Meeting Title: Brainforge Strategy and Delivery Ops Sync Date: 2026-02-26 Meeting participants: Brylle Girang, Robert Tseng
WEBVTT
1 00:02:02.380 ⇒ 00:02:03.600 Brylle Girang: Hi, Robert.
2 00:02:03.990 ⇒ 00:02:05.110 Robert Tseng: Hey, bro.
3 00:02:05.450 ⇒ 00:02:07.249 Brylle Girang: Thanks for taking the time with me!
4 00:02:07.920 ⇒ 00:02:12.419 Robert Tseng: Of course! Yeah, sorry it’s been… it took so long for us to get a one-on-one together.
5 00:02:12.420 ⇒ 00:02:23.890 Brylle Girang: It’s okay. Yeah, I just wanted to get this, you know, chance to talk with you, get to know each other, and I think now what I’m primarily interested in is…
6 00:02:24.380 ⇒ 00:02:29.289 Brylle Girang: How… What led you to Brainforge?
7 00:02:30.260 ⇒ 00:02:31.660 Robert Tseng: Oh, sure, okay.
8 00:02:32.350 ⇒ 00:02:38.780 Robert Tseng: Yeah, brainforge. So, I mean,
9 00:02:40.100 ⇒ 00:02:46.100 Robert Tseng: So, Utomo and I both started our own separate consultancies, like, about 3 years ago.
10 00:02:46.340 ⇒ 00:02:54.220 Robert Tseng: His was Brainforge, mine was called Pungo, and… We were introduced
11 00:02:54.520 ⇒ 00:03:01.240 Robert Tseng: Probably, like, in the summer of 2023, through a mutual friend here in New York, and…
12 00:03:01.450 ⇒ 00:03:07.590 Robert Tseng: I brought him onto one of my clients, And…
13 00:03:07.750 ⇒ 00:03:11.720 Robert Tseng: We worked well together, at a…
14 00:03:12.160 ⇒ 00:03:14.350 Robert Tseng: Not the same skill sets, like…
15 00:03:14.550 ⇒ 00:03:18.500 Robert Tseng: the data world is very wide. He’s definitely more on the engineering side.
16 00:03:19.030 ⇒ 00:03:24.390 Robert Tseng: And I think I’m more on the strategy side, and I think that’s kind of our split now here at Brainforge.
17 00:03:24.820 ⇒ 00:03:30.100 Robert Tseng: But yeah, we probably worked together on the same clients for… like, probably…
18 00:03:30.300 ⇒ 00:03:38.219 Robert Tseng: like, 9 months or something, and then we decided to… Just combine under one.
19 00:03:38.430 ⇒ 00:03:41.759 Robert Tseng: Under one team, I guess. So…
20 00:03:42.050 ⇒ 00:03:45.279 Robert Tseng: He had spent more time doing…
21 00:03:45.510 ⇒ 00:03:52.510 Robert Tseng: branding, and he had Ryan and Ann working with him from the start, so…
22 00:03:52.920 ⇒ 00:04:08.769 Robert Tseng: I was just like, okay, we’ll just… we’ll just become Rain Forge. So, I kind of winded down my… my, consultancy, brought my people over to Brainforge, and we’ve basically been running it together now for the past…
23 00:04:09.220 ⇒ 00:04:13.590 Robert Tseng: year, and… Almost a year and a half. Yeah.
24 00:04:13.970 ⇒ 00:04:14.950 Brylle Girang: Boom.
25 00:04:15.280 ⇒ 00:04:20.650 Brylle Girang: I really want to understand what you mean by strategy. Oh, just a moment, what I was calling.
26 00:04:21.019 ⇒ 00:04:22.269 Robert Tseng: Yeah, yeah, sure, no worries.
27 00:04:40.750 ⇒ 00:04:47.580 Brylle Girang: Yeah, so, sorry about that. I wanted to understand what you mean by strategy. Can you tell me more about that?
28 00:04:49.450 ⇒ 00:04:54.279 Robert Tseng: Yeah, so I guess my last in-house role
29 00:04:54.460 ⇒ 00:05:02.130 Robert Tseng: I was leading the data and insights team for a brand here in the States. It’s called Ruggable. They do washable rugs.
30 00:05:02.490 ⇒ 00:05:10.369 Robert Tseng: And I guess my scope was… I had a team of 5 analysts under me.
31 00:05:10.560 ⇒ 00:05:15.129 Robert Tseng: Our objective was to…
32 00:05:15.350 ⇒ 00:05:25.760 Robert Tseng: I mean, there’s a few, few different things. One is, like, launching new products, so partnering with product managers, to…
33 00:05:26.870 ⇒ 00:05:30.259 Robert Tseng: Do different types of analysis, market sizing, like.
34 00:05:30.410 ⇒ 00:05:44.320 Robert Tseng: We were launching different things, so, like, different new rug shapes, like circular oval rugs, like, one thing. Even branching out into new product offerings entirely, doing furniture, so we did, like, a line of, like, furniture chairs.
35 00:05:44.460 ⇒ 00:05:47.179 Robert Tseng: Bar stools and stuff like that.
36 00:05:47.400 ⇒ 00:05:59.609 Robert Tseng: And so, like, the product managers, they’re the ones that are working with manufacturers, like, scoping out, kind of the design for the actual product, and then doing the whole operational side. But we’re kind of, like, helping them identify, you know.
37 00:05:59.610 ⇒ 00:06:16.920 Robert Tseng: which product do you start with? What color do you launch? How big should it be? Like, kind of answering more of, like, the… like, the quantitative questions, and trying to, like, assign, like, a dollar value, like, return on investment to that. So, that was, like, one stream I worked on.
38 00:06:17.080 ⇒ 00:06:25.520 Robert Tseng: I also, like, maintain, like, the forecasting for the company, so, like, what’s, like, the… what’s the next…
39 00:06:25.640 ⇒ 00:06:42.299 Robert Tseng: three years, kind of projections for sales for the… for a company that’s, like, doing, like, half a billion in revenue. So, like, I had, like, two or three people, like, doing that purely. And then I did, like, some engineering work. Like, we… data was living in a bunch of different places, so I understood that you needed, like.
40 00:06:42.620 ⇒ 00:06:45.460 Robert Tseng: To work with data engineers to, like.
41 00:06:45.770 ⇒ 00:06:52.220 Robert Tseng: Kind of bring… like, different teams should not be using different sources for how they read out on
42 00:06:52.730 ⇒ 00:07:02.399 Robert Tseng: like, orders or revenue data, and so, like, bringing that into a single model. I don’t… I wasn’t using dbt or any of these other kind of, like.
43 00:07:02.470 ⇒ 00:07:17.020 Robert Tseng: you know, engineering kind of tools, but, like, I understood SQL, and I could build tables or whatever, so, like, I was… I was doing, like, some of that, too. So we’re doing, like, data engineering, but, like, just much less complicated than what UTAM did.
44 00:07:17.350 ⇒ 00:07:21.830 Robert Tseng: his background is more in software. Obviously, he was at WeWork, and…
45 00:07:21.950 ⇒ 00:07:36.719 Robert Tseng: he also switched into product management, so as from, like, an engineering perspective, like, yeah, he’s a good engineer, but I think what makes UTAM special is that he also knows how to talk to non-engineers as well. Like, he’s been in the product
46 00:07:36.720 ⇒ 00:07:48.169 Robert Tseng: manager’s seat as well, so he knows how to, kind of communicate very broadly across all different teams. So, yeah, so he’s not really a traditional engineer, like, he’s, like, got more…
47 00:07:48.170 ⇒ 00:08:00.229 Robert Tseng: he’s got more soft skill to him there, and I don’t think I’m a traditional strategist, either. Like, I’m not just purely just Excel sheets and, like, doing ops stuff. Like, I have more technical background, too. So, I feel like we both…
48 00:08:00.400 ⇒ 00:08:06.539 Robert Tseng: We’re able to find some middle ground there, and believing, like, hey, if we’re gonna do something together.
49 00:08:06.560 ⇒ 00:08:18.540 Robert Tseng: We know what it’s like running bigger teams. We want to be able to run, like, a lean team that has high bar for engineering excellence, but we also want to, kind of
50 00:08:18.540 ⇒ 00:08:27.530 Robert Tseng: build very, like, specialized solutions for… for people that have, like, a big impact on strategy. So, I guess, like, I…
51 00:08:27.530 ⇒ 00:08:29.990 Robert Tseng: And I’m good at, like, finding
52 00:08:30.340 ⇒ 00:08:35.329 Robert Tseng: Like, what… what customers are willing to pay for, what clients are willing to pay for, like…
53 00:08:35.450 ⇒ 00:08:41.189 Robert Tseng: We’re not just, like, general engineering, like, we have to, like, go towards specific outcomes, and we have to price against that.
54 00:08:41.240 ⇒ 00:09:04.789 Robert Tseng: And so I think that’s kind of what I bring to the team here. Whereas, like, you know, Uta’s very, like, I can build anything, like, you just have to tell me what to build. And so, yeah, like, I think as long as I can kind of help define what the offering is, he can assemble the team and, like, put the right people there to be able to build what we need to for that. So, I think that’s kind of how I see us working together.
55 00:09:04.790 ⇒ 00:09:06.880 Robert Tseng: As we… as we leave Breitbourg.
56 00:09:07.340 ⇒ 00:09:19.919 Brylle Girang: So there’s synergy, okay. So, basically, like, strategy and your niche is understanding what to build, and then Otam might be in the how to build it, is that right?
57 00:09:19.920 ⇒ 00:09:21.670 Robert Tseng: Yeah, that’s a good way to put it.
58 00:09:21.850 ⇒ 00:09:24.620 Brylle Girang: Okay, and Robert, I think…
59 00:09:25.350 ⇒ 00:09:32.880 Brylle Girang: GA, my agency girl assistant, mentioned that you already had, like, a previous GA before me.
60 00:09:33.320 ⇒ 00:09:33.880 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
61 00:09:34.140 ⇒ 00:09:36.409 Brylle Girang: he was reporting under you, I think?
62 00:09:36.950 ⇒ 00:09:37.500 Robert Tseng: Yep.
63 00:09:37.500 ⇒ 00:09:44.720 Brylle Girang: Can you tell me more about what happened? So, just, you know, I might be able to get some learnings from there.
64 00:09:45.620 ⇒ 00:09:50.070 Robert Tseng: Oh, yeah, sure. Well, I guess, yeah, he was more kind of,
65 00:09:50.250 ⇒ 00:10:05.839 Robert Tseng: I mean, you’re, like, kind of… I don’t know what Utam’s title is for you. I think I… I think, his… I mean, you’re kind of helping with things on delivery, right? So, I kind of view you as delivery ops. The guy that was under me, he was more on sales ops. And so…
66 00:10:06.120 ⇒ 00:10:12.420 Robert Tseng: I guess what happened, I think he…
67 00:10:12.830 ⇒ 00:10:25.499 Robert Tseng: kind of GA kind of told me he had a lot of experience, like, in go-to-market teams or sales teams. I think within the first couple days, I could tell, like, he’s used to being in much bigger organizations,
68 00:10:25.500 ⇒ 00:10:33.730 Robert Tseng: yeah, was just not really willing to just try things. He always wanted to shadow someone before he tried anything. Which I understand is, like.
69 00:10:33.910 ⇒ 00:10:36.500 Robert Tseng: it’s nice to have, but, like, I can’t…
70 00:10:36.800 ⇒ 00:10:39.570 Robert Tseng: probably for the first week, I was spending, like.
71 00:10:39.700 ⇒ 00:10:42.209 Robert Tseng: Almost 2 hours a day with him.
72 00:10:42.370 ⇒ 00:10:53.740 Robert Tseng: Just to kind of help him onboard. But, like, I can’t give him 10 hours a week. It’s just, like, not possible. Like, we have to have somebody who is able to be very proactive, to kind of, like.
73 00:10:53.900 ⇒ 00:11:07.379 Robert Tseng: when we give direction to, like, at least try something, come back, be willing to fail, to iterate, to admit to it, and, just to learn, to learn quickly from it. So, I just felt like, from a feedback perspective, he wasn’t, like.
74 00:11:08.350 ⇒ 00:11:14.639 Robert Tseng: he wasn’t trying, like, it just took so much effort to, like, get him to try something,
75 00:11:14.740 ⇒ 00:11:19.130 Robert Tseng: And, yeah, he was pretty set in his waist that, like,
76 00:11:19.530 ⇒ 00:11:23.910 Robert Tseng: like, from a… he would kind of clash with me on prioritization. Like, I’m like…
77 00:11:24.430 ⇒ 00:11:38.640 Robert Tseng: From a sales perspective, like, it’s… and I think here, too, like, maybe a GA… I don’t know what your previous experience was, but we’re a small agency, we don’t have that many clients. We have, like, less than 10 active clients, so we don’t really need to do, like, super high volume of anything. Like, I think…
78 00:11:38.640 ⇒ 00:11:53.539 Robert Tseng: yes, speed matters, but, like, yeah, we… speed and quality, we make, like, different trade-offs as we pursue that, but, it’s not like we’re asking you to send, like, 100 messages a day, or whatever, like… and I know there are jobs, like, my first job out of college, like, I was…
79 00:11:53.540 ⇒ 00:11:54.590 Robert Tseng: I was like.
80 00:11:54.590 ⇒ 00:12:05.840 Robert Tseng: an account manager, I was sending, like, hundreds of messages a day. Like, I would literally just, you know, just go… go at it. So I know what it’s like to do high volume, and he was, like, kind of bringing that, like, into…
81 00:12:05.860 ⇒ 00:12:18.879 Robert Tseng: this, and just into the sales process, and just, like, randomly shooting messages to hundreds of people, and I’m like, that’s not what we really need. Like, we need something… like, I don’t need you to just be execution, like, I need you to
82 00:12:18.930 ⇒ 00:12:26.720 Robert Tseng: Like, to really utilize, like, the infrastructure that we’ve built here at Brainforge, try to do things at Brainforge’s native way.
83 00:12:27.180 ⇒ 00:12:30.540 Robert Tseng: Don’t go for the big volume, like, just… just…
84 00:12:30.930 ⇒ 00:12:37.809 Robert Tseng: just do enough to, like, test, and then, like, give me feedback on, like, what’s working, what’s not. Like, show me something that I can review.
85 00:12:37.980 ⇒ 00:12:40.610 Robert Tseng: So, like, yeah, I think it was, like.
86 00:12:40.790 ⇒ 00:12:57.580 Robert Tseng: I mean, I felt like he’s just a better fit for a bigger organization, like, I have nothing against him, like, I think he would probably do better in a bigger sales org where he has one job, and that’s just list building, and he just has to go and fill the list with hundreds of people a day, or whatever. Like, I think he would be good at doing something like that.
87 00:12:57.580 ⇒ 00:13:01.110 Robert Tseng: But that’s not the right fit for the role that we were looking for on the…
88 00:13:01.290 ⇒ 00:13:03.140 Robert Tseng: On the sales ops side here.
89 00:13:03.780 ⇒ 00:13:08.810 Brylle Girang: So, why didn’t you, like, try again to find other sales ops?
90 00:13:10.850 ⇒ 00:13:17.599 Robert Tseng: I think… We were kind of running with,
91 00:13:19.160 ⇒ 00:13:21.829 Robert Tseng: I guess, like, Luke had started around the same time he did.
92 00:13:22.170 ⇒ 00:13:32.779 Robert Tseng: Luke was supposed to be his, his, like, lead, and yeah, I think Luke was picking things up, and then I also realized, like, Rico can do…
93 00:13:32.990 ⇒ 00:13:41.809 Robert Tseng: like, Rico, Rico could do what, what I need… what I need from him. So, like, I just felt like Rico, Rico could just do it, and,
94 00:13:42.110 ⇒ 00:13:48.499 Robert Tseng: I… I mean, we are not moving at the pace that I want to, because I did budget for a role in, like, that in…
95 00:13:48.800 ⇒ 00:14:05.269 Robert Tseng: like, a sales coordinator role, and Rico is only giving me, like, like, I don’t know, 5 to 10 hours a week, so could definitely be more, but, yeah, I think for now, like, I… I just, like, kind of took the… I just slowed down, focused more on, like.
96 00:14:05.370 ⇒ 00:14:14.229 Robert Tseng: getting Luke up to speed, and then, yeah, I just rely on Rico, when… when I need to kind of get some of his time.
97 00:14:14.420 ⇒ 00:14:17.819 Brylle Girang: Yeah, okay, gotcha. Thanks for sharing that. So, yeah…
98 00:14:18.550 ⇒ 00:14:28.879 Brylle Girang: I think one of the main goals that OTAM has implanted into me for the next years is to help the company become more AI-native, as you mentioned.
99 00:14:29.220 ⇒ 00:14:29.810 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
100 00:14:29.810 ⇒ 00:14:42.810 Brylle Girang: basically pushing everyone into making sure that they use our infrastructure, and they use our tools. So, where do you think can I help you and your team on that side?
101 00:14:43.840 ⇒ 00:14:59.470 Robert Tseng: Yeah, so, I mean, I think you’re already kind of helping on the delivery side, like, I see you in Amble, and yeah, I mean, you’re joining the strategy call, so you’re… I feel like you’re basically playing, like, an EP role in some way, where you’re…
102 00:14:59.640 ⇒ 00:15:09.879 Robert Tseng: yeah, you’re great at putting together docs, and the Gantt charts, like, frankly, more organized than our engineers are, so, like, I think that helps, just being able to, like.
103 00:15:10.070 ⇒ 00:15:17.140 Robert Tseng: you know, you’ve seen what happened on the Amble project, I think… or not the Amble, the Remo project, even. That’s, like, a subsidiary of Eden. It’s like…
104 00:15:17.470 ⇒ 00:15:34.129 Robert Tseng: it’s… Eden’s complicated, because we have so much work going on with them, they’re still our largest client, and so, but yeah, like, that one, we don’t have… the PM is not ours, it’s Eden’s, and then, like, the only person I staffed on that project was just Awish from our team. Awash plus, like, then we’re working with
105 00:15:34.180 ⇒ 00:15:52.290 Robert Tseng: Surf, who’s kind of adjacent to us, he’s not really part of the Brainforce team, he’s, like, a subcontractor we brought out, and then, like, people on the Eden side. But if it’s just a waste running the project, he’s a pure engineer. He’s not doing any of the organization. That’s why I’ve never really seen, like, good docs from him. Like, he shares, like, things here and there, but, like.
106 00:15:52.580 ⇒ 00:16:07.879 Robert Tseng: I have no idea what the, like, what we’re… what his progress is. I know what Surf is doing, and I know what their PM is doing, because at least they give me weekly updates, but I’m not, like, involved enough to really, like, manage, like, a waste. So, I think this exercise of you, kind of.
107 00:16:07.880 ⇒ 00:16:18.569 Robert Tseng: pairing with him… again, you’re doing this with Amble, too, pairing with Zoran. I think Zoran is a bit more organized, but, like, helping them, like, actually follow through. And we try not to do too many of these rituals, it’s just, like.
108 00:16:18.570 ⇒ 00:16:37.539 Robert Tseng: get the Gantt chart up, like, have a timeline, and then have an SOW, so, like, we can push back when clients are pushing us to do things that are not what we agreed to. So, I think those are, like, basic charters that, like, we just need to have for all the clients. So, what you’re doing and helping UTAM, and, like, you’re just kind of helping that consistency across all of our clients, I think that’s helpful.
109 00:16:37.720 ⇒ 00:16:53.559 Robert Tseng: For clients that are more hands-on, like Elements, and then like Eden, at least, like, core Eden Workstream, obviously Utam and I have to be involved there, and we’re also, like, kind of doing these rituals, too. But, like, there’s gonna be, like, a bunch of other, like.
110 00:16:53.560 ⇒ 00:17:03.210 Robert Tseng: Well, we may… for now, there’s just a bunch of other clients that are, like, nowhere near that size that, like, we’re not really spending time with, that, like.
111 00:17:03.210 ⇒ 00:17:15.150 Robert Tseng: But the rest of the engineering team just needs that kind of project management support. So, on the delivery ops side, like, I don’t know if we’ve shown you these goals yet, so maybe I think this would be helpful for you to see.
112 00:17:16.530 ⇒ 00:17:29.179 Robert Tseng: I spend a lot of my time in this doc. I build everything here. This is how I run the sales team, and this is how I think about, like, OKRs. I know you’ve seen through the, oh, oops, not this one.
113 00:17:38.460 ⇒ 00:17:41.870 Robert Tseng: Here. Yeah, you’ve probably seen the management operations doc.
114 00:17:42.560 ⇒ 00:17:43.280 Robert Tseng: Which…
115 00:17:44.280 ⇒ 00:17:54.769 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I mean, this is Utam’s perspective, which I think is helpful. Like, areas of responsibility to me are, for each department, what do the, like, what are all the different, like.
116 00:17:56.570 ⇒ 00:18:05.579 Robert Tseng: areas of ownership, really. Like, just, like, what are the jobs that need to be done, within each of the department? And just to map it all out, so we know, like.
117 00:18:06.220 ⇒ 00:18:17.430 Robert Tseng: where do we need to go, and we haven’t updated this. We update this once a month, typically, so we need to update this. Clearly, like, recruiting… we just brought in Kayla, so now this should be Phil. I’m gonna go and, like, add Kayla to this, but…
118 00:18:17.990 ⇒ 00:18:29.230 Robert Tseng: Yeah, so this is just a way for us to, like, kind of map out all the different responsibilities across the team. If we were to try to put, like, a… turn Brainforge into a job description, it would be this. That’s what this doc is.
119 00:18:29.320 ⇒ 00:18:40.709 Robert Tseng: Then there’s, like, OKRs, which are more kind of, like, taking those areas of responsibility and creating, like, direction and velocity to them. So the direction is the objective, kind of like.
120 00:18:40.710 ⇒ 00:18:59.630 Robert Tseng: how do you take those responsibilities and turn them into goals to, like, point people towards? And then the velocity is, like, what are the measurements that we need to see in order to know that we’re actually heading towards that goal? So, we have these on the go-to-market side, we’ve been tracking these since… since the start of the year, and then on the operations side.
121 00:18:59.630 ⇒ 00:19:02.699 Robert Tseng: Which, I think we need to… we need to update these as well, but…
122 00:19:02.700 ⇒ 00:19:14.120 Robert Tseng: I think delivery ops is kind of where we see you coming in, so, like, we can… you should… you should take this little… look at the stock, and we should kind of go through it. But, like, one objective here is, like.
123 00:19:14.120 ⇒ 00:19:25.720 Robert Tseng: helping founders with utilization and margin visibility. You’re not really there yet, you’re still kind of, like, getting into the projects and, like, understanding how the workflows are, but, you know, something that we think about is, like.
124 00:19:25.870 ⇒ 00:19:30.430 Robert Tseng: Yeah, from a capacity planning perspective, like.
125 00:19:30.670 ⇒ 00:19:34.660 Robert Tseng: We have… we have X number of clients starting in the next…
126 00:19:34.680 ⇒ 00:19:47.979 Robert Tseng: in the next month, like, who’s available? Who do we staff there? And, like, you know, who’s underutilized? Who’s kind of, like, they’re not at capacity, but they’re actually at risk. We don’t want to actually deploy them, like, and who’s on the bench? Like, who needs more, who needs more?
127 00:19:47.980 ⇒ 00:20:00.679 Robert Tseng: and just, like, kind of having a sense of, like, how do we actually, use our… leverage our team to go and, like, staff on… on… on… on clients. I think, like, personally, and this is just my opinion, like, I think UTAM’s,
128 00:20:01.450 ⇒ 00:20:07.950 Robert Tseng: bias is to, like, go and hire more, and my bias is, like, don’t hire. Like, just try to, like.
129 00:20:08.010 ⇒ 00:20:23.130 Robert Tseng: like, can we just do it with the people that we have? Which is, I think, the fine, it’s a healthy tension, like, he always wants to kind of keep raising the bar for the team, hire better and better people. He’s not always trying to grow headcount, he’s like, maybe sometimes, like, we can switch people out.
130 00:20:23.130 ⇒ 00:20:47.039 Robert Tseng: So I understand his perspective, but, like, I think that I’m… we also need to, like, kind of rein in that, like, we’re an AI-native agency, we don’t want to grow the way, the traditional way, which is just to keep growing more people. And we… we want to try to see if we can, like, maximize what we can get from our people. So, I think that’s kind of what this is here for. And then this is more kind of like a recruiting partnership, and hopefully as you get to know Kayla a bit more.
131 00:20:47.190 ⇒ 00:20:56.199 Robert Tseng: like, I want to be able to tell Kayla eventually, like, because she’s asked… I just got off a call with her, she’s asking me how many,
132 00:20:56.350 ⇒ 00:21:01.640 Robert Tseng: How many engineer… data engineers do you think you’ll need in the next quarter? I can’t answer that for her right now.
133 00:21:01.760 ⇒ 00:21:07.910 Robert Tseng: Like, ideally, I’d be able to be like, okay, we’re not gonna hire an engineer unless we have
134 00:21:08.080 ⇒ 00:21:26.180 Robert Tseng: Yeah, and I have, like, some view of saying, if we hit this utilization target, and we’re gonna bring in this bit more business, like, that’s what this… you know, 3 weeks from now, that’s when we should start going for another engineer. Like, I don’t have that level of visibility yet. I need to build the tooling for that. It’s basically gonna be another spreadsheet exercise.
135 00:21:26.180 ⇒ 00:21:33.559 Robert Tseng: And then, like, to kind of build some process, probably, with you. But yeah, like, if you’re gonna have a good sense of, like.
136 00:21:33.560 ⇒ 00:21:49.680 Robert Tseng: how everybody on the delivery team is being utilized, then I think you will be able… you will have some inputs that you’ll need to put into my model, for, like, when we should start recruiting for the next role. And that will be able to give Kayla some more,
137 00:21:49.730 ⇒ 00:22:00.229 Robert Tseng: you know, lead time of, like, how many people she should hire for this role over the next, you know, X amount of time. Because, yeah, she just doesn’t have that… we can’t… we can’t give her that answer right now.
138 00:22:01.030 ⇒ 00:22:02.049 Robert Tseng: This is awful.
139 00:22:02.050 ⇒ 00:22:07.079 Brylle Girang: I think this is the first time that I… have seen this OK arson.
140 00:22:07.920 ⇒ 00:22:08.560 Robert Tseng: Okay.
141 00:22:09.070 ⇒ 00:22:23.869 Robert Tseng: Yeah, we haven’t assigned you officially as an owner yet, so this is, like, not really, like, you know, we weren’t planning to, but I, I mean, I just figured I’d show it this to you, because this is where my head is going. And then the other one that’s probably related to you is this one, where the objectives are great workflows that speed up delivery, you’re already doing this.
142 00:22:23.870 ⇒ 00:22:36.039 Robert Tseng: Everyone says they’re really good at training people how to use cursor. Yeah, like, you know, we’re doing better at, like, measuring communication. Like, I… we still haven’t gotten there yet, but, like, I want to know
143 00:22:36.080 ⇒ 00:22:40.660 Robert Tseng: how many times are, like, are people actually meeting on the delivery team? Like.
144 00:22:41.150 ⇒ 00:22:48.840 Robert Tseng: Yes, people… I feel like, yes, we run stand-ups, but the problem that I see is that everybody, like, they don’t talk to each other until the stand-up.
145 00:22:48.980 ⇒ 00:23:01.910 Robert Tseng: they come to the stand-up, then everybody starts talking, we only have 15 minutes, like, you’ve been in those meetings enough where I’m, like, cutting people off, trying to push them into meetings and stuff. Like, I’m fine doing that work, but I want to make sure that, like.
146 00:23:01.910 ⇒ 00:23:17.320 Robert Tseng: I know that they’re… that people are actually setting time together to go in and meet to solve problems. I can tell certain people are doing that, because their chemistry is better. Like, Mustafa Gregg, great. Like, I don’t think I ever have to hear from them, because I see them, like, kind of meeting often.
147 00:23:17.320 ⇒ 00:23:28.529 Robert Tseng: And they have a good thing going. And so, like, that to me is, like, that’s a reliable pairing. I want to give them more work, because I know that they can go and just get it done. Then there’s other people that, like, I… I’m not gonna say who, but, like, I…
148 00:23:28.530 ⇒ 00:23:46.700 Robert Tseng: I try to, like, ask them to meet, and they literally never meet until, like, I literally, like, put the meeting on the calendar for them. So, I think those are some things that, like, I have a sense for, like, where those… that’s happening, but I can’t really, like, call them out on it yet, because we’re not measuring it. So anyway, that’s… that’s kind of where I think there.
149 00:23:46.760 ⇒ 00:24:02.059 Robert Tseng: And then, like, this… this is a little bit more abstract, but, like, utilization… margin intelligence, so not just capacity planning, but also thinking about, like, okay, well, right now, you know, we use operating, we use,
150 00:24:03.550 ⇒ 00:24:08.959 Robert Tseng: And, Clockify for time tracking. That’s kind of, like, how we’re doing.
151 00:24:09.380 ⇒ 00:24:22.510 Robert Tseng: like, kind of like our… basically, like, our, our… our… our planning. That’s how… that’s how we estimate margins for… for… for a client. Like, that’s how we decide, okay, if we have…
152 00:24:22.690 ⇒ 00:24:39.180 Robert Tseng: on Eden, like, 5 people working 60 tickets or 60 points a week, then we’re going to hit our margin of, like, whatever, 60%. It’s, like, very basic right now, like, I think we could do better than that, so I think that’s kind of where my head is at here. It’s like…
153 00:24:39.420 ⇒ 00:24:49.399 Robert Tseng: we already have all the work that’s ticketed out, we have some time tracking, involved, but, like, I think we could do better at, like, really
154 00:24:49.590 ⇒ 00:25:08.439 Robert Tseng: making margin, more consistent across our different projects, because that’s our goal. Our goal is 60% margin across all our projects. So, it’s obviously not gonna be… there’s gonna be trade-offs here and there, but, like, I… I… I mean, you know, if that’s kind of something that’s interesting to you, like, would… would like to eventually kind of
155 00:25:08.680 ⇒ 00:25:14.490 Robert Tseng: Kind of help… kind of move you into a role where you’re able to kind of be more like a controller to, like.
156 00:25:14.520 ⇒ 00:25:31.790 Robert Tseng: know what are our highest margin projects, how do we replicate it, like, what’s going well there, what’s the lowest margin project? Like, and, like, you know, being able to give us some more perspective on that across our projects. I think I asked you, or maybe I asked Rico.
157 00:25:31.790 ⇒ 00:25:43.260 Robert Tseng: a week ago, I was like, how much time is Greg spending on projects? And, like, I… and, like, I still rely on Slack to go and ask that, because I don’t have a good place to go into to go and view it.
158 00:25:43.300 ⇒ 00:25:46.989 Robert Tseng: And I was, like, just thinking about, okay, for Greg.
159 00:25:47.140 ⇒ 00:25:50.919 Robert Tseng: Yeah, we have a cap with him in terms of how many hours
160 00:25:50.920 ⇒ 00:26:10.310 Robert Tseng: I know he’s shifting more of his time to Eden, he’s spending… but does that mean he’s spending less time in default? Like, I don’t want that to happen either, so… like, I think there will… there are some, like, decisions like that that we have to make, where we know that people are staffed on multiple clients, and if they start to shift their energy into one, they may drop the ball on the other, and…
161 00:26:10.360 ⇒ 00:26:25.960 Robert Tseng: That they may not… we may not see the impact of it right away, but we’ll see it in the margins, and we’ll also see it in, like, the quality of the work is going to start to go down over there, too. So, I think this is, like, a… like, that… it’s not, like, something we’re ready to, like, kind of
162 00:26:27.420 ⇒ 00:26:35.149 Robert Tseng: play around with too much, like, today, but it’s something I’m thinking about more aspirationally. That’s why this is in the aspirational OKRs, so…
163 00:26:35.150 ⇒ 00:26:48.659 Robert Tseng: Yeah, anyway, I think that’s… that’s kind of some context for, kind of, yeah, if you want to study some objectives, like, and start to kind of form your own opinion around it, I would say these three objectives and the key results, like, those are the ones that
164 00:26:48.660 ⇒ 00:27:04.440 Robert Tseng: eventually, we want to assign you as an owner, too. Yeah, that’s, like, something that we’re not… we’re not rushing to… you to do that yet. Like, we know you’re still so early, early here, so, like, I think, but just giving you an idea of, like, kind of what’s… what could be coming for you.
165 00:27:04.440 ⇒ 00:27:13.130 Brylle Girang: Yeah, no, this is exciting, this is exciting. So, I have some of the ideas, I’m going to polish that, but this is really helpful.
166 00:27:13.370 ⇒ 00:27:20.509 Brylle Girang: Yeah, I think this is my second startup so far. My first company, official company, was also a startup, so…
167 00:27:20.950 ⇒ 00:27:23.259 Brylle Girang: I think… I love chaos like this.
168 00:27:23.260 ⇒ 00:27:24.659 Robert Tseng: This is your second job?
169 00:27:25.380 ⇒ 00:27:29.190 Brylle Girang: Yes, I just graduated, like, 3 years ago, and.
170 00:27:29.190 ⇒ 00:27:29.540 Robert Tseng: Nice.
171 00:27:29.540 ⇒ 00:27:34.339 Brylle Girang: First company, I was there for 3 years, so this is my second job, yes.
172 00:27:34.770 ⇒ 00:27:35.370 Robert Tseng: Huh.
173 00:27:35.570 ⇒ 00:27:38.970 Robert Tseng: And I didn’t hear too much. What was your role in your previous company?
174 00:27:39.150 ⇒ 00:27:41.650 Brylle Girang: It was more of,
175 00:27:42.050 ⇒ 00:27:49.009 Brylle Girang: how do… how do you call it? It’s the people support side, so it… the role was called Help Desk, so basically our main.
176 00:27:49.010 ⇒ 00:27:49.880 Robert Tseng: Wow.
177 00:27:49.880 ⇒ 00:28:02.460 Brylle Girang: coordinate between the employees and the executives. And we’re the punching bug for the employees when there… when there are process changes, when there are questions, when there are
178 00:28:02.630 ⇒ 00:28:10.669 Brylle Girang: When there are… clarifications that they need, from process improvements, etc. Then, yeah.
179 00:28:10.800 ⇒ 00:28:13.820 Brylle Girang: I was promoted… after…
180 00:28:14.390 ⇒ 00:28:21.359 Brylle Girang: one year of working to the managerial position, and then I’m just shifting my career into a more…
181 00:28:21.690 ⇒ 00:28:31.630 Brylle Girang: tech… technology-focused role, which is why I’m really excited to be exposed to the kind of stuff that people are working here.
182 00:28:32.330 ⇒ 00:28:38.640 Robert Tseng: Cool, yeah. I know it’s like, in a startup, like, titles are really… they change all the time, I think, so…
183 00:28:38.640 ⇒ 00:28:53.439 Robert Tseng: I think, but I mean, we’re happy to… happy to talk with you regularly as you’re thinking about your career, what skills you want to learn. I mean, right now, I feel like whatever it’s called, I mean, delivery ops, or like, it’s like you’re learning technical product… project management… management, and…
184 00:28:53.440 ⇒ 00:28:57.650 Robert Tseng: If anything, you’re learning AI project management. So, like, I think, like, you know.
185 00:28:57.650 ⇒ 00:29:07.980 Robert Tseng: you’re learning a skill set in a way that, like, doesn’t exist anywhere right now, or, like, you’re one of the first people doing it. So, yeah, hopefully that’s exciting for you to kind of learn how to do that.
186 00:29:08.060 ⇒ 00:29:18.639 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I think we… I mean, we’re… I mean, I think Gutam has mentioned to you, but, like, we’re… we’re very excited to have you here. Like, I mean, I was just telling Kayla, she was asking me.
187 00:29:18.640 ⇒ 00:29:34.469 Robert Tseng: like, what makes somebody successful, like, how do you know early on what someone’s going to be successful at Brainforge? We, you know, I think we talk about your willingness to kind of jump into things, and yeah, just, like, to, to try, and, you know, every… none of us, like.
188 00:29:34.640 ⇒ 00:29:45.909 Robert Tseng: you know, our… I mean, we’re… we’re all… we’re all learning here, so, like, I think, as long as you can try, put something out there, and then, you know, get… take feedback well.
189 00:29:45.910 ⇒ 00:29:59.309 Robert Tseng: like, yeah, I think that’s… that’s gonna get you… it’s gonna get you really far. You’ll see that, like, it’s the people that have been here, like, Amber, this is her first job out of college, and she’s… she’s… she’s crushing it as well. Like, I think she’s like you, kind of as similar…
190 00:29:59.310 ⇒ 00:30:07.860 Robert Tseng: that kind of energy in terms of, like, yeah, I was really open to just, like, adopting things the way that we’d set up here, and didn’t come in with too many of, like.
191 00:30:07.970 ⇒ 00:30:25.750 Robert Tseng: her own, like, resistance to… to things, and I think that’s kind of what will… that’s… that’s what’s gonna help you… help you the most. So, yeah, just keep up… keep up the good attitude, let us know where we can be helpful. I think you’re doing a great job, like, so, yeah, I think I’m… I’m very excited to have you here.
192 00:30:26.020 ⇒ 00:30:29.969 Brylle Girang: Thank you so much, Robert. I’m very excited to work with you, everyone. Thank you!
193 00:30:29.970 ⇒ 00:30:30.510 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
194 00:30:30.620 ⇒ 00:30:32.510 Robert Tseng: Cool, alright. Thanks, bro.