Meeting Title: Urban Stems Planning Meeting Date: 2025-01-31 Meeting participants: Nicolas Sucari, Uttam Kumaran
WEBVTT
1 00:00:52.160 ⇒ 00:00:53.170 Uttam Kumaran: Hey? Nico.
2 00:00:56.000 ⇒ 00:00:56.890 Nicolas Sucari: Are you done?
3 00:01:00.350 ⇒ 00:01:01.500 Nicolas Sucari: How’s it going.
4 00:01:02.030 ⇒ 00:01:03.039 Uttam Kumaran: Good! How are you?
5 00:01:04.569 ⇒ 00:01:05.439 Nicolas Sucari: All good.
6 00:01:06.289 ⇒ 00:01:07.029 Nicolas Sucari: Yep.
7 00:01:10.309 ⇒ 00:01:14.350 Uttam Kumaran: Okay. So for urban stems. Yes. So let me
8 00:01:17.120 ⇒ 00:01:24.209 Uttam Kumaran: I’m gonna go ahead and create a channel. I’m just gonna dump a bunch of stuff in there and then, maybe this meeting. I can just talk you through a little bit of it.
9 00:01:25.526 ⇒ 00:01:29.920 Uttam Kumaran: We don’t think we already have. We just have the external chain.
10 00:02:05.028 ⇒ 00:02:09.111 Uttam Kumaran: So couple of things for these guys. So one is
11 00:02:11.298 ⇒ 00:02:14.439 Uttam Kumaran: basically, we’re coming in to
12 00:02:14.840 ⇒ 00:02:17.660 Uttam Kumaran: do 2 things. One is they.
13 00:02:17.980 ⇒ 00:02:25.250 Uttam Kumaran: They primarily sell most of flat their flowers on Mother’s Day and on Valentine’s Day.
14 00:02:26.810 ⇒ 00:02:38.449 Uttam Kumaran: That being said, they have a lot of sort of data challenges regarding sales, forecasting when to buy inventory and currently, they’re using a lot of legacy
15 00:02:39.333 ⇒ 00:02:50.909 Uttam Kumaran: tools to do this, they’re using redshift instead of snowflake and overall their data. Infrastructure is not very clean. I do want to try and share with you
16 00:02:51.390 ⇒ 00:02:55.360 Uttam Kumaran: what that is, and let me see if I can get that
17 00:03:19.620 ⇒ 00:03:22.050 Nicolas Sucari: Do they have like a, yeah, okay.
18 00:03:22.780 ⇒ 00:03:25.950 Nicolas Sucari: the website is urbanstein.com right?
19 00:03:26.130 ⇒ 00:03:27.080 Uttam Kumaran: Correct.
20 00:03:33.240 ⇒ 00:03:35.850 Nicolas Sucari: Valentine’s say, collection. Okay.
21 00:03:41.830 ⇒ 00:03:47.819 Nicolas Sucari: they are. They are buying and selling right? Like they don’t produce like flowers. They are not.
22 00:03:48.070 ⇒ 00:03:49.890 Nicolas Sucari: They’re just like an e-commerce.
23 00:03:50.200 ⇒ 00:03:51.190 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, correct.
24 00:03:54.040 ⇒ 00:03:56.979 Uttam Kumaran: So let me send you a couple of things
25 00:03:59.160 ⇒ 00:04:08.792 Uttam Kumaran: So in here I’m gonna put 2 figma diagrams. And honestly, this is probably really good info for AI have also. But
26 00:04:09.550 ⇒ 00:04:22.509 Uttam Kumaran: these 2 diagrams sort of outline their current basically their current structure for or data hold on
27 00:04:24.550 ⇒ 00:04:28.449 Uttam Kumaran: so this, this currently out, this outline, their current structure for data?
28 00:04:29.960 ⇒ 00:04:33.630 Uttam Kumaran: Basically they have. I don’t know. Can you see them both of those links.
29 00:04:34.690 ⇒ 00:04:36.110 Nicolas Sucari: Yeah, give me what you need.
30 00:04:37.120 ⇒ 00:04:48.360 Uttam Kumaran: Basically, they have, like A, they have a couple of key sources like Zendesk subscriptions, line items, inventory like some usual stuff. And all that information is here.
31 00:04:48.940 ⇒ 00:04:52.849 Uttam Kumaran: They have a couple of prospective changes they wanna make
32 00:04:53.010 ⇒ 00:04:55.480 Uttam Kumaran: where they can add different entities.
33 00:04:55.610 ⇒ 00:04:59.202 Uttam Kumaran: Additionally, their process for
34 00:05:00.830 ⇒ 00:05:08.010 Uttam Kumaran: There’s their process for sort of doing data. Pipelining and building models is not really clear.
35 00:05:08.442 ⇒ 00:05:16.329 Uttam Kumaran: They want. I think they they want. I think I’m pretty sure they they’re using redshift and looker. But there’s a lot of sort of complicated issues.
36 00:05:17.970 ⇒ 00:05:21.749 Uttam Kumaran: The other interesting nuance for this company is, they have analysts.
37 00:05:23.750 ⇒ 00:05:28.430 Uttam Kumaran: So directly our stakeholder would be Zack give. Zack is like a product lead.
38 00:05:28.870 ⇒ 00:05:42.239 Uttam Kumaran: but also each of the people in the company. They have analysts embedded within the different parts of the company. So ideally, we basically help them create this sort of data infrastructure layer that powers the reporting for those analysts.
39 00:05:44.310 ⇒ 00:05:52.639 Uttam Kumaran: But tell me what sort of overall questions you have. And I can also send you
40 00:05:54.940 ⇒ 00:05:58.980 Uttam Kumaran: basically like what we’re what we promised to do for them.
41 00:05:59.280 ⇒ 00:06:03.939 Nicolas Sucari: Yeah, exactly. That’s what I was gonna ask, like, what are the goals, or what are we coming into
42 00:06:04.080 ⇒ 00:06:08.629 Nicolas Sucari: work? We’re gonna migrate everything to snowflake or changing.
43 00:06:08.630 ⇒ 00:06:09.150 Uttam Kumaran: So this.
44 00:06:09.150 ⇒ 00:06:10.429 Nicolas Sucari: They’re infra.
45 00:06:10.430 ⇒ 00:06:13.120 Uttam Kumaran: This is the goal. These are the goals. For the 1st month.
46 00:06:14.220 ⇒ 00:06:19.180 Uttam Kumaran: After the 1st month they’re gonna make a decision whether to renew for a with us.
47 00:06:19.884 ⇒ 00:06:22.439 Uttam Kumaran: But this is our goal for the 1st month.
48 00:06:23.080 ⇒ 00:06:26.150 Uttam Kumaran: Basically.
49 00:06:29.490 ⇒ 00:06:34.899 Uttam Kumaran: if they renew, these are our longer children.
50 00:06:40.340 ⇒ 00:06:40.980 Uttam Kumaran: So take a look.
51 00:06:40.980 ⇒ 00:06:41.550 Nicolas Sucari: Cool.
52 00:06:41.550 ⇒ 00:06:44.456 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, take a second. Just read these, and then
53 00:07:26.020 ⇒ 00:07:26.890 Nicolas Sucari: Okay?
54 00:07:27.080 ⇒ 00:07:34.140 Nicolas Sucari: So we we don’t need to. Okay, provide insights for them or like specific reports. It’s just more kind of
55 00:07:35.292 ⇒ 00:07:37.280 Nicolas Sucari: infra work. Right?
56 00:07:37.660 ⇒ 00:07:38.540 Nicolas Sucari: First.st
57 00:07:39.210 ⇒ 00:07:43.430 Uttam Kumaran: Correct. So the 1st thing is really just like understanding what their problems are.
58 00:07:43.882 ⇒ 00:07:45.520 Uttam Kumaran: And the 1st month is really.
59 00:07:45.650 ⇒ 00:07:50.890 Uttam Kumaran: I think it’s it’s like 2 weeks of figuring what their problems are. 2 weeks of like basically creating the next plan for them.
60 00:07:56.700 ⇒ 00:07:57.979 Uttam Kumaran: Does that make sense.
61 00:07:58.400 ⇒ 00:07:58.990 Nicolas Sucari: Yeah.
62 00:08:06.140 ⇒ 00:08:13.510 Nicolas Sucari: how are we gonna say, we are gonna start using redshift with them to understand? Or taking taking a look at that at their data, or.
63 00:08:13.890 ⇒ 00:08:18.450 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, they have some interest in potentially moving off of redshift into Snowflake.
64 00:08:18.690 ⇒ 00:08:21.889 Uttam Kumaran: That’ll be like, potentially one of our recommendations.
65 00:08:34.590 ⇒ 00:08:35.210 Nicolas Sucari: Okay.
66 00:08:35.330 ⇒ 00:08:42.330 Nicolas Sucari: So if you say, like, we’re starting on Monday, like, who’s gonna be starting to work on this.
67 00:08:42.330 ⇒ 00:08:45.629 Uttam Kumaran: So they aren’t starting on Monday. They’re starting on the 17.th
68 00:08:45.630 ⇒ 00:08:48.260 Nicolas Sucari: Cory, yeah. And the other one.
69 00:08:50.620 ⇒ 00:09:00.830 Uttam Kumaran: So we have a wish. And Ryan, I think potentially a waste should take this great to meet you.
70 00:09:03.840 ⇒ 00:09:08.629 Uttam Kumaran: I think that basically, what I’m thinking we do is like Ryan is gonna take pool parts
71 00:09:08.860 ⇒ 00:09:15.681 Uttam Kumaran: and Javi and stack Blitz, and then or yeah, and then
72 00:09:17.250 ⇒ 00:09:20.990 Uttam Kumaran: and then away. It’s just gonna take urban stems and Eden.
73 00:09:23.020 ⇒ 00:09:24.750 Nicolas Sucari: Okay, that’s fine.
74 00:09:25.060 ⇒ 00:09:27.190 Uttam Kumaran: So it’ll so it’ll be me.
75 00:09:27.900 ⇒ 00:09:29.200 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. And then
76 00:09:29.830 ⇒ 00:09:37.820 Uttam Kumaran: I again, I I don’t know, like I think we’re gonna have to make a decision on the on the Pm. Side. But you can just include, like the 3 of us, for now
77 00:09:38.150 ⇒ 00:09:39.040 Uttam Kumaran: we’ll see.
78 00:09:41.720 ⇒ 00:09:46.862 Uttam Kumaran: So I think the biggest thing we wanna do is sort of hit the ground running as much as possible.
79 00:09:47.240 ⇒ 00:09:49.579 Uttam Kumaran: they basically said they can start to
80 00:09:50.240 ⇒ 00:09:55.424 Uttam Kumaran: invite us to meetings and things like that I’m going to just make sure you’re in the
81 00:09:56.670 ⇒ 00:09:59.130 Uttam Kumaran: You’re in the Channel
82 00:10:09.900 ⇒ 00:10:14.502 Uttam Kumaran: but we have a channel already with them, and nothing’s really talked about. But once we
83 00:10:16.920 ⇒ 00:10:22.850 Uttam Kumaran: I think probably next week. I’m gonna see if we can coordinate for access and things like that.
84 00:10:23.040 ⇒ 00:10:28.369 Uttam Kumaran: So I think we can start creating tickets around like access getting access.
85 00:10:29.500 ⇒ 00:10:38.560 Uttam Kumaran: the basically, we want to go like, almost like, do research spikes on each part of the entire system that they have right now and identify the key issues.
86 00:10:41.490 ⇒ 00:10:47.850 Nicolas Sucari: Oh, okay. So maybe, like, the 1st kind of task is getting access to redshift. Right?
87 00:10:50.255 ⇒ 00:10:51.710 Nicolas Sucari: Let me see.
88 00:10:51.710 ⇒ 00:10:55.990 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, getting access to redshift. We’ll need it. We’ll need a email account from them.
89 00:10:59.290 ⇒ 00:11:01.469 Uttam Kumaran: And then we need looker access. Also.
90 00:11:06.120 ⇒ 00:11:15.610 Nicolas Sucari: We’ll need an email account for them, or we can create an urban same at Brainforge and make them give us access to that one right.
91 00:11:15.610 ⇒ 00:11:16.330 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
92 00:11:18.110 ⇒ 00:11:20.189 Nicolas Sucari: Wait, wait one step.
93 00:11:27.590 ⇒ 00:11:29.749 Nicolas Sucari: Look at access. Okay.
94 00:11:38.380 ⇒ 00:11:43.351 Nicolas Sucari: what else? Like? What is the deliverable for the first? st Like kind of 2 weeks. Like to to do, like
95 00:11:44.290 ⇒ 00:11:48.250 Nicolas Sucari: to to understand what are those kind of issues that they are having
96 00:11:48.600 ⇒ 00:11:52.920 Nicolas Sucari: in the 1st 2 weeks try to map that out, and then the next week. It’s like to
97 00:11:53.140 ⇒ 00:11:56.520 Nicolas Sucari: ideate or propose what we can do after
98 00:11:56.750 ⇒ 00:11:59.010 Nicolas Sucari: like on a long term basis.
99 00:12:00.860 ⇒ 00:12:10.819 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. So if you look at that list, how is data being housed and transformed? And how is it being consumed? What are the key data sources. How do we? How do we reduce the number of errors
100 00:12:10.960 ⇒ 00:12:14.909 Uttam Kumaran: they also sent us like a big list of like open tickets.
101 00:12:15.470 ⇒ 00:12:17.920 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t. I don’t think I have.
102 00:12:19.140 ⇒ 00:12:22.020 Uttam Kumaran: Let me see if I have access to that somewhere.
103 00:12:24.540 ⇒ 00:12:25.610 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, here.
104 00:12:34.490 ⇒ 00:12:40.879 Uttam Kumaran: So yeah, basically, it’s like we want to look at how data is being transformed. And how’s house where the sources?
105 00:12:41.110 ⇒ 00:12:47.360 Uttam Kumaran: What are the key errors? And then we wanna look at all their tools. And then we want to basically provide them with a with a plan
106 00:12:47.690 ⇒ 00:12:50.789 Uttam Kumaran: for the next 3 to 6 months. That’s the whole goal.
107 00:12:54.120 ⇒ 00:12:56.670 Nicolas Sucari: Okay, perfect.
108 00:12:57.159 ⇒ 00:13:06.740 Nicolas Sucari: I’ll create a page. The client page, with all of these information, this 1st tasks, and I can send that to you so that you can start reviewing. We can
109 00:13:06.850 ⇒ 00:13:22.109 Nicolas Sucari: still discuss this on Monday if you want, but I want to leave everything there so that you can start taking a look with your wish, and if you need anything else just created, obviously, so that we have something ready in order to start. 17.th I think.
110 00:13:22.110 ⇒ 00:13:22.640 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
111 00:13:22.640 ⇒ 00:13:23.220 Nicolas Sucari: Right?
112 00:13:23.380 ⇒ 00:13:24.150 Nicolas Sucari: Okay.
113 00:13:24.510 ⇒ 00:13:25.100 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, perfect.
114 00:13:25.100 ⇒ 00:13:32.540 Nicolas Sucari: I prepare the client page with this information, try to add as much as information that I can find from the client, too.
115 00:13:32.949 ⇒ 00:13:35.639 Nicolas Sucari: And yeah, I will share that with everyone. Okay.
116 00:13:35.650 ⇒ 00:13:40.070 Uttam Kumaran: Okay? And then you have the. You have this meeting as well. So take the transcript in case you need it.
117 00:13:40.508 ⇒ 00:13:49.139 Uttam Kumaran: And then we can. Maybe we can put that somewhere in the client page or somewhere where it’s just like the overview but perfect. I think this one again, like
118 00:13:49.410 ⇒ 00:13:55.499 Uttam Kumaran: this one is sort of like a 1 month audit. But at the same time we’re gonna we’re gonna try to show them how we work.
119 00:13:55.740 ⇒ 00:13:56.204 Uttam Kumaran: And
120 00:13:56.670 ⇒ 00:13:57.350 Nicolas Sucari: Yeah.
121 00:13:57.350 ⇒ 00:14:11.480 Uttam Kumaran: They’re kind of cautious. They don’t want to make any huge changes before mother’s day, which is in May. However, I basically, they’re like, we don’t want to change anything. I’m like, we don’t have to change anything. We can start working on parallel. And you guys can keep running
122 00:14:12.093 ⇒ 00:14:12.780 Uttam Kumaran: and so.
123 00:14:13.630 ⇒ 00:14:14.480 Nicolas Sucari: Yeah.
124 00:14:14.480 ⇒ 00:14:20.610 Uttam Kumaran: With us. We’re trying to give them that confidence. Yeah, because they they screwed something up last year around this time
125 00:14:20.980 ⇒ 00:14:22.210 Uttam Kumaran: very nervous.
126 00:14:22.330 ⇒ 00:14:25.600 Uttam Kumaran: Basically, they have a full time engineer, but then he just left
127 00:14:26.493 ⇒ 00:14:28.609 Uttam Kumaran: very abruptly. So they’re like.
128 00:14:28.880 ⇒ 00:14:32.580 Uttam Kumaran: there’s all this stuff that’s wrong. And so we.
129 00:14:32.580 ⇒ 00:14:33.170 Nicolas Sucari: We’re gonna.
130 00:14:33.170 ⇒ 00:14:38.089 Uttam Kumaran: We saw them on upwork, and we just sent them a message, and then they were like, Let’s go. So.
131 00:14:38.820 ⇒ 00:14:41.970 Nicolas Sucari: Nice. So we’re starting after Valentine’s right.
132 00:14:41.970 ⇒ 00:14:42.690 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
133 00:14:43.290 ⇒ 00:14:44.579 Nicolas Sucari: Okay, okay?
134 00:14:45.880 ⇒ 00:14:55.190 Nicolas Sucari: Okay, yeah, I’ll prepare everything. Okay, so we will. We will won’t be having any access to tools and that stuff before the 17th right? Or that’s the idea like not.
135 00:14:55.190 ⇒ 00:14:59.460 Uttam Kumaran: No, I’m gonna I think I’m gonna send a note tomorrow and basically be like
136 00:15:00.910 ⇒ 00:15:05.499 Uttam Kumaran: or send a note on Monday and say, like happy to get stuff started before we begin.
137 00:15:05.810 ⇒ 00:15:06.570 Uttam Kumaran: So.
138 00:15:07.390 ⇒ 00:15:25.249 Nicolas Sucari: Okay, cool. Yeah. Maybe if we like, don’t start doing a lot of things before Valentine’s. But if we can like, take a look at what happens during those days like, it’s a busy day for them. Maybe that’s good. Yeah. And for me, like, there is a lot of time that we can do a lot of things. So yeah.
139 00:15:26.610 ⇒ 00:15:28.060 Nicolas Sucari: okay, cool. Okay.
140 00:15:28.060 ⇒ 00:15:28.470 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
141 00:15:28.470 ⇒ 00:15:29.009 Nicolas Sucari: Thank you. Tom.
142 00:15:29.010 ⇒ 00:15:32.339 Uttam Kumaran: I gotta jump. But I’ll text you about. I want to text you about next
143 00:15:32.440 ⇒ 00:15:35.019 Uttam Kumaran: weekend, but I’ll I’ll text you on the side.
144 00:15:35.940 ⇒ 00:15:46.609 Nicolas Sucari: Text. Me, don’t worry. I know I’m not gonna be around on the week during the weekend that you’re here. But let me know your flights and that kind of stuff we can arrange. Yeah, I’m gonna be
145 00:15:46.940 ⇒ 00:15:51.559 Nicolas Sucari: whenever you want to do something during the week that I’m here. Obviously, I’m gonna be
146 00:15:52.059 ⇒ 00:16:10.869 Nicolas Sucari: with you on anything. If you’re gonna go, if you wanna go like visit places, getting lunch, dinner, everything. Just let me know I can book some places. And yeah, I’m I’m looking at some Co working spaces. I’m gonna send. And I’m gonna ask my brother, my brother has an office near Palermo that they have, like a Co. Working space to that.
147 00:16:10.870 ⇒ 00:16:11.280 Uttam Kumaran: Nice.
148 00:16:11.280 ⇒ 00:16:13.589 Nicolas Sucari: Maybe we can use. But yeah, I’m gonna ask him.
149 00:16:14.340 ⇒ 00:16:15.110 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, perfect.
150 00:16:15.620 ⇒ 00:16:17.460 Uttam Kumaran: Alright. I see, though.
151 00:16:17.460 ⇒ 00:16:18.699 Nicolas Sucari: Thanks. Atom, bye-bye.