Meeting Title: Ops Lead Introduction and Notion Discussion Date: 2026-01-28 Meeting participants: Mustafa Raja, Sheshu Chandrasekar
WEBVTT
1 00:00:32.729 ⇒ 00:00:33.650 Mustafa Raja: Hey.
2 00:00:34.410 ⇒ 00:00:38.270 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Hey, Mustafa, I mean… How are you doing today?
3 00:00:38.520 ⇒ 00:00:39.889 Mustafa Raja: Yeah, doing good, how are you?
4 00:00:40.150 ⇒ 00:00:47.809 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Good, good. I mean, I was gonna say, we can have camera off, so I’ll just turn off my camera, if you, you know, if you want to do that.
5 00:00:48.230 ⇒ 00:00:51.180 Mustafa Raja: Yeah. So, how’s your day?
6 00:00:51.810 ⇒ 00:01:06.499 Sheshu Chandrasekar: It’s been… it’s been pretty busy. I was, up a little late last night, because we… I don’t know if you saw in the main channel, we kind of messed up a little bit on the careers page, because we were trying to do some Notion revamp.
7 00:01:06.500 ⇒ 00:01:15.090 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Creating new databases, stuff like that, and unfortunately, it got, tangled with the careers page as well, so…
8 00:01:15.730 ⇒ 00:01:23.900 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, I mean, we’re working a little late night, and then I had to figure out some plans and stuff like that for today, so it’s been… it’s been pretty interesting overall. How about yours?
9 00:01:24.620 ⇒ 00:01:29.020 Mustafa Raja: Yeah, yeah, I guess mine was pretty busy too yesterday.
10 00:01:29.440 ⇒ 00:01:42.829 Mustafa Raja: And I was up late, and then… for today, it’s been… it’s been a little chill, but yeah, I still have a lot… a lot to do for today and tomorrow, and Friday… Friday, I feel, is going to be a little chill for me.
11 00:01:43.470 ⇒ 00:01:46.070 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Nice. We love a chill Friday.
12 00:01:46.070 ⇒ 00:01:48.230 Mustafa Raja: So, yeah.
13 00:01:48.920 ⇒ 00:02:06.140 Mustafa Raja: Most of the client meetings that we have, are on Thursdays, right? So, my… my thinking is, you know, getting my deliverables ready before the meeting, so we could talk about them. So Friday’s, like, you know, a fresh start for me.
14 00:02:07.290 ⇒ 00:02:11.160 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. It gives you enough time to, like, plan out the next.
15 00:02:11.160 ⇒ 00:02:12.699 Mustafa Raja: That’d be great.
16 00:02:13.450 ⇒ 00:02:23.039 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, so I just wanted to take this call, I mean, first of all, thanks for meeting up with me. Just wanted to kind of, like, introduce myself, you know, as an ops lead and…
17 00:02:23.390 ⇒ 00:02:33.859 Sheshu Chandrasekar: stuff like that. I just want to figure out, like, how I can best serve you, and just hearing more about your background. Also, like, what are some challenges you’re facing in your role right now, and, like.
18 00:02:34.060 ⇒ 00:02:41.210 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Also have some questions about Notion and how you’re using that. So, yeah, I can just start out and just say, hey, like.
19 00:02:41.540 ⇒ 00:02:50.080 Sheshu Chandrasekar: My introduction, I guess I was an ex-Deloit, I was working at Deloitte for 4… 4 years. Yeah, I was in the government and public sector practice.
20 00:02:50.080 ⇒ 00:02:51.120 Mustafa Raja: Before.
21 00:02:51.750 ⇒ 00:02:58.140 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, it was… it was interesting. Great time. You know, it was my first job right out of college, so…
22 00:02:58.640 ⇒ 00:03:02.710 Sheshu Chandrasekar: I was very fortunate enough to be exposed to,
23 00:03:03.220 ⇒ 00:03:07.160 Sheshu Chandrasekar: you know, big consulting giant like Deloitte, but…
24 00:03:07.300 ⇒ 00:03:09.160 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Over the years, I felt like…
25 00:03:09.680 ⇒ 00:03:13.330 Sheshu Chandrasekar: That passion and, you know, deep…
26 00:03:13.960 ⇒ 00:03:27.940 Sheshu Chandrasekar: the enthusiasm, I want to say, kind of died, just because of politics, and… Also, I was working in government, so you know exactly if, you know, if you’re tracking American politics, you know what’s happening since Trump got elected, so…
27 00:03:27.940 ⇒ 00:03:29.430 Mustafa Raja: Yeah, I do.
28 00:03:29.430 ⇒ 00:03:39.910 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, so it’s been, not so great being in that industry, but luckily, I’ve always been very interested in the startup world, and being close to data and AI, and…
29 00:03:40.040 ⇒ 00:03:42.170 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Seeing innovation happen, so…
30 00:03:42.260 ⇒ 00:04:00.940 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, after I got laid off, I did some soul-searching, and I’m fortunate enough to, like, land at startups doing go-to-market systems, like, using clay automations and stuff like that. Unfortunately, the startup I was working for was also in the government industry, and then there was another government shutdown, so that startup.
31 00:04:00.940 ⇒ 00:04:02.610 Mustafa Raja: Oh my god, I remember that.
32 00:04:03.240 ⇒ 00:04:05.460 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, so, government was…
33 00:04:05.710 ⇒ 00:04:08.759 Mustafa Raja: Yeah, that’s when the airports and flights got delayed.
34 00:04:08.760 ⇒ 00:04:11.190 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yes, exactly, exactly.
35 00:04:11.350 ⇒ 00:04:23.629 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, I saw it as a sign from the universe, saying I need to move on from the government industry, so I was very fortunate enough to get another contract role at a go-to-market.
36 00:04:24.930 ⇒ 00:04:28.380 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Sorry, one second, I just got pinged. I’m sorry, got sidetracked there.
37 00:04:28.540 ⇒ 00:04:47.850 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, I was fortunate enough to work with, like, another startup helping their outbound engine. They were backed by Cursor and Cognition Labs, so it was very interesting to work with them for a bit. They were only hiring me because one of his co-founders was on, paternity leave, so…
38 00:04:48.070 ⇒ 00:04:55.429 Sheshu Chandrasekar: he just needs someone to backfill for the go-to-market stuff, so… Yeah, and then, yeah, I landed here. I’ve met Utam, and…
39 00:04:55.630 ⇒ 00:05:03.429 Sheshu Chandrasekar: he was like, hey, I really need someone to lead ops, and we have this head of ops, role opened up, so would you want to, like…
40 00:05:03.680 ⇒ 00:05:06.630 Sheshu Chandrasekar: helped me out, and so here I am now. It’s been my…
41 00:05:06.770 ⇒ 00:05:09.190 Mustafa Raja: That’s a pretty good… that’s a pretty good path here.
42 00:05:10.720 ⇒ 00:05:12.520 Mustafa Raja: So for me,
43 00:05:13.060 ⇒ 00:05:29.659 Mustafa Raja: this is my first job, out of college, and then, I… how I landed here is, during the college, I started, you know, freelancing, and then, about…
44 00:05:29.770 ⇒ 00:05:39.789 Mustafa Raja: 9 months ago, I was hunting for a new client, and that’s how I met with them on Discord. So I would hunt on Discord and Upwork and all.
45 00:05:39.790 ⇒ 00:05:49.990 Mustafa Raja: And I posted an ad on… in a channel on Discord, and, that’s where Utam saw me, and we chatted, and…
46 00:05:50.060 ⇒ 00:05:53.230 Mustafa Raja: I just landed the job… this job, and…
47 00:05:53.340 ⇒ 00:05:57.490 Mustafa Raja: I really like the culture here. You know, everyone is so helpful, and…
48 00:05:57.790 ⇒ 00:06:01.110 Mustafa Raja: So nice. Yeah, it’s just… a dream.
49 00:06:01.960 ⇒ 00:06:10.070 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, no, absolutely. I… I didn’t know you were the, the Discord hire. When he… you know, it’s really funny, when he was telling me about…
50 00:06:10.150 ⇒ 00:06:27.080 Sheshu Chandrasekar: how he hires, like, in our first ever conversation, he was telling me how he has very unconventional ways, and I was like, what are they? And he’s like, well, I remember finding this one super smart AI engineer on Discord, he was giving a talk, and I just randomly messaged him.
51 00:06:28.350 ⇒ 00:06:28.880 Sheshu Chandrasekar: And, yeah.
52 00:06:28.880 ⇒ 00:06:29.570 Mustafa Raja: Yeah, I remember that.
53 00:06:29.570 ⇒ 00:06:33.249 Sheshu Chandrasekar: And now he works… now he works for us. And I’m like, that’s crazy.
54 00:06:33.250 ⇒ 00:06:51.649 Mustafa Raja: That was crazy for me. I didn’t expect, you know, because what normally would happen, I’d lend a client or something, work for them, and then once we are done, once everything is done there, I just move on to a new one. I never expected this code to be…
55 00:06:51.820 ⇒ 00:06:54.450 Mustafa Raja: You know, a hiring platform.
56 00:06:55.380 ⇒ 00:06:58.439 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, well, hey, I mean, the universe works…
57 00:06:58.440 ⇒ 00:07:03.900 Mustafa Raja: Yeah, I agree on that with you. The universe works in weird ways.
58 00:07:04.130 ⇒ 00:07:08.299 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, so… well, glad you’re here, and yeah, that’s awesome.
59 00:07:08.440 ⇒ 00:07:27.340 Sheshu Chandrasekar: So, yeah, I mean, I guess, moving on, like, how’s… I know the new model has been kind of rolled out this year, right? Like, early this year? So, like, I’m very curious, like, how are you adjusting to it? Like, like, what are some, like, things that you kind of find odd about it? Like, not from, like, a tooling perspective, right? It’s more, like.
60 00:07:27.600 ⇒ 00:07:29.690 Sheshu Chandrasekar: ugh, like, I don’t… I still don’t understand how to, like…
61 00:07:29.690 ⇒ 00:07:30.709 Mustafa Raja: Thank you.
62 00:07:30.710 ⇒ 00:07:32.009 Sheshu Chandrasekar: From a behavior standpoint.
63 00:07:32.010 ⇒ 00:07:37.340 Mustafa Raja: Yeah, yeah, so, so there’s, there’s, like,
64 00:07:37.760 ⇒ 00:07:47.280 Mustafa Raja: So this role is more like project management, right? If I’m correct, right? The EP role is more of a project manager, and I feel that
65 00:07:47.280 ⇒ 00:08:03.890 Mustafa Raja: On the linear side, I’m doing pretty good. I’m able to catch up with my engineers that I’m working with. I’m able to, you know, track progress on certain tickets. So, in the stand-ups, we only, you know, we strictly stick to… we strictly stick to the script.
66 00:08:03.890 ⇒ 00:08:14.550 Mustafa Raja: That we have, you know, we don’t go into details of the tickets, we give you an overview of how client is feeling and, you know, if there’s any brokers or not, and if we are on track or not.
67 00:08:15.450 ⇒ 00:08:23.080 Mustafa Raja: So that’s pretty good. What I’m struggling with, or not really struggling, but I haven’t really put in the time
68 00:08:23.140 ⇒ 00:08:36.589 Mustafa Raja: there is the Notion organization, you know? And I remember that you did a Notion audit using Notion MCP. So, how was your experience with it?
69 00:08:38.159 ⇒ 00:08:43.739 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, honestly, I’m still getting… I’m not, like, super in love with Notion MCP, to be…
70 00:08:43.859 ⇒ 00:08:47.919 Sheshu Chandrasekar: quite honest with you, I think it’s very great to retrieve information.
71 00:08:48.590 ⇒ 00:08:55.390 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Like, for example, one of the limitations I ran into was
72 00:08:55.530 ⇒ 00:09:04.380 Sheshu Chandrasekar: creating databases. It wouldn’t do that. But also, like, you have to point it in the right direction. So, for example, when I was doing the Notion audit,
73 00:09:04.430 ⇒ 00:09:16.109 Sheshu Chandrasekar: I was using the existing database, or the existing… or the current Notion, right? But it would always reference another Notion page. So you have to be very hyper-specific on which
74 00:09:16.760 ⇒ 00:09:28.390 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Notion page to audit. That was, like, one bottleneck, but also, I’m very new to Cursor. I’m… I feel like I used to be… in my head, I thought I was a pro Gemini and ChatGPT user.
75 00:09:29.670 ⇒ 00:09:37.680 Sheshu Chandrasekar: But using cursor, it’s not a difficult, task or anything of some sort, but there’s a bit of a learning curve, right?
76 00:09:38.400 ⇒ 00:09:41.530 Mustafa Raja: Yeah, what model are you using with Kosha?
77 00:09:42.900 ⇒ 00:09:50.540 Sheshu Chandrasekar: That’s a great question. I actually do not know. Let me check right now. So by default, it would be on auto, right?
78 00:09:50.590 ⇒ 00:10:02.449 Mustafa Raja: Maybe, maybe what you could do is, default to Claude Sonnet. Claude Sonnet 4.5 thinking, works the best for me.
79 00:10:03.020 ⇒ 00:10:03.960 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Oh, interesting.
80 00:10:03.960 ⇒ 00:10:15.519 Mustafa Raja: 4.5, simple 4.5, the one without thinking is also pretty good, but when… when… when that, you know, starts to feel a little sluggish, I, I shift to
81 00:10:15.520 ⇒ 00:10:24.450 Mustafa Raja: 4.5 thinking, and, you know, 4.5 thinking has been… has been pretty good, and I didn’t need anything better than that.
82 00:10:24.980 ⇒ 00:10:35.300 Mustafa Raja: So, yeah, maybe take a look at what model your cursor is using. Maybe shifting that might help you?
83 00:10:36.160 ⇒ 00:10:39.210 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, I’m seeing that it’s… I can share my screen, let me.
84 00:10:39.210 ⇒ 00:10:40.380 Mustafa Raja: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
85 00:10:41.360 ⇒ 00:10:49.660 Mustafa Raja: Because I’m going to do that, I’m going to use, cursor to, you know, help me set up.
86 00:10:49.810 ⇒ 00:10:54.610 Mustafa Raja: this, this client that I’m on, it’s Notion.
87 00:10:55.160 ⇒ 00:11:02.039 Mustafa Raja: I need to organize that better, so I’m going to do that. Okay, so can you open up your chat, actually?
88 00:11:02.740 ⇒ 00:11:03.410 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah.
89 00:11:05.260 ⇒ 00:11:11.300 Mustafa Raja: Yeah, so, yeah, yeah, so… Here, Here it says auto, right?
90 00:11:11.770 ⇒ 00:11:12.460 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah.
91 00:11:12.690 ⇒ 00:11:14.559 Mustafa Raja: Yeah, so let’s open that up.
92 00:11:16.390 ⇒ 00:11:19.219 Mustafa Raja: Oh, you need to enable the models.
93 00:11:21.140 ⇒ 00:11:22.140 Mustafa Raja: Okay.
94 00:11:23.690 ⇒ 00:11:24.240 Mustafa Raja: Okay.
95 00:11:24.240 ⇒ 00:11:24.760 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Oh, okay.
96 00:11:25.120 ⇒ 00:11:29.550 Mustafa Raja: Yeah, 4.5 thinking, the one with the brain.
97 00:11:29.990 ⇒ 00:11:32.649 Mustafa Raja: Sonet 1. This one is super expensive.
98 00:11:34.190 ⇒ 00:11:35.260 Mustafa Raja: Opus 4.5.
99 00:11:35.730 ⇒ 00:11:38.289 Mustafa Raja: super expensive, super. Third one, third one.
100 00:11:38.630 ⇒ 00:11:40.980 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Okay, let’s do that one.
101 00:11:41.130 ⇒ 00:11:55.300 Mustafa Raja: Yeah. Cool. So, try this out, and maybe, maybe Google ones also. So, what’s it called? Cursna is going to have, all of the models available in the market, you know? So, yeah.
102 00:11:55.300 ⇒ 00:11:56.220 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Gotcha.
103 00:11:56.760 ⇒ 00:12:00.170 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Okay, yeah, no, I’ll take a look. I didn’t even know you could do that, so that’s…
104 00:12:00.170 ⇒ 00:12:01.019 Mustafa Raja: This might help you.
105 00:12:01.020 ⇒ 00:12:01.540 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Dark.
106 00:12:01.540 ⇒ 00:12:13.240 Mustafa Raja: And, let me know if it’s able to help you, because, you know, later in the week, I’m going to do that. I’m going to hook up Notion MCP,
107 00:12:13.760 ⇒ 00:12:19.050 Mustafa Raja: And I’m going to, reorganize my, client’s Notion page.
108 00:12:20.190 ⇒ 00:12:26.970 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Oh, okay, so, like, does your, client team or project team use Notion extensively?
109 00:12:27.350 ⇒ 00:12:41.890 Mustafa Raja: So my engineers do. One of my, one of my CSOs today, wanted to know, whatever documents are available, regarding the client, and this is when I feel,
110 00:12:42.050 ⇒ 00:12:48.520 Mustafa Raja: yeah, the notion needs to be organized better. So I have, so I have a pretty good timeline.
111 00:12:48.730 ⇒ 00:12:51.849 Mustafa Raja: Of the story with the client, you know?
112 00:12:51.850 ⇒ 00:12:52.990 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, so…
113 00:12:53.480 ⇒ 00:13:03.230 Sheshu Chandrasekar: It makes sense. And so, like, what… do you reference any guidelines that the ops team has set up, like, on cleaning the project team? Like, the project notion?
114 00:13:05.590 ⇒ 00:13:06.490 Mustafa Raja: Sorry,
115 00:13:06.490 ⇒ 00:13:12.109 Sheshu Chandrasekar: How are you… like, how are you going to clean it up? Like, I’m curious to see how you use Notion to clean up the.
116 00:13:12.110 ⇒ 00:13:13.799 Mustafa Raja: Okay, let me…
117 00:13:14.040 ⇒ 00:13:15.289 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, yeah, please.
118 00:13:16.860 ⇒ 00:13:19.480 Mustafa Raja: Yeah, let me share my screen…
119 00:13:23.660 ⇒ 00:13:24.420 Mustafa Raja: Okay.
120 00:13:26.390 ⇒ 00:13:30.200 Mustafa Raja: Okay, so this is… this is the only page that I’m going to, you know, work with.
121 00:13:30.740 ⇒ 00:13:31.240 Mustafa Raja: Right.
122 00:13:31.240 ⇒ 00:13:31.600 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Okay.
123 00:13:31.600 ⇒ 00:13:42.680 Mustafa Raja: So, a lot of things are pretty good, already, right? So, this was handled by some other PM or by some other team member before I was the EP.
124 00:13:43.610 ⇒ 00:13:53.869 Mustafa Raja: I took over, you know, set up weekly cadence, set up these two databases, I need to update this, and then have all these documents that I need to, you know, organize.
125 00:13:53.990 ⇒ 00:14:01.769 Mustafa Raja: I may have some more documents that I need to put in here, and that’s only what I’m going to be, you know, taking care of.
126 00:14:02.940 ⇒ 00:14:03.770 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Gotcha.
127 00:14:04.230 ⇒ 00:14:07.189 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah. So you’re gonna use Notion MCP to kind of just…
128 00:14:07.190 ⇒ 00:14:26.290 Mustafa Raja: Yeah, because I’m not good with Notion. I don’t know how to, you know… I don’t even know how to put these two things in a single row. So, that was set up before me. Yeah, I don’t know how to, you know, do this, do this sort of stuff, so I’m going to use the Notion MCP.
129 00:14:27.780 ⇒ 00:14:30.849 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Got it. So, like, what do you mean by single row, can we…
130 00:14:30.850 ⇒ 00:14:38.339 Mustafa Raja: Yeah, by that I mean, you know, these two are in columns, right? So, you know.
131 00:14:38.340 ⇒ 00:14:43.929 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Oh, okay, I see what you’re saying. Would it be easier if those are converted to, like, tables?
132 00:14:44.940 ⇒ 00:14:46.190 Mustafa Raja: These are tables, right?
133 00:14:47.930 ⇒ 00:14:51.260 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Are they? Oh, sorry, I mean database, like a database as well.
134 00:14:51.260 ⇒ 00:14:55.470 Mustafa Raja: Hmm… I think this is good.
135 00:14:56.400 ⇒ 00:14:56.740 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Okay.
136 00:14:57.430 ⇒ 00:15:03.210 Mustafa Raja: The, the thing that I’m going to work on, is this, sorry.
137 00:15:03.840 ⇒ 00:15:14.919 Mustafa Raja: yeah, is this accomplishment? And then I’m going to, work on the client document. And then, one other document that I’m going to add here is,
138 00:15:14.990 ⇒ 00:15:32.829 Mustafa Raja: a new team member onboarding document, and that’s going to be a running document regarding this project, so whenever a new member is onboarded to this project, I could point them to that particular document, and that document would have, the whole picture on it.
139 00:15:33.070 ⇒ 00:15:38.169 Mustafa Raja: Whatever we are doing with this client, and what we have done already with this client, you know?
140 00:15:39.060 ⇒ 00:15:39.870 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Gotcha.
141 00:15:39.870 ⇒ 00:15:41.260 Mustafa Raja: That’s my thinking.
142 00:15:42.150 ⇒ 00:15:43.439 Sheshu Chandrasekar: No, that makes sense.
143 00:15:43.440 ⇒ 00:15:47.439 Mustafa Raja: And then maybe Clarence could give his reviews on that.
144 00:15:48.220 ⇒ 00:15:48.920 Mustafa Raja: Yeah.
145 00:15:49.180 ⇒ 00:15:49.959 Mustafa Raja: I’m doing.
146 00:15:49.960 ⇒ 00:15:52.170 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, so default is your client?
147 00:15:52.170 ⇒ 00:15:54.880 Mustafa Raja: Yeah, yeah, I mean, even on default.
148 00:15:55.960 ⇒ 00:15:56.670 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Gotcha.
149 00:15:58.180 ⇒ 00:16:02.779 Sheshu Chandrasekar: No, that makes sense. I’m just so curious, because, with your job, like.
150 00:16:03.250 ⇒ 00:16:05.640 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Like, where do you feel like you’re, like…
151 00:16:05.890 ⇒ 00:16:18.049 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Because I know, like, even in ops right now, right? Like, I work with Rico and Eliza, but I kind of set the strategy. But, like, asking them to do execution, sometimes I feel a little hesitant, because
152 00:16:18.800 ⇒ 00:16:25.230 Sheshu Chandrasekar: I kind of see them as my peers, in a way, to kind of, like, collaborate with them, but sometimes they don’t have…
153 00:16:25.950 ⇒ 00:16:29.370 Sheshu Chandrasekar: That kind of, like… Thinking in that sense, like.
154 00:16:29.880 ⇒ 00:16:37.209 Sheshu Chandrasekar: oh, like, whatever I say kind of makes sense, right? But they don’t, like, challenging? Do you ever feel like, from a behavioral standpoint, like… like…
155 00:16:37.680 ⇒ 00:16:44.169 Sheshu Chandrasekar: it’s hard to work with your CSOs, like, kind of enforcing something or getting information, like, do you ever feel like… do you feel…
156 00:16:44.750 ⇒ 00:16:46.079 Sheshu Chandrasekar: A little lost there.
157 00:16:46.080 ⇒ 00:16:52.889 Mustafa Raja: No. The… so, my CSOs are…
158 00:16:52.900 ⇒ 00:16:58.410 Mustafa Raja: Greg and Demilade, and, you know, when I… Oh, they’re both great.
159 00:16:58.410 ⇒ 00:17:13.829 Mustafa Raja: Yeah, whenever we want to, you know, or whenever I want to get an update from them, either I’ll, you know, send them a message, or ask them if they are, you know, up for a quick huddle, and they are pretty open to, you know, this sort of stuff, and…
160 00:17:15.130 ⇒ 00:17:21.249 Mustafa Raja: really, I haven’t had any issues with communicating them, or getting my updates out.
161 00:17:21.680 ⇒ 00:17:23.730 Mustafa Raja: That’s been pretty good.
162 00:17:24.599 ⇒ 00:17:25.579 Sheshu Chandrasekar: That’s really good.
163 00:17:25.879 ⇒ 00:17:33.589 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Okay, sweet, because, like, we had a conversation with some SLs, and it’s like…
164 00:17:34.369 ⇒ 00:17:43.329 Sheshu Chandrasekar: we just want to make sure that the EPs understand how to write tickets in linear and stuff like that, like, understand what acceptance criterias were. So it sounds like you’re not having that problem, you’re kind of…
165 00:17:43.620 ⇒ 00:17:44.090 Mustafa Raja: Yeah.
166 00:17:44.090 ⇒ 00:17:45.170 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah.
167 00:17:45.670 ⇒ 00:17:46.300 Mustafa Raja: Yeah.
168 00:17:47.020 ⇒ 00:17:58.149 Mustafa Raja: I think, what I could improve on is, you know, writing the descriptions of the ticket, but the tickets themselves, we know what the deliverables of the week are going to be, you know?
169 00:17:59.000 ⇒ 00:18:02.420 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Okay, so you’re, like, on top of it, you guys are just, like, always communicating on a…
170 00:18:02.420 ⇒ 00:18:05.170 Mustafa Raja: Yeah, yeah, awesome. We don’t have communication gaps.
171 00:18:06.140 ⇒ 00:18:07.499 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Oh, okay, that’s awesome.
172 00:18:08.230 ⇒ 00:18:11.180 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, no, because we’re trying to figure out, like, how to best…
173 00:18:11.500 ⇒ 00:18:21.120 Sheshu Chandrasekar: like, help ourselves, like, gain context? Like, so it sounds like you’re kind of owning everything from end to end. So how… do you guys have, like, structured, like.
174 00:18:21.590 ⇒ 00:18:23.260 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Stand-ups in the morning?
175 00:18:23.260 ⇒ 00:18:40.599 Mustafa Raja: Like, for your project? Yeah, yeah, so, for this. So, we have the, we have the, what’s it called? The new sort of, stand-up script, right? So, that’s working pretty good, but, I think what I would need is, a planning.
176 00:18:41.100 ⇒ 00:18:48.660 Mustafa Raja: stand up at the start of the week, you know, on Monday. So… and this is what I’m going to set up with my CSOs.
177 00:18:49.070 ⇒ 00:18:51.990 Mustafa Raja: starting next week,
178 00:18:52.200 ⇒ 00:18:56.679 Mustafa Raja: I’m going to consult them, what’s the best time on Monday is for them.
179 00:18:56.890 ⇒ 00:19:03.349 Mustafa Raja: Before the conventional stand-up that we would have, so, so we would know.
180 00:19:03.460 ⇒ 00:19:11.880 Mustafa Raja: the team, on the… on this default client would know what the deliverables for this week would be. We do know that,
181 00:19:11.880 ⇒ 00:19:26.469 Mustafa Raja: We do know the deliverables based on the Gantt chart already, but if there are any blockers, based on that, we would still want to, you know, meet in a planning meeting, so we could, you know, be aligned.
182 00:19:26.550 ⇒ 00:19:29.860 Mustafa Raja: Among each other, that what we are going to deliver this week.
183 00:19:30.710 ⇒ 00:19:32.280 Sheshu Chandrasekar: That’s awesome. Okay.
184 00:19:32.720 ⇒ 00:19:38.080 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, no, I love that. I love how you’re taking the initiative to do that, so really appreciate that insight.
185 00:19:39.850 ⇒ 00:19:41.190 Mustafa Raja: Thank you.
186 00:19:41.190 ⇒ 00:19:54.889 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, I don’t have any other questions. I mean, honestly, it looks like you’re… you’re killing it. So, like, yeah, like, if there’s anything I can do to help you out, like, if you want to just talk through some things, like, some problems you’re facing, client, or, like, even how to, like.
187 00:19:55.220 ⇒ 00:20:00.529 Sheshu Chandrasekar: you know, talk with your team, or anything of those sorts, like, just let me know. I’m more than happy to just kind of, like.
188 00:20:00.880 ⇒ 00:20:05.870 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Do, like, some sort of, like, office hours or some sort. We can walk through it and figure out how to best support you.
189 00:20:06.180 ⇒ 00:20:10.710 Mustafa Raja: Yeah, I think, I think for now, it’s pretty good.
190 00:20:11.290 ⇒ 00:20:13.879 Mustafa Raja: Yeah, for now it’s pretty good.
191 00:20:14.340 ⇒ 00:20:25.540 Mustafa Raja: One thing that I, did do today is, I got… so, so, as you mentioned, we just posted on LinkedIn that we are hiring, right? So, I got a lot… I got…
192 00:20:26.040 ⇒ 00:20:35.269 Mustafa Raja: About 3 to 4 connection requests, and one of the connections, asked me to refer them, you know?
193 00:20:35.890 ⇒ 00:20:48.930 Mustafa Raja: Right. And I didn’t know, internally who to send that, so I asked Utham, and I… Utham said, operating team is going to be the best, POC for that, so I, you know, forwarded that to Rico.
194 00:20:49.170 ⇒ 00:20:51.580 Mustafa Raja: Okay. That’s pretty much it.
195 00:20:52.310 ⇒ 00:21:02.659 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, I think Rico would have added your name as, like, a referral field of some sort, so I think I’ll… I’ll follow up with him, but I think if you’ve already communicated, he’s a killer, too, so if you…
196 00:21:02.870 ⇒ 00:21:06.219 Sheshu Chandrasekar: If you already sent it to him, he’ll probably have it taken care of by now.
197 00:21:06.510 ⇒ 00:21:07.559 Mustafa Raja: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
198 00:21:08.730 ⇒ 00:21:12.350 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Cool, yeah, I mean, hey, Mustafa, it was great meeting you, and.
199 00:21:12.350 ⇒ 00:21:12.690 Mustafa Raja: Yeah.
200 00:21:12.690 ⇒ 00:21:28.020 Sheshu Chandrasekar: If there’s any other questions… yeah, like, I’m… I feel like we’re gonna be constantly chatting, so, like, if there’s anything that comes up, just let me know, and I’m more than happy to help you out. And I may need to tap into your experience into Notion MCP a little bit more, because I’m super new to cursor.
201 00:21:28.020 ⇒ 00:21:30.300 Mustafa Raja: So, like, also, yeah, on that note, like.
202 00:21:30.640 ⇒ 00:21:35.909 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Do you have any, like, resources or YouTube channels or anything like that that you see to,
203 00:21:36.380 ⇒ 00:21:40.520 Sheshu Chandrasekar: like, understand cursor a little better, or any, like, resources?
204 00:21:41.240 ⇒ 00:21:43.530 Mustafa Raja: Hmm, understanding cursor…
205 00:21:45.160 ⇒ 00:22:01.180 Mustafa Raja: I mean, I don’t have anything on top of my head, but I can take a look at, YouTube, because, of course, at some point, I did find about Cursor and, all these other tools, through YouTube or some other resource, right? So…
206 00:22:01.180 ⇒ 00:22:06.879 Mustafa Raja: Maybe on Monday, I’ll ping you with something, with a resource, or even on the weekend, I might ping you with something.
207 00:22:06.880 ⇒ 00:22:07.850 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, no.
208 00:22:08.000 ⇒ 00:22:13.910 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Please feel free to do that, yeah, I’m… I need to get better at a cursor as well, like, because I feel like that’s, like…
209 00:22:14.260 ⇒ 00:22:16.540 Sheshu Chandrasekar: our co-pilot, in a way, so…
210 00:22:16.540 ⇒ 00:22:19.040 Mustafa Raja: Yeah, yeah. You need to get better at it. Yeah, yeah.
211 00:22:19.270 ⇒ 00:22:35.830 Mustafa Raja: Okay, let me know if this model change does help you out. I think it would. I think it would definitely help you out, because Auto really, you know, decides on itself what model it’s going to use, and it usually chooses a model that’s a lot cheaper.
212 00:22:36.320 ⇒ 00:22:37.820 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Oh, got it.
213 00:22:37.820 ⇒ 00:22:43.260 Mustafa Raja: So, so, so, this, 4.5 thinking might help you.
214 00:22:44.120 ⇒ 00:22:54.599 Sheshu Chandrasekar: That’s insane how it doesn’t estimate, like, you know how when we, like, when you’re… you give a developer, like, a user story, right, and they say, like, I need this many points for it or something?
215 00:22:54.600 ⇒ 00:22:58.399 Mustafa Raja: I’m surprised that it doesn’t do the same thing in cursor, like, it doesn’t, like…
216 00:22:58.400 ⇒ 00:23:02.699 Sheshu Chandrasekar: look at a task and be like, okay, I need this model, because the complexity of it is, like.
217 00:23:02.700 ⇒ 00:23:06.050 Mustafa Raja: Yes, yeah, yeah. Did you try out the plan mode?
218 00:23:07.140 ⇒ 00:23:21.490 Sheshu Chandrasekar: I did. I like the plan mode a lot. I was so hesitant with, agent mode, because I didn’t want it to build anything or delete something. But plan mode really helped me, like, refine through my… my thinking as well, but also, like.
219 00:23:21.840 ⇒ 00:23:24.959 Sheshu Chandrasekar: where the AI was heading in, in giving a solution.
220 00:23:25.320 ⇒ 00:23:36.280 Mustafa Raja: I, yeah, the plan mode is really a game changer. They released it a few months ago only, and yeah, it’s really amazing.
221 00:23:36.280 ⇒ 00:23:47.669 Mustafa Raja: It’s actually a lot refined now. Prior, it asked the question… questions in a pretty weird format. Now the questions are in a pretty, pretty good format,
222 00:23:47.730 ⇒ 00:23:48.500 Mustafa Raja: Yeah.
223 00:23:49.570 ⇒ 00:23:54.290 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, no, I didn’t know that. Like, I’ve been using Gemini. I like Gemini a lot.
224 00:23:54.290 ⇒ 00:23:57.179 Mustafa Raja: Gemini, on some duel, or…
225 00:23:57.680 ⇒ 00:24:01.970 Sheshu Chandrasekar: No, just, like, just Gemini Pro… the model, like, Pro 3.
226 00:24:01.970 ⇒ 00:24:03.410 Mustafa Raja: Just like Chad GPD, right?
227 00:24:03.600 ⇒ 00:24:07.429 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, ChatGPT. It’s… it’s great, but there’s some moments where I’m, like.
228 00:24:08.230 ⇒ 00:24:15.669 Sheshu Chandrasekar: I’m not, like, too happy with it, but it is way better than ChatGPT. I think Model 5.2 sucks. Like, I was a huge…
229 00:24:15.980 ⇒ 00:24:17.270 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, I didn’t realize that.
230 00:24:17.270 ⇒ 00:24:27.480 Mustafa Raja: I might… I might need to try it then, because, I haven’t tried Gemini in a quite… in quite… quite a long time, actually. I think it’s been a year I have touched Gemini.
231 00:24:27.900 ⇒ 00:24:40.239 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, no, Gemini has been a game changer. Like, I think they really did a good job with that model. But, because, I mean, I was hearing a lot of hype around it too, right? Like, OpenAI had that red alert or something?
232 00:24:40.470 ⇒ 00:24:43.160 Sheshu Chandrasekar: And I was like, what’s crazy about it? But…
233 00:24:43.270 ⇒ 00:24:52.269 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, it makes sense. It lives up to the hype. I think there’s certain things that ChatGPT, in my opinion, does really well, still, versus Gemini.
234 00:24:52.490 ⇒ 00:24:57.010 Sheshu Chandrasekar: But when it comes to, like, strategic thinking, how to look at
235 00:24:57.250 ⇒ 00:25:04.860 Sheshu Chandrasekar: like, building stuff. I think Gemini kills it, but OpenAI is still better on the health aspect, in my opinion.
236 00:25:05.490 ⇒ 00:25:19.870 Mustafa Raja: Okay, okay. Yeah, I’ll definitely give it a try then, because it’s been so long. I loved it in the start, because they had a free tier, and so I was able to build a lot of stuff with that, so that was really nice.
237 00:25:20.530 ⇒ 00:25:32.000 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, I… I folded. I paid 20 bucks per month, because I also have a… like, I have a personal Google, like, pro account for, like, storage and, like, drive and stuff like that.
238 00:25:32.000 ⇒ 00:25:32.350 Mustafa Raja: Yeah.
239 00:25:32.350 ⇒ 00:25:37.300 Sheshu Chandrasekar: So I was just like, it’s just an additional 10 bucks for me, it’s not a huge expense, so…
240 00:25:37.510 ⇒ 00:25:38.300 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah.
241 00:25:38.630 ⇒ 00:25:39.340 Mustafa Raja: That’s nice.
242 00:25:39.980 ⇒ 00:25:45.629 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, well, cool, Mustafa. I’m gonna give you back some time, and yeah, we’ll chat soon. I think…
243 00:25:45.820 ⇒ 00:25:50.769 Mustafa Raja: You have… we have an EP meeting tomorrow or today? Is that correct? Yeah, it’s tomorrow, yeah.
244 00:25:51.020 ⇒ 00:25:52.960 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Tomorrow, yeah, I’ll catch you there then.
245 00:25:52.960 ⇒ 00:25:54.310 Mustafa Raja: Yeah, see you!
246 00:25:54.540 ⇒ 00:25:55.750 Sheshu Chandrasekar: See ya. Bye.