Meeting Title: Brainforge Finance and Ops Sync Date: 2026-01-20 Meeting participants: Elizah Joy, megan, Megan’s Notetaker, Rico Rejoso, Sheshu Chandrasekar
WEBVTT
1 00:00:10.670 ⇒ 00:00:11.830 Elizah Joy: Hi, Megan.
2 00:00:12.650 ⇒ 00:00:13.570 megan: Hi!
3 00:00:13.880 ⇒ 00:00:15.209 Elizah Joy: Hi, how are you?
4 00:00:16.440 ⇒ 00:00:18.370 megan: Nice to meet you.
5 00:00:18.990 ⇒ 00:00:19.840 Elizah Joy: Hi.
6 00:00:20.310 ⇒ 00:00:21.630 Elizah Joy: Hi, Rico.
7 00:00:24.440 ⇒ 00:00:25.290 Rico Rejoso: Hey, guys.
8 00:00:34.640 ⇒ 00:00:43.740 Elizah Joy: Alright, I think, yeah, we’re ready to start. So, just, we have a few, not a few, but a couple of items that we have on our list.
9 00:00:44.080 ⇒ 00:00:54.270 Elizah Joy: For this, but first, let’s start with, the transition plan for the C Corp. So,
10 00:00:54.850 ⇒ 00:01:02.129 Elizah Joy: Can we know, like, the… where that project is currently at? What steps are still needed to be…
11 00:01:02.510 ⇒ 00:01:03.940 Elizah Joy: Done in those.
12 00:01:05.190 ⇒ 00:01:13.140 megan: Yeah, so the, the C Corp, because there’s a couple different steps, and I know that Ricoh had a,
13 00:01:13.810 ⇒ 00:01:16.689 megan: A pretty thorough step-by-step plan.
14 00:01:16.750 ⇒ 00:01:29.930 megan: So, that has a lot more detail, but at least where the C-Corp piece is done, and next is, like, the board consent, the 83B election for UTAM, and then adding
15 00:01:29.930 ⇒ 00:01:40.420 megan: Robert to the company, so that’s kind of the steps that things are currently at, but as far as, like, the C-Corp paperwork, I did send that over to
16 00:01:40.550 ⇒ 00:01:44.810 megan: our… our tax specialist, Troy.
17 00:01:44.930 ⇒ 00:01:54.409 megan: And, because there’s the legal piece of it, and then there’s, like, accounting filings that need to happen after the legal piece is complete. So as of yesterday, I sent that over to him.
18 00:01:58.220 ⇒ 00:02:07.500 Elizah Joy: Okay, do we know when do we… when can we change the, address on the uses table.com that we have?
19 00:02:08.419 ⇒ 00:02:10.329 megan: Oh, has Stable been set up yet?
20 00:02:11.080 ⇒ 00:02:17.420 Elizah Joy: Not yet, I think. So yeah, just the address change. So this question is from Utam, actually.
21 00:02:17.840 ⇒ 00:02:25.770 Elizah Joy: Yeah, if we can, like, when do we think can we do that? And then opening those, additional credit cards for…
22 00:02:26.770 ⇒ 00:02:27.790 Elizah Joy: For us.
23 00:02:28.860 ⇒ 00:02:31.640 megan: What’s the additional credit cards?
24 00:02:32.080 ⇒ 00:02:40.790 Elizah Joy: Yeah, Ulam was asking if, along with the C-Corp transition plan, is if we can open additional credit cards to that?
25 00:02:43.360 ⇒ 00:02:51.979 megan: We had looked at RAMP, like, to… since we use RAMP already for bill pay, it would make sense that we can use,
26 00:02:52.360 ⇒ 00:03:09.509 megan: you know, to kind of use their credit card tools as well. The issue is, like, a lot of the approvals for new credit cards are going to be based on, credit approvals or bank statements, and we just haven’t had enough consistent funds in the bank.
27 00:03:09.510 ⇒ 00:03:14.680 megan: to be able to get new credit cards, like, from RAMP or elsewhere, so…
28 00:03:14.770 ⇒ 00:03:21.989 megan: That’s kind of, like, just the liquidity crunch that we’ve been in for, gosh, A while now.
29 00:03:22.110 ⇒ 00:03:28.199 megan: But until… until cash… RAMP would be probably the lowest bar.
30 00:03:29.840 ⇒ 00:03:44.840 megan: to the lowest hurdle to clear, otherwise we’d have to get, like, a new bank, and then we still have the existing credit cards, and you know, we’ve been trying to keep up with the payments on those, but I… I don’t know that we can…
31 00:03:45.080 ⇒ 00:03:51.559 megan: really, like, just get new credit cards very easily.
32 00:03:51.870 ⇒ 00:03:54.380 megan: I know when Tom had looked at, like.
33 00:03:54.580 ⇒ 00:04:06.529 megan: loan… getting… getting a loan for a current bank relationship, that was not approved either, for the same reasons. They look at the cash balances and statements, and…
34 00:04:06.920 ⇒ 00:04:10.409 megan: You know, they’re… if they don’t… if they don’t see…
35 00:04:11.850 ⇒ 00:04:16.739 megan: cash there, then they’re not going to approve you for additional credits. So we’ve kind of, like.
36 00:04:17.670 ⇒ 00:04:23.790 megan: done what we can through, like, financing lines of credit against our invoices through Intuit.
37 00:04:24.000 ⇒ 00:04:31.520 megan: And some of this might just be background for you, Eliza, just to get you up to speed on how we’ve been operating.
38 00:04:31.640 ⇒ 00:04:38.279 megan: But yeah, I mean, just having the C Corp in general doesn’t necessarily… it opens us up to be able to
39 00:04:38.710 ⇒ 00:04:54.250 megan: accept additional outside investors, so that’s one way to improve cash, but we can’t just go get new credit cards now, just because we’re a C-Corp. We would change our address and things like that.
40 00:04:54.490 ⇒ 00:04:58.740 megan: With what we currently have, with the various filings.
41 00:04:58.860 ⇒ 00:05:09.020 megan: the, the IRS would change… we could change that when we file the actual tax return, but that wouldn’t be until next year.
42 00:05:09.090 ⇒ 00:05:25.820 megan: that’s kind of, like, how the process generally goes. Otherwise, we could, like, send a letter to the IRS. I think that’s how… but usually you just update it on the next tax return. And then, I guess my other question would be, like, well, what would be the other things we want updated? Maybe, like, the bank?
43 00:05:25.940 ⇒ 00:05:33.229 megan: And the state filings, those are forms that just need to be completed online.
44 00:05:35.600 ⇒ 00:05:42.999 Elizah Joy: Is that the same process for, like, even for virtual parts, right? Even for RAMP?
45 00:05:44.450 ⇒ 00:05:52.599 megan: Well, we didn’t get approved for a ramp. Is your question on the address, or what… what’s exactly your question?
46 00:05:52.930 ⇒ 00:06:00.010 Elizah Joy: Oh, so for the cards, not for the address, for, like, for better expense management for us.
47 00:06:00.930 ⇒ 00:06:02.490 Elizah Joy: for Brainforge.
48 00:06:04.920 ⇒ 00:06:07.860 megan: We just weren’t approved.
49 00:06:10.560 ⇒ 00:06:14.229 megan: So, I mean, we’ll have to table that till another time.
50 00:06:20.350 ⇒ 00:06:21.669 megan: Does that make sense?
51 00:06:22.060 ⇒ 00:06:24.330 Elizah Joy: Yep. Yep. Okay.
52 00:06:31.900 ⇒ 00:06:39.120 Elizah Joy: Okay, and then for, do we have, like, an idea on the, timeline for…
53 00:06:39.390 ⇒ 00:06:47.420 Elizah Joy: on the C Corp transition plan, and when do we, like, expect to be… Completed, at least.
54 00:06:49.510 ⇒ 00:06:56.599 megan: The legal team, I mean, should be wrapping up this week.
55 00:06:57.400 ⇒ 00:07:10.400 megan: But then, Rico, I don’t know, like, what other tasks you were tracking on your end, but as far as, like, the legal piece should be resolved. The accounting piece, since that involves, like, an end-of-year filing.
56 00:07:10.400 ⇒ 00:07:20.509 megan: That takes a little longer, but there’s also not as much, urgency to it, since it’s all kind of going based on a date that’s happened in the past.
57 00:07:21.890 ⇒ 00:07:28.280 megan: So it’s hard for me to give you, like, an exact date, because some of this is still in process.
58 00:07:29.180 ⇒ 00:07:34.699 Rico Rejoso: Okay, yeah, just… sorry to butt in, yeah, I just wanted to confirm, because,
59 00:07:34.940 ⇒ 00:07:51.990 Rico Rejoso: based on what I read through the email thread, I think what I… what we have in line would be, like, the dissolution of Pungo, of Robert, but that didn’t, went as planned, I think. So, aside from that, our next step would be,
60 00:07:52.120 ⇒ 00:07:54.760 Rico Rejoso: You mentioned the legal cleanup, right?
61 00:07:56.020 ⇒ 00:08:01.160 megan: Yeah, I’m forwarding you the latest email chain from Robin about that. I just saw you weren’t on it.
62 00:08:02.400 ⇒ 00:08:14.650 megan: Yeah. Does the board consent an indemnification? So it’s basically, we made it a CCARP, that part has been checked, and Robert then decided he didn’t want Pungo Insights dissolved, so paused on that.
63 00:08:14.980 ⇒ 00:08:30.820 megan: And then there’s the board consent, which basically is the step where Utam adds Robert to the company, and then issues shares. So in order to make it a tax-free transaction, Utam was the sole owner before, he had to be the sole owner
64 00:08:30.820 ⇒ 00:08:35.239 megan: Post-transition, and then we can add in to the cap table.
65 00:08:35.929 ⇒ 00:08:37.059 megan: Gotcha.
66 00:08:37.260 ⇒ 00:08:38.159 megan: Yeah.
67 00:08:44.240 ⇒ 00:08:49.740 Rico Rejoso: You mentioned the finance, transition and the tax would be for… is next up online, right?
68 00:08:50.990 ⇒ 00:08:52.620 megan: Sorry, can you repeat that?
69 00:08:52.950 ⇒ 00:08:58.940 Rico Rejoso: Sorry, you mentioned the changes in finance and taxi, those are the next in process.
70 00:09:00.120 ⇒ 00:09:07.879 megan: Yeah, exactly, let me… Just forward this over to Troy. So many emails…
71 00:09:13.320 ⇒ 00:09:16.709 megan: Yeah. Oh, was this what I just asked you about yesterday?
72 00:09:17.850 ⇒ 00:09:20.490 Rico Rejoso: Yeah, I mean, you were asking for the signed documents.
73 00:09:22.430 ⇒ 00:09:23.939 megan: Let’s see forwarded.
74 00:09:24.870 ⇒ 00:09:29.779 megan: I sent it over yesterday afternoon to the accounting team.
75 00:09:36.110 ⇒ 00:09:38.300 Rico Rejoso: Okay, and…
76 00:09:38.360 ⇒ 00:09:42.879 megan: I’m gonna respond back and just add… should I add both of you, or just you, Rico?
77 00:09:43.530 ⇒ 00:09:46.819 Rico Rejoso: Okay, and we have another project, which is a W-2 form.
78 00:09:47.660 ⇒ 00:09:50.689 Rico Rejoso: I think that’s in line with the tax process, right?
79 00:09:51.070 ⇒ 00:09:54.329 megan: Yeah, exactly, the tax forms.
80 00:09:59.510 ⇒ 00:10:00.390 Rico Rejoso: Gotcha.
81 00:10:07.410 ⇒ 00:10:09.900 Rico Rejoso: Yeah, Eliza, you can continue.
82 00:10:10.540 ⇒ 00:10:19.929 Elizah Joy: Okay, so yeah, I let, Utem know on the status for the C Corp transition plan. We just wanted, to get an idea on that.
83 00:10:20.040 ⇒ 00:10:30.669 Elizah Joy: And then another one on our list is the, the email thread from the, insurance conversation that we’ve had.
84 00:10:31.570 ⇒ 00:10:32.220 megan: So…
85 00:10:32.590 ⇒ 00:10:37.230 Elizah Joy: what, could be the status of that.
86 00:10:37.510 ⇒ 00:10:40.269 Elizah Joy: Or the next steps that we can do for that.
87 00:10:42.680 ⇒ 00:10:50.830 megan: So that wall is in Holly’s court right now, so… that whole… that whole back and forth is basically, we’re…
88 00:10:50.930 ⇒ 00:10:57.380 megan: We were determining a process that insurance requirements for contractors and team members
89 00:10:57.380 ⇒ 00:11:10.959 megan: would be role-specific. So, if, for example, there’s a lot more risk in our business with, like, developers or anyone who’s actively got access to
90 00:11:10.960 ⇒ 00:11:18.689 megan: Client environments, there’s just more things that can go wrong versus things that might be more like marketing and
91 00:11:18.790 ⇒ 00:11:32.670 megan: administrative, so that was pretty much the big consensus we came to. And then beyond that, since we’ve got a pretty dispersed international team, insurance requirements in different markets are
92 00:11:32.830 ⇒ 00:11:40.780 megan: are, are just different. And so, depending on the market, like, where people are located,
93 00:11:40.960 ⇒ 00:11:45.560 megan: Like, for example, like, insurance and liability.
94 00:11:45.560 ⇒ 00:12:06.020 megan: insurance in Europe is pretty similar to the U.S, but in other places, it’s not, so we were just establishing, some guardrails, and then Holly was going to take a pass at kind of, like, refining what that looked like in new agreements going forward. But that’s the latest I’ve really seen from that one.
95 00:12:06.970 ⇒ 00:12:15.040 Elizah Joy: Okay. Yeah, I’ll follow up, Holly, on this. And then, with this, how…
96 00:12:15.860 ⇒ 00:12:23.430 Elizah Joy: There’s, like, we have, like, concerns with Gabe’s visa for the investment required.
97 00:12:23.740 ⇒ 00:12:27.310 Elizah Joy: Is that correct from the, thread that we have in Slack?
98 00:12:27.780 ⇒ 00:12:29.870 megan: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
99 00:12:30.450 ⇒ 00:12:36.780 megan: I mean, we’re still not quite in an operational cadence where
100 00:12:36.850 ⇒ 00:12:51.859 megan: like, ideally, our ideal state would be every month that we’re loading in our, you know, what’s owed to team members, that we’re catching up on all of those payments. We’re still not quite there.
101 00:12:52.090 ⇒ 00:13:06.799 megan: It’s gotten better in recent months as revenue has improved, but we have yet to really kind of, like, clip that corner. So it’s something that we’re reviewing on a monthly basis, but,
102 00:13:07.470 ⇒ 00:13:12.019 megan: Yeah, we’re not… not quite there. So because of that, like.
103 00:13:12.370 ⇒ 00:13:17.279 megan: Getting any sort of additional, expenses
104 00:13:17.330 ⇒ 00:13:36.479 megan: are… they’re just gonna be difficult. You know, I think this is part of the ongoing review, that Utam and I have pretty much each month. We’re… we’re looking at, like, how much is owed across the board, both to credit cards and to team members.
105 00:13:36.820 ⇒ 00:13:40.500 megan: And until we can really get that caught up.
106 00:13:40.970 ⇒ 00:13:50.689 megan: You know, we’ve done a lot better on the accounts receivable side, making sure our clients are paying on a timely basis, so that’s good.
107 00:13:50.740 ⇒ 00:14:02.900 megan: That was one part of the problem, but as we’ve… we’ve had to bring on more staff in order to get more revenue, and so it’s just kind of the state that we’re currently in.
108 00:14:02.970 ⇒ 00:14:04.849 megan: And continue to be in.
109 00:14:06.990 ⇒ 00:14:12.860 Elizah Joy: Okay, so yeah, we have to put a pin on that one first for Gabe, right?
110 00:14:14.590 ⇒ 00:14:17.209 megan: I just don’t know, can the business even afford it?
111 00:14:17.450 ⇒ 00:14:22.170 megan: like… That’s just my honest, blunt.
112 00:14:22.320 ⇒ 00:14:26.110 megan: Most simple way to say it.
113 00:14:26.910 ⇒ 00:14:36.259 megan: So, it becomes a trade-off, like, okay, well then… because otherwise, you know, we still… Each month.
114 00:14:36.390 ⇒ 00:14:43.429 megan: We still have to make payments on the credit cards so that those don’t get maxed out and subscriptions get canceled that we need.
115 00:14:43.650 ⇒ 00:14:51.300 megan: to deliver revenue, so… Yeah, it’s all just the resource management.
116 00:14:51.550 ⇒ 00:14:54.950 megan: That we need to constantly prioritize.
117 00:14:56.010 ⇒ 00:14:56.830 Elizah Joy: Okay.
118 00:14:57.580 ⇒ 00:15:12.350 Elizah Joy: Okay, yeah, I’ll let… I’ll keep a post, I’ll keep Udom updated on that. With that said, I did add in a new tab on the, Brainforge financial models. I believe you have…
119 00:15:12.490 ⇒ 00:15:15.950 Elizah Joy: like, an access to that, right?
120 00:15:15.950 ⇒ 00:15:17.769 megan: Yeah, I’m pulling it up now.
121 00:15:18.000 ⇒ 00:15:22.160 Elizah Joy: I did, add in there this software review that we have.
122 00:15:22.270 ⇒ 00:15:25.429 Elizah Joy: I’ve updated that just last week.
123 00:15:25.610 ⇒ 00:15:44.029 Elizah Joy: And then maybe you could, take a look at that if you have time to review. I do, put in there some recommendations that we, that we can do, or maybe we can transition some of the, cost from monthly costs to annual costs, if we can do that, but of course, it’s,
124 00:15:44.650 ⇒ 00:16:01.609 Elizah Joy: It’ll be good if you could review that to see if that’s feasible or not, if we can do that for an annual subscription or annual billing, so that we can maybe somehow save on some of the tools that we’ve had, and then…
125 00:16:04.870 ⇒ 00:16:09.609 megan: Yeah, this is really good, analysis.
126 00:16:09.980 ⇒ 00:16:18.990 megan: Always good to have, like, all the systems you use in one spot, so that’s impressive. Thanks for taking the time to do that. I know Rico had
127 00:16:19.470 ⇒ 00:16:21.469 megan: Yeah, I read structured before.
128 00:16:21.470 ⇒ 00:16:27.089 Elizah Joy: I guess? Yeah, I’ve just updated, the…
129 00:16:27.530 ⇒ 00:16:45.200 Elizah Joy: the ones from this month, because we’ve added, a number of team members, right, from December of today. So, yeah, so that’s that. If you can have good… it’ll be good if we could, like, make recommendations on which ones we can,
130 00:16:45.450 ⇒ 00:16:53.239 Elizah Joy: Put into annual billing, or if not, that’s fine, as long as we… maybe we can somehow optimize the tools that we’re using.
131 00:16:53.420 ⇒ 00:16:56.740 Elizah Joy: And then… Blast!
132 00:16:56.740 ⇒ 00:17:11.340 megan: Well, in my, I… I remember when we did this before, and it’s good to have it more up-to-date now, too, just as things have, kind of shifted around. So,
133 00:17:12.520 ⇒ 00:17:13.560 megan: Because, like…
134 00:17:15.599 ⇒ 00:17:29.549 megan: I’m just looking at this real quick, just to see where’s our quick wins. But again, like, this… this kind of comes back to the ongoing cash issues, where it’s like, it would be great to save the extra $1,200 a year.
135 00:17:29.550 ⇒ 00:17:36.629 megan: on the ChatGPT AI, but that requires us to be out $6,000
136 00:17:36.630 ⇒ 00:17:40.469 megan: So, you know, the kind of trade off of the resources.
137 00:17:40.610 ⇒ 00:17:54.750 megan: And, you know, I would say, is that $6,000 better spent on keeping the credit card, you know, payments, you know, more under control? Like, I think this is a great
138 00:17:54.760 ⇒ 00:18:10.269 megan: place to strive to, but I think we’re a little, premature until we can really get caught up on all… all things debt. Now, if there was, like, an outside investor that was, you know, going to invest, like, $200,000 into the company.
139 00:18:10.400 ⇒ 00:18:24.429 megan: and that would kind of catch up all of our past debts and give us some runway to do this type of optimization, then I think we’d be in good shape. But that’s just not the situation we’re in, you know what I mean?
140 00:18:25.110 ⇒ 00:18:37.549 Elizah Joy: Yeah, yeah, we understand. And then, yeah, from the ops team, we’ll keep this, updated, like, for, like, every now and then, hopefully every month, but a part of our process is
141 00:18:37.550 ⇒ 00:18:47.160 Elizah Joy: Adding in a quarterly expense review. Then, once that’s, been approved, I’ll send that to Slack so that you can also review. Maybe we can
142 00:18:47.160 ⇒ 00:18:55.400 Elizah Joy: Review those to see, like, maybe every quarter to see what the current state of our finances is currently at.
143 00:18:55.660 ⇒ 00:18:57.050 Elizah Joy: That’s so that it’s all.
144 00:18:57.050 ⇒ 00:18:58.030 megan: Good day.
145 00:18:59.110 ⇒ 00:19:11.279 megan: Just on this sheet real quick, the gig radar looks a little funny to me. It looks like the current cost is a lot lower than the annual cost, so I think it’s maybe not factoring in the right
146 00:19:11.510 ⇒ 00:19:17.330 megan: inputs… There’s another one.
147 00:19:19.940 ⇒ 00:19:24.160 megan: Instagant 2 might be another one.
148 00:19:26.490 ⇒ 00:19:34.300 megan: And… Zapier. All of those look like they’re more expensive if they’re billed annually, which doesn’t really make sense.
149 00:19:38.590 ⇒ 00:19:41.030 megan: Yeah, the rest do have some…
150 00:19:41.610 ⇒ 00:19:46.200 megan: significant savings. So is this kind of ranked by, like.
151 00:19:46.780 ⇒ 00:19:59.270 megan: Or, like, the optimizations and things, is, like, the ranking of this from top to bottom about, like, where we think the most impact would be on savings?
152 00:20:00.130 ⇒ 00:20:03.070 Elizah Joy: Oh, I haven’t overranked this one, actually.
153 00:20:03.070 ⇒ 00:20:03.980 megan: Oh, okay.
154 00:20:04.110 ⇒ 00:20:10.240 Elizah Joy: I can rank that up for you, so that it’s easier for… Analyzation.
155 00:20:10.920 ⇒ 00:20:20.660 megan: Yeah, and just to give you, like, if I… The top, like… Let me see…
156 00:20:21.740 ⇒ 00:20:28.249 megan: the top, like, 10 of them. So, just to kind of give some perspective on, like.
157 00:20:28.440 ⇒ 00:20:35.499 megan: what I mean by the cash thing. So if I look at just the first rows 1 through 9,
158 00:20:36.430 ⇒ 00:20:53.159 megan: Just because those are bigger dollar amounts, too, for potential savings, it looks like the savings would be about, like, 6,900 of savings, we’d have to be out $33,000 in cash.
159 00:20:53.650 ⇒ 00:21:02.699 megan: So, so 700 divided by 33,000. So, while that would save us 21%,
160 00:21:02.910 ⇒ 00:21:06.699 megan: But the problem I continue to see is just the…
161 00:21:07.510 ⇒ 00:21:21.840 megan: we would have to be out $33,000 in cash to get that benefit, and I just think that at the current state, we’d rather be, paying down the credit card and keeping our team paid.
162 00:21:22.520 ⇒ 00:21:26.089 Elizah Joy: Yeah, yeah, I agree. I think, yeah, the, savings on that…
163 00:21:26.510 ⇒ 00:21:32.709 Elizah Joy: In maybe putting those things first, it outweighs the savings, yeah.
164 00:21:33.100 ⇒ 00:21:34.260 megan: Exactly.
165 00:21:35.700 ⇒ 00:21:47.099 megan: I do have a couple things on my list that I think are kind of relevant to this conversation, too, but we can keep going through yours. I just want to make sure we’ve got time to go through, this, too.
166 00:21:47.770 ⇒ 00:22:02.799 Elizah Joy: That’s, the last on my list. Just the next one is about the, if you need anything, from the ops team for the, the hours that we get, like, the Friday hours, if you need any
167 00:22:02.900 ⇒ 00:22:05.350 Elizah Joy: Thing on our end on that.
168 00:22:07.360 ⇒ 00:22:20.599 megan: Yeah, I saw we had some with, like, the mid-month hours. I think it’s Hannah and Cassie. And Carla got what she needed, and she loaded that, and we added those to ramp, so that seems to be working smoothly.
169 00:22:20.610 ⇒ 00:22:29.679 megan: And I think the… the… the same thing with the end of month. We have a lot more volume with the… the second half, or the end of month.
170 00:22:29.860 ⇒ 00:22:38.610 megan: processing, but again, that seems to be working smoothly. I think we’ve kind of caught some of the one-offs that were,
171 00:22:38.780 ⇒ 00:22:54.710 megan: causing issues. What was decided with Demi? Because we only added in his first, like, half of his payment, because his hours have been… I know I’d flag this to Rico and Utam, but I’m curious where that landed.
172 00:23:02.750 ⇒ 00:23:10.019 megan: Because we only added half of his payment in for December, because we couldn’t justify the other half.
173 00:23:11.000 ⇒ 00:23:12.950 megan: Do you guys have any updates on that?
174 00:23:15.320 ⇒ 00:23:26.719 Rico Rejoso: Yeah, evident. I tried to, confirm with Demi a few times if he had completed those hours, and if he experienced any trouble, in…
175 00:23:26.930 ⇒ 00:23:31.550 Rico Rejoso: updating those hours, and he did mention that those are all the hours for December.
176 00:23:32.730 ⇒ 00:23:38.829 megan: Okay. Did anyone communicate to him that he’s not getting paid his full amount, then, for December?
177 00:23:39.620 ⇒ 00:23:46.570 Rico Rejoso: No one yet. I don’t know if Utam did mention that to him, but from the operations side, not… I think we didn’t.
178 00:23:47.330 ⇒ 00:23:48.230 megan: Okay.
179 00:23:48.440 ⇒ 00:23:55.470 megan: Yeah, I mean, that might come as a surprise, but either way, it’s probably a loop that needs to be closed.
180 00:23:56.440 ⇒ 00:23:57.230 Rico Rejoso: Yeah.
181 00:23:57.230 ⇒ 00:24:06.759 megan: Because we… yeah, because in November, I mean, we paid him out his full amount, but he wasn’t booking near those hours, and he took, like, 2 weeks of vacation time or something.
182 00:24:07.230 ⇒ 00:24:09.740 megan: So… .
183 00:24:09.900 ⇒ 00:24:11.280 Rico Rejoso: That is in November, right?
184 00:24:11.640 ⇒ 00:24:23.959 megan: Yeah, November. Sorry if I said something else. Yeah, that was for November, but then December, he booked, like, 60 hours, and then when I went back and looked at all his other months, I was like, he’s just not being…
185 00:24:24.620 ⇒ 00:24:32.149 megan: He’s just… he’s being disproportionately compensated based on the time he’s actually putting in.
186 00:24:32.680 ⇒ 00:24:40.449 megan: So, I think his… his contract might need to change to hourly with a cap, like a monthly cap.
187 00:24:41.260 ⇒ 00:24:49.620 megan: As opposed to a fixed rate, because he’s just not really… It doesn’t seem to be…
188 00:24:50.410 ⇒ 00:24:52.530 megan: It’s just not adding up.
189 00:24:52.850 ⇒ 00:25:05.690 Rico Rejoso: Yeah, that’s one problem we have with Demesh. I think Awish is doing good so far, but for Demi, supposedly to book around 160 hours every morning, right? Doing full.
190 00:25:05.690 ⇒ 00:25:06.180 megan: Yeah.
191 00:25:06.770 ⇒ 00:25:12.119 Rico Rejoso: Yeah, for the past 3, I guess, an average of around 100 hours only every month.
192 00:25:12.580 ⇒ 00:25:14.759 Rico Rejoso: And that hadn’t been sorted out.
193 00:25:15.570 ⇒ 00:25:26.379 Rico Rejoso: So that’s one thing that we’re trying to, think about. Eliza and I did also discuss a few weeks back, about coming up with a… what do you call that?
194 00:25:26.570 ⇒ 00:25:30.529 Rico Rejoso: A plan for those individuals that are not updating their hours.
195 00:25:32.930 ⇒ 00:25:36.270 megan: I think he’s been the most consistent offender.
196 00:25:36.750 ⇒ 00:25:42.749 Rico Rejoso: Yeah, everyone else seems like it’s gotten a little better, or it’s like, we’ve had one or two where they were…
197 00:25:42.750 ⇒ 00:25:55.699 megan: literally out of the office on the day, you know, and so it does create, like, a little bit of downstream impact, but, Demi’s for sure the one who’s been, like, the more consistent,
198 00:25:56.440 ⇒ 00:25:59.320 megan: Just hours, in general, so…
199 00:26:01.240 ⇒ 00:26:09.689 Rico Rejoso: Yeah, and it’s impacting most… because, I mean, the client that he’s handling are on an hourly, mid-month basis, so that’s also affecting that.
200 00:26:10.330 ⇒ 00:26:12.100 megan: Yeah, yeah, good point.
201 00:26:12.510 ⇒ 00:26:13.730 megan: Good point.
202 00:26:14.300 ⇒ 00:26:31.849 megan: I had a couple things that I did want to just make sure that we… sounds like you guys have a list that you maintain, so, one thing we had talked about last quarter was realigning the P&L so that we could
203 00:26:31.970 ⇒ 00:26:41.240 megan: Realigning the P&L to kind of have, like, some more department-level details around it.
204 00:26:41.490 ⇒ 00:26:47.239 megan: So, like, right now, as Rico knows, we’ve got the…
205 00:26:47.540 ⇒ 00:27:02.449 megan: We just book all contractor time to either client-facing, so cost of goods sold, so basically, like, those… the hourly time, or the portion of time that’s spent directly on clients versus anything else.
206 00:27:02.570 ⇒ 00:27:06.250 megan: Is booked to operational expenses.
207 00:27:06.350 ⇒ 00:27:08.809 megan: But that, that big OpEx…
208 00:27:08.810 ⇒ 00:27:26.399 megan: number includes internal meetings, but also includes, delivery. It also includes sales and marketing, so some of my questions, which I’ll… I’ll dig the email back up and go find it. Some of my questions were around, like, do we want to
209 00:27:26.400 ⇒ 00:27:33.320 megan: have that a little bit more quantified with, like, how things are showing up on the P&L.
210 00:27:33.950 ⇒ 00:27:39.510 megan: And then, also, wanted to start, like, working on a 2026 budget.
211 00:27:39.570 ⇒ 00:27:52.950 megan: So, like, that, pretty much the big driver in… in the budget, and we had started this with Rico and Utam back in Q4, so I kind of think, like, it’s good to…
212 00:27:52.950 ⇒ 00:28:10.170 megan: keep that up on a quarterly basis, and then see if that is helping us get to where we need to be. But the big input on that that starts to drive everything else is, revenue. So, that’s kind of the area that I need… I would need some input on.
213 00:28:10.650 ⇒ 00:28:24.700 megan: So I could go and put together the budget for the year. We had, like, before, just because we had so many renewals that were in, or client contracts that were up for renewal at the end of the year, we didn’t really have, like, a great
214 00:28:25.050 ⇒ 00:28:32.889 megan: idea of what, like, you know, January forward should be, so is that something that you’re tracking for, like, sales or pipeline?
215 00:28:36.190 ⇒ 00:28:41.500 Rico Rejoso: Yeah, I think we have that on our sales pipeline, or our sales spreadsheet.
216 00:28:43.210 ⇒ 00:28:44.180 megan: Okay.
217 00:28:44.180 ⇒ 00:28:47.259 Rico Rejoso: So, what info do you need again to get that going?
218 00:28:48.350 ⇒ 00:29:00.410 megan: Yeah, pretty much just revenue forecasts for the year. If you’ve got something already, then I could take a look, like, look at that as a starting point, and then we’re not, like, recreating the wheel.
219 00:29:03.720 ⇒ 00:29:06.099 megan: Hmm, let me see what else…
220 00:29:07.640 ⇒ 00:29:15.469 Rico Rejoso: Okay, let me check in with that, because I think Robert was coming up with a file for that one, but I don’t know if that was finalized.
221 00:29:15.740 ⇒ 00:29:16.480 megan: Okay.
222 00:29:17.330 ⇒ 00:29:25.059 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, I can… I can share some insight there. I think Robert is working on something, but it may take a little longer, but…
223 00:29:25.160 ⇒ 00:29:27.379 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Rico, I think we’ll just have to follow up, but…
224 00:29:27.380 ⇒ 00:29:27.860 Rico Rejoso: Yeah.
225 00:29:27.860 ⇒ 00:29:28.910 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Just to confirm.
226 00:29:29.430 ⇒ 00:29:30.890 Sheshu Chandrasekar: It’s being worked on.
227 00:29:31.520 ⇒ 00:29:40.589 megan: Okay, and I mean, there’s really no, when you say it’s being worked on, is that, like, something you think he’s gonna have done by the end of this month, or…
228 00:29:41.910 ⇒ 00:29:50.650 Sheshu Chandrasekar: That’s a good question. I don’t have too much insight on that end of the timeline, but I can follow up with them. But I do know, like.
229 00:29:50.800 ⇒ 00:29:55.640 Sheshu Chandrasekar: a couple weeks prior, we were talking about it, and he… I think he’s working on something there to…
230 00:29:55.890 ⇒ 00:29:56.730 Sheshu Chandrasekar: you know.
231 00:29:56.900 ⇒ 00:30:03.560 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Because we’re building it out on a GTM side, so I’m assuming it goes hand-in-hand with our… with the financial side, too.
232 00:30:04.610 ⇒ 00:30:05.630 megan: Okay.
233 00:30:07.060 ⇒ 00:30:19.390 megan: Yeah, I can take a look at… whenever there’s something available, then let me know, and I can start to use it to build out budget for the year. And that’s where I think, like, having
234 00:30:19.550 ⇒ 00:30:30.289 megan: That would… that would give us, like, once we have the revenue, if we’re forecasting out, like, team allocations, for example, for the various different teams, then…
235 00:30:32.190 ⇒ 00:30:41.709 megan: we could kind of be, like, lining everything up, and then the P&L would actually be more aligned to how the business is being run, or at least organized.
236 00:30:41.920 ⇒ 00:30:59.179 megan: that way, and then we can look at it and say, oh, okay, we are anticipating 5% of sales is allocated to internal time, and then actually see, are we meeting that, or do we need to adjust? So, that’s kind of one thing I think would start to make,
237 00:30:59.460 ⇒ 00:31:02.849 megan: A lot would be very helpful for this year.
238 00:31:05.830 ⇒ 00:31:13.529 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. And, yeah, let me… let me talk to Robert, and then get you a better answer.
239 00:31:14.250 ⇒ 00:31:14.990 megan: Okay.
240 00:31:16.340 ⇒ 00:31:20.009 megan: I’m not saying I need it, like, this week.
241 00:31:20.370 ⇒ 00:31:29.350 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, no, absolutely, yeah, I need to see exactly what’s on its plate and figure it out, so… I mean, these are all great questions, right? So I just need to follow up with them.
242 00:31:30.320 ⇒ 00:31:40.119 megan: Yeah, and if we do want to, like, reorganize the P&L, I’m just having trouble finding that, otherwise I would have it in your inbox already, then…
243 00:31:41.670 ⇒ 00:31:43.190 megan: Then, shoot.
244 00:31:43.700 ⇒ 00:31:49.979 megan: Let’s see… Sorry, I lost my train of thought, but it…
245 00:31:50.130 ⇒ 00:32:08.759 megan: It would be good to at least, like, have the P&L reorganized for the end of January, just so then we can… we could do it in February, we would just go back and rebook it, but I’m just trying to think, like, if it’s something we want to do sooner rather than later, that would be a good way to do it.
246 00:32:13.010 ⇒ 00:32:14.550 megan: Does that all make sense?
247 00:32:17.070 ⇒ 00:32:18.260 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yep, all good to hear.
248 00:32:20.180 ⇒ 00:32:27.789 megan: Cool. Well, as soon as I find that, I will send it back to you. I know I had it somewhere, but it might have been
249 00:32:28.650 ⇒ 00:32:30.290 megan: Yeah, I’ll dig it up.
250 00:32:31.780 ⇒ 00:32:32.920 megan: Oh, here it is.
251 00:32:33.190 ⇒ 00:32:37.130 megan: And Shayshu, should I have you on this, too?
252 00:32:38.060 ⇒ 00:32:45.570 Sheshu Chandrasekar: You know, just for now, this… you can just include Eliza and Rico. I’m not sure how much level extent I need to be on it just yet.
253 00:32:48.790 ⇒ 00:32:49.700 megan: Good.
254 00:32:53.540 ⇒ 00:32:58.740 megan: Okay, so we actually started this conversation back in September, so it is worth revisiting now.
255 00:33:01.000 ⇒ 00:33:08.739 megan: So, okay, I will just shoot this, this over, and then, if we can get some input on
256 00:33:08.850 ⇒ 00:33:16.990 megan: at least this part of it, that would help us when we’re processing for January. And then once we have the sales forecasts.
257 00:33:17.000 ⇒ 00:33:29.369 megan: Whether that’s by the end of January, or if that’s sometime in February, then we can use that to kind of start tracking the 2026 budget. So, those are kind of the two big open things that I had.
258 00:33:33.590 ⇒ 00:33:34.449 Rico Rejoso: Got it, yeah.
259 00:33:38.560 ⇒ 00:33:40.700 Rico Rejoso: Eliza, anything else?
260 00:33:41.070 ⇒ 00:33:46.110 Elizah Joy: Then on my end, anything on yours, Rico or Sashu?
261 00:33:46.890 ⇒ 00:33:48.610 Sheshu Chandrasekar: No, I think I’m all good here.
262 00:33:48.940 ⇒ 00:33:52.220 Sheshu Chandrasekar: I’m just… no, it’s… yeah, everything’s good here.
263 00:33:58.130 ⇒ 00:34:02.480 Elizah Joy: Okay, alright, Megan, anything else from you, or…
264 00:34:03.670 ⇒ 00:34:05.090 megan: I think that’s it for now!
265 00:34:06.170 ⇒ 00:34:14.540 Elizah Joy: Alright, so yeah, we’ll keep, Udom updated on what we discussed here, and then anything else, you can message us on Slack.
266 00:34:15.280 ⇒ 00:34:17.050 megan: Okay, sounds great.
267 00:34:17.350 ⇒ 00:34:20.300 Elizah Joy: Alright, thank you so much for your time.
268 00:34:20.870 ⇒ 00:34:21.970 megan: Thank you.
269 00:34:22.440 ⇒ 00:34:24.709 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Thanks, Megan. Thanks, everyone. Talk soon.