Meeting Title: Year 1 Sync - Demi Date: 2026-03-18 Meeting participants: Kaela Gallagher, Demilade Agboola, Uttam Kumaran
WEBVTT
1 00:00:37.020 ⇒ 00:00:38.800 Kaela Gallagher: Hey, how’s it going?
2 00:00:41.710 ⇒ 00:00:43.270 Demilade Agboola: Hi, I’m pretty good, how are you?
3 00:00:43.740 ⇒ 00:00:44.840 Kaela Gallagher: Good!
4 00:00:45.090 ⇒ 00:00:46.690 Kaela Gallagher: Thanks for joining.
5 00:00:47.380 ⇒ 00:00:48.390 Uttam Kumaran: Hello?
6 00:00:49.920 ⇒ 00:00:51.580 Uttam Kumaran: Fun day today, too.
7 00:00:53.390 ⇒ 00:00:54.790 Uttam Kumaran: Always fun.
8 00:00:56.830 ⇒ 00:01:00.100 Uttam Kumaran: I’m just trying to, like, fix one thing today, and, like, I just, like…
9 00:01:00.470 ⇒ 00:01:09.510 Uttam Kumaran: I… I don’t know, I was up late last night trying to push some code, and today I’m trying to get… our, like, files.brainforge thing stopped working, but…
10 00:01:10.540 ⇒ 00:01:24.079 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, it’s… it’s… I feel like this week has been, like, we’re… we’re still waiting on this element renewal. Demi, I saw, like, Magic Spoons went, the… your message is pretty good. Glad Greg’s back, so I feel like we’re… we’re getting back on track, you know, on stuff, so…
11 00:01:24.830 ⇒ 00:01:25.640 Kaela Gallagher: Yay.
12 00:01:26.050 ⇒ 00:01:46.029 Kaela Gallagher: Well, Damien, we wanted to, like, host this call as you hit your one-year tenure with Brainforge, and just kind of go over the past year, and maybe some goals looking ahead, and then at the end, kind of ask for any feedback that you might have. So, I’ll let Uten kind of take it away.
13 00:01:46.670 ⇒ 00:01:49.979 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, so, I mean, I think, Demi, we’ve…
14 00:01:50.280 ⇒ 00:01:57.799 Uttam Kumaran: I feel like… I don’t know, I’m trying to think, like, even what we were… who were you… who were you working on when you first joined the company? Like, what client, do you remember?
15 00:01:58.160 ⇒ 00:02:02.940 Demilade Agboola: Eden. Eden was, like, the first one I had to hop in on, because things were quite chaotic back then.
16 00:02:04.400 ⇒ 00:02:09.580 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I mean, I think, like, a couple things that I noted down is, like, I feel like…
17 00:02:09.729 ⇒ 00:02:20.730 Uttam Kumaran: you’re sort of the trusted person that took over, you know, after Awash on everything, like, analytics engineering. You know, and I still see that as, like, your superpower, and…
18 00:02:21.000 ⇒ 00:02:31.029 Uttam Kumaran: I think one thing that I’ve seen, especially in the last, like, 3-4 months, is your interest in expanding just beyond being an engineer on the team. I think you mentioned that
19 00:02:31.290 ⇒ 00:02:41.370 Uttam Kumaran: when we’ve probably talked 6 months ago, and I… I took it very, very seriously when… when we’re trying to think about leadership roles and how I get you there. You know, I always think back… I don’t even remember…
20 00:02:41.650 ⇒ 00:02:44.350 Uttam Kumaran: 6 months or 8 months ago, we talked about, like.
21 00:02:45.080 ⇒ 00:02:51.739 Uttam Kumaran: how you really enjoyed soccer, and how you think about, like, how a soccer team operates. I actually, like, think about that conversation.
22 00:02:51.960 ⇒ 00:03:03.509 Uttam Kumaran: like, every week, probably. And, I think a lot about, like, how in my interactions with you, you always have this attitude of, like.
23 00:03:03.790 ⇒ 00:03:14.160 Uttam Kumaran: perseverance and, like, disagree but commit. Like, I think you’re very, very driven, and I think one thing that we wanted… one thing that… that’s what I’ve noticed allows you to stand out among…
24 00:03:14.470 ⇒ 00:03:27.590 Uttam Kumaran: like, your teammates. I think everybody at the company is fairly driven, but you have, like, a really, really amazing, like, heads down, let’s just get through this brick-wall type attitude, and I feel like that’s something that
25 00:03:27.780 ⇒ 00:03:32.879 Uttam Kumaran: I want you to continue to have, and I want to find a way for you to actually, like.
26 00:03:32.990 ⇒ 00:03:39.419 Uttam Kumaran: Motivate other folks to sort of think in that same manner, and actually to drive You know, outcome.
27 00:03:39.550 ⇒ 00:03:52.639 Uttam Kumaran: And so, yeah, I mean, I think, like, today we’re… we’re excited. I don’t know, Kayla, if you wanted to sort of jump to the end of the doc, or how did you want me to, like, sort of arrange this call? Because I could just go through what I had to say.
28 00:03:53.170 ⇒ 00:03:57.649 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah, you can go… you can go through, like, however… whatever order you’d like.
29 00:03:57.650 ⇒ 00:04:03.629 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, I mean, I wanted to talk… I think I just wanted… I think I talked a little bit about strengths. I think, Demi, I guess my question for you is, like.
30 00:04:03.640 ⇒ 00:04:20.279 Uttam Kumaran: I wanted to see if you… if you reflected at all on the last 3 months, you know, in particular, like, you emerging outside of just being an IC on a project to actually taking on leadership roles on clients. I’m interested in your
31 00:04:20.350 ⇒ 00:04:21.600 Uttam Kumaran: your feedback.
32 00:04:21.790 ⇒ 00:04:34.050 Uttam Kumaran: like, kind of, like, on yourself and your, like, introspection there, and then I have some feedback, and then I… I really want to maintain that this… I want to have this conversation be, like, really forward-looking, and, like, how…
33 00:04:34.540 ⇒ 00:04:46.140 Uttam Kumaran: I put you in, like, the best growth spot to win at the company, basically, like, if I was to think about where we end up end of 2026. And so, like, I don’t know, I’m kind of curious to, like.
34 00:04:46.560 ⇒ 00:04:49.009 Uttam Kumaran: Well, how you think it went this quarter…
35 00:04:49.600 ⇒ 00:05:05.949 Uttam Kumaran: I mean, like, I already know your skill set on the analytics engineering side, so I’m mainly particular… particularly interested in the ways we tried to get you to be higher leverage, how that went, and, like, how that sort of shaped maybe some of your assumptions on how it went, maybe that shaped sort of, like, what the future looks like.
36 00:05:06.220 ⇒ 00:05:06.980 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
37 00:05:09.020 ⇒ 00:05:10.890 Demilade Agboola: I mean, I think…
38 00:05:12.670 ⇒ 00:05:20.350 Demilade Agboola: it had its ups and downs. I mean, there were the ups of, like, you know, magic spoons, and just being able to…
39 00:05:20.540 ⇒ 00:05:23.900 Demilade Agboola: Interact with the client, and be able to drive…
40 00:05:24.350 ⇒ 00:05:27.270 Demilade Agboola: A renewal with the client as well.
41 00:05:28.320 ⇒ 00:05:39.400 Demilade Agboola: And I think for the most part, in terms of, like, Magic Spoon, I think you don’t necessarily pay any mind to it. Like, you come in once in maybe 2 days, 3 days, just check on what’s going on and keep you posted.
42 00:05:39.400 ⇒ 00:05:45.340 Uttam Kumaran: You make it sound like I’m, like, abandoning a child. I would love to if I could.
43 00:05:45.340 ⇒ 00:05:46.320 Demilade Agboola: Yeah, dude.
44 00:05:46.320 ⇒ 00:05:48.419 Uttam Kumaran: It’s good, it’s good, it’s good, it’s good.
45 00:05:48.880 ⇒ 00:05:50.410 Demilade Agboola: That’s what the grades are good, so, yeah.
46 00:05:50.410 ⇒ 00:05:51.060 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
47 00:05:51.350 ⇒ 00:06:01.559 Demilade Agboola: So I do think that in terms of, like, that project, I do see how, like, that was more of the ups. In terms of the downs, I probably would look at, like, default, and just, like.
48 00:06:01.810 ⇒ 00:06:06.310 Demilade Agboola: In terms of, like, self-reflection, it’ll probably be along the lines of…
49 00:06:07.670 ⇒ 00:06:15.370 Demilade Agboola: Being able to communicate clearer within the team, so being able to say, hey, this is what we…
50 00:06:16.010 ⇒ 00:06:22.340 Demilade Agboola: need to do, and this is the timeline where we’ll be able to meet it. So, like, just being… having that, like.
51 00:06:22.470 ⇒ 00:06:23.999 Demilade Agboola: Clear communication across the team.
52 00:06:24.000 ⇒ 00:06:25.719 Uttam Kumaran: Banded communication, yeah.