Meeting Title: Televero Discussion Date: 2025-02-20 Meeting participants: Scott_Harmon, Uttam Kumaran


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1 00:00:14.640 00:00:15.660 Uttam Kumaran: Hey! Scott!

2 00:00:16.300 00:00:17.910 Scott_Harmon: Hey? How’s it going with Tom?

3 00:00:18.310 00:00:20.379 Uttam Kumaran: Busy! Oh, my God!

4 00:00:20.810 00:00:21.600 Scott_Harmon: Wow!

5 00:00:21.600 00:00:24.749 Uttam Kumaran: Busy busy couple of weeks, like.

6 00:00:25.610 00:00:31.680 Scott_Harmon: So where’s all the where’s all the new client activity coming from? Just should tell her.

7 00:00:31.680 00:00:36.925 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, well, we just we. We had a lot of stuff close last month, and

8 00:00:37.790 00:00:40.740 Uttam Kumaran: a lot of it started towards the end of January.

9 00:00:41.060 00:00:44.259 Uttam Kumaran: So then we started hiring in that moment.

10 00:00:44.970 00:00:49.680 Uttam Kumaran: And then those people are getting on boarded. And I’m sort of picking up slack.

11 00:00:49.940 00:00:56.950 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, we’re so we’re sort of like juggling. We. We have like 7 active. We have 7 or 8 active clients right now.

12 00:00:57.060 00:01:01.859 Uttam Kumaran: cross data. And then the one ABC client and AI.

13 00:01:02.070 00:01:06.060 Uttam Kumaran: We have a few more proposals out like Televiro, a few others on the data side.

14 00:01:06.310 00:01:12.790 Uttam Kumaran: So we’re just like trying to keep up. And we’re like, I’m trying.

15 00:01:12.790 00:01:13.300 Scott_Harmon: No.

16 00:01:13.300 00:01:22.470 Uttam Kumaran: The nice thing is, I can call some people that I I wanted to hire and be like, Hey, it’s time which is good. There’s some areas where I I’m not so lucky. And I’m like.

17 00:01:22.650 00:01:27.359 Uttam Kumaran: just need anyone, please. So we’ve probably made some mistakes

18 00:01:27.490 00:01:35.690 Uttam Kumaran: there. But I don’t know. It’s I feel I feel happy because I’m no longer like moving money out of my fidelity. So

19 00:01:37.192 00:01:43.249 Uttam Kumaran: I’m happy that, like, okay, this is a different problem. But yeah. So.

20 00:01:43.250 00:01:45.500 Scott_Harmon: Hey? There’s a woman I want you to meet

21 00:01:46.200 00:01:50.539 Scott_Harmon: and you know it might be time now it’s up to you. She was.

22 00:01:51.080 00:01:55.989 Scott_Harmon: She helped me at my last company. She did all, basically all of the back office stuff.

23 00:01:56.584 00:02:05.490 Scott_Harmon: She’s kind of a virtual Cfo type. But but does it kind of on a bargain

24 00:02:06.120 00:02:07.709 Scott_Harmon: bargain basis?

25 00:02:07.880 00:02:10.219 Scott_Harmon: Her name’s Megan Murray. She’s just.

26 00:02:10.620 00:02:11.960 Uttam Kumaran: I do know, Megan.

27 00:02:12.140 00:02:13.520 Scott_Harmon: Do you know, Megan, did I introduce?

28 00:02:13.960 00:02:14.670 Scott_Harmon: Maybe before.

29 00:02:15.450 00:02:18.959 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t know if you put me in touch or.

30 00:02:18.960 00:02:22.269 Scott_Harmon: I think maybe I did. Okay. So if you, I think maybe I did. Now that.

31 00:02:22.726 00:02:23.639 Uttam Kumaran: So, so.

32 00:02:23.640 00:02:24.250 Scott_Harmon: Yeah.

33 00:02:24.250 00:02:30.920 Uttam Kumaran: So I end up talking to her, and yeah, she gets she send me a proposal. I haven’t looked at it all yet. I’m hoping she can.

34 00:02:31.570 00:02:37.820 Uttam Kumaran: I mean, we’re using an outsourced bookkeeping company. I’m doing some Cfo stuff

35 00:02:38.780 00:02:41.240 Uttam Kumaran: I’m like. This is just off a to do list of like.

36 00:02:41.240 00:02:52.120 Scott_Harmon: I would strongly endorse. If you’re gonna outsource to anybody, you just you just go see her and say the thing is, she’ll just do what anything you need, and she’ll do it

37 00:02:52.580 00:02:55.940 Scott_Harmon: cheaper than anybody else, and better than anybody else like.

38 00:02:56.130 00:02:58.910 Uttam Kumaran: By, like, yeah.

39 00:02:58.910 00:03:01.100 Scott_Harmon: By a lot, but I still do add.

40 00:03:01.230 00:03:10.320 Scott_Harmon: and she’s no drama. And if you say, Look, this is what I could afford to spend. Like, I’m not spending more than this. She’ll be like, okay, this is what I can do. Like.

41 00:03:11.000 00:03:16.639 Scott_Harmon: yeah, I don’t know when you’re ready and and you need help with your with your books, your you know, finances and

42 00:03:16.890 00:03:27.550 Scott_Harmon: taxes and contracts, and you know she’s like an expert. I don’t know what you what platform use. But she uses deal, you know. She’s really good at using deal to keep track of all the contracts, and just.

43 00:03:27.550 00:03:34.609 Uttam Kumaran: It’s basically like, I just wanna hand, I mean, we’re using. But like, I’m I just need that. Just someone else needs to do that.

44 00:03:34.610 00:03:37.250 Scott_Harmon: She is. She had it down

45 00:03:37.420 00:03:54.839 Scott_Harmon: at my last company. We did a lot of contracts like we do like 10 to 20 new contracts a month, and and you know we had this just and and we just deal and like it was like clockwork. You put it in. The bills will go out. The the general ledger get updated. The taxes got cap like like

46 00:03:55.090 00:04:03.629 Scott_Harmon: like it tracked the payments if it was over, like it did everything, and I couldn’t believe we. You know we how little we had to pay her. So.

47 00:04:03.790 00:04:07.159 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, that’s a good endorsement. That proposal sitting in there.

48 00:04:07.350 00:04:13.879 Uttam Kumaran: It’s not. It’s not like much more expensive than what we pay. But I was like, I’ll just kick the can. I may just start that.

49 00:04:13.880 00:04:14.430 Scott_Harmon: Well.

50 00:04:14.430 00:04:15.150 Uttam Kumaran: I wanted to.

51 00:04:15.530 00:04:19.390 Uttam Kumaran: It’ll be before tax season this year, so.

52 00:04:19.390 00:04:27.110 Scott_Harmon: Good. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, whenever you’re ready. And she’s just, you know, she’ll just meet you where you’re at and do whatever you need, and

53 00:04:27.530 00:04:31.379 Scott_Harmon: the you don’t want to get too far behind on that stuff. You can really.

54 00:04:31.380 00:04:32.549 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, we we’ve been a.

55 00:04:32.550 00:04:33.170 Scott_Harmon: Creative.

56 00:04:33.518 00:04:38.939 Uttam Kumaran: Made sure that we have a bookkeeper, for it’s just like everything sort of reactive, like

57 00:04:39.550 00:04:46.999 Uttam Kumaran: nothing’s like so proactive. And I’m also doing a bunch of stuff. And we’re hiring people overseas and like, it’s just a lot of

58 00:04:47.150 00:04:53.760 Uttam Kumaran: operational complexity that like, I’m the worst employee like, I’m gonna drop the ball. So I need to just get that to somebody else to.

59 00:04:53.760 00:04:55.210 Scott_Harmon: Well, she’s your girl when you’re ready.

60 00:04:55.679 00:05:00.370 Uttam Kumaran: Compliance like state tax stuff we’re hiring in other States.

61 00:05:00.560 00:05:04.840 Uttam Kumaran: I was like, I am not interested in this topic at all. Like.

62 00:05:04.840 00:05:07.690 Scott_Harmon: Yeah. The problem is, you don’t know what you don’t know, and.

63 00:05:07.690 00:05:08.270 Uttam Kumaran: Exactly.

64 00:05:08.270 00:05:10.949 Scott_Harmon: You just want to build your business, and

65 00:05:11.510 00:05:16.079 Scott_Harmon: you know you can get your cigar ass in a big crack on this shit like.

66 00:05:16.440 00:05:20.960 Scott_Harmon: and if you ever want to unwind the business you’re like, wait, I gotta do what like it could

67 00:05:21.150 00:05:28.380 Scott_Harmon: you can get, anyway, there’s just a bunch of nightmare things where the State comes after you and cost you a bunch of money. And like.

68 00:05:29.080 00:05:32.669 Scott_Harmon: Yeah, a little bit now will really help down the road.

69 00:05:33.175 00:05:36.630 Scott_Harmon: So give her a call if you have any time.

70 00:05:37.030 00:05:39.669 Scott_Harmon: But I guess we wanted to talk about

71 00:05:40.150 00:05:49.460 Scott_Harmon: Ray. I I didn’t mean to, you know. I want. The client comes obviously to go to you. I think he, just whatever, for whatever reason, felt more comfortable responding to me, and you know

72 00:05:49.680 00:06:02.219 Scott_Harmon: I better try, and, you know, have everything. I’m not the I’m not the sales guy here. But having said that, it looked like he saw the proposal, didn’t say no, but didn’t think it was spot on.

73 00:06:02.220 00:06:02.515 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.

74 00:06:03.290 00:06:08.009 Scott_Harmon: So I honestly haven’t read like the details, and I just wanted to more talk about it.

75 00:06:08.010 00:06:15.110 Uttam Kumaran: Closer to like what you said we should do anyways, which I’m glad he basically was like.

76 00:06:15.360 00:06:21.529 Uttam Kumaran: here’s our gross profit. Here’s like the churn rates. And like, basically, he was like.

77 00:06:22.050 00:06:24.889 Uttam Kumaran: we would want to see a 3 x lift on this.

78 00:06:25.200 00:06:28.350 Uttam Kumaran: So it helps us sort of structure the

79 00:06:30.525 00:06:35.390 Uttam Kumaran: like ongoing sort of outcome, based pricing alone, definitely.

80 00:06:35.628 00:06:41.110 Scott_Harmon: Again, I should have read it more closely. You know the original. The proposal, Connor set out that you know we worked on.

81 00:06:41.580 00:06:45.020 Scott_Harmon: you know, had an upfront amount to get something in place.

82 00:06:45.410 00:06:51.430 Scott_Harmon: and then, you know, an ongoing bit. If I’m if I’m not mistaken, and

83 00:06:51.620 00:06:54.589 Scott_Harmon: just remind me what we sent them, like the terms that we sent them.

84 00:06:54.590 00:07:00.949 Uttam Kumaran: We just sent 15 K. And then for the month of development. And then, after the month, we’ll agree on the outcome outcome based.

85 00:07:00.950 00:07:03.870 Scott_Harmon: So what? What did he? Did he say anything about the 15 K. Or did he.

86 00:07:03.870 00:07:12.430 Uttam Kumaran: He. So he basically said, he looks at any sort of roi in this world requiring a 3 x

87 00:07:12.560 00:07:16.869 Uttam Kumaran: and 3 x lift, meaning he would have to get

88 00:07:17.180 00:07:25.789 Uttam Kumaran: 45 k. Worth of benefit. 45 k. Worth of benefit, he said. The average gross lifetime value for

89 00:07:26.290 00:07:31.269 Uttam Kumaran: profit for a patient is 120 bucks. And he’s basically like that means

90 00:07:31.410 00:07:39.009 Uttam Kumaran: that we would want to see this affect 375 additional patients should get through from

91 00:07:39.820 00:07:41.970 Uttam Kumaran: like being referred to.

92 00:07:44.830 00:07:47.119 Uttam Kumaran: Converting referrals to patients.

93 00:07:47.280 00:07:48.890 Scott_Harmon: To justify a 15.

94 00:07:49.360 00:07:50.470 Scott_Harmon: So yeah, okay.

95 00:07:51.360 00:07:51.880 Uttam Kumaran: So.

96 00:07:51.880 00:07:53.730 Scott_Harmon: So go ahead.

97 00:07:53.730 00:07:54.849 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, and I’ll go ahead.

98 00:07:55.360 00:07:58.829 Uttam Kumaran: I was just gonna try and look at, because I remember we talked about this in the

99 00:08:01.270 00:08:04.910 Uttam Kumaran: in that channel. But I would just think about what the math

100 00:08:07.930 00:08:09.489 Uttam Kumaran: could be about.

101 00:08:11.580 00:08:12.855 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I guess

102 00:08:22.310 00:08:28.480 Scott_Harmon: So conceptually. Let me throw. Let me throw just a thought, something for you to think about, and you kick it around a little bit.

103 00:08:29.270 00:08:39.870 Scott_Harmon: and this is your business. You can do whatever you want. So I’m generally, if I run a professional services business where you where you occur, really caught, you know, real cost for phase one.

104 00:08:40.470 00:08:44.060 Scott_Harmon: Yeah, I I hate to. I I hate to do that

105 00:08:44.300 00:08:45.889 Scott_Harmon: and not get paid for it.

106 00:08:46.010 00:08:50.009 Scott_Harmon: And generally, if you’re professional services firm, you probably shouldn’t.

107 00:08:50.190 00:08:55.170 Scott_Harmon: you know you’re like, look, if you don’t believe it enough to fork over an initial 10 or 15 grand. Then.

108 00:08:55.400 00:08:55.870 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.

109 00:08:55.870 00:08:59.220 Scott_Harmon: You know, there’s some amount of money upfront that kind of gets

110 00:08:59.350 00:09:05.309 Scott_Harmon: like, like, I think ABC is a good example. ABC. Is completely committed to the success of this thing.

111 00:09:05.310 00:09:05.790 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.

112 00:09:05.790 00:09:09.649 Scott_Harmon: Part. A part of it is because they’re they’re in for 10 grand. So there’s sort of a

113 00:09:10.150 00:09:22.320 Scott_Harmon: hey man I’m kicking in 10 grand. I I gotta really make this thing work. So to me it’s almost more philosophical. But for your business I just don’t know if you could afford to sign up something with no revenue baseline. So

114 00:09:22.700 00:09:24.830 Scott_Harmon: what I might propose is, look.

115 00:09:25.340 00:09:27.009 Scott_Harmon: we gotta have something up front.

116 00:09:27.260 00:09:33.610 Scott_Harmon: And you know, just because you know, I gotta pay people. And I’m a small business blah blah. And

117 00:09:33.960 00:09:40.380 Scott_Harmon: and there’s gonna be some risk here. If it doesn’t work out. I don’t want to carry all that risk. I meaning who Tom like

118 00:09:40.740 00:09:48.929 Scott_Harmon: like. Let’s say we make the number 10 grand, and we go look if the if, for whatever reason, the project doesn’t work, or whatever I’ve carried all the risk you’ve

119 00:09:49.830 00:09:54.360 Scott_Harmon: you’ve got nothing. And so why don’t we? Why don’t we split the risk?

120 00:09:54.550 00:09:57.589 Scott_Harmon: And you know I’ll cut it down to 10 grand.

121 00:09:57.770 00:10:03.960 Scott_Harmon: But you know. So I’m taking some risk because I’m gonna lose some money on it, you know, upfront like it’s gonna cost me more than 15 grand.

122 00:10:04.110 00:10:13.099 Scott_Harmon: and you’re putting in 10 grand. So so there, that’s that’s phase one. And then, phase 2, we’ll we’ll just come up, you know, with a

123 00:10:13.410 00:10:20.120 Scott_Harmon: you know price per converted user and

124 00:10:20.613 00:10:30.879 Scott_Harmon: I have to stare at it if you want. But what I usually do is, I put those in tiers, so you know, for the first, st for the 1st time, you know, additional 100, or whatever. It’s this much.

125 00:10:30.880 00:10:35.969 Uttam Kumaran: How you did it. You had, like the exactly like less than 50 50 to 100 to under 50.

126 00:10:36.290 00:10:36.829 Scott_Harmon: Yeah, yeah.

127 00:10:36.830 00:10:53.759 Scott_Harmon: yeah. And if he’s smart, and I think he is, and I know raise type. Once he sees that he’s probably going to want to cap it at some point. Just be. And you’re like, which is fine, you know. You can cap it like. But now you’re having a good conversation. It’s like, Oh, what you’re worried about signing up too many like too many customers like so.

128 00:10:53.960 00:11:00.309 Scott_Harmon: and and what you can do is you can say. Well.

129 00:11:00.800 00:11:04.139 Scott_Harmon: you know, if he really is, you know, box at the upfront

130 00:11:04.560 00:11:11.710 Scott_Harmon: money you can. You can accept a little bit less per incremental cost. In other words, you can change those unit economics a little bit.

131 00:11:11.710 00:11:12.119 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, yeah.

132 00:11:12.120 00:11:18.670 Scott_Harmon: So those are so I guess that’s what I would suggest is going back and saying, Look.

133 00:11:18.900 00:11:24.850 Scott_Harmon: you know, we’ll reduce the upfront price. But we do want something because I got to cover some costs, even though I’m gonna lose money.

134 00:11:25.320 00:11:29.305 Scott_Harmon: I would go back with the equal skin in the game thing

135 00:11:30.423 00:11:38.620 Scott_Harmon: told me. You’ve got a lot of customers. I think you’re probably learning the value of a committee customer and how important it is to success, because.

136 00:11:39.200 00:11:42.460 Scott_Harmon: you know, and and the upfront money really does help on that thing.

137 00:11:42.710 00:11:46.930 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, that’s why, yeah, I think we do have room.

138 00:11:47.160 00:11:49.719 Uttam Kumaran: I, of course, like

139 00:11:50.620 00:12:05.639 Uttam Kumaran: we’re trying to make. We’re trying to make money. But we do have room, even if we decrease it. I also, if we land this, I want to bring on one more person more seriously here in the us on the AI side to sort of help with

140 00:12:06.300 00:12:24.820 Uttam Kumaran: all of our AI work. So that sort of helps with this project. But also what I’ll do is, I’ll sort of see. Okay, if we decrease the upfront. I’m gonna use this math to sort of show, hey? If we convert X pay because the the couple of things we looked at was converting referrals to initial appointments. And then is that

141 00:12:25.070 00:12:26.660 Uttam Kumaran: the kicker? Is that?

142 00:12:27.080 00:12:32.480 Uttam Kumaran: Is it like something else? So one agreeing on what the conversion point is, and to understand.

143 00:12:32.480 00:12:35.389 Scott_Harmon: It’s got to be. It’s got to be to initial appointment. You can’t.

144 00:12:35.700 00:12:36.359 Uttam Kumaran: Can’t be.

145 00:12:36.360 00:12:39.599 Scott_Harmon: Well to the, to the retention thing that’s too hard to track. And

146 00:12:39.770 00:12:47.489 Scott_Harmon: now now you don’t want to go there. And oh, well, they didn’t do their 3rd appointment, so I don’t get paid like there’s just too many things that

147 00:12:47.790 00:12:49.540 Scott_Harmon: that.

148 00:12:49.540 00:12:56.170 Uttam Kumaran: I think this, I think this deal. The one of the things he said is the better. Option is to hire a development team and pay them

149 00:12:57.140 00:13:00.110 Uttam Kumaran: good. I I like good luck hiring someone.

150 00:13:00.110 00:13:00.720 Scott_Harmon: All right.

151 00:13:00.720 00:13:04.890 Uttam Kumaran: It’s like, I, yeah, I mean, I agree, good luck.

152 00:13:04.890 00:13:08.670 Scott_Harmon: Yeah. Well, you know, you know, it’s gonna cost them. You know how much to get to.

153 00:13:08.670 00:13:20.800 Uttam Kumaran: Are you gonna go? Are you gonna Google for AI, sir? Yeah. So we’re a bargain. And so but I guess it’s unless you shop. You wouldn’t know that. And it’s also it’s tough. But also I think that that’s

154 00:13:21.020 00:13:23.659 Uttam Kumaran: for them. I don’t see how this is the

155 00:13:23.890 00:13:31.469 Uttam Kumaran: lose lose deal. I think the only thing he got fixated on is, he said, 15 K. For additional agents, which is what we said.

156 00:13:31.830 00:13:35.150 Uttam Kumaran: and I don’t. I don’t know whether that stuck.

157 00:13:35.270 00:13:39.100 Uttam Kumaran: because in his email, I think he maybe have assumed that it’s just like

158 00:13:40.580 00:13:44.790 Uttam Kumaran: 15 K again and again. So that’s 1 thing I think I want to clarify, too, because

159 00:13:46.770 00:13:51.270 Uttam Kumaran: he said, it’s 15 K. Month and 15 K. Ongoing. And I don’t think that’s right.

160 00:13:52.100 00:13:56.180 Uttam Kumaran: like, so maybe he just sort of didn’t get the outcome based piece.

161 00:13:57.250 00:14:02.270 Scott_Harmon: Okay. Why don’t we do this? Why don’t you write up your thoughts on a counter proposal? And

162 00:14:02.410 00:14:08.450 Scott_Harmon: you know, just put it in the Channel, just whatever, so that you and I and Connor could just go. Okay, that makes sense. And then

163 00:14:09.170 00:14:15.229 Scott_Harmon: then I’ll I’ll review it right and try and give you some feedback, and then we can, and then we can figure out how to communicate it back

164 00:14:15.360 00:14:18.340 Scott_Harmon: to him in a way that addresses his concerns.

165 00:14:19.800 00:14:21.729 Scott_Harmon: But I think I think

166 00:14:22.520 00:14:29.820 Scott_Harmon: I think you should drop in. Okay, here’s how I’d like to counter propose. And I I like your idea of okay, maybe lower upfront.

167 00:14:30.780 00:14:33.080 Scott_Harmon: And then what your thoughts would be on.

168 00:14:33.260 00:14:37.780 Uttam Kumaran: The nice thing is, has an Roi target which means like that could be like

169 00:14:38.890 00:14:43.569 Uttam Kumaran: that could basically be like the midpoint of that segmentation, or the 1st notch

170 00:14:43.790 00:14:47.659 Uttam Kumaran: of like. We hit this first, st and then everything additional after that.

171 00:14:47.820 00:14:50.540 Uttam Kumaran: So it’s good. You gave us some metrics from their side.

172 00:14:52.520 00:14:56.480 Scott_Harmon: Yeah, I I mean, I read, I read his email to to not be a

173 00:14:57.100 00:15:03.940 Scott_Harmon: you know. He wasn’t saying no, he’s just. He was being honest like this is how I would like to see the structure. So I think he’s engaged.

174 00:15:04.180 00:15:08.010 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. And I think the fact that he responded as opposed to having.

175 00:15:08.759 00:15:13.790 Scott_Harmon: I forgot the woman’s name respond as he was just like, Look, I just want to get this done like, let’s

176 00:15:13.900 00:15:17.660 Scott_Harmon: let’s cut to the chase, I’ll you know, talk to Scott, and we’ll figure this out so

177 00:15:17.880 00:15:27.169 Scott_Harmon: so I think he’s ready to do something if we can restructure it a little bit, and and I like Amy and the other guy that was on the call a lot. So

178 00:15:27.460 00:15:40.580 Scott_Harmon: it, you know. It seems like there would be really good people to work with to get an initial pilot done and successful. So okay, drop your thoughts in a document, or whatever you know. However, you want to do it, and then we could just noodle out together, and then we can

179 00:15:40.760 00:15:42.359 Scott_Harmon: clean it up, and then we can

180 00:15:42.500 00:15:44.590 Scott_Harmon: figure out on the narrative on how to

181 00:15:44.870 00:15:48.189 Scott_Harmon: communicate it back. What I’d like. My thoughts right now are like.

182 00:15:51.570 00:15:56.900 Scott_Harmon: I don’t know you and I I don’t. I I guess I should respond to him because you sent it to me like I don’t wanna

183 00:15:57.300 00:16:01.200 Scott_Harmon: blowing off, but I also don’t want to become the conduit, so we should just figure out

184 00:16:01.440 00:16:03.570 Scott_Harmon: somehow it should come from both of us, or

185 00:16:03.920 00:16:09.379 Scott_Harmon: or maybe you forward it to me, and then I forward it with a couple of comments like, Okay, who Tom’s put this together and.

186 00:16:10.120 00:16:13.699 Uttam Kumaran: Or I could send them aside like, maybe I send them a side email with some more like.

187 00:16:14.610 00:16:16.030 Uttam Kumaran: because we have a good

188 00:16:16.030 00:16:20.180 Uttam Kumaran: good for you to just send them a sign and be like the team came up with this like.

189 00:16:20.580 00:16:21.699 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, that’s probably the way to do it.

190 00:16:21.700 00:16:23.700 Uttam Kumaran: This on another thread, or I don’t know.

191 00:16:23.700 00:16:33.300 Scott_Harmon: Yeah, cause he and I have a kind of a nice peer based rapport where I think he feels like comfortable just going. Look, you know, here’s the deal, and I think likewise I could. I could go back to him and say, Look.

192 00:16:34.469 00:16:38.209 Scott_Harmon: cham’s dance card is almost full. Don’t fuck around here, you know, if you’re gonna

193 00:16:38.390 00:16:42.560 Scott_Harmon: if you’re gonna nickel and dime this deal, or what if you want to hire your own dev team by all you know.

194 00:16:43.150 00:16:43.740 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.

195 00:16:43.940 00:16:57.559 Scott_Harmon: And he already told me when we talked about this back in December, that he was gonna do some AI stuff in house like I’m gonna do. But and I’m but I’m also interested in doing like hiring. So he’s he’s already said he’s gonna do some stuff in house, so

196 00:16:58.390 00:17:01.590 Scott_Harmon: I don’t know who he’s got to do any. AI. But you know.

197 00:17:02.100 00:17:08.229 Uttam Kumaran: It’s just not. It’s just not easy like, and there’s nobody available.

198 00:17:09.810 00:17:11.440 Scott_Harmon: Yeah, I can imagine what you’re.

199 00:17:11.760 00:17:12.140 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.

200 00:17:12.140 00:17:14.339 Scott_Harmon: Life is like, Yeah, yeah, dang

201 00:17:15.670 00:17:22.430 Scott_Harmon: alright, alright. So you got the ball, drop it in there, or, if you sound like you’re busy, but if we could get it back to them

202 00:17:23.270 00:17:25.630 Scott_Harmon: tomorrow’s Friday, I guess it’d be good to get it back.

203 00:17:25.630 00:17:31.460 Uttam Kumaran: Do something tonight. And that way you can email them that way. You can think about over the weekend or get back to us. I’ll have something that you can send over.

204 00:17:31.770 00:17:36.410 Uttam Kumaran: So tomorrow I also move the ABC. Meeting to an hour, because I think we’ve.

205 00:17:36.720 00:17:37.810 Scott_Harmon: That’s a good call.

206 00:17:37.810 00:17:40.000 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, we got the Google chat working.

207 00:17:40.200 00:17:40.670 Scott_Harmon: Good.

208 00:17:41.034 00:17:47.599 Uttam Kumaran: Like a couple of times this week we’ll meet with Janice. So that’s going. Everybody there seems committed.

209 00:17:48.540 00:17:55.090 Scott_Harmon: I didn’t re, I didn’t review. I saw the last back and forth in slack. I did did the last. Kinda I know I was a little bit like

210 00:17:55.929 00:18:00.850 Scott_Harmon: like when what you would call it was talking directly to the event. I’m like, Oh, wait a minute.

211 00:18:02.820 00:18:04.260 Uttam Kumaran: Was also, yeah.

212 00:18:04.260 00:18:08.669 Scott_Harmon: Sounded like like Miguel Miguel. It’s not like you had to go back and go dude like what?

213 00:18:09.120 00:18:10.790 Scott_Harmon: Like getting course, corrected.

214 00:18:10.790 00:18:15.239 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, yeah, I’m trying to get Miguel to think more like Pm. And engineer.

215 00:18:15.380 00:18:27.209 Uttam Kumaran: He’s he’s great. He’s picking it up. I sometimes have to throw the. I just throw the team in the fire sometimes. And I’m like, Okay, get burned a little bit. Don’t don’t like fuck it up. But like

216 00:18:27.760 00:18:39.810 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t wanna I don’t wanna have to get another. PI don’t want 10 people on this one client like so learn a little bit of. But if you do 10% of Pm work, you could still do 90%. And then you own the whole thing. Just learn a little bit of like

217 00:18:39.990 00:18:42.340 Uttam Kumaran: that. So he’s picking it up a little bit.

218 00:18:42.340 00:18:49.350 Scott_Harmon: But you you revert, did you? Review is, whatever the hell he was talking to the event about, like you kept an eye on it. Okay, got it.

219 00:18:49.350 00:18:50.600 Uttam Kumaran: Yes, yes, yes, yes.

220 00:18:50.885 00:18:54.599 Scott_Harmon: Did he make any progress? On that whole, I saw the database record.

221 00:18:54.600 00:19:11.350 Uttam Kumaran: The data set is getting better. We’re meeting with Janice more on it. The Bible thing looks good. I I basically wanted to get everything like working before. I then go to into the the Bible thing and like sort of cut it down and make it a bit organized, and then, also, before going into

222 00:19:11.580 00:19:17.240 Uttam Kumaran: evolve and stuff which honestly it does. I think for most of their questions. We won’t even need

223 00:19:18.060 00:19:23.919 Uttam Kumaran: that, because a lot of those answers are already in the thing. It’ll be just updating that which is more of a data problem

224 00:19:24.790 00:19:29.739 Uttam Kumaran: than really the AI thing working. And also the other thing we did is we’re using Gemini.

225 00:19:30.100 00:19:33.619 Uttam Kumaran: and it’s we just shoved everything in there. And it’s working.

226 00:19:35.580 00:19:38.379 Uttam Kumaran: We’re not doing. We’re not doing any rag at the moment.

227 00:19:38.770 00:19:40.500 Scott_Harmon: Just shoved it in the car like it’s a big.

228 00:19:40.500 00:19:54.749 Uttam Kumaran: 1 million tokens and contacts. So I told I watched a demo on Twitter on someone being like, I just dish rag in my project because because they just up updated gemini a bunch and we did it. And it’s like working.

229 00:19:55.150 00:19:57.200 Scott_Harmon: The context windows are so big.

230 00:19:57.200 00:19:59.070 Uttam Kumaran: It’s working really well. And.

231 00:19:59.070 00:19:59.720 Scott_Harmon: Yeah.

232 00:19:59.720 00:20:06.240 Uttam Kumaran: I think, because it’s in Google, and they’re in Google, I think there’ll be some benefit to us running it there.

233 00:20:09.520 00:20:10.420 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah,

234 00:20:12.530 00:20:15.710 Uttam Kumaran: And it’s not that we got the Google Chat working in like few days. So that’s.

235 00:20:15.710 00:20:20.980 Scott_Harmon: Yeah, no, that’s great progress. So okay, well, I’ll look forward to the call. I think we’re good on

236 00:20:23.660 00:20:36.559 Scott_Harmon: on televero. I sent you that note I guess I saw had a senior moment about the Harvey thing. It’s a different company. I’ll call them, anyway, just because I think they’re totally into the same space, and.

237 00:20:36.560 00:20:41.430 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, cool. I’m not gonna talk to anybody about sort of that same thesis.

238 00:20:41.780 00:20:46.428 Scott_Harmon: Yeah, they. They just raised a big round. And so I think they’re kind of in the same space as Harvey. So

239 00:20:46.640 00:20:52.530 Uttam Kumaran: Something happened this month. There’s a lot of money getting raised in the last 2 weeks. I don’t know if, like.

240 00:20:52.830 00:20:55.710 Scott_Harmon: That’s I mean, the money’s got to go somewhere.

241 00:20:57.030 00:20:57.490 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.

242 00:20:57.490 00:20:59.349 Scott_Harmon: I mean I you know that’s.

243 00:20:59.350 00:21:03.249 Uttam Kumaran: Some companies. There’s no product. There’s no product. I don’t know.

244 00:21:03.250 00:21:08.279 Scott_Harmon: That’s how it. That’s how it works in bubbles. They just give money away for anybody that can fog a mirror so

245 00:21:09.337 00:21:16.179 Scott_Harmon: but nobody’s gonna fund a non AI business right now, like, who is gonna fund a non AI business. The problem is that

246 00:21:16.630 00:21:19.159 Scott_Harmon: unless you’re in the infrastructure space

247 00:21:19.350 00:21:25.619 Scott_Harmon: like hardcore, you know, researchers on your team doing, you know, hardcore foundation Mall stuff.

248 00:21:27.190 00:21:32.339 Scott_Harmon: The the tooling isn’t quite ready unless you’re willing to do what you’re doing which is, roll up your sleeves and go make the stuff.

249 00:21:32.637 00:21:36.509 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t wanna do it for much longer, like I’m waiting for the

250 00:21:37.140 00:21:40.779 Uttam Kumaran: for the frameworks to sort of consolidate a little bit for the next

251 00:21:41.790 00:21:52.089 Uttam Kumaran: 2 years. But also you should that that podcast on Harvey was good, those guys. They hired a bunch of lawyers. They hired a bunch of engineers.

252 00:21:52.200 00:21:58.380 Uttam Kumaran: and just like you said they’re focused just on like back office sort of stuff. And.

253 00:21:58.380 00:21:58.840 Scott_Harmon: You.

254 00:21:59.105 00:22:03.630 Uttam Kumaran: They only have 250 clients they raise like. I don’t make up a number amount of money and.

255 00:22:03.630 00:22:04.880 Scott_Harmon: It’s huge. Yeah, yeah.

256 00:22:04.880 00:22:09.129 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. And they’ve been at it for now like 3 years.

257 00:22:09.370 00:22:12.890 Uttam Kumaran: So I think sometimes I think these guys had a little bit of a head start.

258 00:22:13.580 00:22:21.020 Uttam Kumaran: but sort of the way he thought about. And you know what he said on the call, we’re trying to expand it into other professional services, basically like generic.

259 00:22:21.020 00:22:21.730 Scott_Harmon: Really.

260 00:22:21.730 00:22:27.340 Uttam Kumaran: He was like. The next phase is, we found things that are definitely so applicable.

261 00:22:27.800 00:22:35.064 Uttam Kumaran: professional services as a whole that we want to start doing. Of of course, that’s that’s definitely what how they got the money.

262 00:22:35.380 00:22:42.180 Scott_Harmon: Yeah, the one. The one use case I dropped in there actually came from kind of like a legal tech Vc, that I was doing, some consulting with.

263 00:22:42.400 00:22:51.230 Scott_Harmon: which is the more they just same thing. They got in and done a whole bunch of legal work back office legal work, and they realize that about half of what they do is just contract negotiation.

264 00:22:51.380 00:22:56.319 Scott_Harmon: And and they were like, well, we negotiate all these contracts.

265 00:22:56.440 00:23:02.609 Scott_Harmon: you know, the average, even Midsize Company has, like 30 30 Saas contracts.

266 00:23:02.780 00:23:10.430 Scott_Harmon: you know, with sales salesforce, and like, you know, even ABC has dream and evolve, and all these other things, and they think they negotiate a good deal, but

267 00:23:11.000 00:23:12.750 Scott_Harmon: but they don’t really know like.

268 00:23:12.960 00:23:25.990 Scott_Harmon: like they have their 5 years long, and they’ve got all these conditions around them. And then, and they have all these ratchets and scale all all kinds of crazy terms, and they don’t know what kind of deal somebody else got, because the the.

269 00:23:25.990 00:23:26.440 Uttam Kumaran: Pricing.

270 00:23:26.440 00:23:27.060 Scott_Harmon: It’s private.

271 00:23:27.060 00:23:29.940 Uttam Kumaran: We do that on the data side we come in and renegotiate

272 00:23:30.471 00:23:31.919 Uttam Kumaran: a lot of time we cut.

273 00:23:32.130 00:23:34.859 Uttam Kumaran: but we do a lot of renegotiation for clients.

274 00:23:35.150 00:23:35.620 Scott_Harmon: On? What?

275 00:23:35.740 00:23:38.720 Uttam Kumaran: On like tools like segment, like on data tools.

276 00:23:39.620 00:23:49.619 Scott_Harmon: It’s exactly the same thing. But but you know, basically just figure out if you could figure out a way to to number one, look at their, you know, in their financial system to go look what you’re paying a month to.

277 00:23:49.620 00:23:50.070 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, to the.

278 00:23:50.070 00:23:55.569 Scott_Harmon: These 25 vendors, and then look at the contracts and go. Oh, here’s here’s to! It’s crazy.

279 00:23:55.870 00:23:57.340 Scott_Harmon: I remember one time.

280 00:23:58.092 00:24:09.019 Scott_Harmon: I don’t know if I told you this, but years ago I worked at Ibm. We. I worked at a company that got bought by Ibm back back in the nineties, and you know it’s a big deal, and we all went to work right. I stayed there for a year and a half

281 00:24:09.260 00:24:14.670 Scott_Harmon: before I went and started motive. And so I was a I was a Vp at Ibm of the

282 00:24:15.170 00:24:17.710 Scott_Harmon: of all their software division.

283 00:24:18.040 00:24:20.239 Scott_Harmon: And I was I was going through

284 00:24:20.820 00:24:25.299 Scott_Harmon: like a business review. You know, you go. Okay, show me all our products and how much.

285 00:24:25.610 00:24:31.230 Scott_Harmon: how much we sell. And of course, Ibm software sells like, you know, at that time is a half 1 billion a year is a big business.

286 00:24:31.630 00:24:36.009 Scott_Harmon: and they’re showing me, like all the product lines and how much they make, and

287 00:24:36.650 00:24:39.099 Scott_Harmon: you know how many customers they have.

288 00:24:39.360 00:24:40.450 Scott_Harmon: And

289 00:24:40.740 00:24:45.930 Scott_Harmon: this one product line was the most profitable product line. They had. It made a hundred 1 million a year

290 00:24:46.410 00:24:57.879 Scott_Harmon: with almost no cost. They had no developers on it. They hadn’t updated it in 3 years. It was a hundred percent profit. And I said, What is like, what is that product? They go. It’s this mainframe based backup tool or something.

291 00:24:58.430 00:25:03.050 Scott_Harmon: And and I’m like, Well, you’re making a hundred 1 million dollars a year, like

292 00:25:03.430 00:25:05.830 Scott_Harmon: what the fuck does it do? And they go.

293 00:25:06.030 00:25:09.300 Scott_Harmon: We’ve actually found out that 30% of the customers

294 00:25:09.650 00:25:13.659 Scott_Harmon: that pay the subscription don’t ever don’t have their mainframe anymore.

295 00:25:13.900 00:25:14.520 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.

296 00:25:14.830 00:25:18.650 Scott_Harmon: But they just keep paying their bill like, and I’m like, well.

297 00:25:19.310 00:25:26.589 Scott_Harmon: you keep charging them, and they go the contract just auto renew. So we just they just keep mailing us a check. I’m like, that’s probably like, like.

298 00:25:27.930 00:25:36.090 Scott_Harmon: yeah, but they’re like, Hey, you know, it’s it’s a hundred 1 million dollar a year business, and I’m like you gotta be kidding me, the point being that

299 00:25:36.210 00:25:38.700 Scott_Harmon: companies very seldom. Once they

300 00:25:39.080 00:25:50.890 Scott_Harmon: commit to just buying saas, they just don’t really think about it. It’s just kind of it’s kind of like how you probably sign up for stuff. And you’re online. Put it on your credit card. And you’re like, Oh, shit, you know, it’s just subscription. I forgot it’s on there.

301 00:25:51.150 00:25:52.120 Scott_Harmon: anyway. That’s okay.

302 00:25:52.120 00:25:58.039 Uttam Kumaran: We just started with this company today. And same thing, I went in. And we’re we’re doing a full like audit of all their data stuff.

303 00:25:58.230 00:26:04.060 Uttam Kumaran: And I’m like, is there a decision? Why, you guys have like 3 of these equivalent tools or like no clue.

304 00:26:04.470 00:26:05.300 Uttam Kumaran: I started like.

305 00:26:05.300 00:26:05.750 Scott_Harmon: What’s up?

306 00:26:05.750 00:26:07.080 Uttam Kumaran: Like 3 months from now.

307 00:26:07.750 00:26:19.300 Scott_Harmon: So that’s really important. Because, like, at some point, they decided, somebody decided, I need this tool, the sales guy pitched them. They had some features. You’re smart enough to go, hey? These kind of do the same thing.

308 00:26:19.300 00:26:26.149 Uttam Kumaran: Well, I yeah, I say, don’t talk to any sales people and stop talking. Don’t pick up the phone. Second.

309 00:26:26.290 00:26:42.729 Uttam Kumaran: I’ll show you. Basically, I’ll give you the price sheets for 10, like 3 or 4 of our favorite vendors, and why they’re better better, and why? They’re better on pricing developer time things like that. We don’t have any dog in the race. So I want to get tools that like

310 00:26:43.010 00:26:46.039 Uttam Kumaran: are good and like for your data, people are good.

311 00:26:46.260 00:26:53.199 Uttam Kumaran: and they’re gonna be cheaper, you know. And so that’s what we go in and and mostly do. Sometimes people

312 00:26:53.730 00:27:00.740 Uttam Kumaran: are open to that. Sometimes people are like they have. They’re married to the tool, or their friends sold them it, or they’re like, Oh, I just familiar with it.

313 00:27:01.110 00:27:03.710 Uttam Kumaran: I can’t do anything there. But like, Yeah.

314 00:27:04.340 00:27:08.440 Scott_Harmon: Yeah. Anyway, it’s 1 of those use cases that that

315 00:27:09.020 00:27:17.870 Scott_Harmon: I think is going to be huge when you could just have AI make sure what it really is is is optimizing your spend

316 00:27:18.260 00:27:21.659 Scott_Harmon: for technology. Right? Like like I said.

317 00:27:21.660 00:27:27.169 Uttam Kumaran: Quickbooks like I don’t know why quickbooks hasn’t sort of just been like.

318 00:27:27.750 00:27:30.550 Uttam Kumaran: Here’s like what you’re probably over, Bill. I mean, I don’t know.

319 00:27:30.550 00:27:41.529 Scott_Harmon: Well, and that. And between you and me, that this is a really big fear of a lot of the big software companies like they know most of their customers are over provision like if they have a real savvy customer.

320 00:27:41.850 00:27:48.250 Scott_Harmon: like, they probably know, like, you know, they, we get people to buy more than they need, or you know they just know it right.

321 00:27:48.250 00:27:53.859 Uttam Kumaran: User based billing, too. So most your most of the users are probably only using 10%.

322 00:27:54.170 00:28:00.660 Scott_Harmon: And if they, if if customers ever had an AI that could like be real savvy on this and go, man, we don’t need this like

323 00:28:01.100 00:28:08.230 Scott_Harmon: like, no, I’m not buying, you know that package. I want this package, and just think how much money.

324 00:28:08.230 00:28:08.720 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.

325 00:28:08.720 00:28:13.629 Scott_Harmon: They of the software industry. You could take out right like a a pretty big chunk of it, because.

326 00:28:13.630 00:28:20.659 Uttam Kumaran: And to give you an example, like people come in even on my company. People come and leave, and I forget to turn off their user and some software.

327 00:28:21.170 00:28:21.680 Scott_Harmon: Don’t worry.

328 00:28:22.200 00:28:30.670 Uttam Kumaran: I just. I’m in a mode now where I look at every dollar, but it’s like, Oh, in order to solve that, I need, I need Octa, so I can hook them all up.

329 00:28:31.080 00:28:31.560 Scott_Harmon: Yeah, yeah.

330 00:28:31.830 00:28:32.100 Uttam Kumaran: You.

331 00:28:33.810 00:28:39.870 Uttam Kumaran: I’m just gonna ask. I’m gonna ask the AI team one day to be like we need to build something that goes into every tool and like

332 00:28:40.080 00:28:42.340 Uttam Kumaran: right automatically.

333 00:28:42.992 00:28:44.919 Scott_Harmon: Yeah. Alright, my friend.

334 00:28:44.920 00:28:45.300 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.

335 00:28:45.300 00:28:50.279 Scott_Harmon: Good I’ll watch for the televerse stuff, and we’ll get something back out to him tomorrow.

336 00:28:50.280 00:28:52.460 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, alright, thanks, Scott. Appreciate your time.

337 00:28:52.460 00:28:53.760 Scott_Harmon: Take care, Tim. See you, Buddy.