Meeting Title: Brainforge x Talisma Q2 Event Planning Date: 2026-02-17 Meeting participants: Uttam Kumaran, RohitKhera, Aaron Schwarzberg, Rico Rejoso
WEBVTT
1 00:01:33.320 ⇒ 00:01:35.159 RohitKhera: Hi, Otam, how are you?
2 00:01:35.160 ⇒ 00:01:36.580 Uttam Kumaran: Hey, good, how are you?
3 00:01:38.610 ⇒ 00:01:39.480 Uttam Kumaran: How’s everything?
4 00:01:39.480 ⇒ 00:01:41.229 RohitKhera: I’m doing good, thank you.
5 00:01:42.460 ⇒ 00:01:44.969 RohitKhera: It’s going well, it’s going well, I hope to say what you’re…
6 00:01:46.050 ⇒ 00:01:48.569 Uttam Kumaran: It is, it is. Yeah, definitely, thank you.
7 00:01:55.410 ⇒ 00:01:56.100 Aaron Schwarzberg: Let’s try that again.
8 00:01:56.100 ⇒ 00:01:56.600 RohitKhera: I didn’t.
9 00:01:56.600 ⇒ 00:01:59.979 Aaron Schwarzberg: Hey, hey, Tom. Hey, Rohit, how are you? Hey, Rico.
10 00:02:01.170 ⇒ 00:02:02.050 Uttam Kumaran: Hey, how’s everything?
11 00:02:02.050 ⇒ 00:02:03.479 Aaron Schwarzberg: Hey, good, good, how are you?
12 00:02:03.480 ⇒ 00:02:04.190 Uttam Kumaran: Good, good.
13 00:02:04.820 ⇒ 00:02:05.709 Aaron Schwarzberg: Good, good.
14 00:02:06.450 ⇒ 00:02:20.260 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, maybe we can just jump into things. I mean, I think, our conversation last week was… was great. I feel like we’re aligned. I have some, you know, pretty good updates. I think on my end, sort of agenda-wise today, I just wanted to sort of jump right into, like.
15 00:02:20.440 ⇒ 00:02:30.270 Uttam Kumaran: What are some clear areas where, through some of the connections that we have through higher ed, that we can start to work on? I think I kind of want to start there. I do also want to…
16 00:02:30.270 ⇒ 00:02:40.840 Uttam Kumaran: Just recap, like, where we’re at with the, like, the co-marketing slides, and then just realign on, like, okay, what is the status of, like.
17 00:02:40.970 ⇒ 00:02:44.340 Uttam Kumaran: pieces on the co-marketing side, I can go back to our…
18 00:02:44.340 ⇒ 00:03:01.209 Uttam Kumaran: marketing team, and it’s a little bit early for Luke, so I feel like he didn’t join. He’s on… he’s in LA. But I can… I can have him review this call and sort of slot into our content calendar and give you a decision on where we want to sort of land on, like, a partnership announcement.
19 00:03:01.680 ⇒ 00:03:15.700 Uttam Kumaran: And then, you know, we… we started working with some additional partners that I would love to share about, and maybe there’s some way for, like, the three of us to collaborate. None of… none of those partners have any focus in higher ed, which is great, which means, like, they…
20 00:03:15.700 ⇒ 00:03:24.399 Uttam Kumaran: Are all… that’s the type of stuff they love when partners bring to the table, because they’re like, oh, this is a net new sector, or we don’t have any subject matter expertise, or any roads in.
21 00:03:25.300 ⇒ 00:03:40.890 Uttam Kumaran: we’re finding that some of those partners have said the same thing about our inroads into insurance, and, like, sort of, like, professional services, and so I… we can talk about that as well. But that’s kind of, like, what I had on,
22 00:03:41.180 ⇒ 00:03:42.410 Uttam Kumaran: You know, my side.
23 00:03:42.960 ⇒ 00:03:50.719 Aaron Schwarzberg: Those are perfect topics. The only thing I would add to that, and if you said it and I just missed it, forgive me, the Q2 event that we.
24 00:03:50.720 ⇒ 00:03:51.310 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
25 00:03:51.310 ⇒ 00:04:01.899 Aaron Schwarzberg: I think everything else that you mentioned is spot on. Rohit, before Utham dives in, is there anything that maybe wasn’t captured that you were hoping that we would discuss as well, or do you think that’s a good list?
26 00:04:04.620 ⇒ 00:04:08.990 RohitKhera: No, that’s the good list. I was about to point out the event which you just did, Aaron, but I think that covers it all.
27 00:04:09.010 ⇒ 00:04:13.410 Aaron Schwarzberg: Perfect Perfect. Okay, so yeah, Utam, the floor is yours, so let.
28 00:04:13.410 ⇒ 00:04:13.770 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
29 00:04:13.770 ⇒ 00:04:14.610 Aaron Schwarzberg: Sudden.
30 00:04:14.610 ⇒ 00:04:28.630 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, so one of the, areas that, you know, in speaking internally, is we have a connection to the folks at this, firm called GSV Ventures, and let me just show you, sort of, who they are.
31 00:04:31.980 ⇒ 00:04:38.090 Uttam Kumaran: So, basically, they are this large ed tech, sort of, event.
32 00:04:38.250 ⇒ 00:04:48.480 Uttam Kumaran: And like a community. And so, Robert from… from our team, runs Brainforge with me, is connected to, sort of the partners in the organization there.
33 00:04:48.510 ⇒ 00:04:58.720 Uttam Kumaran: He knows both the organizers, and can, like, work through them for introductions. And so, I think there’s a path for us to…
34 00:04:58.760 ⇒ 00:05:02.830 Uttam Kumaran: Potentially, one, like, consider something around this event.
35 00:05:02.960 ⇒ 00:05:13.990 Uttam Kumaran: And second, also just, you know, leverage them for introductions. So this is something that I wanted to sort of throw on the table and see, like, if we can…
36 00:05:14.120 ⇒ 00:05:26.060 Uttam Kumaran: start to organize ourselves around them. Really, in our partnership, like, some of these items, like, these are all… would be, from our side, would be through, sort of, GSV.
37 00:05:26.070 ⇒ 00:05:28.160 Aaron Schwarzberg: And so one thing that could be helpful.
38 00:05:28.160 ⇒ 00:05:37.719 Uttam Kumaran: you know, Aaron, is for maybe you to walk through this and see if we have any, like, mutuals, and that way, it would be pretty easy for Robert to go with an ask.
39 00:05:37.770 ⇒ 00:05:41.660 Aaron Schwarzberg: And say, like, hey, can we get an introduction? Here’s our, sort of, offering.
40 00:05:41.700 ⇒ 00:05:46.519 Uttam Kumaran: Ideally, like, I would try to attach our deck, or whatever materials we have prepared.
41 00:05:47.650 ⇒ 00:05:50.460 Uttam Kumaran: to that, and so, like, I think this is the…
42 00:05:50.720 ⇒ 00:05:55.689 Uttam Kumaran: Our first, kind of, like, foray into, like, okay, can we collaborate on a larger, sort of, like.
43 00:05:55.870 ⇒ 00:06:00.840 Uttam Kumaran: List… like, list of folks, and then there also is this event, so…
44 00:06:00.840 ⇒ 00:06:02.940 Aaron Schwarzberg: Additionally, I think we could work on.
45 00:06:02.940 ⇒ 00:06:08.439 Uttam Kumaran: You know, potentially going to this event together, or setting up something adjacent to this event,
46 00:06:08.980 ⇒ 00:06:10.929 Uttam Kumaran: So yeah, I just want to pause there.
47 00:06:10.930 ⇒ 00:06:30.499 Aaron Schwarzberg: Yeah, so I’m very familiar with ASU, the GSV event. It’s something everyone in EdTech, on the US side specifically, knows about. And then globally, I think a lot of organizations know about it as well. Rohit, I’ll pause for a second. Have you heard of the ASU GSU event? I’m not surprised, right? So, everyone in…
48 00:06:30.500 ⇒ 00:06:33.539 Uttam Kumaran: Alright, this is a new world for me, so I’m like…
49 00:06:33.540 ⇒ 00:06:38.759 Aaron Schwarzberg: Yeah. It is just, yeah, so to provide some clarity, it is the…
50 00:06:39.010 ⇒ 00:06:51.640 Aaron Schwarzberg: it’s the top 2 or 3 higher ed, ed tech, not even higher ed, but ed tech events, globally. It’s massive. It’s on the same scale as, like, ATD and, like, some of these other ones.
51 00:06:51.640 ⇒ 00:07:10.959 Aaron Schwarzberg: So, there… it’s always well received, there are always thousands and thousands of people who attend. All of the, larger providers have a significant presence there. I think it would be a very interesting event to co-brand and go together for, because I think,
52 00:07:10.960 ⇒ 00:07:29.879 Aaron Schwarzberg: thinking about how we would differentiate, thinking about the data and the front-end analysis of Brainforge, and then the delivery and the support and the product of Teleisma, I think is a very interesting value proposition for this particular event. So I think that there would be a lot of
53 00:07:29.880 ⇒ 00:07:36.589 Aaron Schwarzberg: resonance, and I think people would, like, really take to what we’re doing, and we would get a lot of traction there. So I think that’s definitely a good idea.
54 00:07:36.590 ⇒ 00:07:41.549 Aaron Schwarzberg: In terms of who to connect with through GSV,
55 00:07:41.550 ⇒ 00:08:03.639 Aaron Schwarzberg: everyone is connected… everyone in EdTech is connected to GSV, so I think the question is who you would want to connect with, and then we could make a list of the top… it wouldn’t be top 10, it’d be, like, the top 5 or 6 that we would feel really strongly about, and that there would be some really nice synergy with, and then we can come back to you with that list and say, does Robert have the ability, through GSV to make an introduction to these 5 or 6?
56 00:08:03.640 ⇒ 00:08:21.240 Aaron Schwarzberg: I think that would be the route that makes sense, so I think we have parallel paths. One is, we definitely should consider attending the event together, I think that would be a great idea. And number two, we’re happy to go through, look at the attendees for this year, and then see who we might want an intro to. But Rohit, is there anything else in addition to those two paths that you think we should be considering?
57 00:08:22.560 ⇒ 00:08:29.800 RohitKhera: No, I think… I think those two parts are great, and just answering your question earlier, Adam, this is a very well-known event globally. We have.
58 00:08:29.800 ⇒ 00:08:30.450 Aaron Schwarzberg: Yeah.
59 00:08:30.450 ⇒ 00:08:38.310 RohitKhera: We’ve seen customers from Southeast Asia, India, Africa, Middle East, specifically go to San Diego for this event every year.
60 00:08:38.309 ⇒ 00:08:41.039 Uttam Kumaran: Okay. Just this event, so it is.
61 00:08:41.039 ⇒ 00:08:46.840 RohitKhera: It’s actually a great place to… and, you know, it’s almost sort of, if you’re not at the event, you don’t exist in the…
62 00:08:46.840 ⇒ 00:08:47.520 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
63 00:08:47.860 ⇒ 00:09:12.789 Aaron Schwarzberg: Yeah, yeah, right, right, yeah, absolutely. So I think this is great, so it’s really nice that Robert has the connections through the partners here. We’ll go through, we’ll make the list, and then I think what we do is we add to the next meeting, what we think… I mean, we’re, you know, we’re coming up close to April 12th and 15th, we don’t have too, too much time, so I think probably within the next 2-3 weeks, we probably need to decide if we want to go together, what the costs are going to be, how we
64 00:09:12.790 ⇒ 00:09:13.610 Aaron Schwarzberg: We would, kind of.
65 00:09:13.610 ⇒ 00:09:13.950 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
66 00:09:13.950 ⇒ 00:09:28.270 Aaron Schwarzberg: work and what that looks like. So, we’ll talk about that during our weekly leadership call on Monday. Okay. I assume we’ll get the green light, and then we’ll let you know Tuesday next week if we think that we can do it and pull it together by April.
67 00:09:28.500 ⇒ 00:09:36.569 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, so what I’ll also do on our side, and I don’t know, I feel like we can just create, like, some type of new sheet here. I’m just gonna say ASU…
68 00:09:36.850 ⇒ 00:09:37.420 Aaron Schwarzberg: Yep.
69 00:09:37.670 ⇒ 00:09:40.499 Uttam Kumaran: I’m going to just put into here,
70 00:09:41.350 ⇒ 00:09:49.740 Uttam Kumaran: just, like, on my side, I’m gonna get, like, the exact… Connections…
71 00:09:49.740 ⇒ 00:09:50.280 Aaron Schwarzberg: Great.
72 00:09:50.280 ⇒ 00:09:56.399 Uttam Kumaran: Robert has. Yep. And then, yeah, I think on the Teleismo side,
73 00:09:57.350 ⇒ 00:09:59.499 Uttam Kumaran: If you all can just go through the…
74 00:09:59.870 ⇒ 00:10:10.930 Uttam Kumaran: Go through the event list, and see if any… Intros, like, past… You know, deals, etc.
75 00:10:10.930 ⇒ 00:10:11.330 Aaron Schwarzberg: Yep.
76 00:10:11.330 ⇒ 00:10:14.290 Uttam Kumaran: And… yeah, we can do that, that’s perfect.
77 00:10:14.290 ⇒ 00:10:16.529 Aaron Schwarzberg: Perfect. I like, I like that. That’s great.
78 00:10:17.950 ⇒ 00:10:30.179 Uttam Kumaran: I feel like that’s, like, probably our first, like, big lever. I think additionally, like, we… events is gonna be a big part of our strategy. We’re doing an event here in town with Mixpanel, which is, like, a large product analytics
79 00:10:30.200 ⇒ 00:10:43.840 Uttam Kumaran: company, we’re planning another one, potentially in March. So I’m… we’re kind of aiming for, like, one a month, wherever we can do it. It’s extremely helpful if we can do it paired with, like, an event like this.
80 00:10:43.850 ⇒ 00:11:01.419 Uttam Kumaran: We’ve, you know, on our side, when we work with e-comm, we’ve done stuff around ShopTalk, which is, like, a… not Shopify affiliated, but it’s, like, a large e-commerce conference. So similarly, it’s pretty easy for us to get around, like, hey, we’re also gonna be in San Diego, let’s create, like, some type of small invite-only event where we can get people there.
81 00:11:01.470 ⇒ 00:11:07.889 Uttam Kumaran: So that’s something that’s totally in our wheelhouse to do, and on our side, we have a lot of experience with, like.
82 00:11:08.600 ⇒ 00:11:14.620 Uttam Kumaran: Getting a venue, doing the invite list, all the materials, like, anything around the event organization.
83 00:11:14.650 ⇒ 00:11:32.860 Uttam Kumaran: And then ideally, I think for Teleismo, it’s like, this is where I feel like a lot of folks in your network are going to most likely be at. So that’s, like, I think a great way for us to collaborate. If, yeah, if this wants to take, you know, placement of, like, the event that we were planning, like, that’s even possible, too. Like, I think it’s actually great that…
84 00:11:32.860 ⇒ 00:11:34.739 Uttam Kumaran: we’ve identified this, and I…
85 00:11:34.740 ⇒ 00:11:45.560 Uttam Kumaran: again, it’s, like, easy, because everybody will be there to start to… to try to do something. Yeah. And we’re not… we don’t try to, as you know, we don’t try to run, like, huge happy hour events, like, it’s, like.
86 00:11:45.620 ⇒ 00:11:56.680 Uttam Kumaran: hey, let’s, like, send invites to, like, 20 or 30 people who, like, we really want to meet, make it, like, super, super valuable. So yeah, that’s something if we can get around in the next 2-3 weeks, like, I think that’d be perfect.
87 00:11:56.680 ⇒ 00:12:04.260 Aaron Schwarzberg: I like the idea of this supplanting a standalone event, for example, in New York or in Austin, having it,
88 00:12:04.260 ⇒ 00:12:17.990 Aaron Schwarzberg: associated with GSV, if we end up deciding collaboratively that both organizations want to go, and having, like, a small invite-only, like, dinner, or something like that, where one of the nights, we have 10 or 12 people come and sit down at a.
89 00:12:17.990 ⇒ 00:12:18.610 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
90 00:12:18.610 ⇒ 00:12:30.440 Aaron Schwarzberg: Right? I think that that’s a really targeted, specific kind of approach that I think resonates well with us as well with them, so some variation of that, I think, makes a lot of sense. So…
91 00:12:30.600 ⇒ 00:12:51.889 Aaron Schwarzberg: And we could definitely help with identifying the organizations that would be good fits for both of us, for those… that invite. You guys can help with the logistics surrounding the event, and what that looks like, and how to put that together, and the tracking, and all of that, and the follow-up and follow-through. And I think we can, play a direct role in identifying who we think makes the most sense, given our, you know.
92 00:12:51.890 ⇒ 00:13:15.699 Aaron Schwarzberg: collaborative approach and front-end versus back-end and solutions on the back end. And then, also reaching out to those individuals and securing who will be there, and then getting them on a list, and then inviting, ideally, you know, 20 or 30 to get 10 or 15 who actually end up being able to do it. So, okay, I like that idea. I think that makes a lot of sense. And then, maybe what we do is we couple the announcement with this piece as well, where…
93 00:13:15.720 ⇒ 00:13:31.770 Aaron Schwarzberg: two, three, you know, two weeks before, right? Beginning of April, let’s say, if we decide to go forward attending the event together, we do the announcement, and then also announce that we’ll be at GSVASU, and then it all kind of is a comprehensive story. So we have the announcement, we have the event itself.
94 00:13:31.770 ⇒ 00:13:41.129 Aaron Schwarzberg: We have, the, you know, smaller type of, you know, targeted, social event, whether it’s a lunch or dinner or brunch, whatever it is.
95 00:13:41.130 ⇒ 00:13:46.979 Aaron Schwarzberg: I think those three things coupled together should yield some significant outcomes. Does that make sense to you?
96 00:13:46.980 ⇒ 00:13:55.289 Uttam Kumaran: That makes sense? That’s perfect, yeah. Okay. And again, like, if we nail this, then what it does is just gives us, like, credibility to go to other ed tech, like.
97 00:13:55.290 ⇒ 00:13:57.899 Aaron Schwarzberg: So part of this is, like, chicken or the egg. It’s like, does…
98 00:13:57.900 ⇒ 00:14:07.949 Uttam Kumaran: like, can we do… can we, like, basically bootstrap an event to create credibility, to then go back? And it’s sort of like that process is something we’ve done in multiple different fields.
99 00:14:07.950 ⇒ 00:14:09.299 Aaron Schwarzberg: Yeah. So, perfect.
100 00:14:09.520 ⇒ 00:14:32.229 Aaron Schwarzberg: I like this idea. It makes a lot of sense, and it’s pulling together pieces that were previously disparate, separate pieces that were… I think the way it’s coming together makes a lot of sense. So, Rohit and I will work on that with the team. Rohit will, you know, during the Monday call, we’ll spend some time with Raj and get his thoughts and feedback. And then, with them again, because we don’t have a lot of time, by Tuesday, Wednesday at the latest next week.
101 00:14:32.230 ⇒ 00:14:38.909 Aaron Schwarzberg: We’ll let you know if we have the green light and what that looks like, and then we’ll start to do some research on our side about who we want to pull in for the private event.
102 00:14:39.190 ⇒ 00:14:39.820 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
103 00:14:40.360 ⇒ 00:14:43.380 Aaron Schwarzberg: I like that. Great, great. Perfect. Okay.
104 00:14:44.030 ⇒ 00:14:48.969 Aaron Schwarzberg: What else? So that covers Q2 event, and that covers introductions.
105 00:14:48.970 ⇒ 00:14:49.520 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
106 00:14:49.520 ⇒ 00:14:53.670 Aaron Schwarzberg: So that’s good. You want to talk a little bit about the deck and the slides?
107 00:14:53.830 ⇒ 00:15:05.509 Uttam Kumaran: Yes, so I know I have, like, sort of… I do have, like, sort of the deck outline in front of me. I just want to make sure, like, I know what the latest status is, so I can just take that to the finish line.
108 00:15:05.680 ⇒ 00:15:08.010 Uttam Kumaran: So yeah, that would be… that would be great.
109 00:15:08.010 ⇒ 00:15:26.300 Aaron Schwarzberg: So, let’s bring you up to speed on that, and Rohit, please keep me honest. So, you guys took the lead on establishing the first draft, then it came over to us. We provided, you know, significant, you know, I would say we added some additional color to,
110 00:15:26.310 ⇒ 00:15:42.370 Aaron Schwarzberg: the whole process and try to create more of a bridge between the front end and the back end, and I think that helped to bring it to life a little bit more. And then I think we passed it back over the fence, and then I think that’s where we are. Rohit, is that correct? That, this kind of Phase 3 is back with Brainforge, or am I missing that?
111 00:15:43.350 ⇒ 00:15:45.920 RohitKhera: No, you’re absolutely right. I’d just add that,
112 00:15:46.090 ⇒ 00:15:51.160 RohitKhera: In the intervening stages, we did have a bit of back and forth of reviewing it, making a few changes.
113 00:15:51.160 ⇒ 00:15:51.760 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
114 00:15:51.760 ⇒ 00:15:56.639 RohitKhera: Both on the UI and the content side, but as it stands, what you’ve said is accurate.
115 00:15:56.970 ⇒ 00:15:59.540 Aaron Schwarzberg: That’s right, yeah, good, good point, yep.
116 00:16:01.050 ⇒ 00:16:15.410 Aaron Schwarzberg: So I think the version that you have, Utham, is most likely the version that we went back and forth on, that you guys started with, that we provided feedback with. There’s back and forth, and now it’s sitting with you guys to say, if you’re good with it, I think we feel like it’s in a good place.
117 00:16:15.600 ⇒ 00:16:17.700 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, okay, great. So let me…
118 00:16:17.940 ⇒ 00:16:23.410 Uttam Kumaran: Let me regroup, and I’ll also move that over the fence… move it… over the… over the line this, this week.
119 00:16:23.540 ⇒ 00:16:28.159 Aaron Schwarzberg: Awesome. Okay, so that’s decks, slides, introductions, Q2 event.
120 00:16:28.160 ⇒ 00:16:38.919 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, and then the other thing is, I’ll send this to Luke as well, because we are starting to do some, like… we’re now getting much faster at doing, like, white papers and other collateral.
121 00:16:38.920 ⇒ 00:16:57.930 Uttam Kumaran: So the deck is sort of the starting point. I’ll have him confirm when we can do a formal partnership announcement. Ideally, a lot of that can line up with what we decide to do with the GSV event, but, like, again, we kind of want to be, like, we’re in EdTech, we’re in higher ed, like, here’s, like, sort of our collaborative offering.
122 00:16:57.930 ⇒ 00:17:04.350 Uttam Kumaran: So, I will send this over the fence to him, and then have him sort of collaborate directly over email.
123 00:17:04.400 ⇒ 00:17:20.159 Uttam Kumaran: So, and really, the priority for him is, like, we just have, like, a… we’re building out, like, a content schedule, so I just want to make sure he finds a place to fit this in. And, you know, he’s gonna… we’re gonna… when anytime we launch something like this, we try to do, like, a series of posts from each of our accounts.
124 00:17:20.160 ⇒ 00:17:29.289 Uttam Kumaran: we try to DM this to relevant network people, and so just, like, having an organized plan around that launch, I think I can… I can get for you guys.
125 00:17:29.550 ⇒ 00:17:42.009 Aaron Schwarzberg: Perfect, makes a lot of sense. We’re open and amenable to, like you said, fitting it in where it makes sense for you guys. Let us know if there are kind of two… one or two or three different places where it could make sense over the next couple weeks.
126 00:17:42.010 ⇒ 00:17:51.419 Aaron Schwarzberg: We’ll be able to confirm, but I think no matter what you guys end up deciding, it’ll probably work well for us, and we’ll be able to make it fit into our, you know, marketing launch schedule as well.
127 00:17:51.420 ⇒ 00:17:52.290 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, okay.
128 00:17:52.530 ⇒ 00:18:02.569 Aaron Schwarzberg: Yeah. This is great. I think we’re… I mean, tremendous amount of progress, and I’m really happy with where things are moving. Rohit, that kind of covers…
129 00:18:02.730 ⇒ 00:18:16.210 Aaron Schwarzberg: everything. The only thing we didn’t talk more about, but it doesn’t necessarily need to happen today, but it’s great that you brought it up, is the connections to your new partners and, like, the tramvirate, like the, you know, the three-headed monster of maybe there’s something that makes sense for three of us to do together.
130 00:18:16.210 ⇒ 00:18:16.660 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
131 00:18:16.660 ⇒ 00:18:26.500 Aaron Schwarzberg: So what we’ll do is, I’d like for us to think about the same with them on our side, some existing partners who we may want to bring into the fold for a particular event or initiative or collaboration.
132 00:18:26.500 ⇒ 00:18:39.019 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, and on our side, like, really, one is, like, we’re trying to break into Snowflake really heavily, and so they are, like, sort of the, like, a big whale in the room for us, so, like, part of it is just, like, if…
133 00:18:39.130 ⇒ 00:18:47.980 Uttam Kumaran: if we have an opportunity to sort of… I can go to… it’s part of their salespeople, and we’re starting to get really close to a bunch of them and say, like, tell me what higher ed folks that you have.
134 00:18:47.980 ⇒ 00:18:49.119 Aaron Schwarzberg: Let’s see that.
135 00:18:49.120 ⇒ 00:18:59.500 Uttam Kumaran: Of course, they’re very interested in us bringing net new logos or bringing in, so, like, that’s gonna be a big thing. Anytime we come in and we do data work, we typically implement Snowflake, it’s just best in class.
136 00:18:59.560 ⇒ 00:19:14.730 Uttam Kumaran: For sort of data warehousing, typically. So, we’re really, really well versed. Another additional partner, sort of at that level for us is Omni. They’re, like, a really AI-native sort of enterprise BI tool, sort of coming to kind of eat the lunch of, like, Looker, Tableau, Power BI.
137 00:19:14.770 ⇒ 00:19:19.850 Uttam Kumaran: We’re really, really good, like, friends with them, and are starting to do a lot of business together.
138 00:19:19.850 ⇒ 00:19:21.320 Aaron Schwarzberg: Similarly, I think…
139 00:19:21.320 ⇒ 00:19:30.230 Uttam Kumaran: They are, like, they will become, like, a really household name in data, probably here in the next, like, 2-3 years. The product is really, really good.
140 00:19:30.460 ⇒ 00:19:33.070 Uttam Kumaran: And a really, really strong team.
141 00:19:33.300 ⇒ 00:19:52.740 Uttam Kumaran: And they are very interested in, like, driving business through partner motions, and they’re trying to do a lot with us. In particular, like, they’re interested in us because we have deep expertise. Of course, they’re BI tools, so they serve, like, a host of people, so it’s sometimes difficult for them to verticalize, and, like, show vertical motions and show an outcome.
142 00:19:52.870 ⇒ 00:20:07.040 Uttam Kumaran: we’re able to do that, whether it’s in e-com, whether it’s now in several of the other fields that we’re going into. So, if there’s a motion where we go into higher ed, like, 100% we will talk to them and be like, how can we show, like, an end-to-end higher ed stack?
143 00:20:07.040 ⇒ 00:20:16.679 Uttam Kumaran: That involves all of our partners, and, like, the way we do work, and, like, that’s sort of, like, how we think about it, because when we pitch, we talk about, like, a solution, we talk about, like.
144 00:20:17.010 ⇒ 00:20:27.469 Uttam Kumaran: We will figure out the workings, but here’s, like, generally the plan, whether it’s tools, whether it’s process, whether it’s people, you know, and so that’s, like, how we tend to approach the problem.
145 00:20:27.470 ⇒ 00:20:40.089 Uttam Kumaran: So, if we can say, hey, Snowflake, like, here is the… here’s the ways, and Snowflake solves a piece of this, Omni solves a piece of this, Telisma solves a piece of this, Brainforce solves a piece of this, like, that’s how we want to go to market. The other benefit is that those people will…
146 00:20:40.130 ⇒ 00:20:45.329 Uttam Kumaran: boost anything we do or we tag them, right? And so, they have a broad network.
147 00:20:45.430 ⇒ 00:20:49.510 Uttam Kumaran: A lot of credibility in, like, sort of the vendor space, but of course, like, no…
148 00:20:50.000 ⇒ 00:20:57.590 Uttam Kumaran: they don’t have… they’re not yet, like, super verticalized. I think Snowflake maybe is a bit more of that, where I’m sure they have some, like.
149 00:20:58.080 ⇒ 00:21:08.060 Uttam Kumaran: random offerings for higher ed, like, they just… someone put something together at some point over the last few years, but similarly, I think both of them are sort of more platform plays, you know?
150 00:21:08.290 ⇒ 00:21:11.000 Aaron Schwarzberg: Interesting. So…
151 00:21:11.070 ⇒ 00:21:36.059 Aaron Schwarzberg: keep in mind, and this is something we talked about early on, so I don’t know if you even recall, we are very heavy into BFSI in India specifically. Okay. So if there’s something on the BFSI side, we can absolutely be supportive, and we can be brought in for that as well. So, Rohit, I don’t know if you want to talk a little bit to, you know, most recently where we’ve been focused on the BFSI side.
152 00:21:36.060 ⇒ 00:21:45.829 Aaron Schwarzberg: We have some great logos, some long-standing partners for 5, 10, 15 years. So, Rohit, just… can you provide a little bit of flavor there, just to give Utam some kind of view as to where we are?
153 00:21:46.820 ⇒ 00:22:01.340 RohitKhera: Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, the history of Talisma is rooted in BFSI. Okay. And pretty much any bank in India, any mutual fund company, any financial services company uses Talisma in some way or form.
154 00:22:01.520 ⇒ 00:22:12.700 RohitKhera: Right? So, over the last, maybe, I would say, two, two and a half years, we’ve been trying to work with these customers to spend some time understanding what their challenges are that AI could make a measurable difference to.
155 00:22:12.700 ⇒ 00:22:22.860 RohitKhera: Okay. Because there was a… there was a time when everybody wanted to get on the AI bandwagon, and it was distilled down to saying that, how can it help me do my job faster? Or, how can it do the job of
156 00:22:23.130 ⇒ 00:22:28.679 RohitKhera: a certain group of people who I can then let go and save money. But the reality is that if you’re not…
157 00:22:28.750 ⇒ 00:22:40.179 RohitKhera: bringing it in as a strategy level, in terms of saying, this is what I want to do more, or this is what I want to do better, or this is what I want to do faster. Yeah. At that strategic level, then it becomes really hard.
158 00:22:40.180 ⇒ 00:22:48.849 RohitKhera: And being connected to all of these, you know, especially the banks and mutual fund companies, just gave us the opportunity to sit down with them and say, you know, have very…
159 00:22:48.960 ⇒ 00:22:54.099 RohitKhera: candid, open conversations to say, what are your most pressing problems? I’ll give you one example.
160 00:22:54.190 ⇒ 00:23:08.299 RohitKhera: there’s a mutual fund company that was going from a B2B model to a B2C, which meant that they had to scale up their customer support team from about 100 agents to 800 agents in a span of 6 months. Now, the challenge they faced is that
161 00:23:08.300 ⇒ 00:23:18.779 RohitKhera: The typical training time is about 3 to 4 months, and the average lifespan of a support agent in that job is about 6 months. So you’re effectively hiring 800 people
162 00:23:18.970 ⇒ 00:23:24.250 RohitKhera: Every 6 months, training them for a couple of months, and then, you know, just constantly repeating that cycle.
163 00:23:24.480 ⇒ 00:23:27.350 RohitKhera: Now, one of the problems that they wanted to address was…
164 00:23:27.520 ⇒ 00:23:36.850 RohitKhera: you know, and they thought about it very maturely in terms of saying, you know, not saying, can AI replace my agents? But they said, how can we get to Mark? How can we put them…
165 00:23:36.980 ⇒ 00:23:40.769 RohitKhera: In a, let’s say, revenue generation position much quicker.
166 00:23:40.830 ⇒ 00:23:58.160 RohitKhera: So what we did with them was, we, you know, you have disparate systems that has all the data of the customer, right? But today, when you call a bank, or you call a mutual fund company, an insurance company, you have to go through four layers, and everybody will ask you the same question again. You know, who are you, what do you do, what’s your problem, etc.
167 00:23:58.440 ⇒ 00:24:14.190 RohitKhera: But all the data is contained in one system. So we put an AI layer on top of the existing systems, part of it was Delisma, part of it was other systems, that sort of aggregated all of that data. So when I send an email, you know, or I call customer support and say, this is a problem that I have.
168 00:24:14.630 ⇒ 00:24:26.889 RohitKhera: the agent is getting, firstly, a full view of me as a customer, my sentiment, have I had this issue before, how patient I am, you know, what’s my general disposition towards that organization.
169 00:24:27.060 ⇒ 00:24:35.609 RohitKhera: And then it, you know, it sort of looks at the issue, and then you have AI prompting the agent, saying, you know, the human agent saying that.
170 00:24:35.690 ⇒ 00:24:48.950 RohitKhera: to solve this problem, here are the various steps you need to take. So, step one, you need to get this information from them. You can tell them, this is why I’m asking you for this information. Step two, forward this to this person who can make this change in the backend.
171 00:24:48.950 ⇒ 00:24:57.350 RohitKhera: Who can then, you know, update the address, or whatever it is. Step 3, tell them that they will get this, sorted out in 3 days. This is why it takes 3 days.
172 00:24:57.360 ⇒ 00:25:11.340 RohitKhera: And then it’ll send an automated email to them two days from, you know, saying, just a day more, and you’ll be sorted, and another third day saying if you have trouble, come back. Now, what this means is that you’re not training, you know, a human agent for 3 months now.
173 00:25:11.500 ⇒ 00:25:24.450 RohitKhera: You’re basically training them for 2 weeks, and then letting AI let them learn on the job, because it’s being supported by AI. So you suddenly crunch that time down from, you know, 8 weeks to 2 weeks, or 12 weeks to…
174 00:25:25.310 ⇒ 00:25:32.050 RohitKhera: Another example that I’ll give you, which is more of a regulatory change, in India, you have this Aadhar numbers and PAN numbers.
175 00:25:32.050 ⇒ 00:25:32.760 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
176 00:25:33.240 ⇒ 00:25:41.610 RohitKhera: And it’s, you know, every financial institution has that. There was a recent mandate from the government that if you’re storing this in your databases, you need to mask it.
177 00:25:42.110 ⇒ 00:25:42.510 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
178 00:25:42.510 ⇒ 00:25:46.490 RohitKhera: And if you think of a bank like HDFC, ICSI, where they have…
179 00:25:46.830 ⇒ 00:25:54.119 RohitKhera: you know, 2 million, 3 million customers, it’s not that easy to mask it, and AI was the answer. We’ve built those solutions.
180 00:25:54.170 ⇒ 00:25:57.919 Uttam Kumaran: Deployed it, we did a… we did a trial with a fairly large bank.
181 00:25:57.920 ⇒ 00:26:02.619 RohitKhera: Where it went in and, you know, looked at all these numbers, masked it.
182 00:26:02.790 ⇒ 00:26:11.739 RohitKhera: So, and even with AI, it’s taking them about 3 months to recover their, you know, 1.2 million customers. Imagine if they had to do this manually.
183 00:26:11.980 ⇒ 00:26:12.570 Aaron Schwarzberg: Okay.
184 00:26:12.570 ⇒ 00:26:13.270 RohitKhera: So…
185 00:26:13.680 ⇒ 00:26:30.980 RohitKhera: Two, you know, two extremes example. One is making the business process easier, the second is ensuring that you comply with regulations in a timely manner. And it also showed the speed and agility where, you know, we… there’s a problem that comes up, we’re able to work with our engineering team, put a solution, deploy it, start that process in a matter of…
186 00:26:30.980 ⇒ 00:26:31.340 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
187 00:26:31.450 ⇒ 00:26:32.370 RohitKhera: It reads.
188 00:26:33.210 ⇒ 00:26:57.440 Aaron Schwarzberg: So on the U.S. side, we’re heavily focused on healthcare and higher ed. In India, we have a deep and rich and meaningful history on the BFSI side, and a lot of success and use cases that we can share. So, I think those are the three areas where we can, you know, provide support and introductions and kind of pull you guys in as healthcare and higher ed on the U.S. side, and then BFSI and other areas, but really BFSI in India as well.
189 00:26:57.740 ⇒ 00:26:58.280 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
190 00:26:59.290 ⇒ 00:27:10.209 Aaron Schwarzberg: Okay, so we have some homework on our side on the ASU GSV approval. You’ll take a look at the deck and the slides and see where things are there.
191 00:27:10.210 ⇒ 00:27:13.009 Uttam Kumaran: What else do you need from us, Utam? What else can we do to be helpful?
192 00:27:13.740 ⇒ 00:27:19.479 Uttam Kumaran: I think that’s it. Yeah, we have some stuff on our side to push. I think we’ll just try to continue to just be…
193 00:27:19.600 ⇒ 00:27:24.630 Uttam Kumaran: like, I’ll make sure to at least send an email over once or twice a week with progress as we go.
194 00:27:24.700 ⇒ 00:27:44.329 Uttam Kumaran: And then let’s just, like, we can hop on ad hoc, or, you know, Aaron, of course, you can text me or call me, and let’s just, like, keep driving this forward. I’ll… I’ll be chatting with Luke either today or tomorrow, and sort of get him up to speed on things, and then I feel like the deck is sort of, like, easy win, and then this GSV thing, I think we just… let’s just work on… collaborate on that over the next few weeks.
195 00:27:44.330 ⇒ 00:28:01.100 Aaron Schwarzberg: Absolutely, so we’ll look at all facets of that, like the announcement in the lead-up, we’ll look at the actual attending and potentially presenting at the event, or co-presenting, and then the individualized event for 10, 15, 20 people who we want to target specifically. So we’ll take a look at all that, and then we’ll have some updates for you this coming week as well, okay?
196 00:28:01.100 ⇒ 00:28:02.060 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, okay.
197 00:28:02.060 ⇒ 00:28:06.869 Aaron Schwarzberg: Amazing. Thanks for the time, thanks for jumping back in, we’re excited to be working directly with you again, it’ll be great.
198 00:28:06.870 ⇒ 00:28:08.529 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, definitely. Thank you both, appreciate it.
199 00:28:08.530 ⇒ 00:28:09.390 Aaron Schwarzberg: See ya.
200 00:28:09.390 ⇒ 00:28:10.879 RohitKhera: Thank you, Rico. Have a great day ahead.
201 00:28:10.880 ⇒ 00:28:11.460 Uttam Kumaran: Alright, go to.
202 00:28:11.820 ⇒ 00:28:13.169 Aaron Schwarzberg: Alright, Rahit, see ya, bye-bye.
203 00:28:13.170 ⇒ 00:28:13.580 Uttam Kumaran: Bye.