Meeting Title: GTM Lead Weekly Date: 2026-02-05 Meeting participants: Luke Scorziell, Uttam Kumaran, Sheshu Chandrasekar, Robert Tseng
WEBVTT
1 00:01:01.670 ⇒ 00:01:04.050 Uttam Kumaran: Hey, dude. I see you in the dock.
2 00:01:04.220 ⇒ 00:01:04.979 Luke Scorziell: Hey, how’s it going?
3 00:01:04.989 ⇒ 00:01:07.439 Uttam Kumaran: Give everyone some time. Good dude.
4 00:01:12.869 ⇒ 00:01:14.299 Uttam Kumaran: It’s been a good week.
5 00:01:14.979 ⇒ 00:01:19.219 Uttam Kumaran: I feel like the last two weeks were a bit tough, and this week I felt like it was productive.
6 00:01:20.010 ⇒ 00:01:23.059 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, just on the client side, or where did it feel productive?
7 00:01:23.060 ⇒ 00:01:31.670 Uttam Kumaran: For me, my joy these days comes from all the AI, internal AI, like, enablement, like, seeing…
8 00:01:31.940 ⇒ 00:01:43.949 Uttam Kumaran: seeing what Robert was able to build on the platform, and seeing, like, how you guys are using it, that’s what makes me happy. Like, I could have never thought of even, like, being able to build stuff like that, and so…
9 00:01:44.590 ⇒ 00:01:49.319 Uttam Kumaran: that stuff was really great. Everybody’s starting to use the vault and things, and
10 00:01:49.870 ⇒ 00:01:55.960 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I feel like we’re actually just every day, just, like, getting better and better, getting more, you know, efficient.
11 00:01:56.270 ⇒ 00:01:59.709 Uttam Kumaran: So, yeah.
12 00:02:01.580 ⇒ 00:02:02.390 Luke Scorziell: Yeah.
13 00:02:02.530 ⇒ 00:02:11.800 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, it was super helpful. I got to talk to Robert for a while this morning, and kind of align on some things, but that, yeah, it was… it was really helpful.
14 00:02:11.800 ⇒ 00:02:15.540 Uttam Kumaran: It’s a new way of doing a lot of this, so it’s like… but…
15 00:02:15.650 ⇒ 00:02:19.149 Uttam Kumaran: I feel like we’re… my job is to sort of enable the…
16 00:02:19.500 ⇒ 00:02:22.949 Uttam Kumaran: The foundation, you know, as much as we can.
17 00:02:23.050 ⇒ 00:02:26.700 Uttam Kumaran: So that, like, each team can sort of build on top of it however they need.
18 00:02:27.600 ⇒ 00:02:29.740 Uttam Kumaran: And, like, sort of just go into the…
19 00:02:30.030 ⇒ 00:02:34.269 Uttam Kumaran: figure out, like, how I can use it for data, how I use it for sales, and then…
20 00:02:34.480 ⇒ 00:02:37.410 Uttam Kumaran: Get the, like, basics going, and then hand it off.
21 00:02:37.590 ⇒ 00:02:43.270 Uttam Kumaran: So that’s what I told Sam. Me and Sam are kind of, like, in contention right now, because I’m pushing, like, all sorts of stuff.
22 00:02:43.510 ⇒ 00:02:57.589 Uttam Kumaran: And I’m… I basically am like, you gotta keep up, as I can’t… I just don’t have time. And so I’m working, like, late night trying to, like, set up things, and… and he’s also thinking about, okay, how do I maintain this? So, yeah, it’s good.
23 00:02:59.450 ⇒ 00:03:01.560 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, I can turn on my camera, too.
24 00:03:02.490 ⇒ 00:03:03.770 Uttam Kumaran: I’m just gonna grab a coffee.
25 00:03:03.770 ⇒ 00:03:05.109 Luke Scorziell: My beautiful face.
26 00:03:09.340 ⇒ 00:03:10.949 Robert Tseng: Yeah, it just got started, or…
27 00:03:11.130 ⇒ 00:03:16.069 Uttam Kumaran: We were just catching up. Yeah, if you guys want to take a second and write notes in the doc.
28 00:03:16.180 ⇒ 00:03:19.220 Uttam Kumaran: We can, we can get started whenever we’re ready.
29 00:03:21.590 ⇒ 00:03:24.279 Luke Scorziell: Dude, I was typing away when you hopped on.
30 00:03:24.680 ⇒ 00:03:25.790 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
31 00:03:26.300 ⇒ 00:03:28.509 Robert Tseng: What’s the channel called again? Something Leads?
32 00:03:28.510 ⇒ 00:03:31.520 Uttam Kumaran: Founding, ops… House.
33 00:03:31.520 ⇒ 00:03:32.360 Robert Tseng: Got it.
34 00:03:32.650 ⇒ 00:03:33.440 Robert Tseng: Thanks.
35 00:03:34.930 ⇒ 00:03:38.819 Robert Tseng: That’s the thing with Slack, as soon as I click it, it disappears, never see it again.
36 00:03:43.760 ⇒ 00:03:44.430 Uttam Kumaran: We have a lot.
37 00:03:44.430 ⇒ 00:03:49.020 Robert Tseng: Unless I, like, star it or move it to a section, yeah, I mean, I’m sure you and I just.
38 00:03:49.020 ⇒ 00:04:01.249 Uttam Kumaran: Well, yeah, yeah. I mean, I feel like this… yeah, me and you are in a lot. I go back and I archive things, and I think now that, like, ops and sales are like a team, you guys can
39 00:04:01.800 ⇒ 00:04:05.689 Uttam Kumaran: do whatever you want, like, because I’m still wrangling all the other stuff, but…
40 00:04:06.020 ⇒ 00:04:10.350 Uttam Kumaran: Your field would have one channel, have 10, it’s whatever, because
41 00:04:10.970 ⇒ 00:04:16.570 Uttam Kumaran: when I… I just, like, I tend to create too many, just for… to create different things for different topics, but…
42 00:04:18.390 ⇒ 00:04:19.640 Uttam Kumaran: Whatever it is.
43 00:04:21.649 ⇒ 00:04:26.019 Robert Tseng: Okay. Yeah, actually, I could probably use a few minutes just to go through my reflections.
44 00:04:26.020 ⇒ 00:04:27.959 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, dude, take a sec. Alright.
45 00:04:27.960 ⇒ 00:04:30.989 Robert Tseng: I’m gonna… I’m gonna whisper them, so I’m gonna mute myself.
46 00:04:34.150 ⇒ 00:04:43.430 Uttam Kumaran: There’s a… well, you know there’s a Whisper feature, that you… because I listen to a lot of podcasts or music, but then I want to talk to Whisper, and there’s a feature that allows you to not mute
47 00:04:43.790 ⇒ 00:04:44.810 Uttam Kumaran: you’re…
48 00:04:44.960 ⇒ 00:04:49.160 Uttam Kumaran: music, so in case you haven’t turned it on, it’s nice. But I know you don’t listen to music.
49 00:04:49.160 ⇒ 00:04:54.479 Robert Tseng: How do you listen to something while you’re talking? Dude, I gotta, like… I can’t, if something’s going on.
50 00:04:54.480 ⇒ 00:04:55.499 Uttam Kumaran: What is amazing.
51 00:04:55.500 ⇒ 00:05:01.559 Robert Tseng: Going out, I can’t take something in. Like, I’m gonna literally mute you for a few minutes while I, like, record.
52 00:05:01.560 ⇒ 00:05:07.819 Uttam Kumaran: What are you talking about? I… I don’t… you’re, like, asking me, like, how do I… how do I, like, walk and breathe at the same time?
53 00:05:07.820 ⇒ 00:05:08.400 Robert Tseng: Oh my god.
54 00:05:08.400 ⇒ 00:05:09.800 Uttam Kumaran: I can’t explain.
55 00:05:16.390 ⇒ 00:05:24.339 Uttam Kumaran: sometimes I’m in… I’m in meetings, like, with client meetings where I’m, like, video off, and I’m like, I gotta do other work, like, this is… it’s not going anywhere.
56 00:05:26.730 ⇒ 00:05:27.440 Luke Scorziell: Impressive.
57 00:05:28.520 ⇒ 00:05:32.120 Uttam Kumaran: No, not impressive. It’s not a good habit. It’s,
58 00:05:32.220 ⇒ 00:05:36.499 Uttam Kumaran: you know, it’s… it implies that I’m, like, I shouldn’t be in that meeting for that.
59 00:05:36.500 ⇒ 00:05:37.150 Luke Scorziell: weird, right?
60 00:05:37.150 ⇒ 00:05:39.229 Uttam Kumaran: Symptom of a larger problem.
61 00:05:39.230 ⇒ 00:05:39.940 Luke Scorziell: Yeah.
62 00:05:42.750 ⇒ 00:05:44.610 Uttam Kumaran: We’re getting there, we’re getting there.
63 00:05:51.390 ⇒ 00:05:57.760 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, Clarence was here yesterday, we ended up going to dinner. He came with me to ABC for our final presentation.
64 00:05:58.740 ⇒ 00:05:59.530 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Oh, how did that go?
65 00:05:59.530 ⇒ 00:06:00.230 Luke Scorziell: Alright.
66 00:06:00.930 ⇒ 00:06:10.250 Uttam Kumaran: It was good, yeah, I mean, I think we put our best foot forward. We walked through, like, it was almost…
67 00:06:10.600 ⇒ 00:06:13.270 Uttam Kumaran: Almost 4 hours of presentation straight.
68 00:06:13.730 ⇒ 00:06:19.519 Uttam Kumaran: About there at, like, 1, and then we basically finished at around, like, 4.45.
69 00:06:19.810 ⇒ 00:06:22.850 Uttam Kumaran: And…
70 00:06:23.700 ⇒ 00:06:41.830 Uttam Kumaran: really just tried to go through all of, all of what the hard work that, like, Amber, Zoran, Robert had, and… and I tried to just tie a bow and everything for the CEO, and… and from both… what me and Clarence both were like, it’s clear they want to do something with us, they have to find out how to get the money.
71 00:06:42.060 ⇒ 00:06:56.620 Uttam Kumaran: But it was… I mean, for me, it was really powerful, and the CEO… everybody had left, and, like, there was another big meeting they had, and the CEO stayed behind for a second. He was like, look, I have a $100 million business, I’m trying to take it
72 00:06:56.910 ⇒ 00:06:58.250 Uttam Kumaran: to 250.
73 00:06:58.370 ⇒ 00:07:04.500 Uttam Kumaran: And I don’t know how. Nobody’s given me answers until, like, this meeting on, like, what potential way for us to get there.
74 00:07:04.670 ⇒ 00:07:11.140 Uttam Kumaran: And I told them, I said, look, we work with a lot of businesses that are trying to do that same thing, and…
75 00:07:11.520 ⇒ 00:07:18.630 Uttam Kumaran: We really believe that one of the ways to effectively do that, and effectively give your team that insight, is
76 00:07:18.770 ⇒ 00:07:28.979 Uttam Kumaran: You know, through data. And we have a clear path towards enabling that. You guys have very interested people in the organization that want to use that, and…
77 00:07:29.210 ⇒ 00:07:36.430 Uttam Kumaran: like, I would love to take a stab at it. I think it’s… but we also have costs, and we’re trying to… we’re trying to do it in a way where
78 00:07:36.690 ⇒ 00:07:41.340 Uttam Kumaran: We’re trying to do some stuff that’s performance-based, some stuff that’s at cost,
79 00:07:42.810 ⇒ 00:07:45.349 Uttam Kumaran: So yeah, I mean, I think it was good, we’ll see what they come back with.
80 00:07:49.270 ⇒ 00:07:50.150 Sheshu Chandrasekar: That’s awesome.
81 00:07:50.750 ⇒ 00:07:51.440 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
82 00:08:00.970 ⇒ 00:08:02.930 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Oh, God, the Lakers thought.
83 00:11:18.210 ⇒ 00:11:19.540 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, ready?
84 00:11:22.450 ⇒ 00:11:24.680 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, just had Chrisser audit my…
85 00:11:24.940 ⇒ 00:11:25.530 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yep.
86 00:11:26.090 ⇒ 00:11:27.869 Luke Scorziell: All the stuff and got some good feedback.
87 00:11:27.870 ⇒ 00:11:32.050 Uttam Kumaran: What do you say? Yeah. Of course you’re audit your reflection, yeah.
88 00:11:34.600 ⇒ 00:11:35.960 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
89 00:11:35.960 ⇒ 00:11:37.740 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, more to business outcomes.
90 00:11:38.910 ⇒ 00:11:42.340 Uttam Kumaran: Maybe I can go first, and then we can go around the horn.
91 00:11:43.420 ⇒ 00:11:43.990 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
92 00:11:45.590 ⇒ 00:11:51.260 Uttam Kumaran: So, on my piece, I think, like, if I think about delivery, a couple of our goals
93 00:11:51.550 ⇒ 00:12:00.399 Uttam Kumaran: coming in in the middle of January, we’re trying to get people to run stand-ups a little bit better. I think things are running now, typically within 15 minutes, I feel like.
94 00:12:00.690 ⇒ 00:12:06.109 Uttam Kumaran: It’s good. I think Awash and Sam are taking things more seriously, which is great.
95 00:12:08.620 ⇒ 00:12:19.150 Uttam Kumaran: I think our recruiting pipeline is sort of back, like, that post was really, really great, Luke. Not only did that kick off a lot of, like, net new, but I got texted by, like.
96 00:12:19.590 ⇒ 00:12:26.119 Uttam Kumaran: 10, 15 people, either Biker, basically, like, I have someone Who can come do…
97 00:12:26.250 ⇒ 00:12:28.100 Uttam Kumaran: Who should… who I would recommend.
98 00:12:28.350 ⇒ 00:12:32.709 Uttam Kumaran: So, my ask is, like, how do we… we should do one of those once a month.
99 00:12:33.000 ⇒ 00:12:40.560 Uttam Kumaran: I think it would really, really help us on the recruiting side to continue to build pipeline, and I think it’s easy advertising to just brag about us anyways.
100 00:12:40.560 ⇒ 00:12:41.740 Luke Scorziell: Yeah.
101 00:12:41.740 ⇒ 00:12:44.000 Uttam Kumaran: Half of those people are leaving a job.
102 00:12:44.450 ⇒ 00:12:45.310 Uttam Kumaran: And…
103 00:12:45.460 ⇒ 00:12:54.219 Uttam Kumaran: they… even if they don’t work out here, they should probably buy a… they should probably just hire us for whatever company they’re at, right? So it’s really, like, a win-win, those recruiting posts.
104 00:12:55.000 ⇒ 00:13:00.130 Uttam Kumaran: I mean, but that all takes time, like, I probably have one or two interviews a day.
105 00:13:00.510 ⇒ 00:13:01.650 Uttam Kumaran: And…
106 00:13:01.840 ⇒ 00:13:07.100 Uttam Kumaran: I think we changed up a little bit about how we’re doing recruiting. We’ll… we’ll do a meeting on Monday.
107 00:13:07.350 ⇒ 00:13:12.600 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t know if it’s already been booked on, How we do recruiting.
108 00:13:12.840 ⇒ 00:13:18.600 Uttam Kumaran: I think ops team has done a good job at, like, sort of mapping it out.
109 00:13:18.800 ⇒ 00:13:29.000 Uttam Kumaran: And we now… we have… I think we have a good process for which, like, for some people, I chat with them to sort of hype them up. For other people, they go straight into, like, Loom-based application process, and then go into funnel.
110 00:13:29.250 ⇒ 00:13:34.939 Uttam Kumaran: It’s… I think it’s sort of very similar to sales, and that’s, like, a lot of momentum-based.
111 00:13:35.170 ⇒ 00:13:39.750 Uttam Kumaran: But I’m… I just have to keep raising the bar, like… I think…
112 00:13:39.990 ⇒ 00:13:42.579 Uttam Kumaran: Some people are… some people are…
113 00:13:42.710 ⇒ 00:13:45.640 Uttam Kumaran: Are pretty good, but then still, like.
114 00:13:45.810 ⇒ 00:13:50.929 Uttam Kumaran: Not confident that they can get… be in front of clients doing work, and we just have to say no.
115 00:13:51.280 ⇒ 00:14:01.830 Uttam Kumaran: And that’s tough, like, I think emotionally it’s tough, like, to just continuously talk to people, and, like, 9 out of 10 people, I’m like, you’re just… you’re not qualified. And we have to raise that bar.
116 00:14:01.960 ⇒ 00:14:11.289 Uttam Kumaran: Because if I bring on people that are… that are, like, B or C players, then it affects all of you guys and everybody, because you’ll start to… you’ll start to…
117 00:14:11.560 ⇒ 00:14:14.440 Uttam Kumaran: Work with those people and be like, this sucks.
118 00:14:14.570 ⇒ 00:14:15.750 Uttam Kumaran: And so…
119 00:14:16.490 ⇒ 00:14:32.550 Uttam Kumaran: that’s… that’s, I feel like, my biggest change, is continuing to just keep that bar really high. On… back to kind of, like, delivery stuff, I think Ashwini and Casey were kind of both dropping the ball on, like, EP. I think Ashwini was dropping the ball on more than just that, and so we’ve…
120 00:14:32.640 ⇒ 00:14:39.140 Uttam Kumaran: sort of both moved… we both moved both of them off EP, and I think as Fresh Sweeney especially, I’m like, yo, you need to just, like.
121 00:14:39.440 ⇒ 00:14:43.849 Uttam Kumaran: Figure your shit out, because he really, like, fucked up a lot of stuff last two weeks.
122 00:14:45.510 ⇒ 00:14:54.340 Uttam Kumaran: So that’s, like, kind of, like, what… that’s, like, one of the worries. Otherwise, we just need more people. Like, we don’t have enough people for the amount of work that clients are asking us for.
123 00:14:54.470 ⇒ 00:15:00.729 Uttam Kumaran: This continues to be that we need more people on the strategy side, and we need one more…
124 00:15:00.860 ⇒ 00:15:07.249 Uttam Kumaran: analytics engineer. So that’s just gonna happen as we grow, so we just have to keep recruiting, keep recruiting.
125 00:15:08.230 ⇒ 00:15:17.600 Uttam Kumaran: I think I worked on a ton of stuff on the platform, both this weekend and this week, and moved the ball forward, like, extremely.
126 00:15:17.750 ⇒ 00:15:18.710 Uttam Kumaran: Far.
127 00:15:21.390 ⇒ 00:15:27.599 Uttam Kumaran: One is it’s… I’m sort of the person at the front of the line, like, figuring out how all this shit works.
128 00:15:27.730 ⇒ 00:15:31.200 Uttam Kumaran: And then, like, being like, okay, if it’s hard for me.
129 00:15:31.410 ⇒ 00:15:39.149 Uttam Kumaran: then it’s gonna be… it’s just gonna be very, very hard for other people, and so I’m figuring out, like, how the vault works, how all these different tools are working, and building the platform.
130 00:15:39.250 ⇒ 00:15:45.099 Uttam Kumaran: I think in that sense, too, I’ve been able to kind of successfully motivate Sam and Mustafa to sort of help me.
131 00:15:45.230 ⇒ 00:15:48.590 Uttam Kumaran: There’s really, like, nobody else, I think, that’s, like.
132 00:15:49.350 ⇒ 00:16:03.950 Uttam Kumaran: both, like, cares enough and has the capability to help me on, like, a lot of this platform stuff, because it’s a mix of AI, software engineering, and, like, understanding the business. But I think the big win this week, Robert, was seeing, like, how much you’ve pushed your side.
133 00:16:04.090 ⇒ 00:16:10.439 Uttam Kumaran: And I know… I’m happy that, like, we were able to enable a lot of the things that you’re building in Cursor.
134 00:16:10.730 ⇒ 00:16:16.529 Uttam Kumaran: And, like, that’s exactly, like, what we’re trying to do. And so there’s more guardrails and things, but, like.
135 00:16:16.920 ⇒ 00:16:21.099 Uttam Kumaran: I’m, like, I’m now, like, 10x more effective than I was.
136 00:16:21.340 ⇒ 00:16:24.219 Uttam Kumaran: As, like, a normal engineer, using a lot of this stuff.
137 00:16:24.590 ⇒ 00:16:30.400 Uttam Kumaran: And so, even if our team can become 2-3x better, like, we will win in a big way.
138 00:16:30.820 ⇒ 00:16:37.280 Uttam Kumaran: And so, for me, that’s why I’m like, I just have to keep being the drum and getting people to use some of these tools.
139 00:16:37.640 ⇒ 00:16:43.400 Uttam Kumaran: I’m just still in, like, too many, like, fucking meetings.
140 00:16:43.580 ⇒ 00:16:47.290 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t… I really am trying hard not to be, but…
141 00:16:47.450 ⇒ 00:16:56.770 Uttam Kumaran: I think it’s a mix of… I canceled all, like, my network, like, random networking stuff for the most part, unless it helps us for sales.
142 00:16:57.700 ⇒ 00:17:00.639 Robert Tseng: I don’t know, dude, your Thursday, Friday afternoons still look like a lot.
143 00:17:00.640 ⇒ 00:17:01.140 Uttam Kumaran: Cool.
144 00:17:01.140 ⇒ 00:17:01.730 Robert Tseng: Who am I?
145 00:17:01.730 ⇒ 00:17:10.480 Uttam Kumaran: talking to. Dude, these are all… these are all… it’s Amber’s on our team, and it’s Miranda for recruiting. Meaning, I’m not trying to do, like…
146 00:17:11.210 ⇒ 00:17:17.130 Uttam Kumaran: I’m not trying to take calls anymore, like, with partners that aren’t, like, leads, or…
147 00:17:17.250 ⇒ 00:17:20.649 Uttam Kumaran: People where it’s like, it’s not gonna result in money, but…
148 00:17:21.640 ⇒ 00:17:37.090 Uttam Kumaran: I also am… what’s happening, though, is if I don’t get a message out to clients by 10 AM, we start the day on our heels. And so, I think sort of opposite to you, Robert, I have to start my, like, first 3-4 hours just purely on delivery to buy time back.
149 00:17:37.410 ⇒ 00:17:43.059 Uttam Kumaran: And I wasn’t confident mid-last month that the stand-ups could run without me.
150 00:17:43.280 ⇒ 00:17:50.979 Uttam Kumaran: But now I’m getting more confident, so I just, like, don’t need to attend most of them, or find a way to just send a quick update in Slack.
151 00:17:55.910 ⇒ 00:18:08.810 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, so that’s, like, kind of my update. I feel like I’m just gonna continue to spend more time. Like, the time I spend on platform has, like, affected so many different people, so I’m seeing that, like, ball rolling there, which is great, and just continuing to… to push that, so…
152 00:18:09.280 ⇒ 00:18:16.610 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, that’s me. Maybe Luke, if you want to go.
153 00:18:18.690 ⇒ 00:18:23.070 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, so… Got it.
154 00:18:24.240 ⇒ 00:18:30.020 Luke Scorziell: Combine my… My cursor feedback with my…
155 00:18:30.650 ⇒ 00:18:38.400 Luke Scorziell: my reflection. Yeah, I think the, like, weekly… just reflecting back on this week, obviously, I think going into
156 00:18:38.910 ⇒ 00:18:45.289 Luke Scorziell: Friday, I felt a lot of momentum, and then, woke up with, like, a 103-degree fever, so that was…
157 00:18:46.410 ⇒ 00:18:49.070 Luke Scorziell: A good way to kind of just stall out,
158 00:18:49.370 ⇒ 00:18:55.430 Luke Scorziell: some of that, but I think maybe that was helpful then to have, like, the whole,
159 00:18:56.330 ⇒ 00:19:04.080 Luke Scorziell: just, like, Notion, whatever debate, because I think the, like, root thing there is just trying to have, like, one central place where we’re…
160 00:19:04.510 ⇒ 00:19:09.399 Luke Scorziell: like, operating, and so I think, yeah, what Robert built with Cursor.
161 00:19:09.570 ⇒ 00:19:12.509 Luke Scorziell: feels really helpful to me, because now I can see, like.
162 00:19:12.700 ⇒ 00:19:16.819 Luke Scorziell: This is a specific campaign we’re launching, this is the messaging we’re putting out from it.
163 00:19:17.050 ⇒ 00:19:18.640 Luke Scorziell: And then this is the content.
164 00:19:18.820 ⇒ 00:19:25.180 Luke Scorziell: I think, yeah, Robert and I had a good conversation this morning. I’ve… And I think, like.
165 00:19:25.700 ⇒ 00:19:35.360 Luke Scorziell: blocked or stuck or something on, like, the… just getting, like, sales outreach out, which obviously is, like, leading to us not having the numbers that we need to hit. And so…
166 00:19:35.630 ⇒ 00:19:44.220 Luke Scorziell: like, we talked about that, and I might shift more of the focus this week into MQLs and give Robert the…
167 00:19:44.970 ⇒ 00:19:48.250 Luke Scorziell: like… More ownership on the,
168 00:19:48.440 ⇒ 00:19:55.720 Luke Scorziell: SQL side and actually doing the outreach, and I think part of that’s probably just learning, I guess, to me, like, what’s working and what’s not, and…
169 00:19:56.020 ⇒ 00:20:00.690 Luke Scorziell: And I think reflecting on it, too, for me, it’s like,
170 00:20:01.440 ⇒ 00:20:08.779 Luke Scorziell: I know that, like, reaching out cold to a lot of accounts can be kind of a tough way to meet people, and so I think, like.
171 00:20:08.940 ⇒ 00:20:14.099 Luke Scorziell: Internally, that’s probably something that’s blocking me from wanting to do that, and so figuring out, like, the best way to…
172 00:20:14.640 ⇒ 00:20:20.770 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, just start getting, content out there. But then I think even today, like, just…
173 00:20:21.050 ⇒ 00:20:24.270 Luke Scorziell: Us being able to talk, and then having that,
174 00:20:25.070 ⇒ 00:20:31.359 Luke Scorziell: Like, giving me a bandwidth of focusing on, like, how do we…
175 00:20:31.810 ⇒ 00:20:38.719 Luke Scorziell: start getting more MQLs, from content, and if that’s, like… because right now, I’ve just been, like, turn on content.
176 00:20:39.040 ⇒ 00:20:41.070 Luke Scorziell: Let Ryan kind of do his own thing.
177 00:20:41.290 ⇒ 00:20:41.950 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
178 00:20:41.950 ⇒ 00:20:46.610 Luke Scorziell: We’ll assume we’ll get some good stuff, like, put links, but, like, the ideal would be…
179 00:20:46.850 ⇒ 00:20:49.590 Luke Scorziell: Kinda outline this, like,
180 00:20:50.160 ⇒ 00:20:54.830 Luke Scorziell: Process of, like, we put out a post, it has, like, a one-pager or demo that people can just watch.
181 00:20:55.120 ⇒ 00:21:03.519 Luke Scorziell: maybe we do, like, an interactive lead magnet from Lovable, and then if both of those seem like they’re doing well, then maybe we say, hey, let’s do, like, a…
182 00:21:03.660 ⇒ 00:21:08.970 Luke Scorziell: a live walkthrough where people can sign up and, like, hop on a Zoom or something.
183 00:21:08.970 ⇒ 00:21:09.510 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
184 00:21:09.830 ⇒ 00:21:16.219 Luke Scorziell: And then… and then turn that into booking meetings. So that, to me, feels like a process that I can, like, systematize and build.
185 00:21:16.380 ⇒ 00:21:20.910 Luke Scorziell: So, as we’re, like, launching things, we just have, like.
186 00:21:21.050 ⇒ 00:21:23.200 Luke Scorziell: Each time we know, like, you know.
187 00:21:23.370 ⇒ 00:21:30.880 Luke Scorziell: first we’re gonna launch with, like, a Notion page, then we’re gonna launch the next post with, some kind of gating, and then…
188 00:21:31.130 ⇒ 00:21:35.620 Luke Scorziell: either invite people to a webinar or book a meeting. So that’s…
189 00:21:36.280 ⇒ 00:21:40.640 Luke Scorziell: like, thinking there, and I think as we…
190 00:21:41.400 ⇒ 00:21:45.000 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, content, I think, is where I’m feeling, like, most… like…
191 00:21:45.760 ⇒ 00:21:49.619 Luke Scorziell: acclimated, I guess, in the business, and then able to…
192 00:21:49.790 ⇒ 00:21:55.850 Luke Scorziell: to push. And then I think one of the other things, too, would just be on that,
193 00:21:56.560 ⇒ 00:22:04.310 Luke Scorziell: The recruiting post, like, Yeah, what are the feedback mechanisms of…
194 00:22:04.470 ⇒ 00:22:07.600 Luke Scorziell: a post like that, that… because obviously I can see, like, I could…
195 00:22:07.800 ⇒ 00:22:10.309 Luke Scorziell: People… a lot of people engaged, and…
196 00:22:10.550 ⇒ 00:22:15.489 Luke Scorziell: and replied, I think, as Robert and I were talking about, it’s, like, not necessarily people within our ICP.
197 00:22:17.150 ⇒ 00:22:22.920 Luke Scorziell: So, yeah, I guess trying to figure out the two. And then I’m noticing that, like, some of the posts that I’ve written
198 00:22:23.090 ⇒ 00:22:29.760 Luke Scorziell: Like, personally, and put more effort into, have also performed a bit better.
199 00:22:30.130 ⇒ 00:22:34.859 Luke Scorziell: And so, like, in my mind, I’m wondering if maybe putting that kind of effort into
200 00:22:35.200 ⇒ 00:22:40.290 Luke Scorziell: More, like, service-based posts could be helpful, so…
201 00:22:41.980 ⇒ 00:22:45.900 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, that’s pretty much, I guess, on my end, blocking…
202 00:22:46.410 ⇒ 00:22:52.680 Luke Scorziell: I talked about the sales side stuff, and then…
203 00:22:53.280 ⇒ 00:22:59.120 Luke Scorziell: I think it’s just, like, the… what is our capacity to do things? Like, if I have the idea to, like, hey, let’s do, like.
204 00:22:59.270 ⇒ 00:23:05.429 Luke Scorziell: a live cursor webinar, or, like, a dbt, like, audit walkthrough? Like, is that something I can just say, like.
205 00:23:06.280 ⇒ 00:23:08.079 Luke Scorziell: I think so. I think so.
206 00:23:08.410 ⇒ 00:23:08.960 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
207 00:23:10.360 ⇒ 00:23:16.780 Uttam Kumaran: I’ll do it, I’ll do whatever you want me to do, whenever. I’ll just show up, and I’ll do whatever it is you need me to do.
208 00:23:17.710 ⇒ 00:23:24.170 Uttam Kumaran: But that’s, like, I think… I think I’m glad that… I mean, I think my biggest point is that, like.
209 00:23:24.770 ⇒ 00:23:26.940 Uttam Kumaran: I think we’re pushing really hard.
210 00:23:27.120 ⇒ 00:23:33.610 Uttam Kumaran: And I think you’re starting to pick it up. Like, I can see, like, week over week, you’re starting to grow and see, like.
211 00:23:33.810 ⇒ 00:23:43.459 Uttam Kumaran: okay, actually, like, just getting a post out there every day is actually just a good habit. We’ll continue to refine, but the reason why I like the recruiting post is, like, it got 100 likes.
212 00:23:43.500 ⇒ 00:23:59.710 Uttam Kumaran: and it’s got 100 likes by a lot of other, sort of, business owners or consult… like, and the way LinkedIn works, as long as someone likes it, it’s just gonna populate in their feed. So, some of those things are just for broad awareness, and then we hammer things that are also super, like, conversion-focused.
213 00:23:59.870 ⇒ 00:24:19.160 Uttam Kumaran: like, the lead magnets and things like that. But also, it’s just helpful, like, broadly, if I’m calling somebody and they open my account and they see that we’re legit, it smooths a lot over, so… I think that’s a big win, like, I’m… I feel like that we’re just getting posts out there, and I’m seeing, particularly on the… on the partnership side, like.
214 00:24:19.160 ⇒ 00:24:31.519 Uttam Kumaran: every time we post about a partner, like, something random happens. Like, I get a call from somebody, or the partner themselves, like, does more business, tries to do more business with us, and that’s a much longer sales cycle.
215 00:24:31.590 ⇒ 00:24:36.879 Uttam Kumaran: And longer relationship for partners, but every single one of those helps.
216 00:24:37.010 ⇒ 00:24:37.930 Uttam Kumaran: So…
217 00:24:38.130 ⇒ 00:24:45.710 Uttam Kumaran: I think it’s a big win if you could just get both of our accounts to posting every day. I feel like we’re gonna get to some natural wins there.
218 00:24:45.800 ⇒ 00:24:58.170 Uttam Kumaran: And then, yeah, like, your technology piece, you should literally just, like, write what it is you need, and then just send it in the channel and tag me, and I will build it for you, or I’ll build a crappy version, and then get someone to take it to the finish line.
219 00:24:58.300 ⇒ 00:25:07.579 Uttam Kumaran: What we want to avoid… like, what I want to… some… the thing about our business is a lot of the people on the technology side are just…
220 00:25:07.940 ⇒ 00:25:20.599 Uttam Kumaran: used to the way things work. Like, the time it takes to do things. Like, I… I know how fast we can move, but what I lack is the time to move them. But…
221 00:25:20.770 ⇒ 00:25:34.370 Uttam Kumaran: in 20 minutes, I can build a crappy version of that, and then call Mustafa and be like, here’s what I was thinking, kind of got it most of the way, can you just finish it up and ship it? And he’ll do it. But if you go to Mustafa and you ask him to build this, there’s gonna be a lot lost in translation.
222 00:25:34.900 ⇒ 00:25:38.179 Uttam Kumaran: And so, until the platform is at a point where you, yourself.
223 00:25:38.350 ⇒ 00:25:41.090 Uttam Kumaran: could skip me and Mustafa and just build this.
224 00:25:41.520 ⇒ 00:25:54.520 Uttam Kumaran: like, I think me and you just have to pair with me. Like, I’m probably the most enabled person right now. And so, if you’re like, hey, this technology would be great, I’ll just try to take a stab at it. And then, that’s what I’m doing with a lot of the features that we’re building.
225 00:25:54.670 ⇒ 00:25:57.909 Uttam Kumaran: Building, like, the first version and then handing it off for someone to finish up.
226 00:25:59.830 ⇒ 00:26:00.160 Luke Scorziell: Okay.
227 00:26:00.160 ⇒ 00:26:00.680 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
228 00:26:01.230 ⇒ 00:26:05.470 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, no, I think that’d be good, because I think, like, if…
229 00:26:06.160 ⇒ 00:26:17.879 Luke Scorziell: just, in my head, it’s like, if we need to start getting emails and people clicking on lead magnets, and… Yeah. Like, what is the best way to do that? And so, that doesn’t seem like it should be super complicated. Yeah.
230 00:26:18.460 ⇒ 00:26:19.779 Luke Scorziell: But,
231 00:26:20.960 ⇒ 00:26:27.299 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, okay, and that, I think, is, I guess, like, a risk that I identified, too, is just, like, if we’re talking about
232 00:26:27.960 ⇒ 00:26:34.510 Luke Scorziell: too many different services and too many different ICPs, like, it’s possible that we won’t build an audience with, like, any one
233 00:26:34.760 ⇒ 00:26:39.079 Luke Scorziell: I guess the caveat being, like.
234 00:26:39.540 ⇒ 00:26:41.279 Luke Scorziell: If we just talk about one…
235 00:26:48.020 ⇒ 00:26:48.790 Uttam Kumaran: Butting out.
236 00:26:53.950 ⇒ 00:26:55.539 Uttam Kumaran: Luke, we lost you a little bit.
237 00:27:00.380 ⇒ 00:27:00.780 Luke Scorziell: Oh.
238 00:27:00.780 ⇒ 00:27:02.089 Robert Tseng: We lost them completely.
239 00:27:02.090 ⇒ 00:27:02.410 Uttam Kumaran: You bet.
240 00:27:02.730 ⇒ 00:27:03.860 Robert Tseng: Oh, there’s back, yeah.
241 00:27:03.860 ⇒ 00:27:04.250 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Thank you.
242 00:27:04.830 ⇒ 00:27:09.760 Luke Scorziell: Is, like, so with, with, like, the contextual thing, like.
243 00:27:09.810 ⇒ 00:27:26.859 Luke Scorziell: I’m assuming a big risk that we have there is just that no one seems to have any insurance people on their network, so it’s like, we can have these really great posts about insurance, but, like, who’s gonna read them? Yeah. The maybe upside is, if we tag contextual in each of those posts.
244 00:27:26.990 ⇒ 00:27:29.499 Luke Scorziell: And just say, we built a solution with Contextual.
245 00:27:29.720 ⇒ 00:27:31.839 Luke Scorziell: then, like… Well, I think the.
246 00:27:31.840 ⇒ 00:27:37.460 Uttam Kumaran: The way that you guys have the campaign, though, is, like, we post and we message in conjunction.
247 00:27:37.570 ⇒ 00:27:40.710 Uttam Kumaran: And so part of the fact that we don’t have any connections
248 00:27:40.860 ⇒ 00:27:44.280 Uttam Kumaran: is actually something we just have to bootstrap that. Like…
249 00:27:44.640 ⇒ 00:27:58.300 Uttam Kumaran: we have to post… it’s like chicken or the egg, right? Like, we can’t… we don’t have no background insurance, so how do we just bootstrap a background in insurance, right? Like, so what… what if you guys post, I’ll call Ian, I’ll be like, Ian, you reflect on this.
250 00:27:58.400 ⇒ 00:28:15.169 Uttam Kumaran: I’ll tell him to tell some people to reflect on it, send it to some people. Like, we’ll somehow bootstrap, like, we know what we’re talking about in order to get into their face. I mean, you’re right, but I don’t think necessarily that people are, like, following us and being like, oh, one day they talk about this, one day they talk about that. People only read the stuff that they…
251 00:28:15.500 ⇒ 00:28:18.170 Uttam Kumaran: They… it affects them. Otherwise, they’re scrolling.
252 00:28:18.530 ⇒ 00:28:19.610 Luke Scorziell: So…
253 00:28:20.390 ⇒ 00:28:24.459 Uttam Kumaran: in that situation, I don’t… I’m not as worried as I am
254 00:28:24.620 ⇒ 00:28:27.299 Uttam Kumaran: Of, like, just having those go out.
255 00:28:27.520 ⇒ 00:28:34.749 Uttam Kumaran: But, like, but, like, a service, or, like, a service plus vertical campaign, I like the wrapping that exists now.
256 00:28:35.060 ⇒ 00:28:38.059 Uttam Kumaran: Where you have posts, you have emails, you have content.
257 00:28:40.760 ⇒ 00:28:42.549 Luke Scorziell: Yeah. Yeah.
258 00:28:43.160 ⇒ 00:28:45.290 Uttam Kumaran: But it’s up to you, like, this is where I think…
259 00:28:45.650 ⇒ 00:29:01.149 Uttam Kumaran: Like, Robert told me a bit about the conversation this morning, and I think there’s always gonna be healthy, like, differences on, like, what is our capacity and how fast we’re moving. Like, for us, like, what I don’t want to do is be like, okay, cool, we can’t move as fast, we’re gonna lower the bar.
260 00:29:01.260 ⇒ 00:29:20.160 Uttam Kumaran: what we’re gonna do is help you guys get to the bar, right? And, like, the bar is high, and it… we should always feel like we can’t reach our goals. Like, that’s what a great goal is. If we’re… if we’re like, yeah, our goal is to get one post out a week, and we just celebrate, like, nothing happens in the business. We don’t win.
261 00:29:20.330 ⇒ 00:29:29.369 Uttam Kumaran: And so for me, I… that’s why I really want this group to sort of act as a unit, is like, we should be aware that our goals are extremely lofty.
262 00:29:29.600 ⇒ 00:29:41.480 Uttam Kumaran: Like, these are not normal goals, but we’re not trying to be, like, a normal business that just, like, coasts. Like, we’re trying to build a big company, and we’re trying to win in a big way. This is, like, how it feels. It should feel kind of like…
263 00:29:41.590 ⇒ 00:29:47.680 Uttam Kumaran: mad, uncomfortable most of the time. How… me and Rob are just gonna live in that sort of soup.
264 00:29:47.860 ⇒ 00:30:01.329 Uttam Kumaran: For years, and so for us, it’s always… it’s always like this, and so, for me, I have this, like, just general anxiety that’s just, like, white noise. Sometimes it goes really high, and I’m like, yeah, there’s a lot, but for me.
265 00:30:02.090 ⇒ 00:30:20.789 Uttam Kumaran: there’s a lot going on. There’s so much going on right now, like, so many priorities that we’re tackling, but that is, like, that is… that is in line with our ambition. Like, that’s linear to our ambition. Like, so instead of lowering that, we’re like, we’re not there, but we will, and how far are we, and what is in between us getting there? So…
266 00:30:21.100 ⇒ 00:30:38.870 Uttam Kumaran: I’m not afraid for you guys to push back on us and be like, yo, this is too lofty, we can’t hit this. And that’s actually the discussion we need to be like, okay, are we too lofty? Is there something in there that, like, is blocking this, or can we help make a decision to get you where you need to go?
267 00:30:38.980 ⇒ 00:30:56.710 Uttam Kumaran: The thing is, I can’t have that discussion… we can’t have that type of debate with every single person in the company. There’s certain things that certain people just have to do, it’s not a debate, right? But with this crew, I’m expecting that there’s gonna be times where both teams are like, yo, that’s… this is too much, or I don’t feel like this is important.
268 00:30:56.740 ⇒ 00:31:13.219 Uttam Kumaran: Because we’re not always right, you know, about things, and so I’m expecting there to be, like, that healthy, like, back and forth on this stuff, and I think on Mondays in particular, where when we will start talking about what is our plans for the week, that’s how we should be discussing, right? Like.
269 00:31:13.250 ⇒ 00:31:29.810 Uttam Kumaran: And my… our job is to put the pressure on and be like, if I know if we do these things, we’re gonna get here, and I know that getting here is gonna move the business forward, your job is to be like, okay, can I actually do that? Like, or if I can’t, why can’t I, and what do I need to do that? And…
270 00:31:30.310 ⇒ 00:31:33.170 Uttam Kumaran: is that available, or should we reassess, right? So…
271 00:31:33.390 ⇒ 00:31:41.220 Uttam Kumaran: everybody else in the company are, like, gonna just say yes and move, right? And they’re gonna hit it or they don’t, but this crew really has… we have to call our shots.
272 00:31:41.540 ⇒ 00:31:48.540 Uttam Kumaran: And really win. And so that’s why even, like, I’m looking at… I’m looking at my schedule, I’m like, what else is there for me to cut? Like…
273 00:31:48.650 ⇒ 00:31:55.629 Uttam Kumaran: where… why am I… where am I wasting time? Like, in a 4-hour session in Cursor, I banged out, like, half the stuff.
274 00:31:55.870 ⇒ 00:32:00.029 Uttam Kumaran: that our whole team was supposed to do for 6 months, I banged it out in 4 hours, and I’m like.
275 00:32:00.370 ⇒ 00:32:04.630 Uttam Kumaran: Dude, well, what… So when that… when things like that happen.
276 00:32:04.820 ⇒ 00:32:15.249 Uttam Kumaran: like, I know that we can find more time to be effective, so… long story short, I feel like what you’re feeling is by design. Like, I feel okay hearing that.
277 00:32:15.790 ⇒ 00:32:16.320 Luke Scorziell: Yeah.
278 00:32:16.620 ⇒ 00:32:17.400 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
279 00:32:19.330 ⇒ 00:32:20.260 Luke Scorziell: Yeah.
280 00:32:20.590 ⇒ 00:32:22.010 Luke Scorziell: the entrepreneurial.
281 00:32:22.860 ⇒ 00:32:23.970 Luke Scorziell: life, I guess.
282 00:32:24.550 ⇒ 00:32:37.609 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I mean, but again, like, I think you’re in an environment where it’s achievable. It’s like, we’re not… we don’t have zero money, we have no connections, like, you’re seeing, we’re getting likes, we’re getting… people are wanting to do business with us, so something will crack.
283 00:32:37.950 ⇒ 00:32:42.049 Uttam Kumaran: Like, you just have to keep trying, keep testing different things over and over and over.
284 00:32:42.150 ⇒ 00:32:43.230 Uttam Kumaran: Right? So…
285 00:32:43.660 ⇒ 00:32:44.710 Luke Scorziell: If there’s a technology.
286 00:32:44.710 ⇒ 00:32:48.169 Uttam Kumaran: issue, you hit me, I’ll try to… I’ll try to move it for you, you know?
287 00:32:48.590 ⇒ 00:32:55.230 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, and, like, I guess my, like, underlying feeling and thought, too, is, like, once one thing kind of.
288 00:32:56.690 ⇒ 00:32:57.090 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
289 00:32:57.090 ⇒ 00:32:58.620 Luke Scorziell: and then I can see…
290 00:32:58.620 ⇒ 00:32:59.160 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
291 00:32:59.160 ⇒ 00:33:08.550 Luke Scorziell: like, get that feedback, and then it’s, like, I’m totally happy to be, like, the, like, rat on, like, the cocaine switch that’s, like, like, hitting that lever.
292 00:33:08.550 ⇒ 00:33:09.160 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, yeah.
293 00:33:09.280 ⇒ 00:33:11.619 Luke Scorziell: That’s just, like, so far, I’ve kind of been, like.
294 00:33:12.070 ⇒ 00:33:18.649 Luke Scorziell: saying, like, okay, this… these things work to do this, and this does this, but, like, so far we’re, like… You’ll see.
295 00:33:18.650 ⇒ 00:33:22.290 Uttam Kumaran: It’ll happen. It’ll happen, but again, we have to… just have to be consistent.
296 00:33:22.540 ⇒ 00:33:23.589 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, it’ll happen.
297 00:33:24.440 ⇒ 00:33:30.210 Luke Scorziell: So, okay, cool. That’s helpful. I mean, this is really helpful, too, to be able to talk to, like, both you guys at the same time.
298 00:33:30.210 ⇒ 00:33:38.710 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, that’s why… and that’s another change I wanted to do, I talked about on Mondays, like, just spend time with the people in the business with the highest leverage and potential.
299 00:33:38.820 ⇒ 00:33:51.130 Uttam Kumaran: and spend less time with the people with the lowest leverage and potential. And so, that is what I have to do now, you know? And so, like, this is an important time as well for us, I feel like, so this is great.
300 00:33:56.320 ⇒ 00:33:58.030 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, Robert, you wanna go?
301 00:33:59.520 ⇒ 00:34:03.400 Robert Tseng: Sure, I can go.
302 00:34:06.630 ⇒ 00:34:16.779 Robert Tseng: I… I’m going back to our doc, yeah, so… I think…
303 00:34:17.350 ⇒ 00:34:24.180 Robert Tseng: I think coming out of… I mean, it wasn’t just Luke’s call with Luke earlier today, but I think something I’ve been seeing more. Oof.
304 00:34:24.370 ⇒ 00:34:35.440 Robert Tseng: Is, yeah, I think needing to create more… no, it’s good. It’s… yeah, that helps, whatever. I don’t know what you did there, but that made it easier to read. Oh, you just wrapped the text, I see.
305 00:34:35.449 ⇒ 00:34:35.919 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
306 00:34:37.130 ⇒ 00:34:52.190 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I need to create… I think I need to create more, margin, especially for internal meetings. Like, I think the flip side of the shorter stand-ups is that, like, I feel like the… we’re getting through things more… it just feels more transactional. Like, I’m just, like, kind of efficiently speeding through them.
307 00:34:53.030 ⇒ 00:35:03.899 Robert Tseng: But then, actually, I feel like I’m glossing over certain details, or, like, leading… leading us to kind of table conversations that, like, people get misled, or, like, I don’t know, there’s just…
308 00:35:04.190 ⇒ 00:35:20.569 Robert Tseng: there’s just things that… I don’t know if I’m actually saving any time by doing shorter stand-ups, like, either, I think it was intimidating to see a one-hour stand-up block on my calendar in the prime time of my morning, every morning, which I didn’t like, which is why I shortened it, but…
309 00:35:20.740 ⇒ 00:35:25.450 Robert Tseng: I feel like there has to be a better way. I might just space out the stand-ups more.
310 00:35:25.510 ⇒ 00:35:43.140 Robert Tseng: I’ll probably still keep them at 15 minutes, but I’ll probably, like, reschedule it and, like, let them run a little longer if necessary, because that reschedule of, like, hey, I’m gonna talk to so-and-so later in the afternoon just, like, doesn’t really happen, or it always gets kicked down the line, so…
311 00:35:43.250 ⇒ 00:35:44.970 Robert Tseng: I think that’s one thing.
312 00:35:45.060 ⇒ 00:36:03.589 Robert Tseng: And then, yeah, like, yeah, the sales structure, I think that’s really just on the go-to-market side. I think definitely being enabled to go and push things in cursor has helped, being able to add more structure. After a conversation. Luke wasn’t there on Monday, but with Shayishi was like, hey, let’s just, like.
313 00:36:04.860 ⇒ 00:36:13.799 Robert Tseng: be more focused on, like, the systems that we’re building, and it’s not like everybody needs to be… be cooking at the same time. Like, we can… we can… there’s too many chefs in the kitchen, and…
314 00:36:14.310 ⇒ 00:36:18.049 Robert Tseng: Yeah, like, I think just having some more rigor around, like, what
315 00:36:18.970 ⇒ 00:36:29.339 Robert Tseng: like, what we’re building on the go-to-market side. Yeah, I’m controlling the decisions more on, like, what gets built on that side, but I think that’s just… I feel like that’s…
316 00:36:30.230 ⇒ 00:36:31.340 Robert Tseng: been…
317 00:36:31.930 ⇒ 00:36:38.180 Robert Tseng: Better than that, like, yeah, this week, people will seem more aligned on, like, actually getting things to the finish line.
318 00:36:40.570 ⇒ 00:36:47.660 Robert Tseng: And then, I think the last piece, which I haven’t updated yet, but my chat with Vixel was good. I think…
319 00:36:49.440 ⇒ 00:37:06.179 Robert Tseng: Yeah, they just kind of reviewed the OKRs that I kind of helped translate from the AOR sheet to OKRs. It probably impacts, like, the way that we talk about Shaysu’s scope more than anybody else, which I haven’t really talked to Shaysu about it yet, but Vixel’s main feedback was separate delivery ops from BizOps.
320 00:37:06.180 ⇒ 00:37:12.370 Robert Tseng: We’ve been kind of conflating them, and maybe that’s, like, part of, like, why we’re, like.
321 00:37:12.680 ⇒ 00:37:18.510 Robert Tseng: Like, yeah, I think could, could be, could be something that’s confusing for… for him. And so,
322 00:37:18.630 ⇒ 00:37:21.690 Robert Tseng: Yeah, you know, we’re… like, we’re…
323 00:37:22.090 ⇒ 00:37:26.720 Robert Tseng: I’ll… I’m gonna rework it a little bit based on their feedback, but,
324 00:37:27.010 ⇒ 00:37:41.019 Robert Tseng: Yeah, all the internal stuff with, like, the ops team and everything, that is maybe more of a traditional BizOps work, but then, like, Utam and I, like, we’re feeling like, oh, we need… like, we also need Shishu on supporting on the delivery ops site. So, I think just kind of
325 00:37:41.060 ⇒ 00:38:00.609 Robert Tseng: creating more, like, language around that, and whether or not those all fall under his scope, or… or, like, we start to kind of pick off pieces of it. We just have to have a better delineation about, like, where… like, what part of the org is he actually trying to… to impact, based on… and in what sequence.
326 00:38:02.410 ⇒ 00:38:08.130 Robert Tseng: So, that’s that, and then on the blockers, yeah, I feel like…
327 00:38:08.490 ⇒ 00:38:19.999 Robert Tseng: for me, the decision load has not decreased. Like, I feel like I’m making probably the same or more number of decisions every day, so I feel like that’s causing me to, like.
328 00:38:20.190 ⇒ 00:38:26.270 Robert Tseng: yeah, I get really drained from doing these reviews, so I… I think on the analysis side.
329 00:38:26.980 ⇒ 00:38:31.659 Robert Tseng: I mean, I batch the analysis and the go-to-market side, so…
330 00:38:31.790 ⇒ 00:38:36.220 Robert Tseng: I’m basically trying to, and I shared this with Luke earlier, like.
331 00:38:36.320 ⇒ 00:38:46.040 Robert Tseng: have the people who are helping me… who are submitting work for me to review kind of make it easier for me to review, so I keep kind of, like, trying to…
332 00:38:46.160 ⇒ 00:38:56.699 Robert Tseng: you know, don’t give me something that’s, like, 50% to review, like, give me something that’s closer to, like, 60 to 80, so that, like, I could actually, like, help move it to the… towards the finish line.
333 00:38:56.700 ⇒ 00:39:09.990 Robert Tseng: or if it is something that’s really less than 50%, and it’s just been stuck there for a while, I’d rather just scrap it and bring it to, like, 60 or 80% myself. Like, I just… I just feel like that, like, 50 to 80 range is just, like, really…
334 00:39:10.070 ⇒ 00:39:14.090 Robert Tseng: hard for me to, like, impact, because I basically feel like I’m redoing it.
335 00:39:15.600 ⇒ 00:39:33.960 Robert Tseng: without, like… and then, like, kind of feeling like I’m grumbling as I’m doing it, because it’s, like, taking me longer than I… than I… than I want to. Like, I’m, like, I should have just done it from… from the start, or, like, or whatever. So, I think there’s… there’s that, like, kind of constant tension that I feel like I have to deal with.
336 00:39:33.960 ⇒ 00:39:38.140 Robert Tseng: On the delivery side, hopefully that gets better with Jasmine starting next week, so…
337 00:39:38.140 ⇒ 00:40:00.369 Robert Tseng: I think she’s on board and, like, can… I mean, it’s very clear, like, how she can help review analysis, so, like, that creates, like, one… one more layer between me and Amber, I guess, and then, you know, eventually, like, I think even Greg’s review work can go through her or whatever, so I think there’s different things that hopefully… I mean, I’m hopeful that she will be able to help with there.
338 00:40:01.630 ⇒ 00:40:05.160 Robert Tseng: And then, yeah, I think on the sales side.
339 00:40:05.390 ⇒ 00:40:08.579 Robert Tseng: Yeah, as I’m taking Sales Scope back from
340 00:40:08.810 ⇒ 00:40:17.109 Robert Tseng: from Luke, I think the outbound sequences are just gonna go back to me, lead list approvals, and enrichment, and…
341 00:40:17.240 ⇒ 00:40:25.559 Robert Tseng: Also, like, the execution of the messages that are going out. Like, I think I have to be the one to fit Ricoh into that process.
342 00:40:25.560 ⇒ 00:40:27.040 Uttam Kumaran: I think he can do it, dude.
343 00:40:28.060 ⇒ 00:40:34.300 Uttam Kumaran: It rhymes exactly with what we’re doing on the recruiting side, and with ops-related email stuff, so…
344 00:40:34.300 ⇒ 00:40:37.730 Robert Tseng: Yeah, yeah, I just gotta… I just gotta show him the ropes, yeah.
345 00:40:37.730 ⇒ 00:40:38.510 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
346 00:40:38.740 ⇒ 00:40:40.550 Robert Tseng: That’d be great.
347 00:40:40.900 ⇒ 00:40:55.290 Robert Tseng: Yeah, pipeline follow-up is probably where we’re, like, one of the areas where we’re, other than net new leads, like, that’s a given, but, you know, running by Vixel, like, hey, you know, Vixel, I told them.
348 00:40:55.750 ⇒ 00:41:13.790 Robert Tseng: like, most of our pipeline is stale. It’s, like, 3-plus weeks old. They’re like, yeah, that should not be the case. You should be moving stages much faster. So, I think that’s… there’s, like, a clear, just, like, we’re not really moving, leads fast enough through the pipeline. We just need to get to a yes or no faster. So, I think, making sure.
349 00:41:13.790 ⇒ 00:41:17.280 Uttam Kumaran: What about stuff that’s like, okay, they… like.
350 00:41:17.410 ⇒ 00:41:22.189 Uttam Kumaran: Two people said, okay, we’re hiring the person that’s gonna make this decision next month.
351 00:41:22.330 ⇒ 00:41:22.960 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
352 00:41:22.960 ⇒ 00:41:25.049 Uttam Kumaran: What is that? What do we do in that case?
353 00:41:25.050 ⇒ 00:41:27.230 Robert Tseng: Yeah, that’s just a circle back, and we come back to them.
354 00:41:27.230 ⇒ 00:41:27.980 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, that’s…
355 00:41:27.980 ⇒ 00:41:30.070 Robert Tseng: Sequence, yeah. I see.
356 00:41:30.070 ⇒ 00:41:30.620 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
357 00:41:30.950 ⇒ 00:41:39.660 Robert Tseng: I feel like we’ve been using Circleback very loosely. Like, Circle Back should be if there is, like, a reason to circle back with them, like, a month from now. They’re like, hey, talk to us in a month.
358 00:41:39.660 ⇒ 00:41:47.049 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I’m using circleback as, like… yeah, so, but I don’t know, I guess we have to… there has to be, like, a deny circleback…
359 00:41:47.810 ⇒ 00:41:51.590 Uttam Kumaran: Or rea… yeah, like, yeah, I agree, let’s think of some name.
360 00:41:52.070 ⇒ 00:41:52.660 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
361 00:41:52.910 ⇒ 00:41:58.590 Robert Tseng: But hopefully with your HubSpot MCP, like, I’ll be able to go and just, like, fix those tags pretty easily. Yeah, you should.
362 00:41:58.700 ⇒ 00:42:01.179 Robert Tseng: That to me is like a weekend project.
363 00:42:02.210 ⇒ 00:42:08.599 Robert Tseng: Not this weekend. My wife’s looking at me. We’re… it’s our 5-year anniversary, so we’re actually going to Disney World, but .
364 00:42:08.600 ⇒ 00:42:13.969 Uttam Kumaran: Not this weekend. Wait, you’re gonna be on a flight for at least a little bit, right? So…
365 00:42:13.970 ⇒ 00:42:15.649 Robert Tseng: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
366 00:42:15.870 ⇒ 00:42:22.000 Robert Tseng: But, yeah, so we’ll do that soon.
367 00:42:22.480 ⇒ 00:42:28.150 Robert Tseng: Yeah, decisions needed, yeah, the margin thing, also, I mean, what’s not on here…
368 00:42:28.150 ⇒ 00:42:33.299 Uttam Kumaran: Let’s talk about the… let’s talk about the meeting thing. I mean, I would say…
369 00:42:33.550 ⇒ 00:42:53.179 Uttam Kumaran: where, like, the way we designed it, we actually want the service leads to just run it how you want to run it. The problem with the other two meetings is that those two are, like, engineer engineers. They get, like… there’s this… there’s this term called getting nerd sniped. They get nerd sniped, and they go down these rabbit holes, especially Sam.
370 00:42:53.460 ⇒ 00:43:00.169 Uttam Kumaran: Because I’ll say something that’s, like, super crazy on the AI side, and then we’ll just start talking about it, and he can’t allow that.
371 00:43:00.280 ⇒ 00:43:13.009 Uttam Kumaran: like, he has to keep that machine going, and be like, let’s table this, or book this meeting. He has to get through all the updates so he can go find out what’s wrong. So for those two, it’s actually helpful to be like, you have 15 minutes.
372 00:43:13.180 ⇒ 00:43:29.710 Uttam Kumaran: drive towards that, because otherwise they fill it. For you, it actually may be that we need more time, and so it’s actually, like, up to you. They’re wasting time. Like, I’m sitting in that meeting, and they’re going on about a problem, and I’m like, I do not need to be here. Like, I could use this time.
373 00:43:30.000 ⇒ 00:43:35.290 Uttam Kumaran: And I don’t think that’s necessarily the case on the strategy side, but, like, I think you should…
374 00:43:35.700 ⇒ 00:43:39.030 Uttam Kumaran: you should run it how you want to run it, you know? And you could demand.
375 00:43:39.030 ⇒ 00:43:39.410 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
376 00:43:39.410 ⇒ 00:43:41.480 Uttam Kumaran: They come in prepared, or whatever.
377 00:43:42.560 ⇒ 00:43:58.470 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I think it is still, like, the 15-minute block, but then kind of give the cushion of another at least 15 minutes, so that, like, if I could just pull someone, I could just have someone stay on, like, afterwards. So, I feel like that’s probably what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna split it up more.
378 00:43:58.470 ⇒ 00:44:00.329 Uttam Kumaran: You could also probably move it earlier.
379 00:44:01.350 ⇒ 00:44:02.940 Robert Tseng: Yeah, actually, I’ll probably move it earlier.
380 00:44:02.940 ⇒ 00:44:08.989 Uttam Kumaran: Who’s… I’m probably the one of… me and Mustafa, to just jump from the thing we’re in to that, like…
381 00:44:09.780 ⇒ 00:44:10.670 Uttam Kumaran: You know?
382 00:44:11.570 ⇒ 00:44:13.830 Robert Tseng: The main thing, if I move it earlier, is that Amber won’t join.
383 00:44:13.830 ⇒ 00:44:15.019 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, yeah, yeah.
384 00:44:15.330 ⇒ 00:44:21.639 Robert Tseng: Yeah, so I might actually try to move it later, if anything. Okay. That way I can have more of an uninterrupted morning.
385 00:44:21.770 ⇒ 00:44:24.259 Robert Tseng: But I’ll decide what to do with that one.
386 00:44:24.770 ⇒ 00:44:30.690 Robert Tseng: Yeah, the pipeline sequences, yeah, that’s something I’m just… I need to… I need to address.
387 00:44:30.850 ⇒ 00:44:49.359 Robert Tseng: And then, yeah, like, I think updating the OKRs and resharing that, probably with Shayshu by Monday, because that also impacts, his… which, I don’t know if I even walked Shaishu through it yet, but, so if I were… he’s… you’re familiar with this doc, and…
388 00:44:51.540 ⇒ 00:44:53.140 Robert Tseng: I guess, like…
389 00:44:53.830 ⇒ 00:45:13.179 Robert Tseng: yeah, I created, like, a set of BizOps… okay, this is totally off, but it is supposed to include recruiting for Kayla when she’s starting in two weeks, and then also for Shayshu. But yeah, I think Pixel has some feedback whenever we work, so I’ll just, like, table that for now until I… I… I implement their… their feedback.
390 00:45:15.150 ⇒ 00:45:15.820 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Sweet.
391 00:45:16.030 ⇒ 00:45:16.650 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
392 00:45:17.430 ⇒ 00:45:23.750 Robert Tseng: But the idea is that those are really just, like, more… I guess, sorry, I probably blew through that too quickly.
393 00:45:24.680 ⇒ 00:45:43.390 Robert Tseng: it’s, like, the AORs are, like, yeah, those define your set of responsibilities, but, like, when you’re, like, starting the day, trying to orient yourself on, like, what is the objective I’m driving towards, there’s, like, the business-as-usual KRs, these are the things that just, like, they just need to happen for the quarter, because that’s what we’re focused on.
394 00:45:43.430 ⇒ 00:45:49.650 Robert Tseng: And then, like, aspirationally, it’s like, yeah, what does going above and beyond, like, really look like?
395 00:45:49.760 ⇒ 00:45:53.890 Robert Tseng: yeah, I think that helps us to better, like, understand Like…
396 00:45:54.700 ⇒ 00:46:12.289 Robert Tseng: like, at least measure performance for, you know, this, like, this group of people, within their… within their scope. Like, how are you… are you crushing it in your AOR, or… or not? Like, I think that’s basically what we need to be able to assess. So, yeah, that’s kind of the point of that exercise.
397 00:46:16.080 ⇒ 00:46:16.580 Uttam Kumaran: Cool.
398 00:46:17.550 ⇒ 00:46:24.459 Luke Scorziell: On the review stuff, at least on the content side, obviously I’m not on the delivery side.
399 00:46:27.360 ⇒ 00:46:35.160 Luke Scorziell: like, I guess for me, like, sometimes I’m like, I don’t even know why I’m asking for Robert’s review, other than, like, I feel like this need that you need to, like.
400 00:46:36.070 ⇒ 00:46:41.920 Luke Scorziell: Check or sign off on stuff before, so if there’s, like, a easier, like, like…
401 00:46:42.060 ⇒ 00:46:46.259 Luke Scorziell: Or somehow we can just standardize, like, these are the things that you’d like to see.
402 00:46:47.190 ⇒ 00:46:56.309 Luke Scorziell: and then, like, we can just make sure that they’re, like, checked before, and then… then it’s more of just if I have, like, a question, because I think, like, maybe that was part of what we were talking about this morning, is, like.
403 00:46:56.810 ⇒ 00:46:58.810 Luke Scorziell: If it’s, like, I sent something.
404 00:46:59.100 ⇒ 00:47:03.040 Luke Scorziell: Then get review, and then it’s like, there’s a lot of feedback.
405 00:47:03.190 ⇒ 00:47:09.289 Luke Scorziell: Like, even with the, insurance one, like, I had actually already started reworking that.
406 00:47:09.490 ⇒ 00:47:12.939 Luke Scorziell: And then I think I just didn’t update it.
407 00:47:12.940 ⇒ 00:47:13.670 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
408 00:47:13.670 ⇒ 00:47:19.840 Luke Scorziell: And so, like, that… I might not have needed to maybe ask for a view as much as, like.
409 00:47:20.630 ⇒ 00:47:27.709 Luke Scorziell: Like, I don’t know what I’m looking for there, other than just, like, you to tell me, like, there’s nothing, like, technically wrong, which that might just be a holdover from…
410 00:47:28.070 ⇒ 00:47:33.939 Luke Scorziell: like, me wanting to, like, learn the services and stuff, where at this point, it’s like, to some degree, I feel…
411 00:47:34.100 ⇒ 00:47:37.609 Luke Scorziell: fairly comfortable, like, I’m not saying, like, blatantly wrong.
412 00:47:38.040 ⇒ 00:47:38.890 Luke Scorziell: Things to people.
413 00:47:39.770 ⇒ 00:47:47.479 Robert Tseng: I mean, I think, like, the… I mean, my… my… I guess, Utam probably reviews work differently than I do, but I…
414 00:47:47.970 ⇒ 00:47:51.120 Robert Tseng: generally, like, will…
415 00:47:51.340 ⇒ 00:48:11.110 Robert Tseng: I’m not that opinionated on everything, like, I think if there’s something blatantly off, then, like, I’ll call it out. Otherwise, if I don’t say anything, like, I generally think it’s fine to push. I mean, there will be some things that fall through the cracks I just overlook, but, like, we’re not doing… we’re not pushing anything that’s, like, irreversible. So, like, I think the bias to action is probably still…
416 00:48:11.240 ⇒ 00:48:30.150 Robert Tseng: more important. Like, I know we… we talked about it earlier, part of it is, like, the… when I’m, like, being really… when I’m putting a lot of pressure, you feel like you need more review from me, because, like, you’re… like, you’re, like, unsure of… you feel more unsure. So I think that’s definitely something that I’m gonna work on to try to, like.
417 00:48:30.150 ⇒ 00:48:40.309 Robert Tseng: give you more, like, encouragement on, like, what’s… what’s going well, so that you feel like you can actually make the decisions and not have to be thinking about in the back of your head whether or not I approve of it.
418 00:48:41.180 ⇒ 00:48:47.180 Robert Tseng: And then, like, I think… once again, what I was sharing with the insurance example was, like.
419 00:48:47.560 ⇒ 00:49:05.489 Robert Tseng: even if you ask me at UTOM for review, we’ll always give you an answer, but, like, if… I think you should have some level of conviction as well, and I think the best way to do it is just test… just test it. So, you know, neither of us are in the insurance world. All the information UTOM gets is from Ian.
420 00:49:05.490 ⇒ 00:49:22.270 Robert Tseng: like, for me, like, I would… you know, I know that you sent a message and just connected me to this earthquake insurance company, which is why I was just looking at, well, before I got on this call, but I’m, like, trying to form an opinion on it, too. So, like, I… I don’t… I think it’s… I don’t want it to be, like, a blind leading the blind situation, where, like.
421 00:49:22.340 ⇒ 00:49:31.589 Robert Tseng: You’re asking us for feedback, we feel like you have… we have to give feedback because you’re asking it for us, but then we’re really not going to be giving you that much good… we’re not going to really give you good feedback.
422 00:49:32.130 ⇒ 00:49:37.410 Robert Tseng: Because we’re not that informed ourselves. Like, there will be other topics that we’re very informed about.
423 00:49:37.410 ⇒ 00:49:41.230 Uttam Kumaran: down to brainstorm, like, I’ll give you, like, okay, how would I think about this?
424 00:49:41.620 ⇒ 00:49:48.810 Uttam Kumaran: Like, I… first thing I would do is just see, is there anybody in my network that’s insurance? There’s probably some people I know.
425 00:49:48.980 ⇒ 00:49:50.510 Uttam Kumaran: call that, see how I can.
426 00:49:50.510 ⇒ 00:49:53.550 Luke Scorziell: I think it’s, like, for me, it’s,
427 00:49:55.030 ⇒ 00:50:07.889 Luke Scorziell: like, probably the pain point, or failure, I guess, that I feel like maybe I’m trying to avoid is, like, honestly, it’s probably just either saying something that is wrong, or putting client information out there that shouldn’t be out there. So, like, those are kind of…
428 00:50:07.890 ⇒ 00:50:13.420 Uttam Kumaran: But that… that you could get a review right before it goes out. Like, that would take 9 seconds, but it’s the…
429 00:50:13.780 ⇒ 00:50:19.169 Uttam Kumaran: it’s everything before that that… I’m like, get to that point, because I can look at something and be like.
430 00:50:19.620 ⇒ 00:50:24.100 Uttam Kumaran: Because those are things you’re not gonna know until you try to get it out there.
431 00:50:24.490 ⇒ 00:50:33.559 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, because if I’m just able… if I’m kind of just like, okay, we have this post, like, I wrote it using cursor, I generally feel pretty confident in it, like…
432 00:50:34.230 ⇒ 00:50:44.179 Luke Scorziell: can some… like, if you want to look over it, great. If not, like, I’m just gonna publish it, and, like, I typically probably just will not put, like, really detailed stuff.
433 00:50:44.180 ⇒ 00:51:00.030 Uttam Kumaran: But that’s kind of, like, what I’m saying, is that, like, it’s… I’m able to review in 90 seconds. Like, if you’re like, yo, your reviews are preventing me from achieving my goals, because you’re too slow reviewing, I will wake up and review every day. But, like, so far, I don’t think that that’s what the blocker is.
434 00:51:00.160 ⇒ 00:51:02.500 Luke Scorziell: Yeah, well, maybe it’s just, yeah, like a…
435 00:51:02.500 ⇒ 00:51:06.779 Uttam Kumaran: Because… because what I, what I’m… what I, what I don’t get is, like, okay.
436 00:51:07.260 ⇒ 00:51:17.710 Uttam Kumaran: like, you know that I, like, in an instant, we could really F up the brand. So, for me, I’m like, until I’m seeing that most of the posts are coming out with very limited
437 00:51:18.080 ⇒ 00:51:19.170 Uttam Kumaran: Changes?
438 00:51:19.460 ⇒ 00:51:24.729 Uttam Kumaran: I’ll just let you go, but at the same time, like, it takes me… I can review this stuff so fast, like…
439 00:51:24.960 ⇒ 00:51:29.089 Uttam Kumaran: 30 seconds I can review what you need me to review, but it’s everything before that.
440 00:51:29.540 ⇒ 00:51:30.290 Uttam Kumaran: that.
441 00:51:30.460 ⇒ 00:51:36.719 Uttam Kumaran: needs to happen, right? And so… but that’s where, again, like, if you’re like, yo, how do I crack into this? I’m like, this is what I think I would do.
442 00:51:36.930 ⇒ 00:51:40.150 Uttam Kumaran: like… Let’s go find some other data…
443 00:51:40.560 ⇒ 00:51:42.140 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Focus Insurance.
444 00:51:42.240 ⇒ 00:51:48.079 Uttam Kumaran: Like, some data companies that are insurance-focused, look at their marketing, look through their customer lists.
445 00:51:48.380 ⇒ 00:51:52.109 Uttam Kumaran: See how we can call any of these people, figure it out, like…
446 00:51:52.530 ⇒ 00:51:58.140 Uttam Kumaran: You just got… you just… it’s a good… again, it’s not straightforward. It’s like, we have to build up enough conviction
447 00:51:58.430 ⇒ 00:52:01.399 Uttam Kumaran: To be like, okay, we have enough messaging that we know would hit.
448 00:52:02.060 ⇒ 00:52:05.539 Uttam Kumaran: To then go for it, and then we just try, right? We just keep trying.
449 00:52:05.860 ⇒ 00:52:07.070 Luke Scorziell: I mean, I think the…
450 00:52:07.070 ⇒ 00:52:13.360 Uttam Kumaran: Because also, if we do something on insurance now, and 6 months from now, someone in insurance calls me, I have a wealth of stuff.
451 00:52:13.490 ⇒ 00:52:17.129 Uttam Kumaran: So it’s not like if we don’t get an insurance lead now, it’s like a failure.
452 00:52:17.420 ⇒ 00:52:24.449 Uttam Kumaran: the moment I get a call from somebody who’s in insurance, I’m like, here’s all this stuff we’ve done, like, perfect.
453 00:52:24.580 ⇒ 00:52:26.579 Uttam Kumaran: I have enough to go sell that, you know?
454 00:52:26.900 ⇒ 00:52:31.990 Luke Scorziell: Cool, okay. I mean, like, there’s definitely a problem to be solved there, so I feel like it’s a great.
455 00:52:31.990 ⇒ 00:52:32.380 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
456 00:52:32.380 ⇒ 00:52:36.549 Luke Scorziell: For us to be in. And obviously insurance has no lack of money, so…
457 00:52:36.550 ⇒ 00:52:40.720 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, yeah. For the people they need to pay out, I guess. Yeah.
458 00:52:42.920 ⇒ 00:52:43.760 Luke Scorziell: Anyways…
459 00:52:44.070 ⇒ 00:52:44.640 Uttam Kumaran: Cool.
460 00:52:46.420 ⇒ 00:52:47.930 Uttam Kumaran: Stacy, you wanna go?
461 00:52:47.930 ⇒ 00:52:49.430 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yep, I can go now.
462 00:52:49.650 ⇒ 00:53:07.080 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, so, based on our conversations earlier, getting a little better at delegation and daily prioritization. So, like, something I’ve been trying to do now, starting today, was sending morning prioritized, like, daily actions that we need to do, even going into next week.
463 00:53:07.240 ⇒ 00:53:19.100 Sheshu Chandrasekar: And honestly, that made a huge difference. Like, today morning, we had a really productive 15-minute ops discussion. Like, I was getting asked the right questions for Notion stuff, and
464 00:53:19.640 ⇒ 00:53:23.670 Sheshu Chandrasekar: It felt like there was some momentum there, but… Thing is…
465 00:53:24.100 ⇒ 00:53:36.000 Sheshu Chandrasekar: I feel like the ops team is overwhelmed, like, Rico’s fully in recruiting process right now, and Eliza, anytime I send her a message about Omni stuff, like, I was literally reviewing through Omni documentation today.
466 00:53:36.360 ⇒ 00:53:47.619 Sheshu Chandrasekar: And all I got are the sparkle emoji, or the eye emoji, but no response. So I’m just like… I’m, like, kind of left in the dark, and it kind of makes me a little anxious, right? I’m just like, okay, like…
467 00:53:48.460 ⇒ 00:53:50.790 Sheshu Chandrasekar: like, what do you want from me, right? Like, I’m happy.
468 00:53:50.790 ⇒ 00:53:55.879 Uttam Kumaran: So let’s, like, let’s, like, take that example. Like, what is your gut instinct? Like, let’s say…
469 00:53:56.270 ⇒ 00:53:58.340 Uttam Kumaran: They put yourself as, like, let’s say…
470 00:53:58.930 ⇒ 00:54:02.049 Uttam Kumaran: Your team is the whole company, and you’re the CEO.
471 00:54:02.110 ⇒ 00:54:03.450 Sheshu Chandrasekar: What would you do?
472 00:54:05.090 ⇒ 00:54:14.859 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Obviously, I’ve reached out. I wanted to be like, hey, are you available? Like, is there any help I can do? Like, like, what’s going on? Like, what are you working on?
473 00:54:16.660 ⇒ 00:54:18.539 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, I would ping her, like, not.
474 00:54:18.540 ⇒ 00:54:24.130 Uttam Kumaran: So you should do that. And you should go heavy, First.
475 00:54:24.440 ⇒ 00:54:27.009 Uttam Kumaran: Like, the heaviest is, like, Huddle.
476 00:54:28.340 ⇒ 00:54:30.779 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, so that’s what I’m planning on doing after this call.
477 00:54:30.780 ⇒ 00:54:39.260 Uttam Kumaran: Because I’m telling you that what you will find more often is it’s not that someone is, like, malicious. Very rare. Happens.
478 00:54:39.340 ⇒ 00:54:50.830 Uttam Kumaran: very rare. Like, most of the people here are not like that. It’s just there’s some misunderstanding on expectations. And so, just do the thing that gets you to the answer fastest.
479 00:54:51.220 ⇒ 00:55:00.719 Uttam Kumaran: And then you can be like, you’ll figure it out, and you’ll be like, okay. And, but also, you… you think about it, like, okay, once you find what the issue is, like, how do I help you, how do we help avoid this?
480 00:55:00.930 ⇒ 00:55:08.090 Uttam Kumaran: So, I think you have two of the more productive people in the company, but they are not audi… they don’t… I don’t think they… they’re very manual.
481 00:55:08.530 ⇒ 00:55:11.680 Uttam Kumaran: And so that’s gonna be, I think, your challenge. You nailed it, which is, like.
482 00:55:11.980 ⇒ 00:55:17.279 Uttam Kumaran: They don’t think about automating or speeding up, they’re like, let’s do, do, do.
483 00:55:17.530 ⇒ 00:55:18.520 Uttam Kumaran: Yup. Yep.
484 00:55:19.100 ⇒ 00:55:21.820 Uttam Kumaran: So, yeah, I think you kind of, like, hit it on the head.
485 00:55:22.460 ⇒ 00:55:23.580 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, so…
486 00:55:23.700 ⇒ 00:55:33.989 Sheshu Chandrasekar: My main goal, the way I see it, like, next week, I know I’m fully gonna be working on client delivery stuff, like, I had a call with the EP leads. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done.
487 00:55:33.990 ⇒ 00:55:44.559 Sheshu Chandrasekar: From a platform standpoint, and also, like, they want to work on how to write really good linear tickets. So, I need to sit in on some meetings to figure out, like, what’s the best framework?
488 00:55:44.660 ⇒ 00:55:50.240 Sheshu Chandrasekar: to implement, like, for EPs and DSLs to write good linear tickets, right?
489 00:55:50.380 ⇒ 00:55:54.399 Sheshu Chandrasekar: So I know I’m gonna be switching to client delivery side of work starting next week.
490 00:55:54.590 ⇒ 00:55:57.009 Sheshu Chandrasekar: So, for me, I would like
491 00:55:57.210 ⇒ 00:56:06.020 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Ricoh to manage anything related to recruiting and Notion, and then Eliza being super good at finance and anything Omni-related stuff.
492 00:56:06.020 ⇒ 00:56:06.360 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
493 00:56:06.360 ⇒ 00:56:08.299 Sheshu Chandrasekar: So that’s how I kind of envision
494 00:56:08.420 ⇒ 00:56:11.629 Sheshu Chandrasekar: them helping me out in the best way possible. So for me, I’m…
495 00:56:11.890 ⇒ 00:56:14.550 Sheshu Chandrasekar: trying to figure out how can I best help them.
496 00:56:14.700 ⇒ 00:56:22.849 Sheshu Chandrasekar: get to that point. And with Eliza, like, I’m really trying to push her to, like, be good at Omni, so I wanted to spend some time with her today, so…
497 00:56:22.990 ⇒ 00:56:41.850 Sheshu Chandrasekar: I’m gonna reach out to her and figure that part out. Also, yeah, delivering and shipping things, I feel like I’m kind of falling into that trap of over-engineering things. I’m trying to make things super perfect, versus just shipping it, and then iteratively, like, get better at, like, fixing things and the fires that comes along with it. So that’s a bit of a mindset shift for me, and…
498 00:56:42.130 ⇒ 00:56:45.369 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, I think I’ll get better at that as well.
499 00:56:45.560 ⇒ 00:56:51.659 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Oh, and then, yeah, next week I’m trying to go full into requirements gathering mode, for the data dashboards, like.
500 00:56:51.870 ⇒ 00:56:57.140 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Amber wanted a dashboard that really made sense for, tracking Clockify data.
501 00:56:57.260 ⇒ 00:57:08.320 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Versus what’s in the Gantt chart. So, figuring out how to best engineer that dashboard for her, and even myself, so we can track all the hours and stuff would be very useful for us as an ops team.
502 00:57:08.770 ⇒ 00:57:11.120 Sheshu Chandrasekar: What else do I have here?
503 00:57:11.980 ⇒ 00:57:13.470 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, so…
504 00:57:14.380 ⇒ 00:57:26.169 Sheshu Chandrasekar: like I said, Rico, you know, he’s, like, super… I feel like he has limited bandwidth. Like, he helps me as much as he can, he’s very responsive, so I always appreciate that from him. But I really need to figure out, like.
505 00:57:26.490 ⇒ 00:57:33.599 Sheshu Chandrasekar: what’s his bottlenecks right now? Like, where is he slowing down? So that’s something… I need to have a conversation with him tomorrow to kind of, like.
506 00:57:33.970 ⇒ 00:57:43.170 Sheshu Chandrasekar: figure out, hey, what went well this week, like, where can I help you out, and start, like, right, giving you those, those PRDs for automations that we can do.
507 00:57:43.360 ⇒ 00:57:44.230 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, you don’t…
508 00:57:44.230 ⇒ 00:57:48.679 Uttam Kumaran: even consider running the meetings that we’re doing on Mondays with your teams, like…
509 00:57:48.680 ⇒ 00:57:49.150 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah.
510 00:57:49.150 ⇒ 00:57:54.339 Uttam Kumaran: You know, where you get them to reflect, you get them to admit, and then you get them to ask for help.
511 00:57:54.570 ⇒ 00:58:03.170 Uttam Kumaran: Right? So a lot of people, again, like, people… people are very, very prideful, and so sometimes it’s hard for people to be like, there is a problem, because they’re just, like, grinding.
512 00:58:03.440 ⇒ 00:58:08.600 Uttam Kumaran: And we see that on the engineering side, but I… I basically pattern interrupt.
513 00:58:08.810 ⇒ 00:58:11.819 Uttam Kumaran: very hard. Like, I’m like, you’re spending…
514 00:58:12.120 ⇒ 00:58:16.649 Uttam Kumaran: you spent 2 days on this thing, that I know a way to do it in 1 hour.
515 00:58:17.140 ⇒ 00:58:26.739 Uttam Kumaran: what is going on here? Like, so let me help you do that, and I just try to find those things, right? So, I feel like if you’re identifying that, you just gotta say it out loud.
516 00:58:26.860 ⇒ 00:58:41.370 Uttam Kumaran: Like, you’ll never get… there’s gonna be no part here that’s gonna limit you in saying that out loud. The faster you do that, though, the faster you can fix it. But, like, if you’re just nice and you keep going, it’ll keep going. There’s not… you just have to interrupt it.
517 00:58:41.370 ⇒ 00:58:48.930 Uttam Kumaran: And weeks will go by, and there’s only 52 weeks in a year, and, like, that’s… we have to get better every single one of them, you know? So…
518 00:58:49.010 ⇒ 00:58:56.009 Uttam Kumaran: Things like trying to get stuff done every day, and, like, having these, like, pattern interrupts for your team is gonna help, for sure.
519 00:58:56.240 ⇒ 00:58:57.919 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Gotcha. Yeah, that’s…
520 00:58:58.100 ⇒ 00:59:06.520 Sheshu Chandrasekar: exactly, like, the mindset I want to get it to, because I want to get things done, and I don’t want to feel anxious about it, so for me, it’s all about, okay, like.
521 00:59:06.720 ⇒ 00:59:14.220 Sheshu Chandrasekar: where are you stuck, and how can I help you? And if not, like, then I come to you and be like, hey, this is the issue I’m having, like.
522 00:59:14.220 ⇒ 00:59:14.720 Uttam Kumaran: Sure.
523 00:59:14.720 ⇒ 00:59:19.600 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Can you give me some perspective? So… Yeah. That’s kind of like… I guess my…
524 00:59:19.740 ⇒ 00:59:25.450 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Weekly reflection slash blockers all in one. As for decisions…
525 00:59:26.380 ⇒ 00:59:31.000 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, so I had a call with the EP leads today. I was also talking to Pranav.
526 00:59:31.180 ⇒ 00:59:41.629 Sheshu Chandrasekar: And some SLs yesterday to figure out, like, how everything’s going on their end, because I’ve been missing those SL leads meetings and stuff like that, so I wanted to get some more personal, like.
527 00:59:41.890 ⇒ 00:59:43.350 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Experiences from them.
528 00:59:43.590 ⇒ 00:59:50.920 Sheshu Chandrasekar: And one great thing that came out of it was building a tool within the platform team. So I need to work closely with Gabe.
529 00:59:51.040 ⇒ 01:00:01.829 Sheshu Chandrasekar: And I need to figure out how to best manage my time once I figure out this Notion stuff and this Omni stuff, so I can work closely with Gabe to implement this feature, and also bring it up to you why we need to build this.
530 01:00:01.830 ⇒ 01:00:13.160 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I would probably… I would say don’t… I would probably skip Gabe. So, Gabe is, like, really on the… he’s just sort of really, really part-time on the platform stuff. So…
531 01:00:13.500 ⇒ 01:00:19.679 Uttam Kumaran: all I’m… he’s helping out to kind of build some of it, but I would hesitate to put anything on his plate.
532 01:00:19.960 ⇒ 01:00:20.340 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Gotcha.
533 01:00:20.340 ⇒ 01:00:26.249 Uttam Kumaran: I would write the plan of what you want, and if you need help on that point, you just ping me, I’ll give you the help.
534 01:00:26.890 ⇒ 01:00:32.800 Uttam Kumaran: And then eventually, there’s gonna be some more people on the AI team that are gonna be able to do what I’m doing, which is, like, helping you scope.
535 01:00:32.950 ⇒ 01:00:40.109 Uttam Kumaran: Like, Gabe is… Gabe is helpful for some things, but he can only take on things that he can run on his own, because he’s just very limited in hours.
536 01:00:40.340 ⇒ 01:00:46.040 Uttam Kumaran: And the times that he’s working. So if you hand something to him, you’re not gonna be able to predict when it’s gonna get out.
537 01:00:46.920 ⇒ 01:00:58.180 Uttam Kumaran: He’s very helpful, I think, for anything in Slack, but again, if… if you write a plan on a piece of technology that you need, I would just send it directly in platform to me and Sam. We’ll debate, and then we’ll figure… and…
538 01:00:58.490 ⇒ 01:01:01.470 Uttam Kumaran: Again, I’ll rip a first version, I’ll hand it to him, and it’ll get out.
539 01:01:01.950 ⇒ 01:01:02.970 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Okay.
540 01:01:02.970 ⇒ 01:01:06.420 Uttam Kumaran: There’s not much that you’re gonna throw our way that I can’t do.
541 01:01:06.660 ⇒ 01:01:08.969 Uttam Kumaran: In, like, 48-hour time.
542 01:01:09.230 ⇒ 01:01:14.880 Uttam Kumaran: So, I have… at least, I haven’t seen a single thing being asked of us that we can’t do.
543 01:01:15.120 ⇒ 01:01:21.199 Uttam Kumaran: Right now, we’re figuring out, like, how do we work among the AI team to get this done while we’re also working on clients?
544 01:01:21.480 ⇒ 01:01:36.499 Uttam Kumaran: So, just need more… more things. Like, Luke’s lovable thing is forcing us to be like, okay, how can I get people to build… move stuff into the platform? Some of your stuff, okay, you pushed us to build the Slack assistant a little bit better, so we just need those ideas.
545 01:01:36.880 ⇒ 01:01:42.310 Uttam Kumaran: to come forth to sort of continue to push, because now I’ve laid the foundation for Slack assistance.
546 01:01:42.480 ⇒ 01:01:49.799 Uttam Kumaran: So now, like, in a few weeks, you’re gonna be able to basically say, I need this new slash command, and you can get that going.
547 01:01:49.920 ⇒ 01:01:56.910 Uttam Kumaran: Versus relying on me. So, like, I’m… I know I’m saying, like, hit me, but it’s really just to figure out how do we do these things?
548 01:01:57.180 ⇒ 01:02:05.459 Uttam Kumaran: And then I’m gonna push it to the team, like, you’ll be able to go to anyone… you’ll be able to go to the AI team, say, I want this feature, and they can help you build it out pretty quickly.
549 01:02:06.020 ⇒ 01:02:06.690 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Okay.
550 01:02:07.080 ⇒ 01:02:08.790 Sheshu Chandrasekar: That sounds good, yeah, cause…
551 01:02:09.310 ⇒ 01:02:14.060 Sheshu Chandrasekar: I was hoping to work closely with Gabe, but if, you know, it’s better to go through you, then let’s…
552 01:02:14.060 ⇒ 01:02:21.130 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, he’s just really, really part-time, and I just think he’s very limited, so, like, I would just send it in the channel, and, like, I’ll help you out.
553 01:02:21.410 ⇒ 01:02:32.930 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah. Yeah, so for me, like, again, the biggest blocker is kind of switching from, like, general ops to more client delivery side starting next week, so that would be an interesting
554 01:02:33.070 ⇒ 01:02:38.190 Sheshu Chandrasekar: experience of context switching and stuff like that, to kind of get more into the nitty-gritty of, like.
555 01:02:38.450 ⇒ 01:02:41.830 Sheshu Chandrasekar: What the pain points are for each… each group and each role.
556 01:02:42.470 ⇒ 01:02:43.020 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
557 01:02:45.370 ⇒ 01:02:46.150 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
558 01:02:47.410 ⇒ 01:02:48.160 Uttam Kumaran: Cool.
559 01:02:49.260 ⇒ 01:02:52.880 Uttam Kumaran: I mean, I feel like, yeah, tomorrow we have our all-hands, and then…
560 01:02:54.020 ⇒ 01:03:02.410 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I feel like it’s… we’re gonna end up, like, a pretty good week, as long as… I think we keep just pushing on content, Luke, and, like, we try to get some of these motions out. It should be a good month, so…
561 01:03:04.990 ⇒ 01:03:06.880 Uttam Kumaran: Cool. Anything else?
562 01:03:10.510 ⇒ 01:03:11.860 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Nope, I’m all good.
563 01:03:12.440 ⇒ 01:03:13.000 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
564 01:03:13.580 ⇒ 01:03:16.490 Uttam Kumaran: Alright. Well, Slack me if you need anything. Appreciate it.
565 01:03:16.580 ⇒ 01:03:17.180 Robert Tseng: Oh, jeez.
566 01:03:17.400 ⇒ 01:03:18.100 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Thank you.