Meeting Title: Snowflake Partnership Strategy Check-in Date: 2026-02-17 Meeting participants: Holly Condos, Uttam Kumaran
WEBVTT
1 00:02:13.690 ⇒ 00:02:14.600 Holly Condos: Hey!
2 00:02:16.910 ⇒ 00:02:17.960 Uttam Kumaran: Hey, Holly.
3 00:02:18.780 ⇒ 00:02:19.659 Holly Condos: How are you?
4 00:02:21.040 ⇒ 00:02:22.360 Uttam Kumaran: Hey, good, how are you?
5 00:02:23.170 ⇒ 00:02:24.030 Holly Condos: Good.
6 00:02:24.640 ⇒ 00:02:25.810 Holly Condos: Is this time okay?
7 00:02:26.970 ⇒ 00:02:31.569 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, yeah, yeah, this is fine. I just stepped out to get a coffee, so it may be just a little bit loud.
8 00:02:31.960 ⇒ 00:02:33.830 Holly Condos: Oh, yeah, no worries, no worries.
9 00:02:34.860 ⇒ 00:02:38.220 Uttam Kumaran: How’s, yeah, good!
10 00:02:38.610 ⇒ 00:02:46.809 Uttam Kumaran: I feel like, yeah, last month, I just sort of… we just sort of closed books and sort of reviewing financials, and yeah, we did well. Like, I think the last two months in particular.
11 00:02:46.890 ⇒ 00:02:59.760 Uttam Kumaran: we’re doing better and better. I think it’s funny, we are doing better at expanding deals, I feel like, than we are on bringing in a lot of net new stuff, but we’re figuring out, I think, both pretty fast.
12 00:03:00.040 ⇒ 00:03:05.849 Uttam Kumaran: And it’s been good. I feel like things are rolling. We’ve made some…
13 00:03:05.990 ⇒ 00:03:11.629 Uttam Kumaran: you know, I think… I think Luke has brought, like, a lot of new energy. I feel like,
14 00:03:12.240 ⇒ 00:03:19.670 Uttam Kumaran: we’re starting to continue to do, a lot of things on the marketing and sales side that are… that are fun. I think we kind of slimmed down our priorities.
15 00:03:19.770 ⇒ 00:03:25.599 Uttam Kumaran: On the partnership side would sort of help me focus a bit, and yeah, I feel like…
16 00:03:25.740 ⇒ 00:03:28.600 Uttam Kumaran: Things are getting better. Yeah.
17 00:03:28.600 ⇒ 00:03:30.619 Holly Condos: That’s great. Good to hear.
18 00:03:31.660 ⇒ 00:03:32.639 Uttam Kumaran: How about you?
19 00:03:33.610 ⇒ 00:03:35.680 Holly Condos: Oh, I miss working with you guys!
20 00:03:37.520 ⇒ 00:03:40.779 Holly Condos: I was… I was very excited.
21 00:03:41.530 ⇒ 00:03:43.310 Holly Condos: But I understand.
22 00:03:44.460 ⇒ 00:03:56.659 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I feel like, you know, I’m sort of… I sort of reflect on it, and like… I mean, one, I think we’re… we’re both moving very fast and moving in, like, several directions, and I think, like.
23 00:03:57.100 ⇒ 00:03:58.999 Uttam Kumaran: what I’m finding…
24 00:03:59.580 ⇒ 00:04:08.539 Uttam Kumaran: like, tough, and, like, now moving towards, okay, where do we actually focus? And I think right now, we’re focusing really heavily on, like, the Snowflake and the Army.
25 00:04:08.700 ⇒ 00:04:10.290 Uttam Kumaran: relationship, but…
26 00:04:10.530 ⇒ 00:04:19.569 Uttam Kumaran: I think, like, where your skill set and where, like, your brain would have been helpful is, like, really, like, once, like, a snowflake-level partnership, like.
27 00:04:20.010 ⇒ 00:04:25.569 Uttam Kumaran: gets a lot bigger, and we’re running, like, tons of deals with them to go, and, like, that’s where I feel like…
28 00:04:25.860 ⇒ 00:04:28.189 Uttam Kumaran: I think we’re just not there yet right now.
29 00:04:28.730 ⇒ 00:04:29.470 Holly Condos: Yeah.
30 00:04:29.720 ⇒ 00:04:40.749 Holly Condos: Yeah, and I think I offered at the beginning, right, like, getting established with any of the snowflakes of the world.
31 00:04:40.860 ⇒ 00:04:43.159 Holly Condos: Is… it takes time.
32 00:04:43.350 ⇒ 00:04:44.209 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, yeah.
33 00:04:44.210 ⇒ 00:04:56.729 Holly Condos: I… it’s… it’s not… it’s not easy, like a… I mean, I wouldn’t say Teleisma is easy, but I thought we were getting some traction with them, no, I agree, like, for this, right? Yeah, for those ones, like…
34 00:04:56.910 ⇒ 00:05:02.599 Uttam Kumaran: they’re just down to work with anyone, and Snowflake is really the sort of nut to crack, for sure.
35 00:05:05.960 ⇒ 00:05:12.739 Holly Condos: Yeah, so, well, okay, well, I think, I mean, I just kind of laid off
36 00:05:13.000 ⇒ 00:05:17.549 Holly Condos: Right? And trying to also appreciate your… you guys’ budget.
37 00:05:18.170 ⇒ 00:05:24.439 Holly Condos: concerns. So, I’ll just… Are you still there? Oh, sorry.
38 00:05:24.440 ⇒ 00:05:25.450 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I’m saying, I’m sharing.
39 00:05:25.740 ⇒ 00:05:35.200 Holly Condos: Yeah, I’ll just, you know, kind of, kind of keep an eye on Slack, and obviously, let me know as and when
40 00:05:35.760 ⇒ 00:05:39.969 Holly Condos: You need me.
41 00:05:40.770 ⇒ 00:05:58.099 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I’m sort of… I sort of would love, like, your, you know, reflection as well. I feel like one… one thing that’s, like, you know, I think really important for us, and… and this is something that I just think, like, again, without, like, a team, we’re sort of requiring everybody to both, like, lead
42 00:05:58.280 ⇒ 00:06:12.659 Uttam Kumaran: report and manage and execute all at the same time, and that’s, I think, just hard for us to… we’re just figuring out even, like, what are, like, what is the weekly reporting we need from everybody? And I think a lot of people are…
43 00:06:12.740 ⇒ 00:06:29.789 Uttam Kumaran: are figuring out, okay, like, we have a level of rigor for a lot of the data pieces that, like, we just have to move on. But then this is where, like, when… as Snowflake is growing, I feel like in just about, like, probably another 3 months, we will have kind of gotten to the point with Snowflake where we have a lot of active
44 00:06:29.970 ⇒ 00:06:36.500 Uttam Kumaran: Work streams with them, and maybe that’s when we, like, you know, kind of come back together in a more heavier way.
45 00:06:37.680 ⇒ 00:06:40.459 Uttam Kumaran: You know, just to focus on that, because I agree, I think, like.
46 00:06:40.720 ⇒ 00:06:50.900 Uttam Kumaran: over the last, like, since we started working, I think we’ve brought… we’ve expanded a lot of our partnerships, understood what it’s like to work with a bunch of them, and now just gone deep on, like, I feel like the few that matter.
47 00:06:51.170 ⇒ 00:07:01.629 Uttam Kumaran: But you’re right, like, it’s lives with these folks, I think it’s just gonna be, like, keeping them going, and… but, like, I really feel like the money for us, it’s so clear, is gonna be…
48 00:07:01.880 ⇒ 00:07:05.580 Uttam Kumaran: just getting deeper with Omni and deeper with Snowflake,
49 00:07:06.880 ⇒ 00:07:09.979 Uttam Kumaran: But there is, like, there’s both… there’s both day-to-day
50 00:07:10.140 ⇒ 00:07:14.780 Uttam Kumaran: sort of, like, things that need to happen to move those, and then there’s also a strategic, like.
51 00:07:15.150 ⇒ 00:07:23.120 Uttam Kumaran: okay, can we get on with their, like, head of marketing, head of partnerships, talk about, like, how do we draw more money? Like, for both of these, I don’t think we’re there yet.
52 00:07:23.630 ⇒ 00:07:25.030 Holly Condos: Yeah, I, I agree.
53 00:07:25.030 ⇒ 00:07:25.950 Uttam Kumaran: I agree.
54 00:07:26.720 ⇒ 00:07:27.540 Holly Condos: Yeah.
55 00:07:28.160 ⇒ 00:07:32.349 Holly Condos: So, are you guys presenting at VixelCon?
56 00:07:32.840 ⇒ 00:07:33.780 Uttam Kumaran: Yes, we are.
57 00:07:33.940 ⇒ 00:07:34.580 Holly Condos: Great.
58 00:07:36.140 ⇒ 00:07:46.499 Uttam Kumaran: Yes, that should be great. I think we’re gonna present a lot about, like, some of our AI stuff internally, and how we’re thinking about enabling, like, an organization to use it a lot more, so it should be really good.
59 00:07:46.700 ⇒ 00:07:50.110 Holly Condos: Yeah, that’ll be good. I’ll be interested to hear it.
60 00:07:50.700 ⇒ 00:07:51.430 Uttam Kumaran: Nice.
61 00:07:51.570 ⇒ 00:07:53.610 Uttam Kumaran: How’s everything else in your world?
62 00:07:54.640 ⇒ 00:07:56.040 Holly Condos: Good, just busy.
63 00:07:58.030 ⇒ 00:08:01.069 Holly Condos: I’m… I’m anxious for, spring.
64 00:08:03.260 ⇒ 00:08:07.899 Uttam Kumaran: It’s already… it’s already cut us back to spring here. It’s already hot again.
65 00:08:08.070 ⇒ 00:08:08.900 Holly Condos: Really?
66 00:08:09.070 ⇒ 00:08:10.150 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, yeah.
67 00:08:10.480 ⇒ 00:08:11.490 Uttam Kumaran: Well, you guys don’t.
68 00:08:11.490 ⇒ 00:08:13.340 Holly Condos: You don’t have much of a winter, though, right?
69 00:08:13.800 ⇒ 00:08:17.309 Uttam Kumaran: No, there’s not much seasons at all, really, here.
70 00:08:18.320 ⇒ 00:08:20.269 Holly Condos: But you love it, right?
71 00:08:20.270 ⇒ 00:08:22.000 Uttam Kumaran: I love it, I love it here.
72 00:08:22.370 ⇒ 00:08:27.450 Uttam Kumaran: I like… I feel like I’m… I’m just more of a fan of status quo these days, like…
73 00:08:27.650 ⇒ 00:08:32.679 Uttam Kumaran: my… the job is so variable that, like, everything else, if we can just stand still, I’m really happy.
74 00:08:32.760 ⇒ 00:08:42.859 Holly Condos: Yeah. Oh, I know, so I… I started one of the, the Snowflake sales accreditation.
75 00:08:42.860 ⇒ 00:08:43.320 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
76 00:08:43.320 ⇒ 00:08:45.639 Holly Condos: I’m assuming you want me to finish those, too.
77 00:08:46.440 ⇒ 00:08:47.780 Uttam Kumaran: That would be great, yeah.
78 00:08:48.080 ⇒ 00:08:51.320 Holly Condos: Yeah, okay. So I’ll do that, and then,
79 00:08:51.520 ⇒ 00:09:05.940 Holly Condos: Awash and I have gone back and forth about the certs. Yeah. I think in our last exchange last week, he was like, do I have to do this? And I said, well, yes, you know.
80 00:09:06.010 ⇒ 00:09:13.149 Holly Condos: Utam with, like, you and Demilda, and… Yeah. Right? Because you guys have the technical chops.
81 00:09:13.560 ⇒ 00:09:21.249 Holly Condos: And I said, you know, I appreciate it’s another thing on your plate, but, I said that you had
82 00:09:21.900 ⇒ 00:09:34.419 Holly Condos: committed or indicated that, you know, you would… you would compensate people, and I said, so I’m sure that it can all be worked out, and the wife was like, yeah, okay. So, I don’t know if he talked to you, but…
83 00:09:34.420 ⇒ 00:09:37.120 Uttam Kumaran: They’re just… they’re just so… they’re just so busy, that’s why.
84 00:09:37.120 ⇒ 00:09:38.540 Holly Condos: Yeah, I think they’re swamped.
85 00:09:38.540 ⇒ 00:09:38.980 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
86 00:09:38.980 ⇒ 00:09:45.210 Holly Condos: So, I didn’t push him too hard, because I kind of got the feeling that he was like, oh my gosh, another thing I have to do
87 00:09:46.950 ⇒ 00:09:47.580 Holly Condos: So…
88 00:09:47.880 ⇒ 00:09:53.800 Holly Condos: That’s kind of where that’s at. I mean, maybe I’ll ping him, you know, Friday and just say, hey, how are you doing?
89 00:09:54.420 ⇒ 00:09:58.150 Holly Condos: And… and I can give him some idea, oh, it’s gonna be…
90 00:09:58.310 ⇒ 00:10:04.109 Holly Condos: Seems to me the accreditation was 4 hours, and the certs were more like…
91 00:10:04.690 ⇒ 00:10:12.400 Holly Condos: I want to say 16 to 20, but I’ll confirm, just so he understands what sort of timeline they’re looking at.
92 00:10:13.390 ⇒ 00:10:19.780 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I’m certainly gonna pay, and people, I think right now, what’s happening is that we just, like.
93 00:10:20.310 ⇒ 00:10:33.410 Uttam Kumaran: across our clients, we’re just growing, and we are desperate to hire, and so we have, like, a bunch of people in pipeline that just need to close and join the team and take off work, because all those… all those folks that are here
94 00:10:33.510 ⇒ 00:10:37.599 Uttam Kumaran: They just are taking on all the growth that we’ve had.
95 00:10:37.770 ⇒ 00:10:43.519 Uttam Kumaran: And, like, I’m just trying to save them a little bit. So… it may just end up being something that, like.
96 00:10:43.760 ⇒ 00:10:51.850 Uttam Kumaran: Once they get some breathing room, because both of those guys are, like, they’re gonna start to lead engagements and multiple engagements, and so they’ll have it, they’ll end up with the time.
97 00:10:51.850 ⇒ 00:10:52.980 Holly Condos: Yeah.
98 00:10:52.980 ⇒ 00:11:06.749 Uttam Kumaran: it’s sort of like, I think… it’s sort of like listening to what you’re saying, and what, you know, I think, my other buddy from… who was a Microsoft guy, is saying is kind of about, like, trying… pulling on several threads at Snowflake at the same time, right? So…
99 00:11:07.120 ⇒ 00:11:13.820 Uttam Kumaran: as much as we can kind of sustainably do, we will, and we’ll just keep trying. I feel like we’re as close as we’ve ever been.
100 00:11:13.830 ⇒ 00:11:16.670 Holly Condos: Like, we have 2 active deals with them.
101 00:11:16.860 ⇒ 00:11:21.360 Uttam Kumaran: Through that, both of those AEs have started to push on, sort of, like, like,
102 00:11:21.720 ⇒ 00:11:26.520 Uttam Kumaran: like my… my buddy Steve, he was… he was kind of saying, so… I’m like…
103 00:11:26.630 ⇒ 00:11:34.699 Uttam Kumaran: just… just trying what we can. I think two… focusing on two at a time is, like, probably the bandwidth we have right now.
104 00:11:35.330 ⇒ 00:11:47.509 Uttam Kumaran: like, really what’s gonna allow us to spend more on this team is just, like, yeah, we need to just get more revenue in the door to be able to dedicate. And one of the things that we… we were talking to someone else through Vixel, and
105 00:11:47.680 ⇒ 00:11:52.040 Uttam Kumaran: He was telling us, like, kind of about, like… he was like, maybe we should,
106 00:11:52.420 ⇒ 00:11:55.589 Uttam Kumaran: Like, he was like, we do a lot of partner-focused selling.
107 00:11:56.000 ⇒ 00:12:15.059 Uttam Kumaran: And, he was like, yeah, we actually… we found it… they found it easier to sell to partners versus, like, selling to, like, just net outbound. And I was like, yeah, well, I guess we haven’t really looked at our, like, budget that way, or, like, our marketing activities that way, so that may be a change.
108 00:12:15.390 ⇒ 00:12:17.989 Uttam Kumaran: We start to do.
109 00:12:18.680 ⇒ 00:12:25.780 Uttam Kumaran: because right now, we’re doing… every single deal we do, we do with a partner, one way or another. Whether it’s sourced from a partner, I think is the biggest…
110 00:12:25.980 ⇒ 00:12:29.089 Uttam Kumaran: thing to figure out right now.
111 00:12:29.920 ⇒ 00:12:36.080 Uttam Kumaran: But I think we’re gonna just carve out specific budget just for… for that. That might be a change we start to do.
112 00:12:37.860 ⇒ 00:12:40.590 Holly Condos: Yeah, that… that makes sense.
113 00:12:41.060 ⇒ 00:12:41.670 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
114 00:12:44.030 ⇒ 00:12:46.080 Holly Condos: Alright, well,
115 00:12:46.710 ⇒ 00:12:52.610 Holly Condos: So, yeah, like I said, let me know, and I’ll keep my eyes open on Slack, and
116 00:12:53.870 ⇒ 00:12:55.069 Holly Condos: We’ll be in touch.
117 00:12:55.540 ⇒ 00:12:57.720 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, okay, perfect. Thank you all, appreciate it.
118 00:12:57.720 ⇒ 00:12:58.899 Holly Condos: Take care.
119 00:12:59.140 ⇒ 00:12:59.800 Uttam Kumaran: I can’t fine.
120 00:12:59.980 ⇒ 00:13:00.510 Holly Condos: Bye.