Meeting Title: Uttam <> Atharv Date: 2024-06-11 Meeting participants: Atharv Gudi, Uttam Kumaran


WEBVTT

1 00:01:52.060 00:01:52.880 Atharv Gudi: Hate them.

2 00:01:52.880 00:01:53.740 Uttam Kumaran: Hey!

3 00:01:53.850 00:01:54.826 Uttam Kumaran: Hey! How are you?

4 00:01:55.070 00:01:56.509 Atharv Gudi: Good. I’m good, and you.

5 00:01:57.110 00:02:04.471 Uttam Kumaran: Good. I love the I was. Gonna say, last meeting. I love the books on the background. Is this, is this like your room, or

6 00:02:05.060 00:02:12.780 Atharv Gudi: Because we, my whole family, loves collecting books. So we just have. We’ve been collecting for I don’t know 20 years now, so.

7 00:02:13.050 00:02:15.074 Uttam Kumaran: No way. What’s like

8 00:02:15.630 00:02:18.200 Uttam Kumaran: I guess, like, how do you have things like organized.

9 00:02:19.065 00:02:21.090 Atharv Gudi: I guess, like

10 00:02:21.430 00:02:25.579 Atharv Gudi: children’s books down here that I use a lot as a kid.

11 00:02:25.940 00:02:30.860 Atharv Gudi: And then these are, do you know, Amalchitrakata, the very old Indian comics. Yeah.

12 00:02:30.860 00:02:32.109 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

13 00:02:32.110 00:02:34.350 Atharv Gudi: This can Dash has just full of them.

14 00:02:34.990 00:02:35.700 Uttam Kumaran: Wow!

15 00:02:35.700 00:02:40.030 Atharv Gudi: Classics, and my personal favorite is the Asterix books. Those are the way. Other.

16 00:02:40.030 00:02:40.620 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.

17 00:02:40.620 00:02:40.970 Atharv Gudi: Good.

18 00:02:41.660 00:02:43.030 Atharv Gudi: And then that’s just like

19 00:02:44.050 00:02:45.922 Atharv Gudi: a bunch of other books. I guess.

20 00:02:46.190 00:02:50.119 Uttam Kumaran: Okay. So if I could, if I could ask you a hard question like, What are

21 00:02:50.520 00:02:57.690 Uttam Kumaran: what are like? 3 books you read recently, and they don’t have to be in any specific genre

22 00:02:58.076 00:03:03.459 Uttam Kumaran: preferably like different genres. But like, what are 3 books you read recently that you really enjoyed.

23 00:03:04.330 00:03:05.702 Atharv Gudi: So I’ve read

24 00:03:06.390 00:03:07.870 Atharv Gudi: Sudan more theme.

25 00:03:08.990 00:03:10.460 Atharv Gudi: Have you? Have you heard of them?

26 00:03:11.026 00:03:12.160 Uttam Kumaran: These are.

27 00:03:12.160 00:03:15.297 Atharv Gudi: Pretty famous South Indian philanthropist. She’s.

28 00:03:15.820 00:03:16.350 Uttam Kumaran: Thanks.

29 00:03:16.560 00:03:20.230 Atharv Gudi: I think. Wepr CEO of April’s chairperson.

30 00:03:20.630 00:03:21.330 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.

31 00:03:21.330 00:03:23.729 Atharv Gudi: Info’s chairperson. So she has.

32 00:03:24.024 00:03:24.320 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.

33 00:03:24.320 00:03:27.379 Atharv Gudi: Grandma’s bag of tails. I really like that.

34 00:03:27.650 00:03:28.660 Uttam Kumaran: Nice.

35 00:03:28.660 00:03:29.760 Atharv Gudi: Then

36 00:03:29.800 00:03:31.960 Atharv Gudi: I’m still reading a book right now. It’s

37 00:03:32.950 00:03:35.310 Atharv Gudi: Dale Carnegie, how to make.

38 00:03:35.310 00:03:36.820 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, yeah. Yeah.

39 00:03:37.210 00:03:39.590 Atharv Gudi: One of my friends are to me, and I

40 00:03:39.810 00:03:41.419 Atharv Gudi: I really like it. It’s a fun.

41 00:03:41.420 00:03:43.070 Uttam Kumaran: It’s a little bit like

42 00:03:43.170 00:03:46.770 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t know. I think the titles of some of these books are kind of

43 00:03:47.170 00:03:54.680 Uttam Kumaran: like 2 on the nose sometimes like. But I my dad gave me that book right before I went to college.

44 00:03:54.920 00:04:00.949 Uttam Kumaran: and it helped me a lot, cause I was really awkward and like I kinda didn’t. I kinda like needed that framework of like

45 00:04:00.990 00:04:07.189 Uttam Kumaran: just how to like communicate? And it helped me tremendously. And then I started reading a lot more like self help

46 00:04:07.240 00:04:10.960 Uttam Kumaran: and things like that because of that. And I really enjoyed that genre so.

47 00:04:10.960 00:04:15.419 Atharv Gudi: College is a paper. You really get to do a lot of stuff different stuff. Do you.

48 00:04:15.420 00:04:16.800 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, that’s progress

49 00:04:17.190 00:04:21.179 Uttam Kumaran: in the Us. Yeah, I went to a school called Buck. Now it’s in Central Pennsylvania.

50 00:04:21.510 00:04:22.829 Atharv Gudi: Pennsylvania. Okay.

51 00:04:23.560 00:04:26.520 Uttam Kumaran: And you said you were going to. You’re going to Illinois.

52 00:04:26.970 00:04:28.880 Atharv Gudi: I am yes, U of I.

53 00:04:28.880 00:04:30.030 Uttam Kumaran: That’s Illinois.

54 00:04:30.610 00:04:31.906 Atharv Gudi: Illinois. Oh, yeah, it’s.

55 00:04:32.230 00:04:32.820 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.

56 00:04:33.150 00:04:35.699 Atharv Gudi: It’s a cute place in the Midwest.

57 00:04:35.920 00:04:36.620 Atharv Gudi: in the.

58 00:04:36.620 00:04:37.610 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I.

59 00:04:37.830 00:04:38.740 Atharv Gudi: I love her.

60 00:04:39.280 00:04:46.209 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I grew up in the Bay Area, and then I almost went to Illinois for Electrical engineering. But then I decided to go to Buck. Now.

61 00:04:46.610 00:04:47.275 Uttam Kumaran: Blynn,

62 00:04:48.740 00:04:55.159 Uttam Kumaran: buck! Now my dad was really like hey, you should take a look at these like small Liberal arts

63 00:04:55.570 00:05:00.750 Uttam Kumaran: colleges, and he was like you should try to go east to coast.

64 00:05:00.840 00:05:04.639 Uttam Kumaran: and I was kind of just deciding between them, and it was a little bit smaller school, and the

65 00:05:04.860 00:05:14.949 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t know. It’s kind of between both. So yeah, I loved it. And then I I lived in New York for some time and then now I moved here to to Austin, Texas.

66 00:05:15.230 00:05:18.510 Atharv Gudi: Cause. Illinois’s electrical engineering program is.

67 00:05:19.160 00:05:20.240 Uttam Kumaran: He’s really good.

68 00:05:20.240 00:05:20.900 Atharv Gudi: Don’t know.

69 00:05:20.900 00:05:27.720 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, it’s really, really good. Yeah, but I ended up studying computer engineering. But you know, now, I do like

70 00:05:28.403 00:05:32.509 Uttam Kumaran: data stuff so totally different kind of.

71 00:05:33.610 00:05:40.089 Atharv Gudi: But now I don’t know is getting a lot of data stuff. But they’re opening a new center for a new school of

72 00:05:40.460 00:05:43.180 Atharv Gudi: computing and data analytics.

73 00:05:43.180 00:05:44.350 Uttam Kumaran: And no way really.

74 00:05:44.350 00:05:46.680 Atharv Gudi: Yeah, I I think that we got the announcement like.

75 00:05:46.700 00:05:48.100 Atharv Gudi: 2 months ago.

76 00:05:48.800 00:05:49.400 Uttam Kumaran: Wow!

77 00:05:49.650 00:05:50.370 Atharv Gudi: New. Yeah.

78 00:05:50.370 00:06:02.489 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I I’ve been thinking about, you know, potentially even going and trying to. I mean, we’ll see how this, how I do with with you guys this summer. But I was always interested in in like teaching some stuff about data.

79 00:06:02.830 00:06:12.639 Uttam Kumaran: One of it helps me like kind of relearn things and kind of have a good foundation and 2 just to meet people and meet smart people that want to learn this sort of stuff.

80 00:06:12.640 00:06:13.120 Atharv Gudi: -

81 00:06:14.420 00:06:19.069 Uttam Kumaran: So yeah, I was thinking about trying to go to ut and like, find out if I could do some teaching. So.

82 00:06:19.070 00:06:19.670 Atharv Gudi: Nothing

83 00:06:21.250 00:06:22.370 Atharv Gudi: interesting.

84 00:06:24.070 00:06:51.300 Uttam Kumaran: cool. So again, I know it’s been a little bit since we talked, and thanks for, like your patience, this is like the 1st time we’ve kind of done an intern program again. The company is pretty young in general, so we’re we’re not only figuring how to on board employees, but we’re I’m really excited to give you guys a great opportunity. I guess the the big things I wanted to cover today. And I know, you know, we’ll continue to have larger conversations. Just wanted to go through like

85 00:06:51.300 00:07:01.089 Uttam Kumaran: a couple of things like logistically, basically. I’ve I are you able to log into notion and kind of see your page.

86 00:07:01.090 00:07:05.720 Atharv Gudi: Yeah, I don’t. I? I should be filling the page out right myself.

87 00:07:06.320 00:07:18.469 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. So this page will kind of be basically like, consider this like your home page, for like the summer this would just be a great place to kind of make sure you have all your information. Make sure I have information in case

88 00:07:18.758 00:07:42.950 Uttam Kumaran: I’ll be able to refer you or I, I wanna make sure to connect you guys this summer. To some interesting folks. So that’ll just be helpful to have access to that. And then, of course, you know, I didn’t really arrange like start and end dates with everybody like to formally. But that’s the thing. Maybe we can even talk now just about like we can get through just like what your kind of availability is like. And then

89 00:07:42.990 00:08:01.730 Uttam Kumaran: kind of I I know Pri responded with, like, we wanted to set up that 8 Pm. Meeting. So that’s that I think we can go for. But just would love to go with each person just basically understanding, like what your availability is like if you’re going on vacation at any time, and just basically begin to note that down. And I’m I’m in notion now, so I’ll begin to write stuff.

90 00:08:02.460 00:08:03.425 Atharv Gudi: Oh, yeah.

91 00:08:04.840 00:08:18.099 Atharv Gudi: So for my general availability, availability of when I can, up until when I can do the internship. So I, my semester begins on the 25.th I so I think the week of the 18, th 18, th through 25th August.

92 00:08:19.260 00:08:28.339 Atharv Gudi: I’m also writing the gre, then. So that’s also, I might have to factor that in, so I might be available up until maybe August 10, th I would like to say, is the last

93 00:08:28.690 00:08:30.170 Atharv Gudi: day that I can

94 00:08:30.900 00:08:32.580 Atharv Gudi: put all of my

95 00:08:32.900 00:08:34.000 Atharv Gudi: work in.

96 00:08:34.770 00:08:37.030 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, cool. That’s perfect.

97 00:08:37.039 00:08:37.459 Atharv Gudi: Yeah.

98 00:08:39.609 00:08:42.129 Atharv Gudi: what was the another thing that you wanted to?

99 00:08:42.369 00:08:43.729 Atharv Gudi: But that’s upon.

100 00:08:44.025 00:08:49.054 Uttam Kumaran: Just in case you are like taking vacation during any time, or you have any time off.

101 00:08:51.190 00:08:57.781 Atharv Gudi: I’m actually going to be like traveling this week like

102 00:08:59.600 00:09:00.592 Uttam Kumaran: Where are you going.

103 00:09:00.840 00:09:04.810 Atharv Gudi: I’m going to North India to visit my dad’s best friend. He’s in the Himalaya.

104 00:09:05.310 00:09:05.810 Uttam Kumaran: Nice.

105 00:09:05.810 00:09:06.460 Atharv Gudi: So we’re just gonna.

106 00:09:06.460 00:09:07.349 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, wow!

107 00:09:07.350 00:09:08.340 Atharv Gudi: Few days.

108 00:09:09.100 00:09:12.216 Atharv Gudi: so I think our 1st meeting is tomorrow, right tomorrow evening

109 00:09:12.820 00:09:15.159 Atharv Gudi: I’ll be able to make that one

110 00:09:15.756 00:09:20.977 Atharv Gudi: and then rest of the week is might be slightly dicey, but I think I’m free

111 00:09:21.790 00:09:24.540 Atharv Gudi: about the 9, th I think, which is when

112 00:09:25.410 00:09:29.909 Atharv Gudi: I’m assuming most of us will be getting together or talking to other.

113 00:09:29.910 00:09:45.930 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, th, that’s that’s totally fine. Honestly like I think this week will be, there’ll be some tasks assigned to everyone. The only thing I wanted to. You know, I wanted to get everybody and the and even the brain porch team together on Friday. Which was gonna be

114 00:09:46.090 00:09:49.630 Uttam Kumaran: Friday around like this time or a little earlier, but

115 00:09:50.100 00:09:54.299 Uttam Kumaran: I’ll I’ll message in the slack, and you can let me know if you’re available.

116 00:09:56.154 00:10:05.909 Uttam Kumaran: So no problem on that. And then, if if anything, comes up where you’re like planning stuff between now and August 10, th just let me know again like

117 00:10:06.310 00:10:10.140 Uttam Kumaran: that’s totally fine. I just wanna make sure that if I’m scheduling things

118 00:10:10.369 00:10:14.760 Uttam Kumaran: I could schedule around that. And if I’m booking time with you in front of the second schedule around that. So.

119 00:10:15.030 00:10:17.000 Atharv Gudi: Alright cool, so as of now, I think

120 00:10:17.160 00:10:23.170 Atharv Gudi: this week’s the only vacation that I’ll probably be taking throughout the summer to the summer entirely.

121 00:10:25.750 00:10:31.219 Atharv Gudi: the times, I think, for our one on ones weekly, one on ones. We’ve already set up right Mondays.

122 00:10:31.220 00:10:32.070 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.

123 00:10:32.610 00:10:35.759 Atharv Gudi: I think Chicago time would be 11. Am.

124 00:10:36.280 00:10:36.800 Atharv Gudi: Okay.

125 00:10:36.800 00:10:37.569 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, perfect.

126 00:10:37.570 00:10:42.021 Atharv Gudi: 7 am I keep forgetting that you know she enter. Time is more than.

127 00:10:44.020 00:10:47.570 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, it’s just. It’s a well, I think right now, Chicago’s central, right?

128 00:10:47.570 00:10:48.550 Atharv Gudi: It is, it is.

129 00:10:48.690 00:10:50.200 Uttam Kumaran: Okay. So I’m on Central, too.

130 00:10:50.200 00:10:53.770 Atharv Gudi: Yeah, I just keep thinking about Chicago time cause most of my friends are

131 00:10:54.020 00:10:54.680 Atharv Gudi: in a and.

132 00:10:54.680 00:10:56.810 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

133 00:10:56.810 00:10:57.639 Atharv Gudi: But yeah.

134 00:10:58.030 00:10:59.080 Atharv Gudi: So 11 am.

135 00:10:59.395 00:10:59.710 Uttam Kumaran: Child.

136 00:10:59.710 00:11:00.530 Atharv Gudi: And her.

137 00:11:01.870 00:11:02.460 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.

138 00:11:02.810 00:11:04.600 Uttam Kumaran: let me just do this.

139 00:11:11.820 00:11:21.380 Uttam Kumaran: and then I will just let you know about when we want to do team meetings and things I kind of want to do. You know, we’re not a big meeting, heavy company.

140 00:11:22.520 00:11:30.560 Uttam Kumaran: in fact, like I don’t think meetings for like meetings sake is like so so I guess, even having taking a step back.

141 00:11:30.890 00:11:37.020 Uttam Kumaran: I think hopefully, like you guys will in working with me and working with team, you’ll learn one style of working.

142 00:11:37.130 00:11:41.955 Uttam Kumaran: I my background. You know, I spent a lot of time working in startups.

143 00:11:42.950 00:12:03.689 Uttam Kumaran: lot of time working both as an engineer, leading engineers and then leading product development. So you know part of it. Part of this game of you know, being an engineer and being an engineering is, you know, optimizing for hours you can work and how much you can deliver. But it’s also optimizing for communication, because this is unique compared to school, and compared to some other

144 00:12:03.730 00:12:06.449 Uttam Kumaran: things where you’re working with a lot of people. And so there is a

145 00:12:06.540 00:12:17.160 Uttam Kumaran: tend to be a lot of communication. So I do have a lot of opinions on how we communicate, both internally and externally, and then also how we communicate with each other. That being said like

146 00:12:17.460 00:12:22.570 Uttam Kumaran: a lot of the companies that I’ve worked on, and typical kind of the play, you’ll see is that people just book

147 00:12:23.047 00:12:34.789 Uttam Kumaran: recurring meeting so that there’s like, you know, meeting every day and it. And instead, I’m more interested in doing a lot of things via writing and doing a lot of things asynchronously calling Async basically.

148 00:12:34.790 00:12:35.120 Atharv Gudi: Yeah.

149 00:12:35.280 00:12:48.720 Uttam Kumaran: Making sure that people, you know, can do some writing, have a lot of time available to them to work through problems. But additionally have access to people, so that if you want to meet with me we can hop on a call in 15 min, right? And so.

150 00:12:48.720 00:12:49.110 Atharv Gudi: Okay.

151 00:12:49.110 00:12:54.189 Uttam Kumaran: That’s the thing that I really focus on for for me and my team. But again, I

152 00:12:54.665 00:12:59.404 Uttam Kumaran: I wanna be aware, that these that this, you know, may be one of

153 00:13:00.000 00:13:08.319 Uttam Kumaran: you and the other interns, like 1st or few experiences working. And so I want this to just be another thing that you see another angle of how people work.

154 00:13:08.684 00:13:11.995 Uttam Kumaran: And you know you could come up with your own thesis about how

155 00:13:12.540 00:13:29.840 Uttam Kumaran: what’s best for you. So I’ll be just booking a few meetings, and then over time we’ll kind of get a little bit more settled on like what’s the best cadence to meet again. My goal is to give you guys as much instruction and as much runway as possible, and then have a couple of key areas that

156 00:13:30.250 00:13:35.829 Uttam Kumaran: each of you can focus on, you know, during this next you know, 2 months or so.

157 00:13:35.860 00:13:37.629 Uttam Kumaran: and then I’ll of course, like

158 00:13:38.080 00:13:45.859 Uttam Kumaran: for me. This isn’t just focused on like having you guys deliver, you know, work for brain forge. I actually, I’m very much interested in

159 00:13:45.890 00:14:09.299 Uttam Kumaran: not only giving you guys a great amount of curriculum. And like, where real practical data, engineering data, analysis and analytics engineering like where the state of it is today. But then also connecting you guys and bringing on some people in my network. People that are running companies, people that are on our team that are working specific fields and having them kind of present, and just have open conversations with you guys. So

160 00:14:09.300 00:14:19.535 Uttam Kumaran: hopefully, by the end of this, you’ll have a really good understanding of, like the world of kind of like modern data, engineering and data, analytics and kind of decide what you want to do.

161 00:14:20.120 00:14:21.379 Atharv Gudi: Power, to that.

162 00:14:22.070 00:14:25.960 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. And so, yeah, I think the notion I would say.

163 00:14:26.248 00:14:35.979 Uttam Kumaran: would love if you, when you have a chance to kind of fill out. The the big thing I wanted to ask is, you know, I’m kind of deciding on the best way of structuring

164 00:14:36.344 00:15:03.450 Uttam Kumaran: how we do almost like one or 2 rotations where I can make sure that you guys have 4 weeks in a given in a field, and the kind of the fields that we have internally are really among like 4. So it’s data analysis, analytics, engineering, data, engineering and and sort of AI AI being part of probably the newest one. But honestly, we’ll leverage both automating some of the data tasks as well as automating some internal tasks.

165 00:15:03.808 00:15:25.560 Uttam Kumaran: So I’m kinda gonna give everybody some time to sit and learn about a little of those, and then we’ll all kind of come to decision on what everybody’s interested in doing. Basically picking 2 of those out of the 4 to focus on for the summer. That way you could have, you know, 4 to 5 weeks each in one discipline, and we’ll be able to arrange kind of with the curriculum for that. So

166 00:15:26.010 00:15:33.308 Uttam Kumaran: I guess that’s some flexibility. But of course, like I wanna make sure that we can have everything prepared and kind of allow you to.

167 00:15:33.630 00:15:35.279 Uttam Kumaran: you know. Run at your speed.

168 00:15:35.684 00:15:52.119 Uttam Kumaran: The other thing is, we’ll we’re beginning to prepare. You know, a ton of resources across all of it. So although you may just pick data, engineering or pick one of the 4 access to all the materials and everything. You’ll have access to everything. Any sort of recordings or documentation. So

169 00:15:52.800 00:15:57.659 Uttam Kumaran: it’s mainly just so we can groups of people that I compare with mentors and for the company.

170 00:15:59.010 00:15:59.780 Uttam Kumaran: Wow!

171 00:16:00.079 00:16:04.279 Atharv Gudi: I didn’t get that last part. Do you think you could just repeat that.

172 00:16:04.740 00:16:09.380 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. So the the the thing I I wanted to make sure is that

173 00:16:09.747 00:16:31.299 Uttam Kumaran: out of the 4 that you’re able to select just to, but that you’ll actually have access to all of the materials across everything. Mainly, it’s just so that we can have some level of organization and have too much context switching with you guys on doing like 10 different things. Really, my goal is to figure out, okay, are you? Which 2 disciplines? Are you interested in?

174 00:16:31.300 00:16:44.250 Uttam Kumaran: And then can we craft 2 projects basically to work on during that time? And then make sure that your time is also filled meeting people and kind of shadowing how we actually do work for our clients.

175 00:16:44.925 00:16:47.049 Uttam Kumaran: So that’s that’s the basic

176 00:16:47.513 00:16:52.500 Uttam Kumaran: goal. The only other kind of to do, and this will be

177 00:16:52.740 00:17:01.878 Uttam Kumaran: sort of a deliverable for Friday, and I’m just gonna go ahead and I’ll take notes in in one of these meeting notes in notion.

178 00:17:05.050 00:17:11.629 Atharv Gudi: So you. I just got the deliverables for Friday part, but I didn’t get anything after that. Could you repeat that.

179 00:17:11.630 00:17:23.010 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. So for for Friday, the only thing that’s due is, I’m having everybody do a what’s called like a like a slide. 5, 5 slide exercise. Basically, your job is just to create 5

180 00:17:23.109 00:17:27.130 Uttam Kumaran: Powerpoint slides about you. They can be anything about like your interest.

181 00:17:27.260 00:17:29.490 Uttam Kumaran: your background, what you want to do.

182 00:17:29.540 00:17:43.239 Uttam Kumaran: It’s a little bit open, ended, and you’ll just be presenting that to the other interns and the team and so that’s really the only deliverable is just like you can create in Google slides, you have your brain forge email, and it’s just

183 00:17:43.330 00:17:44.890 Uttam Kumaran: 5 slides about you.

184 00:17:45.980 00:17:48.465 Atharv Gudi: Okay, perfect. I’ll get that done.

185 00:17:48.880 00:18:00.519 Uttam Kumaran: Pretty simple. But again, hopefully, that just allows you to kind of you know, just log in everything. Make sure you’ve access everything, and then on Friday you’ll meet the whole team

186 00:18:01.112 00:18:14.519 Uttam Kumaran: in between in between now and then. It would also be great to fill out. The notion, Doc. With all your links and details. That way, we have that on file.

187 00:18:16.180 00:18:29.510 Uttam Kumaran: yeah. The last thing is, you should have received an nda. Basically, just like a non disclosure. So that there’s just we are going to be working with some client confidential information. And we have some internal processes. So

188 00:18:29.580 00:18:30.780 Uttam Kumaran: pretty. Standard.

189 00:18:31.380 00:18:41.379 Atharv Gudi: Yeah, I received. And then I noticed that there’s 2 forms to fill out. There’s the wait. I’m gonna just take a look at it. So there’s the address.

190 00:18:41.380 00:18:42.070 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.

191 00:18:42.390 00:18:45.130 Atharv Gudi: So I just have to put in my name my address.

192 00:18:45.710 00:18:46.380 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.

193 00:18:46.710 00:18:47.690 Atharv Gudi: And then

194 00:18:49.170 00:18:56.040 Atharv Gudi: it. I’m gonna just at the bottom, at the very end of the document. I sign it, and my title would be just enter.

195 00:18:56.040 00:18:57.250 Uttam Kumaran: You just put intern.

196 00:18:58.810 00:19:01.240 Atharv Gudi: Alright. Yeah, I’ll do that. That’s 1 second.

197 00:19:05.330 00:19:08.160 Uttam Kumaran: that’s that. I think that’s

198 00:19:08.820 00:19:11.742 Uttam Kumaran: I think that’s it for today.

199 00:19:12.330 00:19:23.289 Uttam Kumaran: so I would just say, take a look at notion, I’m gonna start sending a little bit more access to different things and kind of putting together curriculum. The other thing, actually, while we’re on topping is to think a little bit about

200 00:19:23.583 00:19:30.429 Uttam Kumaran: which field that you may be interested in, which 2 fields out of the 4 that you may be interested in like going deeper on.

201 00:19:30.450 00:19:33.331 Uttam Kumaran: you know. I remember our conversation from last time. But

202 00:19:33.680 00:19:45.650 Uttam Kumaran: basically, what we’ll be doing over the next week is looking at each of those 4 with everybody and kind of getting everybody to a decision point on which 4 which 2 of the 4 that you’d like to focus on this summer.

203 00:19:46.550 00:19:48.910 Atharv Gudi: Alright. Yeah, I’ll take. I’ll definitely take a look at that.

204 00:19:52.170 00:19:52.920 Atharv Gudi: Well, okay.

205 00:19:53.336 00:19:59.589 Uttam Kumaran: We have like 10 more minutes, any questions for me, or anything I can answer.

206 00:19:59.830 00:20:00.320 Uttam Kumaran: Oh.

207 00:20:02.280 00:20:15.119 Atharv Gudi: So we’re gonna be I just wanted. So you’ve worked a lot in entrepreneurship and all this kind of space. I’m just wondering how you got interested in that, because I’m also I used to be a part of an entrepreneurship club freshman year.

208 00:20:15.360 00:20:17.430 Atharv Gudi: but it was a very different.

209 00:20:17.790 00:20:22.169 Atharv Gudi: It was kind of a bootcamp, and there was a bunch of stuff about that club that

210 00:20:22.210 00:20:30.608 Atharv Gudi: I liked, but they were also in the younger stages of developing that club. So I had. I didn’t stick to them, and I was just wondering.

211 00:20:31.340 00:20:35.280 Atharv Gudi: where do you? Where did you begin? What’s your story?

212 00:20:35.280 00:20:36.420 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah,

213 00:20:37.970 00:20:52.759 Uttam Kumaran: yeah, I guess I was. I was like, I’m sort of I kinda and a lot of this I learned later in my life, like as I started doing more and more things on my own, but kind of somebody that is just not really interested in like rules, kind of like really not interested in like.

214 00:20:52.840 00:20:59.650 Uttam Kumaran: and like following a lot of the ways that we should typically work. And that’s what really attracted me to startups is like.

215 00:20:59.740 00:21:01.650 Uttam Kumaran: there’s a lot to be done.

216 00:21:02.020 00:21:19.960 Uttam Kumaran: And there’s a lot of momentum. But there’s probably not great amount of resources. So you really have to work really hard and work with what you have to make things go. And that’s really where I started my career. And that’s the career I’ve had, so far as working in those types of environments. Actually.

217 00:21:20.080 00:21:28.321 Uttam Kumaran: you know, this company and this company I started last year. Really, I wasn’t too interested in like my goal in life was like to start a company. Actually,

218 00:21:28.970 00:21:44.169 Uttam Kumaran: I was actually just my goals really were just to work with the smartest people and try to work on tough problems hopefully, make some money in the net. That process. The fact that, like I had to do a company just to do. That is probably just a solution to that problem. But.

219 00:21:44.250 00:22:05.529 Uttam Kumaran: like honestly, I I went through the whole thought process of like, Do I want to start a company, and you know I’ve read everything in entrepreneurship, and I know it’s really really difficult. And so for me, I wasn’t too focused on the ego of like I need to be CEO and things like that for me. I wanted to work with my friends. I wanna work with smart people, and I, wanna like, really, really solve some great problems.

220 00:22:05.826 00:22:22.109 Uttam Kumaran: And I work in a multiple different startups. And I really just noticed that actually, the problems that people are solving and the way organizing people, all those really, really difficult, you know, it’s something that everybody can do. And so it really opened my mind up to the possibility of like starting a company.

221 00:22:22.130 00:22:29.450 Uttam Kumaran: But the thing that you’ll realize that, you know, if you end up going down this journey is actually starting this company and starting a company or product, whether it’s service.

222 00:22:29.791 00:22:33.840 Uttam Kumaran: It’s actually a. It’s actually way more about the people in the company

223 00:22:33.860 00:22:38.160 Uttam Kumaran: and almost equally to the whatever you’re selling.

224 00:22:38.270 00:22:57.290 Uttam Kumaran: Alright, a lot of people. Thank you. You just make a service, or you create a great fast product and sells and you’re great. It’s actually no quickly becomes bigger than you and it quickly. You have problems about like finance. And you know, like, do you have everyone have laptops. And like, you know, there’s all these other issues. And so

225 00:22:57.340 00:22:59.620 Uttam Kumaran: it’s actually much more of a.

226 00:23:00.300 00:23:30.029 Uttam Kumaran: It’s actually much more of a problem of like concurrency than anything like. There’s always like a hundred things going on. And you really can’t like I I don’t spend all my day engineering anymore, which is tough cause that’s what I really like to do. But instead, I spend time like meeting interns, bringing people on, you know, going and getting us new clients. And I think there will be a point where, you know I still spend some time doing engineering. But that’s the problem with with being an entrepreneur. Is that like you’re never. You never feel like settled.

227 00:23:30.738 00:23:50.250 Uttam Kumaran: The other thing is that I don’t have. I don’t have a boss which is really nice. So I wake up and I’m I kind of like, set my agenda. We have people on the team project managers, senior engineers, zoom engineers. You guys are joining the team, who are who are like all focused on, you know, solving problems for us. And that’s what really motivates me.

228 00:23:50.503 00:23:57.090 Uttam Kumaran: And then, second. And then last thing is like I I, as I mentioned earlier in the call, like, I have a lot of thoughts on how

229 00:23:57.170 00:24:20.589 Uttam Kumaran: employees are treated and how engineers work together. And I really felt that I have an ability to make that a reality for some people, that it wasn’t the case for me, meaning. I was in a lot of situations where like engineers weren’t treated properly, or things weren’t transparent or there wasn’t organization. And you know, I think that, although I wish someone had done that for me, the best thing I could do is make that happen for a group of people.

230 00:24:21.135 00:24:24.450 Uttam Kumaran: And I know that if I’m able to bring in the smartest people.

231 00:24:24.820 00:24:27.620 Uttam Kumaran: and I’m able to pair them with the really tough problems like.

232 00:24:27.640 00:24:35.500 Uttam Kumaran: we’re we’re not only gonna make some money. But we’re also gonna be able to solve some really great things and continue to build like a sustainable business. So for me, that’s

233 00:24:35.730 00:24:40.099 Uttam Kumaran: that’s kind of like the overarching kind of reason I got into it.

234 00:24:40.150 00:24:44.413 Uttam Kumaran: It’s still something new to me, though, and I think every day I have new problems.

235 00:24:44.710 00:24:48.519 Uttam Kumaran: I’ve reached a little bit of like a steady state of like dealing with everything.

236 00:24:49.185 00:25:05.689 Uttam Kumaran: But frankly, the toughest problem for me now is like evolving. You know I had to evolve from like being on my own then, having, like some peers to then managing people to now almost like getting out of some of the day to day and like helping you guys working on sales.

237 00:25:05.710 00:25:08.460 Uttam Kumaran: And so that evolution process is really difficult.

238 00:25:09.270 00:25:16.299 Uttam Kumaran: And I don’t know whether it’s something you could learn in in an entrepreneurship club. I think. Reading, I think what you are doing well is reading books.

239 00:25:16.440 00:25:24.540 Uttam Kumaran: reading some of the biographies of some, like some great entrepreneurs or great founders that will really give you, like the the level of like

240 00:25:24.680 00:25:26.229 Uttam Kumaran: stress that they went through.

241 00:25:26.360 00:25:33.089 Atharv Gudi: But I also think that you know it’s things when it comes entreprene. I feel like I’m the kind of person involved with. Just believes

242 00:25:33.440 00:25:37.996 Atharv Gudi: you don’t learn it by not you. You learn it by doing it like. That’s the only way.

243 00:25:38.250 00:25:39.050 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, yeah.

244 00:25:39.370 00:25:40.660 Uttam Kumaran: 100%.

245 00:25:40.660 00:25:41.629 Atharv Gudi: Yeah, so that’s.

246 00:25:41.630 00:25:44.500 Uttam Kumaran: And it’s it’s a very individual journey. By the way, like.

247 00:25:44.870 00:26:02.127 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t talk to about this because I can’t. Who’s gonna you know I. Instead, I I could talk to my team individually in scenarios, right? And I brought on some more leadership people. But it’s a very isolating thing. So for me, I gain a lot of

248 00:26:02.870 00:26:15.380 Uttam Kumaran: I read a lot about famous entrepreneurs or read biographies. I listen to those stories about business, and that’s what gives me like a little bit more motivation, and I learn from reading about other people’s strategies.

249 00:26:15.380 00:26:37.150 Uttam Kumaran: I also talked to other business owners right like in this process in this next 2 months I’ll introduce you guys to some great business owners who are friends of mine that run data companies and but you should ask them. The same question is like how they kinda got into it, because for everybody it’s different. Some people are later in the career. Some people are younger. Some people got forced into it. Some people like kind of just fell into it.

250 00:26:37.770 00:26:42.319 Uttam Kumaran: but it, I will say everything takes a level of drive, and it’s the constant

251 00:26:43.880 00:26:46.700 Uttam Kumaran: constantly putting out fires like constantly.

252 00:26:47.428 00:26:55.699 Atharv Gudi: Give me. Doesn’t it require a little bit of craziness? I remember one of our other things that we were asked to do at the very end of the boot camp was

253 00:26:55.890 00:26:57.919 Atharv Gudi: go found a company go.

254 00:26:58.370 00:27:09.149 Atharv Gudi: establish something, and me and a couple of others. I they were my friends at the time, because they were just people who had networked around with cause. It was a pretty

255 00:27:09.290 00:27:15.570 Atharv Gudi: substantial club. We were working with the business college, and all of that. And we decided to

256 00:27:15.710 00:27:17.840 Atharv Gudi: do a little thing together, based on

257 00:27:18.110 00:27:20.120 Atharv Gudi: our strengths and stuff.

258 00:27:20.940 00:27:22.539 Atharv Gudi: That’s actually one of my.

259 00:27:23.380 00:27:29.750 Atharv Gudi: the things that I don’t usually talk about myself much, but it is something very interesting, I think, to me.

260 00:27:29.750 00:27:30.600 Uttam Kumaran: What is.

261 00:27:30.740 00:27:31.290 Atharv Gudi: It’s

262 00:27:31.920 00:27:37.209 Atharv Gudi: We founded a company to produce cannabis and use cookies. So it’s.

263 00:27:37.210 00:27:37.890 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, nice!

264 00:27:37.890 00:27:45.080 Atharv Gudi: No, I. So we got licensing for it. We’ve pitched. We’ve got funding for it as well. We got

265 00:27:46.098 00:27:56.859 Atharv Gudi: I think a a local hospital director was really excited about the idea. We were working with the psychedelics lab and everything. And we kept that going.

266 00:27:57.760 00:27:59.430 Atharv Gudi: It did take like

267 00:27:59.730 00:28:00.849 Atharv Gudi: a lot of

268 00:28:01.440 00:28:04.199 Atharv Gudi: just being involved in it. I think.

269 00:28:04.450 00:28:05.070 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.

270 00:28:05.070 00:28:05.730 Atharv Gudi: And then give.

271 00:28:05.730 00:28:09.759 Uttam Kumaran: Everything takes pushing right, like everything you have to follow up on and like.

272 00:28:09.760 00:28:10.850 Atharv Gudi: Yeah.

273 00:28:10.850 00:28:12.920 Uttam Kumaran: It’s crazy. Yeah.

274 00:28:12.920 00:28:13.400 Atharv Gudi: I went.

275 00:28:13.400 00:28:15.919 Uttam Kumaran: How is that going? Now? Are you guys? Yeah.

276 00:28:15.920 00:28:20.130 Atharv Gudi: So we’ve stopped it now, but it’s because my co-founders they graduated.

277 00:28:20.230 00:28:38.389 Atharv Gudi: They were seniors, and then they just left, and it was just me, and I was more of the product person. I love baking, and I was the one who was just making them all the time, and one more sales, and one person was dealing with all the licensing cause we needed FDA licensing, and then

278 00:28:38.930 00:28:41.499 Atharv Gudi: we also had a trademark, and all of that.

279 00:28:41.700 00:28:45.389 Atharv Gudi: And so she was the law student dealing with all of that.

280 00:28:45.850 00:28:47.260 Atharv Gudi: But now that.

281 00:28:47.260 00:28:48.899 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, and and the thing you.

282 00:28:49.560 00:28:50.280 Atharv Gudi: I can’t handle it.

283 00:28:50.280 00:28:51.500 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, it’s tough.

284 00:28:52.150 00:28:55.649 Uttam Kumaran: And then, what what did you guys do? Did you guys make any sales or like you have.

285 00:28:56.055 00:28:58.490 Atharv Gudi: We did view some. I don’t.

286 00:28:58.730 00:29:04.860 Atharv Gudi: I was not too much into the sales part, but I used. I used to make like 300 cookies a month.

287 00:29:05.150 00:29:05.790 Atharv Gudi: and.

288 00:29:05.790 00:29:06.500 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.

289 00:29:06.500 00:29:11.640 Atharv Gudi: Depending on the concentration. We’d sell between 5 and 8 bucks a cookie.

290 00:29:11.640 00:29:13.340 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, cool.

291 00:29:13.470 00:29:22.189 Uttam Kumaran: I mean, I know people in college that are doing that illegally, and they’re making a lot of money. The other, I mean it would. It would actually be really nice. I have a friend

292 00:29:22.340 00:29:24.722 Uttam Kumaran: who is a coo of a

293 00:29:25.470 00:29:28.029 Uttam Kumaran: like a cannabis

294 00:29:28.523 00:29:34.850 Uttam Kumaran: company. I think they both. They both source and manufacture, and they have their own product line in la

295 00:29:35.336 00:29:46.240 Uttam Kumaran: he’s a good friend of mine. I could probably connect you with him this summer I was. We were actually talking to him about some data stuff. So actually, maybe, like, maybe me and you can go talk to him again. And since you have, you have a little bit of background in like.

296 00:29:46.280 00:29:49.129 Uttam Kumaran: So he has, like a huge facility in LA. Like

297 00:29:49.390 00:29:51.760 Uttam Kumaran: massive grow operation.

298 00:29:51.760 00:29:53.530 Atharv Gudi: I’ve started. So I’ve taken like.

299 00:29:53.530 00:29:54.730 Uttam Kumaran: Tons of strains.

300 00:29:55.097 00:30:01.709 Atharv Gudi: I’ve started taking courses. Now I’m I’m on my way to get a certificate from Illinois in cannabis.

301 00:30:02.220 00:30:10.830 Atharv Gudi: and that’s something that I wanna see if I can implement you, you know, use that somewhere. I got it initially, just because I was doing this

302 00:30:11.160 00:30:11.810 Atharv Gudi: startup.

303 00:30:11.810 00:30:12.460 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.

304 00:30:12.610 00:30:18.830 Atharv Gudi: But I wanna see if I can, you know, Pivot, and see if I can use that anywhere else. And I’d love to talk to your friend about that, for sure.

305 00:30:18.830 00:30:31.439 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So so in in your notion, Doc, put that in there and then let’s keep talking about that cause. I need to give him another call sometime soon. He always brings me back packaging and like samples and everything whenever he comes back to my leg.

306 00:30:31.440 00:30:32.840 Atharv Gudi: And I’m nice. Thank you.

307 00:30:33.100 00:30:33.620 Uttam Kumaran: Starting it.

308 00:30:33.800 00:30:40.370 Uttam Kumaran: They’re starting from scratch. Basically like they’re growing these new strains. And he’s basically the coo. And then.

309 00:30:40.450 00:30:43.929 Uttam Kumaran: like, I think he’s starting a retail shop, I mean, like, so

310 00:30:44.130 00:30:52.459 Uttam Kumaran: worth us going and giving them call because I wanted to actually do some data stuff for him. But I think they were a little bit early, but I want to re-engage such a great a minor, so.

311 00:30:52.970 00:30:57.300 Atharv Gudi: Okay, yeah. Oh, I’d love to know about it. I when you said packaging, that is

312 00:30:57.310 00:31:04.139 Atharv Gudi: war flashbacks. We had such a hard time with the packaging. It was a nightmare. I did not enjoy that.

313 00:31:04.140 00:31:07.289 Uttam Kumaran: So to like, get it manufactured or get it, get decisions.

314 00:31:08.806 00:31:11.873 Atharv Gudi: It was just the packaging part of it. We didn’t.

315 00:31:12.180 00:31:13.329 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. Okay. Well.

316 00:31:13.330 00:31:20.549 Atharv Gudi: The next thing about it, because I would have the cookies ready. We’d have like the salesperson. And then we’d be like, Okay.

317 00:31:20.720 00:31:24.989 Atharv Gudi: what do we do? How do we get to this person? How do we ship? How do we do that? How do we.

318 00:31:24.990 00:31:26.294 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

319 00:31:27.030 00:31:29.100 Atharv Gudi: How do we put in a food safe box?

320 00:31:29.500 00:31:30.370 Atharv Gudi: It was

321 00:31:30.940 00:31:32.870 Atharv Gudi: hurdles upon hurdles, you know.

322 00:31:33.310 00:31:38.700 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. Yeah. So that’s we. We have a couple. We have one other client, too. That’s actually they do

323 00:31:38.720 00:31:44.629 Uttam Kumaran: across the Us. Shipping of like pumps and things like that. And we’re doing a lot of work on shipping data.

324 00:31:44.820 00:31:50.160 Uttam Kumaran: shipping, optimization price optimization, warehouse opening like kind of stuff. So

325 00:31:50.420 00:32:04.099 Uttam Kumaran: that’s really good. Yes, if you have that, those are the kind of interest that would be great to note down, and you could note as many as you want that way, it’ll help me think about people in my network and clients that we have, that you know, there may be projects that may be interesting to kind of

326 00:32:04.170 00:32:05.679 Uttam Kumaran: bring you in on so.

327 00:32:05.940 00:32:07.830 Atharv Gudi: No, definitely, I’d love to. Yeah.

328 00:32:08.980 00:32:14.900 Uttam Kumaran: Cool. Okay, I’m gonna hop to go chat with shay.

329 00:32:17.190 00:32:21.681 Uttam Kumaran: But yeah, slack me. Now you’re in slack. Hit me anytime.

330 00:32:22.390 00:32:34.319 Uttam Kumaran: And again, I’ll this week is really just focus on getting kind of this notion filled out getting that 5 slides done. But let’s keep working on things, and I’ll kind of slack you this again. I’ll I’m gonna text, my friend, right after this and see.

331 00:32:34.320 00:32:34.880 Atharv Gudi: Right, yeah.

332 00:32:34.880 00:32:40.140 Uttam Kumaran: With them sometime soon. So yeah, it’s great. And again great talking to you, and like excited, really excited for the summer.

333 00:32:40.140 00:32:44.089 Atharv Gudi: You, too. Me, too. I’m excited, too, but I’ll see you tomorrow. Then.

334 00:32:44.370 00:32:45.400 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.

335 00:32:46.050 00:32:46.830 Atharv Gudi: Alright!

336 00:32:46.930 00:32:47.700 Atharv Gudi: See ya.

337 00:32:47.700 00:32:49.240 Uttam Kumaran: Alright, bye.