Meeting Title: Zoom Meeting Date: 2025-05-29 Meeting participants: Robert Tseng, Demilade Agboola
WEBVTT
1 00:07:09.290 ⇒ 00:07:10.150 Demilade Agboola: Hi Robert!
2 00:07:11.160 ⇒ 00:07:13.350 Robert Tseng: Hey, Dave Alade, how’s it going.
3 00:07:13.950 ⇒ 00:07:17.759 Demilade Agboola: Pretty good are you back now, or did you just hop in.
4 00:07:18.200 ⇒ 00:07:22.999 Robert Tseng: No, I’m I’m in. Did I tell you where I’m in? Kenya?
5 00:07:24.130 ⇒ 00:07:24.940 Demilade Agboola: Me!
6 00:07:25.620 ⇒ 00:07:26.300 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
7 00:07:27.340 ⇒ 00:07:30.550 Demilade Agboola: Are you in Nairobi? Are you in Mombasa?
8 00:07:31.660 ⇒ 00:07:32.720 Robert Tseng: Are you Kenyan.
9 00:07:33.470 ⇒ 00:07:35.280 Demilade Agboola: No, I’m Nigerian, but I have.
10 00:07:35.280 ⇒ 00:07:35.780 Robert Tseng: Yes, it is.
11 00:07:36.440 ⇒ 00:07:38.179 Demilade Agboola: Yeah, I know
12 00:07:38.640 ⇒ 00:07:45.189 Demilade Agboola: my girlfriend, and I like in 2022, my girlfriend and I went to Kenya. It was quite. It was quite nice.
13 00:07:46.994 ⇒ 00:07:52.089 Robert Tseng: I see. Yeah, I’m I’m in a town called Naivasha. It’s like
14 00:07:52.270 ⇒ 00:07:57.020 Robert Tseng: north of of Nairobi. It’s like 2 h north.
15 00:07:59.010 ⇒ 00:08:03.979 Demilade Agboola: There are, I mean, a couple of nice cities. Mombasa, Diani.
16 00:08:04.608 ⇒ 00:08:11.240 Demilade Agboola: diana is a smaller city, though, and I mean Nairobi is also nice, too. Depends on if you’re like a city life person.
17 00:08:12.060 ⇒ 00:08:21.189 Robert Tseng: Yeah, yeah, I mean, I will be going to Nairobi tomorrow, and I’ll be doing 2 days there and then I’m flying to Amsterdam. But but yeah.
18 00:08:21.450 ⇒ 00:08:22.260 Robert Tseng: so.
19 00:08:23.530 ⇒ 00:08:30.040 Demilade Agboola: Oh, that should be fun! I I hope you do enjoy Nairobi. Do you have like a tour guide, or are you like
20 00:08:30.420 ⇒ 00:08:31.170 Demilade Agboola: the flow.
21 00:08:32.172 ⇒ 00:08:37.810 Robert Tseng: No, yeah, I’m I’m here visiting a friend. Actually. So
22 00:08:41.490 ⇒ 00:08:49.025 Robert Tseng: yeah, I I don’t know if you knew this about me, but I used to be a missionary before I went into tech. So
23 00:08:49.340 ⇒ 00:08:49.970 Demilade Agboola: Are you serious?
24 00:08:49.970 ⇒ 00:08:50.960 Robert Tseng: I.
25 00:08:52.840 ⇒ 00:08:54.159 Demilade Agboola: I had no idea.
26 00:08:54.540 ⇒ 00:09:23.339 Robert Tseng: Yeah, okay, I mean, I was staffed in Central Asia. So I was in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan for a year. But I had some friends that were. They’re all over the place. But I had. I had a good friend in Kenya, and so Kenya and I’ve been to Uganda a couple of times. And then I’m visiting this friend in Kenya. Now, they basically run like a school here in Naivasha.
27 00:09:23.580 ⇒ 00:09:27.419 Robert Tseng: So yeah, I’m here. I guess
28 00:09:27.830 ⇒ 00:09:51.252 Robert Tseng: kind of helping them do some go to market on their fundraising side. I think they’ve been running it for 3 years now, and they wanna they want to grow it bigger. So I’ve been just like kind of here doing interviews with the staff and students and like helping them like figure out like a digital content strategy, I guess.
29 00:09:51.740 ⇒ 00:09:56.390 Robert Tseng: yeah. So that’s kind of what I did with my time off. Yeah.
30 00:09:56.550 ⇒ 00:10:01.310 Demilade Agboola: Still feel some sort of work, but you know just not as like demanding. I guess.
31 00:10:01.480 ⇒ 00:10:06.675 Robert Tseng: Yeah, it’s it’s a kind of work where everybody is very happy that you’re there. So.
32 00:10:07.000 ⇒ 00:10:19.930 Demilade Agboola: It’s more rewarding in the sense that, like, you know, you can. Actually, it feels, at least for me. I think, that sometimes when you do things on the side or like, you’re interacting more with people. And the results are like people’s lives
33 00:10:20.350 ⇒ 00:10:28.029 Demilade Agboola: changing in a way rather than like, Oh, it’s profit or something. No like it’s like an actual like. Someone is happier for.
34 00:10:28.030 ⇒ 00:10:28.660 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
35 00:10:28.660 ⇒ 00:10:34.099 Demilade Agboola: Because of what you did. I think those kind of things really do like make a huge difference.
36 00:10:34.310 ⇒ 00:10:38.019 Demilade Agboola: And yeah, can really like, lift your spirits up.
37 00:10:38.910 ⇒ 00:10:42.167 Robert Tseng: Yeah, no, that’s exactly it, man, like, I think,
38 00:10:42.920 ⇒ 00:10:47.997 Robert Tseng: yeah, impact work is what I what I care about. So I think,
39 00:10:48.530 ⇒ 00:10:53.830 Robert Tseng: I kind of need something like that in my life to keep me motivated. To be honest. Yeah.
40 00:10:53.830 ⇒ 00:10:56.740 Demilade Agboola: Fair enough, fair enough. I could definitely see that.
41 00:10:57.310 ⇒ 00:10:57.900 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
42 00:10:59.120 ⇒ 00:11:13.599 Robert Tseng: yeah, so it’s been a good time using similar parts of my brain. But just in a different context. And yeah, I mean, I think it’s I’ve had some good reflections, and I have. I have more energy coming back to Brainforge work. So but yeah, I do have to.
43 00:11:13.820 ⇒ 00:11:14.740 Robert Tseng: I’ve been
44 00:11:15.223 ⇒ 00:11:21.036 Robert Tseng: trying. Not I do have to like jump in and see what’s going on every now and then.
45 00:11:21.800 ⇒ 00:11:35.159 Robert Tseng: I mean 1. 1 more thing I’ll say is, I was out, for I realized my message didn’t even get sent. But I didn’t respond, for like a day, because we did go on a safari that I self drove.
46 00:11:35.470 ⇒ 00:11:39.790 Robert Tseng: and then we got stuck, and it was like it was a terrible night.
47 00:11:39.940 ⇒ 00:11:44.539 Demilade Agboola: That’s very well. Did you? Do you feel weird? Driving on the other side of the road?
48 00:11:45.180 ⇒ 00:11:46.030 Robert Tseng: Oh.
49 00:11:46.240 ⇒ 00:11:59.789 Robert Tseng: yeah, I mean, it’s different. But I’m I’ve I’m used to it like I I’ve driven like New Zealand is like that. And I’ve driven in a few other. You know any. Any British colony is kind of like that, right? So.
50 00:11:59.790 ⇒ 00:12:07.179 Demilade Agboola: You will think, but actually, no, not really so. Nigeria and Ghana are also British colonies, but we drive on the other side, and.
51 00:12:07.180 ⇒ 00:12:07.810 Robert Tseng: Oh, really.
52 00:12:07.810 ⇒ 00:12:18.730 Demilade Agboola: Yeah. So the reason why is so there’s something called echo us, the economic community of West African States, which is basically like West African countries have, like a coalition
53 00:12:19.585 ⇒ 00:12:20.340 Demilade Agboola: but
54 00:12:20.450 ⇒ 00:12:34.480 Demilade Agboola: a bunch of West African countries were actually colonized by the French. So they drive on. So it’s like Cote d’ivoire, Senegal, Togo, Bena, Gambia, I believe, but they number of them that are just like French speaking. So they drive on the other side.
55 00:12:34.880 ⇒ 00:12:35.280 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
56 00:12:35.280 ⇒ 00:12:36.770 Demilade Agboola: Nothing. Seventies.
57 00:12:38.610 ⇒ 00:12:45.509 Demilade Agboola: Nigeria switch sides so that they could like, so that to allow for easy driving, like easy driving through
58 00:12:46.290 ⇒ 00:13:04.689 Demilade Agboola: like the West African part of like, just West Africa, basically. So that when you’re driving through borders and stuff, it’s not weird having to keep switching sides. So we became the ones that drive on the left, because I found it weird, because when I went to Kenya it was the other side. When I went.
59 00:13:04.690 ⇒ 00:13:05.240 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
60 00:13:05.510 ⇒ 00:13:15.229 Demilade Agboola: South Africa was the other side. In fact, I almost got hit by a car because of that, because I was looking the other way instead of where the car should be coming from. But
61 00:13:15.510 ⇒ 00:13:19.329 Demilade Agboola: and then, when I also went even in Malta, actually, it’s also this, the same way.
62 00:13:20.061 ⇒ 00:13:24.669 Demilade Agboola: Is one of those colonies that we don’t drive. We drive on the left like the American side.
63 00:13:25.080 ⇒ 00:13:26.130 Robert Tseng: I see.
64 00:13:26.150 ⇒ 00:13:26.740 Demilade Agboola: Yeah.
65 00:13:26.740 ⇒ 00:13:30.850 Robert Tseng: Interesting. Oh, I didn’t know that. I just assumed all British colonies are like that. Huh?
66 00:13:31.280 ⇒ 00:13:34.849 Demilade Agboola: Yeah, it’s a, it’s a safe assumption. But like, yeah, the the exceptions.
67 00:13:35.280 ⇒ 00:13:35.950 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
68 00:13:37.750 ⇒ 00:13:46.080 Robert Tseng: man, I mean, I guess this. These are your usual working hours. But I’m tired, man. It’s like almost midnight here, so
69 00:13:46.220 ⇒ 00:13:47.930 Robert Tseng: I don’t know how you do it.
70 00:13:49.339 ⇒ 00:13:57.729 Demilade Agboola: I don’t know. To be honest. Sometimes I mean to be fair. I do like wake up. As a result I do wake up late, and the issues are when I have stuff to do
71 00:13:58.520 ⇒ 00:14:05.180 Demilade Agboola: like regular. I have an 8 o’clock appointment or a 9 o’clock appointment. That’s when it can be really tricky, but for the most part, like
72 00:14:05.560 ⇒ 00:14:12.089 Demilade Agboola: I’m I’m fine like waking up at like 9 o’clock, 10 o’clock, and then starting. So it’s fine.
73 00:14:12.770 ⇒ 00:14:19.040 Robert Tseng: Yeah, it’s not. Yeah, it’s not. It’s not bad. It’s a different lifestyle than I’m used to. But yeah, it’s it’s been. It’s been good.
74 00:14:20.900 ⇒ 00:14:21.690 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
75 00:14:21.880 ⇒ 00:14:32.840 Robert Tseng: Well, yeah, I mean, I just wanted to set this time. I know there’s a lot going on. Oh, my goodness, I have like 35 missed messages in the Eden Channel. I’m like afraid to click on it, because I don’t want to see it, so
76 00:14:33.040 ⇒ 00:14:45.749 Robert Tseng: I should. But it’s just if there’s anything that I could do to kind of. Just talk things through if you needed to kind of let me know anything was going on like kind of open open ended. I didn’t have an agenda for this.
77 00:14:46.430 ⇒ 00:14:46.769 Demilade Agboola: I mean.
78 00:14:46.770 ⇒ 00:14:48.419 Robert Tseng: Only on like
79 00:14:48.660 ⇒ 00:14:59.879 Robert Tseng: I mean, I did tell like the Eden team I’m off this week. But you know, obviously, I know that, like, you guys are still working. So I wanna you know, kind of keep tabs on things still.
80 00:15:02.760 ⇒ 00:15:05.519 Demilade Agboola: Well, fair enough, like I mean, so far, this like
81 00:15:06.160 ⇒ 00:15:09.040 Demilade Agboola: I mean, good news isn’t like there’s no like.
82 00:15:09.130 ⇒ 00:15:38.240 Demilade Agboola: The world hasn’t come to an end. There’s no like project altering issues. Right? So we’re fine in that regard. I think they’re like the only the only things are like like Monday because we didn’t have access to Monday. So there were some like someone mentioned it today. I think, Tigran, he mentioned today that like we haven’t like made any progress on that. But like those are not like they can. They’re not like huge things. And I started like tackling that today as well but for the most.
83 00:15:38.624 ⇒ 00:15:41.699 Robert Tseng: Did give you access to the Monday Board.
84 00:15:41.900 ⇒ 00:15:45.213 Demilade Agboola: Yeah, he did. So I started looking at that. And I’m trying to like
85 00:15:45.740 ⇒ 00:15:50.360 Demilade Agboola: get things in order. So I can start tackling those things one by one.
86 00:15:51.032 ⇒ 00:15:56.039 Demilade Agboola: So that’s that’s fine. Like, I said. There, there are no any issues there, no like
87 00:15:56.180 ⇒ 00:16:08.721 Demilade Agboola: serious issues, any issues are things that we can always get to so you should like. I want your mind to be at rest on your holiday. But, like largely been just like
88 00:16:09.210 ⇒ 00:16:13.950 Demilade Agboola: tweaking certain things for their dashboards. We’ve been splitting out
89 00:16:16.590 ⇒ 00:16:20.910 Demilade Agboola: things by into like different bundles for
90 00:16:21.400 ⇒ 00:16:26.430 Demilade Agboola: bundles, and what’s it called bundles, and like injectables.
91 00:16:26.430 ⇒ 00:16:26.820 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
92 00:16:27.390 ⇒ 00:16:41.600 Demilade Agboola: For different products, even. Nad! Now we split into like 4 different products. For ads as well, too. So we don’t for our rush dashboard everything we’re like doing in such a way that we’re keeping track of everything.
93 00:16:42.034 ⇒ 00:16:44.310 Demilade Agboola: We have a new way of tracking that.
94 00:16:44.820 ⇒ 00:16:51.840 Demilade Agboola: and I know, Annie has also been looking across sales for the product. Drill down dashboard.
95 00:16:53.930 ⇒ 00:17:02.809 Demilade Agboola: so yeah, like, we’ve been pushing the dash like what we’ve been doing. We’ve just been pushing it and adding like different levels of granularity and giving them ability to make like deeper decisions
96 00:17:03.160 ⇒ 00:17:04.720 Demilade Agboola: as a result.
97 00:17:04.859 ⇒ 00:17:06.588 Demilade Agboola: So that’s been moving
98 00:17:07.710 ⇒ 00:17:24.060 Demilade Agboola: and they had like there’s been no like major issues or anything like I said, everything is fine, like there are a couple of like you like. Obviously, it’s the world of data. Someone has a request somewhere or someone to feel something like, I know, I would want this. But there’s nothing like really important quote, unquote.
99 00:17:24.200 ⇒ 00:17:26.110 Demilade Agboola: that, you know, has gone amiss.
100 00:17:26.819 ⇒ 00:17:27.489 Robert Tseng: Okay.
101 00:17:27.619 ⇒ 00:17:32.169 Robert Tseng: yeah, no. I mean, it doesn’t seem like the world is ending or anything. Yeah, if anything. Like.
102 00:17:32.759 ⇒ 00:17:49.909 Robert Tseng: yeah, I I think you you guys, you guys run the like, you, you run the business as usual. I I’m I confident, in the team. I think there’s just different things that I’ve been trying to push for like the Monday board thing like, yeah, that was my.
103 00:17:50.329 ⇒ 00:18:04.419 Robert Tseng: that’s my kind of decision to have tigrand centralize it. But obviously not. Everyone on the team has access to it. It’s just I wanted people to stop slacking me like random questions and wanted them to go through a centralized
104 00:18:04.569 ⇒ 00:18:31.429 Robert Tseng: like form. But like I didn’t want everything to end up on our linear either, because I feel like half of the requests are not really it. It probably doesn’t actually need us to do anything, or we just need I just need to respond to them. So it’s just like managing like some of that probably that I dropped that maybe kind of came unexpected for you guys. So sorry about that.
105 00:18:33.599 ⇒ 00:18:34.859 Robert Tseng: And then
106 00:18:35.669 ⇒ 00:18:42.379 Robert Tseng: well, yeah, I mean, I think we we know what we’re pushing for, as well, you know, waiting for stuff from Bask, you know, trying to.
107 00:18:44.140 ⇒ 00:19:03.460 Robert Tseng: I’m trying to get Rob to wind down his time, so we can take his budget pretty much. I don’t really think we he’s necessary anymore. He’s not really, really contributing to our like process, anyway. So that’s that’s another thing. So there’s like more
108 00:19:03.680 ⇒ 00:19:12.420 Robert Tseng: forward-looking stuff that I mean, I just didn’t do this week, which is fine. It’s not like urgent, but it’s important that I’ll have to get back to it soon.
109 00:19:13.190 ⇒ 00:19:13.750 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
110 00:19:14.590 ⇒ 00:19:18.240 Demilade Agboola: Like, I said. We’re we’re in a good spot. Nothing’s not things I miss.
111 00:19:18.470 ⇒ 00:19:33.649 Robert Tseng: Okay? Good. I mean, I do. Yeah, I yeah. I’m still just blocking myself from. I haven’t clicked on the Eden slack in like 3 days, and I don’t think I will. Today I think I will go to bed without looking at it.
112 00:19:34.760 ⇒ 00:19:53.059 Demilade Agboola: Yeah, like, that’s fine. Don’t don’t click on it, don’t click on it. It’s it’s like I said at this point I think they’ve also, like Monday. I I was a holiday Tuesday, and just said, like your Robert’s out of office. And so, for the most part, the people have started tagging me a lot of time
113 00:19:53.270 ⇒ 00:19:54.439 Demilade Agboola: for a lot of stuff
114 00:19:54.856 ⇒ 00:20:10.310 Demilade Agboola: couple of people, maybe people who didn’t see that we’ll tag you here, and then I just kind of hop in and try and solve whatever issue it says. But, like most like things, are fine, unless the channel I’m not in, which is an entirely different thing. But like channels, I’m in like, you’re fine. You’re good.
115 00:20:10.680 ⇒ 00:20:12.459 Robert Tseng: All right. Yeah, I appreciate that.
116 00:20:15.130 ⇒ 00:20:17.427 Demilade Agboola: So yeah, that’s just basically it.
117 00:20:20.090 ⇒ 00:20:20.840 Robert Tseng: Okay.
118 00:20:21.150 ⇒ 00:20:49.591 Robert Tseng: yeah. I mean, I’ve still been on kind of couple of hours a day every every day, like, Yeah, I’m I don’t know. I guess I’m still. I’m just doing Non Eden work. Honestly, I’m just doing some more sales stuff. I kicked off a client today and then kicking off another one tomorrow. So these are like ones that’ll take a while to warm up to get to. But I think they have high potential. They could be eaten eaten size clients. So
119 00:20:50.050 ⇒ 00:20:56.069 Robert Tseng: yeah, my mind has just not been on Eden the past past week, so I appreciate you covering.
120 00:20:58.250 ⇒ 00:20:59.899 Demilade Agboola: It’s all. It’s all good.
121 00:21:01.390 ⇒ 00:21:02.789 Robert Tseng: Cool. Alright. Well, yeah.
122 00:21:02.790 ⇒ 00:21:04.690 Demilade Agboola: Also this.
123 00:21:05.320 ⇒ 00:21:05.970 Robert Tseng: Go ahead.
124 00:21:06.750 ⇒ 00:21:12.909 Robert Tseng: I don’t think I necessarily want to be a Pm. Cause God damn, it’s crazy
125 00:21:13.500 ⇒ 00:21:15.539 Robert Tseng: after this week. Now you’re like.
126 00:21:15.880 ⇒ 00:21:19.700 Demilade Agboola: I’m just like, no, this is this, this cannot be
127 00:21:20.180 ⇒ 00:21:27.720 Demilade Agboola: the constant like having to evaluate everything, and like give feedback of like. Oh, no, this push back on this like now, it’s
128 00:21:29.230 ⇒ 00:21:39.459 Demilade Agboola: like, obviously in small doses, like everyone Pm’s in their own way like, but like the full responsibility of Pm. Is is quite something.
129 00:21:39.930 ⇒ 00:21:51.079 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I think. Yeah, you probably have it the worst right now, because Eden is the most hands on client. So yeah, well.
130 00:21:52.610 ⇒ 00:21:56.219 Robert Tseng: hopefully, you learn something from that. But.
131 00:21:56.707 ⇒ 00:22:00.610 Demilade Agboola: Definitely. It’s just it’s a different, you know.
132 00:22:00.610 ⇒ 00:22:05.730 Robert Tseng: I will, I will not. You will not be having to be him. I will take it back.
133 00:22:07.500 ⇒ 00:22:12.379 Demilade Agboola: Alright, enjoy your break. I hope you really do actually enjoy your break, because that’s very important.
134 00:22:12.770 ⇒ 00:22:30.600 Robert Tseng: Thanks. Yeah, I’m gonna really just try to enjoy Nairobi, if you have any like recommendations, feel free to send it. But yeah, no, I really enjoyed my time here so far. I maybe I mean I would love to go to Nigeria as well sometime. I think Africa is such a beautiful.
135 00:22:30.790 ⇒ 00:22:36.560 Robert Tseng: beautiful continent, I mean, it’s a huge continent, but I love the culture so.
136 00:22:37.010 ⇒ 00:22:40.769 Demilade Agboola: Yeah, it’s it’s a very different lifestyle, more communal.
137 00:22:41.150 ⇒ 00:22:41.550 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
138 00:22:42.010 ⇒ 00:22:45.231 Demilade Agboola: One things I miss about it like just generally
139 00:22:45.590 ⇒ 00:22:54.759 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I mean being in Malta. You don’t have family there. You’re kind of on your own. Isn’t that quite different from the culture you were raised in, or are you okay? With that I don’t know.
140 00:22:55.090 ⇒ 00:23:18.149 Demilade Agboola: I mean, it’s very different. But I also think, even like the Nigerian culture generally, even though, like Nigeria, has, like 200 different tribes. Culture varies, but just the Nigerian, like mentality is, we look out for each other. I remember when I was back in Nigeria, I was in a different part of the country, because my my extended family lives in the Southwest. I was living in the North Central
141 00:23:18.819 ⇒ 00:23:32.309 Demilade Agboola: and it’s a different culture different language different like this thing like, I remember someone came to my apartment and knocked on my door and said that my car hadn’t moved in like a week, and there was dust on me, and they wanted to be sure I was fine.
142 00:23:32.590 ⇒ 00:23:33.740 Demilade Agboola: you know. That’s.
143 00:23:33.740 ⇒ 00:23:34.110 Robert Tseng: So.
144 00:23:34.110 ⇒ 00:23:38.890 Demilade Agboola: Being that I like. I have never experienced that in Malta I’ve had people
145 00:23:39.040 ⇒ 00:23:47.130 Demilade Agboola: in Nigeria. I had a I was in a part like a block of apartments with like 18 neighbors, and I knew almost all of them.
146 00:23:48.540 ⇒ 00:23:50.679 Demilade Agboola: I in Malta when I got here.
147 00:24:01.130 ⇒ 00:24:03.220 Robert Tseng: Oh, hello! Sorry! I think I lost you.
148 00:24:03.220 ⇒ 00:24:09.619 Demilade Agboola: A place like 90 neighbors, and I didn’t know anyone. You know. It’s that kind of like, it’s different. It’s slightly jarring to experience.