Meeting Title: Uttam_Ryan Date: 2024-12-18 Meeting participants: Luke Daque, Uttam Kumaran
WEBVTT
1 00:00:06.770 ⇒ 00:00:07.780 Uttam Kumaran: Hey, Ryan.
2 00:00:08.900 ⇒ 00:00:10.290 Luke Daque: Hey, Witham! How’s it going.
3 00:00:10.490 ⇒ 00:00:11.815 Uttam Kumaran: Hey? Good! How are you?
4 00:00:12.280 ⇒ 00:00:13.520 Luke Daque: Yeah, doing? Well.
5 00:00:14.210 ⇒ 00:00:18.988 Uttam Kumaran: Thanks. We have a we, we doing a daily sales call these days, which has been really really great.
6 00:00:19.350 ⇒ 00:00:21.699 Luke Daque: Wow, sometimes it goes a little bit long.
7 00:00:21.700 ⇒ 00:00:29.640 Luke Daque: Yeah, yeah, hopefully, like like, there’s a lot of other conversion rate is high, right? Like.
8 00:00:29.640 ⇒ 00:00:32.679 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. It’s it’s getting. It’s getting a lot better.
9 00:00:33.270 ⇒ 00:00:34.050 Luke Daque: Nice.
10 00:00:34.950 ⇒ 00:00:42.159 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, so it’s definitely like, up and down. But it’s getting better.
11 00:00:43.300 ⇒ 00:00:47.109 Luke Daque: Nice. Is it like you and Robert in the sales calls.
12 00:00:47.835 ⇒ 00:00:54.449 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, it’s usually me, Robert, and then Nico and Miguel also join. But it’s usually me and Robert that are like doing a lot of the talking.
13 00:00:55.140 ⇒ 00:00:56.070 Luke Daque: I see.
14 00:00:57.380 ⇒ 00:00:57.800 Luke Daque: Cool.
15 00:01:00.690 ⇒ 00:01:02.700 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. How’s everything going? How’s life?
16 00:01:03.340 ⇒ 00:01:12.689 Luke Daque: Yeah, everything’s been going well, so far, at least. Yeah, like, like, we’re.
17 00:01:13.420 ⇒ 00:01:17.710 Luke Daque: I like, I’m right. Now. I’m in like a different city right?
18 00:01:18.210 ⇒ 00:01:24.349 Luke Daque: And like it’s been. It took us a while to get used to, but I guess, like now, we’re a bit used to like
19 00:01:25.230 ⇒ 00:01:28.280 Luke Daque: how we are living here at the moment. So, yeah.
20 00:01:28.580 ⇒ 00:01:29.230 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
21 00:01:29.930 ⇒ 00:01:31.520 Uttam Kumaran: So when did you move? There.
22 00:01:33.037 ⇒ 00:01:36.739 Luke Daque: I think, around August this year.
23 00:01:37.330 ⇒ 00:01:42.830 Luke Daque: just right when the school started for the kids. So yeah.
24 00:01:44.880 ⇒ 00:01:45.650 Uttam Kumaran: Nice.
25 00:01:47.800 ⇒ 00:01:49.990 Uttam Kumaran: Are you guys gonna stay there longer term.
26 00:01:50.970 ⇒ 00:02:02.369 Luke Daque: Yeah, that’s that’s the plan. Because this is like where my parents and my wife’s parents are living. So at least we’ll be like closer to them, basically. And like, yeah, we’re trying to see if we can.
27 00:02:02.750 ⇒ 00:02:08.709 Luke Daque: I mean, we’re trying to set up like, create a house here. We can stay here
28 00:02:08.840 ⇒ 00:02:11.379 Luke Daque: side of aside from like instead of
29 00:02:12.545 ⇒ 00:02:18.159 Luke Daque: renting or like living with our parents and stuff like that. So yeah, that’s basically the
30 00:02:18.440 ⇒ 00:02:20.839 Luke Daque: the longer term plan. Basically.
31 00:02:22.410 ⇒ 00:02:23.280 Uttam Kumaran: Nice.
32 00:02:24.290 ⇒ 00:02:24.690 Luke Daque: Yeah.
33 00:02:24.690 ⇒ 00:02:27.940 Uttam Kumaran: So how do you think? I mean, we’re coming up on the year?
34 00:02:28.508 ⇒ 00:02:31.240 Uttam Kumaran: Why do you? How do you think this year went overall.
35 00:02:31.810 ⇒ 00:02:36.090 Luke Daque: Yeah, I think it went pretty pretty well. I guess it started.
36 00:02:36.270 ⇒ 00:02:39.231 Luke Daque: or like in the middle of the year, there’s
37 00:02:39.940 ⇒ 00:02:49.259 Luke Daque: It went a bit slow, but I think now, especially with the team growing. I I think, overall it’s still quite a pretty successful year, I would say.
38 00:02:49.600 ⇒ 00:02:53.199 Luke Daque: like we increase the team by like, I don’t know like.
39 00:02:54.000 ⇒ 00:02:55.069 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, quite a bit.
40 00:02:55.070 ⇒ 00:03:05.610 Luke Daque: Like 7 people. I don’t know. Yeah, quite a bit. Yeah, that’s pretty cool. And then we have AI. When when we started it, we were just focused on data and stuff like that.
41 00:03:05.970 ⇒ 00:03:12.770 Luke Daque: So yeah, it’s pretty nice, especially now that also, like we have Ryan doing all the
42 00:03:14.400 ⇒ 00:03:18.609 Luke Daque: I would say, like marketing stuff, right? So, yeah, pretty cool.
43 00:03:22.230 ⇒ 00:03:35.120 Uttam Kumaran: How do you think? Yeah, what do you think overall about the team structure and sort of how we’re operating? One of the things that I think a lot about is, you know, some people for me, and maybe Nico, like we’re in a lot of meetings. But I you know, I wanna make sure
44 00:03:35.230 ⇒ 00:03:41.670 Uttam Kumaran: to find ways for everybody to sort of meet with the team. I think the engineering sync was one way of doing that.
45 00:03:41.960 ⇒ 00:03:42.400 Luke Daque: Yeah, I think we’re.
46 00:03:42.400 ⇒ 00:03:48.149 Uttam Kumaran: We’re also, gonna do you know, sort of more things on the engineering side, like brown bag pating and things like that
47 00:03:48.260 ⇒ 00:03:56.759 Uttam Kumaran: that way? Everyone is engaged. And then also on the data side, like the team is going to be growing. There’s 1 more person coming on, and I think Jacob may come on again. So.
48 00:03:56.760 ⇒ 00:03:57.240 Luke Daque: Yes.
49 00:03:57.240 ⇒ 00:04:01.259 Uttam Kumaran: You’re gonna have some more, you know people to work with, and I know you already have pious.
50 00:04:01.660 ⇒ 00:04:02.090 Luke Daque: So that’s.
51 00:04:02.090 ⇒ 00:04:06.800 Uttam Kumaran: For me. The biggest thing is just making sure that people aren’t solo, that they have people to bounce ideas off of
52 00:04:07.470 ⇒ 00:04:10.319 Uttam Kumaran: engineering kind of crew becomes really, really tight.
53 00:04:10.900 ⇒ 00:04:34.790 Luke Daque: Yeah, I definitely agree. That would be a very yeah, that would be great like it. It like makes the learning curve exponential, right? And like the continuous improvement as well like sometimes it’s great to be like working alone, like I think you know that like I said, the data engineer, you, or like an engineer in general, basically like working alone can make you like work fast and stuff. But.
54 00:04:35.000 ⇒ 00:04:35.490 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
55 00:04:35.490 ⇒ 00:04:40.480 Luke Daque: Sometimes like the the learning, or like, yeah, thinking of other
56 00:04:40.850 ⇒ 00:04:46.329 Luke Daque: ideas. It’s it’s really different. When there’s other people as well like to.
57 00:04:46.330 ⇒ 00:04:47.090 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
58 00:04:48.910 ⇒ 00:04:50.960 Luke Daque: Yeah, basically, yeah.
59 00:04:51.790 ⇒ 00:04:56.339 Luke Daque: so yeah, it’s great to have that. It’s great to know, like, we’re growing as a team.
60 00:04:57.460 ⇒ 00:04:59.529 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I agree. I agree.
61 00:05:01.340 ⇒ 00:05:14.279 Uttam Kumaran: yeah. So that’s mainly like, what I wanted to talk about is like, How do you see? You know, I think I’m gonna start having a little bit more conversations with, you know, everybody on engineering a little bit more structure, just about like how everybody sees.
62 00:05:14.400 ⇒ 00:05:16.280 Uttam Kumaran: you know, their individual.
63 00:05:16.400 ⇒ 00:05:20.729 Uttam Kumaran: you know, place on the engineering squad and anything to work on. But yeah, I guess.
64 00:05:20.870 ⇒ 00:05:25.200 Uttam Kumaran: And you know we can have that conversation. I can kind of give you some questions to think about.
65 00:05:25.560 ⇒ 00:05:26.310 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. But I’m gonna
66 00:05:26.310 ⇒ 00:05:32.480 Uttam Kumaran: kind of try to have some more structured conversations. I love. I mean. You know we, me and you have been talking for a long time.
67 00:05:32.480 ⇒ 00:05:33.000 Luke Daque: Yeah.
68 00:05:33.000 ⇒ 00:05:42.660 Uttam Kumaran: But I definitely don’t want people to feel my number one. Fear is that you know I don’t ask the question, you know. Is this what you want to be doing here? Do you think.
69 00:05:42.660 ⇒ 00:05:43.160 Luke Daque: Hmm.
70 00:05:43.160 ⇒ 00:05:51.169 Uttam Kumaran: There’s other opportunities you’re interested in, like, if I don’t ask that question, then, you know, I think a lot of the time I think about me. You you tend to
71 00:05:51.290 ⇒ 00:05:55.400 Uttam Kumaran: sort of like be like, oh, nobody’s thinking about me, or.
72 00:05:55.400 ⇒ 00:05:56.010 Luke Daque: Yeah.
73 00:05:56.010 ⇒ 00:05:58.679 Uttam Kumaran: There’s no growth in this company or like, I wonder.
74 00:05:59.040 ⇒ 00:06:01.420 Uttam Kumaran: care like. That’s the sort of stuff that
75 00:06:01.650 ⇒ 00:06:05.021 Uttam Kumaran: for me I care about everybody. But the problem is, I have to say that out loud.
76 00:06:05.690 ⇒ 00:06:10.070 Uttam Kumaran: Make sure that it’s heard. And so for me, I want to make sure that nobody is frustrated
77 00:06:10.300 ⇒ 00:06:21.909 Uttam Kumaran: with the spot they’re in, or if they are, we find out what’s going on. And and but also it’s not even frustration. It’s like some people like, Hey, I’ve been doing this for a while, and I think I can start to
78 00:06:22.020 ⇒ 00:06:41.189 Uttam Kumaran: to lead or start to take on other stuff. And I’m always interested in that, and seeing how we can, you know, push people, you know, higher up the chain promotion with title money stuff like that. So yeah, I mean, I’m happy to talk about that now, or if you want, I’m I’m happy to even, you know. Sort of write down
79 00:06:41.610 ⇒ 00:06:47.229 Uttam Kumaran: kind of discussion topics for us to chat about, and so we can do that before the end of the month. Sometime.
80 00:06:47.600 ⇒ 00:06:50.650 Luke Daque: Yeah, yes, yes, sure. Yeah, that’s
81 00:06:50.820 ⇒ 00:06:57.183 Luke Daque: something nice to think about. Yeah, I I guess we can talk about it now. We can also talk about it later.
82 00:06:57.790 ⇒ 00:07:02.549 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t want to put you on the spot. But yeah, if if you, if you have ideas, please like share them my way.
83 00:07:03.320 ⇒ 00:07:07.820 Luke Daque: Yeah, sure. Oh, but yeah, I don’t. Yeah, I don’t know. I I wasn’t prepared to.
84 00:07:08.480 ⇒ 00:07:10.250 Uttam Kumaran: So I that’s also 5.
85 00:07:10.740 ⇒ 00:07:24.839 Uttam Kumaran: How about we grab some other time? And I’ll just give you. I’ll write down some thoughts and a notion, and like sort of like, maybe we can use it as like a as a good starting point. And yeah, I want to give you a little bit of time to think about it. I think
86 00:07:24.970 ⇒ 00:07:27.649 Uttam Kumaran: holidays just like everything, is a good time for
87 00:07:28.430 ⇒ 00:07:46.895 Uttam Kumaran: reflection before the New Year. So hopefully, I think also, I want to give people opportunity to do that about their job. And you know, I know I’ve I’ve told you a lot about the company, so it’s not like you’re you don’t know exactly like where we are with everything. I but I do want to make sure that everybody feels heard and
88 00:07:47.180 ⇒ 00:07:47.930 Luke Daque: Hmm.
89 00:07:47.930 ⇒ 00:07:48.660 Uttam Kumaran: How
90 00:07:48.780 ⇒ 00:08:11.530 Uttam Kumaran: I wanna make sure also that basically we’re gonna set company goals. And then we’re gonna have individual team goals and individual goals. And so the biggest thing for me is making sure that we can both agree on like what those goals are, we can measure them, and then, of course, have a path towards you know, whatever the next step is for you here. And so that’s the thing. That’s number one to me.
91 00:08:12.290 ⇒ 00:08:16.619 Uttam Kumaran: You know, and I don’t want anybody to feel like, because we don’t have that conversation.
92 00:08:17.140 ⇒ 00:08:18.860 Uttam Kumaran: That stuff isn’t possible.
93 00:08:19.341 ⇒ 00:08:32.919 Uttam Kumaran: The only reason we don’t have the conversation is because, you know, just like my usual excuse, there’s a there’s a lot going on, but I don’t think that’s a good enough excuse. I I do think that we’ve. We’ve budgeted time to think about stuff like this. And so
94 00:08:33.320 ⇒ 00:08:42.299 Uttam Kumaran: you know, for me, I I care a lot about everybody here, so I want to make sure that that’s possible for everybody, whatever their you know, goals and dreams are to do here, you know. So.
95 00:08:42.659 ⇒ 00:08:46.019 Luke Daque: Yeah, cool. Yeah, this this is great, like this, is.
96 00:08:46.449 ⇒ 00:08:53.679 Luke Daque: it really shows like, we’re like growing as a company as well. Like from being like a simple startup company
97 00:08:53.899 ⇒ 00:09:00.929 Luke Daque: like we like we were doing early this year. And then, now, like, we have these conversations. And like, yeah, it’s
98 00:09:01.109 ⇒ 00:09:02.369 Luke Daque: yeah, that’s great.
99 00:09:02.790 ⇒ 00:09:03.560 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
100 00:09:07.240 ⇒ 00:09:08.150 Luke Daque: Yeah.
101 00:09:13.160 ⇒ 00:09:16.559 Uttam Kumaran: Cool. Okay, well, anything else we want to chat about today.
102 00:09:20.290 ⇒ 00:09:24.339 Luke Daque: No, I think I’m yeah. I think I’m I’m good pretty much on my end.
103 00:09:24.890 ⇒ 00:09:25.520 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
104 00:09:25.960 ⇒ 00:09:27.030 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, perfect.
105 00:09:27.915 ⇒ 00:09:35.480 Uttam Kumaran: Alright great. Well, if nothing else. Then yeah, I’m gonna try to see if I can grab some other engineering time this week.
106 00:09:35.610 ⇒ 00:09:55.969 Uttam Kumaran: but I also know we talked last week about trying to schedule support time. So it may be a bit delayed. But yeah, if you have any questions for me, let me know. And then yeah, if you have any feedback also, I think one thing we’ll talk about in our meeting next is feedback about sort of project, management and sort of other feedback. So anything you have on that feel free to just send my way.
107 00:09:56.190 ⇒ 00:09:57.439 Luke Daque: Okay. Yeah. Sure.
108 00:09:58.010 ⇒ 00:09:59.749 Uttam Kumaran: So that’d be really, really helpful.
109 00:10:00.000 ⇒ 00:10:05.030 Luke Daque: Sounds good. But yeah, so far, I think it’s been working like, at least with
110 00:10:05.260 ⇒ 00:10:07.849 Luke Daque: from my experience with Nico, and
111 00:10:08.070 ⇒ 00:10:12.719 Luke Daque: yeah, basically, just Nico from a project management perspective. At least, I don’t have like
112 00:10:12.950 ⇒ 00:10:15.800 Luke Daque: to be like the main source of
113 00:10:16.511 ⇒ 00:10:19.950 Luke Daque: like face to the end, clients, right?
114 00:10:20.070 ⇒ 00:10:28.009 Luke Daque: And like, he also helps a lot in like prioritizing stuff, especially when there’s like multiple things going on at the same time. So yeah, that’s
115 00:10:28.120 ⇒ 00:10:30.999 Luke Daque: so far, it’s been been pretty good.
116 00:10:31.470 ⇒ 00:10:32.120 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
117 00:10:33.570 ⇒ 00:10:34.970 Luke Daque: Okay, perfect.
118 00:10:35.760 ⇒ 00:10:36.639 Uttam Kumaran: All right, Ryan.
119 00:10:36.810 ⇒ 00:10:39.040 Luke Daque: Well great chatting, cool.
120 00:10:40.000 ⇒ 00:10:40.500 Uttam Kumaran: Talk to you soon.
121 00:10:40.500 ⇒ 00:10:42.696 Luke Daque: Sounds good. Thanks, thanks for that. Bye.