Meeting Title: Brainforge x Bobby Palmieri Project Check-in Date: 2026-02-25 Meeting participants: Pranav Narahari, Bobby Palmieri
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1 00:00:40.870 ⇒ 00:00:42.749 Pranav Narahari: Hello, hello. Can you hear me?
2 00:00:42.950 ⇒ 00:00:44.009 Bobby Palmieri: Yeah, can you hear me?
3 00:00:44.010 ⇒ 00:00:45.220 Pranav Narahari: Perfect, yeah, I can hear you.
4 00:00:45.320 ⇒ 00:00:50.879 Pranav Narahari: Okay. Yeah, thank you for being able to, like, hop on this call. Tomorrow, Friday, I’m out of office.
5 00:00:50.880 ⇒ 00:00:51.650 Bobby Palmieri: You good?
6 00:00:52.860 ⇒ 00:00:58.389 Pranav Narahari: Yeah, just, like, some, just, like, family stuff that I had, like, scheduled way before. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
7 00:00:58.520 ⇒ 00:01:07.829 Pranav Narahari: Yeah. But, you know, there’s definitely been, like, some confusion going on, like, back and forth with just, like, how we’re going to proceed, you know? And I think…
8 00:01:07.960 ⇒ 00:01:22.989 Pranav Narahari: we’re kind of at that crossroads where we just need to, like, make a decision about, like, how we want to continue things. And I feel like… I kind of want to help with that confusion as best as I can. What I’m noticing from my… from my side of things is that…
9 00:01:23.290 ⇒ 00:01:29.119 Pranav Narahari: January, we moved extremely fast, you know? Things were…
10 00:01:29.670 ⇒ 00:01:34.969 Pranav Narahari: We had a lot of deliverables, we had, like, ad hoc things come in, and we just were saying, yes, yes, yes.
11 00:01:35.170 ⇒ 00:01:42.319 Pranav Narahari: And then… we kind of just had that meeting with, like, Utam, like, a couple weeks ago.
12 00:01:42.550 ⇒ 00:01:43.570 Pranav Narahari: where…
13 00:01:43.570 ⇒ 00:01:48.360 Bobby Palmieri: He was, like, for the first time seeing, like, how many hours we were putting into this project.
14 00:01:48.480 ⇒ 00:01:52.920 Pranav Narahari: And from my side, you know, that doesn’t really affect me. You know, I…
15 00:01:52.920 ⇒ 00:01:53.770 Bobby Palmieri: Hmm, paid.
16 00:01:53.770 ⇒ 00:02:03.869 Pranav Narahari: the same amount, like, it doesn’t really… my… I’m a… what we call here at Brainforge is CSO, so it’s all about client success, right? I’m trying to make sure the client is successful.
17 00:02:03.990 ⇒ 00:02:08.289 Pranav Narahari: And so, there’s no really…
18 00:02:08.720 ⇒ 00:02:13.379 Pranav Narahari: The metric of, okay, how many hours we’re spending and what that blended rate looks like.
19 00:02:13.580 ⇒ 00:02:30.169 Pranav Narahari: that only happens, you know, like, when things start to go poorly. And so… I think we had that conversation with Utam. Everything at that point was going really well. But the thing is, what we saw was just, like, we were just moving at a velocity that just doesn’t make sense.
20 00:02:30.290 ⇒ 00:02:35.690 Pranav Narahari: We were moving, basically, for 160 hours in that month.
21 00:02:35.800 ⇒ 00:02:43.820 Pranav Narahari: Where we really should be moving closer to, like, 80 with, like, a plan that we’re working with.
22 00:02:43.980 ⇒ 00:02:52.569 Pranav Narahari: And so, you know, going forward, that’s just… that just can’t be something that we do. And, like, I think if that’s causing, like, some confusion,
23 00:02:53.240 ⇒ 00:03:00.710 Pranav Narahari: maybe that clears it up a little bit. You know, we can’t be moving at a velocity that doesn’t make sense for us as a company.
24 00:03:01.120 ⇒ 00:03:20.729 Pranav Narahari: And so, yeah, Uten basically just was like, you have two options with this client, like, you can ask them if they just want to stop at the end of March, and then we’ll deliver basically everything up until the forecasting. And then forecasting would be something that would get completed in April.
25 00:03:21.170 ⇒ 00:03:24.669 Pranav Narahari: They can increase the velocity for us by,
26 00:03:24.910 ⇒ 00:03:28.260 Pranav Narahari: Giving more money, or we just extend another month?
27 00:03:28.370 ⇒ 00:03:34.970 Pranav Narahari: Those are the two options that I’m just given, to give to the clients, like, at this point, and
28 00:03:35.240 ⇒ 00:03:45.800 Pranav Narahari: yeah, I kind of want to just, like, let you know, like, I understand that we kind of set that precedent, and I’ll take full ownership of that, of, like, in January, we were moving at a speed, that…
29 00:03:46.410 ⇒ 00:03:51.790 Pranav Narahari: I probably shouldn’t have been moving it. With Casey, with Sam, we were moving at a speed that, like.
30 00:03:52.140 ⇒ 00:03:55.169 Pranav Narahari: it just was not sustainable for Brainforge.
31 00:03:55.400 ⇒ 00:04:02.139 Pranav Narahari: I think it made y’all really happy, made us happy too, like, just to see, like, we’re pushing and delivering what you guys wanted.
32 00:04:02.240 ⇒ 00:04:08.170 Pranav Narahari: But then, yeah, once things get escalated to, like, Utam and Clarence, like, at that point, my hands get kind of tied.
33 00:04:08.530 ⇒ 00:04:09.810 Bobby Palmieri: Yeah, look…
34 00:04:13.260 ⇒ 00:04:16.850 Bobby Palmieri: I, like, this is a conversation that I should be having with Vitam, not…
35 00:04:17.220 ⇒ 00:04:29.330 Bobby Palmieri: not you. And I don’t know why he’s, like, avoiding getting on a call. You know, I get he’s pissed at us or whatever for maybe a message that was sent last week, but, like.
36 00:04:29.330 ⇒ 00:04:40.050 Bobby Palmieri: transparently, I look back on it, and I think it was reasonable. You know, outside of… and I believe we signed a scope maybe before you even started with Brainforge.
37 00:04:40.050 ⇒ 00:04:46.699 Bobby Palmieri: Like, December was a wash. We got nothing in December. We were like…
38 00:04:47.100 ⇒ 00:04:53.800 Bobby Palmieri: promised, you know, Surf and Sam, and then Surf kind of, you know, faded away. Sam was out, it was the holidays, like.
39 00:04:54.050 ⇒ 00:05:06.179 Bobby Palmieri: we paid 10 grand in December, and nothing got done, and then we, you know, came to Utam and was like, hey, we need to increase velocity. We increased our retainer from 10K to 20K a month. And look, I think the speed was…
40 00:05:06.500 ⇒ 00:05:17.470 Bobby Palmieri: fine in January, but it was definitely, like, making up… For… for December, and…
41 00:05:17.910 ⇒ 00:05:24.210 Bobby Palmieri: You know, maybe we were over-promised, but, like, the initial scope that we signed was…
42 00:05:24.340 ⇒ 00:05:28.650 Bobby Palmieri: 30K to get MCP, Slack reports.
43 00:05:29.090 ⇒ 00:05:42.270 Bobby Palmieri: forecasting and, you know, a storyboard generator done, and, you know, transparently, we have none of that done, and now we’re 50K in. So, yeah, I think, you know.
44 00:05:42.370 ⇒ 00:05:45.140 Bobby Palmieri: I get it, and, you know, it is what it is.
45 00:05:45.140 ⇒ 00:06:02.150 Pranav Narahari: like, with that 50K, like, that brings us to the end of the month, right? End of next month, not this month, right? And so by then, we will have all those things done except for the forecasting. But I get what you’re saying, too. Like, yeah, in forecasting, you’ve mentioned to me, like, a lot, like, hey, you guys are super excited about that.
46 00:06:02.150 ⇒ 00:06:12.029 Pranav Narahari: We’ve made progress there, of course, like, we’ve showed the POC, but for getting to the point of, like, completing the MVP, and then getting all of this ready for y’all just to, like.
47 00:06:12.030 ⇒ 00:06:18.280 Pranav Narahari: fully hand off, we’ve gone through all the QA testing and everything, that would take us to the end of April.
48 00:06:18.430 ⇒ 00:06:21.000 Bobby Palmieri: Right, but that would be what? 70 grand?
49 00:06:22.660 ⇒ 00:06:23.840 Pranav Narahari: Yeah, well…
50 00:06:23.920 ⇒ 00:06:31.320 Bobby Palmieri: Yeah, I guess, like, my point is, is that we’re supposed to have MCP forecasting and one other tool done for 30K, and now…
51 00:06:32.090 ⇒ 00:06:38.690 Bobby Palmieri: Brainforge, not you. Brainforge is saying, hey, we’re not even gonna get forecasting done for 50K, which is, like.
52 00:06:39.170 ⇒ 00:06:48.089 Bobby Palmieri: the biggest component of it. Like, I get we’re moving fast in January, but we don’t have, like, no offense, but we don’t have much to show for it. We have a bunch of…
53 00:06:48.450 ⇒ 00:06:51.210 Bobby Palmieri: incomplete part.
54 00:06:51.690 ⇒ 00:06:54.620 Pranav Narahari: Right, and you mentioned to me, too, like, you know.
55 00:06:54.930 ⇒ 00:07:13.579 Pranav Narahari: part of this is kind of, like, working together and, like, moving from, you know, 0 to 100, not 0 to 70 on a bunch of different things. You know, all these things that you mentioned, it’s not like we haven’t started them. We’ve demoed a lot of it, we’ve showed, like, how it is capable of getting to you guys, like, where you want to be.
56 00:07:13.680 ⇒ 00:07:21.360 Pranav Narahari: And, you know, like, transparently, too, like, we were working towards that at, like, the same velocity, and…
57 00:07:21.820 ⇒ 00:07:25.789 Pranav Narahari: I would have continued just, like, keeping y’all happy with just getting.
58 00:07:25.790 ⇒ 00:07:39.279 Bobby Palmieri: Look, like I said, I just… I don’t think that this is a conversation that I should be having with you. I don’t think we’re unhappy with… with your work. I think it’s more about the scope that we signed with
59 00:07:39.380 ⇒ 00:07:44.850 Bobby Palmieri: Brain Forge and what was supposed to be done for… 30K, right?
60 00:07:44.850 ⇒ 00:07:45.860 Pranav Narahari: Yeah, so…
61 00:07:45.860 ⇒ 00:07:52.370 Bobby Palmieri: And, like, I guess, like, you know, if you go through, like, what’s on dev, or what’s in production, right? Like.
62 00:07:53.270 ⇒ 00:07:56.449 Bobby Palmieri: Transparently, I don’t think we strayed too far away from
63 00:07:56.760 ⇒ 00:08:15.589 Bobby Palmieri: you know, the core features. Like, yes, there’s a couple things here and there, but, like, yeah, we’re just a long way away from what was promised for 50K. And I think, you know, transparently, I think Zach and I just have to have a conversation with Utam of, like.
64 00:08:15.870 ⇒ 00:08:30.729 Bobby Palmieri: you know, maybe we don’t continue in March and get that 20K back and, you know, use the last couple days here to get some, like, handoff docs, or whatever the case may be, if, like, we don’t think that forecasting is going to be done.
65 00:08:30.770 ⇒ 00:08:46.089 Bobby Palmieri: you know, transparently, I think that’s, you know, kind of where we’re at, because I can’t… I can’t go to what we thought was going to be 70K, but again, I think it’s just a conversation that I’ll reach out to Utam to have, with Zach and I.
66 00:08:47.110 ⇒ 00:08:48.370 Pranav Narahari: Yeah, sure, I mean…
67 00:08:50.610 ⇒ 00:08:57.139 Pranav Narahari: I kind of was presented with these two solutions. You’ll probably even get, like, a more brief, like, answer if you even get a call with him.
68 00:08:57.140 ⇒ 00:09:00.710 Bobby Palmieri: What do you mean if I get a call with them?
69 00:09:01.230 ⇒ 00:09:07.570 Pranav Narahari: I think, you know, he’ll probably just, like, tell you the same thing that I tell you. Like, I don’t think he’ll give you any other answer.
70 00:09:07.570 ⇒ 00:09:12.299 Bobby Palmieri: He’s the CEO of a company that we’ve paid 50 grand, like, I’m gonna get a call with him.
71 00:09:12.640 ⇒ 00:09:20.430 Pranav Narahari: Of course, yeah, you’ll get a call with him, maybe I shouldn’t have said that. I think my other thing that I want to mention, too, is just,
72 00:09:20.640 ⇒ 00:09:34.679 Pranav Narahari: with, like, the deliverables that we… that we’ve given you guys, like, we kind of gave you the numbers, like, in that Google Sheet of, like, okay, the percentage that were shown to be, like, part of the SOW and not.
73 00:09:35.520 ⇒ 00:09:42.099 Pranav Narahari: You know, we… like, we kind of… we did, like, a whole, like, session on this,
74 00:09:42.340 ⇒ 00:09:55.960 Pranav Narahari: me, like, Sam, Casey, just, like, discussing each one of these things, like, Clarence then came in to, like, do these calculations with us to see, like, okay, what is actually part of the SOW here? And then, yeah, partially on me too, right? Like.
75 00:09:56.080 ⇒ 00:10:01.299 Pranav Narahari: and Zach kind of mentioned this too, like, tell us no more often going forward,
76 00:10:01.500 ⇒ 00:10:16.699 Pranav Narahari: 60% of that was just stuff that was just not in the SOW. 40% was, and, like, my plan was, you know, going forward, let’s just focus only on the SOW, and I felt like we had a good plan forward for that. Going into March, going into April, like, just…
77 00:10:16.750 ⇒ 00:10:22.759 Pranav Narahari: focusing solely on these two things, and I get it, too, if you just want to do March and still just…
78 00:10:23.160 ⇒ 00:10:32.129 Pranav Narahari: get to the point where we ship those three main things, which are MCP, essentially everything up until forecasting.
79 00:10:33.070 ⇒ 00:10:35.139 Pranav Narahari: Unfortunately, now, since, like…
80 00:10:35.360 ⇒ 00:10:41.469 Pranav Narahari: like, the message was, like, sent to Utam about just, like, okay, I’m not really, like, what’s going on, like, are we…
81 00:10:42.080 ⇒ 00:10:48.369 Pranav Narahari: like, it went from, like, we’re really happy to, like, now, like, I don’t know, like, what the team is actually, like, pushing.
82 00:10:48.480 ⇒ 00:10:51.289 Pranav Narahari: I’m now, like, stuck with just being able to, like.
83 00:10:51.440 ⇒ 00:10:57.359 Pranav Narahari: I have to stick to 80 hours, and if I don’t, then I’m gonna be in trouble.
84 00:10:57.580 ⇒ 00:11:03.309 Pranav Narahari: And so, transparently, I’m just being transparent with you, like, I understand your confusion,
85 00:11:05.030 ⇒ 00:11:08.650 Pranav Narahari: I guess, is there anything else there that we can talk about, or…
86 00:11:08.860 ⇒ 00:11:20.419 Bobby Palmieri: No, I mean, I guess, like, if we’re not going to get what we were promised done for 50K. So, just a conversation to have with Utam, and we can go from there.
87 00:11:21.290 ⇒ 00:11:23.680 Pranav Narahari: Okay, yeah, I’ll let you set that up with him, yep.
88 00:11:23.910 ⇒ 00:11:25.849 Bobby Palmieri: I’ll reach out to him. Thanks, Pranav.
89 00:11:25.850 ⇒ 00:11:26.670 Pranav Narahari: Yep, thanks.