Meeting Title: CSO <> SL Standups Date: 2026-03-18 Meeting participants: Brylle Girang, Pranav Narahari, Awaish Kumar, Samuel Roberts, Uttam Kumaran, Zoran Selinger, Demilade Agboola, Robert Tseng
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1 00:06:22.190 ⇒ 00:06:23.290 Samuel Roberts: Hello.
2 00:06:24.170 ⇒ 00:06:24.990 Brylle Girang: Hey, guys.
3 00:06:25.890 ⇒ 00:06:26.830 Samuel Roberts: Good morning.
4 00:06:32.860 ⇒ 00:06:34.040 Samuel Roberts: How’s everyone?
5 00:06:35.570 ⇒ 00:06:37.480 Brylle Girang: It’s good. Good morning.
6 00:06:39.920 ⇒ 00:06:46.120 Samuel Roberts: I say good morning, but then I realize it’s not morning where everyone is, but that’s my normal greeting, I apologize.
7 00:06:47.100 ⇒ 00:06:48.570 Brylle Girang: Morning is relative.
8 00:06:48.840 ⇒ 00:06:50.630 Samuel Roberts: Yeah, exactly, exactly.
9 00:06:51.300 ⇒ 00:06:54.160 Samuel Roberts: Like, breakfast is always the first meal you eat, no matter what time it is.
10 00:06:54.410 ⇒ 00:06:55.480 Brylle Girang: Exactly.
11 00:06:55.880 ⇒ 00:06:57.260 Brylle Girang: So, stop.
12 00:07:01.870 ⇒ 00:07:05.379 Samuel Roberts: Pranav, did you see I updated some of those estimates last night, late?
13 00:07:08.230 ⇒ 00:07:15.709 Pranav Narahari: Yeah, I saw that, this morning, I just updated the PRDs, and the roadmap that I built out, and so…
14 00:07:15.710 ⇒ 00:07:16.240 Samuel Roberts: Okay.
15 00:07:16.270 ⇒ 00:07:20.099 Pranav Narahari: I sent that over in the thread in the delivery leads chat.
16 00:07:20.100 ⇒ 00:07:21.520 Samuel Roberts: Okay, cool.
17 00:07:23.800 ⇒ 00:07:27.799 Brylle Girang: The estimates, was this through operating?
18 00:07:28.410 ⇒ 00:07:31.930 Samuel Roberts: No, no, no, just the PRDs he had… that he had shared with me,
19 00:07:33.140 ⇒ 00:07:38.729 Samuel Roberts: So I just updated those, because I thought… I just think we need to add a little buffer for some of the unknowns there.
20 00:07:43.590 ⇒ 00:07:45.170 Samuel Roberts: Oh, excuse me.
21 00:07:45.870 ⇒ 00:07:46.760 Uttam Kumaran: Hey guys.
22 00:07:47.570 ⇒ 00:07:48.160 Samuel Roberts: Warner.
23 00:07:48.160 ⇒ 00:07:49.000 Brylle Girang: Hello!
24 00:07:49.450 ⇒ 00:07:50.140 Awaish Kumar: No.
25 00:07:51.030 ⇒ 00:07:51.600 Uttam Kumaran: B.
26 00:07:52.880 ⇒ 00:07:54.829 Uttam Kumaran: We’re waiting for a few people.
27 00:08:12.850 ⇒ 00:08:15.479 Uttam Kumaran: Do you want to ping the, rest of the crew, B? Yeah.
28 00:09:10.440 ⇒ 00:09:10.980 Samuel Roberts: Excuse me.
29 00:09:18.210 ⇒ 00:09:20.150 Brylle Girang: Dismissing Robert and Devin.
30 00:09:22.500 ⇒ 00:09:23.220 Brylle Girang: Syndrome.
31 00:09:51.500 ⇒ 00:09:57.889 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, we can get started. So, yeah, I think a couple are just, like, housekeeping…
32 00:09:58.310 ⇒ 00:10:14.110 Uttam Kumaran: items on my side. I think first thing is we’re sort of starting to plan out the next quarter, so I know some things changed a few weeks ago just on, like, EPs and SLs, and so I’m planning out a little bit of, like, what the next
33 00:10:14.110 ⇒ 00:10:22.280 Uttam Kumaran: basically what the next quarter is gonna look like, in terms of responsibilities and sort of process, so I think…
34 00:10:22.700 ⇒ 00:10:25.719 Uttam Kumaran: Just hang tight for another, like, week or so.
35 00:10:25.850 ⇒ 00:10:33.139 Uttam Kumaran: So that’s… that’s sort of the main update there. Any questions on, like, Q2 plan, or…
36 00:10:33.650 ⇒ 00:10:40.650 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, anything around, like, current responsibilities or, you know, anything there.
37 00:10:42.050 ⇒ 00:10:51.170 Pranav Narahari: When you say, like, Q2 planning, like, are you talking kind of about, like, the CSO role, how it’s changed, the SL role, how that’s changed?
38 00:10:52.520 ⇒ 00:11:02.150 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, like, I’m… I’m basically gonna plan out, yeah, like, responsibilities, expectations for both those roles, sort of a little bit of… of how,
39 00:11:02.740 ⇒ 00:11:19.569 Uttam Kumaran: they’re… they’re going to change. A little bit about, like, how the bonus program is gonna change, and then some… a couple things around, just, like, meeting structure and, like, how we’re gonna, yeah, like, kind of split everything. So yeah, that’s… that’s what I’m working on.
40 00:11:19.980 ⇒ 00:11:20.520 Pranav Narahari: Cool.
41 00:11:20.520 ⇒ 00:11:24.100 Awaish Kumar: I have a question regarding, like.
42 00:11:24.260 ⇒ 00:11:28.780 Awaish Kumar: the clients I’m working on, like CTA, Element, Meli, you are the CEO.
43 00:11:29.060 ⇒ 00:11:34.299 Awaish Kumar: Like, what do you think? Like, I should be owning the Gantt chart and linear and all that stuff, or…
44 00:11:34.430 ⇒ 00:11:35.629 Awaish Kumar: How it should work.
45 00:11:39.260 ⇒ 00:11:55.859 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, can you see the… so, let me give… give my perspective. So, right now, I’m… I think we… we sort of made a change to have one CSO per client. So, for right now, I’m gonna… I’m running CTA, Element,
46 00:11:56.200 ⇒ 00:12:04.470 Uttam Kumaran: and I guess, basically, default until I kind of get an understanding from Greg on… on what’s going on there. So…
47 00:12:04.690 ⇒ 00:12:10.040 Uttam Kumaran: I’m… I’m putting together a Gantt, Like, tickets, things like that.
48 00:12:10.290 ⇒ 00:12:12.039 Uttam Kumaran: So for now, I feel like…
49 00:12:12.370 ⇒ 00:12:26.070 Uttam Kumaran: I think for everybody on this call, just continue, like, executing on work, as much as possible. I think I’m also, this week, we’re gonna work on getting operating into a good spot, and then planning out the next quarter for each client.
50 00:12:27.790 ⇒ 00:12:44.639 Uttam Kumaran: So yeah, like, I’m continuing to lead those clients. For Element, there’s gonna be, like, Workstream owners, and so that’ll become really clear this week. And then similarly for, Eden and Default, there will be, like, Workstream owners. I think for some of the smaller clients, like Demi and Zoran, you guys are…
51 00:12:45.120 ⇒ 00:12:59.619 Uttam Kumaran: running Magic Spoon and Amble, and I think you guys are doing a great job there. I think for default, yeah, I… because Greg has been out, it’s… it’s just been weird. Like, I’ve had to kind of step in, so I’m not sure what’s gonna happen there.
52 00:12:59.620 ⇒ 00:13:08.030 Uttam Kumaran: For Element, I’m gonna continue as a CSO, even into our renewal. And then for CTA, it’s sort of up in the air.
53 00:13:08.040 ⇒ 00:13:10.789 Uttam Kumaran: Until we can get the appropriate staffing.
54 00:13:10.920 ⇒ 00:13:15.349 Uttam Kumaran: It doesn’t necessarily need to be on my plate, but, we just don’t have the…
55 00:13:15.780 ⇒ 00:13:18.410 Uttam Kumaran: The team right now to support that, so…
56 00:13:18.750 ⇒ 00:13:19.490 Awaish Kumar: Okay.
57 00:13:19.490 ⇒ 00:13:22.110 Uttam Kumaran: I’m more interested, Oisha getting another AE.
58 00:13:22.230 ⇒ 00:13:24.630 Uttam Kumaran: Onto… CTA.
59 00:13:26.520 ⇒ 00:13:29.880 Uttam Kumaran: Because I can keep managing it as long as the work is getting pushed out.
60 00:13:35.470 ⇒ 00:13:40.569 Uttam Kumaran: Cool. A couple of other changes I just wanted to share. So…
61 00:13:41.590 ⇒ 00:13:46.840 Uttam Kumaran: I’m gonna be doing this across the board for, for our…
62 00:13:47.620 ⇒ 00:13:57.980 Uttam Kumaran: for our clients, but I wanted to kind of share, like, how I’ve structured Element, and how we’re gonna close out sort of this, like, Gantt migration.
63 00:13:58.070 ⇒ 00:14:11.809 Uttam Kumaran: to Linear, hopefully today. So, for Element, we basically have four… four or five initiatives. Ingestion, modeling, reporting, strategy, adoption, and documentation.
64 00:14:11.930 ⇒ 00:14:18.130 Uttam Kumaran: These are all lined up with what’s in the actual SOW. Within each of these, there’s projects.
65 00:14:18.500 ⇒ 00:14:28.360 Uttam Kumaran: Which is related to something that’s going on this quarter, or this next… basically, for this next SOW, so you can see it’s basically typical until, like, September.
66 00:14:28.640 ⇒ 00:14:30.180 Uttam Kumaran: Across each of these.
67 00:14:30.370 ⇒ 00:14:41.490 Uttam Kumaran: And so, I’m basically working on two things. One, like, we’ve kind of confirmed, like, naming convention on these. If I was to look at, like, wholesale data, for example, this project.
68 00:14:41.500 ⇒ 00:14:50.409 Uttam Kumaran: and go to issues, all the tickets related to wholesale are in here. And these are gonna start to have, like, smarter labels and things like that.
69 00:14:50.480 ⇒ 00:14:55.909 Uttam Kumaran: So, this is getting a lot better organized. I’m gonna run a similar, sort of.
70 00:14:56.380 ⇒ 00:15:01.220 Uttam Kumaran: I wouldn’t say, like, migration, but cleanup on, like, a lot of the existing clients.
71 00:15:03.210 ⇒ 00:15:13.499 Uttam Kumaran: particularly the clients that I’m over. So, what you should see in linear is both, like, a little bit of a change on, like, how these projects are running.
72 00:15:13.520 ⇒ 00:15:24.100 Uttam Kumaran: As well as, like, some of the cleanup on, like, naming conventions, and project titles, initiative titles, and some of the…
73 00:15:24.370 ⇒ 00:15:27.300 Uttam Kumaran: like, swim lanes across, linear.
74 00:15:27.420 ⇒ 00:15:29.130 Uttam Kumaran: I think probably…
75 00:15:29.380 ⇒ 00:15:35.900 Uttam Kumaran: I may ask just CSOs for who are on other clients, like, for ABC,
76 00:15:36.020 ⇒ 00:15:40.580 Uttam Kumaran: for Amble, for Magic Spoon, for you guys to actually probably run this
77 00:15:40.700 ⇒ 00:15:48.619 Uttam Kumaran: fix yourself. I have it all ready in cursor, that way you guys can kind of see what it’s like to kind of get this stuff organized.
78 00:15:48.850 ⇒ 00:16:06.290 Uttam Kumaran: And then, overall, I’m gonna be kind of keeping things organized, on, like, a schedule, probably once a week, finding things that are, like, out of policy, I would say. And so, in views, I’ve also created a lot of, like, various views for the delivery team and everybody on…
79 00:16:06.560 ⇒ 00:16:19.409 Uttam Kumaran: on our… on this team to kind of use. For example, you can look at active… active… active issues with no assignments, no due dates, no projects, like, kind of stale. You could look at…
80 00:16:19.410 ⇒ 00:16:30.460 Uttam Kumaran: tickets all related to the edge activation service. You can look at everything related to Omni, and so we’re gonna start to have views that help us crut across services.
81 00:16:30.520 ⇒ 00:16:32.500 Uttam Kumaran: And cut across projects.
82 00:16:32.650 ⇒ 00:16:36.269 Uttam Kumaran: And then, of course, cut across, like, policies.
83 00:16:36.850 ⇒ 00:16:43.229 Uttam Kumaran: So this is gonna basically be able to help us to just make sure that there’s not, like, tickets with no,
84 00:16:43.560 ⇒ 00:16:58.769 Uttam Kumaran: with no requirements in them. And then also kind of setting the stage for us to start to assign tickets out to, tools like Codex or Cursor. One of the things that, I encourage everybody to try is if you go into, like, if,
85 00:16:59.030 ⇒ 00:17:08.459 Uttam Kumaran: If you go into a project, for example, and this is something that, like, I’m working on, what you can actually do is take a look at a ticket.
86 00:17:08.630 ⇒ 00:17:18.170 Uttam Kumaran: And, for example, you can say, like, run end-to-end form QA. You can go here, and you can actually assign it to codex or cursor to execute.
87 00:17:18.400 ⇒ 00:17:23.060 Uttam Kumaran: So, for example, if I was to say, cool, I want to migrate,
88 00:17:23.619 ⇒ 00:17:30.419 Uttam Kumaran: let’s say I want to fix this contrast thing. I can literally go here and assign it to cursor.
89 00:17:30.590 ⇒ 00:17:45.889 Uttam Kumaran: I can click into it, and actually I can see Cursor working on it. And so what’s gonna change about Linear going into this next quarter is we’re actually gonna have swim lanes for, like, AI to actually not only verify that tickets,
90 00:17:46.110 ⇒ 00:17:54.820 Uttam Kumaran: like, are… are groomed and scoped, but actually you’ll be able to assign it out, to an AI to go execute, parts of it.
91 00:17:54.820 ⇒ 00:18:09.379 Uttam Kumaran: And so, we’re gonna be measuring, sort of, how many tickets are getting assigned to AI, like, kind of, different information about them. But I encourage you this week to try this out. It’s gonna be a big piece of, of kind of, like, how we’re gonna do work.
92 00:18:10.840 ⇒ 00:18:18.880 Uttam Kumaran: And it’s gonna be really helpful, there’s just pieces, some small tickets that are easy to do. You can fairly simply assign these out to Cursor to execute.
93 00:18:21.550 ⇒ 00:18:31.270 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, so that’s probably my piece there. I think a couple things in terms of, like, action items for this week. So, I think first thing,
94 00:18:31.410 ⇒ 00:18:46.950 Uttam Kumaran: I want to just clarify, Robert, on Eden. Like, I still… I think for Eden and Default, I’m still a little bit in the dark on, like, what Greg is gonna be doing there. So, on Default and Element, I’m still running CSO on Default.
95 00:18:46.970 ⇒ 00:19:01.539 Uttam Kumaran: And I’m continuing to kind of just lead everything on Element. I saw that you guys are meeting for strategy and Omni stuff, so that would be amazing if I can actually just, like, pass that to you guys to start to drive, but I’ll continue to drive the entire project.
96 00:19:01.780 ⇒ 00:19:06.620 Uttam Kumaran: For Eden, I’m not in the loop on, like, how that’s going, and if you feel
97 00:19:06.730 ⇒ 00:19:13.990 Uttam Kumaran: like, we can make, like, a migration to having Greg, you know, own that as CSO entirely.
98 00:19:14.200 ⇒ 00:19:19.650 Uttam Kumaran: Or if that’s, like, top of mind for us to… I just want to get that resolved, sort of, this week, as we’re planning.
99 00:19:20.780 ⇒ 00:19:32.860 Robert Tseng: Yeah, well, we were supposed to meet doing P2 planning today, so I was hoping to have a better sense of, like, basically how prepared Greg is in coming to the table with, like, can he really take on the work streams? Like.
100 00:19:33.050 ⇒ 00:19:46.319 Robert Tseng: my gut is telling me, like, no, I don’t think he can. I think that’s why we’re considering, like, splitting up his product analytics workstream, and we’re talking to bringing, you know, the Josh guy that we’re talking about, so…
101 00:19:46.350 ⇒ 00:19:58.719 Robert Tseng: And if that’s the case, then the only thing that he’s doing is, like, on the maintenance, which is like, does he even need to do that, or can we hand that off to somebody else? Okay. I mean, it’s nice to have him take me off the deck.
102 00:19:58.720 ⇒ 00:20:10.510 Robert Tseng: the ELT reviews, but I honestly don’t mind doing it. I think it’s pretty easy for me to do it at this point, as long as the team kind of gets, you know, Biles or Greg have been doing a good job in just, like, kind of
103 00:20:10.530 ⇒ 00:20:26.459 Robert Tseng: getting… getting those check-ins ready, and they’ve been going smoothly. I think it really, for me, the biggest priority on Eden is just, getting the Q2 roadmap set, and then sending… being able to present on it to ELT next week. So, I did tell the team that, like.
104 00:20:26.610 ⇒ 00:20:40.670 Robert Tseng: I think everyone’s role on Eden is gonna shake up, like, I just… we may not need that many people. I think Zoran and Awash need to stay on, because Awash needs to finish the Eden OS, like, kind of data work post-handoff from Surf.
105 00:20:41.070 ⇒ 00:20:55.479 Robert Tseng: And then if Pranav is starting, I mean, it was supposed to start this week, but I think we’re just kind of figuring out what that engagement looks like, then, like, I think those… those three would probably be the most senior people on that, on that client. So,
106 00:20:55.850 ⇒ 00:20:58.869 Robert Tseng: Yeah, that’s… that’s kind of how I feel about it right now.
107 00:20:59.480 ⇒ 00:21:07.549 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, okay, cool. So I think, yeah, I would love to get insight… did we sign that, the AI thing yet, or no, it’s still in flight?
108 00:21:08.530 ⇒ 00:21:17.980 Robert Tseng: I need to check with Rico, but I was talking to Danny last night. Bernard, for your context, I mean, I think you saw the Slack, but basically, he doesn’t feel like it’s
109 00:21:18.380 ⇒ 00:21:25.070 Robert Tseng: wrong, or, like, he doesn’t feel like it’s clear enough to sign a fixed, so I moved them… I moved them to,
110 00:21:25.130 ⇒ 00:21:41.590 Robert Tseng: just like a retainer, kind of similar to how Lilo was structured. So, I mean, I’m gonna call Danny again today to try to get that over the line, but he prefers… he prefers to just do that. Which I think that’s… I think that’s what’s gonna go over the line.
111 00:21:42.010 ⇒ 00:21:46.699 Pranav Narahari: And that’s because, like, he doesn’t have a clear picture yet, right? Like, he kind of wants things to be a little bit.
112 00:21:46.700 ⇒ 00:21:48.150 Robert Tseng: It’s not just on us, yeah.
113 00:21:48.150 ⇒ 00:21:49.460 Pranav Narahari: Yeah.
114 00:21:49.460 ⇒ 00:21:56.820 Robert Tseng: Part of it is also, like, we don’t have something to show him. It’s really hard, I mean, I mean, I’m just… I feel like I’m learning from selling these AI things, too.
115 00:21:57.000 ⇒ 00:22:15.510 Robert Tseng: People don’t know exactly what they’re getting, like, from it. It’s not… it’s not as easy to show. I feel like when we’re selling the data work, we can actually visualize it more, because we can just pull, like, sample snowflake environments, we have… we have controls for how we do the model… modeling, but I don’t know, I guess… I guess I feel like we’re… we’re not really at a place yet.
116 00:22:15.560 ⇒ 00:22:29.480 Robert Tseng: where we’re able to clearly sell the fixed, the fixed price, like, AI, AI worked. So, I mean, I’m just gonna keep trying, but I think, I don’t think it got… it got there for him, in this case.
117 00:22:30.800 ⇒ 00:22:31.670 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
118 00:22:31.960 ⇒ 00:22:47.739 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. Okay, cool. So yeah, I mean, I’d like… as soon as that’s signed, I’d like to have a meeting to just scope that out and make sure that, like, everything is set up. I think, kind of to transition to ABC, I’m… I’m just a bit concerned about how long it’s taking for us to…
119 00:22:47.960 ⇒ 00:22:49.730 Uttam Kumaran: Put together, like, a roadmap?
120 00:22:50.070 ⇒ 00:23:01.969 Uttam Kumaran: For this, and the other thing I sort of thought about is, right now, I think, Sam, you, Pranav, and Casey, the only client you’re working on is ABC. And so, yesterday, I was also like.
121 00:23:02.410 ⇒ 00:23:06.100 Uttam Kumaran: why isn’t… This roadmap thing done, like…
122 00:23:06.320 ⇒ 00:23:19.039 Uttam Kumaran: in, like, one day, like, what… how… like, where… like, where is this? So, I… we didn’t get it, I didn’t get it yesterday. I sent a note to B, he said, like, he also didn’t get it yesterday, so… I’m gonna take a look at it, but, like.
123 00:23:19.530 ⇒ 00:23:33.080 Uttam Kumaran: I’m… I just want to voice my concern, is that we talked for about, like… we talked, like, for 2 weeks about putting together a clear roadmap of March and the next quarter, and I just don’t know how it’s taking, like.
124 00:23:33.560 ⇒ 00:23:44.299 Uttam Kumaran: I just don’t know where time is going right now, like, I don’t know how this could ever take more than, like, 2 hours to do. So, that’s gonna kind of be my lens when I look at this today, is that…
125 00:23:44.440 ⇒ 00:23:52.030 Uttam Kumaran: I’m really hoping that that has, like, clear deliverables and, like, pacing across the next, like, Some odd months.
126 00:23:52.140 ⇒ 00:23:56.150 Uttam Kumaran: But my other concern is, like, where is the rest of the time going?
127 00:23:56.300 ⇒ 00:24:01.960 Uttam Kumaran: Because, again, like, Casey’s just full… if Casey’s full-time on that project.
128 00:24:02.280 ⇒ 00:24:09.829 Uttam Kumaran: and you both are also there, I wonder, like, what we can do with the remaining time. Do you guys have, like, a perspective on that right now?
129 00:24:09.970 ⇒ 00:24:12.990 Uttam Kumaran: I… I haven’t looked at the…
130 00:24:13.270 ⇒ 00:24:14.929 Uttam Kumaran: The thing you sent this morning.
131 00:24:16.600 ⇒ 00:24:30.370 Pranav Narahari: Yeah, I think what I sent this morning is gonna show you, kind of, like, the clear deliverables for the three different projects, the roadmap for Q2. Yeah, I’ve had that done since Monday. I think…
132 00:24:30.670 ⇒ 00:24:42.139 Pranav Narahari: we’re gonna kind of show it yesterday, and then Sam took a look at some things yesterday, like, made some adjustments by end of day, so then this morning, I just kind of redid the roadmap.
133 00:24:42.140 ⇒ 00:24:47.629 Uttam Kumaran: It sounds like 3 wasted days, guys, like, why… like, that’s, like, so much time.
134 00:24:48.140 ⇒ 00:24:51.850 Uttam Kumaran: And I’m just worried that, like, if we had it done on Monday.
135 00:24:51.980 ⇒ 00:24:56.949 Uttam Kumaran: why don’t we just meet and just, like, close it out? And even yesterday, I thought I was gonna get it yesterday.
136 00:24:57.230 ⇒ 00:24:59.990 Uttam Kumaran: So that’s, like, put yourself in my shoes, I’m like.
137 00:25:00.280 ⇒ 00:25:03.039 Uttam Kumaran: Basically waiting to understand, like, what we’re…
138 00:25:03.320 ⇒ 00:25:09.020 Uttam Kumaran: what we’re gonna do here, so that I can think about resource allocation, So…
139 00:25:09.810 ⇒ 00:25:10.590 Pranav Narahari: Yeah.
140 00:25:10.730 ⇒ 00:25:14.820 Pranav Narahari: I can kind of be a little bit better with just, like, Probably…
141 00:25:15.140 ⇒ 00:25:23.060 Pranav Narahari: messaging in the delivery channel as soon as that’s done, and then I’ll just be like, Sam, take a look at this, but then also give that visibility to you, too.
142 00:25:23.840 ⇒ 00:25:24.450 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
143 00:25:25.110 ⇒ 00:25:25.720 Pranav Narahari: Yeah.
144 00:25:25.720 ⇒ 00:25:35.409 Samuel Roberts: Yeah, I also didn’t get to look at it till late after… after hours, so I was a little behind on that yesterday, but yeah, we met in the morning, and then I didn’t get a chance to look at it till late, so…
145 00:25:35.730 ⇒ 00:25:36.080 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
146 00:25:36.080 ⇒ 00:25:36.449 Samuel Roberts: That was…
147 00:25:36.450 ⇒ 00:25:41.740 Uttam Kumaran: And then, do you guys have a sense of, like, where, like, remaining time is going? Like… I mean…
148 00:25:42.110 ⇒ 00:25:59.340 Uttam Kumaran: like, yeah, I guess I could just put that out there, right? Like, Mustafa, I know, is working on default and a few other things, but, like, where… like, where’s the remaining time going for, I guess, I would say, probably you both, and, like, how can we better, like, like, organize and allocate those, that time?
149 00:26:00.390 ⇒ 00:26:04.650 Pranav Narahari: For me, all of, like, last week was really just, like.
150 00:26:05.000 ⇒ 00:26:18.510 Pranav Narahari: ABC. I feel like I was working, like, all time, like, even though ABC’s my only client, just kind of understanding the full picture of things, scoping out these three different ideas, preparing for, like, meetings, stuff like that. I think…
151 00:26:18.940 ⇒ 00:26:32.589 Pranav Narahari: that’s not how it’s going to be long-term, and I’m already realizing this week, like, a lot of the grunt work is done, and it was just done up front, and how, going forward, I feel really confident about just having, like, 10 to 15 hours per week on ABC.
152 00:26:34.440 ⇒ 00:26:46.120 Pranav Narahari: And then, yeah, other than that, just kind of working a little bit with Robert, working with, like, Clarence and, like, Luke, just, like, building demos. Those are the two different things that I’m working on.
153 00:26:46.750 ⇒ 00:26:47.380 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
154 00:26:49.960 ⇒ 00:26:53.589 Samuel Roberts: Yeah, I was in the open work stuff trying to get that auth set up.
155 00:26:54.230 ⇒ 00:26:57.160 Samuel Roberts: And then I was out a little bit of the day middle yesterday, so I wasn’t…
156 00:26:57.960 ⇒ 00:26:59.420 Samuel Roberts: A full day, but…
157 00:26:59.770 ⇒ 00:27:05.020 Samuel Roberts: That’s where most of my time… a lot of the ABC is just, like, consulting with Casey Mustafa at this point. I haven’t been…
158 00:27:05.650 ⇒ 00:27:06.600 Samuel Roberts: Deep in it.
159 00:27:07.010 ⇒ 00:27:13.869 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, so for… I mean, for both of those items, like, for anything that’s related to, kind of, sales engineering and anything related to the platform.
160 00:27:14.040 ⇒ 00:27:21.270 Uttam Kumaran: I just need us to get, like, super organized, like, I don’t know really what… like, I guess, like.
161 00:27:21.760 ⇒ 00:27:39.140 Uttam Kumaran: I’m leading platform team. If there’s anything being worked on or hours being billed there, I just want to know, like, the other tickets and things like that, so I kind of want to switch the mode today, which is, like, anything that’s going on related to the platform, Sam, I really need to just have tickets for.
162 00:27:39.140 ⇒ 00:27:49.379 Uttam Kumaran: And I… there are key pieces that I do need your help on, but I just want to make sure what those are, so that I can continue to add context.
163 00:27:49.430 ⇒ 00:27:53.340 Uttam Kumaran: and kind of help prioritize. So let’s do that.
164 00:27:53.900 ⇒ 00:28:07.059 Uttam Kumaran: And then, second piece, I think, on sales engineering, I guess, Robert, like, that is coming… kind of circling back to your point, which is we don’t have things that are easily demoable. I want to basically try to take
165 00:28:07.210 ⇒ 00:28:12.829 Uttam Kumaran: whatever remaining time from the AI team before the Eden thing kicks off.
166 00:28:13.000 ⇒ 00:28:16.540 Uttam Kumaran: to just… Solve that problem?
167 00:28:16.690 ⇒ 00:28:24.659 Uttam Kumaran: Can you, like, based on what you’ve seen in the platform, can you just, like, verbalize, like, a wish list of, like.
168 00:28:25.060 ⇒ 00:28:27.959 Uttam Kumaran: What you want, or what capabilities you need.
169 00:28:28.100 ⇒ 00:28:30.759 Uttam Kumaran: That, like, sort of X’s out that, like.
170 00:28:31.090 ⇒ 00:28:31.440 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
171 00:28:31.440 ⇒ 00:28:34.399 Uttam Kumaran: things aren’t easily demoable problem, and I can just solve that.
172 00:28:34.800 ⇒ 00:28:53.840 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I mean, just try to use the DNY, like, kind of example. So, that was, like, a quick discovery. They showed interest, they wanted to learn more. So, I think there’s, like, 3 things that I sent them. One is just, like, our decks. This is all just on design team. They just need the one-pagers, the assets. These are the static things that they’re going to be sharing broadly with their team.
173 00:28:53.890 ⇒ 00:28:56.099 Robert Tseng: And they need just, like, a gen… like a…
174 00:28:56.230 ⇒ 00:29:06.090 Robert Tseng: like, the generalized demo, I think, for not put two versions together on Lovable, trying to, like, take bits and pieces of, like, what was in the email thread to, like, give them some
175 00:29:06.420 ⇒ 00:29:15.879 Robert Tseng: like, a logo and some… whatever, some light features, so they could at least, like, get a sense. I think it… to that… to me, that’s… that’s a little bit, like, gray, like…
176 00:29:16.090 ⇒ 00:29:29.289 Robert Tseng: translating, like, what’s necessary for just that interactive demo that’s applicable to them when we don’t have full, like, the full requirements flushed out. So, at least to me, like, what was help… if you watched the video that I sent to them.
177 00:29:29.290 ⇒ 00:29:36.999 Robert Tseng: what I tried to do was, like, okay, look, this is an agentic workspace, you know, this is slightly customized to your business, because
178 00:29:37.000 ⇒ 00:29:53.669 Robert Tseng: or your organization. I know that security matters to them, so I went and I, like, kind of talked a couple in more depth about, like, the tabs that Prada created about governance, controls, or whatever, ensuring that this is a closed-loop, on-prem kind of, like, situation, because that was something that was emphasized at our call.
179 00:29:53.710 ⇒ 00:30:05.860 Robert Tseng: And then, obviously, there’s no chat… real chat feature, so other than that, it’s just, like, a basic UI. So, like, I feel like I don’t… I didn’t feel confident about pitching… pitching that entirely.
180 00:30:05.860 ⇒ 00:30:22.179 Robert Tseng: But then the second video that I set was really just, like, a more focused demo on, like, how we use this at Brainforge. So, I kind of talked about it a little bit, using the Vicinity platform, just a little bit how I use it, and then I also kind of flashed, like, our Brainforge internal platform.
181 00:30:22.180 ⇒ 00:30:26.050 Robert Tseng: And my two points there were, like, one, here is, like, a…
182 00:30:26.050 ⇒ 00:30:29.969 Robert Tseng: fully, fully baked, like, agentic workspace. You can run both, like.
183 00:30:29.970 ⇒ 00:30:42.030 Robert Tseng: I was just showing that I was running it locally, using kind of, like, you know, whatever, like, plugged in, like, open source, like, downloadable LLMs, that Clarence had, like, loaded into vicinity.
184 00:30:42.030 ⇒ 00:30:59.309 Robert Tseng: I, like, kind of showed, like, the list of, like, built-in skills, so that, like, you already have a lot of stuff out of the box, and whatever, like, so it doesn’t feel intimidating for a non-technical person, because whatever, like, I think that was, like, the angle I took there. But then for the BraveForce platform, so just what I shared more about there was, like.
185 00:30:59.860 ⇒ 00:31:10.640 Robert Tseng: And then we’ve built this other… we built this other thing that allows us to kind of build the best features of all the different tools that we don’t need to pay for, like, don’t need to use, and it’s consolidated all in one place.
186 00:31:11.000 ⇒ 00:31:29.379 Robert Tseng: So, I think… and then, like, when I got the call back from John yesterday, he was excited about the second video, because he was like, wow, like, I didn’t know you could basically have this offline, like, fully workspace with LLMs running on things. And he was like, yeah, I mean, this… what you showed in the internal BladeForce platform was…
187 00:31:29.520 ⇒ 00:31:34.549 Robert Tseng: Kind of, like, it shows him that we’re… it’s possible to just, like.
188 00:31:34.740 ⇒ 00:31:47.709 Robert Tseng: consolidate features from all the random tools that they have, and to build something in a central place. So, I think those were the two things that he reacted to. So, I feel good about where we’re at with the second video. I think, like, maybe there’s a little bit…
189 00:31:48.170 ⇒ 00:31:53.029 Robert Tseng: I mean, I’m sure I could refine that pitch a bit more, but, like, I’m trying to, like, figure out what’s…
190 00:31:53.060 ⇒ 00:32:17.269 Robert Tseng: where does the custom demo, like, piece? Like, we’re good at telling about how we… how Brainforge uses this. We have the static assets, but, like, what does… what does that first demo… like, what do… what can we really show them, off of, like, a discovery call that’s, like, reasonable for us to put together and not spend too much time, but, like, valuable enough for them to, like, kind of get the sense of, like, this is how I can envision using it in my organization?
191 00:32:17.960 ⇒ 00:32:28.530 Uttam Kumaran: The one thing I’m gonna do is kinda give, like, as part of some… some broader stuff, I’m gonna give you, like, an inventory list of, like, features.
192 00:32:28.660 ⇒ 00:32:33.820 Uttam Kumaran: And I will try to drive as much as possible towards… like…
193 00:32:33.940 ⇒ 00:32:42.829 Uttam Kumaran: demoable assets for each of those. For example, we have a lot of actual features in our… we consider the whole platform, from
194 00:32:42.830 ⇒ 00:32:54.480 Uttam Kumaran: like, the open work stuff, to our, like, context layer setup, to GitHub application automation, to Slack, to linear stuff. So I’m gonna kind of try to create
195 00:32:54.550 ⇒ 00:32:56.229 Uttam Kumaran: Just like,
196 00:32:56.920 ⇒ 00:33:12.580 Uttam Kumaran: like, an index of what all those demos are. I mean, for each of those, trying to have something visual that you can use. I think the open work stuff is gonna be the ultimate fallback, because that’s gonna be chock full of stuff, and that should be, like.
197 00:33:12.710 ⇒ 00:33:16.730 Uttam Kumaran: In any situation with the least amount of guidance.
198 00:33:16.750 ⇒ 00:33:33.260 Uttam Kumaran: that’s gonna be the best demo, because that is gonna be… like, that’s the… that’s actually, I think, the thing that’s gonna sell the best, versus, like, something that, like, is lightly skinned as Teams, or something like that. So we’re gonna lightly skin that demo a little bit, so that will be the most generic thing.
199 00:33:33.260 ⇒ 00:33:48.510 Uttam Kumaran: But you’ll also have access to, like, okay, if they’re actually more focused on private LLM, then there’s, like, a direction to go. If they’re more focused on Slack-based automations, or project management-related things, or the deck builders, right? So we’re gonna try to demonstrate
200 00:33:48.650 ⇒ 00:33:50.819 Uttam Kumaran: I’ll try to… we’ll try to have…
201 00:33:50.950 ⇒ 00:34:04.869 Uttam Kumaran: like, demoable, you know, UIs for that. Of course, like, we’re gonna have our own, so if you’re in a pinch, you just demo whatever we have, but I want to transition from ours to, like, more synthetic data.
202 00:34:04.910 ⇒ 00:34:11.809 Uttam Kumaran: like, situations. And then we’ll start to think about, like, okay, how can you come to a client with something that is, like.
203 00:34:11.969 ⇒ 00:34:18.220 Uttam Kumaran: the whole package is sort of arranged for them. Probably a few weeks out from that. Should have the open work stuff done.
204 00:34:18.429 ⇒ 00:34:19.250 Uttam Kumaran: like…
205 00:34:19.400 ⇒ 00:34:31.349 Uttam Kumaran: now, like, today. So I’m gonna see, like, what… how far we are from that. And then I’m working on sort of a broader… I’m working on updating our deck, primarily, to have a view into all of these
206 00:34:31.550 ⇒ 00:34:33.090 Uttam Kumaran: individual assets.
207 00:34:33.260 ⇒ 00:34:37.910 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, cuz, I think we have everything ready.
208 00:34:39.800 ⇒ 00:34:57.779 Robert Tseng: Okay, great. Yeah, I mean, I think, I hear you on that, I think that makes sense to me. Yeah, I mean, I want it… I don’t think we need to be too feature-heavy with it, but if you guys have an index of, like, all the features that we could just plug into, like, a generic demo that’s, like, lightly scanned for the client, I think that that would be a great, like.
209 00:34:58.080 ⇒ 00:35:12.849 Robert Tseng: here’s how fast we do taking your call immediately turning into something that you can, like, an environment that you can start to imagine how to use it. My next step on the, like, presentation of, like, how we use, how we use, you know, this stuff internally,
210 00:35:12.880 ⇒ 00:35:29.600 Robert Tseng: I would like to record, like, a longer video of me, like, actually, like, walking through all the different workflows, like, basically, like, a giant, like, unclipped video of, like, using the open work, using the Bainforge internal platform, and then, like, the dream is, like, you know, I…
211 00:35:29.610 ⇒ 00:35:51.759 Robert Tseng: for each client, I could just, like, kind of clip that out, and just send them, like, chunks that matter to them, rather than me having to do this, like, generic walkthrough every single time. Yeah. Yeah, so I don’t really know how possible that is, because we have to, like, do a fully comprehensive video, and then, like, I don’t know, we would use AI or have an editor go in and, like, clip it to pick out the relevant pieces.
212 00:35:52.900 ⇒ 00:36:09.219 Robert Tseng: But yeah, I kind of think about, like, that’s kind of where my mind goes. And I already know what some of the objections are that I’ve heard, so I want to be able to address them in my longer video, too. So, one big one is, like, how is this different from pod co-work? Like, how, like, you know, how, like, can’t we just use the…
213 00:36:09.220 ⇒ 00:36:14.780 Robert Tseng: these off-the-shelf tools to build this stuff herself, so I want to be able to give a good response to that, because I’ve heard that a couple times.
214 00:36:15.070 ⇒ 00:36:25.380 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, great. Yeah, if you have any of those objections that you hear, yeah, those are all easy for us to have a copy ready for you to address, and then I want to get those all on the deck.
215 00:36:26.270 ⇒ 00:36:26.700 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
216 00:36:26.700 ⇒ 00:36:28.050 Uttam Kumaran: You know, okay.
217 00:36:28.050 ⇒ 00:36:40.119 Robert Tseng: That’s why we lost the proper deal. I called Pius yesterday, and he was like, they… his… his boss was like, just use QuadPill work. And they’re using it, but the way he’s using it is pretty… it’s not as… it’s not as sophisticated as us, but, like…
218 00:36:40.120 ⇒ 00:36:54.889 Uttam Kumaran: There’s just no way they arrive at this place, so what we should do for Pius is, once this is all ready, send them that deck and video again, and say, like, reconsider. Yeah, because there’s no way they build this thing.
219 00:36:54.980 ⇒ 00:37:00.139 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. Yeah, and I think you’ll see in the next, like, 2 weeks or so, how compreh… how far we’ve…
220 00:37:00.280 ⇒ 00:37:12.189 Uttam Kumaran: how far it’s come, and, like, how much stitching we’ve done, it would be very, very difficult. It’s not only difficult to know what pieces to build, but it’ll be difficult to even build it outside of someone’s…
221 00:37:12.440 ⇒ 00:37:13.480 Uttam Kumaran: day job.
222 00:37:13.600 ⇒ 00:37:15.060 Uttam Kumaran: You know? So…
223 00:37:15.060 ⇒ 00:37:15.640 Robert Tseng: Yep.
224 00:37:15.640 ⇒ 00:37:18.740 Uttam Kumaran: I think we can address that and take another stab at that, so…
225 00:37:20.020 ⇒ 00:37:20.730 Robert Tseng: Yep.
226 00:37:21.230 ⇒ 00:37:22.379 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, and then the…
227 00:37:22.380 ⇒ 00:37:24.190 Pranav Narahari: Yeah. Go ahead.
228 00:37:24.350 ⇒ 00:37:25.629 Pranav Narahari: I was just gonna ask my…
229 00:37:25.630 ⇒ 00:37:35.129 Uttam Kumaran: I think the last piece on the… on the AI side is we haven’t started to build a lot of the scaffolding for the data team, and so that’s a lot of pieces that we’re gonna kind of work on next.
230 00:37:35.470 ⇒ 00:37:40.389 Uttam Kumaran: That, I would say, Robert, is even, like… more niche.
231 00:37:40.600 ⇒ 00:37:45.479 Uttam Kumaran: than this stuff. Like, there is nobody in data that
232 00:37:45.850 ⇒ 00:37:49.419 Uttam Kumaran: Like, for example, the real CEO pinged me yesterday.
233 00:37:49.590 ⇒ 00:37:57.069 Uttam Kumaran: and was like, yo, can you go comment on this LinkedIn? Because you guys are… you did this. And then it was like, someone was doing a thing about building…
234 00:37:57.500 ⇒ 00:37:59.610 Uttam Kumaran: the data stack, completely AI.
235 00:37:59.950 ⇒ 00:38:08.550 Uttam Kumaran: And that guy is pinging me, being like, nobody’s talking about this. I talk to the Omni folks all the time, so the data world is even further… it’s like…
236 00:38:09.070 ⇒ 00:38:12.390 Uttam Kumaran: Another year behind, two years behind.
237 00:38:12.540 ⇒ 00:38:21.649 Uttam Kumaran: So, I want to kind of give us a refreshed data deck as well, that is more focused around, like, some of the AI capabilities, because
238 00:38:21.920 ⇒ 00:38:28.399 Uttam Kumaran: we can pitch the normal stuff just great, but I think talking about, like, automated data analysis, things like that would be amazing.
239 00:38:29.590 ⇒ 00:38:30.600 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
240 00:38:30.600 ⇒ 00:38:32.550 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I’m with you.
241 00:38:33.000 ⇒ 00:38:33.550 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
242 00:38:33.920 ⇒ 00:38:35.090 Uttam Kumaran: Sorry, go ahead, Pranav.
243 00:38:36.840 ⇒ 00:38:47.750 Pranav Narahari: Oh, yeah, I was just gonna… and maybe me and Robert can just take it offline, but it’s just, like, how to kind of think about, like, the sales engineering, like, going from, you know, Robert, like, what you gave me to then.
244 00:38:47.750 ⇒ 00:38:52.110 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I’m gonna, I’m gonna fill the gap in on that. Yeah, I’m gonna… I’ll fill the gap in on that.
245 00:38:52.630 ⇒ 00:39:06.740 Uttam Kumaran: Cool. So, I have two things around organizing the platform roadmap really significantly, and Sam, I think that’s where I’ll leverage a lot of your help. And then Pranav, I’m gonna organize the sales engineering roadmap. I think that’s where I’ll leverage a lot of your help.
246 00:39:07.280 ⇒ 00:39:10.010 Uttam Kumaran: I think that’s why I want to just, like, close casket.
247 00:39:10.280 ⇒ 00:39:14.260 Uttam Kumaran: like, sorry for the terminology, but, like, closed casking on this ABC plan.
248 00:39:14.900 ⇒ 00:39:21.870 Uttam Kumaran: And then I… I think, B, I just messaged you, I want to run towards getting the Eden plan also in there.
249 00:39:22.210 ⇒ 00:39:35.279 Uttam Kumaran: And I get the hours ready, and get that all, like, settled, because I have a shitload of work for you guys on the sales engineering, platform side that, like, is going to be used to go sell a ton more work.
250 00:39:35.460 ⇒ 00:39:41.939 Uttam Kumaran: So I just wasn’t aware how much time was available and things like that. That’s why I sort of got a little bit stressed, because I’m like.
251 00:39:42.190 ⇒ 00:39:47.399 Uttam Kumaran: We are… there are some deals that are not going through because we are lacking, like.
252 00:39:48.030 ⇒ 00:39:55.050 Uttam Kumaran: probably, like, 3 or 4 hours of you guys’ time to help me with a couple things, so if I just know that that’s there, then I can get organized, and I can,
253 00:39:56.040 ⇒ 00:40:00.069 Uttam Kumaran: And we can meet and arrive at that. So, let’s plan on that.
254 00:40:00.230 ⇒ 00:40:03.079 Uttam Kumaran: I have to hop,
255 00:40:03.270 ⇒ 00:40:05.039 Uttam Kumaran: But I think, if anything else, just…
256 00:40:05.460 ⇒ 00:40:17.209 Uttam Kumaran: ping me today. I think Demi, we have good progress on default stuff, so, I feel like let’s just keep cruising there. And then Zoran, you have a note on, Ellie starting back up as well.
257 00:40:17.220 ⇒ 00:40:29.309 Uttam Kumaran: So I kicked off the channel again, as long as Zoran, you can drive that. Just… if you can send a message, Zoran, in the Client Ellie channel, just, like, what… that you’re aware of, like, what we’re doing, and we can circle around on that, that’d be great.
258 00:40:29.310 ⇒ 00:40:37.710 Robert Tseng: I got an email from Zoran. I can stay on, and I want to talk a little bit about that, so just… I think it’s as relevant to the rest of the team, too. So, if you got a drop, don’t no worries, but I do want.
259 00:40:37.710 ⇒ 00:40:39.810 Uttam Kumaran: I need to… I need to zoom.
260 00:40:40.130 ⇒ 00:40:45.080 Uttam Kumaran: Can I… can you… you guys want… do you want to just send one to the CSO channel? Yeah. That’s fine.
261 00:40:45.080 ⇒ 00:40:47.910 Robert Tseng: I’ll take, like, 5 minutes, so just come back in. Thanks.
262 00:40:47.910 ⇒ 00:40:48.850 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, okay, thank you.
263 00:40:48.850 ⇒ 00:40:49.410 Zoran Selinger: Okay.