Meeting Title: Uttam <> Osman Date: 2024-06-05 Meeting participants: Osman Ghandour, Uttam Kumaran
WEBVTT
1 00:03:59.713 ⇒ 00:04:00.340 Uttam Kumaran: Hey! With.
2 00:04:00.340 ⇒ 00:04:01.310 Osman Ghandour: Tom, how are you.
3 00:04:01.310 ⇒ 00:04:02.530 Uttam Kumaran: Hey! How are you?
4 00:04:02.530 ⇒ 00:04:05.469 Osman Ghandour: Good! Good! How’s your how’s your week going.
5 00:04:05.610 ⇒ 00:04:30.359 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah weeks going? Well, I just had just did some traveling for a friend’s basher party this past weekend like a very, very close friend of mine. I’m the best man. So I planned out. We went to Vegas for one night on Friday, and then we drove to Salt Lake. We drove to Utah to Moab and spend like a few days in Moab, like riding jeeps, and just hiking and swimming, and it was really nice.
6 00:04:30.360 ⇒ 00:04:33.030 Osman Ghandour: Lovely, lovely, and you’re based in Austin, is it?
7 00:04:33.030 ⇒ 00:04:34.480 Uttam Kumaran: That’s awesome. Yeah, cool.
8 00:04:34.480 ⇒ 00:04:40.259 Osman Ghandour: I lived in Austin couple of year few years ago. Now, at this point it was a really really nice town.
9 00:04:40.260 ⇒ 00:04:43.520 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, nice. Yeah. How? Where were you in town?
10 00:04:43.680 ⇒ 00:04:45.172 Osman Ghandour: I was on
11 00:04:46.360 ⇒ 00:04:54.650 Osman Ghandour: I was near the domain yeah. Was there for for work. I was working at a solar company at the time, so.
12 00:04:54.650 ⇒ 00:04:55.330 Uttam Kumaran: Great. Yeah.
13 00:04:55.330 ⇒ 00:04:56.430 Osman Ghandour: How long are you been there?
14 00:04:56.430 ⇒ 00:05:19.459 Uttam Kumaran: I’ve been here for like 2 years now, a little over 2 years. I lived. I was in New York before I went to school on the East coast. I grew up in the Bay area, and then, like after Covid, I was like, I wanna get out and I was doing some traveling during Covid, like around the country, came to Austin, you know, for about a month in the middle of the pandemic, and was like love this place. It’s like.
15 00:05:19.460 ⇒ 00:05:25.080 Osman Ghandour: Perfect during the pandemic 100. We’re actually doing the carousel right, because I’m actually in the Bay area. I’m moving to New York in a month.
16 00:05:25.080 ⇒ 00:05:32.240 Uttam Kumaran: No way. Okay? So yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. I grew up in Saint Ramon, in the East Bay.
17 00:05:32.240 ⇒ 00:05:32.950 Osman Ghandour: Very cool.
18 00:05:33.216 ⇒ 00:05:41.999 Uttam Kumaran: And then I went to school at PA, and then, was like, I have a shot at New York City. I’m gonna take it was there for like 5 years, and then
19 00:05:42.130 ⇒ 00:05:44.446 Uttam Kumaran: got the career got out.
20 00:05:45.060 ⇒ 00:05:46.099 Osman Ghandour: There we go! That’s.
21 00:05:46.100 ⇒ 00:05:46.760 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
22 00:05:46.760 ⇒ 00:05:53.619 Osman Ghandour: Cool. Yeah. 1st of all, thanks for taking the time. Really appreciate it. And everyone’s really super packed these days. I really appreciate. Clinton.
23 00:05:53.620 ⇒ 00:05:55.060 Uttam Kumaran: Totally no, thank you.
24 00:05:56.170 ⇒ 00:06:21.559 Osman Ghandour: yeah. Would love to guys kind of give you a quick background on me and what we’re doing and would love to then get a bit of, you know more background on you as well. So yeah. My name’s Osman. I urgently come from industrial engineering background. So was doing a lot of optimization simulation on large scale. Industrial systems think everything from like distribution facilities to you know, you know, healthcare facilities to manufacturing
25 00:06:21.650 ⇒ 00:06:30.290 Osman Ghandour: all over the place right? Lot of math involved there was really great went from that to solar and solar. I was doing more pricing analytics stuff.
26 00:06:32.170 ⇒ 00:06:34.999 Osman Ghandour: was very lucky enough to experience an Ipo while I was.
27 00:06:35.000 ⇒ 00:06:36.469 Uttam Kumaran: Awesome day bye, bye, Shannon.
28 00:06:36.470 ⇒ 00:06:41.039 Osman Ghandour: Ftc, solar. Yeah, it was not a good. They appeared way too early, so.
29 00:06:41.040 ⇒ 00:06:44.459 Uttam Kumaran: I know, like next Tara. I know Solar City, I know.
30 00:06:45.150 ⇒ 00:06:49.190 Uttam Kumaran: there’s another Bay area Solar brand. It’s it’s a sun power and a sun.
31 00:06:49.190 ⇒ 00:06:59.179 Osman Ghandour: Yeah, yeah, there is a hotspot for these types of companies. Yeah, that was happened. Company happened was happened to happen to be based in Austin. So I moved to Austin. Work there for a little bit.
32 00:07:00.139 ⇒ 00:07:03.909 Osman Ghandour: After that came to the barrier. Did grad school
33 00:07:04.030 ⇒ 00:07:05.450 Osman Ghandour: finish that
34 00:07:05.570 ⇒ 00:07:07.509 Osman Ghandour: started the company
35 00:07:07.910 ⇒ 00:07:10.210 Osman Ghandour: now we’re about year and a half in.
36 00:07:10.390 ⇒ 00:07:11.830 Uttam Kumaran: Nice congrats.
37 00:07:11.830 ⇒ 00:07:13.935 Osman Ghandour: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. How about yourself?
38 00:07:14.170 ⇒ 00:07:24.029 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I so I I worked in New York, my 1st job I worked at, we work my backgrounds in computer engineering. I saw computer engineering and then
39 00:07:24.030 ⇒ 00:07:44.010 Uttam Kumaran: went to, we work and just went directly into data. So went directly into a business intelligence. We work at the time was like 600 people, and then they was like it was like there was like 6,000 people, and they scaled like 15,000 people and like the 2 years I was there, I worked on the data side. And it was like pretty crazy, right until the Ipo that like failed, basically
40 00:07:44.663 ⇒ 00:08:09.089 Uttam Kumaran: and then left right after that and then I worked for a smaller company called Flow Code Flow code restricted their QR codes basketball. You probably see it on Tnt. So that Company and I joined right before the pandemic, and then QR. Codes became like the biggest thing and so I was the 1st data engineering hire there basically built all the data infrastructure working on customer facing analytics led the data team.
41 00:08:09.449 ⇒ 00:08:38.819 Uttam Kumaran: You know, learned a ton crazy company. Kind of in between that and the next job. I worked like one contracting gig. Work did some work for athletic greens. On getting data related data. Also did some work for a spark group which they they own reebok Aero post outs, big conglomerate, and then was started to lead product at this company called Prequel Prequels, like a data product based on New York, and then a year in kind of didn’t see eye to eye with the founders on.
42 00:08:38.820 ⇒ 00:08:49.157 Uttam Kumaran: just like where the company was heading, and like how fast we were going. And was just like startups are really tough. So then I quit. Was here in Austin kinda like deciding what to do next.
43 00:08:49.718 ⇒ 00:09:16.361 Uttam Kumaran: It was like, I give myself 3 months to kind of figure it out. Basically, it’s either go back it. I don’t really don’t want to go back to another startup. So it was like, Go to a big company, or like, if you could make some money on your own, do that, and I’d work some contracts on the side. So I was like, let’s play that field. And then this time, what we’ll do is that, try to play that, and then just see if we can build something around. You know, those types of basically data for hire data analytics.
44 00:09:16.730 ⇒ 00:09:35.380 Uttam Kumaran: So it was able to gather some contracts myself, and just kind of start the business. So it’s kind of like, quit my job last April. Got the 1st client like in July, closed another one that’s shortly after, and then made our 1st hire in December. And then. Now, the team is like 5 people mix of like full time contract.
45 00:09:36.037 ⇒ 00:09:39.589 Uttam Kumaran: We have a couple of clients, and we’re just running. Yeah, it’s been a
46 00:09:39.680 ⇒ 00:09:47.849 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t know. I mean, I’m sure it’s hope it’s hopefully similar, but hopefully different, and that it’s just been probably the hardest I’ve ever worked like in my entire life.
47 00:09:48.299 ⇒ 00:10:07.810 Uttam Kumaran: This consistently just now, starting to like we’d had a couple of good months and couple of good months meeting. I’ve I’ve also been a little bit less stressed. And I hired project manager 2 weeks ago, and he’s taking over a lot of stuff and like, follow up emails and all that stuff is like getting off my flight.
48 00:10:08.280 ⇒ 00:10:16.170 Uttam Kumaran: So yeah, it’s been in. It’s been a kind of an interesting ride being in business and figuring it out. So yeah.
49 00:10:16.170 ⇒ 00:10:34.309 Osman Ghandour: Yeah, definitely, can relate to that that kind of view. Figuring out a lot of the way, right? We. So we were building a data product for pretty much all of 2023 right? It was you can think of as like an analytics repository for teams of data analysts, large enterprises. We would jump straight to enterprise
50 00:10:34.690 ⇒ 00:10:36.545 Osman Ghandour: built built out this
51 00:10:37.330 ⇒ 00:10:54.125 Osman Ghandour: very sophisticated product right from an engineering perspective, like lots of integrations. Lots of enterprise stuff, right? Just for background. So like, you know, I, I come from more the data. Science analytics side of things. My co-founder comes from very heavy data engineering background has built the full data stack at a couple of startups. Now,
52 00:10:54.740 ⇒ 00:11:02.079 Osman Ghandour: and so we we were building that out. We saw it was just way way, too. Niche cause there’s just so many tools out there right.
53 00:11:02.080 ⇒ 00:11:02.460 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
54 00:11:02.712 ⇒ 00:11:05.240 Osman Ghandour: Got a couple of enterprise customers. But it’s like, Look.
55 00:11:05.290 ⇒ 00:11:30.129 Osman Ghandour: you know, we really wanna build a big company. And this is just the growth isn’t here right? People started asking us for custom stuff. And then that’s where we kind of made that shift. So just last, you know, this past February we made the shift from product to services. And we’re doing like we’ve we’ve grown pretty quickly. We’re like up to 12 people today. The kind of
56 00:11:30.360 ⇒ 00:11:41.809 Osman Ghandour: across the stack. I think there’s a lot of potential for Ca collaboration cause, like, I think, what there are a lot of data consultancies out there, I think. I think what we do very, very, very well is.
57 00:11:41.900 ⇒ 00:12:02.059 Osman Ghandour: you know. Obviously, we’re great of data, just like everyone. But like, it’s the stuff around. It’s like the very senior devops. You know, experience that we have. It’s some of the design stuff work that we have the back end skills, the finance skills. It’s all the stuff around around it that I think it is really special. About how we operate. So yeah, I guess some
58 00:12:02.080 ⇒ 00:12:09.529 Osman Ghandour: just like I’m gonna just throw this out to like what’s causing you the biggest headaches. Where are you at like? And in terms of running this company.
59 00:12:09.530 ⇒ 00:12:24.580 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, the I mean, like, I’m kind of with you, like, I have done these sorts of quotations in companies across multiple different domains, like, I was confident that you throw us in any data problem. We kind of figure it out. The big thing is, you’re right. There’s a lot of tools. But
60 00:12:24.580 ⇒ 00:12:51.318 Uttam Kumaran: I still think that I’m and I’m surprised. But I think it’s the reason we’re business. There’s still not many people that have dug this thing many times. So, although you have a lot of people that like can use these shovels, not many people have done it like more than twice, let alone, like 6 or 7, or like. Now, if you combine with a bunch of people that are on the team now, it’s like 10 or 15. So the pace at which we move is one thing. Second is like the second. Probably. Honestly, the number one is just being able to explain this to a CEO
61 00:12:51.800 ⇒ 00:13:16.949 Uttam Kumaran: like, that’s where we really win is like, I’m basically just getting thrown into meetings, all sorts of people where I’m just able to explain exactly what’s going on in a way that they didn’t understand before. Their current team doesn’t really provide them rain. That’s honestly more, it’s honestly more communication and execution. And that’s what I’ve realized is actually, even if we get everything done. If we don’t wrap it in a bow, then it’s not gonna end. So that’s.
62 00:13:16.950 ⇒ 00:13:20.289 Osman Ghandour: When Roi is, or especially when Roi is more difficult to show.
63 00:13:20.290 ⇒ 00:13:23.779 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. And and it takes time. Right? It’s like, we’re gonna take a month or 2 to do
64 00:13:23.810 ⇒ 00:13:25.440 Uttam Kumaran: stuff in the background.
65 00:13:25.560 ⇒ 00:13:37.249 Uttam Kumaran: It’s gonna it’s like, I really have to explain what’s going on and quickly drive to something that they could see, feel, touch, and like helps them make a decision. So for me, it’s really clear like. And so I cause I worked with executives. My whole career.
66 00:13:37.720 ⇒ 00:13:49.399 Uttam Kumaran: Very stressful situations like. So I don’t worry about communicating that, and then even feel like I don’t get it trying again, going for it. The tough thing is like, how do you build a team? That’s good at that, right? I don’t.
67 00:13:49.400 ⇒ 00:13:49.880 Osman Ghandour: Yeah.
68 00:13:49.880 ⇒ 00:13:54.623 Uttam Kumaran: Engineers and people that worked in the in the background. They’re not used to that. So.
69 00:13:54.920 ⇒ 00:13:57.369 Osman Ghandour: Those are. Those are skills are tough that are tough to delegate. Yeah.
70 00:13:57.370 ⇒ 00:14:09.449 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I mean, you have to get yelled at like you have to get yelled at or work like all nighters to like. Kind of get afraid of that, and then, you know I don’t. But at the same time I want to tell people that like we’re not just here to take requests
71 00:14:09.460 ⇒ 00:14:20.670 Uttam Kumaran: and then execute and then be like, Here you go. We’re here to say, like, we are an extension of your business, and like we want to move. We want to either raise money or lower your costs.
72 00:14:20.690 ⇒ 00:14:32.996 Uttam Kumaran: And like, how do we make? How do we make that happen? Right? Or and how do we enable you to make that happen, and for you to get credit for it right like, and that’s super super clear. The hardest thing, I think, is
73 00:14:33.340 ⇒ 00:14:40.810 Uttam Kumaran: One was getting like a team that could properly execute second, I think the hardest thing is getting me out of the out of like the day to day.
74 00:14:40.810 ⇒ 00:14:41.330 Osman Ghandour: Yeah.
75 00:14:41.330 ⇒ 00:14:42.100 Uttam Kumaran: Share.
76 00:14:42.710 ⇒ 00:14:45.591 Osman Ghandour: I can. I can totally relate to that, I think.
77 00:14:46.490 ⇒ 00:15:10.849 Osman Ghandour: you mean even just going back to when we were the startup. It was just me and my co-founder we got our 1st employee about like year ago. That was like a pivotal moment where we could focus on more strategic stuff, more important stuff rather than just like sitting man working on errors all day on, like, oh, this isn’t running we need to fix this that? Yeah, I totally feel you there. When it comes to like
78 00:15:10.880 ⇒ 00:15:25.750 Osman Ghandour: where you are in your operation, are you? Wh? What’s gonna be? What are you focusing on over the next couple of months? Are you trying to focus on like knowing in on a different segments, trying to like bring more business in from a specific area. Are you trying to like ramp, you know?
79 00:15:25.850 ⇒ 00:15:30.399 Osman Ghandour: Expand the the accounts that you currently have, or what what are you thinking about? What’s.
80 00:15:30.400 ⇒ 00:15:32.491 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. So so the one thing is,
81 00:15:32.880 ⇒ 00:15:38.459 Uttam Kumaran: you know, one is like always expanding rates. So the way you can expand rates is really come to table with, like.
82 00:15:38.470 ⇒ 00:16:05.450 Uttam Kumaran: the way I’ve really felt is that we come in as just like fixers. And we’re like, whatever situation you’re in, whether it’s data or otherwise, like we come in right. And how do I do that? One is like, I worked as an engineer at a bunch of companies, just have a lot of engineering friends that are down to work. Or this is where I can connect. Second thing is like, we have really good vendor relationships. So like, I have really good ties into Snowflake, it’s a 5 tran into like this, a bunch of surrounding bi tools to the point where it’s like.
83 00:16:05.450 ⇒ 00:16:14.110 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, you guys don’t need to go through sales process or like, here’s like options and like, let me explain to you, honest, like, what these options mean and what the trade offs are between tools.
84 00:16:14.110 ⇒ 00:16:24.270 Uttam Kumaran: So one thing I wanted to really help people do is make those vendor selections also. Just we’ll get some kickback there. But also, then it’s like makes our job release. Because I tell people like
85 00:16:24.270 ⇒ 00:16:48.660 Uttam Kumaran: you’re built, you’re paying for these platforms, and you’re paying for us to go implement them. If you pick a bad platform, you’re gonna it’s gonna cost us a lot more time to do it and for you to get results. So we help people with stack selection. The big thing I’m I haven’t really decided yet is what domain we’re focused on again. Have expertise in a lot of different areas, me alone. And then the team. So it’s 1 is, pick the domain. Second is, pick what we’re not going to do for people
86 00:16:48.660 ⇒ 00:16:55.180 Uttam Kumaran: right? There’s some clients that want us to not only build the data models, build a dashboard, and then also even do the analysis for them
87 00:16:55.523 ⇒ 00:17:14.319 Uttam Kumaran: right. So what? Which? Which have margin, and which don’t, and in the ones that. But that same time I do want to help wherever we can. So then it’s like, what’s the value that we need to charge because some work is have like longer timeframe like is less going to be on meetings all day. So it’s.
88 00:17:14.329 ⇒ 00:17:16.939 Osman Ghandour: Maybe that’s where you connect to them, to people that that might be helpful.
89 00:17:16.940 ⇒ 00:17:26.866 Uttam Kumaran: Exactly right. So it’s like there’s a handoff process. And I’ve also I’ve handed off people to back end folks. I’ve handed people to design agencies. So just want to be a connector somewhat
90 00:17:27.160 ⇒ 00:17:36.459 Uttam Kumaran: and then I I don’t. I don’t really so interested in like building this to like in terms of headcount. So like 1,000 people, I’m actually more interested in just
91 00:17:36.470 ⇒ 00:17:46.870 Uttam Kumaran: extending contract timelines, and we haven’t had really turn apart from companies that just failed and just continuing to implement great data solutions, right?
92 00:17:46.870 ⇒ 00:17:47.520 Osman Ghandour: Nice.
93 00:17:47.520 ⇒ 00:17:49.403 Uttam Kumaran: That’s the number one thing.
94 00:17:49.780 ⇒ 00:17:50.809 Osman Ghandour: Very cool. Are you guys.
95 00:17:50.810 ⇒ 00:17:58.990 Uttam Kumaran: We’re in a lot of, we have a lot of experience at different sectors. So right now is where, like, I’m trying to go after people that really I don’t want to work with. I don’t try to work with startups.
96 00:17:58.990 ⇒ 00:17:59.610 Osman Ghandour: Right.
97 00:17:59.610 ⇒ 00:18:08.800 Uttam Kumaran: Work with private mature or or enterprise, and through Austin and through connections on meeting, where people that need that. And then it’s just like, how do I position brain Forge? How do I get the
98 00:18:08.820 ⇒ 00:18:14.042 Uttam Kumaran: the content down to where someone knows that what we do is what they need? Right? Basically.
99 00:18:14.840 ⇒ 00:18:26.939 Osman Ghandour: No, I think I think I really resonates, because, like, we’re as well in this, in this phase of like thinking like, do we want to niche down on a particular area, particular vertical, like like you like, we have experience in a few different ones, and like.
100 00:18:26.940 ⇒ 00:18:27.320 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
101 00:18:27.320 ⇒ 00:18:33.329 Osman Ghandour: It’s tough. It’s tough, cause you’re like, you don’t wanna say no. But at the same time, you need something to stand out
102 00:18:33.830 ⇒ 00:18:38.980 Uttam Kumaran: So again, you’re you guys, are, you guys are just since February, too. And it’s like some point you just need to make money
103 00:18:39.010 ⇒ 00:18:41.549 Uttam Kumaran: right. So if you make money I’ll do whatever.
104 00:18:41.550 ⇒ 00:18:43.070 Osman Ghandour: Exactly. Just Australian.
105 00:18:43.070 ⇒ 00:18:47.689 Uttam Kumaran: Dog on like the highway. But then you get to Boy, where some money’s coming in. Then it’s like, Okay.
106 00:18:47.900 ⇒ 00:18:51.799 Uttam Kumaran: you have to evolve from like a hunger to like, Okay.
107 00:18:52.510 ⇒ 00:19:16.840 Uttam Kumaran: having a bad client is really gonna cost us a lot. And so like, how do we establish some principles by which we select and work with our clients. Then also, how do we ensure the requirements are set? Was, we have the we not only have buy in, but we have a great stakeholder, and those might not be the same people like we may get by from the CEO, but then work with like a shitty CTO or shitty Vp of marketing projects gonna fail. So like those are things that I want to establish. And then the second thing is.
108 00:19:16.990 ⇒ 00:19:22.599 Uttam Kumaran: I wanna work as much. Someone told me, there’s this thing called ecosystem, like growth or something. But it’s mainly like
109 00:19:22.700 ⇒ 00:19:40.809 Uttam Kumaran: trying to work with like vendors and other agency partners. And basically just like, get leads that way. I’m finding that to be like, I haven’t done any sales. Basically, I just didn’t word of mouth. And I’m like. It’s way better when things come through a warm referral or warm lead.
110 00:19:40.810 ⇒ 00:20:00.969 Uttam Kumaran: and for how big these contracts are like, I don’t need to go run ads or like, I have a lot of like e-commerce friends and Cpg people here that they just give me such bad advice about how to like grow this business, and they continue to be wrong about like where the how this is working cause they’re not in B Twob, like agency, or like our level of like data. They’re not like enterprise scale data.
111 00:20:01.060 ⇒ 00:20:15.770 Uttam Kumaran: So for me, it’s like, can you build friends who then sell within their marketing budgets to become your marketing budgets right? Like like a series. B startup, like, I’m, we’re partnering with this series, B data vis this bi tool. They just want new logo growth.
112 00:20:15.780 ⇒ 00:20:20.050 Uttam Kumaran: And so that’s great cause I’m like. But they need people to implement us. They don’t professional services. And I’m like.
113 00:20:21.080 ⇒ 00:20:27.714 Uttam Kumaran: we love your product. I pitch your product every day like we should be your guys as you grow. And so that’s a very symbiotic.
114 00:20:27.980 ⇒ 00:20:28.500 Osman Ghandour: Perfect.
115 00:20:28.500 ⇒ 00:20:32.249 Uttam Kumaran: Relationship. Right? So I’m trying to think of things like that. Primarily.
116 00:20:32.250 ⇒ 00:20:41.859 Osman Ghandour: No, that’s that’s I mean, I think that’s a great way of looking at things. And we I’ve been thinking a lot about partnerships. And I’m curious like for that specific case, are you like?
117 00:20:42.600 ⇒ 00:20:50.730 Osman Ghandour: I mean, obviously, I don’t know at what scale they’re they’re selling. But like what types of implementation work exists for these Vi tools. I’m guessing. Like most.
118 00:20:50.760 ⇒ 00:20:58.549 Osman Ghandour: I mean, unless it’s very at this enterprise level, right where, like people you’re talking with have no idea how to. You know, work with this thing.
119 00:20:58.550 ⇒ 00:21:01.820 Uttam Kumaran: So some for some people. It’s like moving from one tool to another.
120 00:21:01.820 ⇒ 00:21:02.640 Osman Ghandour: Integration. Okay.
121 00:21:02.640 ⇒ 00:21:15.650 Uttam Kumaran: For some people. It’s like my whole system sucks like, what should we do? And we’re like, we rip something out or it’s like a brand new implementation. I think I wanna get less and less if the brand new implementations are tough, because.
122 00:21:15.820 ⇒ 00:21:36.420 Uttam Kumaran: you know, sometimes people are used to budgets that are necessary for this. Sometimes they’re not used to time, and it’s still a lot of work I wanna get to more towards we come in. There’s already some established, or that’s like we come in and just like a 1 point solution. But a lot of people like the people who are who go to the vendors to select a data tool. They commonly don’t have the people to do the thing.
123 00:21:36.480 ⇒ 00:21:40.909 Uttam Kumaran: or they don’t have people who have done it a couple of times. I just have someone on their team. They’re like, throw this out on. So.
124 00:21:40.910 ⇒ 00:21:41.310 Osman Ghandour: Alright!
125 00:21:41.310 ⇒ 00:22:02.909 Uttam Kumaran: That’s where I wanna basically be like the person, just be there to help them. And naturally, if we come in and implement their tool, and we kind of put some surrounding things. We’ll we’ll stick around. So if we’re partnering with a great tool like, then I’m more than comfortable. I I don’t want to partner with power bi partner with tableau like I wanna go with the tools that I really can sell.
126 00:22:03.103 ⇒ 00:22:03.490 Osman Ghandour: You little.
127 00:22:03.490 ⇒ 00:22:08.393 Uttam Kumaran: I wanna sell. Even if they didn’t sign a deal with us, I’d be selling that product
128 00:22:09.090 ⇒ 00:22:36.220 Uttam Kumaran: And so yeah, that’s the thing is like I try to. I’m trying to catch you on a maturity level where they’re like they’re getting out of spreadsheets or like they’re using some legacy stuff. Someone has come in and showed that they they need to do this. And the buy in is from the top meaning hard to sell from the bottom like, sell through an engineer or sell through something. I would much rather go through an executive cause. Then things will move like you need access. You need. Someone needs to get out of the way.
129 00:22:36.220 ⇒ 00:22:47.810 Uttam Kumaran: It’s much easier. And you could understand the scope of like what you’re work like, what the actual objective of the business is with this data, and then kind of drive towards that. So that’s like how I’ve I’ve been thinking a lot about it.
130 00:22:47.810 ⇒ 00:22:58.389 Osman Ghandour: That makes a ton of sense. And are you looking? Do you have like a bi partner? Now, are you looking for? What what other partnerships are you trying to build in the future? What comes to mind.
131 00:22:58.390 ⇒ 00:23:03.440 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, like beyond. So I mean, the big things is like, we wanna have a partner for Etl, we wanna have a partner.
132 00:23:03.440 ⇒ 00:23:05.029 Osman Ghandour: For each part in the stack. Yeah.
133 00:23:05.030 ⇒ 00:23:24.849 Uttam Kumaran: And even in Bi, like, we are working with a couple of different tools. So we work with this tool called real real data. They there’s like a real operational bi tool they’re built on Doc. dB, like, very, very quick and snappy. So we’re playing at putting that for a lot of internal reporting used cases. A lot of people also wanna turn around and build external like customer facing, reporting.
134 00:23:24.960 ⇒ 00:23:49.250 Uttam Kumaran: So we’re using like evidence and kind of like helping people build stuff on that so it’s just having a go to when people need us like. For example, I just hopped off a partnership call with an AV testing tool that’s like shopify native AV testing intelligence. We’re running some AV test for people. And I’m like I told them, like, I need to have someone we recommend, because obviously, once you figure out your historical, once you get any reporting.
135 00:23:49.250 ⇒ 00:24:02.607 Uttam Kumaran: you then are able to do your historicals. You then want to start looking forward and and testing. So we just need to have an opinion on those things and ha hopefully, ideally, have a tool that we can recommend. And we have access to support and like, can streamline that stuff
136 00:24:03.176 ⇒ 00:24:06.329 Uttam Kumaran: and ideally, again, we can lean into co-marketing, and like again.
137 00:24:06.330 ⇒ 00:24:06.900 Osman Ghandour: Yeah.
138 00:24:06.900 ⇒ 00:24:10.069 Uttam Kumaran: My job is to try not to spend money on marketing.
139 00:24:10.070 ⇒ 00:24:10.560 Osman Ghandour: Right.
140 00:24:10.560 ⇒ 00:24:20.275 Uttam Kumaran: Like, lean on friends, lean on favors and lean on like vendor partnerships to do that because those guys are all Vc. Back. They don’t give a fuck about right, so that.
141 00:24:20.570 ⇒ 00:24:21.880 Osman Ghandour: Advantage of that? Yeah.
142 00:24:21.880 ⇒ 00:24:24.750 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I didn’t raise any money for this business like.
143 00:24:24.750 ⇒ 00:24:26.149 Osman Ghandour: Neither did I. Yeah.
144 00:24:26.150 ⇒ 00:24:42.749 Uttam Kumaran: I I’m not interested in having a boss like I don’t. I don’t need to listen to what they think about my business. So yeah, I don’t know. Interested in, like, what you think about any of that, or on the sales side, like I mentioned, like, what type of services that you guys are even offering today.
145 00:24:42.750 ⇒ 00:24:51.310 Osman Ghandour: So our pro, so our projects today are kind of in a in a few different areas. Right? We have the case where, like you said. We’re working on the full, you know.
146 00:24:51.740 ⇒ 00:24:56.470 Osman Ghandour: managing a data stack for for a couple of companies. That’s 1, you know, type of project. We have
147 00:24:57.080 ⇒ 00:24:58.700 Osman Ghandour: to be totally honest, for
148 00:24:58.997 ⇒ 00:25:02.090 Osman Ghandour: we have a couple of AI projects as well where we’re doing like.
149 00:25:02.480 ⇒ 00:25:14.150 Osman Ghandour: you know, middle Market AI, you know, application implementate, you know, implementations. And we’re connecting to, you know, very archaic systems and like a lot of process engineering there, and just like understanding how
150 00:25:14.260 ⇒ 00:25:19.730 Osman Ghandour: how they do things, and you know, bunch of 6 year old men in a room is like, alright. Let’s speed up this process right.
151 00:25:19.730 ⇒ 00:25:20.259 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, yeah.
152 00:25:20.576 ⇒ 00:25:27.530 Osman Ghandour: A lot of that stuff as well. And the the 3rd stuff is we’re doing the this amount of infrastructure work.
153 00:25:27.530 ⇒ 00:25:28.060 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
154 00:25:28.060 ⇒ 00:25:29.480 Osman Ghandour: So like
155 00:25:30.630 ⇒ 00:25:35.330 Osman Ghandour: for example, we are working with a company that does
156 00:25:35.420 ⇒ 00:25:39.580 Osman Ghandour: that. That’s some of that industrial engineering stuff that I mentioned earlier. But they work with
157 00:25:39.790 ⇒ 00:25:45.940 Osman Ghandour: brand very big brand names, like some of the biggest kind of logistics companies in the world. And they
158 00:25:46.510 ⇒ 00:25:54.539 Osman Ghandour: there are your experience. And their expertise is optimization and making making digital twins. They will take a facility basically
159 00:25:54.650 ⇒ 00:25:56.759 Osman Ghandour: build a digital twin for that facility
160 00:25:57.200 ⇒ 00:25:59.859 Osman Ghandour: put together basically a control and planning
161 00:25:59.870 ⇒ 00:26:05.619 Osman Ghandour: system program for them. We’re helping them on the deployment. That
162 00:26:05.720 ⇒ 00:26:08.440 Osman Ghandour: to the the client sites basically.
163 00:26:08.440 ⇒ 00:26:13.800 Uttam Kumaran: And is that coming through your does that come? Did that come through your connections, or like, how did you land like
164 00:26:14.410 ⇒ 00:26:16.090 Uttam Kumaran: each of these areas.
165 00:26:16.540 ⇒ 00:26:17.185 Osman Ghandour: So
166 00:26:17.850 ⇒ 00:26:23.010 Osman Ghandour: the the way we started is like similar. I mean, I guess I guess it’s similar to it’s like, I literally just like
167 00:26:23.470 ⇒ 00:26:24.240 Osman Ghandour: I’d
168 00:26:24.610 ⇒ 00:26:25.769 Osman Ghandour: talking to everyone I can.
169 00:26:25.770 ⇒ 00:26:34.080 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, I called. I called. I called someone every day for 3 months, if not multiple people. And that’s the goal. I said. I want to talk to someone new every day.
170 00:26:34.320 ⇒ 00:26:39.540 Uttam Kumaran: When I called someone, I told them what I was doing, and I was like, can you introduce me to someone or is, do you need this? Do you need some.
171 00:26:39.540 ⇒ 00:26:40.840 Osman Ghandour: 100% 100% like.
172 00:26:40.840 ⇒ 00:26:41.732 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, it’s everything.
173 00:26:42.030 ⇒ 00:26:45.180 Osman Ghandour: And the thing is with services. There’s you can’t really do cold
174 00:26:45.190 ⇒ 00:26:54.300 Osman Ghandour: right? It’s it’s because you you need the trust. There you need the hey, like, this person’s not gonna fuck me over. This person’s gonna actually do a really good job for me, right? And so
175 00:26:54.320 ⇒ 00:27:24.309 Osman Ghandour: you need to. I guess, like you like you said, you know. Rely on those people to, you know. And so it’s just been word of mouth today, right? And so we haven’t actually built any real partnerships, like, I guess, have you worked with a couple of firms? You’re like, we’re we’re helping them out with their clients right? And we’re working with some firms directly. But we wanna build more partnerships in the next couple of months. That’s something really important for us. And so that’s cause. That’s how you like you said you you kind of leverage the people that you’re around. And you’re not just like.
176 00:27:24.380 ⇒ 00:27:27.060 Osman Ghandour: you know, having to do all at all yourself. All the marketing.
177 00:27:27.060 ⇒ 00:27:44.870 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. And I also think again, like a strong recommendation will just a conversion rate on that is, gonna be way higher, even just to get in a meeting. And there’s a lot of people play the game of like cold emailing Linkedin, things like that. But at the same time, like the quality of work isn’t gonna be great. And for me, like, I’m not
178 00:27:44.870 ⇒ 00:27:57.239 Uttam Kumaran: my sales process like I just like, tell people what we’re probably gonna end up doing here and like how much like I’m very transparent. So I always try to tell people like you’re not talking to a salesperson like I’ll scope out the project, and then
179 00:27:57.330 ⇒ 00:28:16.849 Uttam Kumaran: everybody on the team should be somewhat of an extension of like what I’ve explained or what what my background is, which is like just getting this done for people and like. And I think again, I think consultancies they rightfully get a really bad rap is a lot of people again. They do this the wrong way. But at the same time.
180 00:28:17.020 ⇒ 00:28:31.820 Uttam Kumaran: what in data? At least, it’s like really talking about their business. So you’re not talking about something really esoteric. You could talk about like some cost management or data management, or shipping or sales, or whatever, and we have a conversation with whoever it matters to, you know, and
181 00:28:31.820 ⇒ 00:28:55.649 Uttam Kumaran: try to again really flex like those relationships to make that happen. And now again, what happens is like now that I’m running this, every conversation becomes like, oh, what do you do again? Like? Oh, what do you do for data like, you know? And so a lot of my time now has to shift towards chasing those opportunities which I’ve just come, like, you know, there’s like so and so’s uncle somewhere. Does something like you should talk to him. Okay, set up that meeting.
182 00:28:55.870 ⇒ 00:29:23.419 Uttam Kumaran: Chase that down. And so those are the things that I’m kind of shifting towards and trying to spend more and more time again in meetings like this, where you just kind of like find opportunity opportunities to collaborate, and where it’s like cool. There’s some mutual benefit here. And any, or even again, I think there’s just a benefit in knowing good people in the industry like me and Clint have been long time friends, and we’ve not started doing some work together. He’s interested a bunch of people. I’ve sent a bunch of people his way
183 00:29:23.683 ⇒ 00:29:38.956 Uttam Kumaran: and so like, that is like again, you’re gonna really save some money by like having some good friends that are willing to like share a lot right? And there’s and you know there’s so much money out there like I’m not. I don’t worry too much. I’m not waiting at like worried about competition. In fact.
184 00:29:39.220 ⇒ 00:29:39.860 Osman Ghandour: Absolutely not.
185 00:29:39.860 ⇒ 00:29:49.477 Uttam Kumaran: I think I’m better. I think we’re just as good as everybody. It’s actually just that a lot of people don’t know that. And it’s like, How can I get that across? You know.
186 00:29:50.170 ⇒ 00:30:06.748 Osman Ghandour: Yeah, totally agree on on all those points. I think that last point about competition is really important. A lot of people, I mean, this is very, very different than the startup world, right? And startup world. Obviously, there’s room for competition. But it’s a little bit more winner. Take all, especially in specific niches. And this world like there’s there’s so much to do.
187 00:30:07.000 ⇒ 00:30:09.780 Uttam Kumaran: But yeah, we’ll we’ll be like, we’ll be exhausted by the time we get and.
188 00:30:09.780 ⇒ 00:30:10.360 Osman Ghandour: Ray.
189 00:30:10.360 ⇒ 00:30:14.770 Uttam Kumaran: You know, and it’s like, I also think again, you know how big these contracts are. You don’t need a lot.
190 00:30:14.770 ⇒ 00:30:15.170 Osman Ghandour: Yeah.
191 00:30:15.170 ⇒ 00:30:20.259 Uttam Kumaran: Start making a good amount of money. And so that’s how that’s why. And that’s why I even tell people like.
192 00:30:20.360 ⇒ 00:30:26.670 Uttam Kumaran: because a lot of people get in business. They think it’s like about competition like. That’s why. Also, I in client selection or industry selection.
193 00:30:26.680 ⇒ 00:30:55.999 Uttam Kumaran: I think about that, too, is like if you go after people that are just like small e-commerce brands, they have a lot of people buying for that one slot. But if you go into manufacturing or something where you have an edge or have an end. And you’re the only data player there with, like a relationship like in your world. That may be logistics and operations and optimization. You have it. You have a chance of really getting in there and being like one of a few people that I’ve ever talked about this stuff and can. And again, the vendors really want to get in there.
194 00:30:56.560 ⇒ 00:31:00.380 Osman Ghandour: Right? The vendors are, yeah, they’re they’re cause. Because those big guys are like.
195 00:31:00.490 ⇒ 00:31:10.590 Osman Ghandour: like you said, I mean, they’re really put putting money. And they have a ton of cash on hand. The snowflakes, the data breaks of the world like those guys will put down serious money to get into to those areas.
196 00:31:10.590 ⇒ 00:31:11.310 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
197 00:31:11.810 ⇒ 00:31:18.579 Osman Ghandour: Yeah, cool. Is there any way that I can be helpful to you like? Is there anything I don’t know like, if there’s anything that I’m
198 00:31:19.060 ⇒ 00:31:22.280 Osman Ghandour: I don’t know that I can do any intro that you’re looking for. Yeah.
199 00:31:22.280 ⇒ 00:31:39.579 Uttam Kumaran: What are you? What are you focused on doing out of those 3 things like, you’re you’re doing something. I’m doing a little bit of AI stuff for some of the existing clients, too. Implementations. You’re doing stuff across the board like, where you where’s your next focus? Kinda on. And then also tell me about like how you’re hiring and things like that.
200 00:31:39.580 ⇒ 00:31:43.980 Osman Ghandour: Yeah. So the that is the golden question for me. It’s like.
201 00:31:44.683 ⇒ 00:31:47.819 Osman Ghandour: where, if you go to our website, it’s pretty broad
202 00:31:47.970 ⇒ 00:31:50.490 Osman Ghandour: kind of specifies a couple of things, but it’s pretty broad.
203 00:31:52.330 ⇒ 00:31:53.380 Osman Ghandour: but
204 00:31:53.500 ⇒ 00:31:59.890 Osman Ghandour: we do, I think, eventually need any way to find some way to storytell in a way that is appealing.
205 00:32:00.280 ⇒ 00:32:09.780 Osman Ghandour: The thing is like, I want my cake, and I want to eat it, too. And so it’s like, that’s the problem, right? Like, I want to be appealing to both, to everyone. But I need to have something as specific, so that they remember me for a reason.
206 00:32:09.780 ⇒ 00:32:21.570 Uttam Kumaran: You can’t. You can’t really be like you may end up like doing whatever. But you need a wedge company calls you. They’re like, oh, I get that! You do everything but like, have you done what I need?
207 00:32:22.240 ⇒ 00:32:26.181 Osman Ghandour: And we need to define that wedge. That’s where we are. Right.
208 00:32:27.110 ⇒ 00:32:38.616 Osman Ghandour: like you said, our projects are all over the place, and it’s gonna probably continue to be that way, and we’ll continue to take on projects that are are vary a lot. But we need some type of wedge in how we present ourselves.
209 00:32:39.350 ⇒ 00:32:47.090 Osman Ghandour: and in terms of hiring. So my Co. Founder and I are both Lebanese. So our team is split between the us and Lebanon.
210 00:32:47.750 ⇒ 00:32:49.460 Osman Ghandour: we basically
211 00:32:49.880 ⇒ 00:32:57.291 Osman Ghandour: get people spend a lot of time training them lot a lot, a lot of time training them very high, high intercept like very.
212 00:32:57.600 ⇒ 00:33:08.400 Uttam Kumaran: What is that process like? Because I’m in a very similar thing where I’m like bringing on some interns like have opportunity to bring some more people on. But the but I really need to train them on like.
213 00:33:08.410 ⇒ 00:33:10.739 Uttam Kumaran: basically like, dump my brain into theirs. Kind of.
214 00:33:10.740 ⇒ 00:33:11.270 Osman Ghandour: Yeah.
215 00:33:11.600 ⇒ 00:33:13.579 Uttam Kumaran: So like, what’s been the process?
216 00:33:13.910 ⇒ 00:33:24.190 Osman Ghandour: The hardest thing was getting the 1st few employees to do, what to to to act, how we want them to act right. After that the nice thing is when you bring on someone you can have them. Shadow
217 00:33:24.758 ⇒ 00:33:38.350 Osman Ghandour: I. We usually have them. Sh! We have each person, each junior that comes in is assigned a more senior person to shadow for the 1st little bit, and then they start just picking up how we do things from them right. And so
218 00:33:39.250 ⇒ 00:33:48.830 Osman Ghandour: you also talk need to talk to the more senior people and make sure that they know how to deal with the younger people. But that’s kind of the push that we’ve we’ve taken like pairing people up.
219 00:33:48.830 ⇒ 00:33:52.250 Uttam Kumaran: Okay. Everything else is just like having good documentation, and
220 00:33:52.290 ⇒ 00:33:56.169 Uttam Kumaran: just like having, like, learned to learn these different tools or.
221 00:33:56.170 ⇒ 00:34:00.949 Osman Ghandour: We just spend a ton of time with them. There’s no way around it like we like that.
222 00:34:01.090 ⇒ 00:34:18.309 Osman Ghandour: I, yeah, I like, spend a lot of my time just checking one with the team, making sure you know that clearing up any misunderstandings or any like. Oh, this is how we do this. This is how we do. That documentation is good. Obviously, documentation. At this point, we’re still the size we’re like.
223 00:34:18.600 ⇒ 00:34:27.680 Osman Ghandour: They have a question. Usually they don’t they just ask. Someone goes and looks, you know. So it’s less about documentation. I would say more about just like very strong
224 00:34:27.820 ⇒ 00:34:38.389 Osman Ghandour: standards, internal standards for how stuff is done. And that’s another thing. It’s like we expect a lot but we prepare them so that they are able to deliver on that.
225 00:34:38.710 ⇒ 00:34:41.240 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, that’s that’s the big thing I’ve told people is like
226 00:34:41.380 ⇒ 00:34:47.180 Uttam Kumaran: this is, it’s like we want to get great work done. But everything needs to wrap up everything needs to like.
227 00:34:47.699 ⇒ 00:35:03.300 Uttam Kumaran: Someone needs to review every single thing that goes out, especially if it’s client facing like there can’t be issues when you’re talking to the client, and everything needs to look wrapped in a bow. Right? And so I think a lot about design, too, and even like our site and a lot of our future stuff like like.
228 00:35:03.480 ⇒ 00:35:17.969 Uttam Kumaran: I want it to look like we’re a Mackenzie like level right? Want people to understand like, that’s the kind of thing is the one that’s only way we’re going to be able to charge those type of rates. I wanna. And that’s a lot of it is just on presentation and story time. You’re totally right.
229 00:35:17.970 ⇒ 00:35:40.700 Uttam Kumaran: So that’s the thing I think a lot about is like, what’s the story? It worked a little bit with a content guy who kind of like, got that out of me thinking about like, what? Who are we hitting? And the big thing was like, go after the Ceos and have a story to tell about solving things in different arenas. That way someone comes to you. You have a case study or something that you can share, and that they’re able to get that knowledge out of the website.
230 00:35:41.820 ⇒ 00:35:49.439 Uttam Kumaran: you know. So I think a lot about that. And then, yeah, on the hiring side, too. I’m thinking a lot about, how do we just basically level everybody up right, no matter
231 00:35:49.530 ⇒ 00:36:12.210 Uttam Kumaran: what they come in at like, they need to be a brain force engineer. So how do we like push them to that level? There’s a lot of people management things like that. But again, like I’m I can do that and spend time on that. It’s actually the project management stuff that I I really was like. I can’t do this. I wanna still do engineering stuff. And then I wanna do sales things and like, that’s where I wanna be. Because if I do engineering work. Then company saves money and.
232 00:36:12.210 ⇒ 00:36:12.680 Osman Ghandour: Yeah.
233 00:36:12.680 ⇒ 00:36:29.009 Uttam Kumaran: If and then I still enjoy my time because I that’s what I really like to do. And then I still can keep a figure on the pulse of like how this works. Like. What’s that? What in one of those 3 sectors is like? Would you would hope your next client? Is it like? Would it be in like
234 00:36:29.180 ⇒ 00:36:34.139 Uttam Kumaran: AI? Would it be in the data stuff, or would it be in kind of the process automation or.
235 00:36:34.140 ⇒ 00:36:34.810 Osman Ghandour: Yeah.
236 00:36:34.810 ⇒ 00:36:35.870 Uttam Kumaran: The the manufacturer.
237 00:36:35.870 ⇒ 00:36:37.800 Osman Ghandour: I mean, what if you like?
238 00:36:38.930 ⇒ 00:36:44.599 Osman Ghandour: Can you say you said, what? Which one would you like it to be? It like? It’s for me. It’s like I.
239 00:36:44.600 ⇒ 00:36:46.269 Uttam Kumaran: Or it doesn’t matter like that’s.
240 00:36:46.270 ⇒ 00:36:49.040 Osman Ghandour: Like. For me, it’s like it doesn’t really matter to me
241 00:36:49.080 ⇒ 00:36:58.640 Osman Ghandour: like I I’m to be totally totally totally frank and like this is all this strategic thinking. And oh, let’s do this, and let’s do that. It’s like, I just wanna build a really great reputation.
242 00:36:58.640 ⇒ 00:36:58.980 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
243 00:36:58.980 ⇒ 00:37:13.380 Osman Ghandour: I am. That is my number one priority like this, anyone a niche, obviously at some point. But like, we really just want to deliver very, very good, reliable work. I want to be responsive to people I want to be like, just do a great job for them.
244 00:37:13.600 ⇒ 00:37:15.620 Osman Ghandour: I mean, which one of those areas like.
245 00:37:16.220 ⇒ 00:37:19.069 Osman Ghandour: I don’t know, like I mean, it’s it’s it’s
246 00:37:19.720 ⇒ 00:37:21.670 Osman Ghandour: like I do. I like red skittles or blue skies.
247 00:37:21.670 ⇒ 00:37:35.979 Uttam Kumaran: No, I know. Well, I guess more. What I’m asking is like if I have in in the next month I’m gonna I again every day on my calls. Wanna find some opportunity to bring you in on something with me. Like I’m
248 00:37:36.910 ⇒ 00:37:46.739 Uttam Kumaran: a especially if it’s anything like I’m trying to work with some people that are in Texas and manufacturing specifically, so maybe, like, as we get a little bit
249 00:37:46.810 ⇒ 00:37:51.159 Uttam Kumaran: further understanding, like what the requirements are. I could just send them to be like, what’s the opportunity here.
250 00:37:51.160 ⇒ 00:37:59.559 Osman Ghandour: And I wanna be again. And then I think, let me flip it on his head rather than you being like alright. And you know, if I come across this thing, I’m gonna come to him and come to something. I’m gonna come to him.
251 00:38:00.315 ⇒ 00:38:01.680 Osman Ghandour: We have like
252 00:38:01.850 ⇒ 00:38:29.070 Osman Ghandour: again. It’s it sounds stupid, but like I wanna be as helpful as I can to you, right? So like if you could be like, Hey, like, you know, this is something that you know we really need help with. And I I can’t do it. I’m gonna be like, alright. This is the person that you should talk to. But anything in kind of that traditional industry space, something where we know a lot. Or we know a lot of people who know a lot. So anything that touches traditional industry would love to. Kind of, yeah. Have a conversation whenever that makes sense for you.
253 00:38:29.070 ⇒ 00:38:50.290 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. And the biggest thing I always found is just like, try to get momentum and try to do one thing together right. And that’s, I think, the biggest thing we’ll find like how you work with someone, but also like where where each of our strengths are. And so that’s the thing, even with everybody like I spoke in someone like a year ago. And then it’s like, finally, there’s a chance like yo. I got something like, let’s talk right. And so.
254 00:38:50.290 ⇒ 00:38:50.679 Osman Ghandour: So, yeah.
255 00:38:50.680 ⇒ 00:39:11.540 Uttam Kumaran: Let’s drive towards something like again for me. One just like being able to talk about this stuff with someone who’s in a similar world is great. And you’re right. There’s a lot of strategic things. But also there’s a lot of just day to day like, keep pushing. Keep following, you know different sales leads and trying to build these types of relationships. So let’s do something I like. I have a really good feeling. If I don’t. When are you moving to New York.
256 00:39:12.146 ⇒ 00:39:13.040 Osman Ghandour: Mid, July.
257 00:39:13.550 ⇒ 00:39:18.949 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, I’ll probably be there some point next month or 2, so if I’m there, I’ll come. Say, Hi! For sure.
258 00:39:18.950 ⇒ 00:39:23.069 Osman Ghandour: Awesome let me flip that on as well. What? So
259 00:39:24.790 ⇒ 00:39:38.950 Osman Ghandour: what should I keep you in mind for, or like? Obviously, like, you know, we share that kind of the the, you know experience in the data space. But you seems like you have a lot big focus on vendor selection. You have a big focus on kind of
260 00:39:40.360 ⇒ 00:39:43.940 Osman Ghandour: migrations. This I mean, this kind of like, like entrenched
261 00:39:44.060 ⇒ 00:39:49.230 Osman Ghandour: work with, you know, data team operation. What is that along the lines of what I should keep you in mind for.
262 00:39:49.230 ⇒ 00:40:09.419 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I think primarily, it’s like internal reporting used cases where you need help establishing data, infrastructure data, warehousing on snowflake. And then again introducing Vi tools. I’m trying to neat. I’m I will try to find, like a couple of industries where we’re really focused on.
263 00:40:09.420 ⇒ 00:40:24.319 Uttam Kumaran: We really have a ton of experience in Cpg and Ecom, and now in logistics and like shipping as well as like. Now we’re starting to do some stuff in finance and real estate. So I’m trying to be like, we’re good on that. Here’s all our case studies. Here’s like where we’re going after. But.
264 00:40:24.320 ⇒ 00:40:26.270 Osman Ghandour: 6 industries.
265 00:40:26.270 ⇒ 00:40:26.710 Uttam Kumaran: But like.
266 00:40:26.710 ⇒ 00:40:28.240 Osman Ghandour: Stuff. It’s tough. I know it’s.
267 00:40:28.240 ⇒ 00:40:29.589 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, it’s not.
268 00:40:30.820 ⇒ 00:40:42.119 Uttam Kumaran: but it’s like, that’s where I have stories, and we have enough to convince somebody meeting to sign a piece of paper. And so that’s the thing. But again, the our bread and butter is that I want to start doing more AI projects. And we’re.
269 00:40:42.120 ⇒ 00:40:42.450 Osman Ghandour: Okay.
270 00:40:42.450 ⇒ 00:41:00.530 Uttam Kumaran: Because we work on the data. Anything where you’re running AI over data is a great ancillary service for us to throw in. The problem is, people gotta get trained. I gotta get trained like people gotta know use like lank chain and like different services to run Lms and like.
271 00:41:00.530 ⇒ 00:41:03.529 Osman Ghandour: Wait. You’re talking about people like your team, or people like their team.
272 00:41:03.530 ⇒ 00:41:05.440 Uttam Kumaran: No, no, no! People like our team has to.
273 00:41:05.440 ⇒ 00:41:06.959 Osman Ghandour: Oh, okay, okay. I see what you.
274 00:41:06.960 ⇒ 00:41:17.859 Uttam Kumaran: Like. I have to be able to get people that can do that, because even I know as I’m not going to come in and do everything. So that’s the thing is like, I. I’m now now for some of the existing data clients I’m like, Hey.
275 00:41:18.080 ⇒ 00:41:41.839 Uttam Kumaran: we need to create this this simple, streamlit app like we can do it in AI. Do you want us to do it? Sure? Then, on my team, get some experience doing that. So that’s where I think there’s actually a lot of opportunities. The AI, like actual internal AI, like something external, facing for running questions over your own data, questions of your own documents. And again, if we’re already on the data side, there’s a lot of ability to plug us.
276 00:41:42.330 ⇒ 00:41:50.570 Uttam Kumaran: But I don’t know. You know, it’s like, I think we have similar stuff in the data world. So where there’s opportunity or where there’s something that maybe isn’t a fit for you guys and
277 00:41:50.950 ⇒ 00:42:09.689 Uttam Kumaran: or if we just have questions, we want to bounce off each other. You know. And again, like, I’m trying to go after some stuff in manufacturing, so I’ll certainly send it to you and just say, like, Hey, what do you think is the angle here in terms of data? Or, again. If there’s an angle, otherwise that you come in on, let’s try to drive towards something.
278 00:42:09.690 ⇒ 00:42:18.039 Osman Ghandour: No, no, no, that’s really be appreciative of that. But thank you so much for for that. And likewise, yeah, I think we
279 00:42:18.570 ⇒ 00:42:29.310 Osman Ghandour: I don’t. Wanna say we’re agnostic on. I think that’s something we could. We could maybe bring you on on is, I mean, we’re not. We have data tools that we like using. But we haven’t really focused on that as like a
280 00:42:29.530 ⇒ 00:42:32.079 Osman Ghandour: offering or as a like.
281 00:42:32.330 ⇒ 00:42:41.800 Osman Ghandour: let us, you know, we’re just gonna do a migration for you like we haven’t even like we hadn’t even thought to offer that right? So if anything in that realm comes up we’ll definitely keep you in mind.
282 00:42:41.800 ⇒ 00:42:42.400 Uttam Kumaran: Well.
283 00:42:42.520 ⇒ 00:42:43.420 Uttam Kumaran: yeah. Awesome.
284 00:42:43.790 ⇒ 00:42:45.739 Osman Ghandour: No, thanks. Yeah. There’s been.
285 00:42:45.740 ⇒ 00:42:50.600 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, this is great. I’m I’m glad Clip put us in touch, and I know, are you on slack by chance?
286 00:42:50.840 ⇒ 00:42:52.080 Osman Ghandour: Yes, I am.
287 00:42:52.080 ⇒ 00:42:54.499 Uttam Kumaran: Okay. So maybe we should. We’ll just start a little like.
288 00:42:55.500 ⇒ 00:42:57.000 Uttam Kumaran: start a little shared thing, and.
289 00:42:57.000 ⇒ 00:43:02.429 Osman Ghandour: I’m done. If you draw. Yeah, I can just send you a slack invite if you I can, I have your email so I can just send.
290 00:43:02.430 ⇒ 00:43:05.390 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, just send me a slack connect, and we’ll keep chatting. And then.
291 00:43:05.610 ⇒ 00:43:14.051 Uttam Kumaran: yeah, let’s, I mean, let’s catch up again sometime soon. If we don’t talk already with something, and then I’m sure we’ll chat before then. But good luck with the move and everything. It’s a long.
292 00:43:14.710 ⇒ 00:43:16.410 Osman Ghandour: Appreciate it, appreciate it. And yeah.
293 00:43:16.410 ⇒ 00:43:17.680 Uttam Kumaran: Are you easy to.
294 00:43:17.981 ⇒ 00:43:23.399 Osman Ghandour: Where I’m I’ve got a place in the north side of the east village like East 13th Street.
295 00:43:23.540 ⇒ 00:43:26.320 Uttam Kumaran: Okay. I lived on well, I lived on like
296 00:43:26.700 ⇒ 00:43:32.933 Uttam Kumaran: between 12th and 11th and 3, rd and then I live a 1st and 9th for a while.
297 00:43:33.280 ⇒ 00:43:34.350 Osman Ghandour: You know. There you will.
298 00:43:34.350 ⇒ 00:43:36.560 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, yeah, yeah, enjoy. It’s a really fun area.
299 00:43:36.980 ⇒ 00:43:40.770 Osman Ghandour: Oh, I’ll send you that slack connect, and yeah, we’ll we’ll keep in touch.
300 00:43:40.770 ⇒ 00:43:43.579 Uttam Kumaran: Okay. Alright. Talk to you soon.