25:21.910 ⇒ 00:25:33.560 Uttam Kumaran: Like, there’s not a… there is, like, a lot of, like, enterprise tech stuff, but not a lot in data in terms of events, and so there’s a lot of people that end up coming, but there’s a lot of employees, and there’s a lot of decision makers here.
193 00:25:33.580 ⇒ 00:25:35.699 Jarred Clifford: Oh, yeah. So…
194 00:25:35.700 ⇒ 00:25:38.180 Uttam Kumaran: That’s gonna be something that we could work on, for sure.
195 00:25:38.320 ⇒ 00:25:40.760 Jarred Clifford: Lot of software startups in Austin.
196 00:25:40.760 ⇒ 00:25:41.130 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
197 00:25:41.130 ⇒ 00:25:48.749 Jarred Clifford: And I think that, that proves to be a good, you know, market for you guys, where it’s someone saying, hey.
198 00:25:48.910 ⇒ 00:25:59.020 Jarred Clifford: we’re new, like, we’re up and running, we want an enterprise warehouse tooling that we’re gonna scale into. That feels like a really good ICP for Brainforge, right?
199 00:25:59.020 ⇒ 00:25:59.590 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
200 00:26:00.840 ⇒ 00:26:18.800 Jarred Clifford: while thinking about the World Tour kind of example, something else I’ve seen, one of our partners named Mast Tech, M-A-S-T-E-K, they’re kind of like Kippy and Casmo, but a little younger, and so what they’ve done, as opposed to trying to be the biggest name at the event, right, as a sponsor.
201 00:26:18.800 ⇒ 00:26:22.169 Jarred Clifford: They just fill in one of the smaller sponsorships.
202 00:26:22.170 ⇒ 00:26:26.789 Jarred Clifford: But what they do is they would host a happy hour or a dinner after the event.
203 00:26:26.800 ⇒ 00:26:44.279 Jarred Clifford: And they’ll invite some of their current customers. So not necessarily just trying to get new prospects, they’ll actually invite customers to come with them to the happy hour or dinner, so anyone they meet at the event and bring along can speak to a Brainforge customer, or a MassTech customer.
204 00:26:44.780 ⇒ 00:26:57.349 Jarred Clifford: And that, I found, proves very valuable. When you can get away from the snowflake event afterwards, and it’s more casual, and you just kind of let them talk to each other.
205 00:26:57.350 ⇒ 00:26:57.670 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
206 00:26:57.670 ⇒ 00:27:03.369 Jarred Clifford: Customers do the selling on your behalf, because they’re the one that has already experienced your service.
207 00:27:03.640 ⇒ 00:27:15.330 Jarred Clifford: And it doesn’t come across as, like, hey, come to our happy hour so we can tell you about Brainforge. It’s like, come to our happy hour and meet our other CIO customer, or our other VP of data.
208 00:27:15.580 ⇒ 00:27:19.470 Jarred Clifford: So, I definitely see a lot of opportunity for you guys.
209 00:27:19.590 ⇒ 00:27:29.509 Jarred Clifford: I know we have 4 minutes left here. Besides me introducing you guys to Connie and helping you get down the partner path, do you guys have any other questions or anything that’s top of mind right now?
210 00:27:30.000 ⇒ 00:27:45.139 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I would ask, like, if there’s any clients, like, you’ve tried to go after, even here in Texas or local, that, like, you’d like to pair on and do. I mean, I think a lot of the times when… a lot of the folks we work with, they’re just inundated by, like, vendors.
211 00:27:45.140 ⇒ 00:27:50.570 Uttam Kumaran: And so, oftentimes, like, if I go to them, and I’m like, hey, we established a data platform.
212 00:27:50.570 ⇒ 00:27:55.669 Uttam Kumaran: it typically will unlock those conversations again. So yeah, I guess, I mean, that would be…
213 00:27:55.750 ⇒ 00:28:00.980 Uttam Kumaran: Beyond the partnership stuff, like, how can we be helpful directly to you, you know, and your book of business?
214 00:28:01.180 ⇒ 00:28:13.140 Jarred Clifford: Yeah, so if I take a look at all the meetings I’ve taken this year, and of course we have Salesforce and other CRM, I like to keep a Google Doc of all of my meetings.
215 00:28:13.670 ⇒ 00:28:20.270 Jarred Clifford: So… I don’t think this is really under NDA. I’m not gonna show you any information about the accounts.
216 00:28:20.270 ⇒ 00:28:20.740 Uttam Kumaran: Sure.
217 00:28:20.740 ⇒ 00:28:31.619 Jarred Clifford: But, like, for instance, Brainforge. I’m just taking notes on some things we’ve talked about, right? Cool. But if you look at… and yes, these are not extensive notes, I have a lot up here. Yeah.
218 00:28:31.620 ⇒ 00:28:48.359 Jarred Clifford: But if you look at all these accounts, like, these are open opportunities I’m working, the deals I’ve closed, and then a lot of these ones that I have marked as dead, they’re not really dead. It’s just companies where maybe they were at a stage where they weren’t quite ready to work with us, or something came up.
219 00:28:48.520 ⇒ 00:28:53.199 Jarred Clifford: A lot of these are based in your territory, that I would love…
220 00:28:53.310 ⇒ 00:28:56.639 Jarred Clifford: To… get in front of you guys, because…
221 00:28:57.150 ⇒ 00:29:05.710 Jarred Clifford: they either don’t have an enterprise data warehouse, and they’re operating on something legacy, like maybe just a SQL warehouse or something small.
222 00:29:06.150 ⇒ 00:29:11.270 Jarred Clifford: Or, they’re a very small Snowflake customer, on demand.
223 00:29:11.580 ⇒ 00:29:12.680 Uttam Kumaran: Then you’re trying to convert.
224 00:29:12.680 ⇒ 00:29:16.900 Jarred Clifford: All they’re doing is, like, Very simple, finance BI.
225 00:29:17.290 ⇒ 00:29:23.000 Jarred Clifford: There’s opportunity for them to do more, but they either aren’t pressing the issue.
226 00:29:23.190 ⇒ 00:29:37.259 Jarred Clifford: don’t have the skills, or don’t have the employees to accomplish something more. So, having a partner like Brainforge serve as not only a consultant for the technology, but a consultant for use cases.
227 00:29:37.260 ⇒ 00:29:38.279 Uttam Kumaran: For example, Gap.
228 00:29:38.480 ⇒ 00:29:48.249 Jarred Clifford: I think that’s a great opportunity to partner, is where I can leverage you guys as a way for them to think about more. Yeah. They’re kind of stuck in the mud.
229 00:29:48.250 ⇒ 00:29:59.330 Uttam Kumaran: Exactly, we’re pitching… of course, we’re like, hey, we will do all the piping, like, in the house, right? Like, and we set up all the infrastructure, but when we come in, we’re like, tell us the KPIs that you want to move.
230 00:29:59.390 ⇒ 00:30:18.550 Uttam Kumaran: Or the KPIs that you currently can’t measure. So we’re… we’re really driving towards outcomes, but we… we can… we should totally… I think one thing, Hannah, we can do is get Jared, like, maybe a couple of… maybe we’ll just put together, like, a snowflake-focused deck from our side with a couple of our offers. That way, it makes it easy for you if, hey, if you’re gonna run a circle back.
231 00:30:18.550 ⇒ 00:30:20.049 Uttam Kumaran: On some of those folks.
232 00:30:20.050 ⇒ 00:30:24.279 Uttam Kumaran: you at least have another wedge in. And then, yeah, when we come in, we’re not…
233 00:30:24.400 ⇒ 00:30:28.300 Uttam Kumaran: we’re not positioned as, like, all we do is Snowflake. We’re positioned as, like.
234 00:30:28.300 ⇒ 00:30:44.530 Uttam Kumaran: tell us your… the opportunities in your company, and we have data and AI that we go attack those with. So, if any one of those are, like, coming back in your schedule, like, circle back with after 6 months, or maybe they said, like, call us again, like, would love to tackle those and, like, reopen those with you.
235 00:30:45.140 ⇒ 00:30:49.430 Jarred Clifford: Yeah, so I’m gonna… I’m gonna pull up one example before we drop here. Sorry if we’re running over.
236 00:30:49.430 ⇒ 00:30:50.200 Uttam Kumaran: No, no, we’re fine.
237 00:30:50.900 ⇒ 00:30:51.480 Holly Condos: Bye.
238 00:30:51.480 ⇒ 00:30:59.150 Jarred Clifford: Like, this is an account I met with this guy way earlier in the year. He is the founder-owner of this company.
239 00:30:59.930 ⇒ 00:31:02.239 Jarred Clifford: this is year one for launch. He launched.
240 00:31:02.240 ⇒ 00:31:04.649 Uttam Kumaran: I know these guys, yeah, I saw this dude somewhere.
241 00:31:04.650 ⇒ 00:31:05.460 Jarred Clifford: Okay, so…
242 00:31:06.100 ⇒ 00:31:17.380 Jarred Clifford: his business is great. It’s essentially an AI and data software platform for inheritance and post-life planning for your family members.
243 00:31:17.520 ⇒ 00:31:31.339 Jarred Clifford: Traditionally, you have to log into Fidelity, you have to log into your bank, you have to log into all this, and you have to set up your dependents, or who your assets would go to pending a serious life event where you pass away.
244 00:31:31.500 ⇒ 00:31:36.359 Jarred Clifford: By the way, his name is Sri Chintalla.
245 00:31:36.970 ⇒ 00:31:54.199 Jarred Clifford: This is going to be a very data-heavy focused organization. They’re storing a lot of data related to these people’s accounts, logins, so that if they were to pass away, their family has access to the My Legacy account with everything lined up for them.
246 00:31:54.420 ⇒ 00:32:14.359 Jarred Clifford: First and foremost, I think the business idea is great. It touches an emotional part of life and people to be pre-planned. He has expressed interest in Snowflake, and has said, like, hey, I know we’re going to need something like Snowflake down the road. I need to land some customers first, grow the business.
247 00:32:14.580 ⇒ 00:32:20.570 Jarred Clifford: This is the type of account where you may want to have a partner relationship early, and kind of…
248 00:32:20.570 ⇒ 00:32:40.060 Jarred Clifford: get to understand how he’s going to market, how many customers have you acquired? How fast is your data growing? What do you envision happening in the next 2 years that’s gonna set you apart so another company doesn’t build a similar product and put you out of business? Like, those conversations would be good for him to have with Brainforge. And then.
249 00:32:40.060 ⇒ 00:32:44.609 Jarred Clifford: you guys saying, hey, we think now is the right time to go ahead and launch on Snowflake.
250 00:32:44.690 ⇒ 00:32:52.150 Jarred Clifford: That is a better path than me coming to him saying, hey, have you closed 10 new customers? Are you ready to sign a deal with Snowflake?
251 00:32:52.430 ⇒ 00:32:52.880 Holly Condos: Yeah.
252 00:32:52.950 ⇒ 00:33:03.559 Jarred Clifford: So, I’d like to bring a list of some of these types of accounts to you guys, where I think, like, hey, they’re young, they’re ripe for that zero-to-snowflake path.
253 00:33:04.010 ⇒ 00:33:04.470 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
254 00:33:04.470 ⇒ 00:33:14.859 Jarred Clifford: Because I think that’s a very easy sale for you guys. And, you know, just based on the short conversation and some of the customers you showed me, I think you guys have the book of business to go about and do that.
255 00:33:15.370 ⇒ 00:33:19.730 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, and so most of our ICPs, like, I would say in the startup world.
256 00:33:19.920 ⇒ 00:33:36.239 Uttam Kumaran: most of our folks that we work at in startups, like, really at this point, have to have… basically be Series A, Series B, and, like, raise the fair bit of money. Most of our client book is all, like, $20 million in revenue annually and up, is, like, typically our ICE.
257 00:33:36.240 ⇒ 00:33:42.970 Uttam Kumaran: But I think there’s still a lot of stuff, people that we work with that are in the 5 million range that are just fast-growing startups, like.
258 00:33:42.970 ⇒ 00:33:45.190 Holly Condos: We have a couple people that just raised, like.
259 00:33:45.190 ⇒ 00:33:48.950 Uttam Kumaran: Anywhere from 20 to 30 million, and they’re like, we have to scale fast.
260 00:33:49.000 ⇒ 00:34:06.210 Uttam Kumaran: And then we also are going into a lot of, like, larger, private businesses where they’re just establishing their whole data infrastructure, and then we’re sort of supporting that, so… And then one thing we should do, Hannah, is we should also look… I think in our notes, we’ll have sort of your territories. We can look at who we’ve talked to
261 00:34:06.210 ⇒ 00:34:13.489 Uttam Kumaran: In those areas as well, and like, if we have folks that would be in your domain that we can pass back and try to open again.
262 00:34:15.520 ⇒ 00:34:23.210 Jarred Clifford: Yeah. I have an account list. The most accounts I’ve ever had in a job. I have, like, 750 accounts. Wow.
263 00:34:23.949 ⇒ 00:34:26.069 Jarred Clifford: Very overwhelming. I’ve…
264 00:34:26.070 ⇒ 00:34:33.119 Uttam Kumaran: How many of them are in the inheritance sort of side? Like, that meaning the size is, like, they’re just getting started, versus, like.
265 00:34:33.540 ⇒ 00:34:35.720 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, like, they’re actively…
266 00:34:36.270 ⇒ 00:34:41.819 Uttam Kumaran: looking at a vendor, or maybe they just skipped a quarter because it wasn’t… they didn’t have budget, you know what I mean?
267 00:34:42.320 ⇒ 00:34:47.189 Jarred Clifford: I would say at least 30-40% are kind of those, like.
268 00:34:47.810 ⇒ 00:34:50.299 Jarred Clifford: I might work with them if they take off.
269 00:34:50.300 ⇒ 00:34:50.870 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, yeah.
270 00:34:50.870 ⇒ 00:35:00.139 Jarred Clifford: not, they’re just gonna kinda spin tires and waste my time asking questions. But then I also have some, like, for instance, I cover the Oklahoma City Thunder.
271 00:35:00.310 ⇒ 00:35:00.700 Uttam Kumaran: Great.
272 00:35:00.700 ⇒ 00:35:13.560 Jarred Clifford: That’s an 500 million to a billion in revenue, and then I also have some that do $3 million in revenue.
273 00:35:13.560 ⇒ 00:35:14.350 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
274 00:35:14.350 ⇒ 00:35:18.559 Jarred Clifford: Prior to Snowflake, I had only worked, basically, Fortune 1000.
275 00:35:18.560 ⇒ 00:35:18.930 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
276 00:35:18.930 ⇒ 00:35:26.859 Jarred Clifford: So, the deal cycles moving as fast as they do here is very new to me, but I’m learning quickly how to connect with these commercial-type accounts.
277 00:35:26.860 ⇒ 00:35:27.390 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
278 00:35:27.390 ⇒ 00:35:33.669 Jarred Clifford: I can try and pull a CSV of my account list to see if we have overlap.
279 00:35:33.690 ⇒ 00:35:34.720 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. But…
280 00:35:35.040 ⇒ 00:35:43.410 Jarred Clifford: you know, chances are, if you guys are working with a company in Texas, it probably falls under my team, unless it’s a larger organization.
281 00:35:43.990 ⇒ 00:35:54.389 Uttam Kumaran: Cool. Okay, that’s helpful. I mean, for us, like, I just wanna… let’s put together our list as well, and we have a big circle back, like, group that we want to hit in January.
282 00:35:54.390 ⇒ 00:36:11.289 Uttam Kumaran: I think additionally, yeah, if we can cross and look at your list, and then also, if you have a good sense of, like, the reason they maybe passed up on Snowflake, that way, when we look at… for all of our circleback campaigns, we’re sort of trying to isolate, like, okay, was it a budget thing? Was it a talent thing? And then we have a way back in.
283 00:36:11.310 ⇒ 00:36:24.610 Uttam Kumaran: And, like, we should do something. Yeah, and I think even… that’s, like, some really short-term ways for us to support you, and then would love, of course, the intro to partnerships, and then we’ll keep pushing there, but this has been super, super helpful. I mean, we…
284 00:36:24.610 ⇒ 00:36:32.970 Uttam Kumaran: we’re starting to also sell… I mean, unfortunately, some of our clients are still East Coast, West Coast, I don’t… some of the larger ones are not in your territory, but…
285 00:36:32.970 ⇒ 00:36:36.359 Uttam Kumaran: We’re starting to do some larger enterprise-style stuff, but…
286 00:36:36.360 ⇒ 00:36:47.300 Uttam Kumaran: the thing about me is because I’m here in Austin, we have a unique advantage to go after a lot of the local businesses here, and Texas businesses, like, want to work with other Texas businesses.
287 00:36:47.300 ⇒ 00:37:02.530 Uttam Kumaran: So, we have an advantage to, like, do a lot of stuff here, so I don’t know if there are other big SI partners. I know NTT and a few people are in town, but I feel like there’s some opportunity for us to collaborate. And Oklahoma’s not… not that far from me either, so…
288 00:37:02.530 ⇒ 00:37:12.810 Jarred Clifford: No, it’s not. I definitely think there could be some opportunity. I think… so my action item, I’m gonna go ahead and CC Connie on an email, and I’ll just do an internal intro.
289 00:37:13.080 ⇒ 00:37:13.550 Holly Condos: Thanks.
290 00:37:13.550 ⇒ 00:37:26.539 Jarred Clifford: And then, I know it’s the week of Thanksgiving, I do have a little more free time. I’ll try and get my account list to you guys, but I will also subset some of those that I showed you. Say, like, hey, I’ve engaged with them, here’s kind of where they’re at.
291 00:37:26.540 ⇒ 00:37:27.180 Uttam Kumaran: Sure.
292 00:37:27.180 ⇒ 00:37:35.469 Jarred Clifford: Maybe we go back together at them, or I let you guys reach out and say, like, hey, spoke with Jared at Snowflake, he mentioned you’re early in your journey, or something.
293 00:37:36.300 ⇒ 00:37:46.200 Uttam Kumaran: Because some of those folks, like, they may just need, like, a whole picture before they choose Snowflake, or they want… they’ll choose the on-demand, and then ramp up, right? So…
294 00:37:46.340 ⇒ 00:37:53.710 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I think even if it’s, like, one or two bullets on, like, where you left them, and then we should plan, like, we’ll find a couple that we can crack back into.
295 00:37:53.710 ⇒ 00:38:08.760 Jarred Clifford: Yeah, that brings up a good last question on my end. When you guys do these engagements, if you do choose Snowflake as the platform of choice for your customer, how often are you encouraging them to engage in a capacity contract versus going on demand?
296 00:38:09.610 ⇒ 00:38:15.640 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, it, it depends. Some folks that are small.
297 00:38:16.160 ⇒ 00:38:32.790 Uttam Kumaran: like, they don’t have a good sense of their usage, and so they’re like, how do I know? But some stuff that are… some people that are bigger, I’m like, this is a no-brainer. We’re gonna have 50 data sources we’re landing in here. Like, you might as well. But oftentimes, again, I think it sort of depends on, like.
298 00:38:33.040 ⇒ 00:38:47.960 Uttam Kumaran: I know the sales reps are always, like, pushing us towards those capacity contracts, but it’s, like, the person’s first 90 days on Snowflake, it’s almost hard, they don’t see… because they’re also making, like, 5 or 6 other vendor decisions, and so…
299 00:38:48.610 ⇒ 00:39:06.790 Uttam Kumaran: it’s really, like, for example, BI is easy, because you just need to use it today, and so you have to sign the annual deal, but Snowflake, because you have that, it’s almost tough, but that’s where I would love to understand, like, okay, are these opportunities you see, like, 3 to 6 months, we then start, we land a bunch of data, we show clearly that their spend is ramping up.
300 00:39:06.820 ⇒ 00:39:13.540 Uttam Kumaran: And that they should move over. There are some people who have bought Snowflake before, and so immediately moved to capacity.
301 00:39:14.210 ⇒ 00:39:16.079 Uttam Kumaran: It just sort of depends.
302 00:39:16.250 ⇒ 00:39:23.140 Jarred Clifford: Yeah, and I’ll give you some insight. The reason sales reps push for those contracts is because we don’t get paid for on-demand.
303 00:39:23.140 ⇒ 00:39:23.710 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
304 00:39:23.710 ⇒ 00:39:34.129 Jarred Clifford: Like, there’s no kickback to me. Even if a customer is spending half a billion dollars, 0 as a sales rep.
305 00:39:34.130 ⇒ 00:39:50.750 Uttam Kumaran: I see. That’s just the way we operate. I get it. No, I get it, and I… and for me, it’s also, I’m like, I would love for them to sign a longer capacity agreement. It sort of just depends, and so it’s often, like… again, we’re pitching, like, 5 or 6 other vendors that all have to collaborate.
306 00:39:50.750 ⇒ 00:39:51.210 Jarred Clifford: Yep.
307 00:39:51.210 ⇒ 00:39:54.579 Uttam Kumaran: But oftentimes, we get to the point where they end up
308 00:39:54.830 ⇒ 00:40:04.249 Uttam Kumaran: seeing the spend is high enough, and then I can say, like, hey, you guys are already spending two grand on Snowflake a month, you’re gonna… it’s a deal to get on the capacity, you know, so…
309 00:40:04.250 ⇒ 00:40:15.060 Jarred Clifford: I don’t… I don’t know how much external documentation I have to share around this. Something that would be a really good co-sell… I know you mentioned Fivetran earlier, I think, on one of your slides.
310 00:40:15.060 ⇒ 00:40:15.390 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
311 00:40:15.390 ⇒ 00:40:22.450 Jarred Clifford: like, there’s probably some other tools that are Snowflake partners. We have a program called Marketplace Capacity Drawdown.
312 00:40:22.780 ⇒ 00:40:30.540 Jarred Clifford: Where customers can draw down up to 25% of their Snowflake contract to spend on partner tools.
313 00:40:30.620 ⇒ 00:40:33.949 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, great. So, for instance, if a customer has…
314 00:40:34.330 ⇒ 00:40:39.549 Jarred Clifford: 5,000 a year on Fivetran.
315 00:40:39.550 ⇒ 00:40:40.030 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
316 00:40:40.030 ⇒ 00:40:41.910 Jarred Clifford: You could take 5 grand out of your snowfall.
317 00:40:41.910 ⇒ 00:40:47.370 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, no way. Yeah, I would love… if you have a document on that, we… Yeah, that would be great.
318 00:40:47.620 ⇒ 00:40:48.410 Uttam Kumaran: Vines, yeah.
319 00:40:48.410 ⇒ 00:41:01.090 Jarred Clifford: The reason we recommend that is, one, as a sales rep, it grows my contract, but two, if I know they’re gonna use that amount of funds to pay for a partner tool that they already have.
320 00:41:01.100 ⇒ 00:41:05.699 Holly Condos: Signing a larger Snowflake contract means I can go higher on my discount.
321 00:41:05.730 ⇒ 00:41:11.920 Jarred Clifford: So, if you sign for 20, and you use 5 for MCD, you’re really only using 15 of Snowflake.
322 00:41:11.920 ⇒ 00:41:12.330 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
323 00:41:12.330 ⇒ 00:41:16.719 Jarred Clifford: those 15K of Snowflake are getting discounted as if it was 20.
324 00:41:16.720 ⇒ 00:41:17.440 Uttam Kumaran: I see, I see.
325 00:41:17.440 ⇒ 00:41:20.409 Jarred Clifford: So it helps customers get a better cost basis on their overall.
326 00:41:20.410 ⇒ 00:41:22.859 Uttam Kumaran: I had no idea, was this, like, is this reset?
327 00:41:23.130 ⇒ 00:41:33.029 Jarred Clifford: It is fairly recent, so it used to only be 10%, so it wasn’t talked about as much. 25%, though, provides a lot more cost value for customers, so especially
328 00:41:33.140 ⇒ 00:41:34.010 Jarred Clifford: If,
329 00:41:34.410 ⇒ 00:41:46.429 Jarred Clifford: Say your Snowflake usage is 100,000 Snowflake contract allows us to increase the discount by up to, like, 4%.
330 00:41:46.630 ⇒ 00:41:47.120 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
331 00:41:47.120 ⇒ 00:41:52.659 Jarred Clifford: So you’re talking almost $5,000 just by looping in Fivetran to your agreement.
332 00:41:52.870 ⇒ 00:41:56.330 Uttam Kumaran: No, we have a few people that would totally take advantage of this.
333 00:41:56.330 ⇒ 00:41:56.780 Jarred Clifford: Yeah.
334 00:41:56.780 ⇒ 00:42:02.950 Uttam Kumaran: And it would have been a better sell, like, it would make the snowflake sell even… even… even better.
335 00:42:03.240 ⇒ 00:42:08.800 Jarred Clifford: So, here’s… here’s my final thought. Even if a customer does not do this.
336 00:42:09.150 ⇒ 00:42:11.430 Jarred Clifford: At the beginning of their contract.
337 00:42:11.510 ⇒ 00:42:14.400 Jarred Clifford: If they have unused capacity.
338 00:42:14.440 ⇒ 00:42:32.140 Jarred Clifford: Say they sign a 5,000 to, instead of just either losing the credits or rolling them into the next year.
339 00:42:32.660 ⇒ 00:42:34.190 Uttam Kumaran: Okay. Oh, interesting, okay.
340 00:42:34.190 ⇒ 00:42:40.230 Jarred Clifford: Yeah, you de-risk the total contract value by giving them more opportunities to spend that money.
341 00:42:40.230 ⇒ 00:42:55.599 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, if you have a one-pager on that, or a blurb, like, I would love to put that into our… I mean, Hannah, basically, we should put together one slide just on Snowflake, and start to have some of these, not only our offers, but also some of the incentives that Snowflake’s providing.
342 00:42:55.600 ⇒ 00:43:01.799 Holly Condos: I mean, I know the typical discount schedule for, like, the first-tier annual deal.
343 00:43:01.800 ⇒ 00:43:05.040 Uttam Kumaran: But yeah, that would be helpful. We have…
344 00:43:05.350 ⇒ 00:43:15.199 Uttam Kumaran: I mean, yeah, we have, like, 2 active Snowflake deals that people are considering that I would love to share this with them. And then it would just be helpful, and then I could ask this to Connie, but just, like, what partners are…
345 00:43:15.600 ⇒ 00:43:17.940 Uttam Kumaran: What partners are qualified under that, for sure.
346 00:43:18.220 ⇒ 00:43:33.130 Jarred Clifford: Yeah, absolutely. So, I’m gonna get an email out to you guys introducing Connie, I’ll do some internal digging to see what I have that we can share with partners, and then, third thing, I’ll get you guys a good account list and some open accounts I’m working on.
347 00:43:33.360 ⇒ 00:43:33.740 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
348 00:43:33.740 ⇒ 00:43:34.750 Holly Condos: That’s great.
349 00:43:35.520 ⇒ 00:43:35.890 Uttam Kumaran: Amazing.
350 00:43:36.120 ⇒ 00:43:42.720 Jarred Clifford: Well, it was a pleasure meeting the three of you guys. Good to have a, casual meeting before Thanksgiving, get to be explained.
351 00:43:44.250 ⇒ 00:43:44.990 Uttam Kumaran: So.
352 00:43:45.230 ⇒ 00:43:48.549 Holly Condos: Absolutely. We appreciate the time. Thank you.
353 00:43:48.550 ⇒ 00:43:51.689 Jarred Clifford: Great talking to you guys. We’ll be in touch soon. Have a great Thanksgiving.
354 00:43:51.690 ⇒ 00:43:54.450 Holly Condos: Alright, you too. Take care. Bye-bye.