Meeting Title: Ops Lead <> Exec Check-in Date: 2026-02-02 Meeting participants: Sheshu Chandrasekar, Uttam Kumaran, Robert Tseng
WEBVTT
1 00:01:09.270 ⇒ 00:01:11.150 Uttam Kumaran: Hey, dude.
2 00:01:13.250 ⇒ 00:01:14.710 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Hey, Tom, how you doing?
3 00:01:14.710 ⇒ 00:01:16.680 Uttam Kumaran: Hey, good. How’s the weekend?
4 00:01:17.460 ⇒ 00:01:21.769 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Pretty good. I’ve been… just a lot of resting,
5 00:01:21.950 ⇒ 00:01:27.710 Sheshu Chandrasekar: just, you know, kind of exiting the tailwind of the cold, actually. So, nothing too crazy.
6 00:01:27.710 ⇒ 00:01:28.300 Uttam Kumaran: Cool.
7 00:01:29.760 ⇒ 00:01:30.120 Sheshu Chandrasekar: That’s true.
8 00:01:30.120 ⇒ 00:01:31.570 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, it was good.
9 00:01:32.230 ⇒ 00:01:35.519 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, how’s the… how’s the winter, storm things happening there?
10 00:01:36.100 ⇒ 00:01:43.199 Uttam Kumaran: It’s fine, it’s just kind of cold here, but I’m… I know I didn’t do much outside anyway, so it’s… it was okay.
11 00:01:43.440 ⇒ 00:01:45.329 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, fair point. Yeah.
12 00:01:45.330 ⇒ 00:01:45.870 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
13 00:01:45.870 ⇒ 00:01:49.459 Sheshu Chandrasekar: actually back in Houston, because my parents are headed to India, so…
14 00:01:49.460 ⇒ 00:01:49.970 Uttam Kumaran: Nice.
15 00:01:49.970 ⇒ 00:01:53.169 Sheshu Chandrasekar: exiting activities, so that’s why I’m here.
16 00:01:53.360 ⇒ 00:01:54.090 Uttam Kumaran: Nice.
17 00:01:54.230 ⇒ 00:01:54.820 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah.
18 00:01:55.850 ⇒ 00:01:56.560 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Correct. Cool.
19 00:01:56.560 ⇒ 00:02:04.080 Uttam Kumaran: Well, I think Robert’s gonna be a little bit late, there’s some, like, fire with Eden right now, but we can get started.
20 00:02:04.110 ⇒ 00:02:05.370 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Okay.
21 00:02:06.200 ⇒ 00:02:20.619 Uttam Kumaran: So yeah, I mean, I guess before picking this up, so one is, yeah, it’s kind of rough. Luke’s also out today, but basically, I told Robert, like, go basically run through the same meeting with… with him, but yeah, we’re gonna try to run these twice a week.
22 00:02:20.640 ⇒ 00:02:31.219 Uttam Kumaran: Basically, if you had a chance to read, like, the top of this, we’re sort of building out, and the whole onus for bringing you on, building… bringing Luke on.
23 00:02:31.220 ⇒ 00:02:45.639 Uttam Kumaran: And we’re now kind of considering bringing on another person for recruiting, which leaves, which leaves really, like, delivery, and sales as the last two pieces that Robert and I are owning. It’s like building, like, a leadership group.
24 00:02:45.720 ⇒ 00:02:54.839 Uttam Kumaran: And so, like, that was the kind of intention with both of these rules, like, for the ops lead and the go-to-market lead is to, like, kind of form this.
25 00:02:54.840 ⇒ 00:02:59.970 Uttam Kumaran: And what… for us, what this gives us is, like, me and Robert are the… really with each other.
26 00:02:59.970 ⇒ 00:03:16.839 Uttam Kumaran: are discussing sort of higher-level strategy, this sort of now builds one more layer for us to translate that to you guys, and you two, across the company, are two of the most leveraged people now, meaning you’re the only two people with, like, teams, apart from the teams that Robert and I own.
27 00:03:16.940 ⇒ 00:03:25.300 Uttam Kumaran: And so we… one thing that I… I stress to him is, like, I want to spend as much time with you guys as I can to help you guys
28 00:03:25.310 ⇒ 00:03:38.390 Uttam Kumaran: grow, but also, we need to continue to rip shit up every week. And so, I think having a meeting on, like, a Monday, Thursday cadence to just talk through, like, goals for the week.
29 00:03:38.390 ⇒ 00:03:50.510 Uttam Kumaran: and help you guys, like, stay on track, help you guys, like, you know, like, deal with blockers, and kind of talk about, higher-level company strategy, I think is going to be really positive.
30 00:03:50.620 ⇒ 00:04:00.630 Uttam Kumaran: you know, I do think that most companies, they tend to do this on, like, a monthly basis, but, like, you know, in a month, we could be in a totally different world, so…
31 00:04:00.670 ⇒ 00:04:11.080 Uttam Kumaran: like, kind of, like, really high-performing teams tend to do this on a weekly basis. After a few weeks of this, I think this will switch… this will turn more into, like, we’ll come prepared.
32 00:04:11.080 ⇒ 00:04:28.790 Uttam Kumaran: with things to talk about, we’ll leave comments beforehand, and then we have, like, a tight 45 minutes to, like, go through. My hope is that this replaces the need for, like, several touchpoints during the week. Both Robert and I are finding that, like, the more time we have for, like, deep work.
33 00:04:28.980 ⇒ 00:04:39.569 Uttam Kumaran: allows us to just go sell more and, like, kind of push the business along, but really what I’m hopeful is that here, on Monday, we kind of set the priorities, and then you guys can run.
34 00:04:39.700 ⇒ 00:04:45.879 Uttam Kumaran: You know, and you have a mechanism to surface feedback and questions to us at least twice a week.
35 00:04:46.050 ⇒ 00:04:49.959 Uttam Kumaran: And then the rest, we… we kind of, like, wanna…
36 00:04:50.250 ⇒ 00:04:56.080 Uttam Kumaran: just be doing in Slack as much as possible. So, like, did you have a chance to take a look at this doc, and, like, any thoughts.
37 00:04:56.080 ⇒ 00:04:56.530 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah.
38 00:04:56.530 ⇒ 00:04:58.419 Uttam Kumaran: Before we… yeah, before we start.
39 00:04:58.790 ⇒ 00:05:04.300 Sheshu Chandrasekar: No, I’ve… I read through it, and I also watched the videos. No, I’m on board, I think…
40 00:05:05.080 ⇒ 00:05:06.940 Sheshu Chandrasekar: It’s actually very in line with
41 00:05:07.410 ⇒ 00:05:17.489 Sheshu Chandrasekar: what I want to talk to you about as well, this week, because I know last Friday… I mean, last week itself was kind of… it was funny, right? Because, like.
42 00:05:17.610 ⇒ 00:05:21.880 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Obviously, it’s 2 weeks, but then the entire migration thing happened, and…
43 00:05:22.340 ⇒ 00:05:27.700 Sheshu Chandrasekar: coming into, like, a role where I’m trying to lead two people and trying to get the most out of them.
44 00:05:27.810 ⇒ 00:05:31.509 Sheshu Chandrasekar: It’s not like it’s very new, but it’s very, like.
45 00:05:32.100 ⇒ 00:05:42.909 Sheshu Chandrasekar: it’s different, right? When, coming from an environment that I come from, and then now coming from a growth stage, it’s, like, a little different, so this forum is great, because I feel like I have thoughts, like.
46 00:05:43.140 ⇒ 00:05:48.780 Sheshu Chandrasekar: some doubts I have, and maybe we can clear it up here, so I’m on board with it.
47 00:05:48.780 ⇒ 00:05:56.620 Uttam Kumaran: That’s exactly the point. So for… so this meeting is going to be like a push meeting, meaning a lot of other meetings, you’re gonna see me…
48 00:05:57.010 ⇒ 00:05:58.579 Uttam Kumaran: be very, like…
49 00:05:59.210 ⇒ 00:06:06.169 Uttam Kumaran: Like, I’m gonna nudge people, and I’m gonna kinda get the shit moving. This… you guys are, at some point, gonna be at our level.
50 00:06:06.200 ⇒ 00:06:21.050 Uttam Kumaran: And so, we’re gonna hold you to the same standard that we hold each other to, and we hold ourselves to, which is, like, extremely high standard. And so, what I’m expecting for you is to come with, yo, I don’t know whether this is right.
51 00:06:21.050 ⇒ 00:06:37.909 Uttam Kumaran: this person sucks, this thing is going well, like, come with all of that, and lay it on us. What I’m hopeful for this meeting is a lot less talking from us, and a lot more from, like, hey, is this really, like, important to us? Yes or no? Okay, how do I iterate?
52 00:06:37.960 ⇒ 00:06:46.619 Uttam Kumaran: This meeting has to be a discussion, and honestly, this meeting is a test for both you and Luke on whether you guys are up to actually come in and lead
53 00:06:46.620 ⇒ 00:06:59.679 Uttam Kumaran: you know, your specific division. But also, it’s for you to clear up those, like, doubts or those, like, hey, you said one thing, but then you said another, what is it, right? So that’s this forum.
54 00:07:00.010 ⇒ 00:07:11.610 Uttam Kumaran: And again, I think we’re gonna start to run the company more like a committee, starting with both of you, and, like, these were the first two roles that we wanted to fill, and we, you know, we’re… you guys aren’t here
55 00:07:11.610 ⇒ 00:07:23.270 Uttam Kumaran: like, let me put it this way, you’re not here on a trial because we think you’re gonna not work out. Like, we really want this to work out, and I’m gonna do everything I can do, including, like, my time.
56 00:07:23.270 ⇒ 00:07:33.090 Uttam Kumaran: whatever support you need, whatever tool you need to make sure that you’re put in the best path to win. And so, as long as you meet me halfway, like, you’re gonna nail it. I promise you.
57 00:07:33.100 ⇒ 00:07:33.760 Uttam Kumaran: You know?
58 00:07:33.760 ⇒ 00:07:34.160 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah.
59 00:07:34.160 ⇒ 00:07:49.729 Uttam Kumaran: So, like, let’s just dive in. I mean, I put together this structure. Like, do you want to take a sec and, like, fill it out, or do you want to fill it out together? Basically, I was like, on a weekly basis, I want to hear what your focus is on.
60 00:07:49.860 ⇒ 00:08:00.850 Uttam Kumaran: This week, what we got done last week, and then really, like, where most of the discussion should be is on blockers and, like, decisions needed.
61 00:08:01.250 ⇒ 00:08:05.200 Uttam Kumaran: So this form allows, one, it allows me to be like, okay.
62 00:08:05.450 ⇒ 00:08:07.120 Uttam Kumaran: If you were to take on, like.
63 00:08:07.240 ⇒ 00:08:21.080 Uttam Kumaran: for… it’s kind of like what the sales team does, which is, like, what are your bets, right? So, like, if you’re like, hey… and this… these… in your world, it may not be bets, it’s more of, like… that’s, like, more of sales thinking, because they’re just trying things. This may be, like, these are my objectives. I’ll tell you, hey, that’s actually…
64 00:08:21.500 ⇒ 00:08:23.190 Uttam Kumaran: Not as important, or like…
65 00:08:23.210 ⇒ 00:08:36.479 Uttam Kumaran: oh, here’s another objective you should… this is, like, more urgent. So it gives me an ability to screen that. It gives you an ability to reflect, right? And the only way you get better is by having, like, really good introspection and reflection on, like.
66 00:08:36.480 ⇒ 00:08:53.669 Uttam Kumaran: how last week went, and, like, what pivots you can make this week to make this week even better. And then where you can rely on me is unblocking and giving you any decisions on things. And then over time, naturally, you’ll hear my voice in your head, and you’ll be able to make the decision that I’ll probably end up making anyways.
67 00:08:53.750 ⇒ 00:08:58.709 Uttam Kumaran: Which just allows us to run. And so this meeting, I’m expecting there to be, like.
68 00:08:59.070 ⇒ 00:09:04.990 Uttam Kumaran: like, contention. I’m expecting there to be some, like, disagreement around, like, whether something’s important or not.
69 00:09:05.100 ⇒ 00:09:09.670 Uttam Kumaran: And then we’ll… we’ll just arrive at something, and then we’ll… we’ll move. And so…
70 00:09:10.290 ⇒ 00:09:16.609 Uttam Kumaran: this is the meeting where, like, we just need to make all those decisions, and then we just run for the week, and then on Thursday, we call and, like.
71 00:09:16.780 ⇒ 00:09:23.790 Uttam Kumaran: did we all, like, make… did we… was Monday good? Like, did we… did we call the shot? Did we hit it? Why or why not? You know?
72 00:09:23.790 ⇒ 00:09:24.380 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah.
73 00:09:24.810 ⇒ 00:09:29.660 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Cool. No, that’s a fair point. I mean, I can start off. I didn’t fill out the,
74 00:09:29.930 ⇒ 00:09:30.799 Sheshu Chandrasekar: You could make a.
75 00:09:30.800 ⇒ 00:09:32.600 Uttam Kumaran: Tech to fill it out if it’s helpful.
76 00:09:33.000 ⇒ 00:09:36.269 Sheshu Chandrasekar: I actually have, like, notes that I have, like, from, like.
77 00:09:36.270 ⇒ 00:09:37.710 Uttam Kumaran: Did you just put them in there?
78 00:09:37.710 ⇒ 00:09:39.010 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, I can do that right now.
79 00:09:40.210 ⇒ 00:09:45.350 Uttam Kumaran: you don’t have to format it, but, like, I want to have this doc, because next week I’m just gonna copy-paste this.
80 00:09:45.860 ⇒ 00:09:50.439 Uttam Kumaran: And then we’re just gonna, like, run through this weekly. I think it’ll be good for everybody.
81 00:10:06.470 ⇒ 00:10:12.899 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Okay, let’s see… This week.
82 00:10:14.160 ⇒ 00:10:14.900 Robert Tseng: Hey guys.
83 00:10:15.630 ⇒ 00:10:16.330 Uttam Kumaran: A.
84 00:10:16.470 ⇒ 00:10:22.999 Uttam Kumaran: I just set the stage for this meeting, and then, Shaysu’s adding his, his notes here.
85 00:10:23.280 ⇒ 00:10:23.850 Robert Tseng: Great.
86 00:10:30.960 ⇒ 00:10:36.590 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Here, wait, let me just… Notion… Boom.
87 00:10:58.310 ⇒ 00:11:01.419 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, my apologies, I didn’t know how I was supposed to fill this out.
88 00:11:15.760 ⇒ 00:11:22.070 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Okay, cool, let’s start with Notion, and then I can fill out…
89 00:11:23.140 ⇒ 00:11:27.000 Sheshu Chandrasekar: the GTM stuff, because I think that’s, like, a lot of what I want to talk about.
90 00:11:27.110 ⇒ 00:11:27.850 Sheshu Chandrasekar: As well.
91 00:11:27.850 ⇒ 00:11:31.780 Uttam Kumaran: Do you want to put down any blockers or decisions? Like, I just want to cruise.
92 00:11:32.380 ⇒ 00:11:35.429 Uttam Kumaran: So, just take a… just take a second, just add…
93 00:11:36.160 ⇒ 00:11:38.680 Uttam Kumaran: Add anything there, and then we can go.
94 00:11:38.970 ⇒ 00:11:39.560 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Okay.
95 00:14:20.680 ⇒ 00:14:22.299 Uttam Kumaran: Matt, do you use Zoom clips?
96 00:14:23.480 ⇒ 00:14:24.619 Robert Tseng: Me? Yeah.
97 00:14:25.200 ⇒ 00:14:25.620 Uttam Kumaran: Nice.
98 00:14:25.620 ⇒ 00:14:31.130 Robert Tseng: Sure, I basically had, Rico move my old Loom stuff over to Zoom Clips.
99 00:14:31.810 ⇒ 00:14:37.620 Robert Tseng: And then… yeah, I mean, I’m… I’m down with Lou. No more Loom moving forward.
100 00:14:39.650 ⇒ 00:14:40.350 Uttam Kumaran: Nice.
101 00:14:40.600 ⇒ 00:14:41.130 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
102 00:14:44.190 ⇒ 00:14:46.309 Robert Tseng: Dude, Whisper is 30 bucks a month?
103 00:14:48.010 ⇒ 00:14:52.660 Uttam Kumaran: Bro, it’s, like, easily the best 30 bucks, like, I’ll ever spend.
104 00:14:52.960 ⇒ 00:14:57.520 Uttam Kumaran: it’s so… I use it, like… so often.
105 00:14:57.850 ⇒ 00:14:59.030 Robert Tseng: Yeah, okay.
106 00:15:00.040 ⇒ 00:15:02.319 Uttam Kumaran: It’s expensive, like, I… we can use the…
107 00:15:02.690 ⇒ 00:15:04.870 Uttam Kumaran: There is, like, some cheaper versions.
108 00:15:08.070 ⇒ 00:15:08.980 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
109 00:15:10.620 ⇒ 00:15:18.459 Uttam Kumaran: That is one where, yes, we can build our own, like, little thing if we want to for, like, $5, but it works pretty well.
110 00:15:18.930 ⇒ 00:15:20.809 Robert Tseng: Yeah, it’s okay, not a rush.
111 00:15:24.120 ⇒ 00:15:31.850 Uttam Kumaran: If people can just get addicted to it, then, like, and we, like, everyone’s, like, needs, like, we need, like, 15 licenses, then I’ll be like, okay.
112 00:16:07.420 ⇒ 00:16:15.719 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Okay, perfect. I think I’ve filled out most of the things, but I definitely don’t know what some of the things will pop up naturally, this conversation.
113 00:16:16.510 ⇒ 00:16:20.190 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, cool. So for…
114 00:16:20.530 ⇒ 00:16:38.590 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, so maybe I’ll go through today, and you’re gonna kind of see the pace at which I think we want to go through these, and then probably next week, you and Luke can go. So on Notion, yeah, I feel like we kind of talked last week, you’re working on rollout, like, do we think we’ll have, like, stuff
115 00:16:38.990 ⇒ 00:16:42.529 Uttam Kumaran: Done today for, like, final review, or, like, what do you think?
116 00:16:42.910 ⇒ 00:16:52.660 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, so I’m actually in the tail end of completing the documentation, like, audit, so, like, all the tagging that we kind of prop… that I proposed last week,
117 00:16:52.880 ⇒ 00:16:54.669 Sheshu Chandrasekar: 75% of it is done.
118 00:16:54.770 ⇒ 00:17:02.879 Sheshu Chandrasekar: there’s some things, like case studies, that I’m not gonna touch anymore, because that’s up to the marketing team, but I did generate a report, and I’m sending it to Hannah
119 00:17:02.990 ⇒ 00:17:07.550 Sheshu Chandrasekar: After this call, that kind of documents, like, where we are in each case study.
120 00:17:07.800 ⇒ 00:17:08.690 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Right.
121 00:17:09.150 ⇒ 00:17:22.890 Sheshu Chandrasekar: In regards to some SOPs, there’s some that are outdated, but now that I have the GitHub vault access, like, I looked at it today morning, and it seems like that’s the most recent and relevant information. Someone just used AI to kind of say, okay, like.
122 00:17:23.089 ⇒ 00:17:31.499 Sheshu Chandrasekar: compare the GitHub Vault documentation, and then what we have here in Notion, and, like, just, you know, minimize the delta between the two information.
123 00:17:31.890 ⇒ 00:17:39.070 Sheshu Chandrasekar: So yeah, you can see in the notion right here, I said creating SOP skeletons with AI, and then I’m just gonna send it over to Eliza to kind of, like.
124 00:17:39.070 ⇒ 00:17:39.410 Uttam Kumaran: Great.
125 00:17:39.410 ⇒ 00:17:44.710 Sheshu Chandrasekar: you know, let her fill in the details wherever I missed it out. So that’s kind of what I’m thinking about.
126 00:17:44.710 ⇒ 00:17:50.449 Uttam Kumaran: I just want to highlight that. I mean, I also have some feedback, but my key feedback is going to be
127 00:17:50.800 ⇒ 00:17:59.870 Uttam Kumaran: leverage your team. And we can talk about that, like, kind of towards the end of the doc, but, I, I like… I’m happy to see that.
128 00:17:59.970 ⇒ 00:18:05.109 Uttam Kumaran: So that makes sense. Okay, so let’s move to go-to-mark, so I’m fine with all that. Yeah, just help me out.
129 00:18:05.420 ⇒ 00:18:13.280 Uttam Kumaran: like, if… as you… as you hit roadblocks, or you need decisions, just tell me. Like, let’s, let’s try to crush it out. Yeah, go ahead.
130 00:18:13.280 ⇒ 00:18:15.830 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Oh, I’m so sorry. For the Notion stuff, I think it…
131 00:18:16.030 ⇒ 00:18:22.410 Sheshu Chandrasekar: I’m also… I really want to get this document out, but I’m gonna have, like… I think I sent you, like, two commands that I want.
132 00:18:22.640 ⇒ 00:18:23.680 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Built? Yes.
133 00:18:23.680 ⇒ 00:18:24.330 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
134 00:18:24.330 ⇒ 00:18:31.939 Sheshu Chandrasekar: There’s gonna be more of that that I’m gonna send over this week. That’s fine. So that’s, like, something I wanna put on your radar, so…
135 00:18:31.940 ⇒ 00:18:35.469 Uttam Kumaran: So, yeah, if that’s not getting done, just keep following up.
136 00:18:35.680 ⇒ 00:18:36.170 Uttam Kumaran: So…
137 00:18:36.170 ⇒ 00:18:36.650 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Okay.
138 00:18:36.650 ⇒ 00:18:43.210 Uttam Kumaran: What you’re gonna find here is everybody’s, like, really damn busy, and if you don’t follow up and then wait for next week and be like.
139 00:18:43.450 ⇒ 00:18:48.099 Uttam Kumaran: did you have a chance to work on it? I’m gonna be like, did you follow up? So…
140 00:18:48.100 ⇒ 00:18:49.190 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, fair point.
141 00:18:49.190 ⇒ 00:18:51.980 Uttam Kumaran: like, in your mind, if you’re like, damn, I need this.
142 00:18:52.220 ⇒ 00:18:54.399 Uttam Kumaran: And you’re like, but he hasn’t done it yet?
143 00:18:54.820 ⇒ 00:19:09.089 Uttam Kumaran: just send a message, because I will find… either I will do it, or I’ll find someone to do it, but if I don’t see it, I’m gonna forget about it. So, I guess that goes to the next point, which is, like, linear as a single execution layer. I totally agree. I honestly…
144 00:19:09.440 ⇒ 00:19:14.530 Uttam Kumaran: would, like… Focus less on the tags.
145 00:19:14.700 ⇒ 00:19:18.200 Uttam Kumaran: Focus more on just, like, the,
146 00:19:18.870 ⇒ 00:19:21.689 Uttam Kumaran: Like, the fact that tickets are being used.
147 00:19:22.260 ⇒ 00:19:25.010 Uttam Kumaran: And that the fact that tickets are being updated.
148 00:19:25.320 ⇒ 00:19:34.939 Uttam Kumaran: tags, and the projects, and shit like that, like, we’ll figure it out later. The core thing to get right is that linear is being used for sales and go-to-market stuff.
149 00:19:35.080 ⇒ 00:19:44.780 Uttam Kumaran: So one way that I think one is maybe a decision here we could just make is splitting sales and go to market. I guess, Robert, what is it right now? We just have sales?
150 00:19:45.660 ⇒ 00:19:47.719 Uttam Kumaran: As a thing, should we split it up?
151 00:19:49.090 ⇒ 00:19:50.240 Robert Tseng: Or…
152 00:19:50.470 ⇒ 00:19:58.299 Sheshu Chandrasekar: linear… I mean, I can paint some more context, because I think, Barbara, we decided that we’re gonna split the sales linear board into go-to-market, right? But…
153 00:19:58.300 ⇒ 00:19:58.950 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
154 00:19:59.310 ⇒ 00:20:12.400 Sheshu Chandrasekar: The biggest confusion for me today was, I was on a call with Holly, and she said you had, like, hesitation that you don’t want to use linear BUI forward, which is completely opposite of what we discussed last week. So that’s what I’m like…
155 00:20:12.400 ⇒ 00:20:14.750 Robert Tseng: Not true. But she’s… yeah, alright.
156 00:20:15.470 ⇒ 00:20:15.960 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Okay.
157 00:20:15.960 ⇒ 00:20:17.799 Uttam Kumaran: So, what’s the decision here?
158 00:20:19.630 ⇒ 00:20:21.699 Uttam Kumaran: Do we want to keep two boards?
159 00:20:23.070 ⇒ 00:20:25.200 Robert Tseng: I think that there should be two boards.
160 00:20:25.400 ⇒ 00:20:26.200 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
161 00:20:28.170 ⇒ 00:20:30.490 Uttam Kumaran: And then what’s the… in what ways do we use both?
162 00:20:31.320 ⇒ 00:20:35.889 Uttam Kumaran: Sales is for, like, actual, like, literally a sales process, and go-to-market is all…
163 00:20:36.470 ⇒ 00:20:45.079 Robert Tseng: Well, so, like, okay, we can rename sales to go-to-market, but, like, right now, everything, like, if you just look at it, it’s just, like, Luke, Ryan, and…
164 00:20:45.280 ⇒ 00:21:00.900 Robert Tseng: ricoh stuff. It’s all, like, content is there, follow-ups are there, campaigns are there. Yeah. Yeah. I think partnerships, the way that they were using it before, like, it just didn’t really make any… like, it just doesn’t fit into this cadence, so, like…
165 00:21:01.420 ⇒ 00:21:09.749 Robert Tseng: I mean, I’m okay with it being the same sequence, but if they’re not joining stand-ups every day, then, like, I don’t… it’s just… it just becomes clutter.
166 00:21:09.750 ⇒ 00:21:20.830 Uttam Kumaran: No, no, I think what you have is fine, so let’s… well, let’s just create a go-to-market and a sales one, and move anything that’s go-to-market related to the go-to-market one, and then sales will be about active deals.
167 00:21:21.300 ⇒ 00:21:23.490 Uttam Kumaran: And then active partner sequences.
168 00:21:24.980 ⇒ 00:21:25.570 Robert Tseng: Okay.
169 00:21:26.630 ⇒ 00:21:28.510 Uttam Kumaran: Great. Okay. Decision made.
170 00:21:29.360 ⇒ 00:21:32.920 Uttam Kumaran: So let’s just do that. So, sales board…
171 00:21:33.600 ⇒ 00:21:40.939 Uttam Kumaran: Active deal or partner activities, go-to-market board is the rest.
172 00:21:41.490 ⇒ 00:21:49.429 Uttam Kumaran: Cool. Taking ownership of the board structure plus workflow design. Yeah, I mean, again, like, for me.
173 00:21:50.260 ⇒ 00:21:59.389 Uttam Kumaran: I… I only care about the fact that tickets are getting made, so my only ask is, like, as things come into Slack, I really encourage you to just do at linear, create this ticket.
174 00:21:59.590 ⇒ 00:22:06.879 Uttam Kumaran: like, use the linear thing as much as possible, and encourage others. Like, if you see others not using it, be like, yo, use this linear thing.
175 00:22:08.390 ⇒ 00:22:19.739 Uttam Kumaran: like, I would… like, I think next week, let’s talk about, like, projects, points, tags, whatever. But this week, if we can just focus on getting the tasks into there, I think we’re…
176 00:22:19.970 ⇒ 00:22:21.340 Uttam Kumaran: In a better spot.
177 00:22:21.990 ⇒ 00:22:22.620 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Okay.
178 00:22:23.150 ⇒ 00:22:23.780 Uttam Kumaran: Cool.
179 00:22:24.160 ⇒ 00:22:35.839 Uttam Kumaran: Recruiting, so, next, next week. Yeah, I think recruiting ops. We’re planning on giving a… sending an offer to someone to kind of come in and lead recruiting.
180 00:22:36.000 ⇒ 00:22:39.330 Uttam Kumaran: It’ll be a few weeks.
181 00:22:39.710 ⇒ 00:22:45.759 Uttam Kumaran: Before, like, I think she’s gonna end up here. This week in particular, I need to spend some time
182 00:22:46.160 ⇒ 00:22:51.299 Uttam Kumaran: going through all the inbound that we got from the hiring campaign.
183 00:22:52.320 ⇒ 00:22:59.549 Uttam Kumaran: So, what my plan was, is I was gonna have Ryan basically scrape everybody that hit me up.
184 00:22:59.900 ⇒ 00:23:03.979 Uttam Kumaran: Put them in a clay table, and then give me, like, a prioritized list.
185 00:23:04.350 ⇒ 00:23:06.800 Uttam Kumaran: Based on who matches our JD the best.
186 00:23:07.000 ⇒ 00:23:16.559 Uttam Kumaran: And then I’m gonna pick out the few that I want to talk to, and then the rest we’re gonna put through our normal app… application flow, which is, like, the Loom and stuff like that.
187 00:23:16.920 ⇒ 00:23:24.099 Uttam Kumaran: So, that’s kind of, like, what I’m gonna do. I think you kind of have a… a decently full plate, but I’ll just keep you…
188 00:23:24.470 ⇒ 00:23:28.939 Uttam Kumaran: And I’ll just keep you aware of, like, what I’m doing, because I need to get back to some of those people.
189 00:23:29.190 ⇒ 00:23:30.360 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Okay.
190 00:23:31.200 ⇒ 00:23:34.360 Uttam Kumaran: So yeah, I think that’s… That’s fine.
191 00:23:34.680 ⇒ 00:23:44.580 Sheshu Chandrasekar: I have a quick question. I know when we first spoke, you’re… you wanted some scorecard mechanism. Are you… is there any… I didn’t see any templates, so I just want to make sure if there’s any.
192 00:23:44.580 ⇒ 00:23:46.170 Uttam Kumaran: I would like to do that.
193 00:23:46.420 ⇒ 00:23:47.640 Uttam Kumaran: I just…
194 00:23:47.820 ⇒ 00:23:53.620 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, we need to do that at some point. It’s sort of gonna probably be on Kayla to go implement that.
195 00:23:54.310 ⇒ 00:23:54.740 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Cool.
196 00:23:54.740 ⇒ 00:23:56.459 Uttam Kumaran: Who’s the new woman we’re hiring, yeah.
197 00:23:56.960 ⇒ 00:24:01.460 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, cool. So that makes sense.
198 00:24:03.030 ⇒ 00:24:19.620 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, overall, like, I feel good about if we get Notion out, and we’re able to support on go-to-market. I have some other proposals for, like, weekly focus, but let’s just… let’s just continue through the update, and then I can share some of those. So on… last week, on Notion, okay, that makes sense.
199 00:24:19.740 ⇒ 00:24:24.320 Uttam Kumaran: On blockers, yeah, you mentioned the case studies incomplete for Notion.
200 00:24:24.590 ⇒ 00:24:29.509 Uttam Kumaran: Sl’s time to get client onboarding SOP.
201 00:24:29.730 ⇒ 00:24:32.389 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I mean, in this… for this, like.
202 00:24:33.120 ⇒ 00:24:35.960 Uttam Kumaran: I think a good… my ask would be, like, in what way…
203 00:24:36.240 ⇒ 00:24:43.280 Uttam Kumaran: are they not responding? Are they not doing it? Like, are you having a hard time getting their time? Like, tell me what the blocker is.
204 00:24:43.280 ⇒ 00:24:45.059 Sheshu Chandrasekar: In all honesty.
205 00:24:45.500 ⇒ 00:25:02.080 Sheshu Chandrasekar: I’ll have a better answer for you on this, tomorrow, because I’m actually working on the client onboarding SOP using AI, and then I’m asking Eliza to fill it out, and then I’m just gonna ask a wish or someone to asynchronously… asyncly look at this document and figure it out.
206 00:25:03.870 ⇒ 00:25:07.069 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, alright, yeah, I mean, just ping me if no one’s…
207 00:25:07.070 ⇒ 00:25:07.500 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, it’s.
208 00:25:07.500 ⇒ 00:25:08.270 Uttam Kumaran: to give you.
209 00:25:08.270 ⇒ 00:25:12.720 Sheshu Chandrasekar: If they’re ghosting me, for sure. I think I need you to step in and help me out there.
210 00:25:12.890 ⇒ 00:25:17.599 Uttam Kumaran: Cool. And then on go-to-market, HubSpot, Data Hygiene. So this is,
211 00:25:17.890 ⇒ 00:25:23.839 Uttam Kumaran: So one thing I’m gonna propose this week is I built, like, an ability to talk to HubSpot via cursor.
212 00:25:24.030 ⇒ 00:25:29.959 Uttam Kumaran: But overall, really what needs to happen in HubSpot is that deals need to get updated.
213 00:25:30.610 ⇒ 00:25:36.139 Uttam Kumaran: And that’s kind of it right now, right, Robert? Like, as long as the deal object is updated.
214 00:25:37.130 ⇒ 00:25:39.199 Uttam Kumaran: Do you also want to dupe the partnership?
215 00:25:39.620 ⇒ 00:25:49.459 Robert Tseng: Yeah, the partner stuff needs to be tracked in HubSpot. It’s just, I mean, I’ve gone… I’ve already shared this with them before, but it’s been 2 weeks, and there’s been nothing on partners stuff. Okay.
216 00:25:49.830 ⇒ 00:25:50.190 Uttam Kumaran: So today.
217 00:25:50.550 ⇒ 00:26:01.590 Uttam Kumaran: I went through and updated the WVR, the whole partnership thing. So I’m prepared to talk today about everything there. I didn’t… I just didn’t have time to do HubSpot yet, so…
218 00:26:01.590 ⇒ 00:26:02.469 Robert Tseng: Yeah, that’s fine.
219 00:26:03.150 ⇒ 00:26:09.830 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, and I want to just paint some additional context here. So, I was updating the WBR with Oli today.
220 00:26:09.830 ⇒ 00:26:12.190 Uttam Kumaran: But what parts, what parts were you updating?
221 00:26:12.790 ⇒ 00:26:19.980 Sheshu Chandrasekar: I was updating whatever was next to my name. Shoot.
222 00:26:20.170 ⇒ 00:26:21.890 Robert Tseng: basically partner stuff that Holly.
223 00:26:21.890 ⇒ 00:26:22.240 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, like.
224 00:26:22.240 ⇒ 00:26:23.140 Robert Tseng: They’re updated.
225 00:26:23.380 ⇒ 00:26:24.240 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, what’s she?
226 00:26:25.720 ⇒ 00:26:28.509 Sheshu Chandrasekar: It is the WBR, let me check right now.
227 00:26:31.750 ⇒ 00:26:35.950 Uttam Kumaran: Because the… OKR’s Q1 2026.
228 00:26:36.230 ⇒ 00:26:38.310 Sheshu Chandrasekar: The actual WBR.
229 00:26:38.610 ⇒ 00:26:39.160 Sheshu Chandrasekar: sheet…
230 00:26:39.160 ⇒ 00:26:41.370 Uttam Kumaran: The actual WBR… oh, okay.
231 00:26:43.240 ⇒ 00:26:45.880 Uttam Kumaran: And then which… oh, okay.
232 00:26:47.300 ⇒ 00:26:49.720 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, okay, the new partner SQL pipeline.
233 00:26:49.720 ⇒ 00:26:54.410 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, the target active SQLs, target active SQLs pipeline value.
234 00:26:56.670 ⇒ 00:26:57.360 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
235 00:26:58.180 ⇒ 00:26:58.850 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Okay, so that’s.
236 00:26:58.850 ⇒ 00:27:00.149 Uttam Kumaran: That should be a direct…
237 00:27:00.350 ⇒ 00:27:07.550 Uttam Kumaran: Copy… that should be a direct copy-paste of all of the partner-sourced deals and their values, right?
238 00:27:07.550 ⇒ 00:27:08.110 Robert Tseng: Yep.
239 00:27:09.450 ⇒ 00:27:10.180 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
240 00:27:11.390 ⇒ 00:27:12.680 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yes, that’s like…
241 00:27:13.360 ⇒ 00:27:16.519 Uttam Kumaran: So, I mean, I personally don’t know whether that’s
242 00:27:17.440 ⇒ 00:27:20.440 Uttam Kumaran: correct or not at the moment, because I haven’t been in HubSpot.
243 00:27:20.630 ⇒ 00:27:26.729 Uttam Kumaran: And looking at, like, what was in the partner tracker, so I went in and I…
244 00:27:26.930 ⇒ 00:27:38.370 Uttam Kumaran: nail down the partner tracker. So I’m prepared to talk to every single partner, all of our active deals, and all of their most recent activities, and I have, like, 7 or 8 decisions I need.
245 00:27:38.740 ⇒ 00:27:39.920 Uttam Kumaran: From Robert?
246 00:27:40.180 ⇒ 00:27:42.699 Uttam Kumaran: The partner tracker is much more important.
247 00:27:42.830 ⇒ 00:27:44.709 Uttam Kumaran: For me, than, like, the number.
248 00:27:45.390 ⇒ 00:27:49.360 Uttam Kumaran: And the partner tracker was, like, super wrong in many places, so…
249 00:27:49.620 ⇒ 00:27:53.469 Uttam Kumaran: The partner tracker is actually what I think is more important.
250 00:27:57.190 ⇒ 00:28:03.190 Uttam Kumaran: But… and I don’t… I didn’t see any updates from either of you guys on… on that. Like, I went and did all this today.
251 00:28:05.150 ⇒ 00:28:06.380 Uttam Kumaran: Is that correct?
252 00:28:09.350 ⇒ 00:28:15.130 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Sorry, which… which spreadsheet are you looking at?
253 00:28:16.530 ⇒ 00:28:20.359 Uttam Kumaran: the… Go to market review, the partner tracker sheet.
254 00:28:21.730 ⇒ 00:28:23.580 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, I did not update that. You’re correct.
255 00:28:23.580 ⇒ 00:28:29.599 Uttam Kumaran: But I just don’t get, like, when you guys called, like, what were you looking at? Like, what were you doing on the call? We were looking at…
256 00:28:29.600 ⇒ 00:28:36.639 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Figuring out, like… so, if you go… if you scroll down, all the way to row 70,
257 00:28:37.070 ⇒ 00:28:37.730 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Oh, this is…
258 00:28:37.730 ⇒ 00:28:38.060 Uttam Kumaran: especially.
259 00:28:38.060 ⇒ 00:28:41.030 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Oh, WBR? Actual WBR.
260 00:28:41.030 ⇒ 00:28:41.960 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, okay.
261 00:28:42.330 ⇒ 00:28:50.070 Sheshu Chandrasekar: I added comments because I wanted to figure out what Holly was doing, so I added comments to kind of justify the data.
262 00:28:50.330 ⇒ 00:28:52.329 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Just for my awareness, to see.
263 00:28:52.550 ⇒ 00:28:54.280 Uttam Kumaran: Exactly. Oh, I see, okay, okay.
264 00:28:54.280 ⇒ 00:28:55.890 Sheshu Chandrasekar: You can see my comments in there.
265 00:28:55.890 ⇒ 00:28:59.199 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, so all of this should be in HubSpot.
266 00:29:01.710 ⇒ 00:29:03.259 Sheshu Chandrasekar: That’s correct, but it’s not… it’s not in.
267 00:29:03.260 ⇒ 00:29:06.609 Uttam Kumaran: It’s not on HubSpot. Okay, so that’s what we’ll fix it. We’ll fix it this week.
268 00:29:06.950 ⇒ 00:29:12.260 Uttam Kumaran: like, the last two weeks weren’t done. Clearly, this week it wasn’t done. It’s not your fault.
269 00:29:13.110 ⇒ 00:29:16.410 Sheshu Chandrasekar: So, I actually proposed to Holly that End of day.
270 00:29:16.410 ⇒ 00:29:19.100 Uttam Kumaran: Well, Holly’s not involved in… Holly’s not gonna be in this…
271 00:29:19.360 ⇒ 00:29:21.550 Sheshu Chandrasekar: I sent a message this morning, Holly’s not.
272 00:29:21.650 ⇒ 00:29:38.839 Uttam Kumaran: metrics at all anymore, or, like, any updates or anything. So, it’ll be me and you. I have every answer to all this stuff. What I don’t have is the time to go update. So, in order to do something today, I just made sure that the part… so, take a look at the partner tracker sheet.
273 00:29:39.340 ⇒ 00:29:44.400 Uttam Kumaran: This and the WVR have to get updated Every week.
274 00:29:45.200 ⇒ 00:29:46.689 Uttam Kumaran: Ideally twice a week.
275 00:29:48.470 ⇒ 00:29:52.800 Uttam Kumaran: So, our job as the partner people is to do that.
276 00:29:53.250 ⇒ 00:29:54.290 Uttam Kumaran: So…
277 00:29:54.800 ⇒ 00:30:07.240 Uttam Kumaran: like, the way I like to do this is we’ll call in the morning on Mondays, we’ll update it together, so we come to the next meeting and we crush it, and we’ll do the same thing on Fridays, probably, or we’ll do Fridays async.
278 00:30:07.580 ⇒ 00:30:12.669 Uttam Kumaran: After a while, we’ll get into a cadence of, like, I’ll be like, hey, this is the change.
279 00:30:12.930 ⇒ 00:30:19.159 Uttam Kumaran: And then you could just update the HubSpot or update here, and that would be great. Because I’m actively talking to all these people.
280 00:30:19.220 ⇒ 00:30:35.299 Uttam Kumaran: So it’s… it takes… it’s gonna take me some time. I… I can’t directly be in here every day updating, but what would be helpful is if you can update HubSpot on a daily or every 48 hours with recent partner activity, then when we come together on Monday, Friday.
281 00:30:35.460 ⇒ 00:30:38.389 Uttam Kumaran: It’ll just be easy to go, like, look at this, you know?
282 00:30:38.750 ⇒ 00:30:40.399 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Okay, perfect, yeah, that works for me.
283 00:30:40.400 ⇒ 00:30:44.530 Uttam Kumaran: So, we’ll get there next week, yeah. And then Holly’s kind of off this, so don’t worry about it.
284 00:30:44.620 ⇒ 00:30:45.770 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Okay.
285 00:30:46.180 ⇒ 00:30:47.840 Uttam Kumaran: Cool. So that’s great.
286 00:30:47.970 ⇒ 00:30:54.859 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I mean, I mean, in terms of us, don’t worry about the rest of the board.
287 00:30:55.020 ⇒ 00:30:58.299 Uttam Kumaran: That’s Luke, that’s everybody else’s name.
288 00:30:58.940 ⇒ 00:31:07.310 Uttam Kumaran: we’re focused on where mine and your names are, and nailing that, and not getting in trouble during the meeting. So, everybody else can…
289 00:31:08.250 ⇒ 00:31:14.340 Uttam Kumaran: Get yelled at. I don’t care. That’s… that’s their fault. I’m not gonna… I can’t cover for them, so…
290 00:31:14.450 ⇒ 00:31:22.879 Uttam Kumaran: Perfect. So I feel like we’re good on partnerships. Decisions needed… okay, yeah, we talked about… we talked about this. Cool.
291 00:31:23.730 ⇒ 00:31:34.710 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, so I want to pause here. That’s how fast we need to go things. In fact, we need to go things faster than that. We only have 45 minutes. But, like, the benefit of us getting
292 00:31:34.710 ⇒ 00:31:44.839 Uttam Kumaran: this written before the meeting, is some of these, as you can see, I don’t need an update. I’m like, you got it. Cool. So I really want to talk about the things where we disagree, or you need help.
293 00:31:45.340 ⇒ 00:31:46.340 Uttam Kumaran: The rest?
294 00:31:46.660 ⇒ 00:31:56.299 Uttam Kumaran: as long as I can see it, it’s gonna be in my mind. So, I think that’s you kind of seeing a little bit of the pace. I want to go to the bottom, I wrote some notes.
295 00:31:56.500 ⇒ 00:32:01.669 Uttam Kumaran: And so every week, I think we’re gonna do sort of good and bad feedback.
296 00:32:03.710 ⇒ 00:32:20.169 Uttam Kumaran: good, bad is kind of, like, maybe too critical, but, like, could be improved. I think good, this… I think good in the last two weeks, I think, one, you’ve done a great job at, like, being an awesome, like, culture fit. I think you’ve met everybody, I think you’ve done a great job supporting, I think people are pumped.
297 00:32:20.170 ⇒ 00:32:33.230 Uttam Kumaran: that you’re part of the team. I think it’s been really helpful for me being able just to have someone else thinking about operations, and it’s saved me time. And so, it’s, like, I’m really, really happy. I think I’m also really, really glad that you came
298 00:32:33.230 ⇒ 00:32:45.759 Uttam Kumaran: to the ABC call and took time to come to that ABC meeting, and kind of see a little bit upfront of our delivery process. It’s rare that people outside of delivery get to do that, and so that was really great.
299 00:32:45.760 ⇒ 00:32:58.709 Uttam Kumaran: I think in terms of feedback, I think there’s still some ways that I want to see you grow and take over a couple things this week. I think one is you’re still missing some access, so clear all those out, like.
300 00:32:59.240 ⇒ 00:33:10.009 Uttam Kumaran: What you, alongside the four of us in this meeting, need to know… need to at least be aware of all company processes, but especially the ones that touch ops.
301 00:33:10.050 ⇒ 00:33:26.969 Uttam Kumaran: you gotta be like, okay, I know exactly, like, I know what the vault is, I know, like, how we recruit, I know what the AORs are. So, yes, Notion is a priority, but this kind of goes to my third point, which is, like, you’re not a member of the team. Like, you’re a lead.
302 00:33:27.020 ⇒ 00:33:35.570 Uttam Kumaran: Right? And so, I don’t want to be hearing about the AORs just from Eliza, and I don’t want to just be hearing about contracts from Ricoh, like…
303 00:33:36.050 ⇒ 00:33:41.669 Uttam Kumaran: Yes, maybe there’s… that’s their level of… that’s their expertise, and they’re managing it, but they’re managing it underneath you.
304 00:33:41.820 ⇒ 00:33:52.460 Uttam Kumaran: Right? And so you have to have awareness, even if you don’t know how to do it, you still need to know that it exists, right? And so, for example, if Eliza’s presenting on AORs.
305 00:33:52.670 ⇒ 00:34:05.170 Uttam Kumaran: I expect you to have Googled what an AOR is and why it is we do it, right? So you’re gonna see me, like, it’s even… it’s that simple, right? And so… and that goes to my fourth point, is that if you are… if… if you’re… if…
306 00:34:05.220 ⇒ 00:34:20.319 Uttam Kumaran: I’m expecting you to be like, okay, well, I only have 20 hours. Well, then you have to rely on the team for execution more. Those guys have time, and I can tell that they have more in the tank. So your job is to set the strategy, be like, here’s the plan, you go do it.
307 00:34:20.330 ⇒ 00:34:27.790 Uttam Kumaran: Right? Because other… you need to spend time with me and spend time with other leaders to get the requirements, build it out, push it to them, and push it to AI.
308 00:34:27.860 ⇒ 00:34:32.389 Uttam Kumaran: Right? So they’re… what… the reason you’re here is because they are not qualified to do that.
309 00:34:32.580 ⇒ 00:34:38.800 Uttam Kumaran: Right? They don’t have the higher level agency to kind of manage a roadmap, and then manage up.
310 00:34:38.940 ⇒ 00:34:48.210 Uttam Kumaran: You know, so for you, it’s… I don’t want you to plug in and do any… do as much of the work. I think it’s helpful to do some work, because you get to see what it’s like.
311 00:34:48.300 ⇒ 00:35:03.140 Uttam Kumaran: But keep in the back of your mind that your job is to extract leverage for your team, right? It’s like, you… like, for example, they were just two people, you adding should turn them into, like, a team of five, because you’ve given them the clarity, you’ve given them the daily direction.
312 00:35:03.140 ⇒ 00:35:13.180 Uttam Kumaran: And they should be able to nail the things that we talk about here. So think about it as, like, a domino effect from this meeting to then your meeting with them every day. So that’s what my job is, to empower you.
313 00:35:13.220 ⇒ 00:35:19.629 Uttam Kumaran: And then that kind of goes to my other point, is there’s a lot of ops priorities right now. So Notion is a piece of it.
314 00:35:19.690 ⇒ 00:35:24.760 Uttam Kumaran: But… there are a lot of things that are equal or higher importance than Notion.
315 00:35:24.920 ⇒ 00:35:38.120 Uttam Kumaran: this is where I don’t want to say Notion is unimportant, right? But what I do want to say, it is one piece of a lot of things that are going on, and as quickly as you can, I want you to move past Notion so that you can start to get involved in the things that are, like.
316 00:35:38.230 ⇒ 00:35:39.900 Uttam Kumaran: really critical.
317 00:35:39.960 ⇒ 00:35:52.319 Uttam Kumaran: That will… that will really affect everybody in the company’s day-to-day, which you’re getting there. So, I expect that by next week, you’ll have heard this, and you… you kind of, like, would have… would have, like, crushed through these, so…
318 00:35:52.320 ⇒ 00:36:02.189 Uttam Kumaran: That’s fine. I think, similarly, Eliza is owning the Gantt and the roadmap. I’m expecting you to kind of lead that, right? And so, again, take some time this week and
319 00:36:02.690 ⇒ 00:36:07.550 Uttam Kumaran: get through the tasks, but spend some time on, like, what is my team’s roadmap? Like.
320 00:36:07.620 ⇒ 00:36:21.120 Uttam Kumaran: at the end of this quarter, like, are we on track to be like, yo, we crushed? Like, we got a shit ton done. If I was to put my team’s accomplishments on one slide, like, we’re gonna be the best team at Brainforge, right? Like, that’s… that’s how I want you to think.
321 00:36:21.120 ⇒ 00:36:28.740 Uttam Kumaran: Versus if we end up at the quarter, and you’re presenting on, like, your piece, Eliza’s presenting on their piece, Rico is, I don’t think that’s a win.
322 00:36:28.770 ⇒ 00:36:29.550 Uttam Kumaran: Right?
323 00:36:29.810 ⇒ 00:36:40.829 Uttam Kumaran: ultimately, you’re a leader, like, you should give your team credit for everything, and then you own the things that go wrong. But I’m looking at you guys as a collective, right? And so…
324 00:36:40.830 ⇒ 00:36:41.480 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Great.
325 00:36:41.860 ⇒ 00:36:51.739 Uttam Kumaran: it’s… you’re really lucky. Operations is one of the few actual teams in the company. Most of our teams are either, like, delivery is, like, so many teams, or it’s, like, a team of one.
326 00:36:51.820 ⇒ 00:37:07.940 Uttam Kumaran: Right? So, I wanted to give this same feedback to Luke, is that you guys are in a really, really leveraged position here at Brainforge, because you have other people, and you need to rely, and you need to push on those folks. And I think that goes to my last piece, is just, like, you gotta move fast.
327 00:37:08.030 ⇒ 00:37:14.589 Uttam Kumaran: I think you’re seeing over the last two weeks how we’re… we’re moving with,
328 00:37:14.900 ⇒ 00:37:18.309 Uttam Kumaran: We’re not moving fast in, like, in a sloppy way.
329 00:37:18.310 ⇒ 00:37:36.799 Uttam Kumaran: But we are moving… we do have some rigor and have some daily, like, heartbeats, right? So our beats per minute at the company is high, meaning we’re pushing, we’re pushing, we’re pushing. And so, like, a small example of, like, hey, are we gonna create that ops request channel? Yes. Okay, it didn’t get created. Then I had to send a message being like.
330 00:37:36.800 ⇒ 00:37:40.610 Uttam Kumaran: yo, I have an ops request coming, let’s create it. Those are the things where I’m like.
331 00:37:40.610 ⇒ 00:37:41.190 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Hmm.
332 00:37:41.410 ⇒ 00:37:54.020 Uttam Kumaran: just rip through it. So the things that you know are so low risk, just do it. Then the things that are higher risk, or you’re like, hey, before I pass go, I should ask for some feedback, bring it here, or bring it to the channel.
333 00:37:54.560 ⇒ 00:37:59.399 Uttam Kumaran: that’s kind of, like, what I would… what I want to just give feedback on. And the last piece is, like.
334 00:37:59.750 ⇒ 00:38:11.019 Uttam Kumaran: like, we do have a lot of calls, and I think hopefully this week, it should be less where you’re able to focus, but try, even if you spend 5 minutes before calls, to do some research, or…
335 00:38:11.110 ⇒ 00:38:19.680 Uttam Kumaran: bring in some background. Like, even just, like, for example, I put some things like, how do the best companies use Notion? How do I run a great operations team?
336 00:38:19.680 ⇒ 00:38:35.150 Uttam Kumaran: Right? Like, how does operating.app work? Right? So, what you’re gonna find is meetings are short here, and there’s not much time, and the more senior people, and not talking senior in age, I’m talking folks that have been at Brainforge a lot for a long time, they come to meetings like.
337 00:38:35.380 ⇒ 00:38:39.880 Uttam Kumaran: who’s running this? Like, what’s next? What’s next? And that’s what…
338 00:38:39.940 ⇒ 00:38:50.990 Uttam Kumaran: I’m expecting you guys to also bring to the table, and then for… you do the same for your teams. Like, when you’re hosting an ops meeting, push on them to come prepare. What are they… what are they gonna talk about? How are they gonna prepare?
339 00:38:50.990 ⇒ 00:39:05.020 Uttam Kumaran: And so, what I’m hopeful for is that you’re gonna find that every minute of your time in meetings is super, super effective, and you’re gonna be in the same jam that we are, which is, like, at some point, you’re gonna be like, holy shit, I can’t be in this many meetings.
340 00:39:05.020 ⇒ 00:39:13.160 Uttam Kumaran: I need to, like, have some heads-down time, and I’m just trying to help you build that… build those habits early, because… Yeah.
341 00:39:13.380 ⇒ 00:39:31.409 Uttam Kumaran: like, meetings are, like, the bane of, like, company bureaucracy, because people just don’t feel like they can get things done outside of that. And as you become more leveraged, I’m telling you, problems will find you, but naturally, if you’re, like, for every problem, I need to have two, three meetings a week, you’re gonna run out of time.
342 00:39:31.570 ⇒ 00:39:45.609 Uttam Kumaran: And your leverage is gonna stall, and then what’s gonna happen is either you’re gonna come to us and be like, I need more people, or you’re gonna burn out. And we want to avoid both of those. You know, we want to avoid both of those. So, that’s my… that’s my…
343 00:39:46.140 ⇒ 00:39:49.130 Uttam Kumaran: Feedback, I would say, for today.
344 00:39:49.600 ⇒ 00:40:05.840 Sheshu Chandrasekar: No, no, I think this is great feedback, and it tracks with exactly, like, even yesterday, like, I was thinking about, like, how I want to lead this week, it tracks exactly what I want to be better at, so… Cool. Yeah, especially, like, the third point, more of a third team member versus lead, yeah, that’s something that’s,
345 00:40:06.040 ⇒ 00:40:10.359 Sheshu Chandrasekar: It’s been on my mind recently, so… I’m glad we discussed about this.
346 00:40:10.360 ⇒ 00:40:21.470 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, and also, I want to give you… I want to make the decision for you on where you sit in our brain, so that you’re not, like, worried about it, right? Like, you don’t have any doubts either.
347 00:40:21.610 ⇒ 00:40:27.169 Uttam Kumaran: But yeah, I’m glad. What… any feedback for us, or any feedback for the company, or anything else?
348 00:40:28.480 ⇒ 00:40:29.070 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Oh!
349 00:40:29.070 ⇒ 00:40:34.709 Uttam Kumaran: At the moment? I mean, we have… we have… do we have any… we have 15 minutes, so that’s good, right?
350 00:40:36.220 ⇒ 00:40:40.049 Uttam Kumaran: Did we? Oh, we have 3 minutes, sorry, okay. For 3 minutes, it’s great.
351 00:40:40.290 ⇒ 00:40:46.159 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Honestly… I’m still trying to get…
352 00:40:46.560 ⇒ 00:40:53.710 Sheshu Chandrasekar: used to getting the most out of Eliza and Rico, and I think I’m slowly getting better at that, especially going into this week, like…
353 00:40:54.780 ⇒ 00:41:08.290 Sheshu Chandrasekar: I need to stress out the urgency of getting this Notion thing done, because it’s such a bottleneck in my head that it’s just stopping me to build the automations that I want to build, right? Because without clearing out the documentation.
354 00:41:08.360 ⇒ 00:41:17.419 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Like, it’s just so hard for me to tell you, hey, these are the data sources, these are the documentations that I need you to, like, go out and use as a source of.
355 00:41:17.420 ⇒ 00:41:17.960 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
356 00:41:17.960 ⇒ 00:41:19.639 Sheshu Chandrasekar: To build the automation, right?
357 00:41:19.770 ⇒ 00:41:29.380 Sheshu Chandrasekar: So, for me, like, I understand Ricoh and them, they’re… they’re doing God’s work, right? So, for me, it’s like, okay, like, I need to stress the urgency, and I need to…
358 00:41:30.500 ⇒ 00:41:35.560 Sheshu Chandrasekar: enforce that in the most polite way possible, right? So, that’s something that
359 00:41:36.750 ⇒ 00:41:49.410 Sheshu Chandrasekar: my biggest weakness, I will be honest with you, is being extremely blunt. Like, being like, like, you have to do this, right? Like, it’s so hard for me, it’s just not in my nature, but it’s something I need to train as a muscle, right? To be better.
360 00:41:49.410 ⇒ 00:42:04.770 Uttam Kumaran: There’s diff… there’s actually… let me be… there’s different ways of being blunt or assertive, right? One way is that, like, if you come with… if you’re the only person in the meeting with the clarity on the strategy, oftentimes people will look to you, because most people are unprepared.
361 00:42:04.810 ⇒ 00:42:17.959 Uttam Kumaran: Right, right. So if you come prepared, and you’re like, hey, this is the plan for the week, people are gonna be like, damn, I don’t even… I only know my plan for today. We should go ahead and listen. And so there’s ways of being assertive without being blunt.
362 00:42:17.960 ⇒ 00:42:33.709 Uttam Kumaran: This is why you’re gonna see in this meeting, you’re gonna see different ways that we kind of speak with urgency about, like, this thing, this thing, this thing. I also can tell, like, you have… you have the classic, and I used to be like this, it’s just like, everything’s a democracy. And yes, I think, like, it’s actually helpful.
363 00:42:33.710 ⇒ 00:42:34.040 Sheshu Chandrasekar: to be…
364 00:42:34.040 ⇒ 00:42:44.579 Uttam Kumaran: more on that side than the other side, and I feel like that. But you will have to challenge yourself that there are some moments where not everybody needs to understand why.
365 00:42:44.870 ⇒ 00:42:48.209 Uttam Kumaran: Because you’re… you understand why, and you’re on the hook.
366 00:42:48.720 ⇒ 00:42:56.499 Uttam Kumaran: So, like, I’m not going to… like, even if everybody gets Y and you don’t hit the mark, you’re still… that’s an L. That’s still an L.
367 00:42:56.670 ⇒ 00:43:02.040 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. If everybody… if… if everybody… if nobody understands and you hit the mark.
368 00:43:02.150 ⇒ 00:43:16.109 Uttam Kumaran: that’s kind of a W, but it’s gonna be, like, really taxing for everybody. Like, it can’t scale. So, there’s gonna be some things where you need to get everybody on the same page first. There’s gonna be some things where you’re like, guys, just don’t even worry about it, just bang this out, like…
369 00:43:16.320 ⇒ 00:43:21.039 Uttam Kumaran: I’ll tell you… I’ll tell you later why this all fits in. Just bang it out for me.
370 00:43:21.310 ⇒ 00:43:27.310 Uttam Kumaran: you’ll have to play that game. But also, build a relationship. The more relationship you build with people, the less…
371 00:43:27.660 ⇒ 00:43:38.430 Uttam Kumaran: like, direct or… or, like, you know, you don’t gotta do… you don’t have to do much, especially with those two. They’re, like, workhorses. They want to do things. They’re… they’re not, like, struggling, they’re not, like.
372 00:43:38.470 ⇒ 00:43:50.590 Uttam Kumaran: they’re not effing things up, I think they’re just… they just need direction. It’s sort of what we told Luke about Ryan, like, Ryan is a workhorse, but you need to put blinders on him, otherwise he’ll go do a bunch of bullshit that doesn’t matter.
373 00:43:51.400 ⇒ 00:43:51.900 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Right.
374 00:43:51.900 ⇒ 00:44:02.350 Uttam Kumaran: And it’s not his intention, right? Yeah. He just is a curious person, he falls down rabbit holes, and so you need to be like, yo, go do this, and make sure by this time this is out.
375 00:44:02.490 ⇒ 00:44:05.769 Uttam Kumaran: No matter what. And then it gives them actually a lot of clarity.
376 00:44:05.840 ⇒ 00:44:20.529 Uttam Kumaran: Like, he’s like, okay, awesome. Like, before, if he’s like, alright, SEO thing, content thing, schedule thing, blah blah blah, it’s like, he ends up doing half, like, a hundred things, half-assed. And so that’s who you are to your team. You give them the clarity, right? So that is your job, like…
377 00:44:20.530 ⇒ 00:44:34.779 Uttam Kumaran: in the three-legged stool, like, your job as the leader is to give them clarity, right? They should be relying… they should not have to wake up and think, I wonder if what I’m doing is part of our broader strategy. You know, that’s… that’s a waste of their time.
378 00:44:34.840 ⇒ 00:44:41.910 Uttam Kumaran: they should be getting that from you, right? So you are granting that to them, so that they can wake up and be like, okay, I have these 5 things today, I’m gonna knock those out.
379 00:44:42.140 ⇒ 00:44:52.970 Uttam Kumaran: And then eventually, hopefully one or many of those people end up being like, damn, I actually feel like I want to learn more about strategy, and then you pull those people up, right? And you empower those people. Yeah.
380 00:44:53.560 ⇒ 00:44:55.599 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Okay, yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense.
381 00:44:55.680 ⇒ 00:44:57.360 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, it’s such a weird…
382 00:44:57.440 ⇒ 00:45:03.490 Sheshu Chandrasekar: shift, because, like, I expect everyone to be so interested in strategy, but you’re so right, not everyone really cares about that, so…
383 00:45:03.490 ⇒ 00:45:09.589 Uttam Kumaran: No, and you have to, you have to, convince them, you know? So, yeah, you, you do have to…
384 00:45:10.980 ⇒ 00:45:21.599 Uttam Kumaran: win people over, and win people over to your way of working. And there are gonna be moments where you have to be super, super blunt, and we’ll work on that. We’ll work on how to do that, and the messaging there.
385 00:45:22.290 ⇒ 00:45:35.270 Uttam Kumaran: And again, I told you, as long as you meet us halfway, and you’re like, I’m trying to do these things, or have these issues, how can we best solve them? I will give you a menu of options on how to do things, like, because we’ve seen everything, you know?
386 00:45:35.870 ⇒ 00:45:36.190 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Gotcha.
387 00:45:36.190 ⇒ 00:45:56.080 Uttam Kumaran: So this is why I want to create this forum for these types of conversations when you’re like, yo, so-and-so is not doing this. Yes, of course, looping me in will solve everything, but I’m… that’s, like, not a card you want to use all the time. There’s all these different ways of getting people to do the things you need them to do in the ways you want them to accomplish your goal.
388 00:45:57.660 ⇒ 00:46:03.220 Uttam Kumaran: You know, and there’s a whole range of options on how to do that. So, yeah, we’re here to help you with that.
389 00:46:03.920 ⇒ 00:46:08.060 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Brotherhood, yeah, no, yeah, this makes a lot of sense, and…
390 00:46:08.230 ⇒ 00:46:13.989 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Appreciate that we’re aligning on it. So, moving forward, partnerships, it’s just between you and me, Robert, it’s not…
391 00:46:14.270 ⇒ 00:46:15.850 Sheshu Chandrasekar: I mean, I guess he’s included too.
392 00:46:15.850 ⇒ 00:46:24.399 Uttam Kumaran: We… we’re reporting to Robert, so, like, by the GTM meeting, if we’re not… if our shit’s not together, we’re gonna get yelled at. So my job is, like.
393 00:46:24.640 ⇒ 00:46:30.619 Uttam Kumaran: As much as we can, starting probably later this week, because we have our GTM Retro.
394 00:46:30.900 ⇒ 00:46:34.690 Uttam Kumaran: we’ll try to get stuff in there. I think this is where also, like.
395 00:46:34.810 ⇒ 00:46:39.600 Uttam Kumaran: as we work together, think about ways that we can implement better processes, right? Like.
396 00:46:39.600 ⇒ 00:46:43.110 Sheshu Chandrasekar: I’m gonna stream in updates and changes to…
397 00:46:43.110 ⇒ 00:46:45.449 Uttam Kumaran: The partnerships channel as things happen.
398 00:46:45.650 ⇒ 00:46:51.979 Uttam Kumaran: I think it’ll be up to you to think about, okay, do I batch these? Because again, nobody’s looking at this every day, but at least.
399 00:46:51.980 ⇒ 00:46:52.310 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Right.
400 00:46:52.310 ⇒ 00:47:00.939 Uttam Kumaran: twice a week, it needs to be kind of back. So, maybe there’s a way where we copy and paste it to some updates thing, and then we use AI to, like, give us the changes to make.
401 00:47:01.260 ⇒ 00:47:04.659 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t know, but… That’s definitely needed.
402 00:47:05.050 ⇒ 00:47:09.070 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Figured that out, because… I’m a li- I am a little nervous about that.
403 00:47:09.710 ⇒ 00:47:14.440 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I mean, but what I’m gonna save you is I’m gonna… we’re gonna have activities.
404 00:47:14.550 ⇒ 00:47:15.470 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Right.
405 00:47:15.470 ⇒ 00:47:18.640 Uttam Kumaran: But… We need to keep this sheet up to date.
406 00:47:18.820 ⇒ 00:47:23.450 Uttam Kumaran: But it took me 30 minutes today, so it didn’t take me that long.
407 00:47:23.450 ⇒ 00:47:26.450 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, I’m not too worried, it’s just… I just feel like…
408 00:47:26.620 ⇒ 00:47:28.590 Sheshu Chandrasekar: I was just confused a lot.
409 00:47:28.590 ⇒ 00:47:30.929 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, no, I’ll clear all that up for you, don’t worry.
410 00:47:30.930 ⇒ 00:47:31.400 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah.
411 00:47:31.400 ⇒ 00:47:33.730 Uttam Kumaran: I’ll clear all that up for you, so…
412 00:47:33.940 ⇒ 00:47:35.970 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Okay, perfect, yeah, I think…
413 00:47:36.350 ⇒ 00:47:40.109 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, I feel good about this week. I feel like I can get a lot done, for sure.
414 00:47:40.110 ⇒ 00:47:40.760 Uttam Kumaran: Cool.
415 00:47:40.970 ⇒ 00:47:41.430 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah.
416 00:47:41.430 ⇒ 00:47:44.660 Uttam Kumaran: Cool. Alright, dude, I’m gonna jump, but this is great. Yeah, Slack me if you need.
417 00:47:44.660 ⇒ 00:47:46.380 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Absolutely. Absolutely. Talk to you soon.
418 00:47:46.380 ⇒ 00:47:47.489 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, okay, thank you, bye.