Meeting Title: Brainforge Weekly Business Review Check-in Date: 2026-01-16 Meeting participants: Clarence Stone, Rico Rejoso, Sheshu Chandrasekar, Robert Tseng, Uttam Kumaran
WEBVTT
1 00:03:04.230 ⇒ 00:03:05.490 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Hi, Clarence!
2 00:03:08.600 ⇒ 00:03:10.210 Clarence Stone: Hey, how’s it going?
3 00:03:10.210 ⇒ 00:03:11.690 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Good, how about yourself?
4 00:03:12.040 ⇒ 00:03:16.510 Clarence Stone: Oh, going well. It’s Friday.
5 00:03:16.510 ⇒ 00:03:18.310 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, pretty busy week, huh?
6 00:03:18.310 ⇒ 00:03:19.050 Clarence Stone: Yeah.
7 00:03:19.790 ⇒ 00:03:26.799 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Well… Glad it’s, glad it’s Friday, for sure, so… We can do this!
8 00:03:27.230 ⇒ 00:03:28.250 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Lost one of the day.
9 00:03:28.350 ⇒ 00:03:31.450 Clarence Stone: And then invoices, and then we’re done.
10 00:03:31.450 ⇒ 00:03:32.490 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Oh, gosh.
11 00:03:34.860 ⇒ 00:03:48.550 Sheshu Chandrasekar: But, yeah, so, but next week, I’m most likely gonna be there. I’m in Houston right now, just visiting parents again, so I’ll be, I’ll be trying to make it out there to Austin, and then, you know, head down to San Antonio.
12 00:03:48.680 ⇒ 00:03:57.949 Clarence Stone: Sweet, yeah, it’d be so great to see you, man. No pressure. It’s like, you know, early days, you just join, but, you know, it’s one of those opportunities to meet clients face-to-face, so I think.
13 00:03:57.950 ⇒ 00:03:58.730 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah.
14 00:03:59.010 ⇒ 00:04:00.440 Sheshu Chandrasekar: No, absolutely.
15 00:04:00.800 ⇒ 00:04:03.100 Sheshu Chandrasekar: It’s been a while since I had a…
16 00:04:03.500 ⇒ 00:04:05.320 Sheshu Chandrasekar: A face-to-face client meeting, like a…
17 00:04:05.870 ⇒ 00:04:09.010 Sheshu Chandrasekar: I guess a consulting opportunity, so that’d be interesting.
18 00:04:10.200 ⇒ 00:04:14.040 Clarence Stone: Yeah, it’s it used to be really common for me to have to suit up and go talk.
19 00:04:14.040 ⇒ 00:04:15.340 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah.
20 00:04:15.340 ⇒ 00:04:21.119 Clarence Stone: And it’s becoming a little bit more rare and more of an occasion that I put on a suit.
21 00:04:21.120 ⇒ 00:04:22.709 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, no, absolutely.
22 00:04:23.660 ⇒ 00:04:24.689 Clarence Stone: What’s up, Robert?
23 00:04:24.990 ⇒ 00:04:25.789 Robert Tseng: Hey, guys.
24 00:04:42.980 ⇒ 00:04:51.230 Robert Tseng: Okay, I can continue this later. Ugh, I just feel like I got stuck on this thing I’ve been trying to do.
25 00:04:51.820 ⇒ 00:04:55.450 Robert Tseng: I’m actually… it’s a great place to start, I’d love to share with you guys.
26 00:04:56.190 ⇒ 00:04:58.559 Robert Tseng: I kind of hinted at this.
27 00:04:59.990 ⇒ 00:05:03.260 Robert Tseng: earlier, but here’s something I’ve been working on.
28 00:05:05.290 ⇒ 00:05:18.539 Robert Tseng: So, if you guys haven’t looked at this yet, I’ll share this with you. So, Shaysu, actually, this is somewhat relevant to you. I know we’re kind of going a little bit off the usual agenda here, but I want to make sure you get added to some relevant calls.
29 00:05:18.650 ⇒ 00:05:31.920 Robert Tseng: So I know, like, UTOM basically has you joining whatever calls that you can next couple weeks, so you can just kind of see things. We have a planning call that I want to add you to, like, for on the go-to-market side. I just want you to
30 00:05:31.920 ⇒ 00:05:39.319 Robert Tseng: see… see that part of the business, so if you can make it, that would be great. So on Mondays at 3 p.m. Eastern, usually.
31 00:05:39.580 ⇒ 00:05:43.289 Robert Tseng: Yeah, so, like, I’ve been run… I’ve been, like.
32 00:05:43.460 ⇒ 00:06:01.130 Robert Tseng: I built this to basically help run the, the go-to-market team, and, you know, we’re doing, like, weekly business reviews now, having the team kind of fill in metrics, and then we’re trying to set targets, and actually… help me better triangulate, like,
33 00:06:01.560 ⇒ 00:06:10.060 Robert Tseng: like, the health of our… of our go-to-market motion. I think, you know, up to this point, we’ve been operating under, like.
34 00:06:10.520 ⇒ 00:06:16.479 Robert Tseng: yeah, in a very, like, whimsical way, I guess, where…
35 00:06:16.750 ⇒ 00:06:31.990 Robert Tseng: If I’m swamped on delivery, and Utah has some time, he goes and he… and he goes and supports sales, and then, you know, if he gets… if his clients end up kind of eating up a lot of his time, and I free up, then I go in and have sales, so we’ve kind of always
36 00:06:32.760 ⇒ 00:06:44.970 Robert Tseng: kind of been pushing and pulling, with just whatever extra time we’ve had, but now we’re kind of actually building out this team and running, like, a tighter operation there.
37 00:06:45.100 ⇒ 00:06:52.139 Robert Tseng: I think specifically, this is a… like, the goal of where I would say this is complete, is that, like.
38 00:06:52.420 ⇒ 00:06:55.720 Robert Tseng: is when I’m able to,
39 00:06:57.060 ⇒ 00:07:04.600 Robert Tseng: just kind of anticipate, like, I don’t know, I guess in the sales world, we call it, like, feasts or famines. So, like, if…
40 00:07:04.640 ⇒ 00:07:23.949 Robert Tseng: the pipeline is looking healthy, and there’s a lot of business coming in, at the top of the funnel, we kind of… we know, kind of, the cycle rate, the cycle time and our close rates pretty well, then I can… then I’ll be able to, you know, at least project pretty confidently how much business we’re going to end up closing in the next
41 00:07:23.960 ⇒ 00:07:36.620 Robert Tseng: I mean, realistically, just months to two months in advance. And that’ll give, you know, us time to go and, if we don’t have enough staff, to go and hire… hire people,
42 00:07:36.620 ⇒ 00:07:49.199 Robert Tseng: you know, our recruiting cycle is pretty… pretty short, and we want to make that more standardized. I know you’re helping with this… this part, so I want to give you this picture. But that way, you know, at least I’d be able to give you, like, 4 weeks lead time on, like, who we.
43 00:07:49.200 ⇒ 00:07:49.610 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Hmm.
44 00:07:49.610 ⇒ 00:07:54.520 Robert Tseng: How many people we need, kind of, coming, coming… based on the pipeline that we have.
45 00:07:54.780 ⇒ 00:08:12.170 Robert Tseng: So that… that would be, like, how to respond in a feast scenario, or if it’s a famine scenario, where pipeline dries up, we… we’re gonna… we know we’re going to churn some revenue because, you know, it’s… it’s just kind of, part of the cycle of the business.
46 00:08:12.480 ⇒ 00:08:16.659 Robert Tseng: And we’re just gonna run into a jam, and
47 00:08:16.970 ⇒ 00:08:32.449 Robert Tseng: Right now, we’ve been able to kind of keep people benched, and not have… not be super strict on utilization, but as we continue to scale, at some point, we’re gonna have… I feel like we’re gonna have to,
48 00:08:33.169 ⇒ 00:08:51.689 Robert Tseng: be able to anticipate that as well, so that I could also go to you and be like, look, you know, a month or two months from now, our business is gonna shrink by 20%. We… we have to, like, I don’t know, we have to… we have to cut our delivery costs by 10% somehow. And either that means, like, kind of…
49 00:08:52.110 ⇒ 00:08:53.110 Robert Tseng: Cutting…
50 00:08:53.160 ⇒ 00:09:09.619 Robert Tseng: trimming the fat in our team, or, like, trying to figure out some way to buy ourselves some more time. We have flexible contractors, like, I don’t know, there’s different levers that we can pull there, but, I think we also need to be able to do that as well, so we’re not, like, kind of hemorrhaging cash, like.
51 00:09:09.620 ⇒ 00:09:22.059 Robert Tseng: every time we hit, like, a lull in the month, in the monthly billing as well. So, that’s what I’m really trying to get in order this quarter from the go-to-market team, perspective.
52 00:09:22.330 ⇒ 00:09:30.590 Robert Tseng: Yeah, so I just wanted to kind of share that with you, and we can obviously… I’ll share this with both of you guys, you can pour into it a little bit more.
53 00:09:30.890 ⇒ 00:09:32.020 Robert Tseng: Does that make sense?
54 00:09:32.420 ⇒ 00:09:40.629 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, no, it makes a lot of sense, and I think that’s a smart way to just kind of forecast demand and capacities, and figure out what… where to, like, you know.
55 00:09:41.960 ⇒ 00:09:48.690 Sheshu Chandrasekar: be efficient with the business in that sense, like, how many hours we could spend and how many hours we shouldn’t. So, that makes a lot of sense to me.
56 00:09:49.340 ⇒ 00:09:55.989 Robert Tseng: Yeah, like, we’re trying to move away from just being able to see… kind of react to the business every week, every two weeks, to.
57 00:09:55.990 ⇒ 00:09:56.430 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Like, okay.
58 00:09:56.430 ⇒ 00:10:10.080 Robert Tseng: We have some… and we definitely have some margin now, and, like, we can… you know, we should be able to be disciplined enough so that we can forecast out, or just see what’s coming in the next month or two months.
59 00:10:10.080 ⇒ 00:10:10.750 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yay.
60 00:10:11.020 ⇒ 00:10:11.640 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
61 00:10:11.740 ⇒ 00:10:13.250 Sheshu Chandrasekar: So, hopefully by then…
62 00:10:13.250 ⇒ 00:10:30.619 Robert Tseng: hopefully by the end of this month, we’ll have at least 4 weeks of data that the team has filled in to just kind of see how we’re trending towards things. And then, hopefully, when we do these, like, end of week reviews as well, a short segment for me that I would love to share with this group.
63 00:10:30.620 ⇒ 00:10:36.070 Robert Tseng: Would be, like, kind of more of our, like, like a more general health assessment of, like.
64 00:10:36.070 ⇒ 00:10:51.360 Robert Tseng: For the different scenarios that I’ve modeled out for where we’re gonna… where we could get to, like, which one… you know, which one are we trending towards? So, I don’t have that kind of clarity for you guys today, but, you know, hopefully, you know, a week, two weeks from now, like, I’ll be able to start doing that.
65 00:10:51.530 ⇒ 00:10:52.379 Robert Tseng: So, yeah.
66 00:10:53.290 ⇒ 00:11:11.259 Clarence Stone: Yeah, so Robert, a couple things. I watched your Zoom about this before. Okay. I think that’s totally awesome. Like, I forgot where it was, so I’ll try to find it, but Sesshu, I think I should give it to you, too. It was super helpful. Okay. You picked up a really great room. I remember it. It was a while back.
67 00:11:11.560 ⇒ 00:11:19.770 Robert Tseng: Yeah, yeah, it was probably, like, right, you know, two and a half weeks ago at this point. I’ve made a couple iterations since then, but generally, it still looks the same, yeah.
68 00:11:19.880 ⇒ 00:11:20.610 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
69 00:11:21.920 ⇒ 00:11:23.860 Clarence Stone: And so…
70 00:11:23.860 ⇒ 00:11:45.629 Clarence Stone: from that perspective, Robert, like, one of the things that Utam had me write up was a guide to CSOs to make sure that they’re filling their pipelines, and that they have work coming in. So, that’s another lever that we have, Sesshu, to say, hey, CSOs, if you’re not on 3 projects on average, right.
71 00:11:45.630 ⇒ 00:11:55.280 Clarence Stone: Like, you should be using that free time to prospect between your connections, showing up to the sales meetings that are bi-weekly, connecting with,
72 00:11:55.280 ⇒ 00:12:17.129 Clarence Stone: other CSOs to see what, you know, your services that you can provide, you can also sell, right? So, activate that part of your capabilities if your pipeline’s not full. And Robert, I’d love your, you know, opinion on this, but, like, I think the next step is I want to empower everybody at Brainforge to make sure that they’re keeping themselves fully staffed, too.
73 00:12:17.140 ⇒ 00:12:17.670 Clarence Stone: Right.
74 00:12:17.670 ⇒ 00:12:18.230 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
75 00:12:18.230 ⇒ 00:12:34.249 Clarence Stone: That means that if they know that, you know, that they’re on a project that’s about to end, they should be talking to CSOs and trying to find opportunities for themselves, and also talking to you, or maybe you, Tom, on what platform things or ops things they could be working on during their bench time.
76 00:12:34.790 ⇒ 00:12:42.480 Robert Tseng: Yes, absolutely. Yeah, I think, like, that would be a major, like, paradigm shift for our team. I feel like people just…
77 00:12:42.710 ⇒ 00:12:45.420 Robert Tseng: Kind of just trying to fill…
78 00:12:45.420 ⇒ 00:13:05.409 Robert Tseng: the hours that they have, and, like, there’s not really, like, a, okay, if I can get my work done faster, then, like, I have capacity to do more… to do… contribute to the org in different ways. Or, if it’s, like, I don’t have enough work, I’m not necessarily going to ask for… ask for anything, I’m just gonna kind of sit here. So, I don’t think we’re both… we’re trying to… trying to…
79 00:13:05.410 ⇒ 00:13:06.280 Clarence Stone: Yeah, so…
80 00:13:06.280 ⇒ 00:13:07.250 Robert Tseng: Both of us, yeah.
81 00:13:07.250 ⇒ 00:13:29.319 Clarence Stone: Maybe not within this quarter, but maybe next quarter, like, another conversation I want to have is being able to measure people’s, actual utilization on client accounts versus contributions to internal and ops projects and, you know, where they’re spending their time across the board. Because once we can measure that, Robert, we can start saying, hey, this, like, this…
82 00:13:29.320 ⇒ 00:13:32.849 Clarence Stone: role needs to have X amount of utilization.
83 00:13:32.850 ⇒ 00:13:37.130 Clarence Stone: Right? Now people will know when they need to go and find, more work.
84 00:13:37.540 ⇒ 00:13:38.150 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
85 00:13:38.740 ⇒ 00:13:39.700 Robert Tseng: Totally.
86 00:13:41.250 ⇒ 00:13:43.579 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, that makes sense. So, CSOs would be…
87 00:13:43.820 ⇒ 00:13:51.230 Sheshu Chandrasekar: if they’re not on client work, they’d be kind of working on business development. So, what about the other roles, like EP, SL, like…
88 00:13:51.380 ⇒ 00:13:56.299 Sheshu Chandrasekar: What are… what would they be doing if, you know, like, what is their kind of, like, metric to say, like, you know.
89 00:13:56.300 ⇒ 00:14:11.799 Clarence Stone: because Brainforge is so unique, everyone at a baseline is, you know, in themselves, a really talented technical person, right? And then on top of that, they’re also a leader with one of these, like, vertical stack capabilities, so I think, you know, they have an opportunity to do both.
90 00:14:11.900 ⇒ 00:14:36.570 Clarence Stone: Right? So, if you’re an EP and you’re kind of drying up, well, you have two options. You can work with maybe you and the ops team to come up with better EP processes, if that’s where, you know, they’re going to be a really effective driver. Or they can, you know, connect with the CSO and go to market with them, right? And help them drive new market wins, right? There’s so many things that somebody can do. You can either stack them
91 00:14:36.570 ⇒ 00:14:42.330 Clarence Stone: up by utilizing their, you know, talents, or they can, you know, build the business, right? So,
92 00:14:42.330 ⇒ 00:15:01.640 Clarence Stone: like, really, my write-up is going to be saying, here’s all the things that you can do to continue contributing, right? And the goal is that you should be effectively utilized, right? And in the future, we’ll somehow start to, you know, measure that, so that you’ll know when you need to kind of, you know, switch gears from here to there.
93 00:15:02.430 ⇒ 00:15:06.929 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, no, that makes sense. I think maybe something that’d be very useful would be kind of, like, outlining
94 00:15:07.180 ⇒ 00:15:09.079 Sheshu Chandrasekar: those initiatives, right? I think…
95 00:15:10.160 ⇒ 00:15:21.239 Sheshu Chandrasekar: yeah, like, if, you know, we don’t want them to be kind of in the dark, because I remember being that… in that position when I was on the bench at, you know, the Big Four, and it was not a fun time, so…
96 00:15:21.240 ⇒ 00:15:27.309 Clarence Stone: Yeah, so then that’s perfect. Let’s actually have, like, a quick follow-on 30-minute convo on, you know, what that could be, right?
97 00:15:27.310 ⇒ 00:15:27.790 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah.
98 00:15:27.790 ⇒ 00:15:33.620 Clarence Stone: They want to start continuing to lay down the path to making sure that people stay utilized.
99 00:15:33.620 ⇒ 00:15:34.110 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah.
100 00:15:34.110 ⇒ 00:15:40.859 Clarence Stone: Hopefully, Robert, that becomes another lever to make sure that, you know, we’re kind of keeping pace with, you know, all the business coming in.
101 00:15:41.500 ⇒ 00:16:00.870 Robert Tseng: Yeah, yeah, I think, yeah, I think there… I didn’t flash the section on it, but there’s a whole, like, delivery source kind of revenue part into this motion as well that, you know, it’s really just, like, a couple rows right now, but, like, everything that you guys are discussing on that front is going to be how the technical staff is going to be able to contribute to delivery source revenue.
102 00:16:01.800 ⇒ 00:16:02.530 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
103 00:16:02.760 ⇒ 00:16:13.969 Robert Tseng: So, I mean, I guess maybe I just want to spend a little bit more time helping you with, like, how to get oriented, Shoshu, since we haven’t really kind of done an onboarding. I know you’re just kind of clicking around.
104 00:16:13.970 ⇒ 00:16:25.539 Robert Tseng: I’ve kind of bookmarked some pages that I feel like are helpful for me that I look at. I mean, obviously, I kind of run the sales org here, so I think it’s helpful to kind of go through this at a high level. It’s pretty, pretty fresh in terms of, like.
105 00:16:25.600 ⇒ 00:16:33.259 Robert Tseng: yeah, just our whole… our whole sales process. I think you’ll… you’ll get to learn how we talk about the business, and
106 00:16:33.480 ⇒ 00:16:34.720 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I mean, I think…
107 00:16:35.310 ⇒ 00:16:50.780 Robert Tseng: if I were… I would just kind of go… go top-down. I think I organized it in this way. That’s helpful. Obviously, you don’t have to get into the nitty-gritty of, like, understanding, like, the lead closing system or anything, but at least just kind of looking through this would be helpful.
108 00:16:50.780 ⇒ 00:16:58.849 Robert Tseng: Where I would like to… I already discussed this with Uten, to get your help as well, is to kind of help,
109 00:16:58.850 ⇒ 00:17:03.600 Robert Tseng: On the partnership side, so… Yeah, I think, like.
110 00:17:04.140 ⇒ 00:17:19.890 Robert Tseng: we… yeah, there… over… I mean, we’ll scope this out a bit more clearly, and I’ll meet with you, like, next week, but just want to kind of give you a heads up. So, like, Holly and Hannah are really the two people that are… have been supporting
111 00:17:20.109 ⇒ 00:17:34.109 Robert Tseng: Utam and I on the partnership side, and actually, like, most of the partnership-driven sales effort, like, I’ve kind of just… we’ve split, like, Utam is taking on most of that stuff. So, you know, we have, like, some high, like,
112 00:17:34.110 ⇒ 00:17:55.869 Robert Tseng: high priority, like, targets, you know, which I’m just thinks about, like, whoever… Snowflake is, like, a big ecosystem. We really want to get on their good side and, like, kind of be promoted with them, so he’s always thinking about Snowflake. We have a couple other partners that we’re building some momentum with, Omni, Mixpanel, so just kind of, like, learning those accounts. There’s never going to be more than, like, you know.
113 00:17:55.950 ⇒ 00:18:06.530 Robert Tseng: 10 to 15 of them at once that are active with us, I think. We’re not asking you to, like, you know, spend your time jumping on the calls and doing the schmoozing, because that’s…
114 00:18:06.530 ⇒ 00:18:13.749 Robert Tseng: you know, that’d just be a lot for your capacity right now. That’s not really what we need. Holly is perfectly great at that.
115 00:18:13.750 ⇒ 00:18:34.029 Robert Tseng: I just think she’s not very, organized at, like, really giving us the visibility that we need. It still feels like everything is, like, really driven from Utam and I, and, like, there’s not really much transparency into, kind of, what she’s doing. So, there are a couple, like, systems that I’ve kind of rebooted with her to try to, like, get her
116 00:18:34.030 ⇒ 00:18:37.110 Robert Tseng: going again. One of them is…
117 00:18:37.180 ⇒ 00:18:42.379 Robert Tseng: It’s actually… oh, someone threw this in the trash. Might be in the same…
118 00:18:42.750 ⇒ 00:19:00.590 Robert Tseng: And I’ll share this spreadsheet with you, I guess, but yeah, there’s, like, this partner tracker. This should be up-to-date mostly with all the live partners that we’re working with, and so I just kind of wanted her to have a single place where she was just giving us visibility into all the activity that’s going on on each account.
119 00:19:00.590 ⇒ 00:19:05.670 Robert Tseng: like, that’s, like, table stakes, I think. It may be still, like, a little bit too… too much for…
120 00:19:05.670 ⇒ 00:19:10.689 Robert Tseng: For what… for where… where it at… where it’s at. But eventually, like.
121 00:19:11.210 ⇒ 00:19:30.149 Robert Tseng: you know, she, you know, she’s not really embedded into, like… I mean, I run daily sales stands up, she’s not… she doesn’t work in linear, she kind of is just kind of operating on… on her own, and, you know, realistically just reacting to whatever Utam is telling her to do on Slack. So, I think there is just, like, from a systems perspective, like.
122 00:19:30.190 ⇒ 00:19:39.200 Robert Tseng: You know, whether you take this and, try to find a way where You know, you can… push…
123 00:19:39.320 ⇒ 00:19:48.670 Robert Tseng: you just, you know, just hold her more accountable to this. I think that’s… that’s really kind of step one, and then maybe step two is, like, you know, what’s…
124 00:19:48.670 ⇒ 00:20:00.579 Robert Tseng: how do we enfold her into our process, or maybe it’s just… maybe it’s not great, and, like, maybe we… we should… we should consider a different option as well. So, I think that’s… that’s kind of my…
125 00:20:00.580 ⇒ 00:20:07.479 Robert Tseng: ask for involving you on the… on the sales side, just like, I think partnership operations is kind of just, like.
126 00:20:07.710 ⇒ 00:20:09.429 Robert Tseng: Non-existent right now.
127 00:20:10.090 ⇒ 00:20:15.089 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, no, it makes sense, and I’m not too, kinda, like.
128 00:20:15.410 ⇒ 00:20:26.069 Sheshu Chandrasekar: I’m not too, like, aware of, like, what it goes into partnership operations, but I can… I can do some digging and figure out what exactly that may entail, and… and you said it’s Holly that’s on the other side?
129 00:20:26.360 ⇒ 00:20:33.440 Robert Tseng: Yes, yeah. Ali’s the main person on our team that’s supposed to be pushing things along with Utah.
130 00:20:33.780 ⇒ 00:20:41.549 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, no, it makes sense. Okay, yeah, I can take a look at this spreadsheet and figure out exactly where we can kind of close that gap and, you know, kind of systemize it.
131 00:20:41.880 ⇒ 00:21:00.050 Robert Tseng: Yeah, you know, I… one… one more thing I’ll say is I kind of… I would view them as kind of, like, strategic accounts, or like in, you know, in a B2B sales motion, or, you’re… you know, there’s… it’s just multi-touch, like, the outcome isn’t necessarily, like, a… it’s not as clear. It’s not like you jump on a call.
132 00:21:00.050 ⇒ 00:21:00.410 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Right.
133 00:21:00.410 ⇒ 00:21:14.140 Robert Tseng: proposal, like, you know, we’re organizing a joint event with Mixpanel that’s gonna happen on February 26th in Austin, right? And, like, we have the people that can execute, like, kind of the playbook of, like.
134 00:21:14.370 ⇒ 00:21:32.159 Robert Tseng: getting that event organized or whatever, but, like, making sure that, you know, we’re tracking a long project, like, things are going out, messages are going out on time, you know, that kind of stuff, I just feel like a lot of things are falling through the crack. Like, Snowflake is, like, a key partner that we’re trying to aim at, but
135 00:21:32.160 ⇒ 00:21:43.139 Robert Tseng: They have a conference coming up. We had the opportunity to do, like, a speaker submission. Never got a message from Holly. I figured… Clarence told me that the last day to submit papers was yesterday, and I’m like.
136 00:21:43.290 ⇒ 00:21:49.740 Robert Tseng: well, this is, like, our, you know, P0, like, you know, target for a partner, and we’re missing that, like, that’s…
137 00:21:50.090 ⇒ 00:21:50.610 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah.
138 00:21:50.610 ⇒ 00:22:01.390 Robert Tseng: that’s not okay. So, you know, there’s just stuff like that where, it’s not, like, yeah, I mean, the sales pipeline’s a lot more straightforward. It’s only a couple touches to get them to a proposal.
139 00:22:02.100 ⇒ 00:22:11.609 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, no, that… that makes a lot of sense. Yeah, that’s a big concern. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, that makes sense. I can… I can take a look at it, figure out where… where I can close that gap and…
140 00:22:11.710 ⇒ 00:22:16.840 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Kind of… you know, make sure we don’t get to that P0 moment again, so… Yeah. Yeah.
141 00:22:16.840 ⇒ 00:22:31.440 Robert Tseng: Okay, great. So yeah, there’s… that’s… that’s what I wanted to flash there. Yeah, so sales, partnerships, services, I think, is also a good place. Ultimately, like, the long… the long tail of, like, your role, other than kind of taking on these, like, ad hoc.
142 00:22:31.440 ⇒ 00:22:45.129 Robert Tseng: you know, urgent BizOps projects that we have for you, is really to kind of, like Clarence was alluding to, like, from an operations perspective, support, like, our, the delivery team to,
143 00:22:45.130 ⇒ 00:23:01.239 Robert Tseng: either do their job better, or to contribute to sales, or, you know, basically to get… help… help them to be more effective, with, with their time here. So, I do think, like, learning our services, like, how we do our positioning, and,
144 00:23:01.240 ⇒ 00:23:20.879 Robert Tseng: And not everything is built out here, but, I mean, I think this gives you an early, like, indicator on what all the different service lines that we think about are. Not everything is, like… these are obviously not external-facing, these are all kind of internal things that we’ve been working on. There’s a whole, like, suite of, like, external-facing materials that you can
145 00:23:21.090 ⇒ 00:23:25.470 Robert Tseng: once you click around on, Brainforce Platform, you know.
146 00:23:25.520 ⇒ 00:23:38.420 Robert Tseng: you go into, like, marketing assets. Unfortunately, we still don’t have a great way to, kind of… other than using these filters to go and figure out, like, what types of assets we have.
147 00:23:38.420 ⇒ 00:23:53.000 Robert Tseng: But I would work with… I would reach out to Luke if you have any questions on this. He’s, like, our new… basically your counterpart on the go-to-market side. So he’s… he’s pretty new, he’s learning about all these different assets that we have, and his… his directive is, like.
148 00:23:53.070 ⇒ 00:24:04.190 Robert Tseng: you need to activate these things, like, we need people to be downloading these things, like, we need to be sharing… sharing this out more and getting more engagement. So, he should have a pretty fresh perspective on, like.
149 00:24:04.190 ⇒ 00:24:23.509 Robert Tseng: what are all the different types of content that we have, and, you know, it might just point you in the right direction of, like, what are… what’s… what are, like, some, like, great examples of… of… of case studies that we already have, and that you can use that to help learn about what… how we present Brainforge externally.
150 00:24:24.890 ⇒ 00:24:32.659 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Okay. Yeah, and I’ve actually looked at some of the demos, so that was… that was very cool to look at. I haven’t really looked at the marketing assets and stuff like that.
151 00:24:32.980 ⇒ 00:24:39.290 Robert Tseng: Great, yeah, yeah, I… well, yeah, I’m glad you clicked around there already.
152 00:24:39.290 ⇒ 00:24:39.900 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah.
153 00:24:42.270 ⇒ 00:24:59.719 Robert Tseng: Yeah, other than that, I would say brand and content. I don’t want to overwhelm you with that, so I don’t think you need to stay on that side. I guess, is there anything else you wanted to chat about? I know we kind of went a bit away from, like, the original doc that we co-built with you, so maybe that’d be a good place to return to.
154 00:25:00.530 ⇒ 00:25:09.509 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, so, I mean, just based on a little bit yesterday and today, I think my biggest priority going into next week, is looking like
155 00:25:09.610 ⇒ 00:25:28.119 Sheshu Chandrasekar: figuring out what Eliza and Rico are working on, and then also, we talked with Utam, and we figured out, like, okay, we need to really, really revamp the, homepage for Notion. So that’s something that I’m working… I’m gonna work closely with next week, kind of putting together a plan. That’s one initiative I’m working on, but also
156 00:25:28.310 ⇒ 00:25:32.819 Sheshu Chandrasekar: How do we ensure that, you know, we’re building the right templates for,
157 00:25:32.970 ⇒ 00:25:36.209 Sheshu Chandrasekar: the other roles, right? The CSOs, the EPs, and…
158 00:25:36.560 ⇒ 00:25:48.469 Sheshu Chandrasekar: I’m trying to manage those two initiatives concurrently, so that’s… that’s top of mind on… on my end. And then, obviously, looking at… looking at linear right now, I’m trying to figure out exactly how we can go ahead and
159 00:25:48.620 ⇒ 00:25:57.710 Sheshu Chandrasekar: standardize some, some… build out some bots of some sort to make sure, you know, all the requests that we’re getting from ops side, you know, gets captured into.
160 00:25:57.710 ⇒ 00:25:58.670 Robert Tseng: The tree ops upstream.
161 00:25:58.670 ⇒ 00:26:07.240 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yep. So those are 3 main things I’m putting together. I’m gonna probably work on it today evening a little bit better, and… but Monday.
162 00:26:07.580 ⇒ 00:26:19.909 Sheshu Chandrasekar: I plan on presenting it, after getting it… after, you know, meeting with Rico and Eliza and figuring that, okay, like, here’s where I need assistance with, and then present that strategy to… to the rest of the broader team.
163 00:26:21.570 ⇒ 00:26:23.000 Robert Tseng: Okay, that sounds good.
164 00:26:23.170 ⇒ 00:26:25.880 Robert Tseng: Hold on. Blue Tom’s calling me. Interesting.
165 00:26:26.210 ⇒ 00:26:30.319 Robert Tseng: Hey, Tom, we’re… we’re all on the call. Where are you?
166 00:26:34.920 ⇒ 00:26:37.680 Robert Tseng: Yeah, yeah, we’re still on. Shishu and Clarence and me.
167 00:26:38.070 ⇒ 00:26:38.770 Robert Tseng: Yep.
168 00:26:39.800 ⇒ 00:26:40.510 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
169 00:26:42.770 ⇒ 00:26:43.750 Robert Tseng: Okay.
170 00:26:44.240 ⇒ 00:26:44.780 Clarence Stone: I…
171 00:26:45.560 ⇒ 00:26:49.530 Clarence Stone: It was… I was on an interview with Sesshu, and he called me as well.
172 00:26:49.530 ⇒ 00:26:50.660 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Oh, yeah, I remember.
173 00:26:50.660 ⇒ 00:26:51.590 Clarence Stone: I’m done.
174 00:26:54.210 ⇒ 00:26:54.790 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
175 00:26:58.050 ⇒ 00:26:59.010 Robert Tseng: Hey!
176 00:26:59.010 ⇒ 00:27:06.210 Uttam Kumaran: Hi guys, sorry, I was, I was talking to, Osman. Robert, you should go see him, by the way. He’s in New York.
177 00:27:06.550 ⇒ 00:27:09.569 Robert Tseng: Oh, why are you? He lives on 79th, near you.
178 00:27:09.780 ⇒ 00:27:11.759 Robert Tseng: Oh, what? Yeah, that is very near me.
179 00:27:11.760 ⇒ 00:27:17.630 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I called him, I was like, yeah, well, maybe in New York, but, like, Robert’s there, and he’s like, oh, dude, no way. I was like, yeah, you guys should chat.
180 00:27:17.850 ⇒ 00:27:20.420 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, me and him, like, catch up every two weeks, and I was just like.
181 00:27:20.420 ⇒ 00:27:21.020 Robert Tseng: Great.
182 00:27:21.400 ⇒ 00:27:25.920 Uttam Kumaran: It was helpful, because I was trying to explain, like, kind of our ICP stuff, and…
183 00:27:25.920 ⇒ 00:27:26.550 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
184 00:27:27.490 ⇒ 00:27:33.349 Uttam Kumaran: I just, like, I feel like I’m… I repeat myself, like, a hundred times, but it helps me, like, you know, really think through some of this.
185 00:27:33.480 ⇒ 00:27:35.000 Uttam Kumaran: But,
186 00:27:35.810 ⇒ 00:27:41.319 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, alright, but I won’t hijack this, I don’t know where we are, but I’m also just driving, so I’m calling in.
187 00:27:41.720 ⇒ 00:27:42.540 Robert Tseng: Yeah, yeah, no.
188 00:27:42.540 ⇒ 00:27:43.159 Uttam Kumaran: I’m the first time…
189 00:27:43.160 ⇒ 00:27:44.780 Robert Tseng: on the road.
190 00:27:44.780 ⇒ 00:27:47.000 Uttam Kumaran: Pauler, long-time listener.
191 00:27:47.000 ⇒ 00:27:47.710 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
192 00:27:48.330 ⇒ 00:27:48.949 Uttam Kumaran: Thank you.
193 00:27:49.190 ⇒ 00:28:05.200 Robert Tseng: Yeah, no, we were just, kind of… yeah, we… I went over a couple things with Shashu. I already intro’d him on the… on… on, like, the… the partner stuff that I was interested in looping him into. I… I just kind of flashed the, week… the weekly business review.
194 00:28:05.300 ⇒ 00:28:12.559 Robert Tseng: Spreadsheet with him, and then we kind of just touched on a couple things that he’s… he’s working on for… for start to… start… start next week.
195 00:28:13.490 ⇒ 00:28:14.070 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
196 00:28:14.620 ⇒ 00:28:15.000 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
197 00:28:15.000 ⇒ 00:28:15.660 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
198 00:28:15.940 ⇒ 00:28:19.970 Uttam Kumaran: My, I was calling you mainly just to think…
199 00:28:20.090 ⇒ 00:28:24.529 Uttam Kumaran: asks you, like, how you think, like, the last two weeks went.
200 00:28:24.830 ⇒ 00:28:30.269 Uttam Kumaran: Today was really my, like, okay, if things are, like, really sucky, we can, like, go back.
201 00:28:30.640 ⇒ 00:28:34.500 Uttam Kumaran: kind of, like, check-in. Yeah. So I’m, like…
202 00:28:34.730 ⇒ 00:28:40.060 Uttam Kumaran: curious, like, both you and Clarence, like, how you think Things are…
203 00:28:41.100 ⇒ 00:28:44.039 Robert Tseng: Yeah, yeah, let’s take a few minutes to talk about that.
204 00:28:46.050 ⇒ 00:29:05.120 Robert Tseng: I think from a… I mean, I’ll just… since I was already talking about sales before, I’ll just do a quick wrap on sales side. So on sales side, yeah, I mean, I think the… this… the discipline of, like, the WBR is… is showing where the team is not disciplined, and I think the partnership side is where I’m concerned, which is…
205 00:29:05.220 ⇒ 00:29:15.439 Robert Tseng: why, kind of, you know, we went down around this direction, but it’s okay, I think we’re making adjustments. Should be… should be good, better there. I think Luke is…
206 00:29:15.710 ⇒ 00:29:21.640 Robert Tseng: he’s getting it, but he’s… yeah, I mean, his lack of, like, industry…
207 00:29:21.880 ⇒ 00:29:31.130 Robert Tseng: knowledge, it’s like, I mean, I think he’s… he’s just… he’s not gonna be very effective for the first month. So, he is picking up some things, like, I know where he likes… I think he’s gonna get it, though.
208 00:29:31.130 ⇒ 00:29:31.570 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
209 00:29:31.570 ⇒ 00:29:36.100 Robert Tseng: Yeah, he actually did well on the call yesterday. Like, I think just, like.
210 00:29:36.110 ⇒ 00:29:47.359 Robert Tseng: Yeah, he’s able to talk to, like, a prospect, like, he got the guy to open up a lot more than I thought. Like, that guy’s just a dude I met at an event. I totally thought he was just gonna take a few interview questions from
211 00:29:47.360 ⇒ 00:30:04.350 Robert Tseng: from Luke, but then he ended up kind of sharing a lot more. So, like, I actually do think that he would be really good, and to do more interviews, prospect calls, like, and he loves that stuff. It gives him energy. But, like, as far as, like, managing Rico, and…
212 00:30:04.350 ⇒ 00:30:21.709 Robert Tseng: and Ryan, and just… he’s… he’s not really that organized of a person either, so, like, I… I think, I’ll… I’ll stay on to keep driving ops, for… for him to, like, make sure that he’s, like, kind of… he’ll… he’ll just, like, pick up on… on our process. But overall, I think it was… the team’s been… been,
213 00:30:21.760 ⇒ 00:30:25.940 Robert Tseng: has been doing well. We’re picking up the momentum, that we want.
214 00:30:28.920 ⇒ 00:30:29.640 Uttam Kumaran: Great.
215 00:30:30.930 ⇒ 00:30:33.969 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, maybe Clarence, you wanna go?
216 00:30:34.300 ⇒ 00:30:56.020 Clarence Stone: Yeah, so, in terms of new project org structure, I think we’re doing really great. There’s been just immense positive feedback from the team, which is, like, the first great indicator that they understand what the new org model is and, you know, their contributions of it. I mean, Uzam, like, you’ve been doing the one-on-ones with me most of the time, like.
217 00:30:56.020 ⇒ 00:31:01.100 Clarence Stone: I think, you know, we’ve only heard really positive feedback in terms of, like.
218 00:31:01.220 ⇒ 00:31:20.980 Clarence Stone: all the new conversations that are happening. I think the trick to getting more collisions is working. People are talking. You know, I was telling Emma yesterday, this is the first week where I have not been able to keep up with every single channel. Like, I usually try to click every single one and read through everything that I’ve missed every day.
219 00:31:20.980 ⇒ 00:31:33.669 Clarence Stone: I just… I can’t keep up with all of it now, and in some ways, like… like, that is an indicator of a good thing, because that means communication has multiplied. So I would love to see some Slack statistics on that, but…
220 00:31:34.090 ⇒ 00:31:36.070 Clarence Stone: On the flip side, you know.
221 00:31:36.070 ⇒ 00:31:40.399 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, we have the data, we have the data sitting there. I told Sheshu today, it’s… it’s all sitting there.
222 00:31:40.400 ⇒ 00:31:45.419 Clarence Stone: Yeah, we should take a look. You should take a look. I bet you Slack communications have gone up.
223 00:31:45.420 ⇒ 00:31:46.540 Clarence Stone: And…
224 00:31:46.540 ⇒ 00:32:08.900 Clarence Stone: But along with that, I think people are now able to start voicing, you know, some of the gaps and issues or challenges that they’re facing. So, like I told Amber yesterday, I am more than happy, as soon as we identify these gaps, to start patching the system with more, you know, guides, notes, how-tos, you know, ops standards and processes.
225 00:32:08.900 ⇒ 00:32:28.000 Clarence Stone: to get there. And, you know, I just had a great conversation with Awaish, which I’ll follow up with you guys on. Like, because now our leaders are capable of, like, actually pointing to situations and saying, hey, like, this is where we have the opportunity to do better, right?
226 00:32:28.000 ⇒ 00:32:51.510 Clarence Stone: to me, that’s an indicator that, you know, they’re taking ownership of this leadership role instead of being like, yeah, I’ll just check the box and do all of these things. They’re starting to understand the intangible capabilities or, like, skill sets of leadership, where, you know, I used to hear last week, or earlier on, it’s like, can you give me a checklist of everything I need to consider? Now, you know, I’m hearing things like.
227 00:32:51.510 ⇒ 00:33:11.829 Clarence Stone: this is a difficult situation, and it’s super unique, and I have to, like, figure out unique ways to navigate around it, and I was like, yes, and it’s gonna be different every time, but here’s a mental model that you can go through, right? But, like, I can’t give you a checklist or a 1, 2, 3, and everyone’s starting to understand, you know, that level of leadership has no, you know, wax on, wax off.
228 00:33:11.830 ⇒ 00:33:16.370 Clarence Stone: So… Overall, I think we’re doing really well.
229 00:33:16.460 ⇒ 00:33:30.319 Clarence Stone: I think we should check in next week, or the week after, once we start doing the, work, work product scrubs on the EP calls. So Robert, like, on the EP calls, we extended it to an hour.
230 00:33:30.320 ⇒ 00:33:47.090 Clarence Stone: For the two weeks, and we’re gonna have every single EP present their work products. So we want to take a look at all the linear tickets, Gantt charts, and, their, their, Notion. So, once that happens, we should…
231 00:33:47.430 ⇒ 00:33:59.639 Clarence Stone: be keeping all of those things up to date, and I’ll start going to do spot checks instead. You know, Awash tells me that there’s still a couple teams, and he was too shy to tell me exactly who, and I was like, by next.
232 00:33:59.640 ⇒ 00:34:00.330 Uttam Kumaran: Bye, team.
233 00:34:01.000 ⇒ 00:34:02.250 Clarence Stone: My opinion.
234 00:34:02.250 ⇒ 00:34:04.080 Uttam Kumaran: And, one other team, yeah.
235 00:34:04.350 ⇒ 00:34:08.380 Clarence Stone: Oh, that’s why he was afraid, because it’s you!
236 00:34:08.389 ⇒ 00:34:20.299 Uttam Kumaran: Dude, I cop up to it every day. I literally start the meeting with, like, I failed you, I failed you all, I’m my responsibility. Like, so, for me, I try to just set an example of, like, what leading the meeting with, like.
237 00:34:20.539 ⇒ 00:34:23.139 Uttam Kumaran: What the failure is first, you know?
238 00:34:23.860 ⇒ 00:34:34.500 Uttam Kumaran: So… no, but it’s also… it’s… but there’s… yeah, I agree with you, like, there’s a couple… there’s some room to grow, but yeah, I agree.
239 00:34:35.760 ⇒ 00:34:52.109 Clarence Stone: Yeah, so, I, you know, continued patching, right? We’re gonna continue tuning this system until, like, all those critical questions are answered, and we’re gonna start growing it so that we can close the gaps on more critical systems at the ops level. So, I think it’s doing pretty well.
240 00:34:54.210 ⇒ 00:34:55.630 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I,
241 00:34:56.280 ⇒ 00:35:03.610 Uttam Kumaran: I… for some reason, I was, like, very, very, like, pessimistic, like, not… not because… just, I don’t know why, I just really felt like…
242 00:35:04.120 ⇒ 00:35:09.369 Uttam Kumaran: We were throwing a lot, and, like, maybe people don’t, like, think the way we think, or we’re, like, over-engineering.
243 00:35:09.820 ⇒ 00:35:18.750 Uttam Kumaran: And overall, it’s worked out, like, super, super well. In particular, there’s a couple of people that really took it and ran.
244 00:35:19.090 ⇒ 00:35:24.469 Uttam Kumaran: forward, like Greg, like Demolade, like Mustafa.
245 00:35:24.620 ⇒ 00:35:28.910 Uttam Kumaran: like Pranav, like, these guys just, like.
246 00:35:29.060 ⇒ 00:35:43.510 Uttam Kumaran: banged it out of the park. They took on what I already was asking them to do, and did way more. Like, Demolade in particular, like, really demonstrated that, like, we kind of underestimated
247 00:35:43.810 ⇒ 00:35:50.099 Uttam Kumaran: what, like, he was… what he could… what he could do. And, he’s crushing.
248 00:35:50.100 ⇒ 00:35:52.470 Robert Tseng: He was nerfing himself for so long!
249 00:35:52.750 ⇒ 00:35:56.639 Uttam Kumaran: That’s… yeah, okay, I don’t know, I don’t think he was, I think he just, like…
250 00:35:57.350 ⇒ 00:36:04.929 Uttam Kumaran: I think we needed just to ask, I don’t know. But either way, like, he had it, and Mustafa has it, like…
251 00:36:05.020 ⇒ 00:36:22.789 Uttam Kumaran: And, Pranav is sick, like, Pranav’s really good. And the other folks, like, there are some folks that just… their life really didn’t change much, except it just got defined. Like, Sam, like, Sam’s life didn’t change a whole lot, Amber’s life didn’t change a whole lot,
252 00:36:23.120 ⇒ 00:36:27.260 Uttam Kumaran: But for the most part, even the folks that left on the list, like, nobody is, like…
253 00:36:27.490 ⇒ 00:36:37.569 Uttam Kumaran: dropping the ball. Like, if anything, the ball got dropped just because, one, it’s, like, kind of New Year, or, like, I F’ something up, like…
254 00:36:37.700 ⇒ 00:36:48.780 Uttam Kumaran: So, on client work, in fact, I think the one challenge we’re having is, like, on CTA, on Magic Spoon, and on Element, we are moving too fast.
255 00:36:49.030 ⇒ 00:36:58.500 Uttam Kumaran: And… Our bias towards speed, on those clients, is, like…
256 00:36:59.250 ⇒ 00:37:04.099 Uttam Kumaran: we just shouldn’t move that fast. We don’t have to.
257 00:37:04.340 ⇒ 00:37:06.550 Uttam Kumaran: Like, our pace is already, like…
258 00:37:06.880 ⇒ 00:37:09.800 Uttam Kumaran: 95th percentile. We don’t need to, like…
259 00:37:09.930 ⇒ 00:37:16.869 Uttam Kumaran: go faster. And so that’s something that’s just, like, was a brand new, like, thing I had to say this week.
260 00:37:17.010 ⇒ 00:37:18.759 Uttam Kumaran: Because I never really was, like.
261 00:37:18.880 ⇒ 00:37:25.570 Uttam Kumaran: like, Magic Spoon, for example, they didn’t give us, like, access to, like, critical systems, and they kind of, like, waited, but…
262 00:37:25.960 ⇒ 00:37:30.700 Uttam Kumaran: we’re on monthlies, it’s a fuck, you know, like, and I…
263 00:37:30.840 ⇒ 00:37:41.170 Uttam Kumaran: But, like, it’s not like our team wasn’t frustrated. We were all… we were almost, like, internally, like, are we gonna get fired? And I was like, no, I think we’re good. Like, they… the feedback has been really, really positive.
264 00:37:41.880 ⇒ 00:37:43.380 Robert Tseng: They’re just slow, yeah.
265 00:37:43.980 ⇒ 00:37:48.560 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, like, they’re just so slow, and like… So be it.
266 00:37:49.290 ⇒ 00:38:05.599 Uttam Kumaran: So, yeah, I feel like overall, things are really, really, like, going well. I, like, much, much better than I expected. I also think that we’re now able to recruit into a really much clearer archetype of a person that I need.
267 00:38:05.600 ⇒ 00:38:16.829 Uttam Kumaran: Like, I won’t talk to engineers that I can’t see in front of a client. Before, I used to. Like, a lot of… some of our people, like, dude, I didn’t… I haven’t… I didn’t see their face even, like.
268 00:38:16.950 ⇒ 00:38:27.400 Uttam Kumaran: 6 months into the job, I never saw these people. So nowadays, like, I don’t… we don’t, like, do that. And then also, it’s like, the CSO role is, like, okay, I kind of, like.
269 00:38:27.620 ⇒ 00:38:31.439 Uttam Kumaran: it lets me DQ people much faster.
270 00:38:33.210 ⇒ 00:38:40.259 Uttam Kumaran: So yeah, I feel like it’s good. I mean, we’re gonna kinda see what the damage is on the cost side, but I think overall, like, it’s…
271 00:38:40.450 ⇒ 00:38:48.369 Uttam Kumaran: it’s positive. Like, in particular, there’s a couple things that I’ve noticed. One is, like, there’s multiple client meetings where I didn’t have to attend, or…
272 00:38:48.490 ⇒ 00:38:52.300 Uttam Kumaran: I just wasn’t, I got triple booked, and, like, they went well.
273 00:38:54.070 ⇒ 00:39:01.290 Uttam Kumaran: you know, I’m seeing everybody kind of hit the minimums of, like, Gantt charts and slides and daily updates.
274 00:39:01.430 ⇒ 00:39:05.680 Uttam Kumaran: You know, I think we’re gonna have to figure out, like.
275 00:39:05.860 ⇒ 00:39:12.370 Uttam Kumaran: I think Zoran and Surf and, like, how they end up fitting into stuff, I still think Zoran…
276 00:39:12.950 ⇒ 00:39:19.200 Uttam Kumaran: We’re probably just gonna have to ask him to come to, like, some of the morning meetings, like, at least so I can talk to him.
277 00:39:19.770 ⇒ 00:39:23.019 Uttam Kumaran: But I feel like overall, like, we’re in a good spot.
278 00:39:23.850 ⇒ 00:39:28.880 Uttam Kumaran: We’re spending, I mean, the… like, I think our operational expenses, like, went up.
279 00:39:29.040 ⇒ 00:39:31.199 Uttam Kumaran: Like, we had… I mean.
280 00:39:31.560 ⇒ 00:39:39.300 Uttam Kumaran: like, to be very direct, like, Sheshu’s joining, Luke’s joining, like, we have Joe helping a little bit in design, so it’s not like we…
281 00:39:39.520 ⇒ 00:39:46.829 Uttam Kumaran: And we’re kind of giving people more money on the rev… on the incentive side, so we certainly are paying for it, but…
282 00:39:46.980 ⇒ 00:39:52.509 Uttam Kumaran: I also think that this model has, you know, made things a lot lighter for me in particular.
283 00:39:52.660 ⇒ 00:39:58.030 Uttam Kumaran: You know, and then I’m just gonna go… I’m just going to go… I’m just ripping sales.
284 00:39:59.030 ⇒ 00:40:04.519 Uttam Kumaran: And partnerships, so… yeah. I feel, I feel, I feel good. Feel a lot better than November, for sure.
285 00:40:06.970 ⇒ 00:40:13.529 Robert Tseng: Yeah, let’s see how the, the month shakes out, as far as, like, when all the… when all the…
286 00:40:14.100 ⇒ 00:40:16.920 Robert Tseng: Money comes in and goes out.
287 00:40:17.240 ⇒ 00:40:23.760 Robert Tseng: I have no idea what our margins will be this month, based off all these changes.
288 00:40:24.300 ⇒ 00:40:33.529 Uttam Kumaran: I mean, I think, like, we are… I think we’re… I mean, overall, I feel like we’re… we’re in a good spot, because a lot of our clients are monthly, and…
289 00:40:33.780 ⇒ 00:40:36.260 Uttam Kumaran: like, Element now, we’re actually working…
290 00:40:36.490 ⇒ 00:40:40.350 Uttam Kumaran: less. Like, it’s a lot… we’re actually starting to do actual work.
291 00:40:40.720 ⇒ 00:40:46.289 Uttam Kumaran: And both of those are gonna… we’re gonna end up signing, like, CTA and Element. I’m gonna end up signing…
292 00:40:46.530 ⇒ 00:40:49.439 Uttam Kumaran: Whole 2026 contract with.
293 00:40:49.970 ⇒ 00:40:54.899 Uttam Kumaran: So, we just kinda have to get that right.
294 00:40:55.290 ⇒ 00:40:55.850 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
295 00:41:01.040 ⇒ 00:41:15.870 Clarence Stone: Yeah, and well, there’s… I think there’s a lot of opportunities for wins coming up. I’m gonna pressure the crap out of EY until, you know, we figure out a clear decision, and I think they’re getting the squeeze, like, they’re… they know this is the best option.
296 00:41:16.410 ⇒ 00:41:18.890 Clarence Stone: I’m gonna walk them into it.
297 00:41:21.650 ⇒ 00:41:31.599 Robert Tseng: Yeah, we’ll finally give our first, what is it, like, referral bonus or whatever? Yeah, like, I… I’m excited. I wanna, I wanna, I wanna see it come through.
298 00:41:31.930 ⇒ 00:41:40.079 Clarence Stone: Yeah, yeah. Robert, you know, you really reacted quickly yesterday, so, you know, all those things make us look really good.
299 00:41:40.470 ⇒ 00:41:54.680 Clarence Stone: And, yeah, like, as I see things happening, I’m gonna start, like, slow-feeding some additional, you know, things for the marketing section, or start leaving some hints for them to kind of make a decision.
300 00:41:54.740 ⇒ 00:42:02.019 Clarence Stone: But this may be a long draw, this may take a month or two, they are so slow at everything. I mean, look at the org structure they were trying to do.
301 00:42:03.830 ⇒ 00:42:06.760 Uttam Kumaran: That’s fine, dude, I can do a month or two, I don’t be here, whatever.
302 00:42:11.680 ⇒ 00:42:12.330 Robert Tseng: Cool.
303 00:42:14.620 ⇒ 00:42:16.900 Uttam Kumaran: Shashu, what do you think? What do you think hearing all this?
304 00:42:17.440 ⇒ 00:42:23.030 Sheshu Chandrasekar: I mean, hey, I love hearing more money coming in. That’s first and foremost a great thing to hear.
305 00:42:23.030 ⇒ 00:42:26.270 Uttam Kumaran: It’s not in the account yet, but yeah, it’s on its way.
306 00:42:26.690 ⇒ 00:42:30.079 Sheshu Chandrasekar: It’s on its way. As long as it’s on its way, right?
307 00:42:30.080 ⇒ 00:42:36.220 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t… I don’t get happy until, like, I see Chase, like, I open Chase, and otherwise.
308 00:42:36.220 ⇒ 00:42:36.680 Clarence Stone: It’s fake.
309 00:42:36.680 ⇒ 00:42:37.949 Uttam Kumaran: It’s completely fake.
310 00:42:38.310 ⇒ 00:42:41.089 Uttam Kumaran: It’s not real in my world.
311 00:42:41.090 ⇒ 00:42:43.970 Sheshu Chandrasekar: No, that’s fair, that’s fair. No, but I…
312 00:42:44.080 ⇒ 00:43:03.659 Sheshu Chandrasekar: But I’m glad to hear also, like, you know, the new model’s helping you out a lot, lot better. Like, it seems like November was, some sort of an Armageddon month of some sort, so… glad to hear, you know, January’s treating you right with this new model, and everything’s going well. Even on the call today, like, the first call that I was on, the data service call, I was like.
313 00:43:04.400 ⇒ 00:43:16.299 Sheshu Chandrasekar: everyone seemed to be happy, so I was like, alright, this is looking good so far. So now it’s, like, to ensure, like, they can teach other people, right, when we hire more people. So that’s, like, the… I feel like that’s the ultimate
314 00:43:17.110 ⇒ 00:43:18.000 Sheshu Chandrasekar: like…
315 00:43:18.190 ⇒ 00:43:25.599 Sheshu Chandrasekar: best-case scenario success, right? It’s like, when someone gets onboarded, they teach the ropes and teach them, like, the things that they learned along the way, so…
316 00:43:25.740 ⇒ 00:43:35.209 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, I mean, everything sounds good so far, and I did want to share one thing. I know on that call today, too, you were asking about finding data scientists and stuff, so…
317 00:43:35.370 ⇒ 00:43:43.939 Sheshu Chandrasekar: I’m usually on LinkedIn, scouring through the pages, and I found this one startup, backed by YC, where you can apparently
318 00:43:44.050 ⇒ 00:43:47.390 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Find engineers dot…
319 00:43:47.720 ⇒ 00:43:58.189 Sheshu Chandrasekar: have a certain skill set through their GitHub and research, and you can… you can contact them, basically. And maybe it might be of use to you, it may not be, so…
320 00:43:58.410 ⇒ 00:43:59.259 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Feel free…
321 00:43:59.260 ⇒ 00:44:06.829 Uttam Kumaran: We’ll try every channel, yeah. I feel like I saw it on Twitter, too. We’ll try every channel to get in front of people. Yeah.
322 00:44:07.750 ⇒ 00:44:14.879 Uttam Kumaran: You know, this guy today treated me like a piece of shit, but, you know, for the most part, it’s pretty good. Everyone’s very nice to me.
323 00:44:14.880 ⇒ 00:44:25.169 Clarence Stone: I’ve had a bad interview yet, so that’s why I was telling you guys, like, you’re so good at picking the interviews, so, okay, so there is one bad egg out of both.
324 00:44:27.330 ⇒ 00:44:28.260 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, yeah.
325 00:44:28.760 ⇒ 00:44:29.530 Uttam Kumaran: Boy, which…
326 00:44:29.530 ⇒ 00:44:30.620 Robert Tseng: What, which guy?
327 00:44:31.520 ⇒ 00:44:33.419 Uttam Kumaran: This guy Nikolai I talked to?
328 00:44:33.670 ⇒ 00:44:34.440 Robert Tseng: Okay.
329 00:44:35.070 ⇒ 00:44:36.829 Uttam Kumaran: Just a dick. Just a dick.
330 00:44:36.830 ⇒ 00:44:39.139 Clarence Stone: This is the one in the channel that was, like.
331 00:44:39.580 ⇒ 00:44:42.580 Clarence Stone: saying that, Utam’s comp model couldn’t work.
332 00:44:43.390 ⇒ 00:44:44.200 Robert Tseng: Oh, I see.
333 00:44:45.350 ⇒ 00:44:52.740 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I just was asking a lot of questions, and at one point, I was like, dude, why are you so sus… why are you asking all these suspicious questions? Like…
334 00:44:52.930 ⇒ 00:45:00.800 Uttam Kumaran: And he was like, it’s not suspicious, that’s, like, kind of a negative tone. I was like, well, you give me the word then, because that’s how I feel, and there’s only two of us.
335 00:45:05.930 ⇒ 00:45:07.569 Robert Tseng: this NTC data, dude?
336 00:45:07.740 ⇒ 00:45:08.630 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
337 00:45:12.040 ⇒ 00:45:23.660 Uttam Kumaran: And then… but see, dude, this, like, a year ago, I’m really proud of myself. A year ago, it would have really rattled me, like, I would have really fought him, and, like, on the call, and this time, I actually just, like, I’m like, these are… I’m, like, down to hear these objections, like.
338 00:45:24.170 ⇒ 00:45:27.639 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t mind if you’re, like, curious on how it’s working, but…
339 00:45:27.890 ⇒ 00:45:32.240 Uttam Kumaran: there was, like, no, like, positivity. Like, he wasn’t, like, trying to…
340 00:45:33.050 ⇒ 00:45:37.919 Uttam Kumaran: It was, like, he was, like, interrogating me about, like, how this is all working, and like…
341 00:45:38.260 ⇒ 00:45:43.440 Uttam Kumaran: And, like, trying to figure out, like, what we were scamming, and I was like, what? I don’t know, it’s, like, so weird.
342 00:45:44.070 ⇒ 00:45:45.619 Uttam Kumaran: It’s like chill, bro.
343 00:45:48.560 ⇒ 00:45:50.599 Sheshu Chandrasekar: They’re like, dude, it’s exciting.
344 00:45:50.600 ⇒ 00:45:54.649 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I was like, it’s a Friday, and, like, I’m already… I gave him, like, more time than…
345 00:45:54.860 ⇒ 00:45:58.570 Uttam Kumaran: We had allotted, and… I was like.
346 00:45:58.770 ⇒ 00:46:03.100 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t know, and then at the end of the day, he was… he’s like, yeah, but…
347 00:46:03.510 ⇒ 00:46:09.640 Uttam Kumaran: It’s okay, I mean, that’s… it was, like, it’s good that he showed that that’s how he was, because we won’t be hiring him.
348 00:46:10.060 ⇒ 00:46:14.049 Uttam Kumaran: Ever, you know? So that’s… it worked out, that’s a positive, you know?
349 00:46:15.480 ⇒ 00:46:16.470 Robert Tseng: Yeah, yeah.
350 00:46:19.810 ⇒ 00:46:20.600 Robert Tseng: Okay.
351 00:46:21.940 ⇒ 00:46:24.140 Uttam Kumaran: And then, so, next week,
352 00:46:24.390 ⇒ 00:46:30.880 Uttam Kumaran: the… I guess the three of us in Texas here are gonna go to… gonna go to, ABC in San Antonio.
353 00:46:31.360 ⇒ 00:46:35.889 Uttam Kumaran: I… today and Wednesday, we had, like, pretty good,
354 00:46:36.220 ⇒ 00:46:47.820 Uttam Kumaran: we had pretty good meetings with them, explaining a lot of our process. So I feel like… I feel like we’re… we’re on target to sort of hit, like, end of month, with, like, a menu of options.
355 00:46:48.130 ⇒ 00:46:53.429 Uttam Kumaran: And then I really think, like, probably by, like, mid-next week, or, like, end of next week.
356 00:46:53.750 ⇒ 00:47:00.130 Uttam Kumaran: I think, like, Clarence, BU, and Robert just have to figure out, like, At a price, the menu.
357 00:47:00.610 ⇒ 00:47:17.910 Clarence Stone: Yeah. So, Robert, what I was telling you for the menu is, like, I’d like to start backwards on what we think we can offer them, and then connect that to how it’s going to be a benefit to them, and then price it out accordingly. So, we’re kind of backing into what we want to sell, and supporting.
358 00:47:17.910 ⇒ 00:47:18.450 Robert Tseng: it.
359 00:47:18.450 ⇒ 00:47:19.879 Clarence Stone: With the datasets that they have.
360 00:47:20.900 ⇒ 00:47:21.440 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
361 00:47:27.250 ⇒ 00:47:33.139 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, so… Yeah, I think that’s… that’s mainly it.
362 00:47:35.850 ⇒ 00:47:37.320 Clarence Stone: Sweet!
363 00:47:37.320 ⇒ 00:47:37.950 Robert Tseng: Cool!
364 00:47:38.120 ⇒ 00:47:49.980 Clarence Stone: Tom, I have a follow-up with Alex. He scheduled another Friday call with me. He’s very much interested in joining, I think, so, at some point, like, I think he’s gonna want to hear from you, too.
365 00:47:51.470 ⇒ 00:47:55.079 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, a lot of people are waiting to hear from me, I can’t really.
366 00:47:55.080 ⇒ 00:47:55.889 Clarence Stone: Thank God.
367 00:47:55.890 ⇒ 00:48:00.070 Uttam Kumaran: I’m trying to talk to you guys about the next week, like, that’s where I’m at, you know?
368 00:48:00.070 ⇒ 00:48:01.220 Clarence Stone: Yeah.
369 00:48:01.220 ⇒ 00:48:06.190 Uttam Kumaran: A lot of people want to work at our company, too, so it’s, like, not… neither of those points are relevant.
370 00:48:06.320 ⇒ 00:48:10.539 Uttam Kumaran: It’s also, like, the pro- one thing I’m… I thought about him today for a sec, because I was like.
371 00:48:11.520 ⇒ 00:48:18.079 Uttam Kumaran: he’s the one that helped architect our PMO model, like, are we introducing, sort of, the before times?
372 00:48:18.400 ⇒ 00:48:21.979 Uttam Kumaran: Back into the wor- back into us, if we have him join.
373 00:48:22.750 ⇒ 00:48:27.070 Uttam Kumaran: That is a good…
374 00:48:27.070 ⇒ 00:48:32.339 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I’m not, I’m not that excited. Yeah.
375 00:48:32.340 ⇒ 00:48:33.590 Uttam Kumaran: Me neither. Like, me neither.
376 00:48:33.590 ⇒ 00:48:34.340 Robert Tseng: Yeah. Yeah.
377 00:48:34.850 ⇒ 00:48:37.999 Robert Tseng: I also don’t think any of the people you connected us to ended up.
378 00:48:38.110 ⇒ 00:48:39.949 Robert Tseng: Be a good… good fits, so…
379 00:48:40.260 ⇒ 00:48:40.830 Clarence Stone: Okay.
380 00:48:41.110 ⇒ 00:48:41.620 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
381 00:48:42.610 ⇒ 00:48:53.210 Uttam Kumaran: I would, yeah, I mean, I would, like, look, it’s not a good use of my time to talk about anything that’s, like, in March, unless it’s money, so…
382 00:48:53.390 ⇒ 00:48:57.499 Uttam Kumaran: Or someone’s planning on leaving in March, like…
383 00:48:57.710 ⇒ 00:49:00.089 Uttam Kumaran: Other than those two cases, like…
384 00:49:00.700 ⇒ 00:49:03.979 Uttam Kumaran: It’s, like, not… it’s not even entering my brain.
385 00:49:04.710 ⇒ 00:49:05.880 Clarence Stone: Yep. Yeah, that neat.
386 00:49:05.880 ⇒ 00:49:07.929 Uttam Kumaran: That’s just it. I don’t know, like…
387 00:49:08.300 ⇒ 00:49:12.480 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, there’s just, like, that’s a very cut and dry, I can’t do anything about that right now.
388 00:49:14.250 ⇒ 00:49:18.230 Clarence Stone: Yeah, okay, that makes sense.
389 00:49:18.230 ⇒ 00:49:22.950 Uttam Kumaran: So, like, it’s up to you, like, I would take it or don’t, I would probably don’t. Yeah, I don’t know, just like, fuck.
390 00:49:23.090 ⇒ 00:49:24.920 Uttam Kumaran: what is there to talk about? I mean…
391 00:49:25.250 ⇒ 00:49:29.780 Clarence Stone: Yeah, I mean, after hearing, guys, what your stances are, though, like.
392 00:49:32.260 ⇒ 00:49:36.840 Uttam Kumaran: But this is the thing, we will always, like… Well, here’s the thing, like.
393 00:49:37.100 ⇒ 00:49:56.390 Uttam Kumaran: I will always… and this is where I, like, I like to talk to people, even if we’ve almost, like, biased and not, like, not… don’t want them, because it helps us, like, understand what we do need. So I never, like, want to rule people out too early, because, like, I want there to be a fair, like, plate of options.
394 00:49:56.490 ⇒ 00:49:57.910 Uttam Kumaran: Versus just, like.
395 00:49:58.160 ⇒ 00:50:04.530 Uttam Kumaran: we have one person, they just check all the boxes, like, I want to talk to… even if we don’t… even if we know, like, there’s no risk for us.
396 00:50:04.750 ⇒ 00:50:09.330 Uttam Kumaran: Like, we’re not signing, we don’t sign anything, it’s just… it’s our time risk, you know?
397 00:50:09.400 ⇒ 00:50:28.229 Clarence Stone: Exactly, exactly. So that the tax person and me can’t help but point out that we’ve got some people that are still holding onto some Brainforge Gmail accounts, access to, you know, platforms that we’re probably paying for on a monthly basis, right? Maybe consider, like.
398 00:50:28.580 ⇒ 00:50:34.099 Clarence Stone: How do we scrub some of that, too? Like, if there isn’t going to be a future path for some of these candidates.
399 00:50:34.330 ⇒ 00:50:36.020 Clarence Stone: Let’s clean those up.
400 00:50:36.020 ⇒ 00:50:44.160 Uttam Kumaran: There’s no… there’s actively no people like Alex anymore at the company, like, typically. Yeah. Like, we used to be a really, like.
401 00:50:44.450 ⇒ 00:50:48.950 Uttam Kumaran: super contractor heavy, there’s nobody like that anymore. Like, Alex is sort of probably one of the
402 00:50:49.610 ⇒ 00:50:55.180 Uttam Kumaran: Alex and Holly are really, like… and you, kind of. Sorry, like, the only ones.
403 00:50:55.480 ⇒ 00:50:59.930 Uttam Kumaran: Like, most people are, like, path to… path to full-time, you know?
404 00:51:00.100 ⇒ 00:51:05.950 Clarence Stone: Okay, cool. So, yeah, I’ll just keep it warm. It’s… and we’ll figure it out as we get closer to March.
405 00:51:05.950 ⇒ 00:51:08.919 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, we’ll figure it out as we get closer.
406 00:51:14.600 ⇒ 00:51:15.410 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
407 00:51:15.680 ⇒ 00:51:16.250 Clarence Stone: Cool.
408 00:51:16.470 ⇒ 00:51:17.150 Robert Tseng: Alright.
409 00:51:17.150 ⇒ 00:51:19.160 Uttam Kumaran: Alright guys, appreciate the time.
410 00:51:19.470 ⇒ 00:51:20.810 Clarence Stone: Yeah, thanks, guys.
411 00:51:20.810 ⇒ 00:51:21.750 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Thank you.
412 00:51:21.750 ⇒ 00:51:22.229 Robert Tseng: They are…
413 00:51:22.230 ⇒ 00:51:23.849 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Have a good week. I’ll talk to you on Monday.
414 00:51:23.850 ⇒ 00:51:25.360 Clarence Stone: Have a great weekend, everyone.
415 00:51:25.360 ⇒ 00:51:27.229 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Okay. Yep, you too. Talk to you soon.
416 00:51:27.490 ⇒ 00:51:28.350 Uttam Kumaran: I…