Meeting Title: Uttam <> Ivana Date: 2024-05-29 Meeting participants: Uttam Kumaran, Ivana Saginova


WEBVTT

1 00:02:07.530 00:02:08.669 Ivana Saginova: Hello, Moon!

2 00:02:11.220 00:02:12.489 Ivana Saginova: Did they hear you?

3 00:02:12.600 00:02:14.250 Ivana Saginova: Hello! Oh, yeah, I can’t hear you.

4 00:02:14.630 00:02:15.529 Ivana Saginova: I do.

5 00:02:15.770 00:02:16.800 Uttam Kumaran: Hi!

6 00:02:18.140 00:02:19.649 Uttam Kumaran: What’s going on.

7 00:02:21.680 00:02:23.629 Ivana Saginova: Not much. What about you?

8 00:02:24.340 00:02:30.640 Uttam Kumaran: It’s been good. Today’s been good. Yesterday’s been really good, like the day before is pretty good.

9 00:02:34.390 00:02:35.190 Uttam Kumaran: yeah.

10 00:02:36.610 00:02:39.020 Uttam Kumaran: Project manager has been a huge hire.

11 00:02:39.260 00:02:40.160 Uttam Kumaran: partly because, like.

12 00:02:40.160 00:02:41.400 Ivana Saginova: Oh, yeah. How’s that?

13 00:02:41.400 00:02:43.050 Uttam Kumaran: Just nice to talk to somebody.

14 00:02:44.420 00:02:50.229 Uttam Kumaran: But I also am basically like dumping everything onto him like you handle this. You handle this, you handle this

15 00:02:53.180 00:02:56.219 Uttam Kumaran: like I don’t know. I may fire someone.

16 00:02:56.280 00:02:59.429 Uttam Kumaran: or at least like move them off projects temporarily, because

17 00:03:00.070 00:03:05.649 Uttam Kumaran: he’s just not. He’s kind of. He’s just like the Comp couple the next the 3rd time he’s like dropped some significant

18 00:03:05.840 00:03:07.399 Uttam Kumaran: stuff we’re working on.

19 00:03:07.510 00:03:10.170 Uttam Kumaran: and it’s like, can’t happen.

20 00:03:10.780 00:03:13.609 Uttam Kumaran: He’s good engineer, though, but it’s just like no.

21 00:03:13.710 00:03:17.550 Uttam Kumaran: it’s not great. But I needed the project manager to have like to give me his.

22 00:03:17.830 00:03:18.620 Ivana Saginova: Yeah.

23 00:03:18.770 00:03:22.040 Uttam Kumaran: Around and do that. So I’m like, now that you’re here, you go

24 00:03:22.120 00:03:26.829 Uttam Kumaran: go figure out whether my hypothesis is correct, that, like this guy isn’t doing anything.

25 00:03:27.010 00:03:28.070 Uttam Kumaran: because

26 00:03:28.490 00:03:30.510 Uttam Kumaran: then I wanna make a decision because

27 00:03:30.530 00:03:32.360 Uttam Kumaran: I’m not paying for nothing.

28 00:03:32.620 00:03:34.579 Uttam Kumaran: I got an intro into Vercell.

29 00:03:35.630 00:03:37.619 Ivana Saginova: Hmm, or so.

30 00:03:37.800 00:03:39.159 Uttam Kumaran: Purcell is like.

31 00:03:39.640 00:03:41.210 Uttam Kumaran: it’s like the

32 00:03:42.430 00:03:46.080 Uttam Kumaran: it’s like for backend and front-end developers is like their favorite tool ever.

33 00:03:46.080 00:03:50.330 Ivana Saginova: The cloud. Oh, it’s they have a gorgeous website. I was on it like a month ago.

34 00:03:50.330 00:03:56.510 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I got an intro to them. I just talked to our Vp of marketing, who needs like A, they basically need like what we are, which is just kind of like

35 00:03:57.400 00:03:59.120 Uttam Kumaran: just someone to come in and like

36 00:03:59.150 00:04:01.489 Uttam Kumaran: busted out. And then I was like, perfect.

37 00:04:01.910 00:04:04.510 Uttam Kumaran: And I’m think I’m gonna ask for 200 an hour.

38 00:04:07.150 00:04:12.060 Uttam Kumaran: that we’re gonna see my I call my friend cause I’m not gonna be doing it. I called a friend. It was like, Yo, I need you

39 00:04:12.480 00:04:16.412 Uttam Kumaran: to do this. Can I send your resumes? Yeah. And

40 00:04:17.800 00:04:21.749 Uttam Kumaran: I he was like dude. I actually think 200 is probably low. And I’m like

41 00:04:22.140 00:04:25.440 Uttam Kumaran: big, we’re gonna get. Let’s get 200. And then we can figure it out.

42 00:04:25.520 00:04:28.499 Uttam Kumaran: So I think we we’re gonna go for that. And then

43 00:04:28.590 00:04:31.660 Uttam Kumaran: I’m working with Robert on a client that just got extended.

44 00:04:32.020 00:04:33.470 Uttam Kumaran: So that’s great.

45 00:04:33.550 00:04:35.560 Uttam Kumaran: So 3 clients

46 00:04:36.010 00:04:40.509 Uttam Kumaran: like this should be our this month that’ll just end should be our best month so far.

47 00:04:40.980 00:04:43.230 Ivana Saginova: You said that like a month ago. Wow, papa.

48 00:04:43.270 00:04:46.870 Uttam Kumaran: Like, well, it’s like, last month. We only had a few weeks of this new client.

49 00:04:47.090 00:04:49.680 Uttam Kumaran: 2 clients are basically stable around like

50 00:04:50.080 00:04:52.290 Uttam Kumaran: 15 and 10 k, and then

51 00:04:52.887 00:04:56.089 Uttam Kumaran: this client is like another, like additional

52 00:04:56.240 00:04:57.819 Uttam Kumaran: 6 or so

53 00:04:58.130 00:04:58.790 Uttam Kumaran: or 7.

54 00:04:58.930 00:05:00.640 Ivana Saginova: Your best month, total.

55 00:05:00.820 00:05:03.815 Uttam Kumaran: So it’s like, probably like 36 or 37.

56 00:05:04.190 00:05:04.950 Ivana Saginova: Hot.

57 00:05:04.960 00:05:05.700 Uttam Kumaran: Nice.

58 00:05:06.510 00:05:09.799 Ivana Saginova: How much of that do you pay people that work for you?

59 00:05:09.800 00:05:11.630 Uttam Kumaran: It’ll be probably

60 00:05:15.730 00:05:17.530 Uttam Kumaran: probably anywhere from like

61 00:05:18.540 00:05:20.550 Uttam Kumaran: 12 to 15, maybe.

62 00:05:20.940 00:05:21.620 Ivana Saginova: Okay.

63 00:05:22.120 00:05:25.040 Uttam Kumaran: Like something like that. Yeah, if I had to guess

64 00:05:25.340 00:05:31.490 Uttam Kumaran: I’m this is after this month I will have a much better grasp on that next month. Because basically

65 00:05:31.560 00:05:33.129 Uttam Kumaran: we’re going to tie

66 00:05:33.480 00:05:36.440 Uttam Kumaran: all work getting done to like issues being tracked.

67 00:05:36.780 00:05:44.719 Uttam Kumaran: And basically I can back, I’m gonna back in because what I the actual thing is like. I don’t have to pay people what I’m charging the client.

68 00:05:45.050 00:05:47.910 Uttam Kumaran: I’m paying people what they work for, brain forge

69 00:05:48.257 00:05:56.880 Uttam Kumaran: as far as what I charge a client, and so I need. Some people are doing a good job at like tracking like hour hour hour. Some people are not

70 00:05:57.439 00:06:01.029 Uttam Kumaran: and I don’t care if people are offshore, cause, then it’s like.

71 00:06:01.680 00:06:07.570 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t. If it’s like pretty, it doesn’t matter that they’re really cheap people that are onshore. It matters

72 00:06:07.630 00:06:12.519 Uttam Kumaran: especially if they’re if they’re especially like people like the guy mentioned where it’s like, if they’re not

73 00:06:12.860 00:06:14.680 Uttam Kumaran: doing yeah thing.

74 00:06:14.770 00:06:15.565 Uttam Kumaran: So

75 00:06:17.360 00:06:18.410 Uttam Kumaran: yeah, we’ll see.

76 00:06:20.570 00:06:23.038 Uttam Kumaran: yeah. So that stuff’s going. Well,

77 00:06:27.150 00:06:31.219 Uttam Kumaran: yeah. And like, one of the vendors that I’m using for data.

78 00:06:31.603 00:06:36.610 Uttam Kumaran: That that the bi tool that asset link is doing. So. One I get. I got paid for that

79 00:06:36.790 00:06:42.209 Uttam Kumaran: for for selling it. And then, second, I talked to the guy he’s like, I’m gonna send you like a bunch more people.

80 00:06:42.330 00:06:42.840 Uttam Kumaran: I was like.

81 00:06:42.840 00:06:43.460 Ivana Saginova: Okay.

82 00:06:43.800 00:06:49.500 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, like the vendors are selling stuff on my behalf, cause he’s like we can’t do the we can’t implement it on like

83 00:06:49.640 00:06:51.000 Uttam Kumaran: perfect like

84 00:06:51.070 00:06:53.340 Uttam Kumaran: it’s a good relationship. So

85 00:06:53.780 00:06:56.419 Uttam Kumaran: that should be good. Andrew is in town.

86 00:06:57.040 00:06:58.190 Ivana Saginova: I would be blessed.

87 00:06:58.200 00:07:01.149 Uttam Kumaran: Apparently tomorrow. He text me, he’s like, you wanna get lunch tomorrow. I was like.

88 00:07:01.410 00:07:04.129 Uttam Kumaran: yeah, so it’ll be nice to see him.

89 00:07:04.610 00:07:05.280 Ivana Saginova: Great.

90 00:07:12.450 00:07:14.939 Uttam Kumaran: you know more stuff. So

91 00:07:15.020 00:07:20.979 Uttam Kumaran: the last thing I’ll say is, actually we, we’re getting on a better schedule internally, where we have one internal meeting per client

92 00:07:21.390 00:07:23.360 Uttam Kumaran: with the engineers that involved.

93 00:07:23.600 00:07:28.180 Uttam Kumaran: And then we’re stacking all of our client meetings on Thursdays.

94 00:07:29.080 00:07:34.659 Uttam Kumaran: Basically we have. Thursday. Friday is like planning, and we take all that feedback plan it out.

95 00:07:34.660 00:07:35.530 Ivana Saginova: Monday.

96 00:07:35.530 00:07:36.650 Uttam Kumaran: Kick back off

97 00:07:37.170 00:07:41.780 Uttam Kumaran: so ideally like Monday to Thursday is basically like, Get all the shit done.

98 00:07:42.220 00:07:43.280 Uttam Kumaran: And then

99 00:07:43.450 00:07:49.659 Uttam Kumaran: Friday is kinda like we have a team meeting. We kind of do Demos. And then we have a main project of planning.

100 00:07:50.090 00:07:51.623 Uttam Kumaran: And so, like, we’re getting

101 00:07:51.970 00:07:58.830 Uttam Kumaran: taking a lot of anxiety off like meeting with everybody every day and be like really, really, lot long.

102 00:07:59.659 00:08:00.000 Ivana Saginova: Pretty!

103 00:08:01.090 00:08:05.028 Uttam Kumaran: And then. Now having 2, 2 i 2 sets of eyes on. Each thing

104 00:08:05.330 00:08:07.929 Uttam Kumaran: is helping so that anything I miss

105 00:08:08.290 00:08:13.470 Uttam Kumaran: Nico basically picks up. And then the last thing we’re doing is we’re basically creating notion home pages for every client

106 00:08:13.870 00:08:25.620 Uttam Kumaran: just because we have to send links a lot of the time. So anything from like, be it tools to documentation, to meeting notes, basically gonna put into notion for every client that way.

107 00:08:26.070 00:08:29.999 Uttam Kumaran: For us, we have know where everything is for them. They can access everything.

108 00:08:30.484 00:08:31.705 Uttam Kumaran: And that’s again all like

109 00:08:32.470 00:08:34.910 Uttam Kumaran: the new project manager suggestion, which is, I was like.

110 00:08:34.960 00:08:36.769 Uttam Kumaran: fuck. Yeah, let’s just do that.

111 00:08:37.070 00:08:37.710 Ivana Saginova: Yeah.

112 00:08:39.549 00:08:40.109 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.

113 00:08:41.409 00:08:41.859 Ivana Saginova: Nice.

114 00:08:43.579 00:08:44.699 Ivana Saginova: all good.

115 00:08:45.100 00:08:45.900 Uttam Kumaran: How are you?

116 00:08:46.370 00:08:51.120 Ivana Saginova: I’m good. This might be my, this is definitely my biggest month yet.

117 00:08:51.320 00:08:52.390 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, really.

118 00:08:52.390 00:08:54.440 Ivana Saginova: I think it might be 26.

119 00:08:54.440 00:08:55.820 Uttam Kumaran: Let’s go.

120 00:08:55.820 00:08:56.820 Ivana Saginova: So I’m like.

121 00:08:58.290 00:09:06.300 Ivana Saginova: but crazy, I’m like, let’s wait until, like everything clears. But in my projections I’m like, that’s pretty crazy. So that’s good

122 00:09:08.640 00:09:12.550 Ivana Saginova: My intern’s upstairs. She’s like she works with me like once a week, and.

123 00:09:12.550 00:09:14.010 Uttam Kumaran: Where are you at home?

124 00:09:14.010 00:09:24.070 Ivana Saginova: Okay, I’m out of my apartment. Yeah, sitting on my couch. But yeah, so that’s great. And then that random client, that

125 00:09:24.380 00:09:25.790 Ivana Saginova: message, me.

126 00:09:25.860 00:09:28.620 Ivana Saginova: Yeah, I met with her today.

127 00:09:28.660 00:09:32.280 Ivana Saginova: She came from Hope hydration

128 00:09:32.520 00:09:34.149 Ivana Saginova: like they’re in like some like

129 00:09:34.180 00:09:43.953 Ivana Saginova: founder, not founder looks a weird like network thing. And he like posted about the work I did. And so I’ve gotten 2 clients from him now, like someone else and her

130 00:09:44.490 00:09:47.880 Ivana Saginova: and she’s like she needs this done by like

131 00:09:48.070 00:09:49.610 Ivana Saginova: June 10, th

132 00:09:50.090 00:09:51.640 Ivana Saginova: like a website.

133 00:09:51.910 00:09:56.299 Ivana Saginova: one landing page designed and built. And I’m like, maybe

134 00:09:56.320 00:10:03.960 Ivana Saginova: so she’ll send me some details. But essentially all of her data, for this dashboard lives in Domo. Do you know, Domo.

135 00:10:04.220 00:10:04.780 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.

136 00:10:05.440 00:10:13.949 Ivana Saginova: And so it could just be like exported over to Web flow, I guess. But I’ll have her send me the shit. I don’t know it was like, girl. This is so last minute.

137 00:10:14.200 00:10:15.260 Uttam Kumaran: Live data.

138 00:10:15.260 00:10:15.920 Ivana Saginova: Smoke.

139 00:10:18.060 00:10:35.019 Ivana Saginova: She wants to show like social impressions. Essentially, they’re doing like an out of home campaign for can. And there’s a QR code on and people scan it, and I guess they’ll go to. I think the website will go to, or the QR. Code will go to this website, and they want to show some like live impressions. I don’t know.

140 00:10:36.770 00:10:39.200 Uttam Kumaran: On, domo, it’s gonna look like ass.

141 00:10:40.320 00:10:44.110 Ivana Saginova: Well, the data is from Domo. But it’s gonna live on the website.

142 00:10:44.480 00:10:46.849 Uttam Kumaran: But how are you gonna do that piping.

143 00:10:47.480 00:10:51.049 Ivana Saginova: Yeah, see? That’s the question. For, like Diego, are you? Or why I’m bringing it up.

144 00:10:51.750 00:10:52.803 Uttam Kumaran: That’s hard.

145 00:10:56.040 00:10:58.993 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t know. Let me know when you think like you have

146 00:11:00.300 00:11:02.240 Uttam Kumaran: like what it might look like.

147 00:11:02.490 00:11:02.960 Ivana Saginova: Yeah.

148 00:11:02.960 00:11:04.889 Uttam Kumaran: If it’s just static data.

149 00:11:04.900 00:11:11.514 Uttam Kumaran: And you know the drill, you just hard code this up. But if if she’s like she actually wants live data. It’s not that.

150 00:11:13.400 00:11:15.110 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t think you could do it in web, flow.

151 00:11:16.200 00:11:18.629 Ivana Saginova: Okay, we’ll see. I’ll probably have a wireframe like

152 00:11:18.680 00:11:22.070 Ivana Saginova: she sends me everything. Tomorrow I can have a wireframes on Friday.

153 00:11:22.590 00:11:24.637 Ivana Saginova: and then we’ll I’ll talk to you.

154 00:11:25.650 00:11:27.045 Uttam Kumaran: There’s this tool.

155 00:11:28.400 00:11:32.730 Uttam Kumaran: there’s this tool that I’ve been testing. And we have been using for some stuff

156 00:11:32.780 00:11:34.799 Uttam Kumaran: called evidence.

157 00:11:36.208 00:11:40.550 Uttam Kumaran: These guys would sit above wherever her data is, and

158 00:11:40.840 00:11:46.450 Uttam Kumaran: these reports will live as like a website. And you can send people directly here.

159 00:11:48.010 00:11:48.740 Ivana Saginova: Hmm.

160 00:11:49.050 00:11:49.979 Uttam Kumaran: Might be nice.

161 00:11:50.390 00:11:51.490 Uttam Kumaran: And

162 00:11:52.240 00:11:54.480 Uttam Kumaran: like, this is kind of like what it looks like.

163 00:11:54.970 00:11:58.288 Uttam Kumaran: So you can have these. So the the team that

164 00:11:58.830 00:12:03.479 Uttam Kumaran: the team that was at New York Times doing database they left to build this company.

165 00:12:03.700 00:12:22.569 Uttam Kumaran: and I like talk to them and cause I’m trying to sell them to some people. Basically, they have a lot of really, really great visualization options. To make it like look really nice. Great hovers great like sizing good, like animations. The problem is, you just have to really know exactly like what you want to

166 00:12:22.660 00:12:27.279 Uttam Kumaran: be putting into data. It’s not great for like data exploration, it’s really good just for like

167 00:12:27.460 00:12:31.369 Uttam Kumaran: data products, basically. But they have some great

168 00:12:31.530 00:12:34.429 Uttam Kumaran: examples here that I still think are in like

169 00:12:34.780 00:12:37.140 Uttam Kumaran: aren’t great examples of

170 00:12:37.260 00:12:38.060 Uttam Kumaran: like

171 00:12:38.320 00:12:40.799 Uttam Kumaran: what’s possible. But

172 00:12:42.340 00:12:50.920 Uttam Kumaran: it’s a good. It’s like a good place where, if you were, if you’re able, if you wanted to put something like this in front of your clients as like a customer facing thing.

173 00:12:51.010 00:12:53.859 Uttam Kumaran: it would sit right on live data, and it could be refreshed.

174 00:12:54.270 00:12:54.750 Uttam Kumaran: So it.

175 00:12:54.750 00:12:55.070 Ivana Saginova: Okay.

176 00:12:55.100 00:12:58.600 Uttam Kumaran: And you can, you can totally customize basically everything.

177 00:12:59.254 00:13:04.030 Uttam Kumaran: These examples don’t show like the highly customized versions. But

178 00:13:04.630 00:13:10.130 Uttam Kumaran: you can customize everything and just rely on them for the visualizations and then for the back end. Pulling the data.

179 00:13:10.190 00:13:12.649 Uttam Kumaran: June 10th is like, not that much time, though.

180 00:13:13.160 00:13:24.389 Ivana Saginova: Yeah, so we’ll see. I was like, she’s gonna send me in. I’m gonna be like, Hey, here, you know, like I’ll just have to see cause she just gave me a bunch of info. But no, nothing like concrete

181 00:13:25.713 00:13:26.340 Ivana Saginova: so.

182 00:13:26.750 00:13:27.400 Uttam Kumaran: Nice.

183 00:13:27.400 00:13:30.710 Ivana Saginova: Yeah, that’s that. What else do I have for you?

184 00:13:32.440 00:13:35.830 Ivana Saginova: Oh, I sent. Did I tell her what the triathlon I signed up for.

185 00:13:36.010 00:13:36.750 Uttam Kumaran: Apple.

186 00:13:37.100 00:13:39.830 Ivana Saginova: Oh, I signed up for it so Nolan was like.

187 00:13:40.160 00:13:43.590 Ivana Saginova: do people know it on Instagram?

188 00:13:43.760 00:13:47.250 Uttam Kumaran: I? Maybe I do. But I’m not on Instagram. A ton.

189 00:13:49.740 00:13:51.819 Ivana Saginova: April. Did you tell you about April? Should? April?

190 00:13:52.750 00:13:56.369 Ivana Saginova: No, okay. So every year on for April

191 00:13:56.390 00:14:09.869 Ivana Saginova: it’s ape shit April. So essentially, you eat less work out more like you’re just trying to get jacked like that’s the whole goal of the month. And so this time he like took it super he like didn’t really do it last year, but he did the year before this year. He took it seriously, too.

192 00:14:09.980 00:14:23.750 Ivana Saginova: and he was like, great like, I wanna do a triathlon. And so it’s like, you know, like I’ll just like do it, too. But I’ll do the sprint. But like if he’s gonna work out like what I’m gonna set out home and do nothing like, I’m gonna do the activities, too. So we’re like working out whatever

193 00:14:23.850 00:14:37.695 Ivana Saginova: boom Nolan’s injured. He like is getting back. Surgery like June 21st like has like a bulging disc like it’s like bad like. He can barely walk like his left leg like hurts so bad.

194 00:14:38.140 00:14:40.689 Ivana Saginova: That’s fucking old people shit. I’m like dude. What the.

195 00:14:40.690 00:14:41.220 Uttam Kumaran: Like happy.

196 00:14:41.541 00:14:59.540 Ivana Saginova: But so he hasn’t been working out. So I’ve been like training less, and I swam. I’m the triathlon is June 8th in Montauk and I swam in open water for the 1st time this weekend in on Long Island, and it was so bad I think I have to like pull out of the triathlon.

197 00:14:59.540 00:15:02.500 Uttam Kumaran: Hellhard dude. That’s crazy.

198 00:15:04.360 00:15:07.389 Uttam Kumaran: Why do you gotta do all these types of things just.

199 00:15:07.390 00:15:13.309 Ivana Saginova: I mean, I never thought I would do it. But he was like, I’m doing it. And I was like, sure I get like I was gonna do the sprint. It’s like.

200 00:15:13.640 00:15:16.670 Uttam Kumaran: Doing it with him. I guess it’s like kind of chill, but like

201 00:15:17.220 00:15:18.119 Uttam Kumaran: doing it alone.

202 00:15:18.120 00:15:22.940 Ivana Saginova: Listen. It’s half a mile. Swim 14 mile bike, ride 3 mile, run.

203 00:15:22.940 00:15:28.669 Uttam Kumaran: You know, worried about the run of the bike. Nobody’s worried about the run of the bike. The swim is brutal.

204 00:15:28.870 00:15:29.409 Ivana Saginova: Yeah, this one.

205 00:15:29.410 00:15:32.019 Uttam Kumaran: Hell! Hard swimming is so hard.

206 00:15:32.020 00:15:33.190 Ivana Saginova: Yeah. So

207 00:15:33.740 00:15:43.730 Ivana Saginova: I was swimming like 3 times a week at some point, like, I think I can swim a mile like in a pool, but like 800, like half a mile in open water, is like so hard, or something.

208 00:15:43.980 00:15:46.630 Uttam Kumaran: Bike. That bike is really easy, and the run is really.

209 00:15:46.630 00:15:51.960 Ivana Saginova: Yeah, it’s like, I’m like, every time I bike, I bike at least 20 miles. I’m like, what are we talking.

210 00:15:52.237 00:15:53.070 Uttam Kumaran: At the end.

211 00:15:53.430 00:15:55.620 Ivana Saginova: Swim bike run.

212 00:15:56.940 00:16:00.079 Ivana Saginova: but that’s good, because that way you’re not exhausted.

213 00:16:00.410 00:16:01.880 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, maybe it’s good.

214 00:16:02.960 00:16:18.000 Ivana Saginova: Anyways, I’m gonna we’re going to New Jersey this weekend for friends birthday like they have like Airbnb’s, and they just give it to friends for this weekend, and it’s on the beach. So I’m gonna try swimming again. But it’s not looking so hot.

215 00:16:18.000 00:16:21.290 Uttam Kumaran: You have an apple watch you can measure like how far you’re going like should just.

216 00:16:21.290 00:16:27.199 Ivana Saginova: I have a Garmin, but it’s it lied to me like it didn’t like I’d literally be standing, and it would be like

217 00:16:27.480 00:16:33.160 Ivana Saginova: racking up more like yards, and I’m like, I’m literally not moving. And it’s saying I swam a whole like meter.

218 00:16:34.380 00:16:36.280 Ivana Saginova: So I’m like, it’s just not accurate.

219 00:16:36.590 00:16:37.870 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.

220 00:16:38.090 00:16:39.909 Ivana Saginova: But anyways, so that’s that update.

221 00:16:40.650 00:16:43.200 Ivana Saginova: I don’t think I have anything else. Yeah.

222 00:16:43.650 00:16:45.459 Uttam Kumaran: That’s good. The interns going.

223 00:16:46.510 00:16:47.170 Ivana Saginova: Yeah.

224 00:16:47.270 00:16:49.589 Ivana Saginova: Who are your interns? Where’d you find them?

225 00:16:49.820 00:16:58.760 Uttam Kumaran: One of them, Clint reckon, entered me to this guy named Jared from Toronto. He’s like a this cool. He’s like Econ major, but he like

226 00:16:58.800 00:17:03.220 Uttam Kumaran: regrets not doing Cs cause he has like some passion for data.

227 00:17:03.300 00:17:06.379 Uttam Kumaran: and he’s Canadian. So he’s like so kind.

228 00:17:06.460 00:17:18.320 Uttam Kumaran: And but I could really tell he was like, Damn! I really wish I did data. I don’t want to go into like banking or finance, and I’ve been like I I told he talked to me like 3 months ago, and I was like dude. I’m like, so busy I don’t even know. And then he.

229 00:17:18.400 00:17:41.950 Uttam Kumaran: he, I was like email me. And if I don’t respond, email me again because I’m definitely not ghosting you, I’m just busy. And he did that exactly happen. And I was like, thanks for email me again. Let’s talk. And I’m like, I’m still pretty busy. But like I feel really bad. And I want to get you working on something. And so why don’t we plan something out? Coincidentally, I also went to when I went to India. Part of the reason I wanted to go.

230 00:17:42.536 00:17:51.803 Uttam Kumaran: Which is great, because now vacation becomes business, which is perfect. My cousin runs, is like co-founder kind of like the head of business. At this

231 00:17:53.000 00:17:57.290 Uttam Kumaran: This company called honeybee population. They’re like they’re they’re like honey bee

232 00:17:57.840 00:18:17.780 Uttam Kumaran: population company or something like that. Hph, maybe I forgot what it stands for. Basically they’re they’re helping countries. And local governments do like population demographics and population measurements and kind of like a bunch of things with like governments in like tomorrow

233 00:18:17.780 00:18:40.479 Uttam Kumaran: in India and in Sri Lanka. They’re kind of like startup. Their CTO used to be in California and work for like Google. And then, now he’s back there, and then their other co-founders like a doctor. And so I went to India, met with them. Basically they were like, Look, you have a company there, like we have a company here. I think it’s 1 i was like. Look, my biggest thing is like.

234 00:18:40.570 00:19:08.702 Uttam Kumaran: can I have access to great talent for Brain forge. I don’t care wherever they come from, but one it would. It would be nice to come from India because of price, but also, like, you guys have access to great talent. I don’t really care. Second, they were like, they want to work with folks like us that have experience doing data and AI for credibility here in the Us. But also just credibility wherever they go. And it’s my cousin’s company. So I was like we should find some way to work together ideally. He’s a 1 year older than me,

235 00:19:09.450 00:19:12.200 Uttam Kumaran: And then I talked to a CTO again.

236 00:19:12.746 00:19:16.854 Uttam Kumaran: And then, basically, he was like, I have, like 3 interns that are

237 00:19:17.300 00:19:24.789 Uttam Kumaran: that are like they focus on data that wanted to work with us. But I don’t have data work so that I wanna just give them to to you, to

238 00:19:25.110 00:19:30.059 Uttam Kumaran: to leverage. One is finishing a senior year at like University, Illinois.

239 00:19:30.503 00:19:39.166 Uttam Kumaran: and another one is finishing his thing at it. Madras, which is like really, really great school. Another is this older woman.

240 00:19:39.970 00:19:41.990 Uttam Kumaran: and they’re all are interested in doing data stuff.

241 00:19:42.450 00:20:06.483 Uttam Kumaran: They I talked to each of them was like cool like, run you through a good program, teach you everything you need to know. And then I ended the call, and I was still talking to the other guy. And he I was like, so what about pay contracts like? No, they’re all on paid. We’re not paying anybody like yes, yes, which I feel bad about. But you know I don’t like. I was like fuck. Yes, yes, free work. Everything works good but

242 00:20:07.290 00:20:12.244 Uttam Kumaran: and I was like, Yeah, I mean, that’s perfect. Like, I’ll have everybody go through like a really good curriculum, basically. And

243 00:20:13.140 00:20:16.180 Uttam Kumaran: so hopefully, that should. Those guys should start running

244 00:20:16.210 00:20:17.580 Uttam Kumaran: June and August.

245 00:20:17.840 00:20:19.850 Uttam Kumaran: and then ideally.

246 00:20:20.040 00:20:26.380 Uttam Kumaran: hopefully, some of them stay on part, time after. And then, if it’s possible to make them offer. Then I will try to

247 00:20:27.690 00:20:28.620 Uttam Kumaran: great

248 00:20:28.900 00:20:34.014 Uttam Kumaran: an offer for folks that are in India would be very, very nice for the bottom line of the company.

249 00:20:35.426 00:20:36.820 Ivana Saginova: Yeah. Fair.

250 00:20:36.970 00:20:41.360 Uttam Kumaran: And I and I wanna teach people how to do this stuff when they have no other like.

251 00:20:41.710 00:20:42.430 Ivana Saginova: Yeah.

252 00:20:42.430 00:20:45.920 Uttam Kumaran: Because then they don’t like come in with like like they know how to do shed.

253 00:20:46.340 00:20:50.869 Uttam Kumaran: which is great. So like you’ll learn everything here, and I’m like you’ll shadow people. And

254 00:20:51.180 00:20:54.696 Uttam Kumaran: you know, we’ll run a good intern program, like, you know. So

255 00:20:55.040 00:20:56.120 Uttam Kumaran: cheating.

256 00:20:56.620 00:20:58.550 Uttam Kumaran: yeah, so there should be 4.

257 00:20:58.820 00:21:04.135 Uttam Kumaran: So I have to think about projects stuff like that like, I just don’t know. I’ll have to have spend some time and do that. But

258 00:21:05.050 00:21:07.000 Uttam Kumaran: That should be really nice. So.

259 00:21:07.720 00:21:08.330 Ivana Saginova: Okay.

260 00:21:08.950 00:21:20.480 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, and then I wanted to talk to you about this asset link stuff. I think there’s I think there’s a design opportunity for them, I mean. Oh, yeah, what did you did you get to meet both of them like I don’t know.

261 00:21:20.480 00:21:35.760 Ivana Saginova: I was so nice. Well, I went to the thing. Thank you for getting me, and that was so funny. I was literally like Thursday mornings I go boxing with soccer, and then I usually just like showered her apartment. We breakfast together like we’re hanging out. Her boyfriend Drews, that, you know we’re like chatting, and I’m like.

262 00:21:36.590 00:21:47.822 Ivana Saginova: there’s no location like, where do I go? And then I’m like looking like we’re all freaking out and like it says it. It’s virtual like I. I brought an outfit like ever, and you got me, and it was all good.

263 00:21:48.100 00:21:55.340 Ivana Saginova: but I went. I like showed up late, so I didn’t get to see them present, but I chatted with them afterwards. I like

264 00:21:55.680 00:22:09.820 Ivana Saginova: got food, was being awkward, like standing around, and then I finally like, sat down. An open chair with it, was chatting with a guy, and he was like, Oh, I’m I’m an investor of Asset Link, and I was like, Oh, sure! My friend works with asset link and then they were right there, and I said Hi! To them, and.

265 00:22:09.820 00:22:12.259 Uttam Kumaran: White guy this like pasty white guy.

266 00:22:12.260 00:22:13.870 Ivana Saginova: His name’s Hunter.

267 00:22:14.250 00:22:15.210 Uttam Kumaran: No, I don’t know.

268 00:22:15.590 00:22:18.950 Ivana Saginova: He’s white. Yeah, I don’t. I wouldn’t say pasty.

269 00:22:18.950 00:22:19.550 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.

270 00:22:19.710 00:22:22.163 Ivana Saginova: But he’s like a wide older guy. He’s

271 00:22:22.850 00:22:24.469 Ivana Saginova: changing his.

272 00:22:25.200 00:22:26.170 Ivana Saginova: He’s he’s

273 00:22:26.360 00:22:46.030 Ivana Saginova: building a hedge fund. That’s what he said, so like I don’t know. And then I was like later, chatting with this other guy who’s our. He’s 1 year younger than me, actually. But our age and he is an investor at some company I didn’t get the name of, and he said that asset link looked like they were the most

274 00:22:46.240 00:22:47.790 Ivana Saginova: invest inable.

275 00:22:47.790 00:22:49.829 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, dude! I mean Devon fucking

276 00:22:50.010 00:22:50.870 Uttam Kumaran: Blake.

277 00:22:51.200 00:22:53.779 Uttam Kumaran: I watch it live, and here’s the second one.

278 00:22:53.880 00:22:56.760 Uttam Kumaran: It’s crushed it. I don’t like

279 00:22:56.960 00:22:59.199 Uttam Kumaran: the present. The slides are not good.

280 00:22:59.400 00:23:02.000 Uttam Kumaran: and his. I’ll send it to you. Maybe you could watch it.

281 00:23:02.060 00:23:04.700 Uttam Kumaran: I was like Bro. This guy’s fucking

282 00:23:04.860 00:23:07.910 Uttam Kumaran: gnarly at this like just going up there being like.

283 00:23:08.630 00:23:13.380 Uttam Kumaran: how many people here have a problem booking meetings with clients. Raise your hand?

284 00:23:14.910 00:23:22.944 Uttam Kumaran: How many people wish that that process was easier, so you can all raise more money, for it’s like I was like.

285 00:23:25.290 00:23:29.274 Uttam Kumaran: I texted him immediately. I texted our group chat meeting. I was like yo like

286 00:23:30.110 00:23:34.810 Uttam Kumaran: that was the best, by far like the most captivating. And

287 00:23:35.000 00:23:38.329 Uttam Kumaran: I just could. I think you’ve seen the most put together. And

288 00:23:38.380 00:23:42.809 Uttam Kumaran: the the the thing is, they’re char. They’re trying to charge like a hundred $1,000 is like

289 00:23:42.940 00:23:46.390 Uttam Kumaran: per contract and like up to a million dollars a year for contracts on this

290 00:23:46.530 00:23:47.280 Uttam Kumaran: like

291 00:23:47.630 00:23:53.029 Uttam Kumaran: he’s going for big money, cause he came from Vanguard. He worked like 20 years of vanguard, and like

292 00:23:53.620 00:24:00.269 Uttam Kumaran: they’re having conversation with Black Rock and a bunch of people. So Devon is really really great. I haven’t actually haven’t met in person. But surf!

293 00:24:00.410 00:24:04.270 Uttam Kumaran: You actually may have met surf at a prequel event. Surf was.

294 00:24:04.760 00:24:08.509 Ivana Saginova: I never went to a pre cool event. I meant to, and I think there’s like 2. I didn’t make it to.

295 00:24:08.510 00:24:14.270 Uttam Kumaran: Okay. Surf was one of the founding engineers, a prequel with me. I mentioned working at. We work

296 00:24:14.330 00:24:16.489 Uttam Kumaran: when I 1st started working in the city.

297 00:24:17.080 00:24:20.490 Uttam Kumaran: And he’s the one that got me into Asset Link. He runs his own kind of like

298 00:24:21.730 00:24:23.049 Uttam Kumaran: software agency.

299 00:24:24.150 00:24:24.680 Ivana Saginova: Cool.

300 00:24:24.680 00:24:26.000 Uttam Kumaran: Also the nicest.

301 00:24:26.080 00:24:27.430 Uttam Kumaran: nicest Guy.

302 00:24:28.080 00:24:35.200 Ivana Saginova: Yeah, he was. I mean, they were both so nice. I I chatted more with surf, cause Jeff Devon was like on the other side, but like they’re both so nice.

303 00:24:35.200 00:24:35.790 Uttam Kumaran: Beau.

304 00:24:36.880 00:24:38.349 Ivana Saginova: So what is there

305 00:24:38.590 00:24:39.580 Ivana Saginova: product?

306 00:24:40.205 00:24:56.020 Uttam Kumaran: Their product is basically like a linkedin for asset managers, wealth managers and financial advisors, basically, people searching for money to invest, which are asset managers, and then people looking for money to put into investable assets, which are both managers.

307 00:24:56.450 00:24:57.020 Ivana Saginova: Well.

308 00:24:57.020 00:25:07.119 Uttam Kumaran: Financial advisors and accredited investors are people like us that maybe like have a couple of 1 million dollars. And they’re like, I just wanna give it to somebody to manage. That’s like

309 00:25:07.210 00:25:08.370 Uttam Kumaran: something I would say.

310 00:25:08.370 00:25:09.520 Ivana Saginova: Like us.

311 00:25:09.520 00:25:20.200 Uttam Kumaran: People like us, meaning we’re not like, we’re not like investing on behalf of like future us. We’re not investing on like a family office. But you’re like I have all this money and like I wanna play games instead of just.

312 00:25:20.640 00:25:24.673 Ivana Saginova: I’m like, yeah, the 1 million dollars I’ve laying around just like us.

313 00:25:25.010 00:25:25.580 Uttam Kumaran: But

314 00:25:26.180 00:25:31.949 Uttam Kumaran: basically that you go on there. And one of the big things about that industry, it’s a really relationship based and do a lot of outbound. But

315 00:25:32.060 00:25:40.819 Uttam Kumaran: people do a lot of it on Linkedin. They do a lot of in person, and there’s really an opportunity for a great tool like that that’s focused on like a linkedin for that.

316 00:25:40.900 00:25:43.400 Uttam Kumaran: And basically, that’s so I help them build

317 00:25:43.500 00:25:54.439 Uttam Kumaran: there how people get matched up on there. I also build all of their reporting for their website and the platform. And then, basically, I’m I’m also just like.

318 00:25:55.040 00:26:02.570 Uttam Kumaran: throw me into whatever technical conversations or investors I’m just kind of there. We’ve been working with them for a while.

319 00:26:02.660 00:26:08.130 Uttam Kumaran: They they’re kind of a client that just needs everything. So I kinda like pick and choose my battles.

320 00:26:08.150 00:26:14.390 Uttam Kumaran: They wanted me to build a slide for them, which is a slide I sent you, which is really bad, because I’m like, I don’t like that.

321 00:26:14.620 00:26:21.350 Uttam Kumaran: They give me like 2 h to do it. And I was like, I’m just gonna put screenshots in. But basically I think it’s a good way

322 00:26:22.038 00:26:25.150 Uttam Kumaran: that’s like a good intro, at least to

323 00:26:25.470 00:26:30.399 Uttam Kumaran: do some design work for them that that’s their deck. I don’t know who made the deck. I think.

324 00:26:30.660 00:26:31.180 Uttam Kumaran: he adds.

325 00:26:31.180 00:26:32.350 Ivana Saginova: They have a guy.

326 00:26:33.040 00:26:34.810 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, they have a guy. Okay.

327 00:26:34.810 00:26:43.680 Ivana Saginova: Well, because I I had asked. I told them that I do design it first.st They were like, oh, like well, like they thought I didn’t like interior design or office design. I was like, no like

328 00:26:43.940 00:26:57.009 Ivana Saginova: graphics and like website design. And they’re like, Oh, yeah, like, we’ll definitely like blah blah blah, and they’re like we have a guide that like did this amazing deck for us. And I was like, it’s the deck that Utam sent me like, how amazing is it? But I was like, I’m not gonna roast them right now.

329 00:26:58.200 00:27:04.540 Uttam Kumaran: No, I don’t think it’s that good. And I also think they need someone. I don’t know what their relationship with that guy is, but.

330 00:27:04.540 00:27:05.100 Ivana Saginova: Yeah.

331 00:27:06.480 00:27:12.839 Ivana Saginova: I feel like it’s like a contractor they found on Fiverr like it sounded like he’s like country like, whatever. So.

332 00:27:12.840 00:27:18.978 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, most likely. So I think there’s some opportunity. And he’s trying to raise a bunch of money.

333 00:27:19.320 00:27:20.030 Ivana Saginova: June.

334 00:27:20.030 00:27:21.370 Uttam Kumaran: And like again really

335 00:27:21.520 00:27:24.230 Uttam Kumaran: good people to know it, as if you look at their deck.

336 00:27:24.720 00:27:27.129 Uttam Kumaran: It’s kind of like a little bit bland.

337 00:27:27.370 00:27:30.060 Uttam Kumaran: Some of the slides are pretty basic, but.

338 00:27:30.410 00:27:33.019 Uttam Kumaran: as you can see, like line, like slides, like

339 00:27:33.060 00:27:37.670 Uttam Kumaran: 7, 8, 9, like, I just think, like the screenshots are really not great.

340 00:27:38.380 00:27:42.060 Uttam Kumaran: They’re literally just screenshots from the platform, like.

341 00:27:42.750 00:27:47.469 Uttam Kumaran: I just think like, especially sides like 13 and 12 like you don’t know what to look at

342 00:27:49.650 00:27:55.480 Uttam Kumaran: and slide 15 is like my Picasso, which is horrible. And so.

343 00:27:55.560 00:27:57.149 Uttam Kumaran: yeah, I just think, like

344 00:27:57.330 00:27:58.100 Uttam Kumaran: I,

345 00:27:58.400 00:28:15.830 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t know how much opportunity there is on the product design side, but certainly on the brand. The other thing that these guys do uniquely is he, Devon is not only traveling, he goes like every conference, like once a week he does a ton of webinars, and so he does a lot of like face to face, advertising and marketing.

346 00:28:15.940 00:28:25.199 Uttam Kumaran: And I could seem being very interested in with the materials that, like, you kind of produce for me. Like white paper templates. Stuff like that.

347 00:28:25.350 00:28:26.290 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.

348 00:28:27.715 00:28:28.450 Uttam Kumaran: okay.

349 00:28:28.450 00:28:30.749 Ivana Saginova: So for this slide? 15. What do you need.

350 00:28:31.938 00:28:33.630 Uttam Kumaran: I basically wanna take like

351 00:28:34.260 00:28:38.869 Uttam Kumaran: some of these charts and some whole numbers, and basically just like turn it into a slide.

352 00:28:39.651 00:28:43.260 Uttam Kumaran: The kind of current example they have is like

353 00:28:43.660 00:28:46.779 Uttam Kumaran: slide 2 is like an example with numbers.

354 00:28:46.960 00:28:49.920 Uttam Kumaran: But I do want to show some stuff within a time. Series.

355 00:28:52.460 00:28:54.690 Uttam Kumaran: ideally, we have like user growth.

356 00:28:54.950 00:28:57.089 Uttam Kumaran: click, growth page view growth.

357 00:28:57.740 00:29:03.439 Uttam Kumaran: and we do something on like, I can provide you the data basically about how that grows over time.

358 00:29:05.430 00:29:09.039 Uttam Kumaran: I also do think like, Slide 11 is like, really

359 00:29:09.180 00:29:12.100 Uttam Kumaran: bad. So maybe we try like

360 00:29:12.320 00:29:15.270 Uttam Kumaran: anything with data. I kinda wanna just have consistent

361 00:29:18.190 00:29:21.470 Uttam Kumaran: they have brand. Oh, they have. They have brand colors, and like everything.

362 00:29:21.470 00:29:22.150 Ivana Saginova: Good.

363 00:29:23.680 00:29:24.499 Uttam Kumaran: So I’ll like.

364 00:29:24.500 00:29:27.979 Ivana Saginova: You just send me all the info you want on the slide.

365 00:29:27.980 00:29:28.960 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, okay.

366 00:29:29.710 00:29:30.420 Ivana Saginova: Yeah.

367 00:29:32.140 00:29:34.449 Ivana Saginova: And then when do you need it? By.

368 00:29:36.796 00:29:40.029 Uttam Kumaran: I mean ideally next Thursday.

369 00:29:40.030 00:29:41.599 Ivana Saginova: Oh, yeah, that’s fine.

370 00:29:42.320 00:29:42.690 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.

371 00:29:43.910 00:29:45.780 Uttam Kumaran: now that we have meetings like

372 00:29:46.100 00:29:47.830 Uttam Kumaran: every Thursday.

373 00:29:47.930 00:29:49.680 Uttam Kumaran: I can like kind of set like

374 00:29:50.448 00:29:54.590 Uttam Kumaran: as long as I go tomorrow. I’m like the work is kicking off.

375 00:29:55.260 00:30:01.540 Uttam Kumaran: I’ll let you know if they end up needing it sooner. I mentioned to them that I’m going to go through you.

376 00:30:01.660 00:30:04.929 Uttam Kumaran: and I was like, think you may have met her. Blah blah blah. But

377 00:30:05.210 00:30:11.130 Uttam Kumaran: again I just mentioned the passing. I think doing it. And then I’ll send an intro email. I think that’ll be.

378 00:30:12.280 00:30:13.580 Uttam Kumaran: I think that’ll be great.

379 00:30:14.100 00:30:20.480 Ivana Saginova: Great. Thank you. And then what happened with nimbly, I think she emailed me like a week ago, maybe, and I

380 00:30:21.080 00:30:21.989 Ivana Saginova: maybe forgot.

381 00:30:21.990 00:30:24.600 Uttam Kumaran: I haven’t got an email from her. I

382 00:30:24.960 00:30:29.740 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t know. I think I don’t. I think that’s like, gonna I don’t think that’s probably gonna happen

383 00:30:31.480 00:30:32.740 Uttam Kumaran: meaning like.

384 00:30:33.350 00:30:36.809 Uttam Kumaran: I just think like she hasn’t worked as a technical founder.

385 00:30:37.290 00:30:37.890 Ivana Saginova: Yeah.

386 00:30:38.630 00:30:47.116 Uttam Kumaran: Like, I just don’t see it’s a tough product. And but the guy that the other. So there’s there’s a couple of things happening. I got introduced to

387 00:30:48.040 00:30:57.249 Uttam Kumaran: What’s her name Britney? I got introduced to Britney from this guy named Scott Harmon Scott. Harmon ran this company called Spiceworks, or something, and

388 00:30:57.490 00:31:06.169 Uttam Kumaran: he it’s like a he was like a big time, CEO, and he’s kind of like semi retired now, but clearly is like bored. I’m still working with him on stuff.

389 00:31:06.620 00:31:07.020 Ivana Saginova: So much.

390 00:31:07.020 00:31:14.599 Uttam Kumaran: Going to this like really big, like real estate investment firm tomorrow for a meeting, potentially talking about

391 00:31:14.720 00:31:16.810 Uttam Kumaran: building an AI product with him.

392 00:31:17.373 00:31:22.066 Uttam Kumaran: But like not running the company, having brain forge, do all the technical stuff. And then

393 00:31:22.490 00:31:29.334 Uttam Kumaran: so I’m still working with them on that with Britney. I kinda don’t know. She basically is like I. She can’t afford to pay me stuff, and I’m like

394 00:31:30.163 00:31:37.066 Uttam Kumaran: Ryan, I can know, but like I quickly will run out of time. So nothing really progressed. There really.

395 00:31:37.430 00:31:41.670 Ivana Saginova: I didn’t think it was going anywhere. I was just like, Oh, shit! I forgot about it. So I was like, let me just check in with you.

396 00:31:41.670 00:31:43.829 Uttam Kumaran: Didn’t go anywhere. I mean, yeah.

397 00:31:43.940 00:31:46.650 Uttam Kumaran: I think they use for me. They use all their like

398 00:31:47.700 00:31:51.210 Uttam Kumaran: free hours. Basically, I can’t do any more than that.

399 00:31:53.310 00:31:54.120 Uttam Kumaran: yeah.

400 00:31:54.720 00:31:57.990 Ivana Saginova: And then what else was I gonna ask you?

401 00:32:00.490 00:32:09.589 Ivana Saginova: I don’t know what else I was. Gonna ask you. Oh, I’m switching to or trying. I’ve been using notion for all my stuff. Let me show you I’m trying to switch

402 00:32:10.600 00:32:16.930 Ivana Saginova: to something called productive. There’s like a couple of competitors. But essentially, I’ve been like

403 00:32:17.350 00:32:36.707 Ivana Saginova: doing everything manually in terms of like logging hours, having my like contractors log of their hours in another place, I’m manually collecting all their hours and comparing it to the hours I work on a client when a client asked me how many hours like it like it’s so much manual bullshit work. And I’m like, How do agencies do this?

404 00:32:37.400 00:32:48.549 Ivana Saginova: so I think this is the one I’m gonna use. I’ve been trying to. I met with them once, but I would need them to help onboard. Me, because they’re like Platform can do too much. But essentially it’s really cool

405 00:32:48.720 00:32:55.240 Ivana Saginova: because you can. It does like the project management. Let me just go to the agency page.

406 00:33:00.380 00:33:05.829 Ivana Saginova: cause I’m like how the fuck do agencies do this. But essentially you have, like all your people.

407 00:33:05.940 00:33:20.600 Ivana Saginova: you can have a lot of permissions on who can see what’s and like. I don’t want my random contractor working on one project to see everything else I’m working on. You can do invoicing through it. I probably won’t do that but super interesting.

408 00:33:20.600 00:33:21.490 Uttam Kumaran: Here’s possible.

409 00:33:22.160 00:33:41.862 Ivana Saginova: I just googled it, cause I was like, how do agencies like do this? And there’s this other project platform called Scoro. And I was gonna go with them, but no one would meet with me from their team, and once I logged in their platform it takes like like 7 clicks to like do one thing. And I was like, this is pissing me off. I’m not gonna use it.

410 00:33:42.410 00:33:45.819 Uttam Kumaran: Don’t respond. You do that. They’re dead like I do.

411 00:33:45.820 00:33:46.770 Ivana Saginova: Yeah, exactly.

412 00:33:46.770 00:33:48.580 Uttam Kumaran: Do not fuck with that at all.

413 00:33:49.060 00:33:49.750 Ivana Saginova: Dumb.

414 00:33:50.600 00:34:08.747 Ivana Saginova: but it’s cool, like I can log retainers. I can. Here, I can log into my productive I need. It’s not like I’m like really having a hard time getting in, which is like annoying, like getting on boarded. But there’s just so much you can do. But essentially I can go like

415 00:34:10.449 00:34:12.229 Ivana Saginova: Let’s go to.

416 00:34:12.449 00:34:14.489 Ivana Saginova: Who did? I have entered

417 00:34:14.790 00:34:15.800 Ivana Saginova: home?

418 00:34:16.350 00:34:18.409 Ivana Saginova: 0 8 a.

419 00:34:19.344 00:34:27.640 Ivana Saginova: It’s like confusing, and the guy was like watching me try to navigate it. And he’s like we need to get you set up because it’s so much easier than you’re making it. So it’s like, okay.

420 00:34:29.560 00:34:34.229 Ivana Saginova: But anyways, I can have. Like everything in here. I can go in here. I can see like

421 00:34:34.350 00:34:42.929 Ivana Saginova: budgets. There’s 1 view that I really liked. I don’t know where it is. I’m like how the I’m like pissed off that I don’t know how to use this yet, so I’d love to already be in here.

422 00:34:43.260 00:34:45.580 Ivana Saginova: But there’s a view that shows you like

423 00:34:47.310 00:34:48.389 Ivana Saginova: so annoyed

424 00:34:49.250 00:34:51.229 Ivana Saginova: like, how the fuck do you work? This thing.

425 00:34:51.569 00:34:55.189 Uttam Kumaran: I mean, I’m good with you, but like I kinda like.

426 00:34:57.400 00:34:58.380 Ivana Saginova: Anyways.

427 00:34:59.070 00:35:00.620 Uttam Kumaran: There’s a lot going on.

428 00:35:00.620 00:35:02.010 Ivana Saginova: There’s so much.

429 00:35:02.870 00:35:07.350 Uttam Kumaran: Like. So you’re doing everything in notion. Now, did you try, Temp? We’re using a template in notion or.

430 00:35:07.530 00:35:22.736 Ivana Saginova: Here’s what I do like. I kind of built my own like I took a couple and built it, but essentially like for a client like I have, you know, whatever it is for each task. Whenever I start working on it, I create a new time entry, and then I end time entry, and then I can see all of the time total like

431 00:35:22.970 00:35:41.349 Ivana Saginova: here. I can filter through it like I can do whatever. But the annoying thing is, I don’t want like people that work for me to be able to see everything like I don’t need them to see every single task. I don’t need them to know how many hours that you know like, that’s just too much information. And so I created one here for them to use.

432 00:35:41.950 00:35:45.099 Ivana Saginova: But then the issue is that their time tracked

433 00:35:45.480 00:35:50.480 Ivana Saginova: is here, and when a client’s like, how many hours are we up for the month? It’s not

434 00:35:50.620 00:36:19.719 Ivana Saginova: also here. And then I just they asked me off the bat, and I’m like, I tell them something I’m like, oh, shit! I just missed 5 h that I didn’t work on. So I just lied to you. And then for money, I have everything like here like this. I’ve just been manually putting it in. And then, now, I’m like, I need to add how much I’m paying people. But I’m it’s all manual. And then I’m like, I set this up to do a percentage for. But it’s all just like, why am I doing this like this stresses me out because I can’t like at a glance, be like, where am I at? You know.

435 00:36:19.720 00:36:22.369 Uttam Kumaran: Money. I think the money side

436 00:36:24.250 00:36:27.629 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t know. I feel like you should hand off to like a bookkeeper.

437 00:36:28.340 00:36:33.369 Ivana Saginova: I mean, I have Nolan’s mom, Emily, but it’s just like it’s so tied to the hours.

438 00:36:33.370 00:36:34.849 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, you’re right! You’re right.

439 00:36:34.850 00:36:42.580 Ivana Saginova: It’s it’s really like it’s tied with the hour so I could hand it off to her. But I still need to know how me out like, you know, it’s it’s so connected.

440 00:36:42.580 00:36:42.935 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.

441 00:36:44.600 00:36:46.069 Ivana Saginova: Really trying to find this.

442 00:36:46.240 00:36:47.250 Ivana Saginova: Anyways.

443 00:36:47.300 00:36:52.120 Ivana Saginova: you you can it it it does a lot of the things I wanted to do. Maybe it was here.

444 00:36:52.280 00:36:53.840 Ivana Saginova: anyways, whatever.

445 00:36:55.230 00:36:58.766 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I need to honestly start something for time tracking.

446 00:36:59.140 00:37:02.400 Uttam Kumaran: I was thinking of maybe trying to do it on gusto.

447 00:37:03.730 00:37:04.930 Ivana Saginova: For time, tracking.

448 00:37:05.280 00:37:06.050 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.

449 00:37:07.550 00:37:08.749 Ivana Saginova: What do you need to approximate.

450 00:37:08.750 00:37:10.429 Uttam Kumaran: Way. That’s where I pay people from.

451 00:37:11.150 00:37:15.670 Ivana Saginova: Oh, but you want them to go in gusto and track their time.

452 00:37:15.670 00:37:19.120 Uttam Kumaran: I want those. I want them to go submit their time sheets in gusto.

453 00:37:19.370 00:37:20.770 Ivana Saginova: Oh, yeah, you can do that.

454 00:37:21.460 00:37:24.129 Uttam Kumaran: Cause I but they’re not. It’s like or I do in quick books.

455 00:37:26.550 00:37:27.680 Ivana Saginova: Whatever works dude.

456 00:37:29.630 00:37:30.290 Uttam Kumaran: Because we.

457 00:37:30.290 00:37:34.290 Ivana Saginova: Mine is tied to the hourly, so I’m like I need it to be like.

458 00:37:34.620 00:37:35.050 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.

459 00:37:35.050 00:37:42.809 Ivana Saginova: Like, I’m like, how do agencies do it cause this is this, is it? But there’s like a bunch of platforms on it. So like, I know it makes sense. It’s just a matter of me

460 00:37:43.160 00:37:45.550 Ivana Saginova: making the fucking thing work so.

461 00:37:45.960 00:37:48.140 Uttam Kumaran: Don’t spend too much time on it.

462 00:37:48.140 00:37:59.640 Ivana Saginova: No, I I got on the phone with the guy, and I was like, I’m gonna give you my money. I need you to onboard me and make sure everything’s set up, and I will be a power user. But I’m not gonna learn how to use it, even if I tried, because it’s so complex.

463 00:37:59.640 00:38:00.210 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.

464 00:38:00.620 00:38:05.199 Ivana Saginova: And like it has everything I need. I just like, can’t figure out like there’s it’s so nuanced.

465 00:38:06.910 00:38:07.770 Ivana Saginova: It’s fun.

466 00:38:07.770 00:38:09.780 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, nice. It’s just that. Like.

467 00:38:11.060 00:38:11.820 Uttam Kumaran: yeah.

468 00:38:12.660 00:38:13.680 Uttam Kumaran: it is nice.

469 00:38:14.080 00:38:14.930 Ivana Saginova: It’s nice.

470 00:38:17.260 00:38:20.609 Uttam Kumaran: And it’s probably yeah. It’s only you only need a couple of people.

471 00:38:20.970 00:38:21.880 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, yep.

472 00:38:24.380 00:38:28.983 Uttam Kumaran: God, I just don’t care. I just like there’s someone else to handle this shit.

473 00:38:29.290 00:38:29.940 Ivana Saginova: There!

474 00:38:30.400 00:38:33.869 Uttam Kumaran: But it. But see, the thing is, I’m starting to ask my guy. I’m like

475 00:38:34.050 00:38:39.259 Uttam Kumaran: this by the end of next month. I wanna know, like how occupied is everybody.

476 00:38:39.320 00:38:41.429 Uttam Kumaran: how many available hours do we have?

477 00:38:41.680 00:38:45.810 Uttam Kumaran: And I want to know, like velocity and like how often we’re getting work done

478 00:38:45.890 00:38:47.130 Uttam Kumaran: and

479 00:38:47.450 00:38:49.570 Uttam Kumaran: like, that’s our goal for next month.

480 00:38:51.530 00:38:52.160 Uttam Kumaran: so like.

481 00:38:52.160 00:38:53.580 Ivana Saginova: The platform tells you.

482 00:38:54.060 00:38:54.730 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.

483 00:38:54.860 00:38:55.970 Uttam Kumaran: I’ll take them.

484 00:38:56.010 00:38:57.399 Uttam Kumaran: I’m thinking about it.

485 00:38:58.750 00:39:00.599 Ivana Saginova: We’ll see. I’ll let you know when I get on.

486 00:39:00.980 00:39:06.240 Uttam Kumaran: The other thing is, I have this. I have a bookkeeper now who I? Basically I’m having her send out all invoices.

487 00:39:07.410 00:39:08.010 Uttam Kumaran: And basically.

488 00:39:08.010 00:39:09.879 Ivana Saginova: You. Did I tell you what I did?

489 00:39:10.420 00:39:17.590 Ivana Saginova: My client! Hope hydration! They have a guy called Naveed, and he’s fake.

490 00:39:17.910 00:39:29.480 Ivana Saginova: but he’s their like accounts, payable guy. So if they needed to do like invoicing like own avid will email you. But it’s just Jorge on the Navy email so I set up my own avid.

491 00:39:30.960 00:39:33.870 Uttam Kumaran: So what does that mean? It comes from like, it’s like.

492 00:39:34.570 00:39:36.110 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, it’s like a closer.

493 00:39:36.470 00:39:36.830 Ivana Saginova: Be.

494 00:39:36.830 00:39:37.829 Uttam Kumaran: You know what I did.

495 00:39:38.440 00:39:39.130 Ivana Saginova: Huh!

496 00:39:39.130 00:39:41.319 Uttam Kumaran: I now have accounting at Brain Forge.

497 00:39:42.210 00:39:43.010 Ivana Saginova: Yeah.

498 00:39:43.010 00:39:47.528 Uttam Kumaran: And that goes to the bookkeeper and me. But like I’m like our accounting team will handle that.

499 00:39:47.780 00:39:48.470 Ivana Saginova: Yeah.

500 00:39:49.060 00:39:50.500 Uttam Kumaran: Counting, too great.

501 00:39:50.500 00:39:58.401 Ivana Saginova: I mean you. You heard how much money you make, so I’m like we’ll get there one day. But right now it’s me.

502 00:39:59.060 00:39:59.760 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.

503 00:40:00.993 00:40:01.666 Ivana Saginova: Whatever.

504 00:40:02.730 00:40:06.350 Uttam Kumaran: Nice, dude, good works coming. Every work’s coming our way.

505 00:40:06.650 00:40:07.680 Ivana Saginova: It really is.

506 00:40:08.690 00:40:11.919 Uttam Kumaran: I might end up going to work with Omri on.

507 00:40:12.332 00:40:14.990 Uttam Kumaran: too, so I’m talking to him. Next week

508 00:40:15.020 00:40:16.289 Uttam Kumaran: you’ll be sick.

509 00:40:17.450 00:40:20.519 Ivana Saginova: Do? Did you end up doing anything with him for the Allied project?

510 00:40:21.280 00:40:27.699 Uttam Kumaran: No, I didn’t end up doing any work with them for that. Well, I think they’re thinking of bringing me onto that. Actually.

511 00:40:28.930 00:40:32.939 Uttam Kumaran: On the data side, because 1st you need to get like the e-commerce store set up, and then you want.

512 00:40:32.940 00:40:33.610 Ivana Saginova: Yeah.

513 00:40:33.610 00:40:34.860 Uttam Kumaran: Do analytics.

514 00:40:34.860 00:40:35.739 Ivana Saginova: Yeah. Next week.

515 00:40:35.740 00:40:38.540 Uttam Kumaran: I showed him the tool he basically demoed to them. And they’re like

516 00:40:38.630 00:40:42.739 Uttam Kumaran: we wanna do that. And I’m like perfect cause. I’ll get paid both by him.

517 00:40:43.370 00:40:57.022 Uttam Kumaran: and I’ll get paid by the vendor for implementing. So it’s like, it’s like, Oh, yeah, you wanna shovel. Well, I use shovels, and I have my favorite shovel company. The Comp Shovel Company pays me, and these guys pay me for digging.

518 00:40:57.340 00:41:02.369 Ivana Saginova: That’s that’s Nolan’s dad in the golf industry, because Nolan’s dad, like

519 00:41:03.070 00:41:19.422 Ivana Saginova: works with golf cart comp or golf courses on like the finance side, like Cfo, like operation vibes. And then he also runs a golf cart company. So he’s like, Oh, you guys are having issues with your golf carts. You you should use these guys. It’s him like.

520 00:41:19.750 00:41:21.930 Uttam Kumaran: Exactly. I mean I don’t. I don’t know.

521 00:41:21.930 00:41:22.450 Ivana Saginova: And.

522 00:41:22.450 00:41:25.979 Uttam Kumaran: It would be a conflict of interest if the tool was asked. I literally tell people.

523 00:41:26.150 00:41:26.630 Ivana Saginova: Yeah.

524 00:41:26.630 00:41:30.910 Uttam Kumaran: Try. It’s really really good. And so I might as well get a kick back if it fucking works.

525 00:41:31.160 00:41:34.489 Ivana Saginova: Yeah, alright, I’m gonna go. But it’s been lovely catching up.

526 00:41:34.490 00:41:35.610 Uttam Kumaran: Alright, enjoy.

527 00:41:35.910 00:41:37.629 Ivana Saginova: See you bye.