Meeting Title: Uttam <> Robert—Sales-Weekly Date: 2024-07-05 Meeting participants: Robert Tseng, Uttam Kumaran
WEBVTT
1 00:07:15.900 ⇒ 00:07:16.699 Uttam Kumaran: Hey! Dude.
2 00:07:17.250 ⇒ 00:07:18.339 Robert Tseng: Hey! Utam!
3 00:07:18.340 ⇒ 00:07:19.540 Uttam Kumaran: Hey? How’s it going.
4 00:07:20.080 ⇒ 00:07:21.320 Robert Tseng: Good! How are you?
5 00:07:21.800 ⇒ 00:07:22.880 Uttam Kumaran: I’m good
6 00:07:23.218 ⇒ 00:07:27.489 Uttam Kumaran: it’s been a long week of moving, so just excited for the weekend.
7 00:07:28.390 ⇒ 00:07:31.158 Robert Tseng: Yeah. Were you moved like you moved to a new home.
8 00:07:31.410 ⇒ 00:07:39.640 Uttam Kumaran: Yes, I moved over the weekend, and on Monday, basically to to a house like further east in Austin.
9 00:07:39.640 ⇒ 00:07:39.990 Robert Tseng: Okay.
10 00:07:40.317 ⇒ 00:07:43.262 Uttam Kumaran: It’s really nice. There’s like an office room, and
11 00:07:44.130 ⇒ 00:07:46.270 Uttam Kumaran: course, more space and stuff, but
12 00:07:46.510 ⇒ 00:07:52.560 Uttam Kumaran: just like a lot to deal with. My my families here, like my sister and my parents.
13 00:07:52.660 ⇒ 00:07:58.019 Uttam Kumaran: So just like, you know, just people around lot of stuff going on so.
14 00:07:58.950 ⇒ 00:08:00.020 Robert Tseng: Congrats, man.
15 00:08:00.570 ⇒ 00:08:01.420 Uttam Kumaran: Thank you.
16 00:08:02.590 ⇒ 00:08:08.759 Robert Tseng: It’s funny we my wife and I are also. We were helping my brother move. So we were in Reno.
17 00:08:08.890 ⇒ 00:08:14.329 Robert Tseng: He just moved there. And yeah, my whole family was there. So I was working remotely from from his.
18 00:08:14.330 ⇒ 00:08:15.380 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, okay.
19 00:08:15.380 ⇒ 00:08:16.390 Robert Tseng: Place. He’s.
20 00:08:16.390 ⇒ 00:08:18.949 Uttam Kumaran: He’s moving to Reno, or he’s moving out of Reno.
21 00:08:18.950 ⇒ 00:08:32.209 Robert Tseng: Yeah. He just moved to Reno. He was in Vegas before. He works in the medical field so like I don’t know. I guess he gets assigned to different places pretty often. So yeah, we kind of just use it as a time to get together as a family.
22 00:08:32.210 ⇒ 00:08:34.420 Uttam Kumaran: Nice, nice, amazing.
23 00:08:34.780 ⇒ 00:08:35.250 Robert Tseng: So.
24 00:08:35.720 ⇒ 00:08:36.600 Uttam Kumaran: So otherwise.
25 00:08:36.770 ⇒ 00:08:41.780 Robert Tseng: Yeah, well, I mean, just another more random personal interruptions.
26 00:08:41.780 ⇒ 00:08:42.530 Uttam Kumaran: But yeah.
27 00:08:42.539 ⇒ 00:08:47.029 Robert Tseng: My my wife got injured, so we had to like go to the er and.
28 00:08:47.030 ⇒ 00:08:48.269 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, my God!
29 00:08:48.680 ⇒ 00:08:54.529 Robert Tseng: Yeah, it’s just okay. Not life threatening. Just has a pretty banged up ankle right now, so she can’t move.
30 00:08:54.530 ⇒ 00:08:56.889 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, man, I’m sorry.
31 00:08:57.100 ⇒ 00:09:03.410 Robert Tseng: No worries. Yeah. So we’re we’re we’re flying back tonight back to New York. But yeah. So
32 00:09:03.590 ⇒ 00:09:04.170 Robert Tseng: it’s just.
33 00:09:04.170 ⇒ 00:09:05.250 Uttam Kumaran: They’re like a.
34 00:09:06.331 ⇒ 00:09:10.218 Robert Tseng: Complicated week with all these other things in juggle.
35 00:09:10.650 ⇒ 00:09:12.458 Uttam Kumaran: I think it’s it’s like.
36 00:09:12.870 ⇒ 00:09:20.520 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t know. I I just realized that like life is always happening. So it’s it’s not something that you can really govern.
37 00:09:20.530 ⇒ 00:09:25.780 Uttam Kumaran: just kinda have to like, just be like, something’s gonna happen every week. Anyways.
38 00:09:26.210 ⇒ 00:09:33.460 Robert Tseng: Yeah, especially if you’re gonna go out of your normal routine, you know. I think maybe earlier in the week I would have been more frustrated. But it’s like.
39 00:09:33.610 ⇒ 00:09:40.533 Robert Tseng: well, if you’re gonna go make time to spend time with friends. Family like you gotta like build in some buffer like something’s gonna happen. So.
40 00:09:40.800 ⇒ 00:09:45.919 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, you gotta yeah. You gotta lean in and just like, be exhausted. And whatever.
41 00:09:46.464 ⇒ 00:09:46.810 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
42 00:09:47.030 ⇒ 00:09:47.540 Robert Tseng: About.
43 00:09:47.540 ⇒ 00:09:47.989 Uttam Kumaran: How was that?
44 00:09:47.990 ⇒ 00:09:48.350 Robert Tseng: Overall.
45 00:09:48.350 ⇒ 00:09:51.340 Uttam Kumaran: So you guys, are, you guys are back in New York or you’re going today.
46 00:09:51.600 ⇒ 00:09:59.599 Robert Tseng: Yeah, we’re going today. We ended up just deciding to spend a night and Sf, and just relax a bit away from the family and stretch.
47 00:09:59.600 ⇒ 00:10:00.290 Uttam Kumaran: And knife.
48 00:10:00.580 ⇒ 00:10:05.260 Robert Tseng: Enjoy a little bit. Take it slow, and then we’ll we’ll fly back tonight. Yeah.
49 00:10:05.260 ⇒ 00:10:06.819 Uttam Kumaran: Great Great Great.
50 00:10:07.480 ⇒ 00:10:08.150 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
51 00:10:08.370 ⇒ 00:10:18.498 Robert Tseng: So workwise been good. I mean, obviously, thanks for the push on the cell side. I think they’ve just been kind of asking for things. And
52 00:10:19.190 ⇒ 00:10:42.950 Robert Tseng: yeah, if anything like one big deadline that I’ll probably raise to the team is well, on the on the 16th of July. They want to do like a demo. They call like an All minds where, like every leader in the company, including will be there. So I think over the next couple of weeks be working towards like being able to. A lot of it is just repurposing or repackaging this that we’ve already done. But yeah, if we have like a couple new
53 00:10:42.950 ⇒ 00:10:49.789 Robert Tseng: tables and reports to show by then, I think that’d be sweet. So yeah, that’s like top of mind for me, and then.
54 00:10:49.790 ⇒ 00:11:09.779 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, let’s for that. Let’s yeah, feel free to send that. I’m gonna talk to Nico. So I can mention it today and then basically work back from there. Like, if if there is like a demo, and we kinda know what’s gonna like, what’s gonna be discussed, we can basically aim for a few days before a week before to kinda like, have everything ready?
55 00:11:10.237 ⇒ 00:11:12.500 Uttam Kumaran: And that’ll be like a good
56 00:11:12.710 ⇒ 00:11:17.260 Uttam Kumaran: like milestone that we can kind of basically begin to track everything towards.
57 00:11:17.700 ⇒ 00:11:32.930 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I think that’d be great. And also I mean, it’s pretty open ended sabrina was just Gonna give me a few slides to kind of put into their big deck, so would also be great to maybe get your feedback on, like what what you think we should be presenting as well, so maybe we could discuss that as well.
58 00:11:32.930 ⇒ 00:11:34.730 Uttam Kumaran: Awesome. Oh, that’s great!
59 00:11:37.150 ⇒ 00:11:42.899 Robert Tseng: Yeah. Also just took some interviews to like hire. I’m like, I’ve been hiring.
60 00:11:43.290 ⇒ 00:11:44.580 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I saw a higher. So.
61 00:11:44.860 ⇒ 00:11:45.420 Uttam Kumaran: On linkedin
62 00:11:46.840 ⇒ 00:12:00.906 Robert Tseng: Yeah, yeah. So we we took a few interviews this week. And yeah, I think there’s like 2 candidates that I wanna probably extend like offers to. So think I’m gonna do some of that admin work later this afternoon.
63 00:12:01.960 ⇒ 00:12:02.800 Uttam Kumaran: Hell, yeah.
64 00:12:03.610 ⇒ 00:12:04.200 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
65 00:12:04.200 ⇒ 00:12:07.509 Uttam Kumaran: For basic. For, like in in what capacity
66 00:12:08.240 ⇒ 00:12:12.669 Uttam Kumaran: like you think they’ll they’ll work relative to like the stuff that you do.
67 00:12:12.930 ⇒ 00:12:19.770 Robert Tseng: Yeah. So I think I the way I was thinking, ever as I talk to like a range of candidates.
68 00:12:20.180 ⇒ 00:12:31.520 Robert Tseng: you know, I I mean, I well, just simply, I I think one guy is like a senior. He’s more senior. I would put him, maybe less, more like a strategist. I guess someone more like
69 00:12:32.208 ⇒ 00:12:33.639 Robert Tseng: I mean, here’s like
70 00:12:33.920 ⇒ 00:12:40.980 Robert Tseng: i i i don’t know how much I would have him do the day to day like work, I think, just having his.
71 00:12:41.240 ⇒ 00:12:55.170 Robert Tseng: I would. I would like to get him to help manage some projects and drive them as well. I mean, he’s yeah. He’s a lot more experience like former, like data science guy at like tick, tock, or whatever. So yeah, just like has.
72 00:12:55.480 ⇒ 00:13:01.299 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I feel like I from talking to him. I think I I trust him that oh, I want to work towards
73 00:13:01.350 ⇒ 00:13:06.454 Robert Tseng: getting him to to manage projects overall they otherwise more early stage.
74 00:13:06.930 ⇒ 00:13:28.380 Robert Tseng: yeah. Just has little experience in the tools that we use. But I feel like I mean, I don’t know. I guess you. You’ve you’ve taken on interns, I mean, I would say, this is like a entry level, like intern kind of like level candidate. But I do have like some small things in mind that I’d be willing to to to try with him. So yeah, those are kind of the 2 people that I’m trying to.
75 00:13:28.380 ⇒ 00:13:39.950 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I I fumbled through this, and I found, I mean, I guess I didn’t find like what the end state is. But basically what I realized is there has to be.
76 00:13:40.250 ⇒ 00:13:47.799 Uttam Kumaran: There has to be some sort of role hierarchy at least a little bit like, although we’re pretty flat. I think there’s definitely like a
77 00:13:48.168 ⇒ 00:13:58.360 Uttam Kumaran: gap between people that are senior people that are junior. And I. I work to kind of lay out what the expectations are for senior people versus junior people. And
78 00:13:58.700 ⇒ 00:14:06.839 Uttam Kumaran: I think a lot of it is just like being able to say, Go, take care of this, and then not really have to think about it versus
79 00:14:07.030 ⇒ 00:14:14.589 Uttam Kumaran: having to kind of manage and like really spell out exactly what needs to be done. And there’s a little bit of hand holding, of course.
80 00:14:14.590 ⇒ 00:14:14.920 Robert Tseng: Totally.
81 00:14:14.920 ⇒ 00:14:17.520 Uttam Kumaran: And the company side. There’s like a cost difference.
82 00:14:18.076 ⇒ 00:14:21.910 Uttam Kumaran: But I also think from the management side, I
83 00:14:22.070 ⇒ 00:14:31.350 Uttam Kumaran: had it pretty flat where I just had a bunch of people, and everybody kind of reported to me. And if you have that senior junior structure you almost create
84 00:14:31.800 ⇒ 00:14:45.459 Uttam Kumaran: like the junior people. I just have report to the senior people. And I’m not talking. I don’t have like 50 people. It’s just like 6 people. But in each of the categories is basically at least one senior person that I can work to at least say, this is what the week looks like for
85 00:14:45.480 ⇒ 00:14:52.809 Uttam Kumaran: this type of work, and then that person could help planning help you planning. And then the other person, the junior person, is basically just like
86 00:14:52.820 ⇒ 00:14:59.159 Uttam Kumaran: taking on task. And the thing I said is, I actually don’t really want to be a company of
87 00:14:59.290 ⇒ 00:15:03.400 Uttam Kumaran: like senior and junior people. I I’d rather have everyone senior just because of the
88 00:15:03.480 ⇒ 00:15:19.879 Uttam Kumaran: complexity and like the, it just takes a lot of like communication issues and everything out like, for example, there’s junior people on the team that wouldn’t be able to communicate like like Nick does where he’s able to understand the data work, but then understand like requirements and kind of like
89 00:15:20.220 ⇒ 00:15:27.209 Uttam Kumaran: talk and communicate that and like own it like I, I don’t have to say anything. You know. And that’s really nice.
90 00:15:27.380 ⇒ 00:15:33.500 Uttam Kumaran: So what I basically said was like, Look, we may have junior people, but the goal is to level up
91 00:15:35.360 ⇒ 00:15:42.159 Uttam Kumaran: And so that way, it’s also like you, you upskill people, and then ideally like the cost doesn’t change, and they just become
92 00:15:42.180 ⇒ 00:15:42.815 Uttam Kumaran: better.
93 00:15:43.450 ⇒ 00:15:43.910 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
94 00:15:43.910 ⇒ 00:15:47.830 Uttam Kumaran: But yeah, it’s it’s that’s really great. I’m really glad, hopefully.
95 00:15:48.281 ⇒ 00:15:56.060 Uttam Kumaran: what what you’re dealing with in terms of like hiring and stuff comes back around in terms of saving you time and headaches. So.
96 00:15:56.610 ⇒ 00:16:10.609 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I know you were kind of in this place like 6 plus months ago. Like, kind of trying to grow the team. And yeah, I mean, I’ve kind of accepted. It’s probably gonna take like a few few months to figure out what this will look like.
97 00:16:11.370 ⇒ 00:16:19.286 Robert Tseng: But yeah, I think the goal is really to free up more of my time to yeah, be focused somewhere on the sales sales work. Right? So,
98 00:16:19.590 ⇒ 00:16:23.313 Robert Tseng: yeah, I think we’ll we’ll kind of have to see how how this goes. But I think that’s.
99 00:16:24.510 ⇒ 00:16:25.190 Uttam Kumaran: 9.
100 00:16:25.190 ⇒ 00:16:30.037 Robert Tseng: I’m at. I’m at the point now where I cannot, I can’t. I can’t take on the work anymore. So.
101 00:16:30.631 ⇒ 00:16:38.370 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, it’s you’ll find that. I don’t know. I I you know I I really look forward to these calls because
102 00:16:38.380 ⇒ 00:16:51.949 Uttam Kumaran: it’s good to just have these discussions and like reflect for me. It was challenging like I just it became another job of managing. And then I realized that oh, my God, I took people on, but it doesn’t feel it didn’t feel like
103 00:16:52.020 ⇒ 00:16:56.330 Uttam Kumaran: I was delegating properly. And again I I don’t.
104 00:16:56.460 ⇒ 00:17:22.357 Uttam Kumaran: I try not to put the blame on the people, and more of like, what did I say? Expectations clear like? Do we have processes that work? There’s some things that I I expect from everybody. I just try to make that really clear. But for the most part I think it was like, Oh, I just need to hand more off. And then having Nico come on because some of our projects just have, like a multiple technologies, multiple people.
105 00:17:23.440 ⇒ 00:17:29.199 Uttam Kumaran: it’s just like I needed someone to handle a little bit of project management. And then again, it’s just like, constantly like.
106 00:17:29.380 ⇒ 00:17:34.509 Uttam Kumaran: basically delegating whatever I’m doing. I’m like, okay, how do I get myself out of this.
107 00:17:35.291 ⇒ 00:17:38.720 Uttam Kumaran: You know. And then that’s why the senior people help, because
108 00:17:39.200 ⇒ 00:17:41.040 Uttam Kumaran: they’re they just like
109 00:17:41.050 ⇒ 00:17:45.230 Uttam Kumaran: they just know how to do stuff. And although maybe it’s like 2
110 00:17:45.260 ⇒ 00:17:47.210 Uttam Kumaran: times more expensive.
111 00:17:47.240 ⇒ 00:17:53.293 Uttam Kumaran: they maybe get like 5 or 6, 5 to 10 times more done. So that’s the balance,
112 00:17:53.910 ⇒ 00:18:05.749 Uttam Kumaran: But also for me. It’s like I wanted. I wanted to have a base of people in order to go get like bigger work and not have to kind of figure that out on the fly. And I think there’s just like
113 00:18:06.110 ⇒ 00:18:16.220 Uttam Kumaran: I basically did it the same way you did where I just got up too much work, and then I figured it out. But it’s nice now that I have a little bit of a structure, because I knew I don’t know whether it’s going to grow
114 00:18:16.270 ⇒ 00:18:21.529 Uttam Kumaran: too much bigger than this, because I think with the current team we can handle way more work. But
115 00:18:22.870 ⇒ 00:18:26.990 Uttam Kumaran: I I think we’re set up for that. Now, you know, in terms of process
116 00:18:27.040 ⇒ 00:18:28.930 Uttam Kumaran: communication like
117 00:18:29.383 ⇒ 00:18:34.649 Uttam Kumaran: you know, internal execution. I’m pretty. I’m pretty content. There’s still like a lot of stuff we can do. But
118 00:18:34.830 ⇒ 00:18:37.300 Uttam Kumaran: I think, like we’re in a pretty good spot. So.
119 00:18:37.570 ⇒ 00:18:38.530 Robert Tseng: Yeah, yeah.
120 00:18:38.630 ⇒ 00:18:40.532 Robert Tseng: yeah, no. I, yeah, I think,
121 00:18:41.000 ⇒ 00:18:46.440 Robert Tseng: yeah, being able to have the structure that you have now and then, like, know that you can
122 00:18:46.670 ⇒ 00:18:54.329 Robert Tseng: keep that. I mean, it’s like you do this. You go through this process now, and it’s gonna be able to scale with you up to whatever the next
123 00:18:54.680 ⇒ 00:19:00.629 Robert Tseng: milestone, or whatever is, but at least it’ll be there for the next. You know. However long.
124 00:19:01.030 ⇒ 00:19:08.759 Uttam Kumaran: Also it gives. It gives the next hire a lot more confidence, cause I’ve brought on people, and I was like yo. I don’t even there’s no roles, there’s no
125 00:19:08.880 ⇒ 00:19:16.319 Uttam Kumaran: anything. And now, when I talk to people I can explain like, this is kind of who people are processes.
126 00:19:16.652 ⇒ 00:19:21.450 Uttam Kumaran: And I’ve I actually give the reins a lot to the folks on the team to kind of like.
127 00:19:21.470 ⇒ 00:19:36.249 Uttam Kumaran: think about process. Think about how we want to do things that works for us, not just ways like we’ve done it before by default. So again, it helps for the next person that comes on. I basically like, oh, this is kind of our team things like that. And it just makes that process smoother. So
128 00:19:36.670 ⇒ 00:19:49.260 Uttam Kumaran: again, I think a lot about the developer process, because if they’re able to execute work consistently and and have great expectations and have, like basically what they come to work to do, really establish well.
129 00:19:49.645 ⇒ 00:19:55.864 Uttam Kumaran: it’s just like it’s smooth sailing if you just set expectations right across the across the board.
130 00:19:57.100 ⇒ 00:20:01.009 Uttam Kumaran: so that that helps to attract even more senior people.
131 00:20:01.410 ⇒ 00:20:04.580 Uttam Kumaran: and then keep the people that are there. I think the biggest thing was like.
132 00:20:04.940 ⇒ 00:20:06.040 Uttam Kumaran: I
133 00:20:06.260 ⇒ 00:20:24.009 Uttam Kumaran: I like it was just hard to transition, like some people are part time. Some people are full time like that process was tough just because it was like budget issues. So that’s what like I’m focused on now is like, okay, can I get the budget to a place where I can bring folks on more full time, have, like
134 00:20:24.090 ⇒ 00:20:36.560 Uttam Kumaran: a bit more of their guaranteed time, and then start building like a legitimate like team, where, instead of like having a bunch of people that I have because there are skills that’s so good. But
135 00:20:36.730 ⇒ 00:20:41.689 Uttam Kumaran: I just like I can’t afford to pay them for like 8 HA day. So yeah.
136 00:20:43.490 ⇒ 00:20:52.299 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I don’t. I don’t think I’ll be hiring full time anytime soon. Yeah, I just feel like it’s not yeah like you said, I don’t. I don’t feel confident enough about.
137 00:20:52.570 ⇒ 00:20:53.410 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
138 00:20:53.410 ⇒ 00:20:55.740 Robert Tseng: Having the budget to to pay the Casino.
139 00:20:55.740 ⇒ 00:20:58.309 Uttam Kumaran: A lot of risk like it’s it’s someone’s life.
140 00:20:58.620 ⇒ 00:20:59.620 Robert Tseng: Yeah, huh.
141 00:20:59.620 ⇒ 00:21:07.540 Uttam Kumaran: And it’s makes me really nervous. I don’t know what to do. But yeah, so
142 00:21:07.800 ⇒ 00:21:15.070 Uttam Kumaran: I mean, that’s why we’re going after stuff on sales side really hard. And that’s really like what having the people, especially in the last few weeks.
143 00:21:15.410 ⇒ 00:21:19.740 Uttam Kumaran: has been better at like allowing me to basically step away for like
144 00:21:19.890 ⇒ 00:21:22.549 Uttam Kumaran: a day or half a day, and just like
145 00:21:22.630 ⇒ 00:21:25.899 Uttam Kumaran: meet people and work on stuff for sales
146 00:21:25.920 ⇒ 00:21:28.050 Uttam Kumaran: that’s been really nice. Otherwise it’s like.
147 00:21:28.460 ⇒ 00:21:31.230 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t have like pockets to do that. If I’m
148 00:21:31.260 ⇒ 00:21:34.549 Uttam Kumaran: I’m just doing 8 h or 10 h of engineering work. So.
149 00:21:34.720 ⇒ 00:21:35.830 Robert Tseng: Yeah, totally
150 00:21:37.140 ⇒ 00:21:43.909 Robert Tseng: cool. Yeah. Well, meet. Well, you kind of you mentioned that you had some some updates on the sales side would love to get a transition to chat.
151 00:21:43.910 ⇒ 00:21:47.458 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, yeah, so on the
152 00:21:48.190 ⇒ 00:21:52.060 Uttam Kumaran: on the manufacturing side. So I have another friend.
153 00:21:52.505 ⇒ 00:21:54.700 Uttam Kumaran: And I’m actually interested in like
154 00:21:55.230 ⇒ 00:22:07.409 Uttam Kumaran: what you think about this. So I kind of like, I started to map out basically, all of our partnerships, like people I know in the industries that we’re kind of going after. And I have a friend who sells insurance
155 00:22:07.470 ⇒ 00:22:15.460 Uttam Kumaran: in this like manufacturing manufacturing like far manufacturing like this sort of business.
156 00:22:16.680 ⇒ 00:22:25.541 Uttam Kumaran: like industrials, and he sells like kind of like business insurance. And I he’s a friend of mine. I was basically like, Hey, I wonder if if,
157 00:22:26.620 ⇒ 00:22:48.459 Uttam Kumaran: like, he, he’s always like enterprising. He’s like looking for stuff, and I’m he’s known me since I started the business, and we always try to find an opportunity to do something. And I basically said, Hey, the stuff I’m doing. If you have clients that you can kind of suss out that need data work like, I think it’s a i could equip you with all the stuff you need basically to pitch.
158 00:22:48.530 ⇒ 00:22:49.630 Uttam Kumaran: And
159 00:22:49.690 ⇒ 00:22:58.540 Uttam Kumaran: maybe we cut some sort of like affiliate deal, basically and so that’s what I’m thinking. And his name’s Ian, and he’s basically been
160 00:22:58.690 ⇒ 00:23:01.920 Uttam Kumaran: kind of like, we’re just over this past like week and a half been
161 00:23:01.930 ⇒ 00:23:08.749 Uttam Kumaran: basically kind of like thinking about how he could pitch that. And the nice thing is he through his insurance services as a
162 00:23:08.800 ⇒ 00:23:13.560 Uttam Kumaran: ton of access to like different companies, basically. And like
163 00:23:13.630 ⇒ 00:23:21.060 Uttam Kumaran: he, he himself has like a marketing team. And so it’s really like a nice, I think, ancillary thing where he can suss out.
164 00:23:21.220 ⇒ 00:23:25.500 Uttam Kumaran: hey? For a company like once he’s in there. He works directly with all the execs, basically
165 00:23:25.670 ⇒ 00:23:36.000 Uttam Kumaran: can ask a question or suss out whether they need what we need, using the same, basically the same template that we had, which is, hey, do you guys have XYZ problems?
166 00:23:36.430 ⇒ 00:23:39.519 Uttam Kumaran: Like, oh, here are some things that how data can help
167 00:23:39.670 ⇒ 00:23:45.229 Uttam Kumaran: like any interest. And I was thinking, I don’t know what percentage or how to cut the deal. Yet
168 00:23:45.280 ⇒ 00:23:46.609 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t know. I may just
169 00:23:46.720 ⇒ 00:23:51.407 Uttam Kumaran: say flat, like 10% of revenue or something like that.
170 00:23:52.360 ⇒ 00:23:55.059 Uttam Kumaran: but I’m finding that I have some of these
171 00:23:55.160 ⇒ 00:23:57.750 Uttam Kumaran: friends that it could be interesting just to cut
172 00:23:58.040 ⇒ 00:24:02.739 Uttam Kumaran: like affiliate deals with and just have them. And basically say, if you make a sale, or if you send us a lead.
173 00:24:02.790 ⇒ 00:24:04.653 Uttam Kumaran: You get some amount
174 00:24:05.830 ⇒ 00:24:06.530 Uttam Kumaran: so.
175 00:24:06.530 ⇒ 00:24:10.630 Robert Tseng: Yeah, no, I mean, it’s great to try to sell with adjacent
176 00:24:10.977 ⇒ 00:24:14.159 Robert Tseng: folks that are already talking to the persona that you want to sell to.
177 00:24:14.160 ⇒ 00:24:14.890 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
178 00:24:15.290 ⇒ 00:24:19.020 Uttam Kumaran: what do you think about like a deal structure for that, like.
179 00:24:22.060 ⇒ 00:24:26.720 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I mean, I I’ve I’ve been typically seeing the 10 to 20%.
180 00:24:27.810 ⇒ 00:24:36.432 Robert Tseng: Yeah, there’s a there’s another partner that I’ve been talking to. And they were former agency, and they spun off and just like started a product, I guess. And
181 00:24:36.930 ⇒ 00:24:47.009 Robert Tseng: yeah, we’re we’re trying them for one of our clients now, where they basically kind of meet meet this middle, the sweet this middle ground, I think, for me, where
182 00:24:47.090 ⇒ 00:25:09.599 Robert Tseng: a clients either like the tick client, the opposite ends of the spectrum for me, or like the Stella, where we’re like full blown, like doing all the data engineering and pipelining for them versus like the a lot of the clients that I start with where they’re just like wanting the product analytics piece upfront. It’s like implementation of a post of a amplitude or mix panel. And
183 00:25:09.660 ⇒ 00:25:14.496 Robert Tseng: there’s like this middle ground where it’s like, don’t necessarily want the full
184 00:25:15.310 ⇒ 00:25:19.980 Robert Tseng: data engineering yet. And so this agency is basically just like
185 00:25:20.389 ⇒ 00:25:35.180 Robert Tseng: like they they charge per integration. And it’s like, Okay, you want to connect your shopify and like your whatever marketing tool together and see see reporting. And their output looks something similar to real and
186 00:25:35.710 ⇒ 00:25:57.929 Robert Tseng: yeah. So it’s just like paper integrations. You look at it. And so it just like you, you can stand it up super quickly and like, like, just a few days or under a week or whatever. Yeah. So I guess what I’m working out with them is, yeah, basically like if I if I refer them, then that where I’m getting I’m getting 20 of what they’re what they’re getting
187 00:25:58.252 ⇒ 00:26:03.519 Robert Tseng: so I don’t know. That’s just an example of like something that reminds me of what you’re describing.
188 00:26:03.520 ⇒ 00:26:04.060 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
189 00:26:04.830 ⇒ 00:26:13.799 Robert Tseng: But then I’m also telling them, hey, like for your clients that are that are training or like you’re, gonna you know, once your clients outgrow your service or like.
190 00:26:13.920 ⇒ 00:26:25.549 Robert Tseng: you know, they they want more like we can refer back like we can. It can go 2 ways. And we we structure to deal that way as well. So yeah. So that’s that’s kind of
191 00:26:25.710 ⇒ 00:26:28.780 Robert Tseng: yeah, that’s something relevant from the past week for me as well.
192 00:26:29.310 ⇒ 00:26:44.039 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, yeah, I mean, I think it’s a, I think I just have a couple of people that are like, Hey, I can actively sell this. And instead, I actually wanna make it more official and have some sort of incentive. There. That’s 1 thing that I
193 00:26:44.260 ⇒ 00:26:51.470 Uttam Kumaran: have cooking. And then I actually. So I didn’t. I met yesterday I met yesterday the day before I met with a friend.
194 00:26:51.996 ⇒ 00:27:05.650 Uttam Kumaran: Who she does like AI automation for like sales teams, basically like sales, Ops everything around like lead enrichment to like outbound to. But everything using these, a, some like
195 00:27:05.850 ⇒ 00:27:07.969 Uttam Kumaran: pretty like new AI tools.
196 00:27:08.331 ⇒ 00:27:14.359 Uttam Kumaran: And I have a bunch of tools listed that I’ll that I’ll share that we’re like really promising, basically to.
197 00:27:14.400 ⇒ 00:27:18.699 Uttam Kumaran: It’s basically like, once you get like an inbound. Or once you get
198 00:27:19.063 ⇒ 00:27:25.250 Uttam Kumaran: like a list of like people to email the the tools basically like automate, a lot of stuff.
199 00:27:25.300 ⇒ 00:27:28.159 Uttam Kumaran: And so process-wise, I learned a bunch
200 00:27:28.330 ⇒ 00:27:32.010 Uttam Kumaran: this week about like, okay, how do we do stuff for outbound like
201 00:27:32.060 ⇒ 00:27:43.509 Uttam Kumaran: people are taught like learning concepts like inbox warming. And like all these things around like how to do cold outbound additionally, basically like what the
202 00:27:43.870 ⇒ 00:27:59.240 Uttam Kumaran: what like the best tools are for. Like, I was using pipe drive for kind of like sales. Crm, she recommended a tool called Go high level for Crm, just because it had, like a lot of great integrations, basically just trying to get ahead of.
203 00:27:59.400 ⇒ 00:28:05.259 Uttam Kumaran: hey? What if we get a bunch of leads going? How did things get managed? And so learn a bunch
204 00:28:05.400 ⇒ 00:28:06.345 Uttam Kumaran: there.
205 00:28:07.490 ⇒ 00:28:11.617 Uttam Kumaran: on the shipping, on the shipping and logistics side, too.
206 00:28:12.080 ⇒ 00:28:16.040 Uttam Kumaran: I I just like interacted this weekend last week.
207 00:28:16.490 ⇒ 00:28:20.400 Uttam Kumaran: just through Linkedin, basically cause I sort of fall. I followed basically all the
208 00:28:20.420 ⇒ 00:28:39.229 Uttam Kumaran: main data talking heads from like in like data, consulting and kind of like, just like looked at all their websites looked at all their profiles. And I’m talking to some of them next week, just because I’ve been liking their stuff or commenting. And so Linkedin has been working out pretty well. I I guess I’ve I’ve like
209 00:28:39.300 ⇒ 00:28:43.929 Uttam Kumaran: done an okay job of being consistent and like commenting and and interacting there. So
210 00:28:43.990 ⇒ 00:29:10.470 Uttam Kumaran: that’s been great as well. I think the thing is, I’m still pretty s slow at getting out like materials. Basically, cause I’ve just been like preparing and having a lot of these conversations. So the nice thing is for it’s it’s 1 thing for us to go sell for an external person in like insurance to sell data. They really need a lot of info. So it’s a good, basically, I’m using my friend.
211 00:29:10.470 ⇒ 00:29:11.359 Robert Tseng: And you can, yeah.
212 00:29:11.360 ⇒ 00:29:17.299 Uttam Kumaran: Yes, yeah. As like a way to be like, okay, this needs to be crystal clear on, like, how to pitch this
213 00:29:17.666 ⇒ 00:29:22.919 Uttam Kumaran: and the nice thing is, he’s like a he’s literally like an insurance broker like he’s just a sales
214 00:29:23.140 ⇒ 00:29:31.549 Uttam Kumaran: guy like he just ripped sales so that’ll be a good wedge into like again, as you said, like a Jason field. But
215 00:29:32.080 ⇒ 00:29:35.970 Uttam Kumaran: basically just a stop, but just just slowly trying to figure out how to get.
216 00:29:36.110 ⇒ 00:29:42.909 Uttam Kumaran: You know how to get these sorts of arrangements where you kind of have like a pseudo sales staff. But
217 00:29:43.300 ⇒ 00:29:47.272 Uttam Kumaran: There’s more of an incentive tied versus like a salary.
218 00:29:47.760 ⇒ 00:29:50.545 Uttam Kumaran: which is, which is really great.
219 00:29:51.300 ⇒ 00:30:02.199 Uttam Kumaran: and then I and then I’ve just been spending some time basically planning some stuff for for New York like a meeting with some people like a meeting with Clint on Friday and his team. And then
220 00:30:02.624 ⇒ 00:30:10.839 Uttam Kumaran: I wanna come. Say, hi to you and a bunch of people. So that’s really been the last like few days, just like planning for that. So.
221 00:30:11.690 ⇒ 00:30:16.039 Robert Tseng: Dude. Nice sounds like you’ve had a lot of really good conversations the past week.
222 00:30:16.340 ⇒ 00:30:16.840 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, it’s.
223 00:30:16.840 ⇒ 00:30:17.280 Robert Tseng: Like.
224 00:30:17.280 ⇒ 00:30:17.740 Uttam Kumaran: It’s like.
225 00:30:17.740 ⇒ 00:30:26.119 Robert Tseng: Value that more than the content that you put out honestly like I feel like that’s it ultimately is a people business, not just like output on how many things you put out so.
226 00:30:26.120 ⇒ 00:30:32.159 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I know. I I agree. I’m glad you said that. It’s it’s hard, like, you know, it’s I feel like I
227 00:30:32.260 ⇒ 00:30:36.900 Uttam Kumaran: I tend to need to like over, prepare, and kind of see every angle before
228 00:30:36.960 ⇒ 00:30:40.400 Uttam Kumaran: I like go for stuff. But having these conversations, and
229 00:30:40.470 ⇒ 00:30:43.270 Uttam Kumaran: has really been helpful just to understand.
230 00:30:43.540 ⇒ 00:30:52.790 Uttam Kumaran: like what are the angles? And and again, like my it just in every one of these conversations I try to articulate what we do, how we do it, who we do for. And so
231 00:30:53.070 ⇒ 00:30:57.189 Uttam Kumaran: getting the reps in there, I think there will be a point where it’s like, okay, we have
232 00:30:57.620 ⇒ 00:31:00.910 Uttam Kumaran: process setup materials ready just to start
233 00:31:00.950 ⇒ 00:31:02.957 Uttam Kumaran: doing like direct outbound
234 00:31:03.460 ⇒ 00:31:04.030 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
235 00:31:04.330 ⇒ 00:31:09.109 Uttam Kumaran: And we’ll kind of kick off. I think, ideally like, I can start doing that, basically
236 00:31:09.220 ⇒ 00:31:10.909 Uttam Kumaran: in the next 2 weeks.
237 00:31:12.340 ⇒ 00:31:14.330 Uttam Kumaran: kind of hopefully. And then hopefully.
238 00:31:14.400 ⇒ 00:31:30.570 Uttam Kumaran: if I’m like in New York, you can have. I can meet some people there, or basically just start to try to line up some meetings. I think I just need a probably another week to like. Set up the Crm and and some of these AI tools I’ve been looking at are very, very promising in terms of
239 00:31:31.190 ⇒ 00:31:34.740 Uttam Kumaran: just like put just like handling a lot of the
240 00:31:35.624 ⇒ 00:31:39.189 Uttam Kumaran: like operations related stuff for sales.
241 00:31:39.360 ⇒ 00:31:43.450 Uttam Kumaran: So I’m really excited to try and leverage those
242 00:31:43.500 ⇒ 00:31:45.080 Uttam Kumaran: try to get some edge
243 00:31:45.300 ⇒ 00:31:46.315 Uttam Kumaran: there.
244 00:31:48.090 ⇒ 00:31:51.489 Uttam Kumaran: And the last thing is the the real folks are
245 00:31:51.590 ⇒ 00:32:03.382 Uttam Kumaran: i i i have like a monthly with the head of sales at Real. And they’re really great and and like they have a lot of opportunity, I think, to sell us into
246 00:32:03.770 ⇒ 00:32:05.970 Uttam Kumaran: arenas. And so
247 00:32:06.010 ⇒ 00:32:14.303 Uttam Kumaran: I’m like, also preparing to try to leverage them, for they basically need the same stuff. They need the materials and like kind of what we do, and
248 00:32:14.820 ⇒ 00:32:18.300 Uttam Kumaran: probably some nurturing there, but I think there’s an opportunity there as well.
249 00:32:19.900 ⇒ 00:32:24.569 Robert Tseng: Yeah, no, this is great that you’re kind of thinking about like partner led sales. I guess.
250 00:32:24.570 ⇒ 00:32:25.100 Uttam Kumaran: Minute.
251 00:32:26.510 ⇒ 00:32:30.279 Robert Tseng: yeah, I mean, when you get to the point of outbound. I mean, I already told you my outbound before.
252 00:32:30.280 ⇒ 00:32:30.680 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
253 00:32:30.680 ⇒ 00:32:59.920 Robert Tseng: Like a linkedin centered one pretty much just like had like AI like adding connections interacting with with with a lead list that I was like building and sales navigator I mean, my reply rate was like pretty low. It was like under 20, and then probably would hop on like app calls with like in that, like 5 of folks that came on. Yeah, I just felt like a lot of the time it was with outbound. It’s so much like
254 00:33:00.780 ⇒ 00:33:25.540 Robert Tseng: you have no idea the context of the of the person that you’re talking to. And so it’s really just, yeah. You may find the right person, but it’s it’s timing, too. No, we’re not thinking about this budget until end of quarter, or like next quarter or whatever, and then you get. I don’t know. A lot of it is just delayed where it’s like, Okay, my, my takeaways from a lot of these calls is like, interact with this person the next quarter or 2 quarters, which I don’t know feels doesn’t really
255 00:33:25.760 ⇒ 00:33:28.140 Robert Tseng: doesn’t give me the incentive.
256 00:33:28.140 ⇒ 00:33:28.590 Uttam Kumaran: But when?
257 00:33:28.590 ⇒ 00:33:29.999 Robert Tseng: That I feel like, I need, yeah.
258 00:33:30.150 ⇒ 00:33:30.850 Robert Tseng: yeah.
259 00:33:30.850 ⇒ 00:33:38.179 Uttam Kumaran: And for that reason, like I was talking to my friend on the sales side, and she said, what she does is she doesn’t just do like
260 00:33:38.220 ⇒ 00:33:50.069 Uttam Kumaran: OP. She doesn’t just move opportunities through like newly qualified close one. She actually move things through like what the like actual like
261 00:33:50.150 ⇒ 00:34:00.580 Uttam Kumaran: almost like what the activity is. For example, she’ll be like disqualified. Not a good time or disqualified no budget. And like actually that.
262 00:34:00.580 ⇒ 00:34:01.050 Robert Tseng: I say.
263 00:34:01.050 ⇒ 00:34:03.450 Uttam Kumaran: That allows her to. Then trigger
264 00:34:03.560 ⇒ 00:34:07.699 Uttam Kumaran: actions to be like, okay, this person needs to be put on the sort of drip
265 00:34:08.060 ⇒ 00:34:17.569 Uttam Kumaran: for like something or this person that the objection was this, instead of just saying like, Oh, they’re close lost and like you just have no context. And then that nothing happens.
266 00:34:18.124 ⇒ 00:34:21.119 Uttam Kumaran: So I think like that was kind of helpful to hear
267 00:34:21.380 ⇒ 00:34:29.909 Uttam Kumaran: from her. And then I basically told her, like, Look, I’m not planning on hiring like a sales Ops person. So again, like having a little bit of preparation to be like
268 00:34:30.030 ⇒ 00:34:32.309 Uttam Kumaran: cool, I take meetings. And then, yeah.
269 00:34:32.350 ⇒ 00:34:35.810 Uttam Kumaran: people land in one or many categories, but to be able to quickly
270 00:34:35.960 ⇒ 00:34:37.859 Uttam Kumaran: qualify or disqualify.
271 00:34:38.150 ⇒ 00:34:42.050 Uttam Kumaran: And then also I told her, I said, Hey, I’m not like I’m not like a
272 00:34:42.260 ⇒ 00:34:46.700 Uttam Kumaran: 1099, like 1999 Sas product, where I’m like
273 00:34:46.880 ⇒ 00:34:50.370 Uttam Kumaran: beaming messages like thousands and thousands of people.
274 00:34:50.520 ⇒ 00:34:51.020 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
275 00:34:51.020 ⇒ 00:34:58.359 Uttam Kumaran: It’s like, it’s maybe hundreds. And and of course, like we tell us throughout, she’s like, you’re only messaging like a hundred accounts. I’m like.
276 00:34:58.490 ⇒ 00:35:01.169 Uttam Kumaran: yeah, cause I’m gonna hit like, probably
277 00:35:01.250 ⇒ 00:35:24.975 Uttam Kumaran: 5 or 10 of like the key people in the company. And like, there’s not probably like a ton. And it’s like. And then she’s like, Okay, but then you have a good opportunity to actually personalize more stuff, right? Like you don’t have to. Send stuff that’s more generic like still, use AI, but you can, you know, use some context and have it more personalized per email.
278 00:35:25.580 ⇒ 00:35:31.679 Uttam Kumaran: you know. And so there’s some interesting tactics that that that she shared. So.
279 00:35:34.450 ⇒ 00:35:51.470 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I think that’s that’s pretty. Yeah. I think the spray, the spraying approach that like, maybe outbound Sas typically, is we definitely being certain service. We need to needs to be a lot more personalized. So yeah, the volumes that we’re doing are like are going to be lower than what
280 00:35:51.710 ⇒ 00:35:55.660 Robert Tseng: a lot of these Saas products are doing. So I I think that’s that’s wise.
281 00:35:56.100 ⇒ 00:36:07.469 Uttam Kumaran: And that’s why I like that. We settled on like a couple of industries. Because I think even that helps us further narrow. And and, for example, like my friend, is in insurance. He has like
282 00:36:07.480 ⇒ 00:36:15.860 Uttam Kumaran: and ensure. He has, like some sort of like zoom info for insurance brokers, basically where he’s like dude. I could just filter to like
283 00:36:16.450 ⇒ 00:36:25.660 Uttam Kumaran: every filter on. And I and he has all the legal documents behind a lot of these like company structures. And so he’s like, so that’s why I was like, Oh, dude
284 00:36:25.830 ⇒ 00:36:31.080 Uttam Kumaran: you and and an insurance broker. They’re kind of like rogue agent agents like
285 00:36:31.370 ⇒ 00:36:53.029 Uttam Kumaran: they’re they’re not. It’s kind of weird, like they can do whatever they want, basically. But they’re still broker. And they have a team. And so he, he does like all sorts of different stuff. But he was like dude. I’ll just I could just use the same thing filter. Basically, I’ll I can pitch them on the insurance and then pitch them on this. And like we can kind of just move from there.
286 00:36:53.050 ⇒ 00:36:56.769 Uttam Kumaran: And so that’s why it was really nice, because he has an edge and he has a
287 00:36:56.940 ⇒ 00:37:06.560 Uttam Kumaran: he has a way into this industries where he’s he has already access people he sold to and he has. He was like dude. I could just have all these people that we can
288 00:37:06.620 ⇒ 00:37:10.829 Uttam Kumaran: basically go after. So that was interesting. And that only happened because we picked
289 00:37:11.050 ⇒ 00:37:13.189 Uttam Kumaran: like manufacturing as like
290 00:37:13.310 ⇒ 00:37:23.599 Uttam Kumaran: the one area. So I think that’s actually gonna be a lot better than going after anyone that needs data is actually saying, no, we’re, we’re. We’re really just targeting these folks
291 00:37:23.700 ⇒ 00:37:31.650 Uttam Kumaran: and building up the motion there. And then, once you’re once we’re like, okay, we’re confident industry, you can move to industries. But I think
292 00:37:31.860 ⇒ 00:37:38.310 Uttam Kumaran: what it kind of comes back to like. A lot of people just want to hear their problems. And if you go to e-commerce first.st And you talk about
293 00:37:38.700 ⇒ 00:37:42.557 Uttam Kumaran: and like industrials, they’re not gonna care. So
294 00:37:43.500 ⇒ 00:37:47.239 Uttam Kumaran: try to just make everything more related to them. And
295 00:37:47.500 ⇒ 00:37:50.949 Uttam Kumaran: yeah, I think that strategy is is is gonna is gonna work.
296 00:37:51.930 ⇒ 00:37:57.550 Robert Tseng: Yeah, no, that sounds like a super cool, like high quality, like lead list that he’d be able to work with.
297 00:37:57.550 ⇒ 00:38:07.089 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, he was like pulling up on his phone at lunch. And I’ll I’ll yeah if I can. Maybe if I get a screenshot or something. But yeah, I’m meeting with him like weekly, basically. And he was like dude. I
298 00:38:07.350 ⇒ 00:38:10.059 Uttam Kumaran: I can basically filter to.
299 00:38:10.200 ⇒ 00:38:21.920 Uttam Kumaran: I can basically filter to every single manufacturing company by location and revenue, and like, basically see all the company execs because it’s all insurance related documents. So he can see
300 00:38:21.930 ⇒ 00:38:27.119 Uttam Kumaran: he basically looked at like? When do they last for new insurance? What’s their current policy like all this sort of stuff.
301 00:38:27.450 ⇒ 00:38:29.350 Uttam Kumaran: and then can reach out.
302 00:38:30.120 ⇒ 00:38:30.740 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
303 00:38:32.370 ⇒ 00:38:51.599 Robert Tseng: no, this is. It’s good. I mean, honestly, this is reminding me of well, I mean, as as far as like the Sales Ops kind of stuff. And yeah, not knowing. Yeah, when I I haven’t really been re nurturing like leads that have dropped off. And it’s like such a waste, because I’ve I’ve had like over 100, you know, hundreds of touch points at this point.
304 00:38:51.600 ⇒ 00:38:52.300 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
305 00:38:52.300 ⇒ 00:38:57.490 Robert Tseng: And yeah, if anything, I I kind of want to spend some time kind of working with.
306 00:38:57.590 ⇒ 00:39:04.009 Robert Tseng: See if I can pick up either old clients or old leads that have dropped off since, like the 1st since q. 1. So
307 00:39:04.462 ⇒ 00:39:09.727 Robert Tseng: maybe I should be thinking about that rather than just always trying to go after something that new.
308 00:39:10.020 ⇒ 00:39:12.470 Uttam Kumaran: But that’s the tough part is, there’s just like
309 00:39:12.480 ⇒ 00:39:14.799 Uttam Kumaran: it’s the managing follow ups.
310 00:39:14.980 ⇒ 00:39:19.100 Uttam Kumaran: It’s the all this stuff is. That’s the thing I just wanna make sure that
311 00:39:19.260 ⇒ 00:39:21.740 Uttam Kumaran: I have some sort of process for.
312 00:39:21.880 ⇒ 00:39:22.210 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
313 00:39:22.520 ⇒ 00:39:27.479 Uttam Kumaran: You’re not gonna have everything perfect. But again, when I started, the company was call everybody
314 00:39:27.580 ⇒ 00:39:30.880 Uttam Kumaran: as often as possible. Now I’m I’m trying to be a little bit more
315 00:39:31.310 ⇒ 00:39:41.549 Uttam Kumaran: like, I’m trying to basically have the process down, so that if things do go well, you’re we’re you’re able to bring on, maybe a fractional salesperson. Or, again, if I have these affiliate kind of partners.
316 00:39:41.610 ⇒ 00:39:45.900 Uttam Kumaran: I can hand them like a playbook, basically. And it’s less of like.
317 00:39:45.950 ⇒ 00:39:51.899 Uttam Kumaran: oh, you do data for like everything. And I don’t. Wanna don’t wanna have that conversation.
318 00:39:53.330 ⇒ 00:40:04.470 Uttam Kumaran: you know. That’s what I’ve been stuck a lot of the time on instead. It’s like, Oh, no, we’re just focused on the manufacturing for now. And you kind of build up the motion there. So yeah, I’m I’m excited. I I
319 00:40:04.750 ⇒ 00:40:07.140 Uttam Kumaran: you know, I feel lucky to have like some
320 00:40:07.310 ⇒ 00:40:12.780 Uttam Kumaran: some of these enterprising friends that are like, yeah, I think I can sell the data stuff. And then I’m just trying to cut.
321 00:40:13.000 ⇒ 00:40:20.973 Uttam Kumaran: you know, some deals with them. And basically figure it out from there. Another thing that came up this week is, did you ever meet
322 00:40:21.450 ⇒ 00:40:24.870 Uttam Kumaran: he’s a mutual friend of me, Clint, but his name’s Bryce
323 00:40:25.070 ⇒ 00:40:25.990 Uttam Kumaran: Bryce Kodak.
324 00:40:25.990 ⇒ 00:40:27.670 Robert Tseng: Yes, no, I haven’t.
325 00:40:28.150 ⇒ 00:40:30.750 Uttam Kumaran: May I have to give it? Do an introduction, or
326 00:40:30.890 ⇒ 00:40:33.482 Uttam Kumaran: or for all in New York? Say, Hi! But
327 00:40:33.810 ⇒ 00:40:37.719 Uttam Kumaran: He’s he worked with me at we work, and then he went to go work at a
328 00:40:38.040 ⇒ 00:40:41.220 Uttam Kumaran: better, and then he works. He works at Ashby
329 00:40:41.240 ⇒ 00:40:49.400 Uttam Kumaran: now. He! He’s actually, I mean, this is an interesting pitch that I got. He, he’s trying to start like an open source.
330 00:40:49.760 ⇒ 00:41:01.819 Uttam Kumaran: he’s basically built an open source like event modeling related framework. Around like Dbt, and he’s thinking he’s basically like, I think I’m gonna he’s he’s thinking about quitting his job. And like
331 00:41:02.390 ⇒ 00:41:04.560 Uttam Kumaran: 6 months or 5 months.
332 00:41:04.570 ⇒ 00:41:11.310 Uttam Kumaran: and he kind of like informed his company of that. And so he’s a little bit coaching. He’s like, I want to kind of build
333 00:41:11.360 ⇒ 00:41:23.019 Uttam Kumaran: this open source thing and then kind of build like a cloud version and start a software company around it. And I’m like, Yeah, crush it. Like, you know I’m I’m supportive, and I’m of course, like his problem is like dude. I need customers, or I need like.
334 00:41:23.020 ⇒ 00:41:23.570 Robert Tseng: But.
335 00:41:23.570 ⇒ 00:41:26.380 Uttam Kumaran: The stress. That’s this thing I’m like, well.
336 00:41:26.530 ⇒ 00:41:32.960 Uttam Kumaran: it’s interesting because he’s basically trying to. He’s trying to simplify the work that like analytics, engineers do. And I kind of see
337 00:41:32.990 ⇒ 00:41:39.180 Uttam Kumaran: the pitch. And I’ve seen the kind of the stuff works. And I get it. I basically was like, Look, I don’t have
338 00:41:39.510 ⇒ 00:41:49.661 Uttam Kumaran: I not only don’t have like Budget to bring another person on, I also don’t. I can’t afford for my currency like getting some big migration that has nothing to do with the client.
339 00:41:50.020 ⇒ 00:41:56.420 Uttam Kumaran: And he was like, look, he’s like, honestly, I’m making money. I’m down to honestly come and do 2 things. One
340 00:41:56.450 ⇒ 00:41:59.390 Uttam Kumaran: work on the existing customers. And see if, like
341 00:41:59.560 ⇒ 00:42:01.010 Uttam Kumaran: we can. Basically
342 00:42:01.410 ⇒ 00:42:06.470 Uttam Kumaran: I, he’s like, basically, I wanna try to duplicate whatever data models you have in this framework.
343 00:42:06.825 ⇒ 00:42:07.180 Robert Tseng: And.
344 00:42:07.180 ⇒ 00:42:33.920 Uttam Kumaran: And then basically try to pitch people on like some interesting analysis that you could do. Given this for existing clients. And he’s also like, I will help you go after new clients. If you guarantee that I can get, I can work the deal. And I was like, this is amazing cause I would love to work with you. He’s like a really talented data scientist like machine learning engineer. And I was like.
345 00:42:34.080 ⇒ 00:42:35.750 Uttam Kumaran: totally if the next.
346 00:42:35.790 ⇒ 00:42:44.690 Uttam Kumaran: If we get stuff in that world, you can come. Do the analytics engineering portion. And that’s another person who’s like, Yeah, I’ll just go sell this.
347 00:42:44.880 ⇒ 00:42:51.419 Uttam Kumaran: And and he, his incentive is to go start this company. So he needs like use cases. I’m like, I’m not in the software game.
348 00:42:51.500 ⇒ 00:42:58.239 Uttam Kumaran: It’s all your IP. I don’t care. This is just if it works, and it does save a ton of time, then we’re even in better shape.
349 00:42:58.460 ⇒ 00:43:08.800 Uttam Kumaran: even if it doesn’t work. You’re working for us for free for now. So that’s great for me, too. So that was an interesting thing that happened earlier this week. So.
350 00:43:09.728 ⇒ 00:43:13.219 Uttam Kumaran: yeah, it’s weird, like, it’s just interesting.
351 00:43:13.360 ⇒ 00:43:18.007 Uttam Kumaran: It’s just like, not so cookie cutter, the way this is gonna crumble. But
352 00:43:18.520 ⇒ 00:43:27.970 Uttam Kumaran: I think it’s it’s it’s fun to have these conversations and just try to leverage again like not go cold, but try to do things in a more like
353 00:43:28.230 ⇒ 00:43:32.849 Uttam Kumaran: like warm lead way, or, you know, have have people that are like
354 00:43:32.940 ⇒ 00:43:36.620 Uttam Kumaran: look, instead of hiring a salesperson here. Maybe I’ll give some up
355 00:43:36.830 ⇒ 00:43:39.200 Uttam Kumaran: if like, if something converts. But
356 00:43:39.380 ⇒ 00:43:43.169 Uttam Kumaran: like, that’s what I can manage right now, you know. So.
357 00:43:43.760 ⇒ 00:43:44.420 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
358 00:43:44.930 ⇒ 00:43:55.609 Robert Tseng: no. I mean, it’s yeah they can. There’s no, there’s no real real playbook for how to how to grow. This thing. So yeah, being able to test every channel is kind of the way to go.
359 00:43:55.610 ⇒ 00:43:56.050 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
360 00:43:57.910 ⇒ 00:44:09.169 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I mean, I will say, like, I mean, sounds like you definitely have your hands in a lot of different areas. I mean. Obviously, a lot of it kind of comes down to your content and like how you’re gonna be able to equip these partners and hopefully.
361 00:44:09.170 ⇒ 00:44:09.490 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
362 00:44:09.490 ⇒ 00:44:16.509 Robert Tseng: They’re all kind of. It’s just repurposing things that are useful. So whatever kind of drives you to help with that, I’m sure will be useful.
363 00:44:17.870 ⇒ 00:44:25.600 Robert Tseng: yeah. So I mean, I think that’s still kind of for us. I mean, I I haven’t produced any new content this past week, to be honest. So anything.
364 00:44:25.790 ⇒ 00:44:31.889 Robert Tseng: if I kind of updates on just kind of quick things from from from my end. Yeah, I think, like.
365 00:44:32.060 ⇒ 00:44:37.760 Robert Tseng: I don’t know. Maybe this is more relevant to where I’m at than where you are. But just some feedback is like, I think
366 00:44:37.950 ⇒ 00:44:42.131 Robert Tseng: I don’t think we should be too bogged down on like sales process. Yet. Because.
367 00:44:42.420 ⇒ 00:44:49.380 Robert Tseng: yeah, we just need to get that. Yeah, I mean, we gotta open the funnel and kind of see like what channels are actually like.
368 00:44:49.590 ⇒ 00:44:50.200 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
369 00:44:50.200 ⇒ 00:44:52.029 Robert Tseng: You know, worth exploring. And
370 00:44:52.355 ⇒ 00:45:06.540 Robert Tseng: maybe, like, you know, having having insiders on in these different areas is is helpful for for you. But for me, like, I think, just going back to like the basic things of yeah, like, attending conferences are relevant to our persona like
371 00:45:06.805 ⇒ 00:45:28.179 Robert Tseng: I hasn’t closed yet, so I don’t wanna put too much emphasis on it. But like I, you know, when I conferenced in like May and like I went to Sf. Went to like a mixed panel conference like, I have a big big lead that’s coming through that, I think, is gonna close in the next week. And I mean, it was a long cycle, like probably 2 months. But, like, you know, just doing stuff like that, it’s just like, you know.
372 00:45:28.180 ⇒ 00:45:28.510 Uttam Kumaran: Yes, we.
373 00:45:28.510 ⇒ 00:45:44.280 Robert Tseng: Get in the room with the right people like we’ll be able to figure out kind of their needs. And then maybe we can like retro that and turn that into process so definitely wouldn’t underestimate, like your ability to be the one like prospecting more so than like relying on other people.
374 00:45:44.645 ⇒ 00:45:47.834 Robert Tseng: I mean, I’m sure, like they’ll be able to help give you different.
375 00:45:48.080 ⇒ 00:45:49.120 Uttam Kumaran: Forward, but.
376 00:45:49.120 ⇒ 00:46:03.600 Robert Tseng: But but yeah, I think kind of going back to what we were saying the past couple of weeks, like, Yeah, we just need to get ourselves in front of the right. People, as you know, get get ourselves in the conversation as much as we can. I think that’s gonna be like the way that we’re gonna really turn. Turn this, turn this on.
377 00:46:03.980 ⇒ 00:46:08.539 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, no, that’s I think that’s totally great feedback. I think even the last
378 00:46:08.690 ⇒ 00:46:16.239 Uttam Kumaran: 2 weeks I’ve been I’ve been pushing even on the team to basically say, Hey, I need like 3 h or 4 h, just like off
379 00:46:16.410 ⇒ 00:46:30.449 Uttam Kumaran: slack, or like not thinking about if stuff is getting done. And that’s you. Just process wise to to carve out time, for this has been helpful. And so yeah, I think we’re getting closer. Of course, like.
380 00:46:30.480 ⇒ 00:46:34.419 Uttam Kumaran: I think it. Just you’re right. Is that some stuff you just have to kind of take
381 00:46:35.030 ⇒ 00:46:38.150 Uttam Kumaran: just take at baths and and
382 00:46:38.300 ⇒ 00:46:44.550 Uttam Kumaran: and kind of go for it. So I think I think we’re very close, basically to to kind of like having enough
383 00:46:44.900 ⇒ 00:46:50.350 Uttam Kumaran: for me to get. Just be like, okay, we’re we’re good. Let’s just like, let’s just message people and take some calls.
384 00:46:50.450 ⇒ 00:46:54.209 Uttam Kumaran: I think we’re probably like a week or 2 out, but that’s good feedback.
385 00:46:54.650 ⇒ 00:47:12.490 Robert Tseng: Yeah, yeah. So I think for me, like, yeah, obviously, I have content goals that I need to kind of meet as well. But then from there. Yeah, I’m trying to go. Continue to 10 events conferences I’m not really doing. I think I kind of put aside the Linkedin outbound for a while. I I don’t think I want to go back to it this quarter to be honest.
386 00:47:13.022 ⇒ 00:47:41.980 Robert Tseng: And then, yeah, I think for anything I’m gonna try to re nurture like existing leads and and see see if there’s anything that that come comes from there. So I think that’s kind of my sales focus I already do have inbound like, you know. I think I already told you about about my inbound. I I mean, I still get probably like one to 3 qualified leads a week. So that kind of keeps keeps things going for me. But yeah, I definitely feel like, that’s that’s where my headset in terms of like
387 00:47:42.560 ⇒ 00:47:44.100 Robert Tseng: sales. Sort of right now.
388 00:47:44.390 ⇒ 00:47:44.960 Uttam Kumaran: Cool.
389 00:47:45.290 ⇒ 00:47:52.570 Uttam Kumaran: Let’s let’s plan for some time. I just I guess I didn’t follow up. Let’s plan for some time in New York. I’m happy to.
390 00:47:52.570 ⇒ 00:47:54.169 Robert Tseng: In the next week or 2 weeks.
391 00:47:54.170 ⇒ 00:47:56.699 Uttam Kumaran: And I’m I’ll be there on the 17.th
392 00:47:56.700 ⇒ 00:47:57.689 Robert Tseng: Yeah, yeah, okay.
393 00:47:58.115 ⇒ 00:48:02.799 Uttam Kumaran: Between the 17th and the 21.st I guess I’m leaving
394 00:48:02.880 ⇒ 00:48:05.310 Uttam Kumaran: early, like 11 on the 21.st
395 00:48:07.590 ⇒ 00:48:29.519 Uttam Kumaran: But yeah, let me know, if, like, basically, I have all 3 of those working days basically earmarked to go do stuff. So I’m meeting up with Clint and his team on like Friday, I think, at their office, and then I’m just meeting up with some of the folks that are I’m meeting up with like with Nick baker, and some folks
396 00:48:29.560 ⇒ 00:48:33.129 Uttam Kumaran: for dinner on like Thursday, and then like, have.
397 00:48:33.300 ⇒ 00:48:36.420 Uttam Kumaran: like the rest of the time, free. So I’m happy to come.
398 00:48:36.490 ⇒ 00:48:40.000 Uttam Kumaran: Come over to you’re in, are you? In Jersey City?
399 00:48:40.270 ⇒ 00:48:41.528 Robert Tseng: Yeah. I’m in Jersey City.
400 00:48:41.780 ⇒ 00:48:44.820 Uttam Kumaran: I’m happy to take path and come, hang, or meet wherever.
401 00:48:45.250 ⇒ 00:48:51.869 Robert Tseng: Okay, yeah. I mean, we’ll we’ll figure that out. But let’s like where. But I think the 7 I don’t know if it was 17th be 2.
402 00:48:52.090 ⇒ 00:48:54.399 Uttam Kumaran: No, that’s fine, I think. Just like
403 00:48:54.490 ⇒ 00:48:56.830 Uttam Kumaran: afternoon ish.
404 00:48:56.860 ⇒ 00:48:58.040 Uttam Kumaran: or like, yeah.
405 00:48:58.130 ⇒ 00:49:01.840 Uttam Kumaran: As I land, I land, I’ll get in to Newark at like 10.
406 00:49:02.030 ⇒ 00:49:04.469 Uttam Kumaran: So it’s just kind of
407 00:49:04.740 ⇒ 00:49:07.449 Uttam Kumaran: there’ll be a little bit of time, I mean, even if I get the Newark
408 00:49:07.700 ⇒ 00:49:09.290 Uttam Kumaran: I mean, I could even just come
409 00:49:09.480 ⇒ 00:49:13.289 Uttam Kumaran: right after that and say, Hi, but maybe let’s plan. On the 17, th at some point.
410 00:49:13.610 ⇒ 00:49:21.969 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I mean, Newark would be great like you could. I don’t know where you’re staying from night, but if you just came through, I mean, you kind of have to go through Jersey that get to.
411 00:49:21.970 ⇒ 00:49:22.330 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
412 00:49:22.330 ⇒ 00:49:28.129 Robert Tseng: Anyway. So yeah, like near me, there’s like a office building. That
413 00:49:28.180 ⇒ 00:49:31.130 Robert Tseng: it’s pretty much like a free. We work, as I call it.
414 00:49:31.130 ⇒ 00:49:31.790 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, so.
415 00:49:31.790 ⇒ 00:49:39.338 Robert Tseng: Lobby. The Internet’s better than what I have at home like. It’s a really nice open space. So I go there all the time when I don’t want to turn on A/C at home.
416 00:49:39.560 ⇒ 00:49:40.265 Uttam Kumaran: Funny.
417 00:49:40.970 ⇒ 00:49:42.070 Robert Tseng: Yeah, okay, let’s.
418 00:49:42.070 ⇒ 00:49:45.380 Uttam Kumaran: Plan on that, and maybe so. I’ll just we have our our stuff.
419 00:49:45.380 ⇒ 00:49:47.030 Robert Tseng: Yeah, we have our thing on. Yeah. So.
420 00:49:47.030 ⇒ 00:49:48.060 Uttam Kumaran: I’ll just set
421 00:49:48.220 ⇒ 00:49:59.399 Uttam Kumaran: move it a little bit early, and then let’s plan on that. I mean, I’m just gonna have like a bag. And I’m staying with a friend in Chelsea, so I’ll just may. I’ll just come. Maybe we do lunch or something, and then I’ll just head into the city after that.
422 00:49:59.540 ⇒ 00:50:00.670 Robert Tseng: Yeah, that sounds good.
423 00:50:01.310 ⇒ 00:50:03.710 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, amazing, awesome. I’m pumped
424 00:50:06.160 ⇒ 00:50:11.274 Uttam Kumaran: alright. Dude. Well, I will keep slacking you stuff, and then I’ll maybe send
425 00:50:11.700 ⇒ 00:50:17.909 Uttam Kumaran: You said you wanted to hit the for Stella. The deadline was the 16th for that presentation.
426 00:50:17.910 ⇒ 00:50:24.029 Robert Tseng: Yeah, there’s a yeah. I should double check. It’s either the 15th or the 16.th But last I heard it was the 16.th Yeah.
427 00:50:24.030 ⇒ 00:50:29.059 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, cool. So let’s work. Let’s just work backwards from there, and I’ll let Nico know, and then we’ll kind of plan it out.
428 00:50:29.470 ⇒ 00:50:30.940 Robert Tseng: Okay, that sounds good.
429 00:50:31.780 ⇒ 00:50:34.679 Uttam Kumaran: Okay. Awesome. Well, great conversation as always.
430 00:50:34.830 ⇒ 00:50:40.129 Robert Tseng: Yeah. Enjoy your weekend with your with the parents congrats on the move again. Hope you get settled in. Yeah.
431 00:50:40.130 ⇒ 00:50:43.983 Uttam Kumaran: Thank you. Yeah. Excited. Exactly excited for you to come visit again. And
432 00:50:44.490 ⇒ 00:50:47.310 Robert Tseng: I will, I will be. I will be back, I’m sure.
433 00:50:47.310 ⇒ 00:50:48.670 Uttam Kumaran: Amazing. Okay.
434 00:50:49.320 ⇒ 00:50:51.220 Robert Tseng: Nice alright. See you, Tom.
435 00:50:51.220 ⇒ 00:50:52.140 Uttam Kumaran: I’ll talk to you soon.