Meeting Title: Brainforge Advait Onboarding Check-in Date: 2026-03-20 Meeting participants: Robert Tseng, Advait Nandakumar Menon
WEBVTT
1 00:01:12.220 ⇒ 00:01:13.860 Robert Tseng: Oh my god.
2 00:01:14.320 ⇒ 00:01:15.600 Robert Tseng: Amazing.
3 00:08:58.710 ⇒ 00:08:59.570 Robert Tseng: Yeah, mate.
4 00:08:59.570 ⇒ 00:09:02.370 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Hello Hey, Robert, how’s it going?
5 00:09:06.460 ⇒ 00:09:09.219 Robert Tseng: Sorry, let me switch headphones, my AirPods just died.
6 00:09:10.840 ⇒ 00:09:12.280 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Okay, yeah, that’s fine.
7 00:09:41.140 ⇒ 00:09:42.489 Robert Tseng: Okay, can you hear me?
8 00:09:43.460 ⇒ 00:09:45.010 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Yeah, I can hear you fine.
9 00:09:45.160 ⇒ 00:09:50.189 Robert Tseng: Great. Yeah, how’s the… how’s the… how’s the first week going for you?
10 00:09:51.380 ⇒ 00:10:07.780 Advait Nandakumar Menon: So far, so good. I’ve settled in, I believe, getting used to the workflow and the environment and the tools you guys are using, so… These are some of the things I haven’t used before, so… but I’m slowly getting used to it, so… yeah, so far, so good.
11 00:10:08.440 ⇒ 00:10:13.690 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I’m assuming you’ve worked… have you worked with, like, a CLI interface before? Like, I’m…
12 00:10:13.690 ⇒ 00:10:15.169 Advait Nandakumar Menon: A little bit, I have.
13 00:10:15.170 ⇒ 00:10:15.570 Robert Tseng: Okay.
14 00:10:15.570 ⇒ 00:10:22.020 Advait Nandakumar Menon: So, I was a data engineer before, so I’ve done a little bit of CLI work as part of a migration, so… yeah.
15 00:10:22.020 ⇒ 00:10:27.530 Robert Tseng: Okay. Yeah, I know cursor can be a little bit difficult to set up, so especially, like.
16 00:10:27.660 ⇒ 00:10:44.530 Robert Tseng: looking up all the MCPs, and then once you have it configured to actually start pushing PRs and stuff, like, yeah, I mean, just kind of keep checking. I saw you ask some questions in the channel, so I think that that’s good, so I’m glad that you’re proactive in asking for help there. Yeah, Utam…
17 00:10:44.710 ⇒ 00:10:52.530 Robert Tseng: If not, Utah, like, he’ll direct you to somebody else on the team who kind of gets that… will kind of help… help you with that if you… if you get… if you get stuck.
18 00:10:52.530 ⇒ 00:11:00.330 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Yeah, I was just talking to him yesterday as well, like, I’m really impressed what the platform you guys have created over here. So, really.
19 00:11:00.870 ⇒ 00:11:03.050 Advait Nandakumar Menon: It’s all the stuff, yeah, yeah, like.
20 00:11:03.050 ⇒ 00:11:03.580 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
21 00:11:03.580 ⇒ 00:11:08.539 Advait Nandakumar Menon: the transcriptions, bringing it together in GitHub, and then connecting with the client.
22 00:11:08.710 ⇒ 00:11:09.829 Advait Nandakumar Menon: stuff, it’s…
23 00:11:09.970 ⇒ 00:11:21.770 Advait Nandakumar Menon: That’s, like, one of the ways in Cursor I use the platform repository and the element repository to kind of understand what you guys done so far, so as a new analyst or someone entering into it.
24 00:11:21.970 ⇒ 00:11:31.239 Advait Nandakumar Menon: I can just, come up to speed and basically get a quick summary of what you guys have been up to. So, that was helpful, Khasar was helpful for that.
25 00:11:31.830 ⇒ 00:11:50.369 Robert Tseng: Yeah, yeah, no, I’m glad that you’re adopting those tools quickly, and yeah, I mean, you know, you’re the newest one here right now, but there have also been some recent people, so, yeah, I guess as you work with… Brile’s actually our newest person before you, so, yeah, as you start to work with him more…
26 00:11:50.370 ⇒ 00:11:50.910 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Okay.
27 00:11:50.910 ⇒ 00:11:59.020 Robert Tseng: We call him B, Briley, whatever you want to call him. Yeah, I mean, he’s basically, like, the PM that’s helping across most clients.
28 00:11:59.080 ⇒ 00:12:16.749 Robert Tseng: And, yeah, I mean, he… he never used these tools before, but he came in, he’s, you know, he’s been here for less than a month, and he’s running these clients. So, yeah, I think, you know, he, I would say he’s probably one of the more, like, fluid people in using our tools, so if you have any questions around
29 00:12:16.890 ⇒ 00:12:21.079 Robert Tseng: Kind of how to, like, structure a prop to whatever, you should be able to help with that, too.
30 00:12:21.690 ⇒ 00:12:25.740 Advait Nandakumar Menon: I think I’m meeting him at 12, I believe, 12 ET, so… yeah.
31 00:12:25.740 ⇒ 00:12:26.110 Robert Tseng: Okay.
32 00:12:26.110 ⇒ 00:12:29.049 Advait Nandakumar Menon: I will talk it out with them, so… yeah. Great.
33 00:12:29.680 ⇒ 00:12:35.880 Robert Tseng: Yeah, so I don’t know if Kayla shared this with you, but, let me see…
34 00:12:37.680 ⇒ 00:12:43.940 Robert Tseng: It’s kind of… Together,
35 00:12:47.510 ⇒ 00:12:50.270 Robert Tseng: Yeah, have you received this sheet yet?
36 00:12:51.810 ⇒ 00:12:53.219 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Nope, I don’t…
37 00:12:53.220 ⇒ 00:12:53.560 Robert Tseng: Okay.
38 00:12:53.560 ⇒ 00:12:54.150 Advait Nandakumar Menon: So…
39 00:12:54.420 ⇒ 00:12:55.829 Robert Tseng: Alright, let me send this to you.
40 00:12:57.620 ⇒ 00:13:03.500 Advait Nandakumar Menon: I did get an onboarding guide separately, but it’s not this 1030-60-90 plan.
41 00:13:03.870 ⇒ 00:13:09.480 Robert Tseng: Okay, yeah, I’m sorry, I don’t really know exactly what you’ve received and have it, so…
42 00:13:11.110 ⇒ 00:13:13.499 Robert Tseng: Just Slack this to you.
43 00:13:17.060 ⇒ 00:13:19.090 Robert Tseng: Okay,
44 00:13:19.770 ⇒ 00:13:27.979 Robert Tseng: Yeah, so, I mean, we’re starting to put this together, and yeah, this’ll kind of be… we’re gonna build this, kind of pull this together. I mean.
45 00:13:28.270 ⇒ 00:13:35.839 Robert Tseng: Okay. This is kind of for you, just to maintain… I mean, like, drop some more light items in a checklist, you can just make sure you go through all these things.
46 00:13:37.240 ⇒ 00:13:44.340 Robert Tseng: I think you’ve already probably done most of it at this point, and then, obviously, we’re still kind of trying to figure out, like, what we need to do.
47 00:13:44.340 ⇒ 00:13:58.119 Robert Tseng: this is not a replacement for linear. Obviously, all the work is in linear, but I’m just, like, thinking about, like, kind of housekeeping things that need to… that need to happen for you in the first… first couple weeks, so… But what… what I do… what I will say is, like.
48 00:13:58.160 ⇒ 00:14:01.670 Robert Tseng: Yeah, just cover… review these,
49 00:14:01.690 ⇒ 00:14:13.250 Robert Tseng: kind of milestones, I guess. Make sure you feel comfortable with this. Yeah, if you have any questions, like, leave a comment on it, we can kind of go back and forth. But yeah, this to me is, like, kind of where I want to…
50 00:14:13.250 ⇒ 00:14:25.709 Robert Tseng: you know, like, the milestones we want to hit, we see you hit, they’re 10, 30, 60, 90. So, yeah, right now you’re kind of slotted as, like, an analyst, associate, kind of that mid-level person. And I, you know.
51 00:14:25.710 ⇒ 00:14:45.610 Robert Tseng: we pitched you what we did, like, product analytics maybe was the focus there, but obviously Elements is not really a product analytics client right now. I felt like your skill set was general enough that we’re gonna… we’re gonna start you there. But Global Vet Link is product analytics, and you are working… you were introduced to Greg, you guys, you know, as a lot of client runs, like, you’re built to work together with them.
52 00:14:45.610 ⇒ 00:14:59.909 Robert Tseng: But yeah, like, I think really within the first couple weeks, just want you to focus on getting up to speed on elements. We’ll spend a little bit more time talking about that client specifically, in our call. Sure. But, yeah, just want to give you, kind of.
53 00:14:59.910 ⇒ 00:15:09.250 Robert Tseng: just reiterating the roadmap of, like, okay, start you on one client, kind of ramp you up to at least two clients. Nobody here is on more than 3 clients, so.
54 00:15:09.250 ⇒ 00:15:09.930 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Okay.
55 00:15:09.930 ⇒ 00:15:19.110 Robert Tseng: Yeah, except for me and Uten. So, you know, that’s probably the expectation within 60 days that you kind of are settled in on at least 2 clients.
56 00:15:19.110 ⇒ 00:15:19.430 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Oh, God.
57 00:15:19.430 ⇒ 00:15:31.199 Robert Tseng: you know, maybe we leveled you incorrectly. Like, that’s possible, too. Like, I would say, like, Zorad came in kind of same level as you, but, yeah, I mean, he just proved to be a lot more senior.
58 00:15:31.200 ⇒ 00:15:48.990 Robert Tseng: And he actually wanted to be a service lead, where, like, he’s so good at his one work stream that now he’s actually just, like, the senior person running that same work stream for four clients, and he works with me, and I just keep selling his service. So, yeah, like, we recognize that, like.
59 00:15:49.060 ⇒ 00:15:58.020 Robert Tseng: you know, that’s possible as well. So I, you know, I want to, like, also have a formal level conversation… leveling conversation with you, you know, somewhere between
60 00:15:58.040 ⇒ 00:16:14.550 Robert Tseng: you know, 3 months is a target, but it could happen faster. Like, with Zoran, it happened within, like, the first 2 months, because I was like, okay, we definitely need to move you… move you up. But yeah, I think that’s possible. But we at least felt like a good starting point was to kind of start you at a mid-level.
61 00:16:15.920 ⇒ 00:16:17.070 Advait Nandakumar Menon: No, that sounds good.
62 00:16:17.440 ⇒ 00:16:18.070 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
63 00:16:18.450 ⇒ 00:16:24.709 Robert Tseng: I think other than that, this should be pretty straightforward in terms of, kind of, like, what the expectations are, here.
64 00:16:24.970 ⇒ 00:16:37.499 Robert Tseng: So, yeah, maybe I’ll just kind of pause there, see if you have any kind of questions on, like, other, like, housekeeping themes, things that you were thinking about in your first week that you feel like are not… that I haven’t, like, addressed so far.
65 00:16:38.500 ⇒ 00:16:58.499 Advait Nandakumar Menon: I don’t think so, so this was one of the things I wanted to check with you in this call, like, the expectations and the goals, so I think you have laid it out pretty well here, so that’s one thing I had in mind while coming into this call, but you have already covered this, so maybe I’ll give this a read-through, and if anything, I’ll reach out back to you.
66 00:16:58.920 ⇒ 00:17:06.180 Robert Tseng: Okay, great. Have you read this stock, by the way? It might be in your onboarding, but I’m not sure.
67 00:17:07.650 ⇒ 00:17:09.760 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Nope, I don’t think so.
68 00:17:10.089 ⇒ 00:17:15.139 Robert Tseng: Okay, I think this is a good read for you, so I will share this with you.
69 00:17:18.519 ⇒ 00:17:24.999 Robert Tseng: This is our, like, kind of, like, manifesto for delivery, I guess.
70 00:17:25.219 ⇒ 00:17:42.549 Robert Tseng: And so I’ll, you know, as you read through it, I’ll call out a couple things. So, you know, we don’t officially have any PMs. Bryle kind of is that. We may change this, but our bet, kind of, I think we talked about this on an interview, was like, coming into Q1, we pretty much got rid of PMs, and we were thinking.
71 00:17:42.549 ⇒ 00:17:47.299 Robert Tseng: What if we made our technical staff kind of more well-rounded in, like.
72 00:17:47.299 ⇒ 00:18:12.289 Robert Tseng: you know, everybody now has to be client-facing, they have to run their own projects, etc. So, we’re still kind of… you’ll notice that, like, our… the rituals that we play… we kind of experiment with them with, like, on the PM side. Do we do daily stand-ups at every client? Do we just do weekly, and then have, like, the leads on each client kind of go in and self-organize for, like, the people on their team? Like, I think those are all… those are still kind
73 00:18:12.289 ⇒ 00:18:17.179 Robert Tseng: kind of like, Hotly debated conversations that we have regularly.
74 00:18:17.910 ⇒ 00:18:26.639 Robert Tseng: I mean, this doc was, you know, published in end of December, but, you know, at that time, what we said was we would have 3 roles, which was
75 00:18:28.040 ⇒ 00:18:47.450 Robert Tseng: the service leader, the client success owner, and the engagement planner. And so, like, there were some, you know, we had, like, outlined what this relationship between these different people would look like, and I think things have, like, have changed then. Since then, we’ve dropped the engagement planner. It no longer exists. So.
76 00:18:47.450 ⇒ 00:18:48.200 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Okay.
77 00:18:48.200 ⇒ 00:18:51.369 Robert Tseng: Yeah, so, I mean, I think it’s still worth reading, because, like.
78 00:18:51.620 ⇒ 00:18:56.849 Robert Tseng: we basically took a PM’s job, and we cut it into 3 roles, and we, like.
79 00:18:57.070 ⇒ 00:19:03.439 Robert Tseng: ask the edge… the technical staff to pick up on one of those… those three roles. And,
80 00:19:03.720 ⇒ 00:19:06.229 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I think what we realized was
81 00:19:06.590 ⇒ 00:19:22.009 Robert Tseng: And you’ll see this, like, terms thrown around a lot in Brainforge, so I think if you, like, read this doc, you’ll just, like, learn kind of, like, what we’re saying when we say CSO or EP, or SL. But yeah, I guess in short, like, the CSO…
82 00:19:22.010 ⇒ 00:19:27.050 Robert Tseng: Was kind of, like, meant to be the account manager, just the person who was
83 00:19:27.050 ⇒ 00:19:44.979 Robert Tseng: doing, like, the VPC-level kind of presentations, like, giving… giving, like, kind of the… the updates to the… to the clients, also, like, gathering new requirements, doing negotiations if we’re doing renewals, try to kind of come alongside me and Utah, because we were basically doing that ourselves all the time.
84 00:19:45.060 ⇒ 00:19:45.910 Robert Tseng: Nope.
85 00:19:45.910 ⇒ 00:19:46.560 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Okay.
86 00:19:46.560 ⇒ 00:19:51.539 Robert Tseng: Yeah, and there’s a delivery, or AOR, area.
87 00:19:52.140 ⇒ 00:19:56.250 Robert Tseng: Second, I might share something else with you that might…
88 00:20:00.330 ⇒ 00:20:01.449 Robert Tseng: There we go.
89 00:20:03.760 ⇒ 00:20:07.230 Robert Tseng: stop.
90 00:20:07.490 ⇒ 00:20:08.710 Robert Tseng: CSL.
91 00:20:09.080 ⇒ 00:20:09.840 Robert Tseng: Great.
92 00:20:10.000 ⇒ 00:20:15.919 Robert Tseng: I think you should also This is our,
93 00:20:18.040 ⇒ 00:20:25.230 Robert Tseng: You know, areas of responsibility, kind of like… Doc, I guess.
94 00:20:25.660 ⇒ 00:20:34.979 Robert Tseng: So, if you come here, like, you’ll see… I mean, a lot of this won’t be relevant to you, but these are all the different, like, roles and responsibilities that we have across the company that we basically try.
95 00:20:34.980 ⇒ 00:20:35.300 Advait Nandakumar Menon: breakfast.
96 00:20:35.300 ⇒ 00:20:55.139 Robert Tseng: people to. For you specifically, I think just the client staffing kind of tracker. I mean, this hasn’t been updated this month, but I mean, we usually update this monthly, and yeah, there’s… this will kind of give you a sense of, like, who we assign for CSO, EP, and SL for each of these clients, kind of what the health is.
97 00:20:55.220 ⇒ 00:21:07.169 Robert Tseng: like, you don’t have to pay too close attention to this, like, this is more like the, like, Bryle. Bryle basically needs to update this and give, like, updates to me at UTAM monthly, but at least it’ll kind of give you a sense of, like.
98 00:21:07.340 ⇒ 00:21:15.950 Robert Tseng: who has been in which role up to this point. Things have changed, I think, since then, but, like, I think still good to kind of take a look at.
99 00:21:16.550 ⇒ 00:21:23.569 Robert Tseng: And so you can see, like, for CSO, CSOs have mostly just been Me, Uta, Greg, Demolon.
100 00:21:23.570 ⇒ 00:21:24.280 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Okay.
101 00:21:24.800 ⇒ 00:21:27.810 Robert Tseng: Okay. Yeah, that’s it. And so… but, like.
102 00:21:27.840 ⇒ 00:21:34.610 Robert Tseng: I think what we… what we saw… I truly… but now, like, the only CSO is Greg, and so,
103 00:21:34.610 ⇒ 00:21:56.359 Robert Tseng: Yeah, or it’s just me who… it’s just me who taught me, Greg. Demolade is no longer a CSO, and we’ve eliminated the EP role. So, it’s just like… and we’ve changed it to SLs. So, what an SL is, is really your service lead. We think about, like, kind of, they own a particular service line, and I think you’ll learn this more as you figure out all the different things we offer at Brainforge.
104 00:21:56.360 ⇒ 00:22:07.390 Robert Tseng: like, Sam is the service lead for all AI work, so anything that’s been following in AI engineering that we do, like, that’s… he owns that.
105 00:22:07.390 ⇒ 00:22:25.030 Robert Tseng: Awash is our service lead for data engineering work. He’s, like, our only really true data engineer, so anything around data engineering, he’s an SL there. De Milade has now moved from CSO to SL. He is our service lead for analytics engineering.
106 00:22:25.030 ⇒ 00:22:47.859 Robert Tseng: So, anything around, like, dbt modeling, kind of, like, you know, observability for SQL models, etc, like, he’s doing that, just that layer. Oh, good. And then Zoran is everything around, kind of, like, marketing analytics. So, he’s, like, a tagging and tracking expert, and, yeah, I guess, like, that’s kind of where we have him sitting, so…
107 00:22:47.860 ⇒ 00:23:02.619 Robert Tseng: Just kind of giving you a sense of, like… so those four guys, they are the go-to people for any, like, topic related to that line of work, and you will probably work with them in some capacity in whatever project that you’re on.
108 00:23:03.130 ⇒ 00:23:18.610 Robert Tseng: Whereas, like, Greg is more kind of, like, maybe your client-facing counterpart, which, like, on Global VentLink, he is, like, the CSO of that client, and right now, we’re not asking you to take on any of these roles, you’re kind of just, like, the analyst supporting him, but, like, maybe eventually, like.
109 00:23:18.950 ⇒ 00:23:38.309 Robert Tseng: we learn more about what your specialty is, like, maybe you become the product analytics, service lead, I don’t know if that’s what you want to do, or… or maybe, I mean, we’ll just kind of have to have more conversations about, like, where your strengths are, and, like, kind of what type of analysis you prefer, or, like, what’s your technical, like, specialty is kind of.
110 00:23:38.310 ⇒ 00:23:42.920 Robert Tseng: the way that I… what I would like to figure out with you within the first, first couple weeks.
111 00:23:43.590 ⇒ 00:23:57.710 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Yeah, that sounds like a plan. I appreciate that there’s these various roles or parts that each person can go into, so… based on their strengths and weaknesses, so, yeah, that’s… that’s really nice.
112 00:23:57.970 ⇒ 00:23:58.640 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
113 00:23:58.690 ⇒ 00:24:11.540 Robert Tseng: And, like, on that… these are… like, to be clear, everybody here is basically, like, you know, staffed on a client. They’re all doing, like, client work, but they just have certain, like… like, for our internal structure.
114 00:24:11.560 ⇒ 00:24:17.910 Robert Tseng: like, this just helps us… we have, like, some… like, we have some rules for this, so, like.
115 00:24:17.910 ⇒ 00:24:36.100 Robert Tseng: You know, maybe we could… like, a simple framework to kind of think about this for now, because you may be wondering, like, how does this actually, like, play out in, like, the client work? I would say, like, if we think about, like, a Pareto principle, like, maybe 20% of their time is actually spent, like, doing
116 00:24:36.100 ⇒ 00:25:00.950 Robert Tseng: these specific responsibilities. So, like, for Greg, he is building decks, he is, doing, like, run-throughs with me and Utam on Wednesdays, anything that’s, like, a client-facing, like, artifact that goes out, book… kind of doing check-ins and booking meetings and stuff, like, he’s responsible for that. And, like, anything that the client… if the client has an issue with our work, they’re gonna call Greg for the ones that he’s staffed on.
117 00:25:01.330 ⇒ 00:25:02.319 Robert Tseng: And so, like.
118 00:25:02.320 ⇒ 00:25:02.760 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Okay.
119 00:25:02.760 ⇒ 00:25:27.659 Robert Tseng: So that’s, like, you know, you can see on top of, like, he’s executing on some things here and there as well for the client. But yeah, so, like, that’s, like, kind of the 20% more that he does. Whereas, like, for… let’s just pick Sam. Sam is, like, AI engineer, so, like, you know, both internally, he takes, you know, I lead the sales team here, so if I have things that I want to work on to, like, enable the sales team, we call it go-to-market
120 00:25:27.660 ⇒ 00:25:33.809 Robert Tseng: engineering I need, like, some HubSpot MCP, like, skill.
121 00:25:33.810 ⇒ 00:25:34.240 Advait Nandakumar Menon: to…
122 00:25:34.240 ⇒ 00:25:34.840 Robert Tseng: like…
123 00:25:34.980 ⇒ 00:25:53.969 Robert Tseng: that I can basically take some updates from HubSpot and dump it into another system, like, whatever, like, I’m just using it as an example. He’s, like, kind of working with me to, like, architect what that should look like, and then he may pass it off to, like, one of our internal engineers to go and work on it.
124 00:25:53.980 ⇒ 00:26:04.229 Robert Tseng: But he’s also doing the same thing for external clients. So, like, we’re kicking off a new client today. It’s actually the same client, one of our existing clients, Eden, but they’re… we have a new workstream that’s
125 00:26:04.230 ⇒ 00:26:05.480 Robert Tseng: just their AI work.
126 00:26:05.480 ⇒ 00:26:27.870 Robert Tseng: So Pranav is, like, the actual engineer on that client, but he’s paired with Sam, because Sam is basically going to take the requirements, and he’s going to build out the roadmap, he’s going to tell Pranav how long each thing should take, like, he’s kind of being… he’s the architect behind that Eden will never talk to, because Pranav is the one that’s left on it, but, like, that’s… that’s a role that he has. So any AI-related work, he is performing that role.
127 00:26:28.310 ⇒ 00:26:30.670 Robert Tseng: Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah.
128 00:26:30.670 ⇒ 00:26:36.479 Advait Nandakumar Menon: So, in… in that case, it’s like, the client facing a SAM, and, like, Tanow is the…
129 00:26:36.700 ⇒ 00:26:40.209 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Kind of like the analyst, like, really the engineer in the.
130 00:26:40.210 ⇒ 00:26:40.540 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
131 00:26:40.540 ⇒ 00:26:42.989 Advait Nandakumar Menon: So, yeah, okay, yeah, that makes sense.
132 00:26:43.150 ⇒ 00:26:48.780 Robert Tseng: Yeah, so on, you know, on that work stream, like, I’m the CSO for Eden, for, like, anything Eden, like.
133 00:26:48.780 ⇒ 00:27:04.520 Robert Tseng: Yeah, so, like, I will be on that kickoff call, like, I’m… we’re working directly with the COO, and then, like, they will never talk to Sam, but, like, it’ll be me and Pranav and the COO. That’s it. Like, that’s pretty much all that is on that project, for now, until, like, it expands or whatever.
134 00:27:04.520 ⇒ 00:27:04.880 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Okay.
135 00:27:04.880 ⇒ 00:27:17.899 Robert Tseng: But yeah, it’s like, Pranav will be there to kind of, like, execute on things, he needs to be there for the context, he’s gonna be interacting with the client as well, but, like, you know, the mastermind behind, like, what’s being built is really Sam at this point.
136 00:27:18.150 ⇒ 00:27:18.810 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
137 00:27:18.810 ⇒ 00:27:19.750 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Okay, okay.
138 00:27:19.810 ⇒ 00:27:26.149 Robert Tseng: Yeah, so that’s, like, kind of hopefully just a couple examples for how this… how this relationship works.
139 00:27:26.260 ⇒ 00:27:27.010 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
140 00:27:27.010 ⇒ 00:27:27.570 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Yeah.
141 00:27:28.660 ⇒ 00:27:35.370 Robert Tseng: Yeah, and then, you know, I keep saying we eliminated EP, and maybe I’ll explain a little bit why we eliminated them.
142 00:27:35.720 ⇒ 00:27:40.510 Robert Tseng: the EP was really just somebody who, like, it was people that were supposed to
143 00:27:40.560 ⇒ 00:27:57.710 Robert Tseng: they were supposed to build the Gantt charts, make sure that tickets were all kind of, like, context-rich, like, ready to execute on. And what we found was that, no matter how hard we tried, like, our engineers were just, like, not able to do that well.
144 00:27:57.710 ⇒ 00:28:03.840 Robert Tseng: Okay. So, I think that’s why, like, for now, Bryle is just, like, the only…
145 00:28:04.060 ⇒ 00:28:14.839 Robert Tseng: EP, former EP role, who’s just, like, kind of doing that across the board. Obviously, Ibutom and I kind of jump in here and there, but we’ve actually asked the CSO to absorb that responsibility.
146 00:28:14.950 ⇒ 00:28:22.360 Robert Tseng: If engineers and analysts do not understand the work that they need to do to execute, it’s the CSO’s fault.
147 00:28:22.360 ⇒ 00:28:22.690 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Okay.
148 00:28:22.690 ⇒ 00:28:28.370 Robert Tseng: And, yeah, they need to make sure… I mean, the CSO and the SL will work together to make sure that
149 00:28:28.460 ⇒ 00:28:43.199 Robert Tseng: hey, like, the tickets are reflecting what the client is asking for, for the CSO side, and on the SL side, that, like, it’s actually, you know, we have the internal planning and the requirements in order to actually go and execute against those things. So, it’s kind of a shared responsibility between those two roles now.
150 00:28:43.200 ⇒ 00:28:52.890 Robert Tseng: With, with B kind of being in the background, making sure that everybody’s, like, kind of staying on track. So that’s… that’s kind of how we’ve… how we’ve switched it moving… moving forward for now.
151 00:28:53.540 ⇒ 00:28:54.230 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Okay.
152 00:28:54.670 ⇒ 00:29:00.200 Robert Tseng: But yeah, so hopefully that kind of gives you a better sense of, like, kind of the dynamic of how these different rules work.
153 00:29:00.200 ⇒ 00:29:12.410 Robert Tseng: But yeah, I would still think it’s valuable to read through this doc, even if this rule doesn’t exist anymore. You know, like, these are all the different components that we thought through for what it takes to run a successful project.
154 00:29:12.410 ⇒ 00:29:27.519 Robert Tseng: the Brainforge way. You know, you may have different opinions, and you may think we’re missing something, because you’ve been in consulting, so I would love to get your feedback, but, you know, I think just to kind of be on the same page, I think this is probably your best place to kind of learn about how we think about delivery.
155 00:29:28.430 ⇒ 00:29:41.539 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Okay, yeah. No, I have, from my work experience, it’s been the traditional, like, siloed roles, like, well-defined roles that have been there, but here you guys are trying to do something really different.
156 00:29:41.770 ⇒ 00:29:52.660 Advait Nandakumar Menon: So that’s something, really impressive. So, yeah, it’ll get some getting used to, but I’m pretty sure, I can get the hang of things, and,
157 00:29:52.920 ⇒ 00:30:01.480 Advait Nandakumar Menon: get, basically, accustomed to this workflow you guys have set up. So, no, this really helps to broaden that context as well.
158 00:30:01.810 ⇒ 00:30:09.820 Robert Tseng: Okay, great. Yeah, I think that was… that’s a great observation. Like, we are really trying to break the mold of the traditional consulting silos.
159 00:30:10.030 ⇒ 00:30:19.609 Robert Tseng: And I think… I hope you get a chance to talk to Clarence. I think that’s another person you should talk to. I’m gonna put that on your, calendar sometime. Yeah, I think you should talk to him about your consulting experience.
160 00:30:19.610 ⇒ 00:30:36.080 Robert Tseng: he’s basically, like, a managing director, or, like, yeah, director level at EY. He works with us, and he kind of helped author that doc, so he’s, like, very much from that world, and, like, was really eager that we were trying to do something different, but, like, he’s very opinionated about, like.
161 00:30:36.080 ⇒ 00:30:47.909 Robert Tseng: kind of, like, why we do it this, or why we’re trying to do it a different way. So yeah, I think he’d be a good person to chat with, because he comes from that originally.
162 00:30:48.740 ⇒ 00:30:49.450 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Okay.
163 00:30:50.790 ⇒ 00:30:57.249 Robert Tseng: Yeah, so Amber, Amber, Sam, Claire, I mean, Amber, obviously, I guess let me share my screen again.
164 00:30:57.530 ⇒ 00:31:08.060 Robert Tseng: But I have you… Amber, you know, elements, kind of… That must be… You know, analyst, engineer…
165 00:31:09.600 ⇒ 00:31:12.710 Robert Tseng: you know, to help on board.
166 00:31:12.920 ⇒ 00:31:19.990 Robert Tseng: You know, this is a SL… Who can share more?
167 00:31:20.210 ⇒ 00:31:26.940 Robert Tseng: about the AI, roadmap, how… It enables data work.
168 00:31:27.280 ⇒ 00:31:35.120 Robert Tseng: And then this is more kind of like, you know, author of the delivery structure.
169 00:31:37.090 ⇒ 00:31:44.199 Robert Tseng: Kind of like our consulting… you know, EY, consulting, advisor, you know, so anyway, so…
170 00:31:44.380 ⇒ 00:31:51.379 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I think, those, those would probably be 3 good people to chat with. So, as far as, like, kind of your, you know.
171 00:31:52.270 ⇒ 00:31:56.759 Robert Tseng: on Element specifically, I have a couple more minutes, so I just want to get to that. Yeah, I think.
172 00:31:56.760 ⇒ 00:31:57.100 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Yeah, yeah.
173 00:31:57.100 ⇒ 00:31:59.720 Robert Tseng: I told… I told Amber, you know, just…
174 00:31:59.990 ⇒ 00:32:12.980 Robert Tseng: bring Advent onto as many things as she can, you know, just, you shadow her, like, the goal is to try to get her to hand off Element to you. Like, I want to move her off of the client by the end of the month, ideally.
175 00:32:12.980 ⇒ 00:32:36.800 Robert Tseng: Obviously you know that, like, Omni is, like, our… the BI tool that we’re implementing for them, so, I think learning, learning that, you know, and being able to take over her developments on… on Omni would probably be a good place to start. But yeah, I think we can probably… we could talk more, like, client-specific kind of details, like, like, outside of this call, so I’m just kind of giving you that heads up. And then Jasmine.
176 00:32:36.820 ⇒ 00:32:59.480 Robert Tseng: Jasmine’s officially starting full-time April 6th, but, like, for now, she’s kind of in a part-time trial with us, and she’s just making the transition over. But she is kind of, like, the senior, like, the senior, analyst, associate, or whatever. So, her job is to review everyone’s work that’s on the strategy and analytics team, which is really just you, Mustafa,
177 00:32:59.480 ⇒ 00:33:01.349 Robert Tseng: Greg and… and.
178 00:33:01.350 ⇒ 00:33:01.780 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Okay.
179 00:33:01.780 ⇒ 00:33:11.250 Robert Tseng: Right now. So, you can view her as, like, yeah, I mean, I want her to set up one-on-ones with you. She’s basically there to enable you. You know, she comes…
180 00:33:11.290 ⇒ 00:33:13.689 Advait Nandakumar Menon: I’m using the chat today, so yeah, yeah.
181 00:33:13.980 ⇒ 00:33:32.649 Robert Tseng: Great. Yeah, she has great experience. She was in strategy and operations at DoorDash, then she came and worked with me at my previous consultancy before I merged with Brave Forge, and then she’s been at TikTok, kind of running a data team there the past couple years. But, yeah, I think she’s a great, like, player and coach. Like, she’s not somebody who just, like.
182 00:33:32.730 ⇒ 00:33:48.709 Robert Tseng: you know, talks at you, but she’ll be able to… willing to get in and do the work with you as well, so… But obviously, you know, I would… as she… as you kind of build that relationship with her, I want your feedback on her, too. You know, I want, you know, if you tell me, like, two weeks from now, you’re like.
183 00:33:48.710 ⇒ 00:33:55.170 Robert Tseng: You know what, I’m not learning anything from Jasmine, she’s actually not a great fit for me, like, I want that feedback from you, and you can be honest with me.
184 00:33:55.170 ⇒ 00:34:01.189 Robert Tseng: And I can either find someone else, or I’ll basically just kind of take over, and we can work together more closely.
185 00:34:01.190 ⇒ 00:34:15.550 Robert Tseng: So, yeah, I know there’s just, like, a lot of new people and things, so I think that’s, just, you know, nothing is set in stone. These are all just starting points, so just letting you know, kind of, where we’re at currently. But yeah, I think, like.
186 00:34:15.550 ⇒ 00:34:24.010 Robert Tseng: You know, you join at an exciting time where, you know, you’re still pretty early, so, like, you know, you get to really shape the kind of direction of how things go.
187 00:34:24.630 ⇒ 00:34:35.340 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Yeah, no, I am thankful for this opportunity, first of all. Having had that call with you guys, like, the final interview, and, like, learning more about Brainforge as I went through the interview process, it…
188 00:34:35.400 ⇒ 00:34:47.500 Advait Nandakumar Menon: it really resonated with me that you guys are trying to do something different in the consulting space and delivery space for clients with data and AI, something I have not come across before, so that’s…
189 00:34:47.520 ⇒ 00:35:03.119 Advait Nandakumar Menon: really, nice, I would say, like, coming into here and looking at all these workflows and how you guys operate as well, it’s something different. So, it’s exciting to try something new, and I appreciate for you for giving me that opportunity. So, yeah.
190 00:35:03.290 ⇒ 00:35:14.040 Robert Tseng: Of course, yeah, no, we were excited, we thought you did a great job in the interview, like, you know, so I think you’re really gonna be somebody who kind of makes this team better, so I’m excited for you, and reach out if you have any questions.
191 00:35:14.550 ⇒ 00:35:16.560 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Sure, yeah, thanks for that.
192 00:35:16.560 ⇒ 00:35:21.500 Robert Tseng: Cool, alright, I probably gotta go prep for my next call, but, I’ll talk to you soon.
193 00:35:21.840 ⇒ 00:35:24.470 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Yeah, sounds like awesome. Bye. Bye-bye.