Meeting Title: Friday Brainforge Demos & Retro Date: 2025-12-12 Meeting participants: Rico Rejoso, Uttam Kumaran, Elizah Joy, Fireflies.ai Notetaker Joules, Holly Condos, Gabriel Lam, Joules Asuncion, Mustafa Raja, Zoran Selinger, Ryan Brosas, Pranav, Ashwini Sharma, Samuel Roberts, Hannah Wang, Demilade Agboola, Amber Lin, Robert Tseng, Luke’s Notetaker, Luke Scorziell, Clarence Stone
WEBVTT
1 00:01:35.680 ⇒ 00:01:37.000 Uttam Kumaran: Hello!
2 00:01:37.900 ⇒ 00:01:38.920 Rico Rejoso: Hey, you thumb?
3 00:01:39.340 ⇒ 00:01:40.070 Uttam Kumaran: Hey!
4 00:01:40.560 ⇒ 00:01:42.440 Rico Rejoso: Yeah, I just messaged Eliza.
5 00:01:43.240 ⇒ 00:01:43.970 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, no problem.
6 00:02:09.259 ⇒ 00:02:11.599 Uttam Kumaran: Nice background, dude. Good to see you.
7 00:02:12.170 ⇒ 00:02:13.170 Rico Rejoso: Yes.
8 00:02:13.280 ⇒ 00:02:15.030 Rico Rejoso: Had them through my camera at once.
9 00:02:16.250 ⇒ 00:02:17.750 Uttam Kumaran: I love your glasses.
10 00:02:18.670 ⇒ 00:02:20.740 Rico Rejoso: We have to,
11 00:02:24.040 ⇒ 00:02:31.930 Rico Rejoso: I messaged Luke, but… he hasn’t replied to me, so I think we’re gonna skip his light.
12 00:02:32.890 ⇒ 00:02:33.500 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
13 00:02:33.800 ⇒ 00:02:35.610 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, you can go ahead and hide it, Ben.
14 00:02:36.070 ⇒ 00:02:36.750 Rico Rejoso: Got it.
15 00:02:49.920 ⇒ 00:02:51.330 Rico Rejoso: Let me turn on…
16 00:02:56.330 ⇒ 00:02:57.160 Rico Rejoso: Oh.
17 00:03:00.750 ⇒ 00:03:04.390 Uttam Kumaran: Dude, now that you had your video on, I’m not gonna let you go back.
18 00:03:04.990 ⇒ 00:03:07.960 Uttam Kumaran: That’s the bad part.
19 00:03:07.960 ⇒ 00:03:10.000 Rico Rejoso: Yeah, I just turned my lights on.
20 00:03:46.800 ⇒ 00:03:48.359 Rico Rejoso: We have Eliza here.
21 00:03:54.930 ⇒ 00:03:56.390 Elizah Joy: I can hear you.
22 00:03:57.090 ⇒ 00:03:58.830 Uttam Kumaran: Yes. -Oh.
23 00:03:59.600 ⇒ 00:04:01.869 Elizah Joy: Hi, how are you?
24 00:04:02.130 ⇒ 00:04:03.320 Uttam Kumaran: Good, how are you?
25 00:04:04.030 ⇒ 00:04:08.550 Elizah Joy: I’m good. Hopefully you can see me, it’s just a bit dark, but yeah.
26 00:04:08.940 ⇒ 00:04:10.229 Uttam Kumaran: No, no, no problem.
27 00:04:11.120 ⇒ 00:04:11.980 Uttam Kumaran: Good morning.
28 00:04:19.240 ⇒ 00:04:25.160 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I just want to make sure that the deck is ready. I’m just doing my final, updates.
29 00:04:25.590 ⇒ 00:04:28.860 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, yeah.
30 00:04:34.870 ⇒ 00:04:43.479 Elizah Joy: Okay, so, on my end, I did update the, operations tech. It’s, it’s just a text.
31 00:04:43.690 ⇒ 00:04:45.749 Uttam Kumaran: At the moment? That’s fine.
32 00:04:45.770 ⇒ 00:04:50.039 Elizah Joy: They’re based on the, two-week plan that we have.
33 00:04:50.150 ⇒ 00:04:55.090 Elizah Joy: But, yeah, so that’s on my end for…
34 00:04:55.730 ⇒ 00:04:59.820 Elizah Joy: The… but during the meeting, we’ll share more about the
35 00:05:00.050 ⇒ 00:05:04.879 Elizah Joy: Details of those updates for each of the items. Yeah, that’s…
36 00:05:05.110 ⇒ 00:05:10.679 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, feel free to share, even if you want to share your screen or send things in Notion, everybody will be definitely…
37 00:05:11.010 ⇒ 00:05:13.149 Uttam Kumaran: You know, interested to hear that, so…
38 00:05:16.000 ⇒ 00:05:24.670 Elizah Joy: Yep, definitely. I’ll do that. I do have, the workflow that we have for the equipment process, and then the
39 00:05:24.900 ⇒ 00:05:30.940 Elizah Joy: Set the, timesheet accountability for that.
40 00:05:32.090 ⇒ 00:05:32.600 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
41 00:05:43.050 ⇒ 00:05:48.240 Uttam Kumaran: And, great job, Rico, this week. We know we had a lot of people, and everybody…
42 00:05:48.580 ⇒ 00:05:50.269 Uttam Kumaran: It’s got added to the meeting.
43 00:05:51.420 ⇒ 00:05:52.410 Rico Rejoso: Yeah, yeah.
44 00:05:52.410 ⇒ 00:05:57.800 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t know how you’re keeping… I don’t know how you’re keeping track with, with everything, but…
45 00:05:58.130 ⇒ 00:06:01.039 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, it’s… It’s… it’s a lot.
46 00:06:01.470 ⇒ 00:06:05.339 Rico Rejoso: Yeah, we just utilize linear as much as possible, add everything there.
47 00:06:06.060 ⇒ 00:06:06.730 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
48 00:06:11.200 ⇒ 00:06:12.870 Rico Rejoso: We have 30 slides.
49 00:06:18.090 ⇒ 00:06:20.269 Rico Rejoso: Oh, Clarence has a lot of stats.
50 00:06:21.050 ⇒ 00:06:22.749 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, Clarence’s slides are good.
51 00:06:22.870 ⇒ 00:06:23.450 Rico Rejoso: Yeah.
52 00:06:24.160 ⇒ 00:06:25.230 Rico Rejoso: Yeah, I’m back.
53 00:07:08.970 ⇒ 00:07:10.490 Uttam Kumaran: Is Greg coming to the meeting?
54 00:07:13.580 ⇒ 00:07:18.900 Rico Rejoso: We hope so, but I’m not for… Thank you so much. Four days will be for us.
55 00:07:19.590 ⇒ 00:07:20.130 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
56 00:07:28.720 ⇒ 00:07:30.710 Rico Rejoso: For now, I know, he’s joining.
57 00:07:32.870 ⇒ 00:07:33.679 Uttam Kumaran: Nice, okay.
58 00:08:31.380 ⇒ 00:08:32.400 Uttam Kumaran: Hey, Holly!
59 00:08:37.500 ⇒ 00:08:39.869 Uttam Kumaran: I think you said, how are you? Good! I… well…
60 00:08:39.870 ⇒ 00:08:40.230 Holly Condos: Dude!
61 00:08:40.230 ⇒ 00:08:42.180 Uttam Kumaran: I’m okay. I’m hanging in there.
62 00:08:42.780 ⇒ 00:08:43.360 Holly Condos: Yeah.
63 00:08:44.240 ⇒ 00:08:50.960 Uttam Kumaran: So this is week, 4 or 5 of… the Sprint, I am.
64 00:08:51.130 ⇒ 00:08:57.489 Uttam Kumaran: I will not be, I will not be… Back to 100% until…
65 00:08:57.790 ⇒ 00:09:02.690 Uttam Kumaran: the 24th, so until then, we… We just wake up, and…
66 00:09:02.970 ⇒ 00:09:08.499 Uttam Kumaran: And show up, and sleep, and do it again. It’s been insane. I.
67 00:09:09.030 ⇒ 00:09:09.450 Holly Condos: It’s…
68 00:09:09.450 ⇒ 00:09:09.959 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t know.
69 00:09:09.960 ⇒ 00:09:17.359 Holly Condos: It’s a… it’s a high-class problem, but also one that we should not make you be sustaining.
70 00:09:17.760 ⇒ 00:09:23.289 Uttam Kumaran: No, I don’t know… yeah, the business goes through phases like this.
71 00:09:23.290 ⇒ 00:09:23.890 Holly Condos: Yep.
72 00:09:24.560 ⇒ 00:09:26.000 Uttam Kumaran: But this one…
73 00:09:26.530 ⇒ 00:09:41.679 Uttam Kumaran: it’s funny, in November, I was… I told Robert, I’m like, oh, okay, it’s like, it’s coming, and it’s just like, okay, we just have to, like… the great thing is it forces me to learn a lot of good habits, which is… I’m now a morning person, I’m… instead of getting up at, like.
74 00:09:42.580 ⇒ 00:09:45.449 Uttam Kumaran: It’s like 7.45A, I’m getting up at 6.
75 00:09:45.640 ⇒ 00:09:56.330 Uttam Kumaran: I sound like I’m sleeping much earlier, but I’m… Yeah. And… I don’t know, I feel like I’m definitely…
76 00:09:57.100 ⇒ 00:10:03.710 Uttam Kumaran: We’re definitely investing more in systems, and… It’s getting better, we… No.
77 00:10:03.710 ⇒ 00:10:08.149 Holly Condos: It’s really… I think it’s really coming along, even just since I joined.
78 00:10:08.640 ⇒ 00:10:09.480 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
79 00:10:09.480 ⇒ 00:10:13.349 Holly Condos: Right? It’s only been, like, what, 6 weeks? And look!
80 00:10:13.350 ⇒ 00:10:14.050 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
81 00:10:14.170 ⇒ 00:10:15.680 Uttam Kumaran: No, I saw. Pretty awesome.
82 00:10:16.010 ⇒ 00:10:30.970 Uttam Kumaran: It’s very, very awesome, yeah. I mean, and it’s… for me, it’s really great to continue to see that, like, stuff is happening, and I’m not involved. I am often the blocker, but it’s just nice to see that we have built processes and expectations
83 00:10:31.100 ⇒ 00:10:43.089 Uttam Kumaran: You know, in a way where people can continue to push, and look, we do things once or twice until we figure it out, and then it kind of gets this train moving, and then we get the next train moving, the next train, and so that’s great.
84 00:10:43.090 ⇒ 00:10:47.449 Holly Condos: Yeah, yeah, that’s exactly… The… the goal, right?
85 00:10:47.800 ⇒ 00:10:52.150 Holly Condos: And the golden, the golden rainbow, if you will.
86 00:10:52.600 ⇒ 00:11:11.759 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I think everybody today will be interested to hear from, you know, I’m finally… I think usually these… we’ve just been sort of strapped to run these, so we kind of breeze through them, but, you know, today I did ask for other folks to present, so I do appreciate taking the time to do that, but it’ll be great for
87 00:11:11.870 ⇒ 00:11:12.740 Uttam Kumaran: you know.
88 00:11:12.850 ⇒ 00:11:23.399 Uttam Kumaran: it’ll be great to see everybody hear about various parts of the business they’re not involved in, and, you know, Clarence, who’s been helping us think a little bit about
89 00:11:23.520 ⇒ 00:11:35.210 Uttam Kumaran: the operating model of the company, and, like, how do we go from where we’re now to, like, okay, we’re trying to start handling 30, 40 clients. He’ll talk a little bit about what we’re thinking there, and I think everybody will be…
90 00:11:35.440 ⇒ 00:11:37.109 Uttam Kumaran: You know, really excited, so…
91 00:11:37.640 ⇒ 00:11:38.450 Holly Condos: That’s awesome.
92 00:12:17.700 ⇒ 00:12:19.049 Uttam Kumaran: The whole crew.
93 00:12:19.970 ⇒ 00:12:23.919 Uttam Kumaran: What’s… what’s been the… is anyone anywhere warm right now?
94 00:12:25.510 ⇒ 00:12:26.540 Holly Condos: Oh, I am.
95 00:12:27.290 ⇒ 00:12:29.269 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, yeah? In San Diego?
96 00:12:31.060 ⇒ 00:12:32.879 Holly Condos: Can you see out my window?
97 00:12:33.500 ⇒ 00:12:35.370 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, it’s very, very nice.
98 00:12:35.860 ⇒ 00:12:38.339 Holly Condos: Okay, here, I’ll show you my pool, too.
99 00:12:38.340 ⇒ 00:12:40.400 Uttam Kumaran: Hold on.
100 00:12:41.440 ⇒ 00:12:46.690 Holly Condos: So everyone can just, you know… like, we should have a team-building thing here, Utam.
101 00:12:47.220 ⇒ 00:12:48.129 Uttam Kumaran: I would love…
102 00:12:48.130 ⇒ 00:12:52.399 Holly Condos: And I’ll come out to San Diego. Look, this is my backyard.
103 00:12:52.400 ⇒ 00:12:53.090 Ryan Brosas: Wow.
104 00:12:53.090 ⇒ 00:12:54.120 Uttam Kumaran: Wow.
105 00:12:54.120 ⇒ 00:12:54.810 Samuel Roberts: Oh, wow.
106 00:12:54.810 ⇒ 00:12:55.610 Uttam Kumaran: Beautiful.
107 00:12:56.110 ⇒ 00:12:57.629 Ryan Brosas: See the pool. Beautiful view.
108 00:12:58.170 ⇒ 00:12:59.699 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, it’s great.
109 00:12:59.700 ⇒ 00:13:01.610 Holly Condos: Nice and ready to jump in.
110 00:13:04.000 ⇒ 00:13:06.669 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, don’t invite us too fast, we’ll be there.
111 00:13:07.110 ⇒ 00:13:11.259 Holly Condos: We usually, entertain over here, right? Like.
112 00:13:11.470 ⇒ 00:13:14.699 Holly Condos: We can just set up tents. There’s a fire pit.
113 00:13:15.100 ⇒ 00:13:16.859 Holly Condos: So it’s, it’s kind of nice.
114 00:13:17.930 ⇒ 00:13:18.680 Uttam Kumaran: Beautiful.
115 00:13:18.680 ⇒ 00:13:19.719 Holly Condos: That’s enough for now.
116 00:13:25.070 ⇒ 00:13:27.999 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I’ll show you guys. This is, like, the…
117 00:13:28.150 ⇒ 00:13:31.380 Uttam Kumaran: my, like, front yard view here. But it’s cold.
118 00:13:31.380 ⇒ 00:13:32.809 Holly Condos: You have fun!
119 00:13:33.070 ⇒ 00:13:33.870 Ryan Brosas: Nice!
120 00:13:33.870 ⇒ 00:13:41.830 Uttam Kumaran: It is sun, but it is a cold sun. Like, when you see the sun like that, there’s no clouds, you know it’s kind of cold outside. But… Yeah.
121 00:13:41.830 ⇒ 00:13:43.840 Samuel Roberts: I don’t know what cold is right now.
122 00:13:43.840 ⇒ 00:13:45.599 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, I know, you guys are really, really cool.
123 00:13:45.600 ⇒ 00:13:46.230 Holly Condos: Cool.
124 00:13:46.790 ⇒ 00:13:50.409 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I’m growing basil, and mint, and tomatoes.
125 00:13:50.410 ⇒ 00:13:50.730 Samuel Roberts: Is that…
126 00:13:50.730 ⇒ 00:13:51.889 Uttam Kumaran: and peppers…
127 00:13:51.890 ⇒ 00:13:55.520 Samuel Roberts: And green onions… I was just looking at that planter box at Costco yesterday.
128 00:13:56.170 ⇒ 00:13:58.840 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, it is a one… it is the one from Costco, it’s super great.
129 00:13:58.840 ⇒ 00:13:59.550 Samuel Roberts: Yeah.
130 00:13:59.790 ⇒ 00:14:00.500 Samuel Roberts: I thought.
131 00:14:00.500 ⇒ 00:14:02.040 Uttam Kumaran: 90 bucks and 80 bucks?
132 00:14:02.040 ⇒ 00:14:02.570 Samuel Roberts: Oh my god.
133 00:14:02.570 ⇒ 00:14:05.220 Uttam Kumaran: It’s… it’s… it’s amazing.
134 00:14:05.660 ⇒ 00:14:11.900 Uttam Kumaran: And… Yeah, the one thing I love about planting is you just can’t, like, speed it up. It’s both.
135 00:14:11.900 ⇒ 00:14:12.290 Samuel Roberts: That’s training.
136 00:14:12.290 ⇒ 00:14:15.580 Uttam Kumaran: Because sort of speeding things up is…
137 00:14:16.030 ⇒ 00:14:28.169 Uttam Kumaran: story of my life right now, but it’s also very relaxing to not… to not… because you can’t, like, overwater it, and it doesn’t grow faster, and so you just kind of have to, like.
138 00:14:29.100 ⇒ 00:14:30.850 Uttam Kumaran: Let’s go through the motions, you know?
139 00:14:31.470 ⇒ 00:14:32.359 Samuel Roberts: That’s great.
140 00:14:32.360 ⇒ 00:14:33.280 Holly Condos: That’s awesome.
141 00:14:36.120 ⇒ 00:14:42.020 Uttam Kumaran: Cool, so I think Clarence is gonna be a few minutes late. I guess, Rico, are we waiting for anyone else?
142 00:14:43.400 ⇒ 00:14:45.240 Uttam Kumaran: We have most people here.
143 00:14:46.460 ⇒ 00:14:49.259 Rico Rejoso: Yeah, I think we have… The real one.
144 00:14:49.680 ⇒ 00:14:50.439 Rico Rejoso: I’m sitting here.
145 00:14:53.030 ⇒ 00:14:54.359 Rico Rejoso: I think we can start.
146 00:14:55.440 ⇒ 00:14:57.040 Uttam Kumaran: Okay,
147 00:14:57.820 ⇒ 00:15:04.009 Uttam Kumaran: Gabe, I can… you want to drive slides, and then maybe you could pass it to me after, yeah…
148 00:15:04.220 ⇒ 00:15:05.459 Uttam Kumaran: You run things?
149 00:15:05.860 ⇒ 00:15:11.680 Gabriel Lam: Sure thing, let me… Do you want to share screen, or I can share screen for this?
150 00:15:11.680 ⇒ 00:15:12.330 Uttam Kumaran: No, you go ahead.
151 00:15:13.050 ⇒ 00:15:22.349 Gabriel Lam: Alright… So… I wonder how…
152 00:15:25.050 ⇒ 00:15:28.410 Gabriel Lam: Do you guys see the slides, or…
153 00:15:28.990 ⇒ 00:15:29.660 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
154 00:15:29.880 ⇒ 00:15:30.360 Holly Condos: Yeah.
155 00:15:30.360 ⇒ 00:15:39.379 Gabriel Lam: Alright, so, nice to meet you all. I’m Gabe, I’m with the AI team, if you don’t know me, and I’ve been asked to…
156 00:15:39.660 ⇒ 00:15:54.630 Gabriel Lam: yeah, just drive the first part of our retro, so… here’s our agenda. We’re gonna start with a few icebreakers, and a quick lab share, and then Utam, I believe, will take it on from there with a few intros from other people, in the team.
157 00:15:55.310 ⇒ 00:16:01.440 Gabriel Lam: So for our first icebreaker, I’m gonna introduce the Mandela Effect.
158 00:16:01.740 ⇒ 00:16:04.899 Gabriel Lam: And this is basically when a lot of people
159 00:16:05.120 ⇒ 00:16:11.880 Gabriel Lam: believe something that is wrong. And so it comes from this man, Nelson Mandela, who was…
160 00:16:12.190 ⇒ 00:16:16.190 Gabriel Lam: at one point the leader of South Africa, and he was jailed for a very long time.
161 00:16:16.360 ⇒ 00:16:21.800 Gabriel Lam: And so, for a lot of people, the big question was, When did he pass away?
162 00:16:22.860 ⇒ 00:16:28.540 Gabriel Lam: And he was in jail for, you know, a long time, and he died shortly after, and so…
163 00:16:28.770 ⇒ 00:16:32.130 Gabriel Lam: The goal? I wanted to make…
164 00:16:32.130 ⇒ 00:16:33.150 Uttam Kumaran: a poll?
165 00:16:33.840 ⇒ 00:16:38.070 Gabriel Lam: But it doesn’t seem like Zoom has polls, so…
166 00:16:38.230 ⇒ 00:16:44.490 Gabriel Lam: maybe the better option is to see reactions from people, and so if you… you can…
167 00:16:45.100 ⇒ 00:16:48.800 Gabriel Lam: go to the React, and if people think,
168 00:16:49.220 ⇒ 00:16:56.320 Gabriel Lam: It’s A… oh, sorry, I’ve already spoiled it. If people think it’s A, react with…
169 00:16:56.860 ⇒ 00:17:00.799 Gabriel Lam: a thumbs up, and if people think it’s B, react to the heart.
170 00:17:01.310 ⇒ 00:17:04.760 Gabriel Lam: So we’re gonna try it from there, and people can see what people think.
171 00:17:05.210 ⇒ 00:17:17.849 Gabriel Lam: So, most people think he passed very early, he passed in the 80s, but actually he passed very, very recently, in 2013. And so this is why people think, like, oh.
172 00:17:18.220 ⇒ 00:17:23.999 Gabriel Lam: we all thought he was much older than he was, but not actually. And so let’s move on to some other icebreakers.
173 00:17:24.190 ⇒ 00:17:27.789 Gabriel Lam: And so, if anyone’s played Monopoly, you know what he looks like.
174 00:17:28.160 ⇒ 00:17:30.919 Gabriel Lam: The question is, does he wear glasses or not?
175 00:17:32.190 ⇒ 00:17:35.190 Gabriel Lam: And you guys can feel free to react.
176 00:17:42.810 ⇒ 00:17:45.310 Uttam Kumaran: Wait, what is the heart reaction? Is that A?
177 00:17:45.310 ⇒ 00:17:46.280 Gabriel Lam: at B.
178 00:17:47.070 ⇒ 00:17:47.440 Holly Condos: Sorry.
179 00:17:47.440 ⇒ 00:17:49.850 Uttam Kumaran: I just typed B, I didn’t even listen to directions, sorry.
180 00:17:51.010 ⇒ 00:17:53.909 Gabriel Lam: It’s just, I can’t really see the chat while I’m presenting.
181 00:17:53.910 ⇒ 00:17:56.169 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, okay, okay, sure, sure, sure.
182 00:17:56.410 ⇒ 00:18:00.950 Gabriel Lam: alright, most people have B. Wow.
183 00:18:01.130 ⇒ 00:18:02.179 Gabriel Lam: Actually, he doesn’t.
184 00:18:02.180 ⇒ 00:18:03.260 Uttam Kumaran: What?
185 00:18:03.550 ⇒ 00:18:03.930 Gabriel Lam: Yeah.
186 00:18:03.930 ⇒ 00:18:04.600 Holly Condos: I wasn’t wear gloves.
187 00:18:04.600 ⇒ 00:18:05.259 Uttam Kumaran: Wait, really?
188 00:18:05.260 ⇒ 00:18:08.710 Gabriel Lam: No. He does on the box, but…
189 00:18:08.830 ⇒ 00:18:13.960 Gabriel Lam: In publishing and print, he has no glasses, which is really.
190 00:18:13.960 ⇒ 00:18:16.589 Samuel Roberts: This is the one that convinced me about the Mandela Effect, because I…
191 00:18:16.590 ⇒ 00:18:17.120 Gabriel Lam: Yeah.
192 00:18:17.120 ⇒ 00:18:18.960 Samuel Roberts: about this and being like, what? What’s up?
193 00:18:19.600 ⇒ 00:18:26.240 Gabriel Lam: The next one, everyone might have known this tech company. Is there a dash in the logo?
194 00:18:30.330 ⇒ 00:18:31.090 Samuel Roberts: Well, no.
195 00:18:34.320 ⇒ 00:18:37.049 Gabriel Lam: I see Mustafa and Amber think it does.
196 00:18:38.080 ⇒ 00:18:43.680 Gabriel Lam: And so does Ashwini, the answer is no. There’s no dash in TikTok, it’s one word.
197 00:18:44.170 ⇒ 00:18:48.890 Gabriel Lam: Then we have Pikachu, if you know Pokemon.
198 00:18:50.130 ⇒ 00:18:53.140 Gabriel Lam: Does he have… A black tail or not.
199 00:18:57.330 ⇒ 00:19:01.420 Gabriel Lam: A lot of people think A, A few, think B.
200 00:19:02.010 ⇒ 00:19:04.570 Uttam Kumaran: I feel like it’s gonna be B, but I think it’s A.
201 00:19:07.520 ⇒ 00:19:10.239 Gabriel Lam: It’s the… he doesn’t have a black tail.
202 00:19:11.660 ⇒ 00:19:13.530 Gabriel Lam: I know, it’s sneaky, huh?
203 00:19:13.530 ⇒ 00:19:14.899 Uttam Kumaran: I hate getting tricked.
204 00:19:17.570 ⇒ 00:19:21.439 Gabriel Lam: What about KitKats? Is there a dash in KitKat?
205 00:19:23.700 ⇒ 00:19:26.679 Uttam Kumaran: Where did you get both the images? Did you do AI?
206 00:19:27.120 ⇒ 00:19:30.290 Gabriel Lam: No, I found a bunch of quizzes online.
207 00:19:31.170 ⇒ 00:19:33.189 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, okay, okay, I feel like…
208 00:19:33.190 ⇒ 00:19:35.340 Gabriel Lam: It’s pretty mixed, this one’s pretty mixed.
209 00:19:35.340 ⇒ 00:19:37.430 Uttam Kumaran: I feel like it does have a dash.
210 00:19:39.420 ⇒ 00:19:40.810 Uttam Kumaran: I love kids.
211 00:19:40.810 ⇒ 00:19:42.660 Gabriel Lam: No, there’s no dash.
212 00:19:43.460 ⇒ 00:19:47.890 Gabriel Lam: Then let’s move on. Which is the real Mona Lisa?
213 00:19:48.330 ⇒ 00:19:50.180 Gabriel Lam: I think if people…
214 00:19:50.640 ⇒ 00:19:56.340 Gabriel Lam: I’ve seen the image before, it’s just how much he smiles, if she does at all.
215 00:19:56.920 ⇒ 00:20:03.560 Uttam Kumaran: I feel like she doesn’t smile, like, that much at all. She’s, like, not happy, right? Isn’t that…
216 00:20:03.560 ⇒ 00:20:03.950 Pranav: Yeah.
217 00:20:03.950 ⇒ 00:20:05.400 Gabriel Lam: Also, pretty mixed.
218 00:20:05.820 ⇒ 00:20:06.850 Gabriel Lam: Oh.
219 00:20:07.830 ⇒ 00:20:11.220 Uttam Kumaran: She does, actually, more smiley than one might imagine.
220 00:20:11.220 ⇒ 00:20:13.640 Gabriel Lam: Robertson.
221 00:20:13.640 ⇒ 00:20:16.470 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, Robert’s like, yeah, I knew that, yeah.
222 00:20:16.470 ⇒ 00:20:19.130 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I shot in the lube.
223 00:20:19.630 ⇒ 00:20:26.579 Gabriel Lam: This is coming up to the end, there’s a few more. This is a car company that people might have seen.
224 00:20:27.040 ⇒ 00:20:30.520 Gabriel Lam: Is there a cross in the middle between…
225 00:20:31.910 ⇒ 00:20:32.919 Gabriel Lam: The two Vs?
226 00:20:35.010 ⇒ 00:20:36.730 Gabriel Lam: Seems like half-half again.
227 00:20:38.400 ⇒ 00:20:45.859 Gabriel Lam: There is, there is. This is Volkswagen. They make the Beetle, if you guys know, and they own a lot of other car companies now.
228 00:20:45.960 ⇒ 00:20:51.840 Gabriel Lam: Now to the last two. I’m sure you guys have gone to Starbucks before.
229 00:20:55.240 ⇒ 00:20:56.530 Uttam Kumaran: Oh…
230 00:20:56.700 ⇒ 00:20:57.330 Robert Tseng: Oh.
231 00:20:57.730 ⇒ 00:20:58.230 Robert Tseng: Okay.
232 00:20:58.230 ⇒ 00:21:00.939 Gabriel Lam: Is there a star on our crown, or is there not a star?
233 00:21:06.570 ⇒ 00:21:08.480 Gabriel Lam: Oh, people think there isn’t.
234 00:21:10.050 ⇒ 00:21:10.940 Uttam Kumaran: They’re just spamming it.
235 00:21:10.940 ⇒ 00:21:14.729 Gabriel Lam: It’s part, it’s part of the… Yeah, part of the naming.
236 00:21:14.730 ⇒ 00:21:15.150 Uttam Kumaran: Dang!
237 00:21:15.150 ⇒ 00:21:18.859 Gabriel Lam: And then the last one is probably the hardest, because we all think we know.
238 00:21:19.030 ⇒ 00:21:22.510 Gabriel Lam: What’s the C in Coca-Cola?
239 00:21:25.230 ⇒ 00:21:25.950 Luke Scorziell: Bang.
240 00:21:26.080 ⇒ 00:21:28.460 Uttam Kumaran: Not sure if there’s just a Coke bottle or something.
241 00:21:30.870 ⇒ 00:21:32.079 Gabriel Lam: You’re not allowed to do it.
242 00:21:32.080 ⇒ 00:21:34.620 Robert Tseng: It’s funny if you made one for Brainforge.
243 00:21:35.310 ⇒ 00:21:40.469 Robert Tseng: What do you mean? On the Braid Force design, like, if you just, like, change, like, one little thing about it.
244 00:21:40.470 ⇒ 00:21:42.590 Gabriel Lam: I should have done that.
245 00:21:42.730 ⇒ 00:21:43.320 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
246 00:21:46.920 ⇒ 00:21:52.399 Gabriel Lam: It’s the latter. The… the C does go through the L. That’s how you know.
247 00:21:53.690 ⇒ 00:21:54.820 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, wow.
248 00:21:55.350 ⇒ 00:21:55.930 Gabriel Lam: Yeah.
249 00:21:56.300 ⇒ 00:22:02.459 Gabriel Lam: So, hope everyone enjoyed that. Rico asked me to also do a quick lab share, so…
250 00:22:02.690 ⇒ 00:22:10.369 Gabriel Lam: I’m just gonna do a quick 5-minute share of some of the stuff that I’ve been working on the last week or so.
251 00:22:11.490 ⇒ 00:22:27.370 Gabriel Lam: Something that Utam and I have been talking about is we’re an AI company, and so what are all the tools that we’re using? We have so many different tools, our ecosystem is giant, we have things on Cursor, ChatGPT, Notion, Linear, Zoom. We’ve got all these things.
252 00:22:27.570 ⇒ 00:22:33.290 Gabriel Lam: And so, what are we doing with them? Our prompts are everywhere, how do we send things out?
253 00:22:33.510 ⇒ 00:22:50.929 Gabriel Lam: Right now we have this thing called the platform, which is, you know, where we have our assistance, our meetings, our summaries, our transcripts, so you can take things from there. And I’m sure everyone’s, you know, gone to the transcript to, like, copy it and put it in the chat GPT at some point. I’m sure everyone’s done that.
254 00:22:51.150 ⇒ 00:22:56.289 Gabriel Lam: And so, something we’ve been thinking of implementing, is…
255 00:22:57.200 ⇒ 00:23:02.359 Gabriel Lam: Cursor. And so, if you’re in the engineering org, many of you guys have been using Cursor.
256 00:23:02.560 ⇒ 00:23:05.449 Gabriel Lam: And it’s a great tool for coding.
257 00:23:05.580 ⇒ 00:23:09.850 Gabriel Lam: And the reason why is because it’s able to go through
258 00:23:09.980 ⇒ 00:23:16.330 Gabriel Lam: Everything in our documentation, which is something that the platform does at the moment, and we’d like to really expand on that.
259 00:23:17.650 ⇒ 00:23:21.460 Gabriel Lam: For those of you who don’t know how to code, don’t worry.
260 00:23:21.710 ⇒ 00:23:29.950 Gabriel Lam: Because I’m sure everyone’s used ChatGPT before. And so, there are ways to make this tool
261 00:23:30.100 ⇒ 00:23:33.600 Gabriel Lam: and use it in a way that is very similar to ChatGPT.
262 00:23:34.050 ⇒ 00:23:34.830 Gabriel Lam: and…
263 00:23:34.970 ⇒ 00:23:46.009 Gabriel Lam: the added benefit is that you get to also use different models, and so we’re able to use Claude, we’re able to use GPT-5, we’re able to use,
264 00:23:46.790 ⇒ 00:23:52.779 Gabriel Lam: Yeah, a multitude… just… we’ve got different options, and each model has its own pros and cons.
265 00:23:53.330 ⇒ 00:24:01.769 Gabriel Lam: What I spent, the last couple days on has been launching a new GitHub repository, and
266 00:24:01.840 ⇒ 00:24:16.119 Gabriel Lam: For those of you who know GitHub, you know it’s great at version control. For those of you who don’t know GitHub, it’s a way for us to store a lot of our technical information and documentation. What you see on the platform, a lot of it is hosted
267 00:24:16.260 ⇒ 00:24:21.400 Gabriel Lam: On GitHub as well, and we’re just hoping that through
268 00:24:21.790 ⇒ 00:24:29.109 Gabriel Lam: the upcoming season will have more people using more AI tools more effectively. And so…
269 00:24:29.800 ⇒ 00:24:48.660 Gabriel Lam: I’m gonna be working on more guides and more onboarding flows so that if you’re not technical, there’s simple step-by-steps to make your life as easy as possible. That’s the goal. And for you guys, over the next season, yeah, to just provide feedback if there’s any issues or problems you guys are facing.
270 00:24:48.970 ⇒ 00:24:52.339 Gabriel Lam: Let us know, because this is for you.
271 00:24:52.590 ⇒ 00:24:55.629 Gabriel Lam: And so, yeah, that’s not enough.
272 00:24:56.170 ⇒ 00:25:01.660 Gabriel Lam: That’s the goal of this QuickLab here, to get people to use the platform, and not just the app.
273 00:25:01.850 ⇒ 00:25:12.429 Gabriel Lam: the web app, but also to adopt new tools so everyone has an easier time and is able to do the things we have to do. So, keep your eye out, there’s things on the way, and thank you.
274 00:25:13.660 ⇒ 00:25:16.669 Gabriel Lam: And I can hand it on to Utam and Rico.
275 00:25:17.270 ⇒ 00:25:18.700 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I can take it.
276 00:25:19.570 ⇒ 00:25:26.140 Uttam Kumaran: And then I will be… I’ll just sort of drive. I know some other folks are presenting slides, too.
277 00:25:34.590 ⇒ 00:25:38.120 Uttam Kumaran: Maybe, Gabe, if you want to stop sharing, I can share mine.
278 00:25:40.970 ⇒ 00:25:41.650 Uttam Kumaran: shape.
279 00:25:44.480 ⇒ 00:25:58.159 Uttam Kumaran: Cool, so we just have a bunch of team members that are joining, and some people that have joined since the last time we did, like, who’s new around here. Also, I think as our company grows.
280 00:25:58.160 ⇒ 00:26:19.379 Uttam Kumaran: It is… there is often times where you may not interact with everybody at the company, and that is some feedback that we’ve gotten to just, like, make sure everybody knows everybody, and I think it’s a great time to sort of, have everybody maybe give a brief introduction. I mean, I’ll just probably start from where I see people on my screen, but maybe,
281 00:26:19.460 ⇒ 00:26:21.580 Uttam Kumaran: Holly, if you want to give…
282 00:26:21.680 ⇒ 00:26:25.389 Uttam Kumaran: A brief hello to everybody, and then,
283 00:26:25.640 ⇒ 00:26:28.190 Uttam Kumaran: I’ll just sort of popcorn it to the next person.
284 00:26:28.630 ⇒ 00:26:38.759 Holly Condos: Sure. Hi, everybody. Holly Condas. I met U-Tam and Robert at a VIXL conference in Austin.
285 00:26:38.910 ⇒ 00:26:43.039 Holly Condos: I think it was in April, right, Uten? Pretty sure.
286 00:26:43.040 ⇒ 00:26:43.380 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
287 00:26:43.570 ⇒ 00:26:47.980 Holly Condos: I have been in tech since…
288 00:26:48.190 ⇒ 00:27:06.239 Holly Condos: the year 2000, doing various things, so for me, Brainforge is a really exciting place to, to be working with. I’m a consultant, and I am working on growing and developing our partner ecosystem, and,
289 00:27:06.640 ⇒ 00:27:12.790 Holly Condos: and managing contracts and trying to help take some of this, off of UTAM.
290 00:27:13.320 ⇒ 00:27:15.370 Holly Condos: So that he can do other things.
291 00:27:15.680 ⇒ 00:27:28.039 Holly Condos: I have a house in San Diego, which if you joined early, you saw my pool. And I also have a house in Vermont, so I go back and forth. I’m originally from Colorado.
292 00:27:28.070 ⇒ 00:27:40.080 Holly Condos: And really excited to… to be working with you guys, and reach out to me on Slack, or LinkedIn, and, is that good, Utam?
293 00:27:40.080 ⇒ 00:27:46.540 Uttam Kumaran: That’s fine, yeah, yeah, yeah. Maybe Pranav, do you want to go next? Yeah, sorry, I didn’t give any guidance, but,
294 00:27:47.260 ⇒ 00:27:54.239 Uttam Kumaran: You could definitely highlight the work stuff, but definitely where you’re from, where do you live, and, like, what are you up to this weekend would be nice.
295 00:27:56.120 ⇒ 00:27:57.540 Pranav: Cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
296 00:27:57.540 ⇒ 00:27:58.439 Uttam Kumaran: Go ahead, Pranav.
297 00:27:59.300 ⇒ 00:28:06.050 Pranav: So, I’m in Massachusetts right now, so kind of near your other house, Holly.
298 00:28:06.050 ⇒ 00:28:06.810 Holly Condos: Yeah.
299 00:28:06.810 ⇒ 00:28:09.110 Pranav: Noah for Massachusetts.
300 00:28:09.110 ⇒ 00:28:11.099 Holly Condos: My son went to Northeastern.
301 00:28:11.660 ⇒ 00:28:13.809 Pranav: Oh, no way, my sister went there. Okay, cool.
302 00:28:13.810 ⇒ 00:28:14.290 Holly Condos: Yeah.
303 00:28:14.290 ⇒ 00:28:14.609 Pranav: That’s awesome.
304 00:28:14.610 ⇒ 00:28:20.889 Holly Condos: We’ve also had a house at Cape Cod for a long time, but we got rid of that one and got Vermont, so very familiar.
305 00:28:21.420 ⇒ 00:28:38.049 Pranav: Awesome, awesome, yeah, Cape Cod’s amazing. If anybody hasn’t heard of it, they should check it out. But yeah, so I think Utam and I met… we were talking about this the other day. We don’t actually remember, like, was it 3 months ago? Was it 6 months ago? But…
306 00:28:38.050 ⇒ 00:28:42.270 Uttam Kumaran: I’m not a good person to ask, dude. Last week seems like 2 months ago.
307 00:28:42.810 ⇒ 00:28:50.779 Pranav: Exactly, like, this space moves so quickly, and so we… if anybody else knows about, like, the Austin area, we met at Codependent.
308 00:28:50.830 ⇒ 00:29:01.789 Pranav: Well, we, like, plan to meet at Codependence, so I was like, we had a good conversation there, whenever that was, 3 to 6 months ago, and then recently we just aligned again, because there’s this…
309 00:29:01.790 ⇒ 00:29:11.560 Pranav: cool project that, he felt that I would be a good fit for, and, now that the engineering team is, like, expanding a little bit more, it was the perfect opportunity.
310 00:29:11.610 ⇒ 00:29:19.239 Pranav: A little bit about my background, been working kind of as, like, a software engineer for the last 4 or 5 years,
311 00:29:19.320 ⇒ 00:29:28.359 Pranav: And really diving into, like, the AI kind of driven, like, software engineering for the last, like, year and a half. Started with, like.
312 00:29:28.430 ⇒ 00:29:40.310 Pranav: when, GitHub Copilot first came out, I thought that was huge for my own productivity. Then, like, around… probably, like, a year-ish ago, I started using Cursor, and then…
313 00:29:40.330 ⇒ 00:29:58.179 Pranav: from that, I started, like, really enjoying, like, going to these hackathons and stuff, because I felt like, okay, I can, like, really build an application pretty quickly. And so, this whole concept of, like, going from, like, 0 to 1 became, like, super interesting and, like, something I felt like I could actually do. And so…
314 00:29:58.340 ⇒ 00:30:14.099 Pranav: really just, like, learning all the new tools that are out there that are in, kind of, like, the ecosystem of going, like, zero to one. So, we were talking about this a little bit earlier, but, like, things like, you know, Subabase, Render, to just build, like, an application that’s ready for production.
315 00:30:14.320 ⇒ 00:30:24.890 Pranav: just really kind of getting a feel for all those different things, and that’s kind of what I’ve been working on for, like, the last year and a half. And yeah, super excited to, like, join Brain Forge and just, like.
316 00:30:24.940 ⇒ 00:30:35.079 Pranav: what we’re doing here, I think it’s, super… the people I’ve met so far are super cool. I feel like I’m in a position where I can help out, but also just, like, learn a ton, so…
317 00:30:35.200 ⇒ 00:30:40.019 Pranav: Yeah, looking forward to the next few weeks, months, you know, however long.
318 00:30:41.050 ⇒ 00:30:41.690 Uttam Kumaran: Awesome.
319 00:30:42.300 ⇒ 00:30:44.209 Uttam Kumaran: Ashwini, do you want to go next?
320 00:30:44.960 ⇒ 00:30:46.290 Ashwini Sharma: Sure, yeah.
321 00:30:46.540 ⇒ 00:30:50.499 Ashwini Sharma: Hey everyone, Ashuni here, I’m based out of India.
322 00:30:50.750 ⇒ 00:30:57.280 Ashwini Sharma: I have prior experience with data engineering, created a lot of different pipelines.
323 00:30:57.550 ⇒ 00:31:01.050 Ashwini Sharma: Worked at data pipeline company, Fivetran.
324 00:31:01.460 ⇒ 00:31:05.429 Ashwini Sharma: Probably a tool that most of you will be using.
325 00:31:05.990 ⇒ 00:31:11.209 Ashwini Sharma: And, yeah, I’ve joined the data team about a month back, it’s been a month already?
326 00:31:11.750 ⇒ 00:31:12.529 Ashwini Sharma: Probably, yeah.
327 00:31:12.530 ⇒ 00:31:12.920 Uttam Kumaran: Navy.
328 00:31:12.920 ⇒ 00:31:13.359 Ashwini Sharma: Yeah, yeah.
329 00:31:13.360 ⇒ 00:31:13.950 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
330 00:31:16.800 ⇒ 00:31:22.329 Ashwini Sharma: Yeah, and that’s… that more or less is all about me, nothing much.
331 00:31:23.590 ⇒ 00:31:27.909 Uttam Kumaran: Awesome. Luke, you’re next on my screen.
332 00:31:29.470 ⇒ 00:31:35.530 Luke Scorziell: We, so, yeah, I’m Luke from, I live in LA.
333 00:31:35.770 ⇒ 00:31:37.180 Luke Scorziell: And…
334 00:31:37.350 ⇒ 00:31:46.869 Luke Scorziell: Grew up in Lake Arrowhead, which is, like, a mountain town, so I haven’t been to Vermont, but, maybe it’s similar, I don’t know.
335 00:31:46.870 ⇒ 00:31:47.239 Holly Condos: mountains are.
336 00:31:47.240 ⇒ 00:31:48.160 Luke Scorziell: That’s right.
337 00:31:48.680 ⇒ 00:31:51.510 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, I do like San Diego a lot.
338 00:31:51.680 ⇒ 00:32:03.309 Luke Scorziell: But, yeah, and then I am working on, like, the brand and go-to-market side of things, so I’m really excited to get to help out there, and kind of, I think, yeah, hopefully some of my goal will be bringing, like.
339 00:32:03.500 ⇒ 00:32:14.149 Luke Scorziell: the world of the engineers to being a little more comprehensible by non-engineers. And so excited about that this weekend.
340 00:32:14.310 ⇒ 00:32:18.100 Luke Scorziell: I… Let’s see a game.
341 00:32:18.240 ⇒ 00:32:30.310 Luke Scorziell: It’s Arrowhead where… oh, it is technically where the water comes from, but I don’t think it comes from the actual lake. I think it comes from, like, a… Nestle bought, like, a piece of land for, like, a dollar, like, many years ago that…
342 00:32:30.640 ⇒ 00:32:39.140 Luke Scorziell: They use for the water. It’s, like, kind of controversial. Anyways, yeah, this weekend…
343 00:32:39.370 ⇒ 00:32:41.790 Luke Scorziell: I don’t, I think I have…
344 00:32:42.170 ⇒ 00:32:43.900 Luke Scorziell: Dang, that’s crazy. So I’m like…
345 00:32:45.190 ⇒ 00:32:50.319 Luke Scorziell: Maybe a birth… a birthday? Oh, I’m… I might see Wicked tonight. It’s probably my weekend plan.
346 00:32:51.020 ⇒ 00:32:51.780 Uttam Kumaran: Nice.
347 00:32:51.900 ⇒ 00:32:57.130 Luke Scorziell: My girlfriend’s obsessed. It’s all just… she’s only playing the soundtrack.
348 00:32:57.520 ⇒ 00:32:59.190 Uttam Kumaran: That’s…
349 00:32:59.190 ⇒ 00:33:02.059 Luke Scorziell: why I’m going is with my girlfriend, so…
350 00:33:02.260 ⇒ 00:33:03.370 Uttam Kumaran: Nice.
351 00:33:03.370 ⇒ 00:33:03.920 Luke Scorziell: And she’s already.
352 00:33:03.920 ⇒ 00:33:04.550 Uttam Kumaran: I know.
353 00:33:04.550 ⇒ 00:33:05.240 Luke Scorziell: What’s…
354 00:33:05.740 ⇒ 00:33:07.980 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, great.
355 00:33:08.630 ⇒ 00:33:12.610 Uttam Kumaran: Cool. Clarence, do you wanna say hi?
356 00:33:13.350 ⇒ 00:33:37.749 Clarence Stone: Sure, yeah, hey, great to meet everyone. I’m based out of San Antonio, I was originally from New York, New Jersey area, and that’s where I grew up. My background, it’s a little bit complicated, but long story short, out of college, I got into a venture-backed startup, and as all organizations go, if you give a ton of money to 22-year-olds, they’re not going to really be quite successful. So, after that great one-year stint,
357 00:33:37.750 ⇒ 00:33:48.169 Clarence Stone: I started working at B&H, as a UX designer and a front-end developer, eventually being the product owner for a lot of different vertical categories for e-commerce as a whole.
358 00:33:48.320 ⇒ 00:34:10.849 Clarence Stone: And I love that it’s still, you know, a top 3 e-commerce store, wherever you look, especially PCMag, gave it that reward again. And from there, I got into consulting, and I spent the last four to six years in different parts of consulting, where the last position I landed at was, working in innovation, so,
359 00:34:10.929 ⇒ 00:34:33.909 Clarence Stone: I had innovation teams that were building really interesting, cutting-edge products for our wealth asset management organizations. So, from there, you know, I’m here helping you, Tom, out with everything that’s going on in Brainforge, and it’s been a great opportunity seeing and getting to meet everyone, so if I haven’t gotten a chance to meet you, I’d love to have a one-on-one to learn more about you.
360 00:34:34.020 ⇒ 00:34:37.030 Clarence Stone: What were the other questions again, you thought?
361 00:34:37.030 ⇒ 00:34:38.789 Uttam Kumaran: What are you doing this weekend?
362 00:34:39.170 ⇒ 00:34:55.939 Clarence Stone: This weekend, it’s all about catching up with work. There’s a lot of interesting things that I’m working on, and, you know, when work doesn’t feel like work, that’s exactly the kind of things that I want to spend my weekends doing. So, yeah. Not too exciting, but, you know, if you ask me next week, I’ll probably have something fun to say.
363 00:34:55.949 ⇒ 00:34:59.949 Uttam Kumaran: Well, Clarence is missing a Christmas party that I’m throwing at my house tonight.
364 00:35:00.119 ⇒ 00:35:12.809 Uttam Kumaran: For whatever work he’s talking about. It’s definitely not work for this company, so I don’t know… I don’t know what you’re working on, but thanks, dude. Jed, do you want to go next?
365 00:35:13.050 ⇒ 00:35:36.470 Joules Asuncion: Yeah, for sure. Hi, everybody. My name is Jules. Actually, that is my legal name. But you can call me Jed for short. It’s much more simpler, I guess. So, yeah, I’m based here in the Philippines, and yeah, my background. So, I’ve been into sales, like, for about 8 to 9 years, I guess, roughly. Then I shifted career.
366 00:35:36.470 ⇒ 00:35:42.219 Joules Asuncion: As a sales operation, or most likely revenue operations analyst this year. And, yeah.
367 00:35:42.220 ⇒ 00:35:48.670 Joules Asuncion: I would love to share my, you know, my experiences and knowledges on the CRM, as well as
368 00:35:48.670 ⇒ 00:36:00.819 Joules Asuncion: you know, helping the sales team go get their sales, if, if that makes sense. So, yeah, I don’t have any plan for this weekend. I think,
369 00:36:01.140 ⇒ 00:36:05.709 Joules Asuncion: I’ll be just staying at home and doing a lot of sleep.
370 00:36:05.710 ⇒ 00:36:06.410 Uttam Kumaran: Nice.
371 00:36:06.410 ⇒ 00:36:08.160 Joules Asuncion: Yeah, yeah, no.
372 00:36:08.160 ⇒ 00:36:08.969 Uttam Kumaran: Hell yeah.
373 00:36:10.200 ⇒ 00:36:12.450 Uttam Kumaran: And then Eliza, do you want to go?
374 00:36:14.070 ⇒ 00:36:19.239 Elizah Joy: Yep, so hi everyone, I’m Eliza, so I’m currently based in the Philippines, so…
375 00:36:19.470 ⇒ 00:36:31.679 Elizah Joy: My experience is, I’ve been an online, operations manager for, about 6 years now. So, as an operations manager, I work, with the systems, the processes of the business, so I help
376 00:36:31.700 ⇒ 00:36:47.620 Elizah Joy: businesses streamline that, so I’ll be working closely with Raco and Tom, helping them with the systems and processes in the business, and that’s what I’ve been working on for this week, and I’ll share more about that later.
377 00:36:47.840 ⇒ 00:36:49.180 Elizah Joy: And then…
378 00:36:49.530 ⇒ 00:37:04.960 Elizah Joy: this weekend, and also a few fun facts about me. So, my plans are just to read. I love reading books, so, this weekend, and the current book that I’m reading this week is Limitless, so I’m not sure if you’ve, heard about that. And then.
379 00:37:04.960 ⇒ 00:37:10.890 Elizah Joy: Another plan for me is, I do have a dog, so she’s paralyzed. I’ve been taking care
380 00:37:10.890 ⇒ 00:37:27.259 Elizah Joy: of her, for the past 2 years. She’s… she’s not born paralyzed, but, she’s been paralyzed for the past 2 years. So yeah, just me spending time with her, this weekend. Yeah, I think those are my plans for this weekend.
381 00:37:28.360 ⇒ 00:37:29.110 Uttam Kumaran: Awesome.
382 00:37:29.520 ⇒ 00:37:32.500 Uttam Kumaran: Well, great! I think if I…
383 00:37:32.510 ⇒ 00:37:39.379 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I think it’s just awesome to have this many people supporting the company. I remember…
384 00:37:39.380 ⇒ 00:38:02.550 Uttam Kumaran: when I was just on a laptop, like, very recently, alone, every day for, like, a year. So, I think Robert probably has a very similar, feeling in that, like, it’s come so, so far, and, yeah, I just wanted to kind of highlight, a couple things, and that we’ve… I feel like, across a lot of the company, we’ve had, you know, what I would say is our best quarter.
385 00:38:02.550 ⇒ 00:38:07.570 Uttam Kumaran: You know, a lot of the things that we measure and are most tactile is revenue in the door.
386 00:38:07.570 ⇒ 00:38:26.909 Uttam Kumaran: You know, it is how we all get paid, and it’s how I can get everybody, you know, a lot more money, and the ability to take bigger bets, but we have had a really amazing quarter. We had clients come in from partners, from referrals, we had expansions of existing, you know, clients.
387 00:38:27.730 ⇒ 00:38:42.610 Uttam Kumaran: I signed, a deal with ABC Home that was our largest deal, and then Robert signed an even larger one with Eden. And so this is not what business has been here. Even, like.
388 00:38:42.730 ⇒ 00:38:45.410 Uttam Kumaran: 4 or 5 months ago.
389 00:38:45.640 ⇒ 00:38:56.490 Uttam Kumaran: And so what you’re seeing in, you know, the appearance of more folks on the team is to both satisfy this demand that our clients have for our great work.
390 00:38:56.490 ⇒ 00:39:16.240 Uttam Kumaran: But also allowing us to go after tougher problems, you know, and smarter people, and really raise, you know, the bar of the folks we have at the company to deliver a better service for clients. Across the board, and you guys have seen me, you know, send these notes in the team channel, is that
391 00:39:16.490 ⇒ 00:39:31.589 Uttam Kumaran: clients love what we do. They’re consistently explaining that we match or exceed expectations compared to other, you know, consulting or IT consulting organizations. We care a lot.
392 00:39:32.000 ⇒ 00:39:44.070 Uttam Kumaran: And we are constantly fighting to deliver a better and faster service for them. I think, and I talk to Clarence a lot about this, is I don’t think a lot of us come from a consulting background.
393 00:39:44.070 ⇒ 00:39:59.210 Uttam Kumaran: Which is precisely the reason why that feedback is coming, because I don’t have expectations for what good consulting is. I’ve only, in my career, worked with bad consultants. So, I just decided to try to do things very, very opposite.
394 00:39:59.210 ⇒ 00:40:09.070 Uttam Kumaran: And I think when you hear from Clarence, he really put it in a great way about why that is actually our secret sauce around here.
395 00:40:09.070 ⇒ 00:40:28.650 Uttam Kumaran: So, we’re growing a lot, and you’ll see that we are investing more in how do we create, how do we continue to grow, you know, at the same rate, which is all the investments we’re making on the sales side. In addition, how do we continue to deliver, right? So, we are bringing in new people, but we’re also trying to find new ways to deliver faster,
396 00:40:28.890 ⇒ 00:40:37.389 Uttam Kumaran: And then additionally, how do we keep both sides of the equation, both team members that are working on delivering services, as well as
397 00:40:37.390 ⇒ 00:40:51.390 Uttam Kumaran: our clients happy through operations. And so, how do we make sure everybody knows about company policies? How do we make sure everybody has the right equipment? How do we make sure everybody is equipped from the moment they join the company, to succeed?
398 00:40:51.390 ⇒ 00:40:56.840 Uttam Kumaran: And so, it’s like a complete sea change from where we were even a few months ago.
399 00:40:56.840 ⇒ 00:41:08.949 Uttam Kumaran: But we are very good at rolling with the punches, so that’s exactly what, you know, we continue to do. I just wanted to highlight this for everybody. These are coming from some of the slides that Partnership
400 00:41:08.950 ⇒ 00:41:20.759 Uttam Kumaran: has put together that we share externally, but I just want to share and remind everybody who we work for. And what ICP is, you know, our ideal customer profile. And so.
401 00:41:21.000 ⇒ 00:41:35.669 Uttam Kumaran: the who is we work typically with the heads of companies that are anywhere from 20 to 200 million in revenue, where they’re responsible for leveraging data and AI to drive business value.
402 00:41:35.980 ⇒ 00:41:46.930 Uttam Kumaran: You know, put another way, who don’t we work for? We don’t work typically for the head of IT, we don’t work for the head of engineering, we don’t work for middle management.
403 00:41:46.930 ⇒ 00:41:56.000 Uttam Kumaran: Unless we can come in as a partner with the company, we do not take the business. So we don’t do staff augmentation.
404 00:41:56.000 ⇒ 00:42:12.940 Uttam Kumaran: We don’t do, you know, come in and build me an app and then leave in two months. All of the companies that we are taking on, we have confidence that they can expand, and our relationship with them can expand, and our impact on their business can expand over time.
405 00:42:13.240 ⇒ 00:42:22.319 Uttam Kumaran: I think this has been something that we are driving towards at the North Star, and we have started to say no to clients who don’t fit this profile.
406 00:42:22.390 ⇒ 00:42:30.030 Uttam Kumaran: I feel like that is a very lucky and hard… it took a lot of hard work to say no… takes a lot of hard work to say no to money.
407 00:42:30.030 ⇒ 00:42:43.650 Uttam Kumaran: But not all money is good money, and we want to work for clients who see our value, who are willing to pay for that value, and want to continue to leverage us to drive their business.
408 00:42:43.760 ⇒ 00:42:59.669 Uttam Kumaran: Commonly, our work, we want to drive 5 or 10x ROI on the money that comes our way. So when I go to clients, I tell them, how can I show you or make a reality every dollar you spend with us worth 5 out the door?
409 00:42:59.670 ⇒ 00:43:15.140 Uttam Kumaran: there’s not many consultants, or partners, or software or other vendors that go to a company and talk like that. You know, and I’m… I’m very, very committed to making that a reality for folks, and I feel like we have no problem hitting those targets, you know?
410 00:43:15.140 ⇒ 00:43:30.149 Uttam Kumaran: And so what Robert and the sales team are now working on is, how do we capture some of that? You know, if we are driving millions and millions of dollars, how do we show that we’re doing that, and how do we set up our pricing structure in a way that we can capture that?
411 00:43:30.150 ⇒ 00:43:35.150 Uttam Kumaran: And so that is, you know, the innovation that has to happen on the sales side.
412 00:43:35.180 ⇒ 00:43:42.199 Uttam Kumaran: We do a lot of work in, you know, e-commerce, SaaS, but we’ve done a lot of work, you know, in a bunch of different areas.
413 00:43:42.280 ⇒ 00:44:01.829 Uttam Kumaran: on this chart, we are missing, like, 4 or 5 new clients, so we’re continuing to grow. That being said, this isn’t, like, our… this is more of, like, a kind of, like, a, self-serving slide to show our… our breadth, but there’s no… working with 100 clients is not necessarily the goal.
414 00:44:01.830 ⇒ 00:44:17.919 Uttam Kumaran: We would like to work with fewer, larger ones. You know, we would like to get into more of the enterprise space, where we can make a larger impact, and instead of having, like, these short, one-off contracts with a wide variety of people. But what I want you to glean from here, and some of the clients
415 00:44:17.920 ⇒ 00:44:29.429 Uttam Kumaran: that you’ll hear about, for example, like Element, like Insomnia Cookies, like Honey Stinger, like Magic Spoon, is that these are, like, household names.
416 00:44:29.430 ⇒ 00:44:40.019 Uttam Kumaran: These are companies, that we work for that… that there are a lot of competitors also vying for that business, who have been here longer, who have way more experience selling,
417 00:44:40.020 ⇒ 00:44:43.520 Uttam Kumaran: But, you know, fortunately for us, they’re not really that good.
418 00:44:43.520 ⇒ 00:44:54.710 Uttam Kumaran: And so we consistently show how effective we are, and within the first 2 weeks of doing business for clients, it’s so apparent that they made the right decision.
419 00:44:54.910 ⇒ 00:44:57.049 Uttam Kumaran: It’s something we’ve known, right?
420 00:44:57.090 ⇒ 00:45:14.719 Uttam Kumaran: as engineers and as people that do data work, but it’s another thing to be able to convince somebody in the sales process that that’s the case. So this is a little bit of a logo wall of folks that we’ve worked for, and then also partners. I think partners is a huge part of how we do business.
421 00:45:14.730 ⇒ 00:45:19.339 Uttam Kumaran: When we come into a company, we are implementing process.
422 00:45:19.410 ⇒ 00:45:32.980 Uttam Kumaran: we’re implementing changes in people, and we’re implementing tools. All of those, we can do some of that, and we have to lean on partners to do a lot of that. So when we come in and implement Amplitude for product analytics.
423 00:45:32.980 ⇒ 00:45:48.550 Uttam Kumaran: we’re not implementing Brainforged product analysts, we’re implementing Amplitude, right? So having a great relationship with that vendor to get support, to have them send us customers who are struggling, it’s… we’re doing a great job punching, really high above our weight class in this world, too.
424 00:45:48.550 ⇒ 00:45:52.510 Uttam Kumaran: Most of the SI, which is, like, you know, service.
425 00:45:52.510 ⇒ 00:46:09.739 Uttam Kumaran: integrator partners of these clients, of these types of companies, have been in business 5, 10, 15 years. We’ve been able to get conversations, get marketing going for a lot of these, and we’ve only been in business less than 3 years. We additionally have a lot of agency partners. Similarly, we don’t do everything.
426 00:46:09.740 ⇒ 00:46:13.910 Uttam Kumaran: Right? If someone comes to us and asks us to build, like, a, you know, iPhone app.
427 00:46:13.950 ⇒ 00:46:33.190 Uttam Kumaran: it’s… either there’s gotta be a lot of money on the table, or it’s gotta be really AI-driven for us to consider it. So we pass that off, and we tend to work with a lot of different agency partners for development. Additionally, we even work with partners like design partners, you know, other sort of, like, lead acquisition partners, and so…
428 00:46:33.220 ⇒ 00:46:50.160 Uttam Kumaran: in this world, having friends of Brainforge is very, you know, value accretive. It’s very, very positive to have friends, and they send us deals, we send them deals, we achieve success for clients together. And so, just wanted to…
429 00:46:50.640 ⇒ 00:46:56.489 Uttam Kumaran: to highlight that. And then, yeah, I think, Clarence, I’ll… I’ll pass it…
430 00:46:56.790 ⇒ 00:47:00.030 Uttam Kumaran: to you. I guess, any questions about any of this?
431 00:47:00.510 ⇒ 00:47:02.539 Uttam Kumaran: Or, like, any comments or thoughts?
432 00:47:03.930 ⇒ 00:47:06.929 Uttam Kumaran: I think for the folks that have been here, I think hopefully this…
433 00:47:07.250 ⇒ 00:47:13.420 Uttam Kumaran: Gives you, like, a concise, like, who we work for, who we have worked for, who we partner with.
434 00:47:13.840 ⇒ 00:47:15.429 Uttam Kumaran: But, any thoughts?
435 00:47:19.670 ⇒ 00:47:23.989 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, cool. Clarence, maybe I’ll pass it to you if you have it up on your screen?
436 00:47:24.400 ⇒ 00:47:27.120 Clarence Stone: Sure, yep, I’ve got it ready.
437 00:47:27.320 ⇒ 00:47:28.220 Clarence Stone: Boom.
438 00:47:30.610 ⇒ 00:47:55.569 Clarence Stone: Cool! Hey, everyone! Great to see y’all again. You, Tom, thank you so much. You did such a great job with, like, introducing to the team, like, your focus on how you want to build relationships with clients, how you want to work with, other organizations, and how that’s scalable, and it’s going to contribute to a more future state vision. And, I guess my turn is talking about my experience so far with speaking with most of the team so far.
439 00:47:55.570 ⇒ 00:47:56.950 Clarence Stone: And
440 00:47:57.000 ⇒ 00:48:20.870 Clarence Stone: You know, part of those conversations, a lot of people kind of made the remark that I sound like Bob from Office Space. If you get the reference, you get the reference, and I just want to make it clear off the bat, that is not the case at all. I think it’s been self-evident from the beginning of this meeting that Brainforge is growing in such a massive way, right? And figuring out ways to scale the greatness that already exists today should be the focus for the next year.
441 00:48:20.870 ⇒ 00:48:41.520 Clarence Stone: So, I’m here to help be part of that problem, and solving that problem. And the way I see it is, you know, what is it in… what’s in it for you? How does this apply to everybody in this organization that’s on this call? Well, I’m looking at things like flow. Are there any… are there any bottlenecks that exist, right? I want to create the shortest distance between you and a decision.
442 00:48:41.520 ⇒ 00:48:51.829 Clarence Stone: Right? And that’s… that means, I’m probably gonna have conversations asking you what is it that you do, and where did you get stuck, and, you know, what could have been a better way to do it, right?
443 00:48:51.830 ⇒ 00:49:06.849 Clarence Stone: Two, focus. Focus is, like, the most prized thing, because all of you guys were picked and found by you, Tom, or Robert, because you’re talented at exactly what you do, right? And the more time we can give to you to focus on your expertise.
444 00:49:06.850 ⇒ 00:49:29.860 Clarence Stone: Right? The more higher quality these results for the organization is going to be, the better it is going to be for project delivery for your clients, right? And I hope that it also creates a better environment for you, because you get to work on exactly what you love doing. So, protecting focus is so important, but it also doesn’t mean that we don’t create time for collaboration, right? You know.
445 00:49:30.090 ⇒ 00:49:33.090 Clarence Stone: Giving time for focus means that sometimes we give up
446 00:49:33.130 ⇒ 00:49:37.500 Clarence Stone: the opportunity to talk to somebody. So, instead of, you know.
447 00:49:37.500 ⇒ 00:50:01.050 Clarence Stone: you know, just saying, hey, I’m gonna give you time to focus, let’s create ways so that you can have more higher-value discussion one-on-ones with people that are experts in this organization already, right? So you’ll see some patterns and capabilities that I’m building out to support that. And in the future, you know, I kind of already alluded to this, but, you know, our vision is really that the future you as an expert at your craft.
448 00:50:01.050 ⇒ 00:50:23.979 Clarence Stone: but also an expert at collaborating with everybody in this room on delivering really great products. And that means that while you focus on what you do best, you also need to have ways and lanes of communication and, you know, very definite roles and responsibilities on who you can go to for that help, and what kind of, you know, questions you can bring to the table.
449 00:50:23.980 ⇒ 00:50:47.870 Clarence Stone: So, we’re gonna build out a really informed framework on that as well. So, these are the things that I spotted, you know, initially within the last few weeks. If I’m missing anything, like I said earlier, I’d love to talk to you. I’d love to know about how things are going for you right now. And, you know, if I have a blind spot here, it’s going to be so informative for me to just hear your story, and, your take on how things are going.
450 00:50:47.880 ⇒ 00:50:57.040 Clarence Stone: So, I’ll leave this slide with that remark again. Please, please make time to chat with me, even if I haven’t reached out yet.
451 00:50:57.190 ⇒ 00:51:04.479 Clarence Stone: So, UTOM kind of… hinted that I was gonna fully explain what makes, you know.
452 00:51:04.570 ⇒ 00:51:28.959 Clarence Stone: what I think makes Brainforge unique from an external, you know, position, right? I had just started 2 weeks ago, and after being able to sit in those meetings, having the opportunity to speak with you all, I think I know exactly what makes Brainforge special. It’s the fact that externally, the client experience is no different than talking to a consulting company, right? Their experience is going to be the same as any other vendor.
453 00:51:28.960 ⇒ 00:51:48.160 Clarence Stone: But internally, there’s processes and capabilities built out to create amazing products like a product team, because it’s very clear and evident that consulting teams and their isolated pods don’t create the best products. It’s all-star product teams that use, you know, methods that we already know make amazing products.
454 00:51:48.160 ⇒ 00:51:49.819 Clarence Stone: So, that’s…
455 00:51:49.820 ⇒ 00:52:12.819 Clarence Stone: you know, the gap, right? Because externally, you present yourself as consultants. Internally, you’re handling a lot of different products and projects that relate to those external clients. And to me, there’s a little bit of a challenge here, because, you know, you’re… each of you are probably holding a lot of stories and hidden knowledge and, you know, historical facts about the projects you’re on.
456 00:52:12.860 ⇒ 00:52:31.760 Clarence Stone: And, I want to be able to leverage that and give you capability to make, you know, autonomous decisions by giving you lanes, left and right lanes on those limits, and also scale that so that as you get new people coming into the organization, right, as you see, there’s already a lot of people coming in, and you know, there’s a projection of getting more people in.
457 00:52:31.760 ⇒ 00:52:54.920 Clarence Stone: getting them involved, right? And, being able to tell them definitively, this is the person you go to for this type of, you know, task or help. So, I hope that’s clear, and I, you know, the more you think about this, the more I think it’ll be evident to you why it’s such a key market differentiator. No one else, I can confidently tell you, is doing this in the organization, and that’s what makes this organization so special.
458 00:52:55.490 ⇒ 00:52:56.450 Clarence Stone: So I’ll just pause here.
459 00:52:56.450 ⇒ 00:52:58.440 Uttam Kumaran: Holly has a question. Yeah. Clarence, yeah.
460 00:52:58.440 ⇒ 00:52:59.110 Clarence Stone: I’ll eat that?
461 00:52:59.110 ⇒ 00:53:11.790 Holly Condos: No, I was trying… I was trying to read what you wrote, Utam, and I ended up not hitting the hand, so I apologize, but… but since you threw it to me, Clarence, nice to meet you, I think this…
462 00:53:12.120 ⇒ 00:53:22.189 Holly Condos: what you’re showing is, really valuable for a company like Brainforge, not only where we’re at now, but for that growth stage.
463 00:53:22.350 ⇒ 00:53:28.119 Holly Condos: And, I guess I would just say I’m excited to kind of talk to you about it more.
464 00:53:29.600 ⇒ 00:53:32.749 Clarence Stone: Awesome, yeah, please, please set up some time, we’d love to chat with you.
465 00:53:32.750 ⇒ 00:53:33.429 Holly Condos: Yeah, will do.
466 00:53:34.180 ⇒ 00:53:58.169 Clarence Stone: And, you know, there’s been so many stories of growth, from, you know, you, Tom, being on his laptop with Robert, all buying lonesome, to the growth that he’s seen in this organization today, right? So now we’re asking the question about, what about your growth? What about you and your place in Brainforge, right? And if you look at these three bubbles, as I’ve sat with Robert and you, Tom, I’ve realized that they’re holding on to all three of these bubbles themselves.
467 00:53:58.170 ⇒ 00:54:22.369 Clarence Stone: And, you’ll notice that these are overlap, because these tasks or focuses are sometimes that tension, right? And maybe you’ll ask them a simple, what you think might be a simple question, and they’ll go, I need to think about that because it’s complex. These are the things that they’re kind of weighing in their heads, right? And these are the things that they’re doing in those stand-ups, in those strategy meetings, and whatnot.
468 00:54:22.370 ⇒ 00:54:46.520 Clarence Stone: If I were to break those down, right, I can say that there’s a huge focus on client success, right? Delivering really great products, and not just delivering them, but also making sure that the clients know the value of what they just got, that they understand, you know, the kind of organizational change or impact that your team has made is super important. So, you know, this is a growth…
469 00:54:46.630 ⇒ 00:55:11.610 Clarence Stone: you know, role that I think people in this organization are already doing, and have the opportunity to just, you know, put a label on it and create structure and meetings and better tooling around, right? Same thing with engagement planning. There’s a lot of planning, but typically led by you, Tom and Robert. I think a lot of you guys already have the capability to start doing some of this planning, right? And lastly, service leaders, you know, most of the technical
470 00:55:11.610 ⇒ 00:55:35.660 Clarence Stone: people that I’ve gotten to talk to so far have said, like, hey, you know, I know my technical piece really well, and I want to own that lane. You know, this is a way for you to grow. By leading, you know, a service or capability, you can be an expert in a certain technical functional area, and, you know, run stand-ups, mentor junior employees as they come in, and actually own the quality of those deliverables.
471 00:55:35.660 ⇒ 00:55:36.430 Clarence Stone: So…
472 00:55:36.540 ⇒ 00:55:47.680 Clarence Stone: I’ll just pause here. This is really a breakdown of all the other things, aside from the tickets that you’re doing, that have led to the success of Brainforge so far. Any thoughts, any questions?
473 00:55:50.400 ⇒ 00:56:15.219 Clarence Stone: Okay, so, if I were to take all of those three bubbles away from Robert and Utom, this is how I imagine this conversation working out, right? So maybe there’s a client success owner that’s paired with Robert and Utom throughout the whole conversation with the client. They should already know what the project is about, the purpose, what you’re building, and who you’re building it for. And the client success owner has that full picture, as well as all the little bits of content
474 00:56:15.220 ⇒ 00:56:35.269 Clarence Stone: on, you know, who the stakeholders are, how many pets they have, when their birthdays are, because, you know, this really is a relationship business, right? So they should be able to turn around to the engagement planner and say, hey, this is the goal, this is what we’re building, and this is why we’re doing it, and I have so much more context because I’ve been sitting on those calls. So, hey, let’s sit down together and build a plan.
475 00:56:35.270 ⇒ 00:56:59.830 Clarence Stone: Right. So I imagine that the client success owner and engagement planner are going to create that plan together, and then share that with the service leader who’s going to run those daily stand-ups. And that same chain of communication happens the other way, as, you know, tickets are completed, the planner understands what’s happening, and maybe they’ll reprioritize things, or report up to the client success owner that, hey, we’re ready for these presentations, right? Or maybe they’ll change the
476 00:56:59.830 ⇒ 00:57:19.280 Clarence Stone: the resourcing or throughput of these tickets as the project matures. You know, I understand fully that planning is difficult because how things always end up happening never end up to plan, but having a plan matters because there’s a way for us to measure whether or not we’re on track or not, right?
477 00:57:19.280 ⇒ 00:57:20.170 Clarence Stone: So…
478 00:57:20.180 ⇒ 00:57:45.159 Clarence Stone: Long story short, my vision is, you know, people with this customer success owner role should be somebody that you can call on at any point and say, hey, can you tell me more about this client? I’m about to take a call with them, right? The planner could be someone that you reach out to to say, hey, I’ve got these tickets, which ones are more important today? Which ones should I finish first? Helping you with prioritization, or giving you some context on why you’re doing that ticket.
479 00:57:45.160 ⇒ 00:58:08.569 Clarence Stone: and all the other tickets that are related, right? And service leader, hey, if you’re not using the right tool, the tool’s not working as it should, or you’re kind of stuck on some coding task, you know, you will always have an expert to reach out to. And those are going to be 3 new people that are going to be outside of Robert & Utom that you can touch base with. That doesn’t mean you can’t reach out to Robert & Utom. They will always be available for you.
480 00:58:08.570 ⇒ 00:58:32.710 Clarence Stone: like, this is sort of an example of how I imagine this layout working. Number one, everyone’s got a growth path now in these three bubbles, and these paths will also lead to even more senior roles as the company and organization grows. So I’ll just pause here and see if there’s any questions or any takes. I know this is something that’s going to take a while for everyone to ingest, so it’s okay if there’s no comments today.
481 00:58:34.910 ⇒ 00:58:37.859 Uttam Kumaran: I would love to hear comments on, like, what you think.
482 00:58:38.190 ⇒ 00:58:48.960 Uttam Kumaran: Because everybody here, I think, I have a perspective, but I also think a lot of us here work on clients and shift a lot, and I don’t know, even initial thoughts or feedback would be helpful.
483 00:58:54.670 ⇒ 00:58:56.720 Pranav: I have a quick question,
484 00:58:56.940 ⇒ 00:59:02.450 Pranav: So, I feel like I understand the engagement planner to service leader, like.
485 00:59:03.020 ⇒ 00:59:20.349 Pranav: cadence in terms of, like, how to just describe, like, what’s happening. Like, every day, maybe, like, just going to them, saying, like, in a daily stand-up type of fashion, like, okay, this was done today, working on this for, like, tomorrow, next week, etc. How do you see, like.
486 00:59:20.750 ⇒ 00:59:28.990 Pranav: Is it, like, a similar type of cadence for, like, the communication for everybody else? Like, the client success owner, engagement planner, or is it different?
487 00:59:28.990 ⇒ 00:59:53.460 Clarence Stone: For the service leader, I guess, like, the connection here is that as stand-ups are happening, the engagement planner can advocate for their engagement or their client, saying, hey, this ticket is actually really quick, can we please load this into today? Because, you know, I have a bunch of other dependencies, right? And then the service leader can say, okay, cool, I can shuffle these people in and actually cross-load the resourcing right there at that moment, so that you don’t have to, you know, have
488 00:59:53.750 ⇒ 01:00:18.549 Clarence Stone: have a, you know, conversation outside of the stand-up, right? So, think about it that way, right? The planner is advocating to make sure that those timelines, those plans are going as expected, and the service leader is kind of moving around the tickets and availability to make that happen. Obviously, that’s not going to happen all the time, so, you know, there’s a third party, the client success owner in Robert and UTom, that can chime in and say, hey.
489 01:00:18.550 ⇒ 01:00:35.799 Clarence Stone: That isn’t entirely, you know, important, and we can stretch a timeline here or there, right? But the fact is, we’ll have identified that it’s a point to resolve, instead of, you know, just saying, I’m not sure who owns this, right? And just kind of taking your tickets and moving on for the day. Does that help, Pranav?
490 01:00:36.670 ⇒ 01:00:38.300 Pranav: Yeah, that definitely helps.
491 01:00:39.530 ⇒ 01:00:40.800 Demilade Agboola: Yeah, and…
492 01:00:40.800 ⇒ 01:00:53.480 Clarence Stone: everyone here that I’ll come up with more, you know, details on exactly what these roles entail, but these are outlines of, you know, how you can start imagining working together in the next phase of Brainforge.
493 01:00:55.300 ⇒ 01:00:57.000 Clarence Stone: Sorry, Vitam, you were gonna say something.
494 01:00:57.960 ⇒ 01:01:02.740 Demilade Agboola: naturally with me. I’m gonna ask a question as to… Ow…
495 01:01:04.240 ⇒ 01:01:13.349 Demilade Agboola: like, I know the different roles, sort of, but, like, how many hats can one wear at the same time? So, can you be all four, all three, technically, at the same time?
496 01:01:13.850 ⇒ 01:01:38.400 Clarence Stone: So, I do not believe that someone should do all four, because then we’ve gone full circle back to everyone doing everything. So, I really believe that, you know, these are 3 really specialized tracks that everyone can decide where they want to grow into. One that’s very client-facing, another that’s a bit strategic and cross over into technical bearings, and then, like, just pure technical excellence online.
497 01:01:38.400 ⇒ 01:02:03.240 Clarence Stone: that far right side. So, Demolati, I hope that’s helpful. Like, there’s no expectation that someone’s going to wear all of these hats, but I do believe, fundamentally, that over time, in a year or two, that all of you guys who are still there in about three years are going to be really huge full-time experts at all three of these roles, because as you sit in one, you’ll start gaining expertise in the other, right? And you’ll get a sense of what you’re good at and what you want to do.
498 01:02:03.240 ⇒ 01:02:05.760 Clarence Stone: as you move up. Does that help?
499 01:02:07.820 ⇒ 01:02:12.290 Demilade Agboola: Yes, it does. And also, it seems like Robert is offering his job.
500 01:02:14.700 ⇒ 01:02:15.609 Uttam Kumaran: What’s up?
501 01:02:16.350 ⇒ 01:02:19.859 Robert Tseng: Yeah, if you wanna wear all of them, you can have my job.
502 01:02:19.860 ⇒ 01:02:22.369 Clarence Stone: Oh, wearing all the hats, yes.
503 01:02:23.290 ⇒ 01:02:48.049 Clarence Stone: Yeah, I mean, yeah, those are, like, if you were gonna do all of it, yeah, it’s practically Robert and you, Tom’s job, minus, you know, like, you know, reaching out to partners, creating new business lines, keeping the lights on, and, you know, billables, and back-end work as well. Like, there’s a lot more to these three things than, you know, the things that Robert and you, Tom, do. So, the goal really is to give everybody a stake, right?
504 01:02:48.050 ⇒ 01:03:11.010 Clarence Stone: a, you know, a leadership role in the organization, so they can take part in the things that Robert and you, Tom, are already doing. And I think Demolade, you’re gonna see that as you, you know, sit in one of these roles, that everything that Robert and you, Tom, used to do that didn’t quite make sense will make a ton of sense, because, you know, you’ll get to live a little slice of the things that they’re doing on a weekly basis.
505 01:03:12.720 ⇒ 01:03:13.910 Samuel Roberts: I’ve got a question.
506 01:03:15.920 ⇒ 01:03:34.749 Samuel Roberts: for… so this, like, the chain of communication, like, through us, I guess, where does communicating to the client different aspects of, like, the current status of the project fall into that? Is that, like, the success owner, primarily? Because we’ve talked a lot about people, you know, in different levels talking to the clients and presenting various things. I’m just curious where that might map into this.
507 01:03:34.750 ⇒ 01:03:59.609 Clarence Stone: So, the client success owner is going to be that filter, right? Who should be allowed to talk to the client? And honestly, like, if I was this customer success owner, I would create a method where I double-check the slide deck that you’re about to present. I double-check the dashboard that you’re about to present, and say, okay, this looks great, hop on this call with me and present it, right? Just because we have a client success owner doesn’t mean that’s the only person speaking to a client. It’s just going to be the person that understands the
508 01:03:59.610 ⇒ 01:04:18.389 Clarence Stone: the most, right? You can actually provide context and say, hey, maybe you want to say it this way. Or internally, they use these words, or, you know, instead of engagement, it’s a project. So, you know, change the title to the analytics dashboard to match that, right? That client success owner has that historical context.
509 01:04:18.480 ⇒ 01:04:19.190 Clarence Stone: Right.
510 01:04:21.160 ⇒ 01:04:21.960 Samuel Roberts: Okay.
511 01:04:24.110 ⇒ 01:04:27.209 Clarence Stone: Cool. I mean, these are great questions. Keep them coming. Anyone else?
512 01:04:31.650 ⇒ 01:04:32.269 Clarence Stone: I have no question.
513 01:04:32.270 ⇒ 01:04:33.459 Uttam Kumaran: Dave, go ahead.
514 01:04:33.460 ⇒ 01:04:34.480 Gabriel Lam: Yeah.
515 01:04:36.430 ⇒ 01:04:39.799 Gabriel Lam: Yeah, so, I think oftentimes.
516 01:04:40.430 ⇒ 01:04:47.489 Gabriel Lam: Or, let’s say, you know, if you’re a service leader, and you’re like, hey, I wanna… Grow closer to…
517 01:04:48.160 ⇒ 01:05:03.660 Gabriel Lam: like, becoming a client success owner, right? Like, it seems to me there’s some sort of hierarchy in terms of, like, the service leader doesn’t have to take care of that much, and so what are the opportunities for yourself if you’re like, hey, I want to grow into different roles, I want to…
518 01:05:03.810 ⇒ 01:05:07.469 Gabriel Lam: You know… Like, progress or advance in this way.
519 01:05:07.800 ⇒ 01:05:31.810 Clarence Stone: So, there isn’t a hierarchy between these three roles. I see them as three different specializations. One with, like, client relationships as one, the other being, you know, strategy and planning, and the last one being technical excellence, right? So, if a service leader wants to, you know, learn about client success ownership, they want to kind of shift into that type of role and, you know, be able to take on that.
520 01:05:31.920 ⇒ 01:05:53.620 Clarence Stone: Yeah, let’s create a process and a pipeline where you get to sit with the client success owner as they, you know, talk to the client. So you pick up on those, you know, skill sets, right? Those soft skills that you need to interact with the client. Let’s create some programs and plans so that you understand what the client success owner is responsible for, and after, you know, enough side-by-side learning, we can, you know.
521 01:05:53.620 ⇒ 01:06:17.369 Clarence Stone: definitely start asking the question, hey, are you ready to take that on on your own, right? I don’t think any of these roles are gate-kept in any way. It’s about making sure that, you know, especially for me, that I provide you with the right support and training and, you know, context to be able to succeed at that role. And I fully believe that anybody in this organization, at least the ones that I’ve talked to one-on-one, can actually sit in each of these verticals and excel.
522 01:06:17.370 ⇒ 01:06:18.790 Clarence Stone: Incredibly well.
523 01:06:23.560 ⇒ 01:06:27.260 Clarence Stone: Gabe, was that helpful? I, like, there isn’t a structure here.
524 01:06:27.260 ⇒ 01:06:28.300 Gabriel Lam: For sure.
525 01:06:28.460 ⇒ 01:06:29.010 Gabriel Lam: Thank you.
526 01:06:29.010 ⇒ 01:06:53.930 Clarence Stone: it’s a mesh of information, right? Like, the client success owner really is just focused on that relationship, and that plan and execution piece lives with the planner, and then they’re going to have a conversation, and right? There’s a little bit of tension, obviously, because there’s two different focuses, right? But that causes you all to speak with each other more often, right? There’s more touchpoints, and they’re meaningful, because you know exactly what the motivation of the person on the other side is going to be as well.
527 01:06:56.100 ⇒ 01:07:01.849 Holly Condos: And Clarence, isn’t that ultimately the goal, is to facilitate the communication?
528 01:07:02.300 ⇒ 01:07:03.300 Clarence Stone: Yep, exactly.
529 01:07:03.300 ⇒ 01:07:03.710 Holly Condos: Right.
530 01:07:03.710 ⇒ 01:07:04.630 Clarence Stone: Yeah, yeah.
531 01:07:07.000 ⇒ 01:07:26.550 Clarence Stone: Yeah, so, you know, that’s… Holly, that’s such a great point, right? We’re a remote company, and it’s difficult to create these one-on-one interactions or collisions if we don’t create an architecture or infrastructure where we’re asking people to connect with each other, right? And in this model, you have to interact with each other in order to be successful at your role.
532 01:07:27.120 ⇒ 01:07:27.730 Holly Condos: Right.
533 01:07:31.080 ⇒ 01:07:49.590 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I think one point also is, like, I think it’s important for us to think about, like, this is all in service of producing a better outcome for clients. Right now, there is a lot of risk on our outcomes that land on just a few people at the company. And even if that wasn’t me, it is a risk.
534 01:07:49.590 ⇒ 01:08:00.230 Uttam Kumaran: And so inbuilt in this model is the fact that there is redundancy, but also the fact that in a world where we all have AI, each of these different
535 01:08:00.230 ⇒ 01:08:12.259 Uttam Kumaran: you know, focuses are going to have a set of tools to support you. So this, you know, we’re… we’re building tools to support you creating linear tickets faster, preparing for meetings, running stand-ups.
536 01:08:12.260 ⇒ 01:08:20.820 Uttam Kumaran: And so, you know, I… I was initially, you know, my feedback to Clarence was, okay, like, we can’t… it’s not like we can have two jobs.
537 01:08:20.819 ⇒ 01:08:34.520 Uttam Kumaran: But, you know, more thinking about it, the way this is going to work is it’s just going to be a percentage of the time that you have that goes to these things for the clients that you’re assigned to. Additionally, you know, and this is what we’re working on, is we’re gonna work to put, you know.
538 01:08:34.520 ⇒ 01:08:49.239 Uttam Kumaran: some sort of financial incentive around taking these focuses on. And that’s something that I was really, you know, clear about in that I want to show that this is the path towards, you know, doing more and making more here at Brainforge, and
539 01:08:49.240 ⇒ 01:08:58.039 Uttam Kumaran: I think, like, we don’t want it to be, you know, at a lot of companies that I’ve worked at, where it’s like, okay, now everybody just has to do 30% more work.
540 01:08:58.040 ⇒ 01:09:12.019 Uttam Kumaran: This is… there’s a fixed pie that we all have, and this is a percentage of that fixed pie, and some of these are more complex than others, and so we will sort of, like, guide people towards wanting to… to get there, because that’s how you’ll sort of grow through the organization.
541 01:09:13.580 ⇒ 01:09:26.859 Robert Tseng: One thing I’ll say is, as I was looking at, like, our… how our delivery team spends their time, just based on, kind of, what you guys put in your time tracker sheets, I would say it’s between 20-25% of your time is already spent on internal meetings.
542 01:09:26.950 ⇒ 01:09:30.810 Robert Tseng: And most of those are run by me or Utah, and so, like.
543 01:09:30.830 ⇒ 01:09:46.699 Robert Tseng: I feel like this is more of just kind of shifting that to… I mean, within those meetings, you’re not just gonna be, like, more of a passive listeners reacting to things, but as you engage in already the communication time that you’re already spending on these different projects, you have certain, like.
544 01:09:46.700 ⇒ 01:10:04.629 Robert Tseng: things that you’re, focused on trying to push… push forward as well. So, I think, you know, I hope… I mean, I guess I’ll be monitoring. I hope this doesn’t become, like, 50% of your job. But, you know, if you’re already spending, like, a quarter of your time, like, in… in… in communication, like, at least you should have a…
545 01:10:04.630 ⇒ 01:10:09.500 Robert Tseng: Have a… I have an objective on, like, what you’re… what you’re trying to bring to the table.
546 01:10:13.190 ⇒ 01:10:16.560 Clarence Stone: Yeah, and I want to layer on Robert… what Robert said.
547 01:10:16.800 ⇒ 01:10:17.740 Clarence Stone: you know.
548 01:10:17.950 ⇒ 01:10:41.790 Clarence Stone: as this process gets implemented, you’re not alone. You’re gonna get plenty of support from me, definitely, you know, that line of contact that you’ve always had with you, Tom and Robert. Like, when you make a plan, we don’t just expect you to execute on it. Please check in, right? Get and validate it with us, or tell us if you’re stuck, right? This isn’t a, you know, this is what you’re gonna do now and just go ahead and do it kind of role.
549 01:10:41.790 ⇒ 01:11:03.820 Clarence Stone: We want to develop you, right? We want to help you, you know, figure out exactly what you need to do in each of these phases and steps. And ultimately, I also want to hear if there’s any AI tools or capabilities that you think should be built out to make this role easier, because we want to leverage AI as much as possible in making these things happen.
550 01:11:10.820 ⇒ 01:11:11.939 Pranav: Actually, I’m guessing.
551 01:11:11.940 ⇒ 01:11:15.319 Clarence Stone: By far now. Sorry, what’s that? Someone said something?
552 01:11:15.320 ⇒ 01:11:26.140 Pranav: Yeah, actually, I just had one more thing, because since you mentioned AI, I was just thinking about that as well. On, like, the previous slide, I was wondering if, we’ve thought about, like, certain AI automations to kind of, like.
553 01:11:26.390 ⇒ 01:11:32.330 Pranav: you know, this communication, like, person-to-person is definitely super important, too, and I think if there is, like.
554 01:11:32.740 ⇒ 01:11:42.570 Pranav: like you said, like, we have different interests sometimes, or different focuses, like, when managing that client relationship. But in, like.
555 01:11:42.740 ⇒ 01:11:52.660 Pranav: I guess, when things are going good, or there isn’t anything to really discuss, or… before there’s things to discuss, you think, let’s say, for…
556 01:11:52.840 ⇒ 01:12:01.070 Pranav: certain stages of communication, like building, like, some AI automation to, like, summarize, okay, these are the things that have been done, are those things that we’re thinking about building out?
557 01:12:01.580 ⇒ 01:12:26.480 Clarence Stone: 100%, Pranav. So, here’s a great example. Right now, the platform is really great at helping you with the tactical, right? If you look at, you know, the daily stand-up tool, you get to see what everyone’s done yesterday and what they’re going to do tomorrow. What we want to do is create solutions that are another layer above, right? Now that you have a plan, let’s actually measure what happened on that daily to the plan and say, hey.
558 01:12:26.480 ⇒ 01:12:50.249 Clarence Stone: is it actually hitting your milestones, right? So, you should, with additional tools, be able to catch those things early, right? But we need people in these seats to tell us exactly what they need to see, what are those signals, right? So, the first few people, yeah, it’s not going to be the easiest transition, but, you know, you’re going to get plenty of support, and as you come up with ideas on how to improve those processes.
559 01:12:50.250 ⇒ 01:13:10.019 Clarence Stone: tools will also be built out for you to help you out. So, I hope that answers the question. The goal is always to make this process easier over time, right? And if we just aim for a 20% improvement with a new tool, every time we release a tool, we’ll eventually get to getting as close to fully automated with the present technology as we can.
560 01:13:11.090 ⇒ 01:13:12.139 Pranav: Cool, awesome.
561 01:13:13.460 ⇒ 01:13:36.220 Clarence Stone: So, next steps. I can’t just drop this on you guys and not tell you what’s about to happen, right? So, we want to start piloting this program, and UTom’s already taken the lead and started, you know, putting that together. But, secondly, you know, as I impressed before, you’re not alone, right? And if you’re interested in selling to a role, remember that there’s gonna be, you know, some experts in the field
562 01:13:36.220 ⇒ 01:13:45.829 Clarence Stone: tools, processes, and training sessions that we want to put together to make that transition possible. So if you think you’re interested in one of these tracks, but you’re not quite ready.
563 01:13:45.880 ⇒ 01:13:56.140 Clarence Stone: still ping me and let me know, because I, you know, that helps inform what kind of tools or processes I should design, right? To relieve that kind of worry about whether or not you’re ready or not.
564 01:13:56.140 ⇒ 01:14:21.039 Clarence Stone: So, immediate actions, if you’re interested in each of these rules, let us know. I’m interested in knowing, you know, where you think, your place in Brainforge is, and secondly, if you just want to learn more, I’ve got, like, 53 slides so far, kind of outlining everything that I’ve thought of with this layout, and I just try to keep it short for this meeting, so I’m more than happy to sit you through, end-to-end, our thinking process, the things that we landed on, and
565 01:14:21.040 ⇒ 01:14:44.750 Clarence Stone: you know, where we are currently. So, everything’s an open book, nothing’s a secret, so if you want to learn more and just want to have a chat, I’m all ears. And lastly, these aren’t the only set positions that we’re thinking of. You know, we’re thinking about a program where you get to partner up with new hires at Brainforge and, you know, help them with their growth and finding their place in Brainforge. So, if that’s something you’re interested in.
566 01:14:44.750 ⇒ 01:14:58.409 Clarence Stone: you know, please let me know, because we’re… there’s definitely a need to design that program as we’re onboarding new people as well. So, this is just the first of many, interesting, you know, growth options for you, and many more coming.
567 01:14:59.990 ⇒ 01:15:06.420 Clarence Stone: So, with that, I guess I pass it off to Eliza, but, does anyone have any questions?
568 01:15:07.560 ⇒ 01:15:08.700 Clarence Stone: Thanks, Gabe.
569 01:15:09.960 ⇒ 01:15:24.240 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I know we are kind of at time, and Robert and I are late to an interview, but I think what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna go ahead and just, maybe send… we can send these slides into…
570 01:15:24.240 ⇒ 01:15:34.060 Uttam Kumaran: the team Slack channel. I think I would still love, you know, I wanted to give an opportunity to, to Luke, to Eliza, to Holly, to Jed, to send some updates
571 01:15:34.060 ⇒ 01:15:49.469 Uttam Kumaran: If you guys wouldn’t mind maybe just sending a quick note in the thread when I send this into Slack, I think it’s… I really would love to highlight a lot of the work that you guys are doing and planning on doing. I know we just went super over on time today, so if that’s okay, then let’s plan on that.
572 01:15:50.710 ⇒ 01:15:51.690 Holly Condos: Sounds good.
573 01:15:52.500 ⇒ 01:15:53.090 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
574 01:15:53.770 ⇒ 01:16:04.360 Uttam Kumaran: All right, everyone, thank you so much. I think this was, like, this was a really, really amazing, discussion. I think both Clarence, me, and Robert will sort of follow up as we think about this. I think
575 01:16:04.360 ⇒ 01:16:21.520 Uttam Kumaran: Pranav, you guys on Lilo are starting to see, sort of, like, a little bit of the formation of this idea, so it’s not gonna be, like, a turn the lights on and do this tomorrow, but I do think that this is a path in a new direction. Just like everything new, it’s like, we will have to work on it together, so this isn’t like a…
576 01:16:21.520 ⇒ 01:16:28.290 Uttam Kumaran: This is the new world, like, some of this where we’re not gonna get right, and so we’re sort of hopeful that everybody works with us to kind of make this happen, but…
577 01:16:28.290 ⇒ 01:16:34.810 Uttam Kumaran: it will make this place a lot smoother of a ship to be on, you know? So, super, super excited.
578 01:16:37.440 ⇒ 01:16:39.060 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, awesome.
579 01:16:39.630 ⇒ 01:16:40.510 Uttam Kumaran: Thanks, everyone.
580 01:16:40.570 ⇒ 01:16:41.570 Robert Tseng: Thanks for everyone here.
581 01:16:42.170 ⇒ 01:16:42.870 Holly Condos: Thanks, guys.
582 01:16:42.870 ⇒ 01:16:44.160 Elizah Joy: Bye. Thank you.