Meeting Title: Uttam Kumaran Date: 2025-03-25 Meeting participants: Annie Yu, Uttam Kumaran


WEBVTT

1 00:01:07.100 00:01:08.600 Annie Yu: Hello, Tom!

2 00:01:10.090 00:01:13.590 Uttam Kumaran: Hey, Amy, give me one second. Let me just connect my airpods

3 00:01:13.590 00:01:14.720 Annie Yu: All right.

4 00:01:35.400 00:01:36.850 Uttam Kumaran: You can go back

5 00:01:38.240 00:01:38.860 Annie Yu: Yep.

6 00:01:41.640 00:01:43.990 Uttam Kumaran: And then is it kind of muffled

7 00:01:46.280 00:01:47.910 Annie Yu: It’s not bad

8 00:01:49.330 00:01:52.060 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, how about now.

9 00:01:52.430 00:01:54.896 Annie Yu: Okay. It’s a little muffled

10 00:01:58.130 00:01:59.830 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, okay, hold on. Hold on! Hold on

11 00:02:00.160 00:02:00.860 Annie Yu: Okay.

12 00:03:26.090 00:03:27.539 Uttam Kumaran: Okay? Is this any better?

13 00:03:27.670 00:03:29.120 Annie Yu: Yes, much better.

14 00:03:29.120 00:03:34.020 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, cool. Sorry. Just just needed to get some fresh air. So I came outside

15 00:03:34.740 00:03:42.465 Uttam Kumaran: to a coffee shop. But then I was like I forgot. I call. I forgot I was gonna call you, and the coffee shop is way too quiet. I was. Gonna be awkward

16 00:03:42.700 00:03:44.629 Annie Yu: So where are you now?

17 00:03:44.810 00:03:47.139 Uttam Kumaran: I am here I can turn.

18 00:03:47.760 00:03:49.543 Uttam Kumaran: I’m on my phone.

19 00:03:49.990 00:03:50.579 Annie Yu: Oh!

20 00:03:51.170 00:03:55.150 Uttam Kumaran: But I’m at. I’m just at a coffee shop like on the street here

21 00:03:55.480 00:03:58.743 Annie Yu: Cute, and it’s so bright, is it?

22 00:03:59.860 00:04:02.397 Uttam Kumaran: It’s not definitely not. Portland. Yeah.

23 00:04:03.379 00:04:07.659 Annie Yu: Well, yeah, let me show you I’m gonna do Portland justice

24 00:04:07.660 00:04:08.900 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, it looks amazing

25 00:04:09.436 00:04:10.510 Annie Yu: Today yeah.

26 00:04:10.510 00:04:13.440 Uttam Kumaran: That looks like Austin. Yeah, I mean, it’s the same thing. It’s like.

27 00:04:13.930 00:04:16.784 Uttam Kumaran: it’s bright. It’s hot here, though.

28 00:04:17.370 00:04:20.930 Uttam Kumaran: but I like spend a lot of time in coffee shops, so

29 00:04:21.190 00:04:26.220 Uttam Kumaran: I like always bring a jacket, because it’s like always freezing

30 00:04:26.220 00:04:26.590 Annie Yu: Yeah.

31 00:04:26.902 00:04:30.649 Uttam Kumaran: Here, let me switch. I’ll turn on my video on my laptop.

32 00:04:30.750 00:04:35.850 Uttam Kumaran: But I’ll just turn my video off. Here, give me a sec. How’s everything going

33 00:04:36.760 00:04:47.250 Annie Yu: Pretty good, I think. Not too bad. I think I’m following everything I’m supposed to. And yeah, nothing to complain

34 00:04:47.250 00:04:48.847 Uttam Kumaran: Okay. No complaints.

35 00:04:50.586 00:04:57.589 Annie Yu: Well, no, honestly, I think I think overall feeling pretty pretty good

36 00:04:57.590 00:04:58.320 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.

37 00:04:59.620 00:05:00.632 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I think.

38 00:05:01.290 00:05:23.959 Uttam Kumaran: I think the biggest thing here. Sorry. Yeah. I I think maybe I just wanted to spend some time here last week, but I think overall, you know, I’m starting to get a little bit more structured on how I’m doing like one on ones with the team but really, like the couple of things would love to hear feedback on is one like feedback on yourself, like, how do you think

39 00:05:24.140 00:05:30.752 Uttam Kumaran: you’re doing on the team. I would love to hear feedback about the data team and then feedback about

40 00:05:31.240 00:05:39.060 Uttam Kumaran: the company as well. So those are the key things, you know, if you just have any thoughts on your mind. And then I know we’re

41 00:05:39.360 00:05:49.414 Uttam Kumaran: we’re we’re we’re few days from Friday, so I just wanted to kind of chat about next steps and things there. So yeah, I mean, if you have any thoughts or feedback right now.

42 00:05:50.150 00:05:51.210 Uttam Kumaran: let me know

43 00:05:52.590 00:05:59.109 Annie Yu: Yeah. Okay, I think, okay, what? How I’m doing myself. I think

44 00:05:59.270 00:06:01.990 Annie Yu: I think I’m trying my best. And I think I deliver

45 00:06:01.990 00:06:02.690 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.

46 00:06:03.360 00:06:03.780 Annie Yu: Okay.

47 00:06:04.240 00:06:05.520 Uttam Kumaran: That’s good.

48 00:06:06.160 00:06:11.790 Annie Yu: No, I said that because I feel like like there is.

49 00:06:12.300 00:06:15.169 Annie Yu: No, I think I think I I think I’m

50 00:06:15.460 00:06:18.539 Annie Yu: doing well. I’ve learned a lot, and I think I

51 00:06:19.040 00:06:27.999 Annie Yu: I remember, like encountering problems. So this is embarrass, embarrassing to say. But I think I still struggle with a Meta based?

52 00:06:28.270 00:06:31.119 Annie Yu: Query builder itself so?

53 00:06:31.890 00:06:32.970 Annie Yu: For me.

54 00:06:33.120 00:06:38.549 Uttam Kumaran: At this moment. It’s easier to write sequel, even though that probably takes a bit more time.

55 00:06:38.550 00:06:40.439 Uttam Kumaran: Metabase metabase sucks like metabase.

56 00:06:40.440 00:06:40.780 Annie Yu: It’s just

57 00:06:40.780 00:06:41.389 Uttam Kumaran: Kind of sucky

58 00:06:41.390 00:06:42.910 Annie Yu: I really do think so.

59 00:06:42.910 00:06:48.049 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I mean, but like, I feel like tableau suck, like they all kind of suck differently.

60 00:06:48.570 00:06:58.350 Uttam Kumaran: Metabase, in particular is like you have to build a question, and then, like, add it. It’s it’s horrible. I’m trying to get them to switch, so most likely we’ll switch to something soon.

61 00:06:58.570 00:07:07.760 Annie Yu: Yeah, I would love that. I I think I definitely enjoy like just dragging. And then you can write. I think even their functions

62 00:07:08.020 00:07:12.490 Annie Yu: are not that it’s still kind of limited compared to like tableau

63 00:07:12.490 00:07:14.130 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I agree.

64 00:07:14.952 00:07:21.069 Annie Yu: But yeah, I think it’s really, I actually think it’s fun. And I love like

65 00:07:21.190 00:07:24.819 Annie Yu: that. I also got the chance to like touch on the.

66 00:07:25.820 00:07:28.759 Annie Yu: I don’t want to say data engineering, because that will like.

67 00:07:29.632 00:07:31.049 Annie Yu: Now, like this.

68 00:07:31.050 00:07:34.070 Uttam Kumaran: No, that’s I guess. I guess you could say data modeling. Yeah.

69 00:07:34.070 00:07:41.520 Annie Yu: Yeah, yeah, I think I I love that I’ve got a chance to to walk through that flow, too.

70 00:07:42.130 00:07:44.009 Annie Yu: And then the data team.

71 00:07:44.230 00:07:47.439 Annie Yu: I I think I’m still as

72 00:07:47.710 00:07:55.029 Annie Yu: I’m still learning all the data structure. But I really want to give credits to this entire team is

73 00:07:55.620 00:08:19.019 Annie Yu: honestly, the the data itself is pretty clean compared to I I can only speak for probably, Nike, it’s things are super messy there, but also makes sense because it’s like a a company that’s been there for for a while, but I think the the data tables are pretty clean easy enough for me to jump in and kind of

74 00:08:19.150 00:08:25.689 Annie Yu: explore and understand not mo, not every of them, but like majority that I have to use

75 00:08:25.900 00:08:34.010 Uttam Kumaran: Cool. Okay, yeah. I mean, that’s that’s really like what I you know, what I was hoping to hear. I mean, I think one, we spend a lot of time.

76 00:08:34.210 00:08:49.729 Uttam Kumaran: you know, thinking a lot about our data structure, how to name things appropriately and things like that. Also, you know, I I heard very good feedback. I spoke with Robert. I spoke with other people on the team. So I’ve I heard really, really positive feedback about your impact. So I think it’s not easy to come in and

77 00:08:49.840 00:08:51.930 Uttam Kumaran: and pick things up and like

78 00:08:52.695 00:08:59.730 Uttam Kumaran: few days. However, I know that great data people can do that so part of the reason why I like to

79 00:08:59.920 00:09:06.349 Uttam Kumaran: part of the reason why I like to take people who I I have a good feeling of, and throw them in to the deep end.

80 00:09:06.670 00:09:18.979 Uttam Kumaran: more or less is because I know that if you can swim and imagine, if you had a lot of support like, what would you? What you would be able to do right? So part of this exercise was not not just to see that like.

81 00:09:19.080 00:09:21.010 Uttam Kumaran: okay, go pick things up. But

82 00:09:21.220 00:09:47.119 Uttam Kumaran: for me, like, with very limited support, you are able to go and quickly adapt to the team structure the data work in a new tool work with new people right? Like you’ve already met like 5 or 6 new people in one week. All of those are important, not just doing a technical interview where you like, know how to do a left join? It’s like, Can you do all of those things right? And so that’s why it’s it’s important for me to throw people into these situations, because.

83 00:09:47.370 00:10:08.399 Uttam Kumaran: like as you grow with us, there’s only more support like. And so we’re only gonna work on harder things. But there’s gonna be much more support. You’re gonna have much more control. And so I was really really glad to see that things are going. Well, I mean, in fact, I I was gonna try to catch up with you yesterday. Yesterday I just spent all afternoon linear. And today I was wanted to catch up with you in the morning.

84 00:10:08.450 00:10:31.290 Uttam Kumaran: and I just spent another day like meeting with people because I didn’t meet anyone yesterday. But I’m really happy. I caught up with Robert, and he said, things are going really, really well. He definitely might mention the the Meta base like queries, but everybody sort of has that problem. Which is fine, like again. That’s that’ll be between you and the Ae. Team to work on. But I guess give me some feedback about like the company I mean. I I think

85 00:10:31.700 00:10:34.380 Uttam Kumaran: would love to hear what you think. After a week.

86 00:10:34.570 00:10:37.749 Uttam Kumaran: you know, overall the company structure, and then, of course, like

87 00:10:38.040 00:10:44.569 Uttam Kumaran: I would say, I’m I’ll be like direct manager, but any feedback on on me, and and how we could do things

88 00:10:44.780 00:10:45.640 Uttam Kumaran: better

89 00:10:48.730 00:11:04.419 Annie Yu: I do have one thing, but I also think you probably already are doing that. I think one thing that I’m very curious now is just like what other projects are there to support, and what’s like more opportunities, and also

90 00:11:05.354 00:11:32.320 Annie Yu: besides, from that more so like, I know that obviously the goal is always like renew with clients and all that. I would also love visibilities around that, too. So I think that’s 1 thing. But but on the 1st point, I think you you’ve done that because I went to that 1st Demos meeting. I feel like that’s a good example to understand what other people are doing on other projects

91 00:11:33.000 00:11:35.950 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, like, last week’s meeting was more of like.

92 00:11:36.140 00:11:47.799 Uttam Kumaran: okay, I need to answer all these questions. I don’t know what to do here. But the 1st meeting you attended is is usually every week I try to go through all of our clients. Definitely we are. This is where again.

93 00:11:47.960 00:11:52.370 Uttam Kumaran: I try to do things differently is a lot of companies that will say engineers like stay in the back

94 00:11:53.160 00:12:16.920 Uttam Kumaran: Don’t get involved in sales. Blah blah. I if people on engineering team want to get involved in sales and sell or do whatever as long as we have time for to do that I would love that like I’m an engineer. I learn how to sell amber is thinking about helping to sell to bias is doing some selling. So like, and we’re gonna build structure so that you can if you are interested in learning how to sell or being more involved in like

95 00:12:16.920 00:12:31.320 Uttam Kumaran: when we meet new clients. There’s definitely opportunity. And also like, How do you guys, how do you get rewarded? So we have incentive. We have like sort of sales, compensation plans for for salespeople. I feel like anybody in the company. If they want to help to sell

96 00:12:31.620 00:12:32.010 Annie Yu: Yeah.

97 00:12:32.010 00:12:54.860 Uttam Kumaran: You should be able to do that, whether it’s selling new business, or even like selling renewal. You know, and so certainly at minimum, I think on Fridays you’ll hear that we also do sales retros which I’m happy to include you on and then, basically again, like Robert, me and Robert are the only people selling right now. So there’s like there’s not like a big committee or anything. So

98 00:12:54.860 00:13:02.609 Annie Yu: What do you mean by selling? What’s the? Is there like a process? Or or usually you just like cold call and then see what’s next?

99 00:13:02.610 00:13:14.079 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, no, there is a process. I, we. We have several channels. So we have people that reach out through the website. We have people that reach out to us directly. We have friends or partners that give us introductions.

100 00:13:14.483 00:13:39.389 Uttam Kumaran: We also do a lot of cold reach outs where we meet. And I see people on Linkedin. We message companies directly when they have job postings. And then we sort of just pitch. So it’s like a it’s actually pretty boring. It’s just like you say the same thing over and over again. And you you hope that people take you seriously. And then the nice thing is if we’re able to get on a phone with people, people tend to appreciate our message and sort of

101 00:13:39.660 00:14:01.739 Uttam Kumaran: our care for like how we think about data, we when and again, our sales process is like I told them a lot about our experience. I tell them about our existing clients. I also tell them about our team. And I tell them like, Hey, look! It’s no longer a business that me and Robert are developing everything. We have a team. But we have a team that’s structured around success and structured around your success.

102 00:14:01.840 00:14:08.909 Uttam Kumaran: We we charge very fair rates like compared to some of our competitors. In fact, I think we’re like way too cheap to be honest.

103 00:14:10.020 00:14:13.330 Annie Yu: Who are the the competitors you consider

104 00:14:13.330 00:14:18.320 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. So like, I mean, if you, if you go ahead on your Google and you search like snowflake consultants.

105 00:14:18.920 00:14:25.729 Uttam Kumaran: Probably like any of those people on the list, you could consider competitors. We have a list of like 200 competitors that we track

106 00:14:26.116 00:14:53.489 Uttam Kumaran: and we’re sort of looking at how they’re changing. I’m happy to share that with. You can go poke around, but we have it’s not a huge industry. But there were a lot of like very small people where they’re like one or 2 people sort of like how it was for me like 2 years ago, where I’m like, I have like 2 clients. But I’m like solo. There’s a lot of those people, and then there’s a there’s like a lot of like big people like not a lot, but like there’s a bunch of people like Mckinsey big companies. They do like a hundred things

107 00:14:53.490 00:14:53.810 Annie Yu: Yeah.

108 00:14:53.810 00:15:08.369 Uttam Kumaran: In the middle. It’s hard because you’re sort of like trying to graduate up into those big fish, or you sort of get sold or bought, or something in between. So that’s sort of where we are. We’re graduating from like me and Robert just doing a couple of things to

109 00:15:08.780 00:15:14.900 Uttam Kumaran: now we’re like what almost 20 people. And then I want us. I want us to go from 10 to 20 to 30 clients, right?

110 00:15:15.130 00:15:15.660 Annie Yu: Bye.

111 00:15:15.660 00:15:21.129 Uttam Kumaran: So as everything grows like, we’re trying to move everything up. And

112 00:15:22.390 00:15:35.749 Uttam Kumaran: yeah, I would say, there’s a fair bit of competition as, but I just. I don’t think a lot of people are thinking about the business in in the way we are. I don’t think a lot of people care about their employees as much as we try to like I that does affect like

113 00:15:36.618 00:15:41.870 Uttam Kumaran: like, I think, could we run this business cheaper? Could we get like super offshore talent.

114 00:15:42.000 00:15:46.770 Uttam Kumaran: Could I have like no relationship with them, and just be like, Go do this work? Yeah. But like.

115 00:15:47.190 00:15:55.599 Uttam Kumaran: this is all like this is the art of like doing this where you want to do things your way, like I want to get. I don’t want smart people to come here

116 00:15:55.700 00:16:00.969 Uttam Kumaran: be like this is just a paycheck, and then leave like I want them to really feel like they can come here. And for

117 00:16:01.160 00:16:25.039 Uttam Kumaran: for whatever great data work they’ve done. I want this to be their best data team like they’ve worked on and I’ve worked on some great data teams. And so I try to think about. If I was working here like, would I would. I consider this like a great place to work, not only from a people money, but like the quality of the work you do like, am I getting challenges? Am I able to think in systems? Am I able to level up right

118 00:16:25.190 00:16:31.980 Uttam Kumaran: like. God forbid! If you were to leave the company, I think about how our engineers will go get like

119 00:16:32.110 00:16:45.200 Uttam Kumaran: double the salary, or like double the title like, How can we take people in and and grow them right a lot? People did that for me without being paid to do that or like did that for me, just sort of out of own grace. And so like.

120 00:16:45.320 00:16:48.360 Uttam Kumaran: we’re starting to institutionalize a lot of that stuff.

121 00:16:48.600 00:16:55.990 Uttam Kumaran: But it’s hard and like a lot of that. A lot of that thinking, you know. We don’t get like paid for. It’s sort of like out of our own pocket.

122 00:16:56.240 00:16:56.570 Annie Yu: Yeah.

123 00:16:56.802 00:17:07.269 Uttam Kumaran: But I don’t know I don’t. I want to build a company where everybody tells their friends like you actually work at a cool company, not like what’s usually have, where, like my company sucks or my boss sucks, or like, I have to work

124 00:17:07.270 00:17:07.810 Annie Yu: 10 days.

125 00:17:08.089 00:17:11.209 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. And like everybody does that like, it’s so depressing.

126 00:17:11.743 00:17:17.839 Uttam Kumaran: I did that for a while. But there was also times in my career was like, I’m working on like super super cool stuff

127 00:17:18.743 00:17:23.729 Uttam Kumaran: And I want people to do that, because that’s what really will attract better people. And so.

128 00:17:24.104 00:17:34.870 Uttam Kumaran: yeah, I guess long story short. Yes, there are competitors. I I think we’re trying to do things a different way. So hopefully, I see our. I see us as like a really competing in the market for sure, in a heavy way.

129 00:17:36.820 00:17:45.119 Annie Yu: Love to hear that. And I just echo echoing your point. I definitely, even though I I think I like

130 00:17:46.128 00:17:59.750 Annie Yu: I was like not kidding when I say I delivered, but but I am also getting challenged, and I, I think, like that really like is also like a fun part for me being in this role.

131 00:17:59.860 00:18:16.669 Annie Yu: And and I I remember seeing I haven’t met everyone one on one yet, but I remember seeing Payas also, like mentioning. Oh, Amber, you now can do like Pr. Request that kind of thing I was like. Oh, pretty cool! Even Amber is learning that so

132 00:18:16.670 00:18:21.830 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I mean, everything is open for everybody. Every role is open, like I don’t.

133 00:18:21.950 00:18:28.700 Uttam Kumaran: Why would I? Why would I silo people like, why would I do that? Of course. Like, if you’re if you’re here to do engineering work

134 00:18:29.020 00:18:47.700 Uttam Kumaran: and we have clients that do engineering work, I feel like a majority of the time should go there. But I’m not going to prevent people from going and searching for new things to do. In fact, we’re also going to have a lot of data stuff to do measuring our own company. And I’m going to work with the analyst team to do that for our company like, we’re going to have dashboards and kpis.

135 00:18:47.980 00:18:50.526 Uttam Kumaran: So it’s important to involve people like

136 00:18:51.090 00:19:20.110 Uttam Kumaran: And yeah, I mean, I, this is where I also think that, like your confidence is really great, especially for people people who are confident, but they also know they can deliver. What what I’m trying to do is give them tougher problems. Give them more problems. Right? Like, I think you’re right now, you’re just working on one piece and one client. The challenge in this business is being able to work on multiple clients and then working on multiple pieces, delivering things fast on time. But not only that. How do you begin to work with your squad on building the best analyst function.

137 00:19:20.270 00:19:27.100 Uttam Kumaran: right? So everybody on the team, the Aes, the analysts. I talked to them about building a great analyst function. Right? Like.

138 00:19:27.210 00:19:31.490 Uttam Kumaran: let’s say, we hire another analyst. How do they come in? And on day one they can contribute?

139 00:19:31.780 00:19:39.340 Uttam Kumaran: Or how do we start to go from building like boring dashboards, to actually like finding insights that save money proven to save money.

140 00:19:39.980 00:20:00.869 Uttam Kumaran: So that’s some of the things that I will be starting to meet with each horizontal crew like I meet with the Pre. Pm’s. Every day we talk about like how everything’s going. I was meeting with the analytics engineers. Every day I will start doing that again, or like meeting every other day with, like the analysts, the analytics, engineers, and just talking like, okay as a crew. How can we get better.

141 00:20:01.070 00:20:11.710 Uttam Kumaran: you know, because that’s something that in your client Pod, during stand up. There’s no time to do that right. Hey? Should we try to use something on the new tool here? Hey? I’m stuck like trying to figure out this like analysis.

142 00:20:11.930 00:20:23.479 Uttam Kumaran: Those are the things that we want to build those functions for. But it takes 2 people to do that right. So right now, it’s mainly just. It was mainly just me until we hired the aes. And now I think that we have more analysts. I think we can start to do that as well

143 00:20:24.460 00:20:25.690 Annie Yu: Sounds good

144 00:20:25.690 00:20:26.360 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.

145 00:20:26.880 00:20:33.040 Uttam Kumaran: so yeah, I mean, the the big reason I wanted to talk is, I think we’re comfortable to move forward to like extend you an offer.

146 00:20:34.640 00:20:53.510 Uttam Kumaran: I spoke with Robert today. We’re more than happy with the work that you’ve done. We really believe that. You know, number one, your energy, but number 2, I think your confidence and your ability that you’ve shown this week on on work for Javi has been really really great. I know we were having to go until Friday, but

147 00:20:53.980 00:21:19.030 Uttam Kumaran: we don’t like. I would love to see whether we can accelerate and how quickly we can, you know, bring you onto the team full time to give you a sense of what other work you would be doing. We have 3 other clients with active analyst work that we’re currently either not it’s not being covered or it’s being covered by me, or it’s being covered by external contractors. We want to start to build this function in house and we would love for you to

148 00:21:19.300 00:21:25.590 Uttam Kumaran: to basically be. I think you’d become our 1st full time brain forge analyst. Basically, I don’t consider Robert

149 00:21:25.590 00:21:27.299 Annie Yu: Does that mean? What what does that mean?

150 00:21:27.300 00:21:31.560 Uttam Kumaran: Like. We don’t have another full time like analyst. That’s not a contractor.

151 00:21:32.480 00:21:33.620 Annie Yu: Oh!

152 00:21:35.110 00:21:35.440 Uttam Kumaran: Every.

153 00:21:35.880 00:21:36.320 Annie Yu: Yeah.

154 00:21:36.320 00:21:40.619 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, so like, I mean, Robert, cause me and Robert have been doing all the analysis work. Sahana.

155 00:21:40.820 00:21:46.119 Uttam Kumaran: Sahana. Pious! They’re all external contractors like they. They’re working part time

156 00:21:46.965 00:21:50.100 Uttam Kumaran: So we would love to see if you’re like open to

157 00:21:50.390 00:21:55.299 Uttam Kumaran: coming on and joining us as like our 1st time. You know our first, st like full time analyst.

158 00:21:56.790 00:21:59.180 Annie Yu: And and is that what does

159 00:21:59.730 00:22:08.250 Annie Yu: I think the follow follow up question is, what what does full timing here? Because I I wanna just get a sense of

160 00:22:08.400 00:22:10.249 Annie Yu: to make sure I’m following

161 00:22:10.250 00:22:31.704 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, so full time would be at least 40 h. And so here’s the kind of the short term long term. So for some people. What we’ve been doing is we’ve been basically as people ramp up to 40 h. We’ve been paying them appropriately for you. I think there’s definitely 40 h of work, not only across clients, but across

162 00:22:32.110 00:22:43.164 Uttam Kumaran: like platform work and documentation work and things that help the overall company. So we would probably we would most likely extend you just a salary offer. If you’d be open to it.

163 00:22:43.830 00:23:00.230 Uttam Kumaran: The other thing in the short term we can do is continue to bill as as hourly and sort of identify whether there is 40 h of work. So there’s kind of 2 options we can go there, I mean for me, for the for our brainforce team. What I mentioned on Friday is, I want everybody to be ramped up 40 h.

164 00:23:00.280 00:23:15.489 Uttam Kumaran: We we need help on Javi. We need help on another client, and we so and then. So I have. There’s there’s at least 3 clients with analyst help that we need including the one you’re on. And I need some help internally on some data work.

165 00:23:15.740 00:23:18.690 Uttam Kumaran: So I think there’s at least 40 h of work

166 00:23:19.419 00:23:23.700 Uttam Kumaran: to be done. And so this would be a full time offer. So

167 00:23:23.890 00:23:29.940 Uttam Kumaran: to better squarely like, I would hope that you can basically leave your other job, and like, Come, join us.

168 00:23:30.630 00:23:42.239 Annie Yu: Oh, my God, that means so much hearing you say that I I really appreciate this opportunity, and I think I’m I’m like more than happy to say Yes.

169 00:23:42.240 00:23:42.740 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.

170 00:23:42.740 00:23:44.770 Annie Yu: So, and the paper

171 00:23:45.069 00:24:03.060 Uttam Kumaran: No, thank you. I was nervous because I was like, maybe she doesn’t want to join. I don’t know, but like I was like I called Robert. I just want to call you yesterday, just to see how everything’s going. But for us, once we see good people, there’s no I’ve no, I don’t want to hesitate right? And so

172 00:24:03.060 00:24:17.120 Uttam Kumaran: I want to share with you that we’re really committed to you. I really believe that this will be like a very important part of of your career. I think it’ll be definitely more different and more challenging than your past roles. But

173 00:24:17.750 00:24:45.069 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t think you’re gonna have another opportunity to to have this much of impact on this many companies as you will here like, I’m fairly certain in the next 6 months you’ll you’ll feel like you have 3 different jobs, you know, not only worth of experience, but like worth of meeting people. And I think you’ll I think you’ll find it to be quite rewarding. I find it rewarding every day, like I feel really lucky to be able to do the work that we do, and we’re just growing. And so it means a lot for me to be able to

174 00:24:45.180 00:25:05.280 Uttam Kumaran: finally bring on like a full time analyst. We’ve really struggled to find someone. Which is why we had to rely on a lot of external contractors. And so it means a lot to me to bring on someone who’s like excited about analysis, even from our 1st conversation, from all the questions you asked me. But also someone like you who’s like eager to learn right. And so

175 00:25:05.540 00:25:28.909 Uttam Kumaran: for us it’s not only coming every day and doing the work, but it’s also we’re going to bring in a lot of coaches as well, like. Robert is a really great analyst, has worked on a lot of great work. He’ll be working with you on like, how do you level up. I have analysts that I’m going to bring from shopify, from Facebook to talk to our team, to work, one on, one with people to say like, how do we deliver enterprise level analysis to our clients?

176 00:25:29.272 00:25:54.450 Uttam Kumaran: And how? How do we turn everybody here into like a rock star data, you know, engineer. So whether you want to continue an analysis work, get more technical, continue to do more stuff, get involved in sales like, I think everything’s on the table for us. I think the most important thing is just to to know that you’re committed. And then and yeah, that we can get those over to you, you know, and you can start whenever you’d like, basically full time

177 00:25:56.372 00:25:59.187 Annie Yu: Let me think through. If I have more questions

178 00:25:59.500 00:25:59.960 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.

179 00:25:59.960 00:26:08.742 Uttam Kumaran: but but just like right on the spot, I’m like excited to hear that, and I would more than happy to be committed, as you say.

180 00:26:09.700 00:26:16.530 Annie Yu: Yeah. But just one question. That doesn’t mean I’m taking on the all the 3 clients right now.

181 00:26:16.530 00:26:32.769 Uttam Kumaran: No, so it so it depends. It depends on when you are ready. So I know you’re you’re still at the Microsoft gig you mentioned that it’s it’s ending in 3 weeks. But again, if you if you’re starting to have more time, then I can start to include you, it sort of depends on your thing. I mean, you know us.

182 00:26:33.130 00:26:35.880 Uttam Kumaran: I’ll move as fast as you want to move, so

183 00:26:35.880 00:26:45.160 Annie Yu: Yeah, I think I can take care of that part. So on the Microsoft side I actually don’t have an end date yet.

184 00:26:45.626 00:26:56.029 Annie Yu: But they like everyone’s aware of like my situation. So they are aware that I will be like looking elsewhere. And it’s fine that if I need to dip early

185 00:26:56.030 00:26:56.690 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.

186 00:26:56.840 00:27:01.799 Annie Yu: So. That’s just one thing that we probably don’t have to worry about too much

187 00:27:02.250 00:27:06.499 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, okay, cool. So then, like, what do you think? Let’s say, for the rest of this week.

188 00:27:06.620 00:27:16.840 Uttam Kumaran: like, you have more availability, like, how much more availability do you think you have? I mean, I would say I’m not gonna sign you up. It’s not gonna be like Wake up tomorrow. And there’s like a hundred more tickets

189 00:27:17.220 00:27:32.530 Uttam Kumaran: I just, I’m gonna start looping you in. And so you can start. I’ll just start adding you to some channels. You can start to poke around, probably starting on. Maybe on Friday, or maybe a Monday, we’ll start to work together with the Pm. To sort of get you a few things

190 00:27:32.530 00:27:32.920 Annie Yu: Hmm.

191 00:27:34.560 00:27:39.760 Annie Yu: Yeah. Yeah. To that point. Honestly, I think Friday would be a good

192 00:27:40.110 00:27:41.360 Uttam Kumaran: We could do Monday, too.

193 00:27:41.360 00:27:57.380 Annie Yu: So. Yeah, I I’ve got some like ad hoc projects for this week. But they all do on Thursday. So I think I can promise that Friday will be like more free than than these few days.

194 00:27:57.380 00:28:26.979 Uttam Kumaran: Okay. Then what I’m gonna do is I’ll just I’m just gonna loop you in and I’ll sort of talk to the Pm’s. We’re working on Thursday, we have a meeting about allocation. So like we’re gonna look at who’s available for what projects? So I’ll just, I’ll mention to them that you’re gonna be available. Yeah, I mean again, I I think probably in the short term there will at least be 20 to 30 h of client work. I definitely have another 5 to 10 h of internal data analysis work that I need help with. For example, we’re gonna I wanna start to measure.

195 00:28:28.032 00:28:38.079 Uttam Kumaran: Our company kpis, financial kpis, we’re gonna start measuring meetings, slack messages, Zoom Meetings, tie that to client success

196 00:28:38.220 00:28:49.379 Uttam Kumaran: like we’re gonna build our own dashboards and things like that. So I’m the only one doing that now. So it’d be great to like have a partner to do that and work on sort of our own data platform. So I certainly think that there’s gonna be at least

197 00:28:49.530 00:29:00.310 Uttam Kumaran: 40 h of work. The other point I’ll make is, and I sort of talked to this about Friday is like we’re still working on our like broad incentive plan. So ideally, by the end of the second quarter.

198 00:29:00.710 00:29:15.210 Uttam Kumaran: we will basically re-level everybody. So you have good expectations on salary, depending on the level you’re at, and then also based on how many clients you take. There will be additional bonus. So we’re we’re we’re continuing to work on that plan.

199 00:29:15.645 00:29:19.000 Uttam Kumaran: So I’m still, we’re still feel pretty on track for that

200 00:29:19.690 00:29:28.319 Annie Yu: Okay, awesome. And just to clarify again. So my role, this role we’re talking about, that would be a salary based

201 00:29:28.320 00:29:28.880 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.

202 00:29:28.880 00:29:29.969 Annie Yu: Got it. Okay.

203 00:29:30.960 00:29:38.069 Uttam Kumaran: So we’ll we’ll extend it. So we’ll extend an offer salary based. I may need like a couple of days to do that. So maybe for

204 00:29:38.070 00:29:38.650 Annie Yu: For sure.

205 00:29:38.650 00:29:58.550 Uttam Kumaran: Maybe let’s plan on. Maybe kicking that off on Monday for this week. Just keep billing as I I’m gonna I’m gonna if I add you to new slacks. Just feel free to Bill for that time. But I’ll just start to let people know that that’s what your plan is. And then maybe we’ll plan on starting on Monday full time. And then for this

206 00:29:58.690 00:30:04.479 Uttam Kumaran: I guess it’ll be that’ll technically be the start of April right? Or march 31, st

207 00:30:04.480 00:30:06.110 Annie Yu: Yeah, wait, is it?

208 00:30:08.028 00:30:10.000 Annie Yu: I lost track of the day

209 00:30:10.000 00:30:12.359 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, it’s already April, which is kind of crazy

210 00:30:12.360 00:30:12.705 Annie Yu: Okay.

211 00:30:13.050 00:30:17.040 Uttam Kumaran: I. That kind of makes me depressed because I really have just been working too much.

212 00:30:17.476 00:30:32.880 Uttam Kumaran: But I I will. We’ll plan on. We’ll plan on, maybe kicking that all off on Monday. And then, yeah, I think on your side, let me know. Like when you think the Microsoft stuff is gonna wind down but again, we’ll plan on just ramping you up, starting next week.

213 00:30:33.294 00:30:47.589 Uttam Kumaran: And just looping you into other stuff. I think. My time. A lot of my time is going from working on clients to working on our team as a whole, so I’ll be starting to schedule meetings like for us as an analyst crew, to talk

214 00:30:47.760 00:30:50.550 Uttam Kumaran: for our us as a data team, to talk every week.

215 00:30:50.940 00:31:03.660 Uttam Kumaran: and doing things as like more of a team versus just individual clients. I’ll I’ll start to run those. And that way we can talk about our data platform changes we want to make and how we work and tickets and Prs and things like that. So

216 00:31:03.890 00:31:10.570 Uttam Kumaran: that’s what I’m most excited about, like, it’s been a long time coming for us to start to think about those things. And then, finally.

217 00:31:10.690 00:31:23.299 Uttam Kumaran: the other thing I’ll mention is we’re always looking for more analysts. Not that like we’re gonna replace you. We have a lot of analyst work that’s coming down the pipe. So in case you have other friends that are interested in jobs or

218 00:31:23.520 00:31:26.509 Uttam Kumaran: over the next, whatever you you come across, folks that

219 00:31:26.850 00:31:34.079 Uttam Kumaran: there’d be good fits for us. Feel free to introduce me. We don’t. We’re not. We don’t do. We don’t have like a referral bonus or anything now but

220 00:31:35.350 00:31:41.089 Uttam Kumaran: again, we’re just looking for great people, certainly, like I think we have enough work for at least one more person

221 00:31:42.460 00:31:46.319 Uttam Kumaran: And that way there’s redundancy, you know, on every client. So.

222 00:31:46.570 00:31:47.380 Uttam Kumaran: But yeah.

223 00:31:48.620 00:31:55.950 Annie Yu: Okay, I I would love that and definitely sign me up, for, like internal stuff, too, I would love to be your partner on that

224 00:31:55.950 00:31:56.850 Uttam Kumaran: Okay. Okay. Cool.

225 00:31:57.370 00:32:00.789 Annie Yu: Okay. And I, I do have like, just one more thing.

226 00:32:00.790 00:32:01.260 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.

227 00:32:01.320 00:32:03.435 Annie Yu: I I do have a trip coming up

228 00:32:03.700 00:32:04.430 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, that’s fine.

229 00:32:05.005 00:32:11.480 Annie Yu: That’s I think it’s schedule on, like I’m gonna need 5 days off. Basically

230 00:32:11.480 00:32:11.830 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.

231 00:32:12.177 00:32:15.520 Annie Yu: And that’s gonna be end of June.

232 00:32:16.160 00:32:19.499 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, okay, the the like. 4th of July weekend

233 00:32:19.500 00:32:23.009 Annie Yu: Okay, you’re I’m actually going to Spain. So I’m gonna try to meet Kyle for

234 00:32:23.010 00:32:24.310 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, no way.

235 00:32:24.310 00:32:24.660 Annie Yu: It’s

236 00:32:24.660 00:32:25.440 Uttam Kumaran: Shane.

237 00:32:25.980 00:32:27.600 Annie Yu: Barcelona and Madrid.

238 00:32:27.600 00:32:30.160 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, nice great cities. Yeah. Great

239 00:32:30.160 00:32:34.630 Annie Yu: I haven’t. I haven’t been. I haven’t been to Europe actually. So I’m super excited

240 00:32:34.630 00:32:37.509 Uttam Kumaran: It’s the best. Okay, cool. Yeah. How? So we’re

241 00:32:37.720 00:32:43.579 Uttam Kumaran: the operations team is almost done on our out of office process. Can you just slack me those dates.

242 00:32:43.760 00:32:45.740 Uttam Kumaran: and then mark it in your calendar.

243 00:32:45.860 00:32:49.380 Uttam Kumaran: and then I’ll make sure that it’s it’s settled

244 00:32:50.010 00:32:52.979 Annie Yu: Okay, awesome. Thank you so much.

245 00:32:52.980 00:32:54.430 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, thank, you.

246 00:32:54.630 00:32:57.090 Annie Yu: And just okay. One more thing

247 00:32:57.090 00:32:58.079 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

248 00:32:58.410 00:33:05.560 Annie Yu: So I’m still like this is still like a fuzzy word for me. So if there’s any like

249 00:33:06.090 00:33:11.009 Annie Yu: time or capacity to get me like knowledgeable with that

250 00:33:11.010 00:33:11.690 Uttam Kumaran: On dbt

251 00:33:11.690 00:33:13.109 Annie Yu: That’d be great, too. Yeah.

252 00:33:13.110 00:33:13.680 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, so.

253 00:33:13.680 00:33:19.409 Annie Yu: Like Kyle, share a thread, and I think they mentioned Dbt. But I still like don’t understand

254 00:33:19.740 00:33:40.060 Uttam Kumaran: I think I’m so I’m so this is maybe something we should talk about as a team is I want I want to start doing like certificates, or I’m like, I want to start taking a few more courses, too, like, I want to walk through the Dbt. Course, I want us all get dbt, certified Snowflake. Certified things like that. So maybe we’ll plan on like maybe once a month. All of us like

255 00:33:40.430 00:33:42.600 Uttam Kumaran: go through one of those courses.

256 00:33:43.276 00:33:45.660 Uttam Kumaran: Cause I I wanna do

257 00:33:45.910 00:33:48.819 Uttam Kumaran: like there’s a data science course I want to take.

258 00:33:49.130 00:33:56.190 Uttam Kumaran: I want to do. There’s a dlt which is like a new python ingestion framework that I want to try.

259 00:33:56.830 00:34:24.399 Uttam Kumaran: So I need. But I need like I need like motivation and friends to do with me. Otherwise I’m never gonna do it. So let me. That’s a good point. So what I’m gonna do, I’m gonna put that in our tickets, and then I think we’ll try to meet as a data team next week. We can talk about, how do we do? How do we set a budget, maybe for continue learning basically, and set time aside for that. I think all of us can go through the Dbt certification together. And that’ll be that’ll be really really great.

260 00:34:25.320 00:34:25.670 Annie Yu: Yes.

261 00:34:25.679 00:34:27.689 Uttam Kumaran: Probably take maybe a few weeks or a month

262 00:34:29.340 00:34:37.310 Annie Yu: Okay, that sounds good and and really appreciate you. For, like being willing to invest in people, I I love that

263 00:34:37.489 00:34:40.119 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, yeah, I mean, I mean again for us.

264 00:34:40.419 00:34:52.509 Uttam Kumaran: I hope that you know the investment pays off. But I don’t know. These are things that like you’ll have to learn the hard way otherwise, and there’s no reason for it’s a win win for the company and for all of our employees. Right?

265 00:34:52.619 00:35:01.259 Uttam Kumaran: I and I learn a lot like I want to take it, retake it again and take take more courses like that, so I’ll do my best to sort of set aside money.

266 00:35:01.399 00:35:05.615 Uttam Kumaran: or at least time for that, you know, until we have more budget.

267 00:35:06.069 00:35:16.499 Uttam Kumaran: But all of us know something that each other doesn’t either. So we’ll find some way to like create. Do brown bags and do Demos where everybody can sort of present on like something you did this week. That’s like interesting

268 00:35:17.065 00:35:29.809 Uttam Kumaran: as our team grows. And as our like Brainforge engineering crew grows, there’ll be more opportunity, especially on the AI side. That’s where I think a lot of our folks on the data team could learn how the AI team is working and how they’re using AI for a lot of stuff

269 00:35:30.675 00:35:33.870 Uttam Kumaran: It’s really, really cool. So yeah, no, no problem.

270 00:35:34.700 00:35:36.880 Annie Yu: Okay. Awesome.

271 00:35:38.082 00:35:41.458 Annie Yu: Okay. I think I’m all set for now.

272 00:35:41.880 00:35:47.064 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, slack me. If you have any other questions, I you should. You should receive

273 00:35:47.520 00:35:58.830 Uttam Kumaran: some stuff from Mary Ann, so I’ll go ahead and kick off the process for, like new documents and things like that. If you have any other questions, let me know. And then, yeah, let’s plan on, at least by Friday. I’ll make sure that

274 00:35:58.990 00:36:07.361 Uttam Kumaran: that you have a sense of like where you’re gonna be, where your time is. Gonna go. And then Monday, I think we’ll start to weave you into things.

275 00:36:08.510 00:36:13.099 Uttam Kumaran: but if anything between now and then I’ll add you to meetings. Just let me feel free to join if you’re available.

276 00:36:13.480 00:36:15.090 Annie Yu: Okay, sure, I will.

277 00:36:15.090 00:36:16.859 Uttam Kumaran: Cool. Thank you so much

278 00:36:16.860 00:36:17.650 Annie Yu: Yeah.

279 00:36:17.650 00:36:18.870 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, really, looking forward to it.

280 00:36:18.870 00:36:22.140 Annie Yu: Okay? And 1 1 question for you. Do you like

281 00:36:23.570 00:36:26.149 Annie Yu: not take time off at all?

282 00:36:27.490 00:36:28.290 Uttam Kumaran: Oh! Like

283 00:36:28.290 00:36:32.894 Annie Yu: You slack things like all of a sudden.

284 00:36:34.112 00:36:55.370 Uttam Kumaran: No, I will take time off. I did take a lot of time off in the summer, like here and there, but it’s hard. I mean we were. We had no money, so like there’s no like time off before now. We have some team, so I’ll I’ll take some time off I’ll take some time off next month, and this this summer I’m planning on Nico is getting married. So I’m planning on going to his wedding actually.

285 00:36:55.490 00:36:58.930 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, I’ve got it so so I’ll take a few days off.

286 00:36:59.130 00:37:11.589 Uttam Kumaran: But I mean, like I love what I do. So it’s not that hard. My girlfriend would definitely love for me to take some more time off, and I should for mental health. But I I don’t know. I don’t find it.

287 00:37:11.700 00:37:15.499 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t find this job to be like draining. I feel really energized

288 00:37:15.870 00:37:20.359 Uttam Kumaran: Health wise. Yeah, I should like it’s starting to get better like these past 2 weeks

289 00:37:20.490 00:37:48.670 Uttam Kumaran: have been really, really good having you amber Akash Demo Ade you know, a wish all really pick things up has been really really helpful for both of both me and Robert. Both are like mental health and our ability to like, start to think about like, what is our one year, 3 or 5 year like target? You know, it’s so hard if we’re thinking every 5 seconds to even like, take a step away. So it’s getting better like

290 00:37:49.180 00:37:50.880 Uttam Kumaran: you know, it’s it’s getting a lot better

291 00:37:51.160 00:37:52.584 Annie Yu: Yeah. Good for you.

292 00:37:52.940 00:37:53.710 Uttam Kumaran: Thank you. Thank you.

293 00:37:53.710 00:37:56.239 Annie Yu: Yeah, remember to take some breaks, too.

294 00:37:56.240 00:38:02.992 Uttam Kumaran: Yes, we know we need our out of office policy before I can take a break. So

295 00:38:03.390 00:38:04.150 Annie Yu: All right.

296 00:38:04.150 00:38:06.480 Annie Yu: Okay, alright and

297 00:38:06.480 00:38:07.840 Uttam Kumaran: Thank you. Bye.

298 00:38:07.840 00:38:08.470 Annie Yu: Okay.