Meeting Title: Project Self-Fund Automation Check-in Date: 2025-12-09 Meeting participants: Sezim Zhenishbekova, Henry Zhao
WEBVTT
1 00:03:18.710 ⇒ 00:03:19.810 Henry Zhao: Hey Seth, how’s it going?
2 00:03:19.810 ⇒ 00:03:21.610 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Hi, good, how are you?
3 00:03:21.610 ⇒ 00:03:22.370 Henry Zhao: Good, thanks.
4 00:03:22.870 ⇒ 00:03:27.120 Henry Zhao: So, are you a little bit more chill now with your other job, as well as insomnia?
5 00:03:28.960 ⇒ 00:03:36.140 Sezim Zhenishbekova: It’s been a lot better, too, since we’re… Doing some releases there.
6 00:03:36.250 ⇒ 00:03:43.459 Sezim Zhenishbekova: But all good. Yeah, I’m right now, like, I’m looking into the project self-fund right now.
7 00:03:43.790 ⇒ 00:04:01.399 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Robert asked me on DailySync to be more consistent with my contributions in linear. Yeah. So I will start doing that more. But since I didn’t, like, allocate a lot of hours right now, but this week I’m gonna do that. So I went through the file.
8 00:04:01.650 ⇒ 00:04:05.160 Sezim Zhenishbekova: like, I identified their, like.
9 00:04:05.700 ⇒ 00:04:21.629 Henry Zhao: Yeah, so like I said, so before we get into that, like I said, Utam and Robert are kind of intense in the very beginning, in terms of, like, evaluating if, like, people are a good fit for the company. Yeah. So, my tips are just to, like, ask questions in the chats. I think they just like seeing that activity.
10 00:04:21.750 ⇒ 00:04:25.530 Henry Zhao: And secondly, they would like to see something by Friday, so…
11 00:04:26.010 ⇒ 00:04:30.820 Henry Zhao: just aim to have this done by Friday, like, just take his sheet.
12 00:04:31.170 ⇒ 00:04:31.680 Sezim Zhenishbekova: That’s cool.
13 00:04:31.680 ⇒ 00:04:41.930 Henry Zhao: can do in terms of automation, right? Whether it’s putting this in Tableau, or he said something about, like, don’t just put it in Tableau, right? So he said, let’s read the client’s feedback.
14 00:04:42.420 ⇒ 00:04:52.869 Henry Zhao: Find the attached, to be clear, is not a set document to be reported, so don’t put it on Tableau. Rather, it’s a working document that I adjust through time on a monthly basis, and generally monitor where we are and where we are going.
15 00:04:52.960 ⇒ 00:05:07.219 Henry Zhao: But I definitely don’t stand behind these numbers beyond the current month. They’re also not accurate historically. So, a few things we can do is we can make it accurate historically, right? So, analyze where you think it might not be accurate historically. I think we should.
16 00:05:07.830 ⇒ 00:05:09.810 Henry Zhao: put it in Tableau, but make him…
17 00:05:10.050 ⇒ 00:05:17.950 Henry Zhao: able to, like, adjust the levers, or whatever he adjusts, right? So take a look at what are the inputs that he’s updating, whether it’s, like, cash.
18 00:05:18.140 ⇒ 00:05:18.660 Henry Zhao: Right?
19 00:05:19.460 ⇒ 00:05:24.860 Henry Zhao: And then just automate the retention curves for him, I would say, which is something we can definitely do in Tableau.
20 00:05:25.220 ⇒ 00:05:25.940 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yes.
21 00:05:26.250 ⇒ 00:05:27.110 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Okay.
22 00:05:27.940 ⇒ 00:05:38.999 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Sounds good. Yeah, so right now I’m starting to, go back, like, to the older logic that he’s running in the year, starting from the retention cycle as well, because…
23 00:05:39.000 ⇒ 00:05:48.360 Sezim Zhenishbekova: he has actually specified more the retention cycle, so I want to know what are the dependencies and what kind of formulas he’s running right now, so…
24 00:05:48.360 ⇒ 00:05:49.919 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yeah.
25 00:05:50.240 ⇒ 00:05:51.999 Henry Zhao: Do you have access to Tableau, by the way?
26 00:05:52.130 ⇒ 00:05:53.180 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yes, I do.
27 00:05:53.180 ⇒ 00:05:54.179 Henry Zhao: Okay, good, yeah.
28 00:05:54.180 ⇒ 00:05:55.690 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yeah.
29 00:05:56.610 ⇒ 00:06:01.460 Henry Zhao: So, for retention, you would just go to the retention dashboard. I know that sounds obvious, but.
30 00:06:01.460 ⇒ 00:06:02.280 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yeah.
31 00:06:03.200 ⇒ 00:06:13.310 Henry Zhao: Let’s show you. That’s where the retention curves come from, and you can also do it by drug, I believe, so you might pull it from the data if you need to.
32 00:06:14.520 ⇒ 00:06:24.930 Henry Zhao: Or you can ask one of the engineers to push it, pull it for you. But I would do this as quickly as possible, because they need to see something by Friday to kind of make a decision on kind of where to put you, right? So…
33 00:06:24.930 ⇒ 00:06:25.460 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yes.
34 00:06:25.460 ⇒ 00:06:27.880 Henry Zhao: I would just try to do your best as possible by Friday, I’m just giving you.
35 00:06:27.880 ⇒ 00:06:33.739 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Okay, yeah, that’s actually very helpful. Yeah. Thank you for telling me that. Yeah, I just had one-on-one with.
36 00:06:33.740 ⇒ 00:06:40.890 Henry Zhao: And obviously, because next week is, like, the week before Christmas already, so, like, they just want to make sure that, like, everyone is set for January, right? So…
37 00:06:40.890 ⇒ 00:06:41.470 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yeah.
38 00:06:41.470 ⇒ 00:06:44.050 Henry Zhao: The retention curves are here, right? You can fill…
39 00:06:44.050 ⇒ 00:06:44.400 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Okay.
40 00:06:44.400 ⇒ 00:06:56.940 Henry Zhao: product, but if it’s easier for you to use SQL, you can, like, obviously do edit and see where the data’s coming from, and just pull it from BigQuery, or have an engineer pull it for you. You can just tell them, like, pull this table for me, like, in this format.
41 00:06:56.940 ⇒ 00:07:04.650 Henry Zhao: by product, and they’ll do it for you. And just tell them it’s urgent. They should be pretty free this week to help you out.
42 00:07:04.650 ⇒ 00:07:05.220 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Okay.
43 00:07:05.220 ⇒ 00:07:16.970 Henry Zhao: And then I would just apply these… I would… I would probably just do an average of an average, and I know, like, that’s very taboo, but, like, I think for this exercise, it’s good enough. Remember we said, like, V1 is just something that’s good enough? Just so that, you know.
44 00:07:16.970 ⇒ 00:07:17.320 Sezim Zhenishbekova: You can stay.
45 00:07:17.320 ⇒ 00:07:22.480 Henry Zhao: say something to Utam and Robert by Friday that you, like, did this, and Jonah will be happy, and I think
46 00:07:22.900 ⇒ 00:07:23.659 Henry Zhao: It’ll be good.
47 00:07:23.950 ⇒ 00:07:27.989 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Okay, and then, you said that I can pin the engineers to…
48 00:07:28.860 ⇒ 00:07:32.560 Sezim Zhenishbekova: To help me, like, and who specifically can be tagged for this?
49 00:07:32.560 ⇒ 00:07:36.590 Henry Zhao: So this would be a good example for you to ask incline Eden, so that, like, Uta.
50 00:07:36.590 ⇒ 00:07:37.070 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yeah, yeah.
51 00:07:37.070 ⇒ 00:07:43.760 Henry Zhao: seeing you, like, contributing, right? So, like, month 10, for me, is very obvious, like, it’s just 18% is the retention.
52 00:07:44.320 ⇒ 00:07:49.710 Henry Zhao: And then here, like, for these months, I would just weight it more heavily towards older months, right? Because it looks like…
53 00:07:49.710 ⇒ 00:07:50.180 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Hmm.
54 00:07:50.180 ⇒ 00:08:01.719 Henry Zhao: These are just not enough data yet. But yeah, so this would be pretty straightforward. And then you can consider if you want to include MER, or revenue per customer, whatever, right? Like, that’s your
55 00:08:03.050 ⇒ 00:08:13.020 Henry Zhao: To be able to help him, kind of, not automate, but, like, contribute something, I would say. Just analyze, like, what you can contribute to this spreadsheet that would be of value to Jonah.
56 00:08:13.200 ⇒ 00:08:15.209 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Okay, amazing. I got it.
57 00:08:15.210 ⇒ 00:08:20.700 Henry Zhao: Yeah, the more you can have by Friday, I think the more we’ll set you up for success to kind of get your contract extended.
58 00:08:21.080 ⇒ 00:08:22.489 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yeah, yeah, that makes sense.
59 00:08:22.490 ⇒ 00:08:30.310 Henry Zhao: They’re very intense, yeah. I didn’t expect them to be this intense, and then, like, I, by luck, like, survived my trial.
60 00:08:30.310 ⇒ 00:08:38.249 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yeah, that’s good. I kind of get it, and yeah, I was in different, completely different type of environment, where it’s more slow, very…
61 00:08:38.250 ⇒ 00:08:38.789 Henry Zhao: Yeah.
62 00:08:38.799 ⇒ 00:08:45.649 Sezim Zhenishbekova: very calm down, but since it’s acting like a startup, so it’s very demanding, and knowing my hours.
63 00:08:45.650 ⇒ 00:08:46.050 Henry Zhao: Let’s forgetting.
64 00:08:46.050 ⇒ 00:08:47.320 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yeah.
65 00:08:47.320 ⇒ 00:08:50.800 Henry Zhao: Like, right now, I would just, like, put in a lot of hours, even though you’re allocated few.
66 00:08:50.800 ⇒ 00:08:51.470 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yeah.
67 00:08:51.470 ⇒ 00:08:55.460 Henry Zhao: Like, survive, basically, and then it calms down a little bit, once you’ve proven your worth, basically.
68 00:08:55.460 ⇒ 00:09:10.549 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yeah, makes sense. Yeah. I hope this is not recorded, by the way, because I’m, like, just telling you all the secrets. But also, like, I’m not saying anything wrong, like, I don’t think… No, no, no, no, I think it’s very good, like, thank you for, like, supervising me with all this, and you’re making sure that,
69 00:09:10.570 ⇒ 00:09:23.580 Sezim Zhenishbekova: I’m understanding everything. I was just like… like, yeah, last week I already let the team know, like, Robert and Utama knew that I’m not gonna be completely on top of the project, so this week I’m more focused on this, so… make sure…
70 00:09:23.580 ⇒ 00:09:25.699 Henry Zhao: I told him that too, but it doesn’t really matter, like, just…
71 00:09:25.700 ⇒ 00:09:32.539 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Because they want to see the results, I get it. They want to know what’s the… yeah, they want to know my skill set to be able to better, like.
72 00:09:32.540 ⇒ 00:09:35.330 Henry Zhao: I was, like, moving, I was sick, like, they didn’t care, like, just…
73 00:09:35.540 ⇒ 00:09:36.300 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yeah.
74 00:09:36.300 ⇒ 00:09:44.059 Henry Zhao: Just show as much as you can in the first few weeks so that you can, like, get extended, and then you can calm down a little bit once you’ve, like, actually delivered certain things.
75 00:09:44.250 ⇒ 00:09:46.550 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Sounds good. Yes, for now…
76 00:09:46.550 ⇒ 00:09:54.730 Henry Zhao: help. So they don’t mind you asking for help. What they… I think what they don’t like is, like, not asking questions and, like, taking too long on things. Those are the things that they care.
77 00:09:54.730 ⇒ 00:09:55.300 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yeah.
78 00:09:55.300 ⇒ 00:10:00.050 Henry Zhao: and less about, like, asking questions and asking for help. They actually like it when you ask for help.
79 00:10:00.770 ⇒ 00:10:01.160 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Okay.
80 00:10:01.160 ⇒ 00:10:07.020 Henry Zhao: And they like you when you make a loom of, like, what you thought about, and, like, asking for opinions. They like that as well.
81 00:10:07.360 ⇒ 00:10:12.319 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Oh, okay. Yeah, they told me for the impact scorecard, I need to build a room going…
82 00:10:12.320 ⇒ 00:10:13.690 Henry Zhao: You remember what I did?
83 00:10:14.000 ⇒ 00:10:14.730 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yeah
84 00:10:14.900 ⇒ 00:10:31.940 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yeah, I feel a bit anxious when I record myself, but it’s good, good, I think. Okay, perfect. For now, I don’t have questions, because I’m just, like, reviewing, so I don’t want to spend your time, like, waste your time, but questions will be incoming in the client meeting. Okay.
85 00:10:31.940 ⇒ 00:10:35.320 Henry Zhao: You can meet with me again tomorrow if you have other questions after you’ve looked at this sheet.
86 00:10:35.520 ⇒ 00:10:36.900 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yes.
87 00:10:37.020 ⇒ 00:10:42.869 Henry Zhao: But yeah, I would aim for, like, to have it done by Thursday, because you know things are gonna get delayed, and then… Yeah.
88 00:10:43.260 ⇒ 00:10:45.480 Henry Zhao: Friday would be the deliverable, and I’ll be out on Friday.
89 00:10:46.110 ⇒ 00:10:54.990 Sezim Zhenishbekova: You’ll be out on Friday. Okay, amazing then. I will… I think it’ll be good to schedule a call for tomorrow, if it’s possible, too, just to check in.
90 00:10:55.150 ⇒ 00:10:55.870 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yes.
91 00:10:55.870 ⇒ 00:10:56.220 Henry Zhao: Yeah, something.
92 00:10:56.220 ⇒ 00:11:00.100 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Just let me know what time works for you.
93 00:11:01.780 ⇒ 00:11:04.800 Henry Zhao: Can you meet at 10 AM Eastern?
94 00:11:05.510 ⇒ 00:11:06.779 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Sure, yeah.
95 00:11:09.050 ⇒ 00:11:11.600 Henry Zhao: Because afternoon, I probably have to go to the airport, yeah.
96 00:11:12.160 ⇒ 00:11:15.489 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yes, per… oh, yeah, you’re traveling, right? Okay, sounds good.
97 00:11:16.460 ⇒ 00:11:20.199 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Other than that, other than that,
98 00:11:20.810 ⇒ 00:11:27.080 Sezim Zhenishbekova: You wanted to just check in with me, right? Or do you want to discuss something else other than…
99 00:11:27.610 ⇒ 00:11:31.669 Henry Zhao: No, just this, just to tell you about the deadline and, like, their expectations.
100 00:11:31.930 ⇒ 00:11:35.629 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Okay, perfect, yeah. Thank you so much. Yes.
101 00:11:35.630 ⇒ 00:11:39.540 Henry Zhao: Feel free to ask me questions anytime today, tomorrow, so that we can get a head start on this.
102 00:11:39.540 ⇒ 00:11:41.660 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yes, thanks. Bye.
103 00:11:41.890 ⇒ 00:11:43.200 Henry Zhao: Bye, take care.
104 00:11:43.200 ⇒ 00:11:43.910 Sezim Zhenishbekova: You too.