Meeting Title: Kaela <> Uttam Weekly Sync Date: 2026-03-10 Meeting participants: Kaela Gallagher, Uttam Kumaran
WEBVTT
1 00:19:37.610 ⇒ 00:19:38.550 Uttam Kumaran: No.
2 00:19:38.860 ⇒ 00:19:44.129 Uttam Kumaran: My, computer is very slow, and I’m getting a new one, hopefully it sucks, so in case
3 00:19:44.820 ⇒ 00:19:49.409 Uttam Kumaran: In case I lag out, then I may turn off video, but for now, it’s just okay.
4 00:19:49.410 ⇒ 00:19:52.640 Kaela Gallagher: Not good. Yeah, thanks for…
5 00:19:52.640 ⇒ 00:19:55.270 Uttam Kumaran: That was a great compliment from the team earlier, I felt like.
6 00:19:55.750 ⇒ 00:19:57.149 Kaela Gallagher: I know, that was so nice of that!
7 00:19:57.150 ⇒ 00:19:59.710 Uttam Kumaran: I was like, oh my god, it’s so nice, yeah, that’s great.
8 00:19:59.710 ⇒ 00:20:00.819 Kaela Gallagher: Oh, wow.
9 00:20:00.820 ⇒ 00:20:15.989 Uttam Kumaran: And I take no offense, I’m very well aware how messed up everything is, so I’m… I’m… just love to hear that things are getting, like… like, things are getting… it’s sort of like… I feel like I’m watching, like, a speedrun of, like, a hoarder’s house getting, like, put back into, like, the shuttles, and my…
10 00:20:16.950 ⇒ 00:20:24.479 Kaela Gallagher: I mean, I know I’m asking for, like, a lot of people’s time, obviously, and my job is kind of to, like, pester people to keep things.
11 00:20:24.480 ⇒ 00:20:24.990 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
12 00:20:24.990 ⇒ 00:20:29.870 Kaela Gallagher: Quickly, and so, like, it’s nice that they still think highly, considering…
13 00:20:29.870 ⇒ 00:20:30.859 Uttam Kumaran: Yes. Yes.
14 00:20:30.860 ⇒ 00:20:32.959 Kaela Gallagher: So yeah, that was really nice.
15 00:20:34.650 ⇒ 00:20:40.640 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, I know I sent you the… the agenda. I feel like the most important things would be, like.
16 00:20:41.270 ⇒ 00:20:57.979 Kaela Gallagher: Jasmine’s offer, and then talking about benefits. But just a couple of quick updates. So, referral bonus was announced to the team, and I know I mentioned earlier, but, like, I’m already seeing, you know, Pranav send people through, and so hopefully…
17 00:20:57.980 ⇒ 00:21:01.489 Uttam Kumaran: I think Demi also had sent someone in, like, last month.
18 00:21:01.720 ⇒ 00:21:06.869 Uttam Kumaran: Okay. So, we should go back and check who that person was. I think they marked it
19 00:21:07.170 ⇒ 00:21:10.870 Uttam Kumaran: on their Notion, but he had sense At least one person.
20 00:21:11.270 ⇒ 00:21:20.409 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, okay, perfect. Yeah, I was able to bring somebody from, like, my past in as well. He’s doing a final next week, so exciting to see.
21 00:21:20.410 ⇒ 00:21:20.940 Uttam Kumaran: Nice.
22 00:21:20.940 ⇒ 00:21:26.530 Kaela Gallagher: the people that we’re bringing in. I know we also, like, kind of…
23 00:21:26.650 ⇒ 00:21:36.160 Kaela Gallagher: talked about, certification bonuses, so I think we have that set. We’ve decided we want to pay anywhere from, like, 250, starting at $150.
24 00:21:36.160 ⇒ 00:21:36.590 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
25 00:21:36.590 ⇒ 00:21:47.599 Kaela Gallagher: these OmniCerts. So I’m just partnering with RICO right now to figure out the logistics, but I’m thinking it’ll end up being similar to, like, the way people file expenses right now, where they can just
26 00:21:47.690 ⇒ 00:21:58.999 Kaela Gallagher: do a linear command and, just take a picture of the certification. Obviously, it would need to be, like, pre-approved by you or Robert, that it’s something we’re gonna, award a bonus to, but…
27 00:21:59.150 ⇒ 00:22:02.239 Kaela Gallagher: Just working on, like, the backend stuff for that.
28 00:22:03.240 ⇒ 00:22:09.970 Kaela Gallagher: And then, obviously Hannah’s Matt leave, Luke and I will get together on that tomorrow.
29 00:22:10.100 ⇒ 00:22:10.880 Kaela Gallagher: Does…
30 00:22:10.880 ⇒ 00:22:12.999 Uttam Kumaran: I think all those discussions are… yeah, go ahead.
31 00:22:13.200 ⇒ 00:22:16.759 Kaela Gallagher: I was gonna say, does Luke have, like, an idea of what…
32 00:22:17.650 ⇒ 00:22:22.400 Kaela Gallagher: his budget would look like for Hannah’s, like, backfill.
33 00:22:22.400 ⇒ 00:22:24.870 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, we add this in the,
34 00:22:27.230 ⇒ 00:22:36.320 Uttam Kumaran: I think we… I’ve talked to Luke about this, I still think that him and… I mean, I feel like it’s on him to go talk to Robert, but, like, let me go show you where…
35 00:22:36.550 ⇒ 00:22:42.110 Uttam Kumaran: The latest amount is, and… I can pull you, for you, what are…
36 00:22:43.070 ⇒ 00:22:47.179 Uttam Kumaran: Run rate spend is on marketing and stuff, but let me find this…
37 00:22:55.930 ⇒ 00:23:03.440 Kaela Gallagher: Also, just for… transparency, I got the LA team together for, like, co-working last week, and so…
38 00:23:03.440 ⇒ 00:23:04.130 Uttam Kumaran: Nice!
39 00:23:04.130 ⇒ 00:23:21.399 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah, was able to, like, just chat with Luke and Amber in general, and, like, Luke had kind of made a comment. Obviously, don’t share that I’m saying this, because I want him to still, confide in me, but, he just made a comment, he was like, yeah, I was told, you know, marketing is gonna be, like.
40 00:23:21.640 ⇒ 00:23:32.940 Kaela Gallagher: 20%, like, of our revenue, like, we can spend on marketing. He’s like, I don’t know our revenue, like, I don’t know my budget, and like, you know, people are asking me for raises, and I don’t even, like, know
41 00:23:33.370 ⇒ 00:23:34.870 Kaela Gallagher: I’m a raise.
42 00:23:35.620 ⇒ 00:23:54.429 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, cool. I mean, I thought your comment was gonna be way worse, like, he wants to leave or something. Well, that’s easy. We can solve that in, like, 10 seconds. So, this is… so take a look. I mean, I’ve shown this to him. I think he just… he’s doing a lot of things, and marketers are… they tend to be, like, super ADD-type people, so I’m not surprised, like, he’s all over the place. I just work…
43 00:23:54.710 ⇒ 00:24:05.510 Uttam Kumaran: It’s their superpower, but also, they’re not very… sometimes buried in the spreadsheets. But basically, here’s… here’s where we… we are. So yes, like, I think we’ve,
44 00:24:05.720 ⇒ 00:24:10.590 Uttam Kumaran: We sort of… baseline, like, benchmark, and this is where we’re also, like.
45 00:24:10.660 ⇒ 00:24:27.709 Uttam Kumaran: for our business, we always think about benchmark, and then we… I think about, okay, how do we continue to lower? But we can assume that 20% of our revenue can go to sales and marketing. That’s pretty typical for a business like ours. What you’ll see here is Robert has basically built that out, like, what are the budgets?
46 00:24:28.100 ⇒ 00:24:31.820 Uttam Kumaran: I think Luke’s next question is gonna be, like, I don’t know what the HR budgets are.
47 00:24:31.930 ⇒ 00:24:34.850 Uttam Kumaran: So I’m curious on, like, how we want to handle that, meaning, like.
48 00:24:35.180 ⇒ 00:24:37.669 Uttam Kumaran: He may… maybe… maybe team leads…
49 00:24:38.010 ⇒ 00:24:41.490 Uttam Kumaran: Should know how much everybody’s making, and, like, ladder that up, but, like.
50 00:24:41.610 ⇒ 00:24:46.760 Uttam Kumaran: This spreadsheet is really, like, where Robert is looking at what is our spend.
51 00:24:47.090 ⇒ 00:24:50.740 Uttam Kumaran: For the amount of… what is our revenue for the amount of spend we’re getting?
52 00:24:50.890 ⇒ 00:25:00.819 Uttam Kumaran: Meaning, he’s like, okay, we spend 100K out? Right? And this is his, like, his… this is where he is starting to look at that.
53 00:25:01.060 ⇒ 00:25:10.199 Uttam Kumaran: So… Ultimately, if you scroll to the bottom, you’re gonna see what are the like… Marketing expenses on.
54 00:25:13.100 ⇒ 00:25:16.709 Uttam Kumaran: So I don’t know, I think maybe he updated this,
55 00:25:19.470 ⇒ 00:25:24.020 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, he updated this last week, because I know he’s worked on a lot of budgets, so these are the actuals.
56 00:25:26.860 ⇒ 00:25:27.720 Kaela Gallagher: Okay.
57 00:25:30.150 ⇒ 00:25:36.420 Uttam Kumaran: So I… I think you guys have the answer, basically, here. So I think, roughly, what… what he needs to think about is, like.
58 00:25:36.970 ⇒ 00:25:39.479 Uttam Kumaran: Him included, that’s what he’s working with.
59 00:25:39.880 ⇒ 00:25:45.240 Uttam Kumaran: I think, like, and I think it’s always helpful for folks to not only think about
60 00:25:45.570 ⇒ 00:25:51.739 Uttam Kumaran: like, what the number is, but is it good or bad? And, like, what are we doing that’s one way or the other, right? So…
61 00:25:52.010 ⇒ 00:25:58.009 Uttam Kumaran: I would say, and Robert would say, that our marketing expense for the amount of revenue we’re getting is
62 00:25:58.250 ⇒ 00:25:59.600 Uttam Kumaran: is high.
63 00:26:00.020 ⇒ 00:26:01.880 Uttam Kumaran: And…
64 00:26:02.260 ⇒ 00:26:10.890 Uttam Kumaran: there’s… there’s one thing to say it’s fine, there’s one thing that’s like, okay, what do we do about it? My perspective is there’s gonna be a minimum floor of people who need to do marketing.
65 00:26:11.000 ⇒ 00:26:16.949 Uttam Kumaran: Like, we need people doing design, we need people doing webinars and reach-outs, we need people doing LinkedIn stuff.
66 00:26:17.330 ⇒ 00:26:21.459 Uttam Kumaran: We need events, partnerships, right? So…
67 00:26:22.020 ⇒ 00:26:28.220 Uttam Kumaran: I think this is a debate, but really, it’s, like, that team, which is Luke and Robert, need to come up with, like.
68 00:26:28.500 ⇒ 00:26:31.380 Uttam Kumaran: Is this… are these splits appropriate?
69 00:26:31.530 ⇒ 00:26:35.890 Uttam Kumaran: Like, do we feel comfortable in this way?
70 00:26:36.060 ⇒ 00:26:38.449 Uttam Kumaran: Do we want to reallocate?
71 00:26:38.670 ⇒ 00:26:45.410 Uttam Kumaran: Right. So that’s why when I told Luke, I’m like, if you’re having discussions about people and budget, take a moment to think about the whole thing.
72 00:26:46.090 ⇒ 00:26:51.759 Uttam Kumaran: The other thing I think a lot about is, oftentimes when we promote leaders within the company, this isn’t the team that they form.
73 00:26:51.990 ⇒ 00:26:55.579 Uttam Kumaran: Right? So somewhere, I think you’re in both a lucky spot.
74 00:26:56.110 ⇒ 00:27:03.770 Uttam Kumaran: In that, like, you have no team, but you can also dictate how everything works. Some people don’t get that. They, like, they get a team that I build, or Robert built.
75 00:27:03.770 ⇒ 00:27:04.090 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah.
76 00:27:04.090 ⇒ 00:27:07.920 Uttam Kumaran: who may not work, but… so I’m trying to tell him to really think concretely about
77 00:27:08.610 ⇒ 00:27:11.739 Uttam Kumaran: The team he has, what their skill set is.
78 00:27:11.830 ⇒ 00:27:28.970 Uttam Kumaran: the amount of spend that they’re putting to that team, and, like, how he wants to relocate. He mentioned this other person. I said, that’s fine, you… I don’t… you could mention 10 other people, but, like, ultimately, you have a budget to work with. Does that fit into the budget? If not, where does that come from? And I think this is where… this view is probably…
79 00:27:29.710 ⇒ 00:27:32.270 Uttam Kumaran: What he kind of needs to, like, think about, you know?
80 00:27:32.700 ⇒ 00:27:36.769 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, so just to clarify, like, at the very bottom,
81 00:27:37.070 ⇒ 00:27:45.000 Kaela Gallagher: forecasted operating expenses section. The marketing, when it says, like, Line 1, Line 2, and then sales and marketing team.
82 00:27:45.300 ⇒ 00:27:47.479 Kaela Gallagher: What do each of those mean?
83 00:27:47.600 ⇒ 00:27:59.059 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, this is where we have to ask Robert. I think he pulled this from our P&L, and he’s working on, like, the budget categories. So, we can talk about it in our Slack chat, I’m sure he’ll respond.
84 00:27:59.130 ⇒ 00:28:00.290 Kaela Gallagher: Okay.
85 00:28:00.440 ⇒ 00:28:02.800 Uttam Kumaran: To answer, like, give descriptions for…
86 00:28:03.230 ⇒ 00:28:03.670 Kaela Gallagher: Okay.
87 00:28:03.670 ⇒ 00:28:04.359 Uttam Kumaran: HR database.
88 00:28:04.360 ⇒ 00:28:12.670 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah, because I’m looking at these, I’m like, $81 in a month on this internal piece, like, I’m so curious what that was, so, okay.
89 00:28:13.130 ⇒ 00:28:14.430 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, yeah.
90 00:28:14.590 ⇒ 00:28:14.960 Kaela Gallagher: No problem.
91 00:28:14.960 ⇒ 00:28:17.989 Uttam Kumaran: I also don’t know what that is. I’m like, maybe…
92 00:28:19.230 ⇒ 00:28:22.040 Uttam Kumaran: You know, the other thing that happens is,
93 00:28:22.170 ⇒ 00:28:28.329 Uttam Kumaran: If people bill, like, fractional amount of their times to certain categories, they can get booked that way, so…
94 00:28:28.500 ⇒ 00:28:34.899 Uttam Kumaran: Robert is now looking through, like, how finance is booking certain expenses, because, for example, someone spends an hour and a half somewhere.
95 00:28:35.340 ⇒ 00:28:38.560 Uttam Kumaran: And they classified it that way, it can get split out of us, so…
96 00:28:38.780 ⇒ 00:28:47.409 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, so in theory, like, part of this recruiting HR budget, for example, would be, like, are people doing interviews? Would be billed under this.
97 00:28:47.870 ⇒ 00:29:05.899 Uttam Kumaran: That’s true, so I think that all of that’s probably built… well, I mean, this is a good question. I think this is my… I haven’t looked at this since last week, but that’s my… that’s a good question. And the one thing we could do is, like, we can ask Robert, and if he doesn’t know, I can ask the finance team to basically put the descriptions. But ultimately, this is our view of OPEX right now.
98 00:29:06.230 ⇒ 00:29:11.689 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah, okay. And this is a good, like, overview, at least a place to start. Okay. Yeah.
99 00:29:12.000 ⇒ 00:29:13.789 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, got it.
100 00:29:13.970 ⇒ 00:29:20.070 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, yeah, I’ll keep you posted when… when I, chat with him tomorrow.
101 00:29:20.070 ⇒ 00:29:34.729 Uttam Kumaran: And this is also the thing, is, like, I think marketing at, in addition to, like, our deliver… and marketing… so if you think about dollars, dollars and dollars out, like, delivery, we can almost map, like, someone’s working an hour, and we’re billing an hour, right?
102 00:29:34.730 ⇒ 00:29:35.150 Kaela Gallagher: So, I.
103 00:29:35.150 ⇒ 00:29:36.070 Uttam Kumaran: You can do the math.
104 00:29:36.480 ⇒ 00:29:44.749 Uttam Kumaran: marketing and sales is probably the next biggest thing, where they have… it’s very easy to measure, which is good and bad for the marketing team. It’s good in that, like.
105 00:29:45.010 ⇒ 00:29:54.060 Uttam Kumaran: I feel like the rules are set, meaning, like, you can spend money and you can measure. It’s tough because it’s very transparent. Like, when…
106 00:29:54.360 ⇒ 00:30:03.949 Uttam Kumaran: you’re not seeing ROI. For example, I’m not, like, looking at the amount of money we’re spending on… on… in recruiting, and I’m like, oh, we’re not getting, like, 100x out of that in some period. It’s like.
107 00:30:03.990 ⇒ 00:30:18.430 Uttam Kumaran: I, instead, there are other categories of expense that I do… that I think about percentage of revenue. So, for a company our size, what is the typical percent of revenue they spend on recruiting and HR? That is my benchmark. And I don’t, like, go deeper into, like.
108 00:30:18.910 ⇒ 00:30:26.320 Uttam Kumaran: like, the ROI calculation, but ultimately, every dollar in sales and marketing is supposed to be buying us 5 or 10 bags.
109 00:30:26.480 ⇒ 00:30:37.579 Uttam Kumaran: And that’s how… and delivery is not exactly like that. It’s more about servicing revenue that’s coming in for as wide of a margin as possible, right?
110 00:30:37.580 ⇒ 00:30:38.090 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah.
111 00:30:38.090 ⇒ 00:30:40.190 Uttam Kumaran: So that’s… that’s sort of how we’re thinking about it.
112 00:30:40.580 ⇒ 00:30:56.150 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, okay, cool. I guess, like, that kind of transitions well to, Jasmine’s offer. So, I’m gonna be chatting with her this afternoon. I’ll kind of get, like, an idea of her expectations, and…
113 00:30:56.490 ⇒ 00:31:06.400 Kaela Gallagher: Where we can start the offer conversation, but I’m curious, like, what you guys have chatted with, like, with her about so far, because I know you met Friday, and then this week, obviously.
114 00:31:06.400 ⇒ 00:31:19.759 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I mean, my job in this whole thing, like, what I do is, like, if I’m not involved in, sort of, like, the way someone’s working in the company, I basically go to everyone that has worked with them, and I’m like, do we want this person? Everybody said yes, and I’m like, okay, I will…
115 00:31:20.020 ⇒ 00:31:24.670 Uttam Kumaran: I will pull out all the sales stops to make sure this person wants to work for us.
116 00:31:24.990 ⇒ 00:31:27.350 Uttam Kumaran: And then, I think that’s… that’s basic…
117 00:31:27.910 ⇒ 00:31:41.429 Uttam Kumaran: Seeing what I did on Friday with that. I was like, I think… I told her, I think this is the best place for you to work, and I think she can accomplish a lot with us. Now, it’s sort of that negotiations, right? And so that’s sort of, like, how I’m thinking about
118 00:31:41.590 ⇒ 00:31:57.430 Uttam Kumaran: typically how I think about these things, where part of my job is to sell and make sure people want to look for us, which also, I think, gives us a leg up on negotiations. But the latter piece is to actually, like, arrive at a number that everyone is okay to, you know.
119 00:31:57.980 ⇒ 00:32:00.750 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah, okay. Okay, so you haven’t, like…
120 00:32:00.750 ⇒ 00:32:01.300 Uttam Kumaran: We haven’t.
121 00:32:01.300 ⇒ 00:32:03.380 Kaela Gallagher: I can, I can look through…
122 00:32:04.700 ⇒ 00:32:12.180 Uttam Kumaran: No, not… not recently. You can see that our… I think our current agreement is in line with our senior level.
123 00:32:12.180 ⇒ 00:32:12.850 Kaela Gallagher: Yes.
124 00:32:12.850 ⇒ 00:32:13.550 Uttam Kumaran: Right?
125 00:32:14.120 ⇒ 00:32:16.829 Kaela Gallagher: She’s at 80 an hour, currently.
126 00:32:18.420 ⇒ 00:32:22.410 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, so that’s in line with… and I think… let me… I can just search my email.
127 00:32:22.890 ⇒ 00:32:29.569 Uttam Kumaran: Really quick to see, what I found on that one.
128 00:32:35.250 ⇒ 00:32:41.049 Kaela Gallagher: Also, you’re cutting out a lot, so I think I’m gonna turn off my video, hopefully it’ll come through a little bit better.
129 00:32:47.670 ⇒ 00:32:48.470 Uttam Kumaran: Better?
130 00:32:49.670 ⇒ 00:32:51.539 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah, I think it’s a bit better now.
131 00:32:55.290 ⇒ 00:32:58.399 Uttam Kumaran: Alright, let me see if I have an email from him.
132 00:32:59.370 ⇒ 00:33:05.670 Kaela Gallagher: So we’re bringing her on 1099 right now, but she’s somebody, like, we could…
133 00:33:05.910 ⇒ 00:33:11.019 Kaela Gallagher: kind of sell benefits and W-2 down the line, right?
134 00:33:12.960 ⇒ 00:33:27.009 Uttam Kumaran: So, there’s… there’s two pieces. There’s two pieces to this. There’s one piece, which is, like, she’s actually doing some part-time work for us, which was kind of in line with our, like, trial process, right? Where we’re hopeful that she can
135 00:33:27.230 ⇒ 00:33:46.179 Uttam Kumaran: come in and do some work, and then try to find a path towards her working full-time. We’ve now arrived at that, like, end of that first trial. So, when I asked her, I said, look, like, as usual, we want people to work with us full-time, what’s the decision? She now came back today with, like, I’d be down. She wants to start, though, end of April.
136 00:33:46.830 ⇒ 00:33:47.790 Uttam Kumaran: And so…
137 00:33:48.430 ⇒ 00:34:00.159 Uttam Kumaran: she can still continue to work part-time, and I think it’s… I think it would be helpful for her to have her, but this negotiation is really for post-end of April, where we would move her out to 1099,
138 00:34:00.580 ⇒ 00:34:05.340 Uttam Kumaran: And then, I mean, unless we already have a W-2 and stuff, like, already set up, I don’t.
139 00:34:05.680 ⇒ 00:34:07.350 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah, hopefully. Okay.
140 00:34:08.510 ⇒ 00:34:09.469 Kaela Gallagher: Okay.
141 00:34:09.739 ⇒ 00:34:10.750 Kaela Gallagher: Cool.
142 00:34:10.920 ⇒ 00:34:21.120 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah, I’ll refer to the Total Rewards doc, I can share that with her as well, and just get an idea of, like, what she would be excited about.
143 00:34:21.360 ⇒ 00:34:23.539 Kaela Gallagher: And then I can keep you posted from there.
144 00:34:25.850 ⇒ 00:34:27.170 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, cool.
145 00:34:28.949 ⇒ 00:34:40.530 Kaela Gallagher: I guess moving into, like, benefits, I know this is, like, something that you were running with up until now, and it seems like you were able to get yourself and maybe Robert soon onto W-2, so…
146 00:34:40.530 ⇒ 00:34:41.290 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
147 00:34:41.290 ⇒ 00:34:49.419 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah, curious, like, what part we’re at in the process, and if you want me to, like, kind of run… run with this from here on.
148 00:34:50.300 ⇒ 00:34:57.959 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, so, I mean, one thing that really happened in the company, like, as of the new year, we transitioned from, like, an LLC to, like, a C-Corp.
149 00:34:57.990 ⇒ 00:35:10.379 Uttam Kumaran: And so we’re, like, in the final things of, like, all the equity, and the ownership sort of, like, sign-offs, at which point, like, both of us come on as W2. I think that should get wrapped up this week.
150 00:35:10.380 ⇒ 00:35:21.690 Uttam Kumaran: Actually, there’s just some things we were deciding on in terms of, like, some advisor on the cap table and things like that. At that point, I would like to try and drive towards
151 00:35:22.020 ⇒ 00:35:25.679 Uttam Kumaran: like, sort of that initial list that I sent of, like, people
152 00:35:25.940 ⇒ 00:35:33.929 Uttam Kumaran: who are priority candidates for W2. And so, did my reasoning in that doc sort of make sense in, like, how I was…
153 00:35:35.230 ⇒ 00:35:37.289 Uttam Kumaran: Thinking about it,
154 00:35:37.730 ⇒ 00:35:50.969 Uttam Kumaran: I mean, one is, like, I wanted… for anyone who’s, like, a leader at the company in the States, I think it’s, like, paramount to have that. I think that’s, like, promises we’ve already made to you guys, so I was… I want to do that. Otherwise, I’m also thinking about people that are
155 00:35:51.100 ⇒ 00:36:02.199 Uttam Kumaran: critical to existing operations, who, like, it would… in both ways, it would be a… they have a lot of potential, and it would be, like, a huge loss if we lost them. The next piece is, like.
156 00:36:02.330 ⇒ 00:36:06.200 Uttam Kumaran: Also, like, yeah, show of importance that, like, okay, we want you to be here long-term.
157 00:36:06.470 ⇒ 00:36:11.889 Uttam Kumaran: for… really, I’m, like, I’m full… I’m most worried about the folks in the States.
158 00:36:12.130 ⇒ 00:36:15.649 Uttam Kumaran: Where we could drive towards W2. For overseas.
159 00:36:16.330 ⇒ 00:36:20.989 Uttam Kumaran: this is, like, a little bit tough, so I’m almost, like, Wondering if we…
160 00:36:21.300 ⇒ 00:36:31.600 Uttam Kumaran: table it. I know a lot about that process. Basically, it involves, like, we have to have an employee of record, employer record in that country, that country employs.
161 00:36:32.970 ⇒ 00:36:34.940 Uttam Kumaran: I haven’t… Yeah.
162 00:36:34.940 ⇒ 00:36:39.069 Kaela Gallagher: It may just be smoother on all sides to keep them.
163 00:36:39.390 ⇒ 00:36:39.770 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
164 00:36:39.770 ⇒ 00:36:46.249 Kaela Gallagher: And do you think they would prefer to be 1099, too? Like, in the end, they would just make more doing it that way?
165 00:36:47.060 ⇒ 00:36:54.140 Uttam Kumaran: I think this is where, like, a lot of our people have a full ballot with us, and…
166 00:36:54.520 ⇒ 00:37:00.249 Uttam Kumaran: They’re not working, like, multiple contracts, although it doesn’t… our contracts don’t prevent them from doing so.
167 00:37:00.540 ⇒ 00:37:06.719 Uttam Kumaran: So, I think part of it could be for… like, the advice I got was.
168 00:37:07.040 ⇒ 00:37:13.029 Uttam Kumaran: don’t do it until there’s, like, some event. For example, if someone wanted to come by the company.
169 00:37:13.590 ⇒ 00:37:16.839 Uttam Kumaran: they would expect that a lot of our talent is WT.
170 00:37:16.950 ⇒ 00:37:23.729 Uttam Kumaran: And so, when I talked to Vixels, like, one of Vixel’s, like, co-founders, Ali, he mentioned that, like.
171 00:37:24.370 ⇒ 00:37:33.780 Uttam Kumaran: They had a line of sight to it that was about a year out, and then they moved people into, like, more permanent employment, but didn’t really worry about it until then.
172 00:37:34.140 ⇒ 00:37:37.609 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah. There hasn’t been an ask from a contractor to do so.
173 00:37:38.460 ⇒ 00:37:43.289 Uttam Kumaran: it’s not like I’ve also been like, is this something you want?
174 00:37:43.550 ⇒ 00:37:47.620 Uttam Kumaran: I just know, given U.S, like, how health and all benefits work here.
175 00:37:47.880 ⇒ 00:37:50.259 Uttam Kumaran: That’s… that’s been the main priority.
176 00:37:50.580 ⇒ 00:37:56.629 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, definitely. We also do pay, like, very well for all of the countries we hire from.
177 00:37:57.150 ⇒ 00:37:57.840 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah.
178 00:37:58.680 ⇒ 00:37:59.220 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah.
179 00:37:59.220 ⇒ 00:38:04.530 Uttam Kumaran: And it is a lot of operational complexity to do these, so, like, I would prefer not to, like.
180 00:38:04.530 ⇒ 00:38:16.300 Kaela Gallagher: I… I agree. Yeah, I would say U.S. U.S.-based team members are, priority right now. I… I know you mentioned JustWorks using that platform.
181 00:38:16.780 ⇒ 00:38:24.859 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, so we actually are on JustWorks for, like, my W-2 and payroll, and then that’s, like, sort of part of this is managed by…
182 00:38:26.950 ⇒ 00:38:33.169 Uttam Kumaran: finance. So, one thing is, like, if me and you are on the same page, we can call Megan.
183 00:38:33.700 ⇒ 00:38:35.259 Uttam Kumaran: And just be like.
184 00:38:36.150 ⇒ 00:38:49.759 Uttam Kumaran: give me the lowdown. So I basically put four people who we should just call as part of this. Holly, who’s kind of, like, our little bit of our internal counsel, so she’ll be good, just as a long career in this world.
185 00:38:49.990 ⇒ 00:38:56.039 Uttam Kumaran: Megan, who leads Leo Luna, who is our fractional… that they’re a fractional bookkeeper and accountant.
186 00:38:56.980 ⇒ 00:38:59.390 Uttam Kumaran: Leo, Luna, yeah, yeah.
187 00:38:59.660 ⇒ 00:39:05.020 Uttam Kumaran: And then Vishnu is, like, led operations at… Buck 7, so…
188 00:39:05.290 ⇒ 00:39:16.570 Uttam Kumaran: and at Vixhold, they basically advise, like, a ton of companies just like us, so… another good person to ask, and then Ian, is our insurance broker. Again, like, we’re well connected to, like, the…
189 00:39:17.210 ⇒ 00:39:19.169 Uttam Kumaran: Business services world.
190 00:39:19.620 ⇒ 00:39:22.500 Uttam Kumaran: Someone who you should email back and forth with.
191 00:39:22.760 ⇒ 00:39:27.030 Uttam Kumaran: I could also just text him and put us all in a text thread, like, he’s a friend of mine, so…
192 00:39:27.230 ⇒ 00:39:28.310 Kaela Gallagher: Okay.
193 00:39:28.480 ⇒ 00:39:32.000 Uttam Kumaran: So these are, as I mentioned, like, A few weeks ago.
194 00:39:32.280 ⇒ 00:39:34.949 Uttam Kumaran: We should just go talk to these people.
195 00:39:35.140 ⇒ 00:39:38.930 Uttam Kumaran: Amalgamate all the advice we hear, and then, like, think about a strategy.
196 00:39:39.190 ⇒ 00:39:42.270 Uttam Kumaran: I’ve had some people in the come and pitch
197 00:39:42.530 ⇒ 00:39:49.689 Uttam Kumaran: Like, I would love to basically wrap a strategy around W-2 and the… these benefits.
198 00:39:50.180 ⇒ 00:39:58.059 Uttam Kumaran: But, like, we decide on the order of operations. Like, what I don’t want to do is call these guys again about this topic in another, like, 6 months.
199 00:39:58.210 ⇒ 00:40:03.109 Uttam Kumaran: So, let’s go talk about as many benefits as we may potentially offer.
200 00:40:03.260 ⇒ 00:40:05.190 Uttam Kumaran: Asked, how the heck do you do this?
201 00:40:05.610 ⇒ 00:40:13.310 Uttam Kumaran: Like, what is the cost? Who else should we talk to? And then… we set the narrative on, like, what is the order of operations.
202 00:40:13.920 ⇒ 00:40:15.800 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah. Based on our needs.
203 00:40:16.030 ⇒ 00:40:25.469 Kaela Gallagher: So I… I, listed here these 3 benefits, because this is what we’re advertising right now in our total rewards document, as we’re, like.
204 00:40:25.920 ⇒ 00:40:31.400 Kaela Gallagher: hiring people, so I feel like these are things that we need to deliver on.
205 00:40:31.400 ⇒ 00:40:48.380 Kaela Gallagher: So I would say, like, yeah, obviously the W-2 conversion, and then these kind of come along with that conversion. I would love to do the conversion and have the benefits, like, ready to go at the same time. I feel like that would be the most,
206 00:40:48.480 ⇒ 00:41:02.379 Kaela Gallagher: seamless, and the reason I brought up JustWorks is because I was looking into it, and they can basically serve as a professional employer organization, so…
207 00:41:02.680 ⇒ 00:41:16.170 Kaela Gallagher: the issues that I foresee us running into right now is because we’re remote, and even though we’re only looking at U.S. team members converting to W-2, like, there’s a lot of different, kind of.
208 00:41:16.860 ⇒ 00:41:32.120 Kaela Gallagher: legal complications in each state, and JustWorks can basically serve as, like, a co-employer and offer employees access to benefits through them. So, like.
209 00:41:32.140 ⇒ 00:41:41.000 Kaela Gallagher: pricing that we wouldn’t have access to because we’re so small. Like, they have, like, group plans that they could offer, and they just kind of simplify, like.
210 00:41:41.040 ⇒ 00:41:45.299 Kaela Gallagher: payroll and HR and compliance benefits all in one place.
211 00:41:47.390 ⇒ 00:42:02.910 Kaela Gallagher: Usually, the cost of this is, like, per employee per month, but, something that we could look into further, like, if we’re already using JustWorks for you, it could be really, like, streamlined to roll it out to other people through them.
212 00:42:03.590 ⇒ 00:42:11.039 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, so I think that’s gonna be… I think Megan is gonna be probably the best person. She has a relationship with JustWorks, and that is her recommendation.
213 00:42:11.180 ⇒ 00:42:11.640 Kaela Gallagher: Okay.
214 00:42:11.640 ⇒ 00:42:18.350 Uttam Kumaran: So, I think we should call her, and we should bring that up in our conversation. I would much prefer to not talk to
215 00:42:18.480 ⇒ 00:42:21.360 Uttam Kumaran: Jess works about it, because they’re gonna sell us on…
216 00:42:21.940 ⇒ 00:42:41.179 Uttam Kumaran: everything, so Megan is gonna be the good person. We should also just do it in Slack. If you have a clear question, like, we can skip a meeting, you can just ask her in Slack, or send her this doc, and she’ll… she’ll give you, she’ll give, like, us enough information on, like, what she thinks is the best path. She’s pretty good at doing, like, here’s our… here’s my recommendation, given where Brainforge is.
217 00:42:41.560 ⇒ 00:42:43.080 Uttam Kumaran: So…
218 00:42:43.760 ⇒ 00:42:50.259 Kaela Gallagher: Okay. Okay, so let me… Let me start a thread with her after this, and then if I.
219 00:42:50.260 ⇒ 00:42:57.450 Uttam Kumaran: I mean, another thing we could do is, like, we could write… we could write… take this doc, and then send it to all these four people.
220 00:42:58.100 ⇒ 00:43:04.760 Uttam Kumaran: And be like, put your comment, like, send it as a pre-read, because Vishnu will totally go put comments in.
221 00:43:04.990 ⇒ 00:43:06.430 Kaela Gallagher: No questions asked.
222 00:43:06.440 ⇒ 00:43:11.109 Uttam Kumaran: Megan will also, or if not, at least she’ll read it before our meeting.
223 00:43:11.410 ⇒ 00:43:16.479 Uttam Kumaran: Ian, I’m gonna… I’ll probably see him, so I can just… I can just ask him.
224 00:43:16.590 ⇒ 00:43:17.719 Uttam Kumaran: What do you think?
225 00:43:19.120 ⇒ 00:43:29.139 Uttam Kumaran: And then Holly as well, like, if she’s in Slack, we can just… we can give her a call, so… maybe putting… taking this transcript and, like, putting our thoughts down in, like, one concise doc of, like.
226 00:43:29.930 ⇒ 00:43:31.860 Uttam Kumaran: Maybe it’s just brain force, like…
227 00:43:32.150 ⇒ 00:43:39.340 Uttam Kumaran: benefits execution plan or something. Yeah. And then that becomes the… just, like, the doc that we… that we use for project planning here.
228 00:43:39.630 ⇒ 00:43:47.750 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, okay. Yeah, one thing to consider, too, is, like, moving over or using JustWorks, it seems like you can do even, like.
229 00:43:47.930 ⇒ 00:43:53.519 Kaela Gallagher: payroll through it, and so we could use that as a solution for, like, W-2 payroll.
230 00:43:53.520 ⇒ 00:43:56.859 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, so we are using it for payroll. Yeah, so we will be using it for payroll.
231 00:43:57.070 ⇒ 00:44:09.639 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, okay, yeah, perfect. I’m curious… this is, like, just out of curiosity, why are we on, like, a net 30 schedule right now?
232 00:44:10.410 ⇒ 00:44:18.839 Uttam Kumaran: Just because it’s, beneficial. Because we… one… two things is, one, the business doesn’t get paid, typically, even on a net 30.
233 00:44:19.050 ⇒ 00:44:24.979 Uttam Kumaran: So when we sign contractor agreements, it’s fairly typical for us to have net 30 agreements with
234 00:44:25.350 ⇒ 00:44:37.090 Uttam Kumaran: with any vendor, and so we kind of translate that down. Part of it was, like, the business had enough, like, we just were never… we just weren’t in a stable enough place to be able to pay people, like.
235 00:44:37.260 ⇒ 00:44:41.460 Uttam Kumaran: Immediately the month take, because we wouldn’t often get paid for, like, 45, 60 days.
236 00:44:41.860 ⇒ 00:44:42.350 Kaela Gallagher: Okay.
237 00:44:42.350 ⇒ 00:44:58.180 Uttam Kumaran: So, I had to create a net 30 schedule. We have… so we have now moved some people to, like, monthly, or bi-weekly, but the thing is, we have to be very careful that… that it’s not, an employee relationship.
238 00:44:58.270 ⇒ 00:45:02.520 Uttam Kumaran: Right? It is a contractor relationship, so that is something that we have to really just maintain.
239 00:45:02.670 ⇒ 00:45:05.100 Uttam Kumaran: Because otherwise we’d have to offer.
240 00:45:06.250 ⇒ 00:45:06.620 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah.
241 00:45:06.620 ⇒ 00:45:14.969 Uttam Kumaran: Right? So that’s… that’s some of the reason, and it’s just, like, our standard language in order to protect the business, because we just… it’s a huge cash flow business.
242 00:45:14.970 ⇒ 00:45:18.789 Kaela Gallagher: Meaning, like, we have these huge spikes in volume that come in and then go out.
243 00:45:18.790 ⇒ 00:45:22.489 Uttam Kumaran: And it’s sort of nothing. There’s no noise for, like, the rest of the month.
244 00:45:22.490 ⇒ 00:45:24.890 Kaela Gallagher: And in order to sort of, like.
245 00:45:24.890 ⇒ 00:45:28.229 Uttam Kumaran: Balance that, we have everybody on that third one.
246 00:45:29.110 ⇒ 00:45:41.529 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, that makes sense. The reason why I was asking is because I’m curious, like, if we transition to people… if we transition people to W-2, if those people could be bi-weekly.
247 00:45:41.730 ⇒ 00:45:48.370 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, so yes, so… so for… for people that trans… so yeah, maybe we can make that clear in the doc. Yes, that is the… that is the benefit, actually.
248 00:45:48.370 ⇒ 00:45:52.759 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, okay. So that’s something I… yeah, maybe I should have been more explicit, but yes.
249 00:45:52.760 ⇒ 00:45:54.370 Uttam Kumaran: It will move to…
250 00:45:54.560 ⇒ 00:46:03.949 Uttam Kumaran: like, the goal will be to move everybody to traditional bi-weekly W-2 payments, which is why I want to be careful on, like, how fast, because what you’re going to hear from Megan
251 00:46:04.310 ⇒ 00:46:11.940 Uttam Kumaran: Megan is probably gonna say, do we need to do this right now? Because she’s gonna say, like, we need to maintain cash flow, we should wait.
252 00:46:12.050 ⇒ 00:46:20.589 Uttam Kumaran: My… my pushback on her is, like, we’re gonna do it for the people that we are committed to, and who are already paying, and we have the budget to… to pay.
253 00:46:20.840 ⇒ 00:46:24.049 Uttam Kumaran: on the schedule, not everybody in the States, basically.
254 00:46:24.220 ⇒ 00:46:28.010 Uttam Kumaran: So that’s also something that, like, I want to consider when we talk, is, like.
255 00:46:28.810 ⇒ 00:46:34.810 Uttam Kumaran: as many people as we can keep off WT, the better, but the more senior we get.
256 00:46:35.330 ⇒ 00:46:37.579 Uttam Kumaran: Like, it’s just gonna be no question.
257 00:46:37.890 ⇒ 00:46:44.290 Uttam Kumaran: So this is something that, like, I think, again, it sort of goes back to our conversation of, like, if it’s an employer’s market, like, what is our leverage?
258 00:46:44.680 ⇒ 00:46:49.180 Uttam Kumaran: And some of the folks are gonna be okay with just, like, working somewhere, making some money.
259 00:46:49.810 ⇒ 00:46:55.130 Uttam Kumaran: You know, and like, it’s helpful from a business standpoint to have asked you
260 00:46:55.550 ⇒ 00:46:59.620 Uttam Kumaran: like, liabilities on W-2 employment as possible.
261 00:47:00.180 ⇒ 00:47:05.450 Uttam Kumaran: I just know that for many people, like, we have… there’s some people who couldn’t work with us because they couldn’t get healthcare here.
262 00:47:05.700 ⇒ 00:47:08.020 Uttam Kumaran: So it’s just, like, something to consider, you know?
263 00:47:09.500 ⇒ 00:47:13.120 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah, okay, that makes sense.
264 00:47:14.190 ⇒ 00:47:22.649 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, cool. Yeah, I’ll definitely put together, like, a plan, and then, do you want me to…
265 00:47:22.810 ⇒ 00:47:29.990 Kaela Gallagher: Well, maybe just start with Megan, like, get a meeting on calendar for us three, and send her, like, an agenda ahead of time.
266 00:47:31.530 ⇒ 00:47:37.050 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I would try to stack it, like, let’s call Megan, let’s send something to Holly,
267 00:47:37.670 ⇒ 00:47:39.520 Uttam Kumaran: and then send something to Vishnu.
268 00:47:39.660 ⇒ 00:47:41.519 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah, get all their input at once.
269 00:47:41.520 ⇒ 00:47:46.470 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, Vishnu, you don’t necessarily… I think… I mean, have you… did you have a chance to say hi to her?
270 00:47:46.750 ⇒ 00:47:51.139 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah, we did, like, Slack back and forth, yeah, she’s really smart.
271 00:47:51.350 ⇒ 00:47:55.429 Uttam Kumaran: It may be worth just saying hi, and like, because she’s gonna be a resource for us.
272 00:47:55.990 ⇒ 00:47:57.610 Uttam Kumaran: Inevitably, so…
273 00:47:58.470 ⇒ 00:48:07.169 Uttam Kumaran: like, that one, I may recommend, like, just saying hi and having a discussion. Like, Megan will probably want a phone call.
274 00:48:07.290 ⇒ 00:48:12.449 Uttam Kumaran: It’s just gonna… it’s just a lot for me to try to get on, like, 4 or 5 phone calls, so…
275 00:48:12.450 ⇒ 00:48:13.060 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah.
276 00:48:13.260 ⇒ 00:48:18.549 Uttam Kumaran: if possible, like, if you wanna call… if you wanna call Vishnu.
277 00:48:18.670 ⇒ 00:48:20.870 Uttam Kumaran: and I can hop on with you and Megan.
278 00:48:21.160 ⇒ 00:48:21.940 Kaela Gallagher: Okay.
279 00:48:21.940 ⇒ 00:48:23.079 Uttam Kumaran: That would be great.
280 00:48:23.240 ⇒ 00:48:26.620 Uttam Kumaran: Okay. And then… and then Hop… I think we do those two first.
281 00:48:26.800 ⇒ 00:48:31.039 Uttam Kumaran: And then let’s see what remaining questions we have that we can direct to Holly and Ian.
282 00:48:31.810 ⇒ 00:48:32.700 Kaela Gallagher: Okay.
283 00:48:32.700 ⇒ 00:48:33.960 Uttam Kumaran: And you can do that as…
284 00:48:34.210 ⇒ 00:48:37.250 Uttam Kumaran: Like, you can just send a message, like, let’s meet tomorrow and see what they say.
285 00:48:37.830 ⇒ 00:48:39.399 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, perfect.
286 00:48:39.930 ⇒ 00:48:40.820 Kaela Gallagher: Cool.
287 00:48:40.940 ⇒ 00:48:45.780 Kaela Gallagher: That sounds like a plan there, and then… do you have, like, a couple more minutes?
288 00:48:45.780 ⇒ 00:48:46.530 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
289 00:48:46.530 ⇒ 00:48:47.250 Kaela Gallagher: Okay.
290 00:48:47.370 ⇒ 00:48:53.340 Kaela Gallagher: For one-year check-ins, I know we talked about
291 00:48:53.650 ⇒ 00:49:00.849 Kaela Gallagher: adjustments, annual adjustments for Amber and Damie, I feel like this…
292 00:49:01.080 ⇒ 00:49:08.920 Kaela Gallagher: tenure-based rate review program link that I put in here is pretty… solid?
293 00:49:09.380 ⇒ 00:49:21.320 Kaela Gallagher: I think we could, like, move forward with what’s listed here, and I would say next steps is, like, we’d probably want to do this via a call with Amber and Damy, and, like.
294 00:49:22.650 ⇒ 00:49:23.440 Kaela Gallagher: I don’t know.
295 00:49:23.440 ⇒ 00:49:23.840 Uttam Kumaran: Darn.
296 00:49:23.840 ⇒ 00:49:26.030 Kaela Gallagher: Present, like, recognition or something.
297 00:49:27.440 ⇒ 00:49:34.539 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, so Demi is in Malta, so he’s not gonna be eligible for W-2. He’s planning on moving to the States at some point.
298 00:49:34.820 ⇒ 00:49:43.910 Uttam Kumaran: So it’s just Amber. I think it would be helpful for Amber to list that we’re moving towards W-2 and, benefits.
299 00:49:44.140 ⇒ 00:49:45.500 Uttam Kumaran: And then…
300 00:49:45.800 ⇒ 00:49:51.770 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I mean, I think we put… we put in front of them the 10-year-based program, and we say, like, this is…
301 00:49:52.700 ⇒ 00:49:58.300 Uttam Kumaran: this is what we’re gonna go forward with. I feel like that’s fair. Basically, Amber was like.
302 00:49:58.620 ⇒ 00:50:00.950 Uttam Kumaran: I would like to be, like, at a 100K.
303 00:50:01.250 ⇒ 00:50:06.500 Uttam Kumaran: But I think we’re probably close to that, or I don’t… I think that’s… that’s something we should just…
304 00:50:07.980 ⇒ 00:50:20.330 Uttam Kumaran: calculate what it gets them to. Like, maybe what we should do is produce a doc for each of them. Like, that’s what I saw when I was at… when I was at WeWork, we had a… we had, like, a doc when I talked to HR, which, like, had all our details in it.
305 00:50:20.440 ⇒ 00:50:22.799 Uttam Kumaran: And so it made it, like, a little bit more personal.
306 00:50:23.430 ⇒ 00:50:30.150 Uttam Kumaran: So we come to the meeting with, like, a doc on Amber, like, her achievements, what we’re currently paying her, what the bump is.
307 00:50:30.260 ⇒ 00:50:34.690 Uttam Kumaran: what their roadmap is, and I can fill out a bunch of that if you just give me a template.
308 00:50:36.650 ⇒ 00:50:37.430 Kaela Gallagher: Okay.
309 00:50:38.080 ⇒ 00:50:39.430 Uttam Kumaran: Does that make sense?
310 00:50:39.430 ⇒ 00:50:43.349 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah, and how long, like, if we tell…
311 00:50:43.510 ⇒ 00:50:47.490 Kaela Gallagher: you know, Rico, we need a new contract, and we need it to…
312 00:50:47.490 ⇒ 00:50:49.979 Uttam Kumaran: It’ll be… it’ll be out in, like, an hour.
313 00:50:50.160 ⇒ 00:50:56.929 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, okay, so it’s really about just, like, I’ll create a template for their reviews, and…
314 00:50:57.390 ⇒ 00:51:01.169 Kaela Gallagher: get time on calendar. Do you… do you want to meet with each of them?
315 00:51:02.530 ⇒ 00:51:04.460 Uttam Kumaran: I’ve talked to both of them.
316 00:51:04.460 ⇒ 00:51:04.840 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah.
317 00:51:04.840 ⇒ 00:51:08.560 Uttam Kumaran: So you tell me if you prefer… Need to be there.
318 00:51:08.770 ⇒ 00:51:18.859 Uttam Kumaran: I would say… I am… I am really enjoying the separation. I’m concerned, but I also don’t like… I don’t want to throw you into these unless you’re, like, okay with it.
319 00:51:19.340 ⇒ 00:51:24.550 Kaela Gallagher: I mean, I would love to be on them, but I also think it would be meaningful for them to receive, like.
320 00:51:24.890 ⇒ 00:51:29.030 Kaela Gallagher: Feedback from you, considering you’re, like, kind of their manager.
321 00:51:29.440 ⇒ 00:51:37.000 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, so let’s do that. I think, like, I think it would be great to make it a little bit more formal than we usually do things around here.
322 00:51:37.280 ⇒ 00:51:39.960 Uttam Kumaran: Like, I think if you say, like, hey, we want to talk, like.
323 00:51:40.090 ⇒ 00:51:45.299 Uttam Kumaran: If you could be prepared to, like, come video on, and we’re gonna be presenting, like.
324 00:51:45.520 ⇒ 00:51:49.909 Uttam Kumaran: A little bit of, like, appreciation and, like, a proposal for an adjustment.
325 00:51:50.880 ⇒ 00:51:55.100 Uttam Kumaran: it would go a long way. I don’t know, let’s see how… let’s see how they go. I mean, it’s just a…
326 00:51:55.490 ⇒ 00:51:59.180 Uttam Kumaran: The good thing and the bad thing is I just have relationships with everybody here, so…
327 00:52:00.060 ⇒ 00:52:02.449 Uttam Kumaran: Most of the things have been informal.
328 00:52:03.100 ⇒ 00:52:16.410 Uttam Kumaran: Because it’s just been, like, call me, let’s talk if you’re feeling worried about something. But, like, I would like us to try to, like, add a level of formality when… it doesn’t impact the speed at all, you know? I think I just want to have a…
329 00:52:16.630 ⇒ 00:52:25.599 Uttam Kumaran: Have a paper trail of things, and just, like, present that, like, hey, we’re gonna get a lot more formal about how we do things, you know, in regards to pay.
330 00:52:26.410 ⇒ 00:52:27.930 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah, yeah, okay.
331 00:52:27.930 ⇒ 00:52:31.750 Uttam Kumaran: And then we can have them give some feedback, too, and like… Yeah.
332 00:52:32.290 ⇒ 00:52:48.880 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah, I think we can definitely get on, like, a normal, kind of, maybe biannual cycle with reviews and such. I was thinking, like, June would be a good time to do the first one, but, yeah, I think for them being here for a year, like, we should definitely reward that now instead of waiting.
333 00:52:49.730 ⇒ 00:52:50.420 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
334 00:52:50.680 ⇒ 00:52:51.600 Kaela Gallagher: Okay.
335 00:52:52.490 ⇒ 00:53:00.850 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, cool. I will, try to get those on calendar soon and, like, have agendas prepped for you and everything,
336 00:53:01.260 ⇒ 00:53:08.599 Kaela Gallagher: Cool And then, like, our… our adjustment, we said year one was, like, a 5% to 7%.
337 00:53:08.760 ⇒ 00:53:15.370 Kaela Gallagher: increase. So that’s what we could target for each of them. Hopefully that will get Amber to her goal.
338 00:53:15.910 ⇒ 00:53:16.580 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
339 00:53:16.580 ⇒ 00:53:25.450 Kaela Gallagher: And then just something that Amber shared with me too, like, I think that would be good to keep in mind for this kind of review.
340 00:53:25.740 ⇒ 00:53:32.140 Kaela Gallagher: she made a comment about being, like, worried that she was automating herself out of a role, so I think.
341 00:53:32.140 ⇒ 00:53:33.139 Uttam Kumaran: I talked to her about it.
342 00:53:33.140 ⇒ 00:53:37.910 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, okay, yeah, just assuring her she has a place here, obviously.
343 00:53:37.910 ⇒ 00:53:44.470 Uttam Kumaran: We talked about it two days ago, and then we had a big, like… yeah, we solved that worry.
344 00:53:44.670 ⇒ 00:53:45.070 Kaela Gallagher: Okay.
345 00:53:45.070 ⇒ 00:53:48.999 Uttam Kumaran: I think it’s an appropriate worry, but also, like, I think
346 00:53:49.630 ⇒ 00:54:03.520 Uttam Kumaran: basically what… yeah, I mean, if you’re interested or not, it’s basically, we’re thinking… one thing, yes, we are automating, starting to automate a lot, but actually, like, nobody at the company is, like, non-essential, meaning, like, I just want to, like.
347 00:54:03.620 ⇒ 00:54:11.909 Uttam Kumaran: basically continue to see if we can do more with less, but, like, we’re doing more net-net over time. We’re growing, we’re moving clients.
348 00:54:11.910 ⇒ 00:54:15.950 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah. Everybody here, I actually want to stop people under them. They’re, like, amazing. So, like.
349 00:54:16.100 ⇒ 00:54:21.049 Uttam Kumaran: I think she… she just, like, saw a lot of the AS that we pushed, and I think read a bunch of stuff, and was like.
350 00:54:21.630 ⇒ 00:54:33.829 Uttam Kumaran: where is this going? And I’m like, dude, this is, like, we have so much work to do, like, don’t worry, don’t worry about that, like, that’s not the goal here. But it’s a helpful conversation. Yeah, I talked to her about it. I think I talked to her about it last…
351 00:54:34.410 ⇒ 00:54:37.750 Uttam Kumaran: maybe Friday, and then I talked to her… we talked today.
352 00:54:38.290 ⇒ 00:54:39.830 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, perfect.
353 00:54:40.110 ⇒ 00:54:58.699 Kaela Gallagher: Cool. Oh, I also talked to Work Leap today, which I sent, you and Robert over an email. Rico and I hopped on a call with them. It was the tool that, Vishnu recommended, and it’s… it seems really cool. It seems like it could drive a lot of, like, good engagement for the team, and,
354 00:54:58.820 ⇒ 00:55:13.939 Kaela Gallagher: like, be a morale booster, but then also, like, a really great way for us to identify if there’s, like, issues coming up or anything like that. So, yeah, let me know what you think once you take a look. I was able to negotiate us a discount, too, so the…
355 00:55:13.940 ⇒ 00:55:19.119 Kaela Gallagher: quote that they gave us is 5.
356 00:55:23.790 ⇒ 00:55:24.420 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
357 00:55:24.550 ⇒ 00:55:26.950 Uttam Kumaran: I mean, I feel like that’s pretty fair.
358 00:55:27.070 ⇒ 00:55:31.520 Uttam Kumaran: like, I think it’s up to you on, like, it’s another thing for you to manage, so if you want to…
359 00:55:32.350 ⇒ 00:55:37.160 Uttam Kumaran: trial it out, or if you want to go forward with it, like, I think that cost is reasonable.
360 00:55:37.270 ⇒ 00:55:40.759 Uttam Kumaran: So no trick that everyone’s happy with, and it’s completely no brain with that.
361 00:55:41.450 ⇒ 00:55:42.250 Kaela Gallagher: Okay.
362 00:55:43.460 ⇒ 00:55:50.479 Kaela Gallagher: Awesome. Oh, one more question. Hannah’s maternity leave, is that… that… is that unpaid, right, since she’s hourly?
363 00:55:53.450 ⇒ 00:55:56.860 Uttam Kumaran: Yes, so that’s what we are actually trying to drive. So, like.
364 00:55:57.090 ⇒ 00:56:00.829 Uttam Kumaran: I should get… I need to, like, dig up all the stuff I told you on with earlier.
365 00:56:00.990 ⇒ 00:56:09.249 Uttam Kumaran: we… me and Robert came to some agreement that we want to do some type of paid leave, but we need to get her on W-2.
366 00:56:09.410 ⇒ 00:56:12.830 Uttam Kumaran: I need to go find, like, what we agreed to.
367 00:56:12.990 ⇒ 00:56:18.609 Uttam Kumaran: But yeah, I mean, we’re ultimately, like, I think California has some minimums.
368 00:56:18.900 ⇒ 00:56:27.299 Uttam Kumaran: And, like, I think it’s totally, like, we should totally do it. She’s just… she’s such a cool member of the team, but, like, I have no problem with that. Just forgot what we said we would do.
369 00:56:28.480 ⇒ 00:56:37.939 Kaela Gallagher: Okay. Okay. Keep me posted if you want me to support with that. Would you say, then, she would also be, like, another person to prioritize for W2?
370 00:56:40.270 ⇒ 00:56:42.420 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, that’s a good point, we should write your name.
371 00:56:42.870 ⇒ 00:56:47.470 Kaela Gallagher: Okay. Yeah, I just don’t know when her leave is gonna be, but I’m assuming…
372 00:56:47.600 ⇒ 00:56:49.469 Kaela Gallagher: It’s in the next couple months.
373 00:56:50.200 ⇒ 00:56:51.810 Uttam Kumaran: Yes, for the next couple months.
374 00:56:52.170 ⇒ 00:56:53.710 Kaela Gallagher: Okay. Okay.
375 00:56:54.130 ⇒ 00:56:54.830 Kaela Gallagher: Okay.
376 00:56:55.420 ⇒ 00:57:00.220 Kaela Gallagher: Cool, awesome. This gives me a lot to work on, and I’ll keep you posted.
377 00:57:00.570 ⇒ 00:57:01.360 Kaela Gallagher: when I have some.
378 00:57:01.360 ⇒ 00:57:10.619 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I was also wondering if we could look at, some of the candidates and see, like, for example, I got people… I got people… a lot of people told me we should just move forward with
379 00:57:10.750 ⇒ 00:57:13.140 Uttam Kumaran: Autovate, I think, for analysts?
380 00:57:15.010 ⇒ 00:57:16.630 Kaela Gallagher: Oh, okay.
381 00:57:16.960 ⇒ 00:57:18.650 Uttam Kumaran: Why? What was the takeaway?
382 00:57:18.870 ⇒ 00:57:29.460 Kaela Gallagher: Advait finished a final round. He finished the panel interview. Amber and Greg said, yeah, we should bring him on for a trial, but Robert said.
383 00:57:29.780 ⇒ 00:57:37.230 Kaela Gallagher: he’s really junior, and we should wait until we, like, interview more senior candidates, because I think we need the senior talent.
384 00:57:39.060 ⇒ 00:57:41.150 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, like, maybe you…
385 00:57:41.910 ⇒ 00:57:47.970 Uttam Kumaran: my perspective, and I think maybe I can ask you, like, if there are other senior people, like, close to the end, but…
386 00:57:48.280 ⇒ 00:57:51.169 Uttam Kumaran: We need both types of people right now.
387 00:57:51.460 ⇒ 00:57:57.830 Uttam Kumaran: I think Robert is accurate in that he is junior, but not in our, like, need.
388 00:57:58.120 ⇒ 00:58:04.869 Uttam Kumaran: Like, I texted Robert about it, and I called Amber and Greg about it. They both are like, he’s good.
389 00:58:05.330 ⇒ 00:58:12.509 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t know if he has a path towards running clients. I was… I was like, Greg, is this guy, like, junior? He’s like, no, no, no, I just don’t know, like.
390 00:58:12.810 ⇒ 00:58:15.000 Uttam Kumaran: I think he’d be a great person on his team.
391 00:58:15.130 ⇒ 00:58:18.210 Uttam Kumaran: But I feel pretty comfortable in hearing both of them.
392 00:58:19.890 ⇒ 00:58:28.329 Uttam Kumaran: Like, to move forward, unless we feel like there’s… like, I guess in essence, I don’t see…
393 00:58:28.560 ⇒ 00:58:33.729 Uttam Kumaran: am competing with someone senior. Like, I think if we found someone who can actually lead clients as well, we would…
394 00:58:33.840 ⇒ 00:58:38.440 Uttam Kumaran: we would take that, because that’s ultimately what Jasmine was supposed to be doing, or…
395 00:58:38.580 ⇒ 00:58:40.510 Uttam Kumaran: Her stuff is gonna be delayed now.
396 00:58:42.590 ⇒ 00:58:52.189 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, okay, so we’re… even with Jasmine coming on, End of April.
397 00:58:52.630 ⇒ 00:58:55.559 Uttam Kumaran: But it’s not signed yet, so that’s why I can’t bank on it.
398 00:58:55.880 ⇒ 00:58:56.570 Kaela Gallagher: Right.
399 00:58:56.960 ⇒ 00:59:00.189 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t know. Until that… until Taylor, I was like, until…
400 00:59:00.540 ⇒ 00:59:03.130 Uttam Kumaran: I was telling you, until literally that day.
401 00:59:04.050 ⇒ 00:59:10.460 Uttam Kumaran: I’m always such, like, a pessimist when it comes to, like, what’s gonna happen, so… I can’t bank on it.
402 00:59:11.980 ⇒ 00:59:12.450 Kaela Gallagher: Okay.
403 00:59:12.450 ⇒ 00:59:15.119 Uttam Kumaran: Because we have… we have, sort of, like, needs.
404 00:59:15.580 ⇒ 00:59:16.700 Uttam Kumaran: right now.
405 00:59:17.110 ⇒ 00:59:29.599 Kaela Gallagher: so outside of Advait, we have 3 other, like, strategy people in the pipeline right now. One scheduled for a final, one scheduled for a second, and one scheduled for a first.
406 00:59:30.080 ⇒ 00:59:36.170 Kaela Gallagher: I believe all 3 of those are on the senior side.
407 00:59:36.500 ⇒ 00:59:41.550 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, so let me look at… so you have, okay, you have AgVate, you have…
408 00:59:41.860 ⇒ 00:59:44.120 Uttam Kumaran: Garrett, and you have…
409 00:59:46.550 ⇒ 00:59:48.410 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, Harakesh, okay.
410 00:59:49.520 ⇒ 00:59:52.370 Uttam Kumaran: And then, I talked to, oh…
411 00:59:52.730 ⇒ 00:59:54.500 Kaela Gallagher: Amika. Anthony.
412 00:59:58.150 ⇒ 01:00:03.260 Uttam Kumaran: Who was the… there was a woman yesterday who had a great movie, I forgot who that is.
413 01:00:03.860 ⇒ 01:00:05.800 Kaela Gallagher: Jovanna?
414 01:00:15.160 ⇒ 01:00:17.229 Uttam Kumaran: Was it Ji Lang?
415 01:00:18.460 ⇒ 01:00:22.100 Uttam Kumaran: Let me look at my snack and see who I sent this toys.
416 01:00:38.650 ⇒ 01:00:41.470 Uttam Kumaran: Well, I’m almost like, yeah, I guess…
417 01:00:41.920 ⇒ 01:00:50.929 Uttam Kumaran: I wonder if it would be helpful for you to just get a sense of, like, numbers from them, or how do you typically handle it? Like, are you gonna go call them and say, like.
418 01:00:51.400 ⇒ 01:00:55.360 Uttam Kumaran: What, like, what would, like, you’re gonna propose an offer, or…
419 01:00:55.510 ⇒ 01:01:00.349 Uttam Kumaran: Should we not even go there until we’re, like, we want this person?
420 01:01:02.840 ⇒ 01:01:09.430 Kaela Gallagher: I mean, I do think it’s important for us in the beginning to flag if they are asking for, like, a very high
421 01:01:09.840 ⇒ 01:01:14.329 Kaela Gallagher: for example, like, the guy that I sent to you today.
422 01:01:15.420 ⇒ 01:01:16.080 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
423 01:01:17.310 ⇒ 01:01:19.280 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, Vinut… Venut, no.
424 01:01:22.330 ⇒ 01:01:27.899 Kaela Gallagher: Vanuthna. I sent an invite, but they haven’t scheduled their first round yet.
425 01:01:31.090 ⇒ 01:01:33.930 Kaela Gallagher: So, okay, so yeah, so that’s another one.
426 01:01:37.940 ⇒ 01:01:40.199 Kaela Gallagher: On the data engineering side.
427 01:01:40.980 ⇒ 01:01:47.740 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, yeah, okay, nevermind, she’s not on the ALS, but… Yeah. Yeah… This.
428 01:01:54.640 ⇒ 01:01:59.829 Uttam Kumaran: Wasn’t there a woman who was at the final round, like, she was at Facebook or something?
429 01:02:00.630 ⇒ 01:02:04.120 Kaela Gallagher: Oh, Dip… Deepika? .
430 01:02:05.490 ⇒ 01:02:07.000 Uttam Kumaran: Robert?
431 01:02:07.000 ⇒ 01:02:09.579 Kaela Gallagher: Told her on the call that
432 01:02:10.110 ⇒ 01:02:18.459 Kaela Gallagher: That, like, she’s just… she’s really senior, and she’s only ever worked with, like, huge enterprise clients.
433 01:02:18.620 ⇒ 01:02:23.630 Kaela Gallagher: And so… Robert’s thought was, like, oh, we could…
434 01:02:24.040 ⇒ 01:02:29.360 Kaela Gallagher: Kind of use you to help Market ourselves in work.
435 01:02:29.820 ⇒ 01:02:39.890 Kaela Gallagher: Because she also specialized in, like, a certain industry, so I think Robert was, like, She’s just… too…
436 01:02:40.080 ⇒ 01:02:45.559 Uttam Kumaran: 2 senior and two enterprise for right now, but potentially somebody that…
437 01:02:45.830 ⇒ 01:02:48.190 Kaela Gallagher: Definitely somebody that we should stay close to.
438 01:02:48.470 ⇒ 01:02:49.460 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
439 01:02:50.720 ⇒ 01:02:55.460 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I mean, at this point, like, I would almost ask you to go… Right.
440 01:02:55.720 ⇒ 01:03:00.260 Uttam Kumaran: see what the damage is gonna be on… on oddvate.
441 01:03:05.280 ⇒ 01:03:07.650 Kaela Gallagher: Let me look right now for…
442 01:03:10.660 ⇒ 01:03:13.750 Uttam Kumaran: Because we need active health, like, now.
443 01:03:14.350 ⇒ 01:03:15.320 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, wow.
444 01:03:15.320 ⇒ 01:03:17.800 Kaela Gallagher: You listed 72K.
445 01:03:19.580 ⇒ 01:03:21.470 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, yeah, then I would, like…
446 01:03:21.590 ⇒ 01:03:27.870 Uttam Kumaran: I mean, does that in line with what our mid… what is our mid-level at? Our eye level is, like, 170, and our mid-level…
447 01:03:28.640 ⇒ 01:03:30.369 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah, I mean, dude…
448 01:03:30.370 ⇒ 01:03:34.780 Uttam Kumaran: At that point, I’m… Yeah, I’m, like, super game.
449 01:03:35.410 ⇒ 01:03:39.590 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, yeah, our junior level right now is 83 base.
450 01:03:41.460 ⇒ 01:03:44.520 Uttam Kumaran: And see if… you wanna see if you would go with that, and like…
451 01:03:46.070 ⇒ 01:03:48.739 Kaela Gallagher: At that rate, it’s a complete no-brainer.
452 01:03:50.610 ⇒ 01:03:51.430 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah.
453 01:03:52.800 ⇒ 01:03:59.720 Kaela Gallagher: Okay. Yeah, and just see if he’ll… he’s down for $10.99.
454 01:04:00.220 ⇒ 01:04:00.930 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
455 01:04:02.160 ⇒ 01:04:07.959 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, the issue is I don’t have these people’s phone numbers. I changed the form, so now I can have.
456 01:04:07.960 ⇒ 01:04:08.739 Uttam Kumaran: You can.
457 01:04:08.740 ⇒ 01:04:09.309 Kaela Gallagher: people, but…
458 01:04:09.310 ⇒ 01:04:15.059 Uttam Kumaran: If you want, you can ask Ryan to go find their number on some, like, there’s, like, a bunch of sales websites, but you can also.
459 01:04:15.250 ⇒ 01:04:16.989 Kaela Gallagher: Oh, it’s on his resume. Here it is.
460 01:04:16.990 ⇒ 01:04:17.620 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
461 01:04:17.960 ⇒ 01:04:18.650 Kaela Gallagher: Okay.
462 01:04:18.820 ⇒ 01:04:19.780 Kaela Gallagher: Perfect.
463 01:04:20.010 ⇒ 01:04:20.569 Kaela Gallagher: I think he…
464 01:04:20.570 ⇒ 01:04:24.179 Uttam Kumaran: call him and see if he’s game. Is he, is he unemployed?
465 01:04:25.890 ⇒ 01:04:26.760 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah.
466 01:04:27.250 ⇒ 01:04:29.940 Uttam Kumaran: I mean, dude, that’s sad. I was just like…
467 01:04:30.410 ⇒ 01:04:34.280 Uttam Kumaran: I… we could start Monday, or we could start Friday.
468 01:04:34.570 ⇒ 01:04:37.370 Uttam Kumaran: They need, they need him, like, desperately.
469 01:04:37.890 ⇒ 01:04:38.680 Kaela Gallagher: What product?
470 01:04:38.680 ⇒ 01:04:39.310 Uttam Kumaran: Team.
471 01:04:39.730 ⇒ 01:04:40.090 Kaela Gallagher: Greg’s.
472 01:04:41.810 ⇒ 01:04:49.440 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, on both… on basically Greg and Amber’s team. Especially given, like, we… given that Jasmine’s not gonna be able to start from their two months.
473 01:04:49.610 ⇒ 01:04:52.709 Uttam Kumaran: Greg needs more help on, like.
474 01:04:52.840 ⇒ 01:04:58.280 Uttam Kumaran: We just don’t have anybody that’s doing, like, great dashboarding work, so there’s help needed on default.
475 01:04:58.320 ⇒ 01:05:00.270 Kaela Gallagher: There’s help needed on…
476 01:05:00.270 ⇒ 01:05:06.360 Uttam Kumaran: there’s help needed on default, there’s help needed on Element, there’s help needed on Eden.
477 01:05:06.720 ⇒ 01:05:16.130 Kaela Gallagher: Okay. Yeah, and the skills that they listed for him is, like, he’s pretty technical, like, on the data side, and he can do the dashboarding and the analytics and all that kind of stuff, so…
478 01:05:16.330 ⇒ 01:05:26.429 Kaela Gallagher: It seems like he could really help him out. Do you want me to advertise it as a trial period and have the contract be… I don’t know what you guys are doing, like, 2 or 3 weeks?
479 01:05:28.170 ⇒ 01:05:32.960 Uttam Kumaran: I would prefer that, if he’s game for that, yeah, because there’s no loss, and… Yeah.
480 01:05:34.080 ⇒ 01:05:34.820 Kaela Gallagher: Okay.
481 01:05:35.510 ⇒ 01:05:36.399 Uttam Kumaran: What do you think?
482 01:05:36.690 ⇒ 01:05:39.449 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah, I mean, if he’s unemployed, he should be down.
483 01:05:39.690 ⇒ 01:05:45.950 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I think we should go for that, and, like, that’s even… that’s even better, if you can just try it out, and then that way, like.
484 01:05:46.130 ⇒ 01:05:55.760 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, and basically, I think what you should do is you ask him if the rate that he put is there, and then see if he can… if we can get him a little bit more than what he said, then I think he could close this.
485 01:05:56.120 ⇒ 01:05:56.970 Kaela Gallagher: Okay.
486 01:05:57.220 ⇒ 01:06:05.519 Uttam Kumaran: This is where I don’t think any… I don’t think Robert knew that, like, I’m guaranteeing you, if he knew that, then they would… his answer would be different, which is good, actually. They don’t know that.
487 01:06:05.740 ⇒ 01:06:14.349 Uttam Kumaran: But I also think he crushed his interviews, and both of these, like, I think Robert was just like, we need a senior person, which he’s… he’s right, but, like, we also need…
488 01:06:14.980 ⇒ 01:06:16.960 Uttam Kumaran: We also need to get level people.
489 01:06:17.190 ⇒ 01:06:19.009 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah, and if this, like, mid.
490 01:06:19.010 ⇒ 01:06:21.669 Uttam Kumaran: And he was so nice, he sent me a nice message.
491 01:06:21.670 ⇒ 01:06:27.930 Kaela Gallagher: Oh, yay, okay. He also LinkedIn requested me, and I’m like, oh, I love when candidates do that.
492 01:06:27.930 ⇒ 01:06:29.930 Uttam Kumaran: I used to pull out all the stops.
493 01:06:30.770 ⇒ 01:06:35.250 Uttam Kumaran: full of all the stops, because I was not good at interviewing.
494 01:06:35.250 ⇒ 01:06:38.500 Kaela Gallagher: That’s hard to believe, I will say that.
495 01:06:38.500 ⇒ 01:06:41.140 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I appreciate it, but…
496 01:06:41.730 ⇒ 01:06:43.829 Uttam Kumaran: That’s why I started out with nothing happening with you anymore.
497 01:06:44.490 ⇒ 01:06:46.280 Uttam Kumaran: There you go.
498 01:06:46.580 ⇒ 01:06:53.590 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, so let me try to close, I’ll partner with Rico on the,
499 01:06:53.990 ⇒ 01:07:05.780 Kaela Gallagher: contract part of it, and this is exciting, because I’ll get to test out my onboarding plan very soon. And, I’m gonna give Jasmine a ring right now, too, and just see what she’s looking for.
500 01:07:06.970 ⇒ 01:07:14.390 Uttam Kumaran: So can you tell me anytime, just anytime someone ends up at final, like, I would love to just help you make a decision as fast as possible, so…
501 01:07:14.740 ⇒ 01:07:15.879 Uttam Kumaran: Just let me know.
502 01:07:16.120 ⇒ 01:07:21.720 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, perfect. I mean, so we have two data engineer finals going off this week.
503 01:07:21.820 ⇒ 01:07:28.819 Kaela Gallagher: But we may want to wait for the… for the other top data engineer candidates to do a final, and then make a decision.
504 01:07:29.670 ⇒ 01:07:31.260 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, okay. That’s fine.
505 01:07:31.260 ⇒ 01:07:36.809 Kaela Gallagher: If we’re only hiring one, because we do have strong ones in the pipeline, like Chad McNicholas.
506 01:07:37.850 ⇒ 01:07:46.000 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I think on the data engineering, it’s super strong. I also think what you’re gonna find is some of those guys can do the analytics engineering work. Usually what we find,
507 01:07:46.450 ⇒ 01:07:49.790 Uttam Kumaran: Is people can spread across one or two.
508 01:07:52.080 ⇒ 01:07:56.330 Uttam Kumaran: So… Yeah.
509 01:07:56.610 ⇒ 01:07:58.110 Kaela Gallagher: Okay. Okay.
510 01:07:58.520 ⇒ 01:08:02.170 Kaela Gallagher: Perfect! Awesome. Thank you for your help with this.
511 01:08:02.400 ⇒ 01:08:03.130 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
512 01:08:03.570 ⇒ 01:08:07.620 Kaela Gallagher: All right. Okay. Perfect. Thank you so much. Yeah, thanks you, Tom. Have a good night.
513 01:08:08.020 ⇒ 01:08:08.650 Uttam Kumaran: Bye.