Meeting Title: VixelCon Partnership Strategy Discussion Date: 2025-08-29 Meeting participants: Holly Condos, Hannah Wang, Uttam Kumaran
WEBVTT
1 00:02:34.010 ⇒ 00:02:34.710 Hannah Wang: Hello!
2 00:02:34.710 ⇒ 00:02:35.360 Holly Condos: Hi.
3 00:02:36.760 ⇒ 00:02:38.090 Hannah Wang: Hi, how’s it going?
4 00:02:38.530 ⇒ 00:02:39.799 Holly Condos: Good, how are you?
5 00:02:41.050 ⇒ 00:02:44.139 Hannah Wang: Hanging in there until the long weekend.
6 00:02:44.140 ⇒ 00:02:45.459 Holly Condos: It’s Friday, right?
7 00:02:45.460 ⇒ 00:02:50.150 Hannah Wang: Yeah, and Labor Day on Mon- er, Labor Day weekend, so….
8 00:02:50.340 ⇒ 00:02:53.359 Holly Condos: Yeah, you guys have it off, I’m sure, right?
9 00:02:54.020 ⇒ 00:02:55.060 Hannah Wang: ….
10 00:02:55.060 ⇒ 00:03:01.210 Holly Condos: Sort of. I’m sure… yeah, well, I mean, I feel like Utam and his resist partner always work.
11 00:03:01.230 ⇒ 00:03:07.459 Hannah Wang: So, I don’t know if they’re gonna take it off, but I’m actually going camping this weekend, so….
12 00:03:07.460 ⇒ 00:03:08.580 Holly Condos: Oh, that’s great!
13 00:03:08.580 ⇒ 00:03:09.970 Hannah Wang: Restful, yeah.
14 00:03:10.190 ⇒ 00:03:11.530 Holly Condos: Where are you based?
15 00:03:11.940 ⇒ 00:03:13.239 Hannah Wang: I’m in Los Angeles.
16 00:03:13.530 ⇒ 00:03:14.460 Holly Condos: You are, okay.
17 00:03:14.460 ⇒ 00:03:15.030 Hannah Wang: Yes.
18 00:03:15.260 ⇒ 00:03:16.659 Holly Condos: I’m in San Diego.
19 00:03:16.800 ⇒ 00:03:20.990 Hannah Wang: Oh, no, oh no, wait, I thought you meant Utom at, VixelCon.
20 00:03:21.270 ⇒ 00:03:22.200 Holly Condos: I did.
21 00:03:22.200 ⇒ 00:03:24.269 Hannah Wang: Okay, so you flew over there.
22 00:03:24.560 ⇒ 00:03:25.290 Holly Condos: Yes.
23 00:03:25.900 ⇒ 00:03:27.930 Hannah Wang: Awesome! We’re in San Diego?
24 00:03:28.220 ⇒ 00:03:29.550 Holly Condos: Encinitas.
25 00:03:30.490 ⇒ 00:03:36.590 Hannah Wang: Okay, I’ve heard… I’ve heard of that, … Yeah, I mean, I only… Yeah.
26 00:03:37.180 ⇒ 00:03:43.750 Holly Condos: It’s just south of Carlsbad, so… Okay. You know Carlsbad. My son actually…
27 00:03:43.970 ⇒ 00:03:50.049 Holly Condos: just moved from Santa Monica. He’s a general surgery resident at UCLA.
28 00:03:50.290 ⇒ 00:03:57.849 Holly Condos: Awesome. And, yeah, so he and his wife just moved to Beverly Hills, which is much safer for them.
29 00:03:59.180 ⇒ 00:04:06.910 Hannah Wang: Okay, I’m, like, so close… I mean, I went to UCLA for undergrad. Oh, you did? Awesome. I lived in…
30 00:04:07.240 ⇒ 00:04:27.150 Hannah Wang: near Westwood, like, above the dorm area for undergrad, and then I moved to, like, Sautel for a little bit, but I’m, like, in Culver City right now, which is, like, south of Santa Monica, but yeah, I go to… my church is in Santa Monica, so I go there often, and then…
31 00:04:27.150 ⇒ 00:04:31.589 Hannah Wang: … Yeah, so I know, I know the area very well, so it’s.
32 00:04:31.590 ⇒ 00:04:32.080 Holly Condos: Yeah.
33 00:04:32.080 ⇒ 00:04:33.979 Hannah Wang: Your son lives here too, yeah.
34 00:04:33.980 ⇒ 00:04:39.959 Holly Condos: I know, small world. So, he actually lived in Culver his first year.
35 00:04:40.190 ⇒ 00:04:49.160 Holly Condos: And we used to go to Miss Chi all the time. Yeah, okay. I love that place, but I guess she got ill, and it’s closed.
36 00:04:49.790 ⇒ 00:04:51.630 Hannah Wang: Oh, I didn’t know that, but….
37 00:04:51.630 ⇒ 00:04:55.880 Holly Condos: I think so. I mean, maybe somebody else took it over, but, ….
38 00:04:55.880 ⇒ 00:04:56.610 Hannah Wang: Okay.
39 00:04:56.610 ⇒ 00:04:59.160 Holly Condos: I think she had an illness herself, so….
40 00:04:59.160 ⇒ 00:05:00.399 Hannah Wang: Oh, no. Okay.
41 00:05:00.400 ⇒ 00:05:02.389 Holly Condos: Yeah, I love Culver. Culver’s great.
42 00:05:02.390 ⇒ 00:05:04.590 Hannah Wang: Yeah, oh, cool. Do you know….
43 00:05:04.590 ⇒ 00:05:04.980 Holly Condos: world.
44 00:05:05.810 ⇒ 00:05:10.369 Hannah Wang: Do you know where the Westfield Mall is in Culver City? Yes. I live, like.
45 00:05:10.780 ⇒ 00:05:13.680 Hannah Wang: Literally right next to there, yeah.
46 00:05:13.680 ⇒ 00:05:17.319 Holly Condos: Very cool. So, how did you and Utam meet?
47 00:05:17.990 ⇒ 00:05:27.899 Hannah Wang: I met… well, I started working here because of Utam’s business partner, Robert. I know they presented together, but I’m actually very close friends with Robert, and then….
48 00:05:27.900 ⇒ 00:05:28.780 Holly Condos: Okay.
49 00:05:28.780 ⇒ 00:05:35.020 Hannah Wang: I came on, like, end of January as more of, like, a…
50 00:05:35.160 ⇒ 00:05:51.239 Hannah Wang: I kind of… my main role, kind of, right now is designing, but I do help with partnerships and, like, sales motions here and there. But yeah, I started working here end of January of this year, and it’s been… it’s been a wild ride. I…
51 00:05:51.240 ⇒ 00:05:59.619 Hannah Wang: Yeah. My previous job was at a bigger tech corporation with a lot of slower moving parts, so coming here has definitely…
52 00:05:59.660 ⇒ 00:06:03.420 Hannah Wang: Worked me in different ways, but that’s okay.
53 00:06:03.630 ⇒ 00:06:08.669 Holly Condos: Yeah, and I think… I think for a startup… so I met Robert in Austin also.
54 00:06:08.750 ⇒ 00:06:25.900 Holly Condos: But Utam and I have had more conversations. But I think for a startup, they are… or you guys, are moving very quickly with some good results, right? I mean, it’s… it’s really tough, especially right now.
55 00:06:25.910 ⇒ 00:06:30.659 Holly Condos: Because everyone is like, oh, do you know AI, and what can you do for me?
56 00:06:30.800 ⇒ 00:06:42.749 Holly Condos: And yeah, that’s important, but also just the base tech structure and understanding the whole ecosystem is really valuable, and I think that they both capture that really well.
57 00:06:42.890 ⇒ 00:06:48.770 Holly Condos: So, you know, I mean, obviously, I work with… so I…
58 00:06:48.890 ⇒ 00:07:03.220 Holly Condos: just really quick about me. I started in legal. I was a paralegal for a white-collar criminal defense firm in Colorado, and I moved to San Diego with that firm many years ago.
59 00:07:03.550 ⇒ 00:07:16.849 Holly Condos: I went to law school for a while, and had a number of life events, a child moving to London, etc. So, I didn’t actually end up finishing law school, and a lot of my friends were like, oh.
60 00:07:16.850 ⇒ 00:07:23.910 Holly Condos: you know, you don’t necessarily need a law degree for what you want to do, because I wanted to be closer to the business. I work for
61 00:07:23.910 ⇒ 00:07:34.429 Holly Condos: a number of, legal departments for corporations, and I just wanted to be closer to the business rather than, you know, just hammering out T’s and C’s in a vacuum.
62 00:07:34.780 ⇒ 00:07:47.050 Holly Condos: So, I, basically just fell into the contracts management world. I worked for, Science Applications International for a while. It’s, …
63 00:07:47.380 ⇒ 00:07:48.650 Holly Condos: One of the big….
64 00:07:48.650 ⇒ 00:07:59.000 Hannah Wang: government defense contractors. They’re… they’re known as Leidos in California now, so there is an office in San Diego, but they’re based on the west or east coast.
65 00:07:59.340 ⇒ 00:08:03.099 Holly Condos: And that was kind of an eye-opener. The government is a whole other world.
66 00:08:03.760 ⇒ 00:08:04.319 Hannah Wang: I’m sure.
67 00:08:04.320 ⇒ 00:08:09.959 Holly Condos: And even, you know, even in the last 5 years, it’s changed so dramatically, just even…
68 00:08:10.070 ⇒ 00:08:15.520 Holly Condos: they’re a bit behind technologically, as far as workflow goes, but, I mean, it’s just…
69 00:08:15.680 ⇒ 00:08:26.239 Holly Condos: crazy how it’s grown. And, so I did that for about 10 years, and then I worked for a couple startups again. I love the startup world because of the energy.
70 00:08:26.240 ⇒ 00:08:37.359 Holly Condos: Right? And the ability to do a lot of different things, but also focus on the goal. Yeah. And, so I started my own company in 2018.
71 00:08:37.490 ⇒ 00:08:44.499 Holly Condos: And it was really born from, working with a bunch of Microsoft lady execs who were
72 00:08:45.090 ⇒ 00:08:52.000 Holly Condos: more than middle management, but not at sea level yet, and they were kind of frustrated, like, am I ever gonna get there?
73 00:08:52.480 ⇒ 00:09:09.539 Holly Condos: So they started their own companies, but because most of them were engineering-oriented, they didn’t really know, okay, how do I get going? What do I do? And so, that was the original impetus for my business, but it’s really evolved into
74 00:09:09.540 ⇒ 00:09:13.240 Holly Condos: More of an operational and workflow focus.
75 00:09:13.330 ⇒ 00:09:29.159 Holly Condos: So, I’ve done… I have about… I try to keep about 3 to 5 clients at one time. Having said that, right, I stick for the long term. I’d rather, kind of jump on the journey
76 00:09:29.540 ⇒ 00:09:42.860 Holly Condos: at the beginning, and sort of help along the way as things evolve. I have done a number of smaller projects that have been one-offs, and just very quickly, one that was very interesting,
77 00:09:43.270 ⇒ 00:09:50.479 Holly Condos: My colleague, who became my client, her son came up with an idea for a card game.
78 00:09:50.590 ⇒ 00:10:05.019 Holly Condos: And, for kids. And it was basically oriented around, endangered animals in Africa, and kind of helping kids understand, you know, tigers are great, but they’re endangered, and here’s why, and…
79 00:10:05.240 ⇒ 00:10:23.379 Holly Condos: So, we basically worked with a company in Nigeria to create that card game, and there were things like, you know, can you use this ink? You need, you need a certificate that the particular ink is okay for kids, because they put cards in their mouth, you know, if they’re younger.
80 00:10:23.380 ⇒ 00:10:24.190 Hannah Wang: Yeah.
81 00:10:24.470 ⇒ 00:10:42.640 Holly Condos: And just the market factors associated with that. She… my client made probably a year’s worth of sales, but she had a regular job and other kids, so she kind of has just put a pin in it. But that was kind of an interesting project that was different from tech.
82 00:10:42.960 ⇒ 00:10:43.300 Hannah Wang: Yeah.
83 00:10:43.300 ⇒ 00:11:02.230 Holly Condos: But I mostly am in cloud tech, so I think Uten probably mentioned, because this was the impetus of our original conversation around partnerships, so I do partner management for AWS, Microsoft, Google, ServiceNow, Red Hat.
84 00:11:02.390 ⇒ 00:11:20.589 Holly Condos: the whole marketplace flow, the deal particulars, and because I have that contracts background, I also do a lot of negotiations for contracts. I’ve got one client who is an AWS reseller, and she didn’t really have
85 00:11:20.660 ⇒ 00:11:26.590 Holly Condos: Sorry, a contracts database and template
86 00:11:26.770 ⇒ 00:11:39.310 Holly Condos: ecosystem set up, so I helped her get all that going, and obviously the flow and scale, right, just got so much faster because we actually had templates that everybody could use.
87 00:11:39.310 ⇒ 00:11:41.679 Hannah Wang: I do a lot of….
88 00:11:41.680 ⇒ 00:11:55.610 Holly Condos: vendor management. So, who do we need in a project? What sort of resources? I don’t have a ready bench in my company, but I have partnerships and relationships that I can pull people in.
89 00:11:55.620 ⇒ 00:12:04.949 Holly Condos: So I… I have referred quite a few. I have a customer in New York, he’s a Google Premier partner, and he often needs
90 00:12:05.030 ⇒ 00:12:18.070 Holly Condos: I mean, he’s got a huge bench anyway, but he often needs more people, especially since he’s trying to expand into the UK. So, you know, that’s another area. Again, I do all the negotiations with them on board.
91 00:12:18.140 ⇒ 00:12:34.249 Holly Condos: I’ve fallen into doing a lot of project management, not necessarily by choice, but just because it tends to flow again. And I do a lot of tech writing, presenting to customers, coaching PMs, so I kind of…
92 00:12:34.670 ⇒ 00:12:46.800 Holly Condos: have more than just the partner world, and I’m not sure what you guys, or where you are as far as your operations go. I think, you know, when I talked to Utam in
93 00:12:46.920 ⇒ 00:12:53.719 Holly Condos: what was it, April? I mean, he and Robert were just kind of trying to figure out, okay, how do we generate more sales?
94 00:12:53.900 ⇒ 00:12:54.600 Holly Condos: And….
95 00:12:54.600 ⇒ 00:13:00.520 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, that’s… that’s still… that’s still where we are. I’ve just been listening, and sorry, I should have interrupted, but….
96 00:13:00.520 ⇒ 00:13:01.369 Holly Condos: No, all good.
97 00:13:01.370 ⇒ 00:13:13.240 Uttam Kumaran: I was interested in the store, and I mean, it’s… it’s a similar spot. You know, I actually… it’s actually great to hear in how many places that, you know, you can support, because I do think that we have flavors of each. I mean.
98 00:13:13.240 ⇒ 00:13:17.090 Holly Condos: to just talk about, like, partnership negotiation, yeah, like, one of the things….
99 00:13:17.090 ⇒ 00:13:30.649 Uttam Kumaran: I just talked to Hannah right before this meeting, which was like, hey, when we chat with Holly, like, what is our number one problem on the partnership side? And for me, it’s just, like, one, I’ve built a lot of relationships, so I don’t think it’s hard for us to get in the room.
100 00:13:30.650 ⇒ 00:13:33.279 Holly Condos: With people that could be partners, but….
101 00:13:33.320 ⇒ 00:13:48.290 Uttam Kumaran: Actually, one, moving those to, like, revenue, and then finding out who’s… who is not gonna be that, or empowering them to sell us with collateral, or with talking points, or keeping it… keeping momentum up.
102 00:13:48.390 ⇒ 00:14:06.010 Uttam Kumaran: those are all things that I don’t think we do a great job. Like, I think we’ve done the work of, like, okay, we have part… we have vendor partners, we have other agency partners that are, like, in a complementary space. We also have some people that are just us, except way larger, where there’s some of their deals.
103 00:14:06.010 ⇒ 00:14:23.779 Uttam Kumaran: they don’t want to take because they’re too small, and, like, we’re way nimbler, but then, of course, if there’s a huge amount of back-end work, we can bring in. So, we have all these sort of variety of folks that can help us, with that, some of which we’ve signed, some of which they’re just kind of, like, in signing or in some phase,
104 00:14:24.070 ⇒ 00:14:34.309 Uttam Kumaran: But I think that we’ve… some of them, we’ve had some success where, yes, they’ve actually generated leads, some of them, you know, it’s kind of back and forth, or maybe they… we didn’t do a good job of
105 00:14:34.410 ⇒ 00:14:40.289 Uttam Kumaran: getting them the resources they need to put us into the hands of their AEs, to get us pitched, like…
106 00:14:40.630 ⇒ 00:14:52.310 Uttam Kumaran: You know, I think that’s where we’re struggling, for sure. On the partner-led sales side. On the normal sales side, we are continuing to do things, …
107 00:14:52.450 ⇒ 00:15:00.120 Uttam Kumaran: Just through direct outbound, through, like, lookalike campaigns, so there are a lot of, like, direct sales motions that we’re doing.
108 00:15:00.490 ⇒ 00:15:00.810 Holly Condos: That’s great.
109 00:15:00.810 ⇒ 00:15:19.520 Uttam Kumaran: We… we are… I think, for me, I have a… it’s a lot easier, and I have a great time selling to sellers, because typically, if it’s a vendor or something, we’re selling them as part of an ecosystem of a solution, not just a point thing. And I… especially in AI, I explain
110 00:15:19.840 ⇒ 00:15:28.449 Uttam Kumaran: I explain this type of stuff all the time, so usually I’m actually much better at explaining what their software even does than a lot of their
111 00:15:28.830 ⇒ 00:15:38.510 Uttam Kumaran: And they see that, they’re like, oh my god, you, like, nailed it on the head. I’m like, yes, because I’m explaining your, like, extremely complicated thing all the time to people.
112 00:15:38.510 ⇒ 00:15:39.560 Holly Condos: You’re good at it.
113 00:15:39.870 ⇒ 00:15:55.789 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, and so I’m like, yeah, I figured out how it plays, and they want to leverage us, because… and then also, like, look, we’re… as you kind of mentioned, like, we move very, very fast, and our stuff looks pretty good, which I think is rare for an IT service partner, typically.
114 00:15:56.040 ⇒ 00:15:56.470 Holly Condos: Right.
115 00:15:56.470 ⇒ 00:16:01.100 Uttam Kumaran: those all play into our favor, but, you know, I think… I think we still have yet to…
116 00:16:01.430 ⇒ 00:16:07.060 Uttam Kumaran: Crack that, that it’s a really, consistent… Like, lead source, you know?
117 00:16:07.460 ⇒ 00:16:12.450 Holly Condos: Yeah, well, and like we talked in… in, Austin, right, it…
118 00:16:12.600 ⇒ 00:16:28.889 Holly Condos: It’s one thing to get in the door, as you guys are doing. You’re great at that, and then the other part of it is, right, putting the meat on the bones, and developing the relationship to the point where it’s a win-win for both parties, right?
119 00:16:28.890 ⇒ 00:16:29.530 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
120 00:16:29.530 ⇒ 00:16:32.560 Holly Condos: Or figuring out what are your… what are their strengths.
121 00:16:32.710 ⇒ 00:16:34.380 Holly Condos: Where can you use…
122 00:16:34.570 ⇒ 00:16:49.070 Holly Condos: use them? What are your strengths, right? So, yeah, I… I have that quite a bit. I started to tell Hannah, I’m not sure if you were on at the beginning, but, I’ve got a Google Premier partner in New York.
123 00:16:49.440 ⇒ 00:16:51.270 Holly Condos: And, …
124 00:16:51.920 ⇒ 00:17:05.049 Holly Condos: He’s probably been in business for about 10 years, but he’s trying to break out of just Google PSO, right? He’s trying to expand. I helped him get his advanced partnership for AWS.
125 00:17:05.369 ⇒ 00:17:11.359 Holly Condos: But I’m actually really working on the same kinds of things that you’re mentioning with him.
126 00:17:11.369 ⇒ 00:17:12.109 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
127 00:17:12.310 ⇒ 00:17:16.199 Holly Condos: And so I will say that….
128 00:17:16.990 ⇒ 00:17:31.400 Uttam Kumaran: I’m not as good as you in working the room from the beginning, right? Like, that’s not my strength, going cold… But that’s actually… that’s fine, because I can do that, but I just need to get enabled… I just need to get put in the room.
129 00:17:31.470 ⇒ 00:17:40.220 Uttam Kumaran: And I think we’re having… I think there’s two troubles on the partnership side, is one, you’re right, like, it takes a while to build a relationship, but how can we stack the data?
130 00:17:40.260 ⇒ 00:17:52.459 Uttam Kumaran: Like, how can we come to the initial conversation with, like, here’s how you make money with us, here’s 10 different opportunities for us to make money together, here’s why we’re better as a service partner than any other service partner.
131 00:17:52.460 ⇒ 00:18:02.839 Uttam Kumaran: Second is also, like, top of mind, right? Because the sale, for them, they have to get us in front of their AEs, get the materials, get going, so, like, how can we think about, like, a life cycle for the partner? Like.
132 00:18:02.960 ⇒ 00:18:07.530 Uttam Kumaran: Every month, do they get something? Every two months? Like, you know, how do we always keep that.
133 00:18:07.530 ⇒ 00:18:07.910 Holly Condos: Right.
134 00:18:07.910 ⇒ 00:18:22.050 Uttam Kumaran: if we schedule partner check-ins, like, what should those entail? Like, what are we talking to them about? And, like, yeah, maybe, like, some of that we’ll have to manufacture, but we are talking to a lot of great people, and there are a lot of synergies, and so…
135 00:18:22.350 ⇒ 00:18:28.840 Uttam Kumaran: That’s… that is, like, kind of, like, what we need, so I… I do think it’s more on, like, the workflow side, and frankly…
136 00:18:28.980 ⇒ 00:18:34.429 Uttam Kumaran: We have a lot of partners who probably just need to cut down who we’re talking to.
137 00:18:35.550 ⇒ 00:18:44.739 Holly Condos: So, okay, so it sounds like, if I… if I can just kind of repeat back what I… what I got,
138 00:18:44.740 ⇒ 00:18:45.290 Uttam Kumaran: Fair enough.
139 00:18:45.570 ⇒ 00:18:47.199 Holly Condos: It sounds like…
140 00:18:47.450 ⇒ 00:18:56.399 Holly Condos: you need that next workflow layer. So, okay, partner, we’ve got you, but now how do we actually interact
141 00:18:56.510 ⇒ 00:19:12.340 Holly Condos: How do we do a cadence? What do we talk about? How do we drive sales together? Okay, so I could… I could put together maybe a couple options for that sort of workflow, see what you think. How many partners do you think you have now?
142 00:19:13.230 ⇒ 00:19:16.809 Uttam Kumaran: I mean, I think, like, it depends on signed versus, like.
143 00:19:17.120 ⇒ 00:19:24.070 Uttam Kumaran: Because when… before, you know, yeah, before, I’m… I’m just… whoever seems like… because what… what’s signing a…
144 00:19:24.180 ⇒ 00:19:32.309 Uttam Kumaran: what’s signing a partnership contract? Like, I’m like, I’ll sign if you’re gonna bring us money, whatever. So, we have a bunch of those signed. I think we probably have, like, 10…
145 00:19:32.980 ⇒ 00:19:42.699 Uttam Kumaran: Probably 10 that are, like, legitimate. There is money there sitting, that we… we either have messed up on not getting them, like.
146 00:19:42.770 ⇒ 00:19:56.729 Uttam Kumaran: a concise lead list, or we haven’t, like, worked with them on, like, collaborating our leads and finding a play and working with them on. We maybe just, like, lost momentum, like, I stopped talking to them one month, and we sort of….
147 00:19:56.730 ⇒ 00:19:57.210 Holly Condos: Sure.
148 00:19:57.210 ⇒ 00:19:59.319 Uttam Kumaran: Skip the next meeting, and, like, that’s…
149 00:19:59.460 ⇒ 00:20:01.359 Uttam Kumaran: Those are things that are happening.
150 00:20:01.680 ⇒ 00:20:02.440 Holly Condos: Yeah.
151 00:20:02.440 ⇒ 00:20:02.960 Uttam Kumaran: People that laugh.
152 00:20:03.780 ⇒ 00:20:13.280 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, there’s also some folks that we signed where, like, I think we are now in a different mode than when we signed them. Like, we’re either more… our positioning’s a little bit different, or… for another reason.
153 00:20:13.390 ⇒ 00:20:14.450 Holly Condos: Yeah. So….
154 00:20:14.450 ⇒ 00:20:25.760 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, and then that’s… this is just one area, you know? I think, as you mentioned, there’s… there’s a bunch of different areas where I think we can use that, like, that guidance, but this is one on the partnership side that is really, really….
155 00:20:25.760 ⇒ 00:20:26.520 Holly Condos: Yeah.
156 00:20:26.520 ⇒ 00:20:27.549 Uttam Kumaran: Top of mind.
157 00:20:28.120 ⇒ 00:20:31.070 Holly Condos: Sure, and it sounds like, …
158 00:20:31.590 ⇒ 00:20:39.619 Holly Condos: Like you said, the seeds are planted, they just… the little, the little, … Chutes need to be watered.
159 00:20:40.400 ⇒ 00:20:50.679 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, exactly. And also, you know, I think for a lot of companies… so there’s kind of two people we find that I think like us. One is, like, they’re selling another service and they don’t have
160 00:20:50.840 ⇒ 00:21:00.430 Uttam Kumaran: like, either data engineering or product analytics as part of their work, and they’re like, you guys are a great boltson, and they meet… Robert and I, and they’re like, okay, they’re not just, like.
161 00:21:00.500 ⇒ 00:21:13.519 Uttam Kumaran: an outsourced dev shop, they could actually be put in front of a client, like, they could co-sell with us. That’s, I think, a huge qualifying, because there’s a lot of people that are, like, look… there are a lot of people that I’ve been approached by that are, like.
162 00:21:13.520 ⇒ 00:21:28.779 Uttam Kumaran: you’re selling, so why don’t you sell us onto? I’m like, I can’t… you’re not gonna be able to do it. I’m gonna sell. I might as well do the work. You know, it’s gonna be way too much, so… I think that’s one thing, is once we’re in the room with a partner, I think we’re pretty good. Second is, on the AI side.
163 00:21:28.820 ⇒ 00:21:35.250 Uttam Kumaran: you’re right, I think the type of stuff we’re doing on the AI side is really, really quite far in terms of
164 00:21:35.300 ⇒ 00:21:36.390 Uttam Kumaran: …
165 00:21:36.480 ⇒ 00:21:50.070 Uttam Kumaran: like, maturity than most, like… like, what you’ll find in most… in most consultancies right now. Like, because I’ve been doing this in the business for 2 years, the last 8 months, we’ve now been more commercial with it.
166 00:21:50.880 ⇒ 00:21:52.310 Uttam Kumaran: Learned a ton, and…
167 00:21:52.430 ⇒ 00:22:08.289 Uttam Kumaran: it’s gonna take… and we’re… it’s just, like, me guiding that, so we move really fast. At bigger companies, I don’t know at what point they’ll be able to start offering, like, AI workshops or, deeper AI service, so there’s a ton of money to be made with us on that, for sure.
168 00:22:08.790 ⇒ 00:22:14.729 Holly Condos: That’s great. And have you expanded, like, your engineering team, or is it not necessary yet?
169 00:22:15.300 ⇒ 00:22:20.839 Uttam Kumaran: We have expanded. I think we’ve gone, actually gone and got more senior people. We’ve, like.
170 00:22:21.170 ⇒ 00:22:34.519 Uttam Kumaran: people that were more junior, we, like, reinvested and got some people that are actually more, like, solutions architect, or, like, on their way there. That way, one, the main thing was just to get Robert and I as much out of
171 00:22:34.940 ⇒ 00:22:37.610 Uttam Kumaran: the development work as possible, which we’re still….
172 00:22:37.610 ⇒ 00:22:38.020 Holly Condos: Right.
173 00:22:38.020 ⇒ 00:22:45.399 Uttam Kumaran: In on here and there, but that is our… that’s our number one goal, is to grow revenue in order to get the people that can just get us out of that.
174 00:22:45.680 ⇒ 00:22:46.260 Holly Condos: Gotcha.
175 00:22:46.260 ⇒ 00:22:48.099 Uttam Kumaran: Work on the business, basically.
176 00:22:48.440 ⇒ 00:22:53.830 Holly Condos: Yeah, that sounds good. Alright, well, yeah, it sounds like…
177 00:22:54.030 ⇒ 00:22:59.349 Holly Condos: as you and I originally talked, right, there’s some synergies. I think we just need to…
178 00:22:59.640 ⇒ 00:23:04.119 Holly Condos: put it in to, you know, trying it out. …
179 00:23:04.650 ⇒ 00:23:16.540 Holly Condos: And not sure what you’re thinking as far as, you know, when you want to get going, budget, etc, but, I… I’m excited to work with you guys.
180 00:23:16.970 ⇒ 00:23:36.139 Uttam Kumaran: No, I appreciate it, and I think for everyone that we work with, it is… I really hope it is a long-term thing, because we’re trying to be like, I think, a lot of the bigger companies that you work with, right? But I think we’ve gotten to this point pretty fast, and we’re… we’re still pushing, and so it’s like, what is the… but at this point, it’s, like, where I think we’re running out of, like, what is the next…
181 00:23:36.280 ⇒ 00:23:54.580 Uttam Kumaran: what’s step two, three, and four? And so, yeah, I mean, I… for… in terms of budget, Robert is the one that’s kind of, like, running all the sales budget. I’m doing a lot of the work on the partnership side, but if you can get us, sort of, like, a couple of options on, like, your involvement, then I can send that to him.
182 00:23:54.580 ⇒ 00:23:55.250 Holly Condos: late.
183 00:23:55.250 ⇒ 00:23:57.100 Uttam Kumaran: And we can go from there, that’s perfect.
184 00:23:57.290 ⇒ 00:24:06.549 Holly Condos: Yeah, that sounds great, and Hannah, I apologize for not sending you the one-pager ahead of time, but I kind of wanted to, you know, not give you the vanilla
185 00:24:07.000 ⇒ 00:24:19.030 Holly Condos: top line before I knew kind of what you were thinking about. And, what I typically do… I mean, the majority of my business is referral,
186 00:24:19.220 ⇒ 00:24:20.220 Holly Condos: I…
187 00:24:20.350 ⇒ 00:24:35.450 Holly Condos: even though it’s been in my business plan for 2 years, I have not spent a lot of time, you know, going out into the cold world, if you will. And it’s still obviously in my plan, but what I try to do is…
188 00:24:35.620 ⇒ 00:24:37.599 Holly Condos: You know, give you…
189 00:24:37.650 ⇒ 00:24:57.489 Holly Condos: work with you on… on pricing, right? So I’m not, like, stuck in the mud on, oh, this is… this is it, and only it. I mean, obviously I’ll give you a discount, etc. So, yeah, why don’t I just put together a couple options with… with some more meat, and some more content, and then we can go from there.
190 00:24:58.000 ⇒ 00:24:59.190 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, perfect.
191 00:24:59.840 ⇒ 00:25:02.090 Holly Condos: Awesome. What are you guys doing this weekend?
192 00:25:02.730 ⇒ 00:25:03.889 Uttam Kumaran: I… the reason why….
193 00:25:03.890 ⇒ 00:25:04.930 Holly Condos: Like, camping.
194 00:25:05.320 ⇒ 00:25:08.510 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, that’s great. I was camping two weeks ago, actually, in Northern California.
195 00:25:08.510 ⇒ 00:25:09.080 Hannah Wang: Okay.
196 00:25:09.210 ⇒ 00:25:24.289 Uttam Kumaran: But I’m having a bunch of people over to the house for, like, a wine night, and I… I was… I’m just, like, I needed to go to Home Depot, I’m, like, at Home Depot, I need to grab something, and then I need to go to Total Wine. So, sorry, I’m not on video, I’m just, like, running… running around.
197 00:25:24.290 ⇒ 00:25:26.059 Holly Condos: Absolutely no problem.
198 00:25:26.060 ⇒ 00:25:29.629 Uttam Kumaran: I’m glad we could connect, finally, and ….
199 00:25:29.630 ⇒ 00:25:41.699 Holly Condos: you in person. So, okay, well, thanks for the time, both of you, and, I will get something back to you, you know, midweek, Tuesday, Wednesday of next week, and we can go from there.
200 00:25:42.210 ⇒ 00:25:43.120 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, perfect.
201 00:25:43.120 ⇒ 00:25:43.820 Hannah Wang: Awesome.
202 00:25:44.010 ⇒ 00:25:44.720 Holly Condos: Alright, thank you.
203 00:25:44.720 ⇒ 00:25:49.349 Hannah Wang: Hopefully I’ll run into you, or your son, I don’t know, we live so close, so maybe….
204 00:25:50.580 ⇒ 00:25:55.800 Holly Condos: I’m probably gonna go up in the next couple… two, three weeks, so I’ll let you know, Hannah, and we can….
205 00:25:55.800 ⇒ 00:25:56.370 Hannah Wang: Okay, yeah.
206 00:25:56.370 ⇒ 00:25:58.070 Holly Condos: Meat for coffee or something, that’d be great.
207 00:25:58.070 ⇒ 00:25:59.880 Hannah Wang: Yeah, sure. Yeah. Alright. Awesome.
208 00:25:59.880 ⇒ 00:26:01.080 Holly Condos: Okay, well, take care.
209 00:26:01.080 ⇒ 00:26:01.710 Hannah Wang: Alright.
210 00:26:01.710 ⇒ 00:26:03.310 Uttam Kumaran: Take care, have a good weekend.
211 00:26:03.650 ⇒ 00:26:05.009 Holly Condos: You too, see ya.