Meeting Title: BF Interview: Elizah & Rico <> Sheshu Date: 2026-01-06 Meeting participants: Fireflies.ai Notetaker Sheshu, Sheshu Chandrasekar, Elizah Joy, Rico Rejoso
WEBVTT
1 00:03:46.770 ⇒ 00:03:48.440 Elizah Joy: Hi, can you hear me?
2 00:03:50.870 ⇒ 00:03:53.550 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Hey, Eliza, is… am I pronouncing your name right?
3 00:03:54.060 ⇒ 00:03:56.960 Elizah Joy: Yep, that is correct. Hi, how are you?
4 00:03:56.960 ⇒ 00:03:58.360 Sheshu Chandrasekar: I’m good, how about yourself?
5 00:03:59.070 ⇒ 00:04:18.930 Elizah Joy: I’m also doing good, thank you for asking. So yeah, thank you for hopping… for your time to, for taking your time to hop on a call with us. So, recall, our operations lead, will be joining us in a few minutes, but yeah, let me start with introducing myself.
6 00:04:18.930 ⇒ 00:04:19.490 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah.
7 00:04:19.490 ⇒ 00:04:25.709 Elizah Joy: Hello, I’m Eliza, so I’m the Operations Manager here at Brainforge, and…
8 00:04:25.900 ⇒ 00:04:29.910 Elizah Joy: This call is just, like, a…
9 00:04:30.040 ⇒ 00:04:44.569 Elizah Joy: get to know you call, and just for us to understand better, and also for you to be… to keep you in the loop of the current, projects that we did, or the recent projects that we did in the operations. Is that okay?
10 00:04:44.570 ⇒ 00:04:45.980 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, absolutely.
11 00:04:47.260 ⇒ 00:04:51.740 Elizah Joy: Alright, let me just ask you a few questions, if that’s okay.
12 00:04:51.900 ⇒ 00:04:52.530 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah.
13 00:04:53.360 ⇒ 00:05:03.030 Elizah Joy: Okay, can you tell me about the time that you had to make an operational decision with, like, an incomplete data?
14 00:05:04.240 ⇒ 00:05:16.020 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, absolutely. So, just before I answer that question, just to kind of preface my, like, self a little bit, and give you an introduction. Yeah.
15 00:05:16.020 ⇒ 00:05:24.790 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, I was gonna wait for Rico, if that’s okay, but I guess I can just jump in right now. So, yeah, I started my career at Deloitte, so I did a lot of…
16 00:05:24.790 ⇒ 00:05:43.790 Sheshu Chandrasekar: I worked on a lot of large, modernization programs that ranged from, like, technology transformation to, financial planning, which, I really had no business in being part of. And during my time at Deloitte, I was mainly serving government and public sector clients, so think, like, federal agencies and,
17 00:05:43.790 ⇒ 00:05:44.840 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Bernie, they…
18 00:05:44.840 ⇒ 00:06:06.899 Sheshu Chandrasekar: the biggest of the, things that we serve as to these U.S. citizens. And a big part of my role there was, you know, really making systems usable. I’ve done things like building onboarding documentation, user guides, and like your question that you’re asking, kind of helping, unified data to build dashboards for executive leaders, and
19 00:06:06.900 ⇒ 00:06:25.110 Sheshu Chandrasekar: helping 1,300 users to use that tool and update on their projects and programs. So, in relation to your question, at my time at Deloitte, you know, I was building these dashboards that was kind of like the… the bird’s eye view of what was happening at the program level for a huge,
20 00:06:26.210 ⇒ 00:06:39.430 Sheshu Chandrasekar: program portfolio. I remember one time this project manager needed to update milestones, and there was no, there’s no, like, provision to go ahead and do that. So…
21 00:06:39.460 ⇒ 00:06:58.819 Sheshu Chandrasekar: I had to create a formula to kind of figure out, okay, how do we calculate milestones on completions? Because the milestones in governments are so different. There’s partial milestones, there’s, keystone milestones, and there are different types of milestones, and they all had different weights that the system that we were implementing didn’t really have.
22 00:06:58.910 ⇒ 00:07:04.519 Sheshu Chandrasekar: So, I had to make a decision that, in order for me to capture all those,
23 00:07:04.920 ⇒ 00:07:15.910 Sheshu Chandrasekar: I capture all those milestones, I had to create a simple formula, and kind of asked my engineers to build, like, literally, like, a quick snippet of code to
24 00:07:16.040 ⇒ 00:07:29.959 Sheshu Chandrasekar: present those milestones to executive leadership. That was, like, one of the most pivotal operational decisions. There’s moments where I had to create dashboards, where I had to get buy-in from, executive client stakeholders.
25 00:07:29.960 ⇒ 00:07:48.359 Sheshu Chandrasekar: who just didn’t understand, and rallying them was a huge… was a huge difficulty. It wasn’t because we weren’t able to do it, it was more like we needed to show, like, hey, like, this… this version of why we’re doing things is way more better than what you’re thinking about, and getting that executive buy-in, it was…
26 00:07:48.360 ⇒ 00:07:51.519 Sheshu Chandrasekar: It was just so difficult, but we were able to make it happen, and…
27 00:07:51.550 ⇒ 00:07:55.130 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, I’m super proud that, you know, the dashboards that I built
28 00:07:55.240 ⇒ 00:08:03.339 Sheshu Chandrasekar: It’s still being used today, and it’s even used in congressional hearings at the moment, so… yeah.
29 00:08:04.030 ⇒ 00:08:18.339 Elizah Joy: Yeah, that’s… that’s great to hear. I’m gonna share with you the current projects that we have for quarter one, and we have a lot of dashboards, actually, so I think you’ll be, really helpful for those projects.
30 00:08:18.340 ⇒ 00:08:19.320 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah.
31 00:08:19.650 ⇒ 00:08:26.479 Elizah Joy: projects that we needed dashboards for, so it’s an active project. But yeah, that’s great to hear.
32 00:08:26.720 ⇒ 00:08:39.800 Elizah Joy: And, can you tell me about the time wherein maybe you’ve got a tough feedback, maybe a feedback that you’ve received about how you run the operations, and
33 00:08:39.909 ⇒ 00:08:44.669 Elizah Joy: Or maybe what did you do to, like, improve that, or…
34 00:08:44.840 ⇒ 00:08:47.220 Elizah Joy: Rich, what did you do to change that?
35 00:08:48.150 ⇒ 00:08:58.929 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, so a part of my role, when I was building these dashboards and, helping implement this ServiceNow, portfolio management tool for this federal agency,
36 00:08:59.010 ⇒ 00:09:10.679 Sheshu Chandrasekar: one of my roles was to be a QA engineer, almost, and I was working with engineers and project managers and product managers on the client side, mainly on the government side.
37 00:09:11.050 ⇒ 00:09:14.960 Sheshu Chandrasekar: One of the things they did not like was how I was,
38 00:09:15.360 ⇒ 00:09:23.650 Sheshu Chandrasekar: giving updates to client leadership, and the greatest advice I’ve ever received in this feedback was.
39 00:09:23.900 ⇒ 00:09:38.849 Sheshu Chandrasekar: they don’t want me to wait last second. It’s almost like the same, saying that, you know, if you’re on time, you’re late, but if you’re early, you’re on time. So it’s kind of the same methodology here that I had to implement. So, for me, I had to be extremely proactive, almost have…
40 00:09:38.850 ⇒ 00:09:45.160 Sheshu Chandrasekar: meetings with my engineers, like, 2 or 3 days in advance to give updates, and if I have those updates.
41 00:09:45.300 ⇒ 00:09:51.799 Sheshu Chandrasekar: and there were some hiccups, I had to present a plan to the client beforehand, right? Because, like, a lot of times, like.
42 00:09:51.850 ⇒ 00:10:10.129 Sheshu Chandrasekar: clients don’t care about, you know, what the hiccups are, they care about a path forward, right? And so, in my updates, instead of just saying, hey, we’re at risk, we’re at, this is an issue that we’re facing, I had to come up with a plan to kind of mitigate those and, you know, get that confidence, still at an all-time high, so…
43 00:10:10.240 ⇒ 00:10:24.909 Sheshu Chandrasekar: That was, like, the toughest feedback, because they were saying, hey, like, your communication on how you deliver news has to be way better, and it has to be earlier, and, I mean, the advice I received from my manager at that time was something I’d take to this day in my career.
44 00:10:28.000 ⇒ 00:10:30.339 Elizah Joy: Yeah, that’s… yeah, I think, yeah, that’s…
45 00:10:30.600 ⇒ 00:10:42.399 Elizah Joy: I mean, that’s a good fit, because, here at Brainforge, we also, work fast, and Rico would attest to that. And, you know, since we’re in an async culture.
46 00:10:42.620 ⇒ 00:10:49.019 Elizah Joy: communication is really important for us, so yeah, Rico, do you have anything to…
47 00:10:49.220 ⇒ 00:10:51.729 Elizah Joy: Ask, or add to that, so…
48 00:10:54.690 ⇒ 00:10:56.680 Rico Rejoso: Hey, Shashu, how are you?
49 00:10:56.990 ⇒ 00:10:58.889 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Hey, good, Enrico, how are you doing today?
50 00:10:59.170 ⇒ 00:11:04.769 Rico Rejoso: Good, good. Sorry, I was late, I was on another call, with another… Team member.
51 00:11:05.230 ⇒ 00:11:06.509 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Not a problem.
52 00:11:07.170 ⇒ 00:11:10.450 Rico Rejoso: Yeah, I believe…
53 00:11:11.250 ⇒ 00:11:28.509 Rico Rejoso: Udom already intro you to what Brain Forge is, what we’re offering, what we’re doing currently, so it’s, for us to share what the culture is and how we’re, you know, how everything’s been flowing so far here at Brainforge. So, yeah, given that what you’ve already known, I guess, can you, like.
54 00:11:29.230 ⇒ 00:11:34.079 Rico Rejoso: give us a wide perspective on how you can possibly help, Brainforge.
55 00:11:34.830 ⇒ 00:11:35.240 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah.
56 00:11:35.240 ⇒ 00:11:36.350 Rico Rejoso: I should say.
57 00:11:37.040 ⇒ 00:11:55.689 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, absolutely. So, some things I’ve… I mean, I’ve only had conversations with Uten, and they’re very high level, understanding kind of, like, where you guys are headed in 2026, rather than the more the operations side. That’s why, I want to take this call to kind of understand
58 00:11:55.790 ⇒ 00:12:01.189 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Your day-to-day a little bit better, but also, like, what are some things that
59 00:12:01.340 ⇒ 00:12:07.880 Sheshu Chandrasekar: you guys are, like, struggling with, or need help with, and how I can best support you guys,
60 00:12:08.110 ⇒ 00:12:11.320 Sheshu Chandrasekar: when… and when and if I join the team, so…
61 00:12:11.360 ⇒ 00:12:20.380 Sheshu Chandrasekar: But some things I already kind of have been brainstorming in my head has been documentation. I think that’s something, I really wanted
62 00:12:20.380 ⇒ 00:12:33.530 Sheshu Chandrasekar: prioritize, because it seems like we’re… it seems like, and please correct me if I’m wrong here, it seems like everything that, on the operations side is pretty ad hoc, and, you know, you guys are moving to a new model of,
63 00:12:33.780 ⇒ 00:12:52.280 Sheshu Chandrasekar: how the team is structured with the… with the, you know, service, the engagement planner, the customer success, and the service leader, type of structure, right? So, for me, I think documentation is one thing I would love to do, just to see, like, what’s happening, how do we improve on it, because
64 00:12:52.360 ⇒ 00:13:01.999 Sheshu Chandrasekar: if we don’t have documentation, then it’s so hard for us to… it’s like we’re working in the dark, right? So that’s something I would prioritize. But also understanding
65 00:13:02.200 ⇒ 00:13:11.290 Sheshu Chandrasekar: how do we ensure that… another operational thing I would do is create office hours for people that are onto these new roles, because I know
66 00:13:11.860 ⇒ 00:13:26.860 Sheshu Chandrasekar: In my past, I’ve done a lot of change management for some nonprofits, and anytime leaders move from a different role, it’s such a struggle, because it’s the frame of thought. That’s the hardest part, it’s not necessarily executing the task. It’s like, how do I…
67 00:13:26.860 ⇒ 00:13:33.650 Sheshu Chandrasekar: go from becoming an engineer to a engagement planner, right? Like, how do I have that flip of a switch?
68 00:13:33.650 ⇒ 00:13:50.359 Sheshu Chandrasekar: So, for me, I would like to implement something called, like, office hours, in a way, where we hear their thoughts, kind of like a therapy session, right? We hear them, we understand what’s going on, what’s… how their day-to-day is, like, not working out, or what’s going well, and ensure that, you know, we figure out if
69 00:13:50.360 ⇒ 00:13:58.729 Sheshu Chandrasekar: they’re best suited for this role, and if they are, you know, what kind of tools can we do to make their job even better? And if they’re struggling.
70 00:13:58.790 ⇒ 00:14:10.439 Sheshu Chandrasekar: it’s the same concept, right? We figure out what’s… what they’re lacking in, and figure out if it’s a more a tooling-based problem, or if it’s more of a behavior problem, so we can make sure they’re successful in their role.
71 00:14:11.030 ⇒ 00:14:14.910 Sheshu Chandrasekar: So that’s, like, two things I would like to implement. Sorry, go ahead.
72 00:14:15.200 ⇒ 00:14:32.270 Rico Rejoso: Yeah, I would like to discuss more of what you mentioned about, creating, I mean, documentation, and about the office hours. Yeah, you mentioned office hours, especially since we’re transitioning to a different way of project management, right? We’re having CSO
73 00:14:32.270 ⇒ 00:14:46.000 Rico Rejoso: engagement plan and service leads. So, actually, everyone’s new to it. We had this, stand-up earlier, where everyone is still confused since we’re kind of used that we have one lead that will discuss all,
74 00:14:46.000 ⇒ 00:14:55.930 Rico Rejoso: We’ll discuss all clients and all tasks that we have for the client, and definitely we’ll be changing that one since it’s the service leads that will be taking part of it, and the CSO should
75 00:14:55.930 ⇒ 00:15:01.950 Rico Rejoso: only be, like, providing updates, client-related, and their feedbacks about the process and the service that we’re offering, right?
76 00:15:01.960 ⇒ 00:15:16.869 Rico Rejoso: and engagement planner should be, like, planning out the FAS and, you know, milestone for the project that they’re working on, since we’re moving into that format, and we really haven’t got any documentation set up yet, SOP, and how the process would work.
77 00:15:17.100 ⇒ 00:15:19.560 Rico Rejoso: How do you see, like, you know,
78 00:15:19.890 ⇒ 00:15:28.020 Rico Rejoso: I mean, seeing that you’re already aware of it, this, like, is there some kind of process that you’ve already thought of,
79 00:15:28.570 ⇒ 00:15:35.889 Rico Rejoso: In your head on how we should, you know, transition from our previous kind of process into that new process for this year?
80 00:15:36.670 ⇒ 00:15:40.330 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, absolutely. So, I guess one thing I would like to do is,
81 00:15:40.480 ⇒ 00:15:45.979 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Like, legit, some one-on-ones with some key team members.
82 00:15:45.990 ⇒ 00:16:00.960 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Because I think, for me right now, like, this being new to this entire model, like, especially how I’ve done things in the past and seen other startups do, is, like, I think it’s more… very informal, right? We try to figure out where… what they’re feeling about their new role.
83 00:16:00.960 ⇒ 00:16:07.699 Sheshu Chandrasekar: and have consistent office hours with, like, CSOs and,
84 00:16:07.720 ⇒ 00:16:09.720 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Sorry, give me… sorry, one second.
85 00:16:10.170 ⇒ 00:16:10.880 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Sure.
86 00:16:15.090 ⇒ 00:16:30.870 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Sorry, I just got a marketing call. But, what I was saying is, yes, I want to have office hours consistently, but also have documentation. Figure out what kind of Slack bots we have at the moment, and figure out how to best repurpose those Slack bots,
87 00:16:31.120 ⇒ 00:16:48.440 Sheshu Chandrasekar: for… for each role, right? So if anytime there’s a problem and we’re not able to help them out, we should have, like, an intake of some sort to kind of troubleshoot, okay, hey, this is a problem they’re facing. Even if it’s, like, very minute problems, right? Even if it’s not significant problems to a client side, it’s, like.
88 00:16:48.510 ⇒ 00:16:51.639 Sheshu Chandrasekar: We want… we want the new team members, or the…
89 00:16:51.780 ⇒ 00:16:57.529 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Or our current team members who are transitioning to these new roles to feel like they’re heard, and they’re seen, right?
90 00:16:57.710 ⇒ 00:17:11.219 Sheshu Chandrasekar: And more importantly, from an operational standpoint, having documentations and figuring out a key pattern is super important. So, for example, if an engagement planner needs certain project templates to deliver to a client, right?
91 00:17:11.220 ⇒ 00:17:20.310 Sheshu Chandrasekar: I think we should be focused on that. We should be focused on creating decks, or whatever means of communication they need to present to the client, and give them templates of some sort.
92 00:17:20.430 ⇒ 00:17:35.199 Sheshu Chandrasekar: And I like to call those time-saver templates, so all they need to do is download this deck template, and then fill out the necessary information they need so they can be successful when they present to the client. So those are the kind of things I’m…
93 00:17:35.550 ⇒ 00:17:38.170 Sheshu Chandrasekar: thinking about right now.
94 00:17:39.000 ⇒ 00:17:53.859 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, I mean, obviously, I would like to hear more from you guys on what’s working with you in the ops, and where, you guys are, you know, succeeding right now, where you guys feel like it’s a bit heavy, and you need help, and…
95 00:17:53.980 ⇒ 00:18:06.299 Sheshu Chandrasekar: that kind of gives me some more insight into where I can definitely add value, in a way, and steer the direction of, like, hey, like, maybe we should go in this direction and build this process, or some other sort.
96 00:18:06.800 ⇒ 00:18:14.690 Rico Rejoso: Yeah, well, you already said it, like, you know, documentation, we are, like,
97 00:18:15.070 ⇒ 00:18:30.550 Rico Rejoso: I mean, we love document… making sure that everything is documented. I myself also created a lot of SOPs once I got here in Brainforge, and make sure that all the processes that I’ve been working on were properly documented. It’s just that it’s not…
98 00:18:31.200 ⇒ 00:18:41.849 Rico Rejoso: been that are organized in the past few months. I mean, it’s a fast-paced company, a lot has happened in the past 6 months since I’ve been here, and
99 00:18:41.850 ⇒ 00:18:52.540 Rico Rejoso: Way back, we only have, like, this kind… this few numbers of clients, and now we’re ramping to around 15, clients by end of year… by end of year of 2025, so,
100 00:18:52.820 ⇒ 00:18:56.779 Rico Rejoso: Having that kind of, you know, scaling.
101 00:18:57.250 ⇒ 00:19:15.960 Rico Rejoso: had also resulted to some backlogs of words on the operations side, updating and cleaning up some files at the same time. I think it’s just more of us not properly organizing those documents, even though we have everything there. So, us searching for it every now and then, when the time,
102 00:19:16.270 ⇒ 00:19:26.779 Rico Rejoso: comes that we need, those documents is kind of a hassle for us. So I think that’s one of the main problems that we have right now. Although we have this platform, this tool that we’ll be using, the BrainForge platform.
103 00:19:26.780 ⇒ 00:19:36.749 Rico Rejoso: Where we upload all those assets, documents that we need for sales and marketing stuff. But other than that, all the other documents, guides, tutorials, are just…
104 00:19:36.920 ⇒ 00:19:38.440 Rico Rejoso: living within Notion.
105 00:19:39.480 ⇒ 00:19:50.300 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Gotcha. So, it sounds like the current tool that you guys are using is Notion, but it’s more like it’s not organized, or it’s not easily accessible for, like, the client side, or the delivery side to manage, and…
106 00:19:50.300 ⇒ 00:19:59.339 Rico Rejoso: Because what’s happening is that whenever we create a new documents in the engineer operations sales side, we just want to make sure it’s there in Notion, but it’s, you know.
107 00:19:59.580 ⇒ 00:20:01.040 Rico Rejoso: unorganized, and…
108 00:20:01.290 ⇒ 00:20:11.980 Rico Rejoso: us creating a lot more from, you know, on a daily basis had resulted to, like, a lot of backlogs and a lot of cleanup to do when it comes to organizing those files in Notion.
109 00:20:11.990 ⇒ 00:20:22.960 Rico Rejoso: So I think that’s just been… that’s just been an issue for us so far, and we haven’t got the time to really focus on cleaning up those, documents there, living in Ocean.
110 00:20:23.400 ⇒ 00:20:36.129 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Gotcha. And do you guys use any sort of Kanban boards to kind of manage, like, saying, hey, like, for example, this document X needs a version update, or, like, it needs a change of language? Do you guys have, like, a Kanban board of some sort to kind of fix that?
111 00:20:37.040 ⇒ 00:20:39.009 Rico Rejoso: Right now, I don’t think so.
112 00:20:39.570 ⇒ 00:20:40.240 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Got it.
113 00:20:40.810 ⇒ 00:20:48.430 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense, because, I mean, I’m guessing your day-to-day is always, like, it’s changing, right? It’s super fluid, and yeah.
114 00:20:48.600 ⇒ 00:20:52.959 Rico Rejoso: Operations works in… across all departments, right, from delivery, from.
115 00:20:52.960 ⇒ 00:20:53.380 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah.
116 00:20:53.380 ⇒ 00:21:09.300 Rico Rejoso: marketing. I, myself, was only handling the operations side for, like, 4 or 5 months. Eliza came in and was, like, helping us in planning out everything for 2026, so we’re hoping that you can also help us, you know, direct us forward to the plan, especially for
117 00:21:09.370 ⇒ 00:21:13.390 Rico Rejoso: planning to scale Brain Forge to a different level by this year.
118 00:21:13.890 ⇒ 00:21:22.790 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, no, absolutely, and I’m… I’m on board to help that mission become a reality. So, it sounds like, right now.
119 00:21:22.890 ⇒ 00:21:28.500 Sheshu Chandrasekar: another process I just thought about is building some sort of intake form. For example, like.
120 00:21:28.500 ⇒ 00:21:33.789 Rico Rejoso: If something is wrong with the document, right? Let’s say an engagement planner says, hey, this.
121 00:21:33.790 ⇒ 00:21:43.729 Sheshu Chandrasekar: language is wrong, or I need this table because it doesn’t work for us, like, for the client that I’m serving. Maybe we can create some sort of intake form that allows us to
122 00:21:43.890 ⇒ 00:21:48.639 Sheshu Chandrasekar: get that feedback immediately, even if we’re not available via Slack, because
123 00:21:48.780 ⇒ 00:22:04.110 Sheshu Chandrasekar: it sounds like when I onboard of some sort, or when I’m working with other people, like, it’s gonna be chaotic, right? So, and I won’t have time to either reach out to them immediately, but eventually I do want to hear them… hear their problems and figure out how to best serve it.
124 00:22:04.110 ⇒ 00:22:11.779 Sheshu Chandrasekar: And so maybe creating some sort of intake form, and then assigning those tasks to a Kanban board,
125 00:22:11.850 ⇒ 00:22:14.309 Sheshu Chandrasekar: So we can address it. I think that’s, like.
126 00:22:14.900 ⇒ 00:22:19.309 Sheshu Chandrasekar: something I just thought of right now, and I think that could be very useful for us in the future.
127 00:22:20.200 ⇒ 00:22:26.179 Rico Rejoso: Great, great idea, actually, that’s good. Especially if we don’t have any time to respond to everyone at Slack, right?
128 00:22:27.040 ⇒ 00:22:42.859 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, and I think another big thing would be, figuring out what’s, like, a high priority, right? Even if we get all those intakes, figure out what’s, like, immediate, so creating some sort of decision framework that best serves the culture of Brainforged, and making sure that, you know.
129 00:22:43.080 ⇒ 00:22:48.269 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Our team… our team members are, you know, well successful when they need to be, so…
130 00:22:49.630 ⇒ 00:22:53.640 Rico Rejoso: I got you, yeah, definitely. Yeah, Eliza?
131 00:22:55.060 ⇒ 00:23:04.749 Elizah Joy: Yep, so, about the Kanban board, we’ve… we currently were using the Linear app, if you are familiar with that. So, yeah, but, I do…
132 00:23:04.800 ⇒ 00:23:18.459 Elizah Joy: The, idea of having those, like an intake form for those documentations or processes that we need updating, especially now that, we’re restructuring and,
133 00:23:18.820 ⇒ 00:23:24.509 Elizah Joy: Yeah, because Rico has done a great job with documenting the processes that we have.
134 00:23:24.630 ⇒ 00:23:25.490 Elizah Joy: And…
135 00:23:25.900 ⇒ 00:23:32.720 Elizah Joy: you know, I would, attest to what Heep said, that it’s just that organizing and then making sure that
136 00:23:33.420 ⇒ 00:23:39.309 Elizah Joy: with the restructuring that we’re doing, is that everything’s being documented,
137 00:23:41.420 ⇒ 00:23:49.410 Elizah Joy: how can I say? In an organized way already, so that we don’t have to, like, reorganize it again in the future.
138 00:23:49.620 ⇒ 00:23:50.780 Elizah Joy: And…
139 00:23:52.500 ⇒ 00:24:03.159 Elizah Joy: Yeah, I think, yeah, I do like that idea. And then, Rico, before you pop in here, Shashu has already mentioned that he, most of his…
140 00:24:03.290 ⇒ 00:24:08.039 Elizah Joy: And a part of his responsibilities before were dashboards, so…
141 00:24:08.390 ⇒ 00:24:19.429 Elizah Joy: That’s great, because, a lot of our, Shashu, a lot of our projects for this quarter is… has something to do with dashboards, right? So I think,
142 00:24:19.560 ⇒ 00:24:31.849 Elizah Joy: you can direct us on how we can best do those dashboards, so to give you an idea, right? So, we have the margins dashboard, the cost dashboards that we have to create.
143 00:24:32.760 ⇒ 00:24:39.090 Elizah Joy: that… I mean, not create, but update. And then… we also have this.
144 00:24:41.350 ⇒ 00:24:51.719 Rico Rejoso: You made the sense of that session chart to cut you out, Eliza. Where do you plan on having those dashboards to live? Like, we have some tools that we use, like Omni.
145 00:24:51.840 ⇒ 00:24:55.189 Rico Rejoso: that is witnessed by our data team.
146 00:24:55.440 ⇒ 00:24:57.870 Rico Rejoso: a HubSpot for our sales team.
147 00:24:58.330 ⇒ 00:25:01.470 Rico Rejoso: Where do you think those dashboards should live to?
148 00:25:02.840 ⇒ 00:25:05.100 Sheshu Chandrasekar: I’m sorry, so the question here is.
149 00:25:05.100 ⇒ 00:25:10.809 Rico Rejoso: Where do you think should we have those dashboards in? I mean, what tools should you think would best fit?
150 00:25:11.010 ⇒ 00:25:13.909 Rico Rejoso: To have those dashboards that everyone can see.
151 00:25:14.230 ⇒ 00:25:15.919 Rico Rejoso: Especially our stakeholders.
152 00:25:16.480 ⇒ 00:25:29.279 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, I mean, I think we can have two separate… so I think my questions would be, like, you know, how are we aggregating the data, and where are we getting the data from? Who are we getting it from, and then figuring out who should have visibility into those data, right? I think…
153 00:25:29.380 ⇒ 00:25:49.329 Sheshu Chandrasekar: for ops standpoint, we should have micro-level data, so figuring out, like, okay, this person owns this sales, account of some sort, right? Or this person is managing this many hours into this, client, right? Those type of micro details is something that I think should be on the ops side, and the founder side.
154 00:25:49.330 ⇒ 00:26:04.340 Sheshu Chandrasekar: But on the macro side, it’s like figuring out key wins, right? So we motivate the team. It’s like saying, hey, like, for example, I don’t know, Clarence and Pranav have won this key milestone with our client, and we show that progress update on a macro level.
155 00:26:04.540 ⇒ 00:26:05.640 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Because I think…
156 00:26:06.110 ⇒ 00:26:23.589 Sheshu Chandrasekar: you know, when you’re moving to a new model, it’s like, you want to show wins, right? And they should be looking at that. It’s like, kind of looking like a scoreboard at a game, right? If your team is winning, you feel motivated, you feel happy that your team is winning, right? So, same thing. So, on a micro level, it helps us understand roadblocks,
157 00:26:23.710 ⇒ 00:26:29.170 Sheshu Chandrasekar: any bottlenecks, and even key wins for us too, right, on a micro level, but on a macro level, that’s when we…
158 00:26:29.390 ⇒ 00:26:47.320 Sheshu Chandrasekar: use that data to motivate the team, and it should be on… it should be on a Notion, or even pinned to a Slack of some sort, so whenever the team is, like, figuring out, hey, like, I wonder what, Clarence or Pranav is doing right now, right? They can go ahead and do that, and just check out the dashboard and figure out
159 00:26:47.330 ⇒ 00:26:52.180 Sheshu Chandrasekar: how Brainforge is doing as a whole company, and… and it’s very motivating to look at, and it’s always helped
160 00:26:52.500 ⇒ 00:26:57.609 Sheshu Chandrasekar: This one startup I used to work at, as a contractor, they were able to
161 00:26:57.880 ⇒ 00:27:09.840 Sheshu Chandrasekar: publish key wins every… every time I pin it on their Slack dashboard, and it was motivating for the engineers, because they see that, hey, we’re winning here, but we’re also struggling here as well, and it gives them that insight a little bit better.
162 00:27:15.270 ⇒ 00:27:17.340 Elizah Joy: Yep, I think, yeah,
163 00:27:17.530 ⇒ 00:27:28.910 Elizah Joy: that would be a fit for current dashboards that we’re doing, but, as Rika mentioned earlier, right, so, I think one of my questions would be,
164 00:27:29.350 ⇒ 00:27:34.749 Elizah Joy: How do you, like, special… You mentioned…
165 00:27:35.030 ⇒ 00:27:50.740 Elizah Joy: earlier, right? Sorry, Rico mentioned earlier that, Rate Forge is a fast-pacing company, right? So, how do you, switch between, like, strategic planning and hands-on execution, like, maybe in the same week?
166 00:27:52.150 ⇒ 00:27:55.549 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, you know, a lot of times it might…
167 00:27:55.800 ⇒ 00:27:59.529 Sheshu Chandrasekar: working with strategy… oh, I just saw Rico.
168 00:28:00.190 ⇒ 00:28:00.950 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Drop.
169 00:28:01.700 ⇒ 00:28:02.530 Elizah Joy: It’s okay.
170 00:28:02.530 ⇒ 00:28:17.629 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Okay, just wanted to make sure. Yeah, I treat strategy and execution, with very different attitudes, you know? I feel like I’m very deliberate about when I’m in that phase of thinking for each one. With strategy, I like to think about constraints and priorities.
171 00:28:17.720 ⇒ 00:28:34.910 Sheshu Chandrasekar: But when it comes to execution, you know, it’s very important for me to test those, decisions, and if they actually work in reality. Because a lot of times when you’re thinking about strategy and execution, strategy doesn’t always translate to execution, right? So for me, I think it’s very important that
172 00:28:35.490 ⇒ 00:28:42.400 Sheshu Chandrasekar: I, in a way, anchor them strategically, and that maps to our AORs or any KPIs that we have set out to.
173 00:28:42.520 ⇒ 00:28:54.060 Sheshu Chandrasekar: and then staying close enough to execution. And when I’m executing, I like to work… I would love to work with you and Rico, like, hands-on, and really figure out what’s working, what’s not, because…
174 00:28:54.230 ⇒ 00:29:04.529 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Then I understand, like, okay, next time we do something else, and when we’re executing or we need things strategically, we can fix that and move forward and be better at it.
175 00:29:07.320 ⇒ 00:29:11.939 Elizah Joy: Okay, got it. And then, yeah, just to let you know,
176 00:29:12.200 ⇒ 00:29:16.470 Elizah Joy: I think Erica will be hopping back on. But yeah,
177 00:29:17.730 ⇒ 00:29:20.189 Elizah Joy: For me, my last question would be, like.
178 00:29:20.660 ⇒ 00:29:28.410 Elizah Joy: Since we’re in this restructuring phase, right? And we want to be, or no, we ideally want to be introducing, like.
179 00:29:28.660 ⇒ 00:29:35.539 Elizah Joy: processes, or, systems for the team to make sure that we’re also, helping them
180 00:29:35.810 ⇒ 00:29:43.940 Elizah Joy: evolve in their new or, responsibilities with their, with the new 3L roles that we have, right? So.
181 00:29:44.130 ⇒ 00:29:54.210 Elizah Joy: Can you tell me, how would you, how, or how do you ensure standards, don’t, like, erode as, you know, as reinforced scales?
182 00:29:56.070 ⇒ 00:30:04.020 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, so I guess, first and foremost, it’s setting very realistic KPIs, right? Like, for example, for Engagement Planner, if
183 00:30:04.180 ⇒ 00:30:07.819 Sheshu Chandrasekar: They don’t meet, certain milestones of some sort.
184 00:30:07.970 ⇒ 00:30:14.360 Sheshu Chandrasekar: I think it’s very important for us to set realistic goals within the 30, 60, 90-day timeframe.
185 00:30:14.620 ⇒ 00:30:26.260 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Obviously, you know, when you’re transitioning to a new bottle, there’s gonna be a lot of hiccups, you know, a lot of problems, so being extremely realistic with the goal setting is important, but that doesn’t mean we under…
186 00:30:26.430 ⇒ 00:30:29.219 Sheshu Chandrasekar: You know, we don’t, like, you know, undersell our…
187 00:30:29.390 ⇒ 00:30:39.070 Sheshu Chandrasekar: our goals, right? We don’t need to under, like, underbar them in a way. And that’s not even… what I’m trying to say is, like, you know, we don’t want to keep the bar solo, we want to keep it realistic.
188 00:30:39.170 ⇒ 00:30:42.529 Sheshu Chandrasekar: But at the end of the 90-day mark, we want to aim for
189 00:30:42.740 ⇒ 00:30:47.550 Sheshu Chandrasekar: the most optimistic KPI, right? The most optimistic range.
190 00:30:47.700 ⇒ 00:30:51.119 Sheshu Chandrasekar: And work from there. So,
191 00:30:51.460 ⇒ 00:31:05.700 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, setting the appropriate KPIs and measuring them from 30, 60, 90 day, making sure that each KPI is measurable, and not just something that’s very arbitrary or qualitative, is very important for us, because
192 00:31:06.130 ⇒ 00:31:13.230 Sheshu Chandrasekar: quantitative metrics really would help us more understand where we’re succeeding and where we’re not.
193 00:31:13.540 ⇒ 00:31:27.080 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, that’d be the best way to go about it, but yeah, in that 30 to 60 day mark, let’s, you know, set ambitious goals, but be very realistic about it internally, and figure out where to go from there, because it’d be…
194 00:31:27.880 ⇒ 00:31:43.180 Sheshu Chandrasekar: the last thing we would ever want is to create burnout for our engineers, or for our engagement planners, or for our customer success, and making them feel like they’re not succeeding because of our targets. So, that’s kind of where I would,
195 00:31:44.000 ⇒ 00:31:47.600 Sheshu Chandrasekar: where I would go about it when it comes to the new model.
196 00:31:49.500 ⇒ 00:31:53.199 Elizah Joy: Sounds cool. Do you have any questions for us?
197 00:31:53.590 ⇒ 00:31:55.100 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah,
198 00:31:55.310 ⇒ 00:32:11.560 Sheshu Chandrasekar: So, I guess my… one of my main questions, you know, I… again, I’ve only talked to Tom on a very high level, understanding the operations. I read the… I read the manifesto and, the AORs to… on a high-level note, but…
199 00:32:11.620 ⇒ 00:32:20.459 Sheshu Chandrasekar: I’m very curious about your day-to-day, so how does… what do you do on a day-to-day basis, and what does a good day look like for you, and what does a frustrating day look like for you?
200 00:32:20.970 ⇒ 00:32:30.409 Elizah Joy: Yeah, that’s a good question. So, I have only been with Brain for Attraction for about a month now, so yeah, just for a month, but…
201 00:32:30.590 ⇒ 00:32:39.590 Elizah Joy: Think with my day-to-day… or not my day-to-day, but for Rika and I, right? Currently, we’ve had this
202 00:32:40.290 ⇒ 00:32:53.220 Elizah Joy: history is only… at the moment, there’s only three of us in the operations side of things, right? So, Utom is there, Enrico, they were only, the two working in operations before, before I came in.
203 00:32:53.420 ⇒ 00:33:02.549 Elizah Joy: And then… I think, with Rico, it’s more on what he mentioned before, it’s more like ad hoc tasks, right? If anyone needs something.
204 00:33:02.710 ⇒ 00:33:04.050 Elizah Joy: from…
205 00:33:04.250 ⇒ 00:33:19.029 Elizah Joy: like, access to anything, documents that they need, they ask RICO on that, so tasks for Rico are more like ad hoc tasks, right? So, for me, as for me, as for my day-to-day, currently I do have
206 00:33:19.170 ⇒ 00:33:25.389 Elizah Joy: the projects that we have for quarter one, which I’m currently, which I’m actively working on.
207 00:33:25.690 ⇒ 00:33:41.120 Elizah Joy: And just to give you an overview of that, so, like, a project for this quarter, high priority is the AOR document, reviewing the software, expenses that we have, creating that margins dashboard.
208 00:33:41.120 ⇒ 00:33:50.939 Elizah Joy: costs dashboards, and improving our recruitment process. So, with my first few weeks with Brainforge.
209 00:33:51.110 ⇒ 00:33:59.649 Elizah Joy: what I initially did was helping refine the recruitment process, and then…
210 00:34:00.780 ⇒ 00:34:10.739 Elizah Joy: the, I reviewed Notion before. We’ve made, like, notes on where we can improve that, and, as you know.
211 00:34:10.840 ⇒ 00:34:18.379 Elizah Joy: Organizing Notion is one of the projects that we have for this quarter as well. So I think, with the…
212 00:34:18.469 ⇒ 00:34:33.369 Elizah Joy: how ops is structured currently is that, Rika’s more on the ad hoc tasks, and then the… because he knows the business better than I am, because he’s been here, longer, and then as for me, I do…
213 00:34:33.580 ⇒ 00:34:36.599 Elizah Joy: Manage the projects, or the…
214 00:34:36.760 ⇒ 00:34:42.600 Elizah Joy: yeah, the projects that we have for quarter, this quarter. So that’s how we…
215 00:34:42.730 ⇒ 00:34:47.279 Elizah Joy: Like, take ownership and responsibilities, and making sure that
216 00:34:47.420 ⇒ 00:34:57.820 Elizah Joy: all things operations are still covered, the, the micro tasks, and then the high-level tasks that we have to do, and…
217 00:34:58.840 ⇒ 00:35:02.700 Elizah Joy: I think for… I haven’t had that much…
218 00:35:03.360 ⇒ 00:35:20.350 Elizah Joy: In my experience, I haven’t had much stressful days yet, because as I mentioned, Rico was the one managing all the ad hoc tasks, so yeah, he works really, really hard for all things operations, making sure that he’s supporting the team.
219 00:35:20.420 ⇒ 00:35:27.040 Elizah Joy: And he’s done a very great job on that. I think, on my experience, it’s just stirring those…
220 00:35:27.580 ⇒ 00:35:34.109 Elizah Joy: End of the year, last year, wherein we have a lot of, projects.
221 00:35:34.240 ⇒ 00:35:48.480 Elizah Joy: And making sure that… not projects, I mean, but, systems and processes that we want to improve, and then improving the team culture, most especially, and then making sure that,
222 00:35:49.000 ⇒ 00:35:55.630 Elizah Joy: everyone, and especially the ops team, is aligned with the new structure of Brainforge.
223 00:35:55.900 ⇒ 00:36:02.180 Elizah Joy: So I think, yeah, that’s what I could say with where… We’re currently at in that.
224 00:36:03.440 ⇒ 00:36:07.920 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Got it. So it sounds like you’re… you’re slowly kind of becoming the systems builder versus
225 00:36:08.300 ⇒ 00:36:14.710 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Rico’s kind of like, hey, like, if there’s anything that’s, like, on fire, he’s the one that’s putting it out, in essence.
226 00:36:15.550 ⇒ 00:36:29.100 Elizah Joy: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I can say that, and then… but at the same time, he’s also done a great job with, you know, the, documentation in the Notion, homepage that we have.
227 00:36:29.340 ⇒ 00:36:34.510 Elizah Joy: And then, he already mentioned… he also mentioned the Brainforge platform.
228 00:36:34.620 ⇒ 00:36:35.450 Elizah Joy: that…
229 00:36:35.570 ⇒ 00:36:45.310 Elizah Joy: We have, so it’s where we keep our documents and stuff, and then the meeting notes for everyone,
230 00:36:46.290 ⇒ 00:36:49.940 Elizah Joy: Yeah, I think… And I say, yeah.
231 00:36:50.750 ⇒ 00:36:56.820 Elizah Joy: I think with… how Rico and I are structured at the moment.
232 00:36:56.930 ⇒ 00:37:12.179 Elizah Joy: Because he’s more on the supporting the team, and I’m more on the managing the projects for the operations, and then making sure that the systems and the current processes are being implemented.
233 00:37:12.360 ⇒ 00:37:21.809 Elizah Joy: And it’s not just making sure that we’re not doing just reactive, or being reactive on the tasks that we have, because they’re ad hoc, but making sure that
234 00:37:22.290 ⇒ 00:37:34.699 Elizah Joy: you know, we have the systems and processes in place. I think that’s how Rika and I have been supporting each other, and then the team for the operations side of the business.
235 00:37:35.280 ⇒ 00:37:36.610 Sheshu Chandrasekar: That makes a lot of sense.
236 00:37:36.740 ⇒ 00:37:38.780 Sheshu Chandrasekar: And thank you for sharing that, because…
237 00:37:39.040 ⇒ 00:37:52.240 Sheshu Chandrasekar: I know it’s so different when you’re, you know, being in an organization that’s already built systems versus just building from ground up, it’s… it’s such a different mindset to have, right? So, that’s why I was very curious, like.
238 00:37:52.490 ⇒ 00:37:58.180 Sheshu Chandrasekar: you know, what is… what do good days look like, and what do frustrating days look like? And I really appreciate your answer there.
239 00:37:58.600 ⇒ 00:38:08.540 Sheshu Chandrasekar: I know… I know we’re… I know we’re at time, and I do have some more questions, so I just want to be mindful and see if, you’d be open to one or two more questions.
240 00:38:09.220 ⇒ 00:38:11.370 Elizah Joy: Yep, sure, you can ask those.
241 00:38:11.520 ⇒ 00:38:27.549 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, so I guess, you know, how easy is it today? You know, you say you’re using Linear right now, and Slackbots and stuff like that, so how easy is it to request tooling and automation, just from leadership and, you know, also the platform team?
242 00:38:28.780 ⇒ 00:38:35.540 Elizah Joy: Hmm, let me think that through. I think…
243 00:38:36.560 ⇒ 00:38:40.100 Elizah Joy: So we don’t have that, actual
244 00:38:42.900 ⇒ 00:38:49.170 Elizah Joy: intake form for, like, the tools, the one that you asked. So, for tools…
245 00:38:49.750 ⇒ 00:38:55.660 Elizah Joy: I think that’s one that… I think we direct that to…
246 00:38:56.330 ⇒ 00:39:02.560 Elizah Joy: do the operations team directly, and then ask for tools, and then the RICO would…
247 00:39:03.280 ⇒ 00:39:05.390 Elizah Joy: Set that up for them.
248 00:39:08.540 ⇒ 00:39:26.189 Elizah Joy: Most of the tools that we currently use at the moment, we’ve already, like, halved them, and I think just… I’m just speaking based on my experience. So far, not… we haven’t had that much request for tools that we currently have.
249 00:39:26.790 ⇒ 00:39:34.179 Elizah Joy: And then, as for systems, or processes that we have, we don’t have an intake form for that yet.
250 00:39:34.280 ⇒ 00:39:46.320 Elizah Joy: But, you know, feel free to ask Rico when, you know, you get to speak with him. But, as for those systems and processes, I don’t think we have an intake form for that yet.
251 00:39:46.400 ⇒ 00:39:59.280 Elizah Joy: what happens, based on my observation with systems and processes, is everything comes directly in Slack, so someone would message is… someone would message if it’s a good idea to add, or…
252 00:39:59.790 ⇒ 00:40:17.810 Elizah Joy: to have a process for a specific, system that we do, or how can we improve this process that we currently have? So that’s just… and then Rico or I would create, or create a system or process for that. We keep that in Notion, and then…
253 00:40:18.690 ⇒ 00:40:21.949 Elizah Joy: We make sure that it’s being implemented from there.
254 00:40:22.830 ⇒ 00:40:27.730 Elizah Joy: The… one of the challenges that we… used to have is…
255 00:40:27.930 ⇒ 00:40:36.740 Elizah Joy: Making sure that people are using, like, a standardized process, even if we already have that process in place.
256 00:40:36.840 ⇒ 00:40:44.520 Elizah Joy: just making sure that it’s not being bypassed by Newman, right? So I think that’s one of the challenges that…
257 00:40:44.650 ⇒ 00:40:49.390 Elizah Joy: we have. But when, you ask if
258 00:40:50.250 ⇒ 00:40:56.699 Elizah Joy: it’s easy for people to ask for a system or tool, I think it’s easy for them.
259 00:40:56.930 ⇒ 00:41:02.649 Elizah Joy: The challenge is… Us having, like, having a documentation for them.
260 00:41:03.480 ⇒ 00:41:08.060 Elizah Joy: Got it. We don’t have the form for that, so everything…
261 00:41:08.590 ⇒ 00:41:11.799 Elizah Joy: Like, I don’t think we have this, like, backlog of…
262 00:41:12.050 ⇒ 00:41:18.320 Elizah Joy: update of tools or processes that was requested, and we don’t have the accurate
263 00:41:18.800 ⇒ 00:41:22.609 Elizah Joy: Time when it was requested, if that… if that makes sense.
264 00:41:22.610 ⇒ 00:41:27.839 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. So it sounds like you need some sort of pipeline of some sort that takes…
265 00:41:28.040 ⇒ 00:41:33.279 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Slack requests, and then putting it into a… sort of like,
266 00:41:33.780 ⇒ 00:41:43.319 Sheshu Chandrasekar: dashboard view, or even, like, Kanban board automatically, saying, hey, these are the new requests we’re receiving right now, from the team members that could help our tooling.
267 00:41:43.470 ⇒ 00:41:47.010 Sheshu Chandrasekar: And then we, something that’s visible, right? So…
268 00:41:47.320 ⇒ 00:41:52.269 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Some automation is probably required here to make that happen.
269 00:41:52.710 ⇒ 00:42:02.390 Elizah Joy: Yeah, I do agree, and we have… we used to do the, linear asks. If you’re familiar with that, it’s… it’s embedded in Slack, wherein…
270 00:42:03.280 ⇒ 00:42:13.489 Elizah Joy: they go in Slack, type in, like, the, slash, slash ask, and then they’ll be able to… let me just…
271 00:42:14.060 ⇒ 00:42:14.790 Elizah Joy: Okay.
272 00:42:15.360 ⇒ 00:42:23.800 Elizah Joy: Right, you’ll, the ones that we have, like, an intake form for is… Let me check… And fragment.
273 00:42:30.660 ⇒ 00:42:37.300 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Have you ever used Notion MCP? I’m sorry, I just went off a tangent right here, but I’m just curious if you ever used it.
274 00:42:37.890 ⇒ 00:42:40.920 Elizah Joy: Mcp add-on?
275 00:42:42.810 ⇒ 00:42:56.830 Sheshu Chandrasekar: So it’s very, like, it’s kind of like a server in a way, because now I’m hearing that a lot of our documents are living on Notion in linear, so if any time, you know, you get, like, a Slack request, it automatically connects to the Notion, and it creates, like, a…
276 00:42:56.830 ⇒ 00:43:03.000 Sheshu Chandrasekar: A table of some sort. Or if we have a table, it’ll automatically create, like, a task immediately for us to view.
277 00:43:03.000 ⇒ 00:43:05.800 Sheshu Chandrasekar: So it’s… it does it all automatically for us.
278 00:43:05.800 ⇒ 00:43:18.409 Elizah Joy: We… I don’t think we have that in Notion. I think we have that in Linear. So, from Linear, what we have, so as I mentioned, so it’s embedded in Slack.
279 00:43:18.600 ⇒ 00:43:28.519 Elizah Joy: So, people can go in there, they can request, like, the, they can have, like, tool requests, so that’s… that happens in the linear, and it creates a task in linear.
280 00:43:28.950 ⇒ 00:43:37.220 Elizah Joy: And then client contract, and then the team onboarding, so that’s what we currently have. Like, intake forms.
281 00:43:37.650 ⇒ 00:43:41.159 Elizah Joy: That’s… Available for the team.
282 00:43:41.330 ⇒ 00:43:50.699 Elizah Joy: We have one as well, like, for equipment requests, right? So we have that, those ones, but as for Notion, we don’t…
283 00:43:51.620 ⇒ 00:43:59.989 Elizah Joy: keep that much tasks in Notion, we keep most of them in linear, because that’s what we…
284 00:44:00.550 ⇒ 00:44:12.990 Elizah Joy: usually… that’s what we use for our projects, client projects, like, onboarding team members and stuff. Like, most of the tasks that we have, they live in linear, so…
285 00:44:13.200 ⇒ 00:44:22.700 Elizah Joy: I think Notion MCP, we don’t have that. We have databases in Notion for, like, forms. We use it for the recruitment process that we have.
286 00:44:24.790 ⇒ 00:44:34.480 Elizah Joy: MCP, I don’t think we’ve explored that yet. We keep most of our documentations… in… Notion.
287 00:44:34.750 ⇒ 00:44:44.019 Elizah Joy: for playbooks… processes… But yeah, MCP, I don’t think we’ve… Done that yet.
288 00:44:44.720 ⇒ 00:45:02.100 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Got it. I think… I think that could be a later thing, much later, once we build out those initial pipelines, but I think Linear MCP… I know Linear also has an MCP server, so that could be very useful for us, because at the end of the day, we would want the Slack, the Notion, the Notion database that you’re mentioning right now, and
289 00:45:02.100 ⇒ 00:45:09.770 Sheshu Chandrasekar: linear to all communicate, and some… In a very, in a very high-level
290 00:45:09.860 ⇒ 00:45:18.309 Sheshu Chandrasekar: capacity, right? So we can make sure all the data is, like, recorded everywhere, that… where appropriately needed. So…
291 00:45:18.330 ⇒ 00:45:33.489 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Linear MCP server is something we could probably explore, to make sure, you know, we’re tracking all the requests that the team members are looking at, and making sure that it’s recorded, and we have some level of, like, visibility into tracking what… how, you know.
292 00:45:33.490 ⇒ 00:45:40.659 Sheshu Chandrasekar: where we are in progress of solving that problem, right? So, that could be an interesting solution, to look into.
293 00:45:41.890 ⇒ 00:45:44.580 Elizah Joy: Yeah. Yeah, I do, I do agree on that.
294 00:45:45.290 ⇒ 00:45:52.780 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, and then, I guess one last question, you know, for your role and my role,
295 00:45:52.960 ⇒ 00:45:57.279 Sheshu Chandrasekar: What does success look like in the next, like, 6 to 12 months?
296 00:45:59.940 ⇒ 00:46:06.149 Elizah Joy: Is it for, like, specifically for your role, or for, like.
297 00:46:06.550 ⇒ 00:46:13.550 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, just, like, us as a team, right? Like, operations side. Just, like, what does success look for all of us here on the operations end?
298 00:46:15.000 ⇒ 00:46:28.340 Elizah Joy: I think, with, like, first 6 months is… Success would mainly look like having those clear…
299 00:46:28.820 ⇒ 00:46:46.950 Elizah Joy: KPI, I think maybe… let’s start with the KPIs that we have, right? So, the KPIs and the AORs, and then the OKRs that we have, making sure that us, from the op… from an operation standpoint, are hitting those,
300 00:46:47.280 ⇒ 00:46:55.579 Elizah Joy: OKRs, and then, our AORs for that, because, as I mentioned, one of the projects that we have
301 00:46:55.850 ⇒ 00:47:07.830 Elizah Joy: is updating the AOR document that we have. It’s not… it hasn’t been updated for 2026 yet, so I still have to get UDAM’s,
302 00:47:08.550 ⇒ 00:47:12.130 Elizah Joy: input on that. But yeah, making sure that
303 00:47:12.560 ⇒ 00:47:22.710 Elizah Joy: we’re, like, we’re hitting those AORs and OKRs. So just to give you an overview of… the previews…
304 00:47:23.730 ⇒ 00:47:26.230 Elizah Joy: OKRs that we have.
305 00:47:27.860 ⇒ 00:47:28.870 Elizah Joy: Just slip.
306 00:47:33.180 ⇒ 00:47:37.430 Elizah Joy: Alright, so, like, maintaining our operational integrity for
307 00:47:37.560 ⇒ 00:47:40.569 Elizah Joy: all across Notion, Slack, and then the…
308 00:47:40.920 ⇒ 00:47:56.710 Elizah Joy: internal systems that we have, making sure that, you know, we’re, or ensuring that clients and team portals are consistently structured, and up-to-date, and then think
309 00:47:57.870 ⇒ 00:48:09.230 Elizah Joy: having that consistent workflows, or can I say, like, managing those administrative workflows that we currently have, making sure that
310 00:48:10.100 ⇒ 00:48:16.780 Elizah Joy: Like, for example, the NDAs that we have, the offer letters that we do, And then…
311 00:48:16.940 ⇒ 00:48:34.979 Elizah Joy: like, developing the current, the SOPs that we have, and creating new SOPs or processes or systems in place for, at least for, the operations side of the business, so making sure that it’s standardized, and making sure that everyone’s following
312 00:48:34.980 ⇒ 00:48:41.539 Elizah Joy: those, SOPs and processes that we have. I think for, in my experience, it’s…
313 00:48:41.970 ⇒ 00:48:50.220 Elizah Joy: One of the challenges was the rollout of the SOP, or the process that we have, or the system that we have.
314 00:48:50.400 ⇒ 00:48:51.400 Elizah Joy: Right.
315 00:48:51.450 ⇒ 00:49:07.220 Elizah Joy: everyone’s, you know, adhering to that, because even if we have this amazing system, amazing process that we have, right, if no one’s… if everyone has their own process that they’re doing, or everyone’s, like.
316 00:49:07.230 ⇒ 00:49:25.460 Elizah Joy: not on the same page with the processes. I don’t think that it’s a good system or process, because not everyone’s doing that, so we want to maintain that standardized operating procedures all across for our clients, our, tools, our internal workflows.
317 00:49:25.570 ⇒ 00:49:29.120 Elizah Joy: And then one of the things is the recruitment process that we have.
318 00:49:29.240 ⇒ 00:49:33.430 Elizah Joy: I think for the first 6 months, that would be the most.
319 00:49:34.160 ⇒ 00:49:44.280 Elizah Joy: crucial, like, I think it will be the basis of, like, success for the operations scene, and…
320 00:49:44.960 ⇒ 00:49:50.360 Elizah Joy: of course, make, you mentioned earlier about the KPIs, right? So making sure that
321 00:49:51.000 ⇒ 00:50:05.409 Elizah Joy: we’re, hitting those KPIs from, in the operations side, and helping the other departments as well to hit those KPIs in any way that we can, supporting our team members, and
322 00:50:06.560 ⇒ 00:50:17.859 Elizah Joy: making sure that our data is accurate and being updated so that we can make informed decisions. I think that would be also
323 00:50:18.620 ⇒ 00:50:22.390 Elizah Joy: like, for the first 6 months would be…
324 00:50:23.270 ⇒ 00:50:25.909 Elizah Joy: Great to be able to have that.
325 00:50:27.110 ⇒ 00:50:35.790 Sheshu Chandrasekar: No, that makes a lot of sense, and I think I kind of share a very similar vision, so it’s very reassuring that, you know, you’re kind of thinking in the same boat, because
326 00:50:36.190 ⇒ 00:50:45.280 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, we want everyone to look unified and under one house, right? And that’s Brainforge. So, yeah, creating standardized document… oh, sorry, go ahead.
327 00:50:45.560 ⇒ 00:50:46.729 Elizah Joy: Sorry, go ahead.
328 00:50:46.730 ⇒ 00:51:04.770 Sheshu Chandrasekar: No, no, I was… I was just saying, yeah, you’re so right, you’re so spot on, because I think that was, like, kind of my priority, is, like, how do we create standardized prior… standardized, like, processes that everyone uses? And I know that you just mentioned if everyone has their own process, I think that’s also a good thing to a certain point, because if…
329 00:51:04.770 ⇒ 00:51:18.739 Sheshu Chandrasekar: we have, like, a high-achieving team member, and he has his own process. We can be like, hey, like, would you mind sharing your process so we can implement that for everyone? So, like, I think that’s, like, a good thing, and like you said, it’s also a bad thing, right? Because we don’t want
330 00:51:18.800 ⇒ 00:51:35.860 Sheshu Chandrasekar: seven different processes. We want one process where we just keep iterating on to make it even better, for the broader organization. So, it’s very reassuring to hear that, you know, you’re kind of thinking in that same boat and same mentality. So, yeah.
331 00:51:36.530 ⇒ 00:51:37.409 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, thank you.
332 00:51:37.410 ⇒ 00:51:44.450 Elizah Joy: One of the, at least from my perspective as well, right? So, as I mentioned before.
333 00:51:44.650 ⇒ 00:51:51.959 Elizah Joy: Before I, joined Brainforge, it was just Rico and Uta managing, like, the entire operations.
334 00:51:52.110 ⇒ 00:51:58.380 Elizah Joy: And I think, maybe at least
335 00:52:00.150 ⇒ 00:52:06.529 Elizah Joy: how can I say, like, offloading a lot of tasks from Udon to us.
336 00:52:06.680 ⇒ 00:52:15.689 Elizah Joy: So that he can focus more on, like, the, other more important things. Not that I’m saying that,
337 00:52:17.270 ⇒ 00:52:28.810 Elizah Joy: operations is not important, but, you know, other things that he should be doing in the business, so make really free his time. So, right, I think that’s why, you know, the.
338 00:52:29.700 ⇒ 00:52:30.970 Sheshu Chandrasekar: our…
339 00:52:31.290 ⇒ 00:52:50.720 Elizah Joy: ecosystem for the operations, right? So you as the head of ops, and then Rika as the ops lead, and then me managing, those things, all things related for operations, right? So I think those, and Rika, I’m sorry, not Rika, but Utam has also mentioned this before, like.
340 00:52:50.760 ⇒ 00:52:52.740 Elizah Joy: we’re developing…
341 00:52:53.040 ⇒ 00:53:02.640 Elizah Joy: this amazing team for the operations side of the business, so that we are, you know, we can help not just Udam and the team members, but the business
342 00:53:02.930 ⇒ 00:53:05.839 Elizah Joy: Itself, as it scales, right?
343 00:53:05.840 ⇒ 00:53:06.540 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah.
344 00:53:06.730 ⇒ 00:53:12.030 Elizah Joy: Right now, we’re moving at a very fast pace, and there’s only, like, we only have, like.
345 00:53:12.390 ⇒ 00:53:14.709 Elizah Joy: 8 hours per day, right?
346 00:53:14.710 ⇒ 00:53:15.360 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Right.
347 00:53:16.050 ⇒ 00:53:31.350 Elizah Joy: But Rico works more than that, and Udom with the operations side. So, yeah, as… I think as a business scales, like, the systems and the processes that we create, as an operations team should support the growth that our company
348 00:53:31.470 ⇒ 00:53:36.109 Elizah Joy: is going, especially that Rika mentioned that
349 00:53:36.320 ⇒ 00:53:47.899 Elizah Joy: we’ve… we… at the moment, we have, like, 15 clients. We’ll have more clients, alright, in the next… within the next 6 months, so we want to make sure that our systems and processes are…
350 00:53:48.660 ⇒ 00:53:52.190 Elizah Joy: Able to support that.
351 00:53:53.050 ⇒ 00:53:57.989 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, no, absolutely, and it’s so spot-on, like, in the way of thinking, because…
352 00:53:58.100 ⇒ 00:54:01.169 Sheshu Chandrasekar: You’re right, I mean, yes, we want to offload,
353 00:54:01.320 ⇒ 00:54:15.619 Sheshu Chandrasekar: some tasks off at UTAM, but, you know, as the organization scales, and UTAM and the founders, you know, you get more business, like, we want to make sure that things don’t break as, you know, we onboard new clients. So, that’s kind of, like, where I’m thinking as well, like, how do we figure out
354 00:54:15.960 ⇒ 00:54:28.729 Sheshu Chandrasekar: sustainable processes that, you know, will work even if we’re not there, right? And we onboard a new client, and it still keeps working. So, no, it’s very reassuring to hear that once again, so…
355 00:54:29.250 ⇒ 00:54:41.459 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, I mean, I think those are all the questions I have. I know we went well over 30 minutes, so thank you so much for just, you know, answering my questions, and I’m super excited to… to work with you, and…
356 00:54:41.570 ⇒ 00:54:43.839 Sheshu Chandrasekar: What’s coming ahead for Brainforge?
357 00:54:44.450 ⇒ 00:54:53.309 Elizah Joy: Yeah, yeah, that’s… I’m also… thank you for your questions as well, and I think, I think you love it here, and…
358 00:54:55.850 ⇒ 00:55:06.150 Elizah Joy: I think the next steps would be here, I think Erica would send you an email. Just a question, have you already met with, Clarence?
359 00:55:07.240 ⇒ 00:55:18.839 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, so I just received meeting invitations, I think I’m meeting him on Thursday, if I’m correct, and then I’m meeting Robert on Monday of next Monday, so…
360 00:55:19.670 ⇒ 00:55:22.160 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, it’s slated to happen this week.
361 00:55:22.620 ⇒ 00:55:24.390 Elizah Joy: Okay, how about Gabe?
362 00:55:24.570 ⇒ 00:55:27.949 Elizah Joy: Have you met Gabe already, our AFR doc manager?
363 00:55:28.320 ⇒ 00:55:39.650 Sheshu Chandrasekar: I’ve heard that name, but I have not, and I don’t think I have a meeting invite, because I think Rico’s the one that’s facilitating all those, meeting invites at the moment. So I have… I’m looking at my calendar right now.
364 00:55:39.800 ⇒ 00:55:42.800 Sheshu Chandrasekar: And it looks like I’ll be meeting with Clarence on Thursday.
365 00:55:43.050 ⇒ 00:55:46.619 Sheshu Chandrasekar: And then… Robert on Monday, but nothing with Gabe.
366 00:55:47.610 ⇒ 00:55:56.359 Elizah Joy: Okay, I think, yeah, we’ll set that up for you, because, Uram has this note for you to meet him. I think it’s,
367 00:55:57.540 ⇒ 00:56:07.310 Elizah Joy: maybe so you understand how we do the current… the Brainforge platform that we have, or other, use cases for AI that we have.
368 00:56:07.630 ⇒ 00:56:14.740 Elizah Joy: For clients and internally. So yeah, we’ll set that up for you. I think that will be the next steps.
369 00:56:15.160 ⇒ 00:56:18.800 Elizah Joy: And I think Rico will be, I’m not sure…
370 00:56:19.550 ⇒ 00:56:25.430 Elizah Joy: Yet, or… yeah, but Rico will be in touch with you via email.
371 00:56:25.550 ⇒ 00:56:33.720 Elizah Joy: And then, if not, keep on the lookout for, like, calendar invites for Gabe, so we’ll set that up for you.
372 00:56:34.240 ⇒ 00:56:35.820 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Awesome, thank you so much.
373 00:56:36.380 ⇒ 00:56:40.269 Elizah Joy: Alright, thank you so much! Do you have any other questions?
374 00:56:40.270 ⇒ 00:56:56.930 Sheshu Chandrasekar: No, not at the moment. I actually… there’s some… actually, I do have a question. I don’t know if it’s appropriate, for you or Uten, but there’s some documents, like the operational AORs, that I was… I requested access, like, yesterday. I didn’t… I was reading through the notion again yesterday, and…
375 00:56:57.050 ⇒ 00:56:59.660 Sheshu Chandrasekar: I noticed that I don’t have access to it, but I don’t know if it’s…
376 00:57:00.000 ⇒ 00:57:05.969 Sheshu Chandrasekar: appropriate right now for me to read through it, or much later when I get onboarded, of some sort.
377 00:57:07.310 ⇒ 00:57:10.710 Elizah Joy: Did Udam send that to you, to access?
378 00:57:11.460 ⇒ 00:57:18.360 Sheshu Chandrasekar: He sent me this one job description, but in the job description, there is…
379 00:57:18.810 ⇒ 00:57:30.360 Sheshu Chandrasekar: I’m seeing operational AORs, and it says operational AORs can be found here, and there’s a link. But when I click on the link, it’s like a spreadsheet, I can’t read through it, so,
380 00:57:30.780 ⇒ 00:57:36.270 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Maybe I’ll ask U-Tang, maybe he’ll have a better answer, but I was just curious to see if you had some sort of,
381 00:57:36.470 ⇒ 00:57:38.500 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Access, privileges there.
382 00:57:39.450 ⇒ 00:57:41.420 Elizah Joy: Check quickly for you.
383 00:57:41.420 ⇒ 00:57:41.960 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah.
384 00:57:47.910 ⇒ 00:57:48.680 Elizah Joy: Shit.
385 00:58:22.120 ⇒ 00:58:27.629 Elizah Joy: I don’t think… I can’t see that on my end.
386 00:58:39.950 ⇒ 00:58:47.680 Elizah Joy: Okay, I don’t… I can’t see that on my end, but maybe, it’s good to ask UTAM for that.
387 00:58:48.000 ⇒ 00:58:52.799 Elizah Joy: And then… also, maybe Clarence. He’s got that.
388 00:58:52.990 ⇒ 00:58:57.750 Elizah Joy: When you meet with him, he’s got that better, like.
389 00:58:58.570 ⇒ 00:59:03.270 Elizah Joy: explanation for those AORs that we have, and he can walk you through it.
390 00:59:03.870 ⇒ 00:59:12.359 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, no problem at all. I was just curious to see if I can read ahead a little bit, but no, I appreciate you checking in. Yeah, and looking forward to working with you.
391 00:59:13.140 ⇒ 00:59:19.609 Elizah Joy: All right, thank you so much for your time, and I’m sorry, I… yeah, I know we went, like, 30 minutes over.
392 00:59:19.610 ⇒ 00:59:21.230 Sheshu Chandrasekar: No, no worries at all.
393 00:59:23.220 ⇒ 00:59:31.489 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, no, it’s not a problem. I feel like I was the one that kind of pushed it, so I appreciate you taking the time to, answer my questions.
394 00:59:32.280 ⇒ 00:59:35.430 Elizah Joy: Yeah, yeah. There’s no worries on that,
395 00:59:36.600 ⇒ 00:59:40.420 Elizah Joy: I think you need to ask those questions, so… because it’s…
396 00:59:40.780 ⇒ 00:59:48.319 Elizah Joy: You need to understand as well how we do things on the operations side, right? So you can have a think of it.
397 00:59:48.720 ⇒ 00:59:52.010 Elizah Joy: But yeah, thank you so much, and…
398 00:59:52.010 ⇒ 00:59:52.520 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Awesome.
399 00:59:53.050 ⇒ 00:59:56.059 Elizah Joy: Yeah, we’ll send you the invite for Gabe.
400 00:59:56.600 ⇒ 00:59:59.450 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Absolutely. Thank you so much, and have a great rest of your day.
401 00:59:59.830 ⇒ 01:00:01.879 Elizah Joy: Thank you so much, bye!
402 01:00:01.880 ⇒ 01:00:02.500 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Bye.