Meeting Title: Brainforge Partnership Strategy Discussion Date: 2026-03-20 Meeting participants: Amber Lin, Holly Condos
WEBVTT
1 00:01:34.050 ⇒ 00:01:35.470 Holly Condos: Hi, Amber!
2 00:01:38.830 ⇒ 00:01:39.890 Amber Lin: Hello!
3 00:01:40.640 ⇒ 00:01:41.739 Holly Condos: How are you?
4 00:01:42.200 ⇒ 00:01:44.820 Amber Lin: Good! Good to finally talk!
5 00:01:44.820 ⇒ 00:01:49.890 Holly Condos: Yeah, good to talk. Sorry, my camera is not working at the moment. I don’t know what the problem is.
6 00:01:50.160 ⇒ 00:01:51.389 Amber Lin: No, all good, all good.
7 00:01:51.390 ⇒ 00:01:52.680 Holly Condos: Are you in LA?
8 00:01:52.680 ⇒ 00:01:54.620 Amber Lin: Yeah, I’m in LA, where are you based?
9 00:01:54.620 ⇒ 00:01:55.750 Holly Condos: San Diego.
10 00:01:55.770 ⇒ 00:02:00.840 Amber Lin: Oh, wow, I think we’re going down, early April.
11 00:02:00.840 ⇒ 00:02:01.620 Holly Condos: Oh, really?
12 00:02:01.620 ⇒ 00:02:02.640 Amber Lin: Yeah.
13 00:02:03.230 ⇒ 00:02:05.150 Holly Condos: Well, we should get together.
14 00:02:05.150 ⇒ 00:02:05.800 Amber Lin: Yeah!
15 00:02:05.800 ⇒ 00:02:08.279 Holly Condos: Like, are you coming with Hannah, or…
16 00:02:08.289 ⇒ 00:02:16.349 Amber Lin: Oh, no, I’m coming with my partner, just to visit some friends. Okay, cool. But we’ll love to… we’ll love to grab a coffee if you have time around.
17 00:02:16.350 ⇒ 00:02:24.860 Holly Condos: That’d be great, yeah, let me know about your dates. I’m gonna be on the East Coast for Passover, but, only for a couple days, so…
18 00:02:24.860 ⇒ 00:02:25.700 Amber Lin: Okay, okay.
19 00:02:25.700 ⇒ 00:02:27.530 Holly Condos: Yeah, that’d be great to connect.
20 00:02:27.880 ⇒ 00:02:31.580 Amber Lin: Yeah, it’s always nice to meet in person. Feels different.
21 00:02:31.580 ⇒ 00:02:37.879 Holly Condos: Sure, for sure. So, you are on the design team?
22 00:02:38.130 ⇒ 00:02:38.909 Holly Condos: Or are you…
23 00:02:38.910 ⇒ 00:02:39.370 Amber Lin: Oh, I’m…
24 00:02:39.370 ⇒ 00:02:40.090 Holly Condos: mirror.
25 00:02:40.120 ⇒ 00:02:45.159 Amber Lin: I’m on the data and, like, the strategy team, yeah.
26 00:02:45.680 ⇒ 00:02:46.749 Holly Condos: Do you love it?
27 00:02:49.440 ⇒ 00:03:01.629 Amber Lin: I would say I do, because I did the project management work when I first joined, and, like, this work is much more stimulating, because there’s a lot of new stuff in.
28 00:03:01.630 ⇒ 00:03:02.020 Holly Condos: Yeah.
29 00:03:02.090 ⇒ 00:03:08.109 Amber Lin: things I’ve not done before, versus on project management. As you see, we automate most of it, is…
30 00:03:08.110 ⇒ 00:03:08.480 Holly Condos: Right.
31 00:03:08.480 ⇒ 00:03:10.300 Amber Lin: Same thing over and over again.
32 00:03:10.580 ⇒ 00:03:11.230 Holly Condos: Yeah.
33 00:03:11.230 ⇒ 00:03:15.299 Amber Lin: But you do all the… you do the partnership stuff, right? What is it like.
34 00:03:15.300 ⇒ 00:03:18.790 Holly Condos: Yeah, we’ve kind of… when I first…
35 00:03:19.300 ⇒ 00:03:27.709 Holly Condos: joined. So, I met UTAM at, VixelCon, which is, like, a startup conference.
36 00:03:28.630 ⇒ 00:03:33.390 Holly Condos: Probably… it’ll be 2 years, I guess, this spring.
37 00:03:33.390 ⇒ 00:03:34.040 Amber Lin: Wow.
38 00:03:34.040 ⇒ 00:03:39.259 Holly Condos: And then we had just been kind of talking, you know, I was following Brainforge’s journey.
39 00:03:39.470 ⇒ 00:03:47.010 Holly Condos: And I think at the beginning of probably September?
40 00:03:47.260 ⇒ 00:03:57.359 Holly Condos: Utam and Robert were like, okay, yeah, we want to, like, rev up the partner world. So, I originally came in to help get that off the ground.
41 00:03:57.600 ⇒ 00:04:05.419 Holly Condos: And then we got Luke, right? And so we kind of put Luke and Hannah together to do the day-to-day.
42 00:04:05.490 ⇒ 00:04:23.450 Holly Condos: And I’m doing more strategy now that, you know, once we got Luke to kind of help with campaigns and everything, I don’t need to be down in the weeds. So yes, I’m helping with the partnerships, but I also, revamped all of the contracts for Brainforge.
43 00:04:23.690 ⇒ 00:04:33.359 Holly Condos: From a legal perspective, and then I, recently have been helping Rico with some of the sows, just to, you know, get a bit more robust
44 00:04:35.230 ⇒ 00:04:44.579 Holly Condos: paperwork in place, so we don’t have any, you know, questions from a customer about, well, I thought you were going to make me a green bottle, right?
45 00:04:44.870 ⇒ 00:04:52.290 Holly Condos: And so, just kind of getting some more specificity and fidelity in the statements of work.
46 00:04:52.610 ⇒ 00:04:55.820 Amber Lin: Wow, wait, are you a… are you a lawyer, Holly?
47 00:04:56.160 ⇒ 00:05:04.759 Holly Condos: I didn’t finish law school, but I’ve done contracts for, I don’t know, 20-something years.
48 00:05:04.760 ⇒ 00:05:07.339 Amber Lin: Wow, that’s so cool.
49 00:05:07.340 ⇒ 00:05:08.109 Holly Condos: And I did go…
50 00:05:08.110 ⇒ 00:05:09.800 Amber Lin: No, Rob, Robert’s…
51 00:05:10.190 ⇒ 00:05:10.590 Holly Condos: Yeah.
52 00:05:10.590 ⇒ 00:05:10.960 Amber Lin: score.
53 00:05:11.330 ⇒ 00:05:12.770 Amber Lin: Considering, though.
54 00:05:12.770 ⇒ 00:05:13.450 Holly Condos: Yeah.
55 00:05:13.580 ⇒ 00:05:24.860 Holly Condos: I, I originally wanted to do, like, commercial litigation, but when… so I worked for a couple law firms at the beginning of my career.
56 00:05:25.040 ⇒ 00:05:27.389 Holly Condos: It’s a lot of work.
57 00:05:27.510 ⇒ 00:05:35.660 Holly Condos: And I also wanted to be a mom, so I kind of chose, you know, a bit less intense work.
58 00:05:35.870 ⇒ 00:05:41.000 Holly Condos: path so that I could have two kids, which was about, right?
59 00:05:41.000 ⇒ 00:05:42.409 Amber Lin: How old are your kids?
60 00:05:42.410 ⇒ 00:05:45.360 Holly Condos: 30 and 33.
61 00:05:45.760 ⇒ 00:05:46.650 Amber Lin: Wow.
62 00:05:46.800 ⇒ 00:05:47.520 Holly Condos: Yeah.
63 00:05:47.850 ⇒ 00:05:55.240 Amber Lin: I just talked to Greg, and his kids are, 13 and 10.
64 00:05:55.240 ⇒ 00:06:00.009 Holly Condos: Yeah, I know, it’s… like, my kids are adults, right? Like, they’re…
65 00:06:00.600 ⇒ 00:06:05.699 Holly Condos: super successful, probably like most of you guys, right, at Brainforge.
66 00:06:06.420 ⇒ 00:06:07.529 Amber Lin: What do they do?
67 00:06:08.380 ⇒ 00:06:13.879 Holly Condos: So the younger one is, a surgical resident at UCLA, and he.
68 00:06:13.880 ⇒ 00:06:14.690 Amber Lin: Wow.
69 00:06:14.690 ⇒ 00:06:17.360 Holly Condos: On the path to be a transplant surgeon.
70 00:06:17.360 ⇒ 00:06:18.840 Amber Lin: That’s so exciting!
71 00:06:18.840 ⇒ 00:06:24.510 Holly Condos: Yeah, and he actually, so, I mean, you know, he’s…
72 00:06:24.730 ⇒ 00:06:34.429 Holly Condos: a doctor, but he’s also super interested in, like, coding and everything, so he just finished his PhD in bioinformatics.
73 00:06:34.710 ⇒ 00:06:47.849 Holly Condos: Which right now is kind of timely, especially in the medical field, because, you know, they’re trying to automate and scale, but they have no clue, really, how to do it. So, he’s kind of in a good spot, although…
74 00:06:48.630 ⇒ 00:07:05.849 Holly Condos: I think, you know, he’s back on the residency, in the hospital thing starting in June, so he won’t do… be doing as much coding. But yeah, he’s pretty smart. And then the other one is, he went to Northeastern, got a double E,
75 00:07:05.960 ⇒ 00:07:11.700 Holly Condos: He started his own company when he was, I don’t know, 26 or 7?
76 00:07:11.700 ⇒ 00:07:12.150 Amber Lin: Huh.
77 00:07:12.150 ⇒ 00:07:17.260 Holly Condos: And sold that, and now he works for,
78 00:07:17.710 ⇒ 00:07:25.619 Holly Condos: He works for a company that basically helps enterprises use their tax credits for green projects.
79 00:07:26.330 ⇒ 00:07:29.459 Holly Condos: So, he’s kind of like the head of product.
80 00:07:29.900 ⇒ 00:07:31.320 Holly Condos: At that startup.
81 00:07:32.030 ⇒ 00:07:33.710 Amber Lin: That’s really cool!
82 00:07:33.710 ⇒ 00:07:35.619 Holly Condos: Yeah, kind of some different stuff.
83 00:07:35.620 ⇒ 00:07:38.910 Amber Lin: Very different stuff, because one’s more, like.
84 00:07:39.220 ⇒ 00:07:44.480 Amber Lin: I want… so the… your older one does more, like, his own stuff and his own company.
85 00:07:44.480 ⇒ 00:07:44.860 Holly Condos: candy.
86 00:07:44.860 ⇒ 00:07:49.470 Amber Lin: other ones work… will be working at really big companies if he does those.
87 00:07:49.470 ⇒ 00:07:49.810 Holly Condos: Yeah.
88 00:07:49.810 ⇒ 00:07:50.530 Amber Lin: automation.
89 00:07:50.530 ⇒ 00:07:56.450 Holly Condos: Yeah, pretty much. It’s kind of funny how things go, even though they’re, you know, from the same family.
90 00:07:56.490 ⇒ 00:07:59.370 Amber Lin: I know, I think that’s why some people like to…
91 00:07:59.600 ⇒ 00:08:03.209 Amber Lin: Have kids and see their kids kind of just grow on their own path.
92 00:08:03.210 ⇒ 00:08:05.340 Holly Condos: Yeah, yeah, do you have siblings?
93 00:08:05.340 ⇒ 00:08:10.499 Amber Lin: I have a brother that’s, like, 5 years old?
94 00:08:10.500 ⇒ 00:08:11.010 Holly Condos: Okay.
95 00:08:11.010 ⇒ 00:08:16.190 Amber Lin: My siblings and, my sibling, he’s very far apart from…
96 00:08:16.790 ⇒ 00:08:18.300 Holly Condos: Yeah. Yeah.
97 00:08:18.520 ⇒ 00:08:19.070 Amber Lin: Yeah.
98 00:08:19.070 ⇒ 00:08:19.879 Holly Condos: see him much.
99 00:08:19.880 ⇒ 00:08:21.630 Amber Lin: He’s in China, so…
100 00:08:21.630 ⇒ 00:08:22.010 Holly Condos: Okay.
101 00:08:22.010 ⇒ 00:08:29.750 Amber Lin: I was born in China, and then went abroad. I went to Canada for high school, and then came here. Nice.
102 00:08:30.700 ⇒ 00:08:37.359 Amber Lin: Like, he was born when I was finishing high school, or applying for college.
103 00:08:37.850 ⇒ 00:08:44.339 Amber Lin: So, we’re very far apart, and I don’t go back too often, because it’s a hassle to fly, and now that I’m.
104 00:08:44.340 ⇒ 00:08:44.920 Holly Condos: I’m sure.
105 00:08:44.920 ⇒ 00:08:51.639 Amber Lin: kind of hard to go abroad. Yeah. So I’ve, like, I’ve seen him four, five times?
106 00:08:51.640 ⇒ 00:08:52.500 Holly Condos: Oh.
107 00:08:52.500 ⇒ 00:08:52.900 Amber Lin: Yeah.
108 00:08:52.900 ⇒ 00:08:55.299 Holly Condos: Do they come to visit? They just came.
109 00:08:55.300 ⇒ 00:08:57.419 Amber Lin: They just came to visit last year, and I think.
110 00:08:57.420 ⇒ 00:08:58.209 Holly Condos: Oh, that’s good.
111 00:08:58.210 ⇒ 00:08:59.190 Amber Lin: this year.
112 00:08:59.190 ⇒ 00:09:03.799 Holly Condos: That’s good. So do you think you’ll stay here in California?
113 00:09:03.800 ⇒ 00:09:07.280 Amber Lin: Probably not. I think…
114 00:09:07.560 ⇒ 00:09:22.170 Amber Lin: because coming to school in the States is a hassle, especially when they’re very young. Then my parents would also have to think about moving, and they’re not retired yet, so it’s… it will be very hard for them to move.
115 00:09:22.170 ⇒ 00:09:24.869 Holly Condos: Yeah. But do you think you’ll stay?
116 00:09:25.160 ⇒ 00:09:28.890 Amber Lin: I think… I think I’ll stay. Like, my partner is here, and…
117 00:09:28.890 ⇒ 00:09:29.440 Holly Condos: Young.
118 00:09:29.670 ⇒ 00:09:35.469 Amber Lin: It just makes sense to… Stay here, maybe not always in California, but we’ll see.
119 00:09:35.940 ⇒ 00:09:36.630 Amber Lin: There you go.
120 00:09:36.630 ⇒ 00:09:39.840 Holly Condos: California seems like it’s getting more and more expensive.
121 00:09:40.390 ⇒ 00:09:46.159 Amber Lin: It is. We went to Costco yesterday, and guess what we saw on the road on the gas prices?
122 00:09:47.240 ⇒ 00:09:48.270 Amber Lin: Yeah.
123 00:09:48.270 ⇒ 00:09:48.970 Holly Condos: Very mad.
124 00:09:48.970 ⇒ 00:09:55.180 Amber Lin: Yeah, it’s… yeah, I mean, but that’s all over the world, it’s just… not just California right now.
125 00:09:55.180 ⇒ 00:10:02.239 Holly Condos: No, exactly. So, are you, are you close to where Hannah lives?
126 00:10:02.670 ⇒ 00:10:06.840 Amber Lin: Yeah, actually, me, Luke, Hannah, and…
127 00:10:06.940 ⇒ 00:10:21.500 Amber Lin: Kayla all live in Culver City. Okay. Hannah’s, like, 10 minutes away, but I think we’re all 10 minutes away from each other, so we… we go to, like, a co-working space.
128 00:10:21.820 ⇒ 00:10:22.370 Holly Condos: That’s great.
129 00:10:22.370 ⇒ 00:10:23.299 Amber Lin: to time, yeah.
130 00:10:23.300 ⇒ 00:10:25.420 Holly Condos: Yeah, I’ve seen a couple of pictures.
131 00:10:25.520 ⇒ 00:10:30.569 Amber Lin: Yeah, it’s really fun, it’s really fun. And then Jasmine is in Santa Monica, so she’s also.
132 00:10:30.570 ⇒ 00:10:31.040 Holly Condos: Okay.
133 00:10:31.540 ⇒ 00:10:33.230 Holly Condos: Okay, that’s good, yeah.
134 00:10:33.230 ⇒ 00:10:33.840 Amber Lin: Yeah.
135 00:10:33.840 ⇒ 00:10:39.229 Holly Condos: telling Robert that, I would come up next time he comes out.
136 00:10:39.820 ⇒ 00:10:53.770 Holly Condos: Just, you know, to see everybody. So my son, obviously, he lived in Culver his intern year, and he went to Columbia for med school, so I was kind of, like, helping him, like, get stuff moved, and I hung out.
137 00:10:54.160 ⇒ 00:10:56.569 Holly Condos: over for, like, 3 weeks.
138 00:10:56.570 ⇒ 00:10:57.220 Amber Lin: Huh.
139 00:10:57.220 ⇒ 00:10:59.769 Holly Condos: Such a cool little, little city.
140 00:10:59.770 ⇒ 00:11:00.310 Amber Lin: Yeah.
141 00:11:00.310 ⇒ 00:11:00.750 Holly Condos: It’s very…
142 00:11:00.750 ⇒ 00:11:04.250 Amber Lin: Very walkable, very cute, a little expensive, but very cute.
143 00:11:04.460 ⇒ 00:11:09.529 Holly Condos: Yeah, I think it’s a good place. So my son got married.
144 00:11:09.910 ⇒ 00:11:12.600 Holly Condos: doctor. He got married,
145 00:11:12.950 ⇒ 00:11:23.280 Holly Condos: last year… year before last, sorry. And his wife is originally from South Korea, and then she also went to school in Canada.
146 00:11:23.470 ⇒ 00:11:24.060 Holly Condos: And then…
147 00:11:24.060 ⇒ 00:11:25.119 Amber Lin: Oh, wow.
148 00:11:25.120 ⇒ 00:11:27.729 Holly Condos: went to USC for undergrad and.
149 00:11:27.730 ⇒ 00:11:29.589 Amber Lin: That’s so… that’s so funny.
150 00:11:29.990 ⇒ 00:11:33.520 Holly Condos: Yeah, it seems like it’s a fairly common path.
151 00:11:33.520 ⇒ 00:11:42.170 Amber Lin: Maybe that’s why they… like, because I was wondering why they accepted… USC accepts a lot of international students.
152 00:11:42.170 ⇒ 00:11:43.350 Holly Condos: Yeah, yeah.
153 00:11:44.360 ⇒ 00:11:45.390 Amber Lin: So…
154 00:11:46.360 ⇒ 00:11:54.960 Amber Lin: Yeah, I do see that. I think they’re more… especially for people who had gone to, like, the North American high school, they’re more receptive to that.
155 00:11:55.170 ⇒ 00:12:02.109 Holly Condos: Yeah, it… and she has a lot of… of friends who are just, you know, even like Hannah, right? Like…
156 00:12:02.780 ⇒ 00:12:05.149 Holly Condos: just people from Asia.
157 00:12:05.380 ⇒ 00:12:11.559 Holly Condos: are in LA, which I think is great, because, you know, that’s part of what America’s about, is mixing.
158 00:12:13.200 ⇒ 00:12:19.099 Holly Condos: So, so my son and his wife lived in Santa Monica first.
159 00:12:19.350 ⇒ 00:12:25.649 Holly Condos: Okay. And they were, like, on, like, Pico and the 10?
160 00:12:26.830 ⇒ 00:12:31.229 Amber Lin: I think I know where it is, but I don’t drive, but I have no clue.
161 00:12:31.550 ⇒ 00:12:33.779 Holly Condos: Like, you know where the Whole Foods is in Santa?
162 00:12:33.780 ⇒ 00:12:35.009 Amber Lin: Oh, okay, okay.
163 00:12:35.010 ⇒ 00:12:38.249 Holly Condos: Pretty close to that, like, a couple blocks from there.
164 00:12:38.440 ⇒ 00:12:39.759 Amber Lin: What’s the best part?
165 00:12:40.100 ⇒ 00:12:48.689 Holly Condos: It was a cute house, but, like, my son’s, car was vandalized, they had, like, graffiti sprayed on their garage door.
166 00:12:48.690 ⇒ 00:12:49.290 Amber Lin: True.
167 00:12:49.440 ⇒ 00:12:59.619 Holly Condos: And they have a dog, so they were kind of worried, like, you know, what happened if they were both at the hospital, and he was out, or something. So they ended up moving to Beverly Hills, and…
168 00:12:59.620 ⇒ 00:13:00.230 Amber Lin: Oh.
169 00:13:00.230 ⇒ 00:13:02.540 Holly Condos: It’s so cute there. Have you been…
170 00:13:02.540 ⇒ 00:13:07.970 Amber Lin: I’ve been, I’ve been from time to time. Yeah. It’s a nice spot to hang out.
171 00:13:08.330 ⇒ 00:13:09.190 Holly Condos: Yeah.
172 00:13:09.300 ⇒ 00:13:15.359 Holly Condos: I could see, though, how Culver is probably the more attractive spot, just because.
173 00:13:15.360 ⇒ 00:13:15.830 Amber Lin: Huh.
174 00:13:15.830 ⇒ 00:13:19.960 Holly Condos: That is walkable, and it has everything you need, right?
175 00:13:19.960 ⇒ 00:13:20.340 Amber Lin: Yeah.
176 00:13:20.340 ⇒ 00:13:21.640 Holly Condos: stores.
177 00:13:22.250 ⇒ 00:13:23.170 Holly Condos: Yeah.
178 00:13:23.380 ⇒ 00:13:35.300 Amber Lin: Yeah. Wait, I was very curious of, like, when you say you’re doing strategy on partnerships, what does that exactly look like? I’ve never really touched upon the marketing stuff, so I was very curious.
179 00:13:35.850 ⇒ 00:13:41.230 Holly Condos: Sure. So, for a company like Brainforge, being a startup.
180 00:13:41.400 ⇒ 00:13:48.400 Holly Condos: The decision points are, okay, do we partner with other like
181 00:13:49.180 ⇒ 00:13:53.389 Holly Condos: Minded and likes situated companies, and then share work.
182 00:13:53.620 ⇒ 00:13:57.920 Holly Condos: Do we put effort into,
183 00:13:58.430 ⇒ 00:14:04.249 Holly Condos: engaging with the hyperscalers, like Snowflake, AWS, Google.
184 00:14:04.250 ⇒ 00:14:04.620 Amber Lin: Mmm.
185 00:14:04.620 ⇒ 00:14:11.239 Holly Condos: Microsoft, right? Because there’s a whole long path
186 00:14:11.410 ⇒ 00:14:25.769 Holly Condos: to be a partner with the big guys, right? So you gotta have certifications, you have to drive so much business, you have to go to events and conferences. It’s a lot of investment, people, and time-wise.
187 00:14:26.150 ⇒ 00:14:32.039 Holly Condos: And so the decision point is, okay, where is the best bang for our buck as a company?
188 00:14:32.040 ⇒ 00:14:32.730 Amber Lin: Oh…
189 00:14:32.730 ⇒ 00:14:46.259 Holly Condos: how much effort do we exert, you know, putting together campaigns? Like, like, I started things off with, Talisma, which I think Luke and Hannah are working on the event now.
190 00:14:46.360 ⇒ 00:15:04.070 Holly Condos: But TeLismo was a little bit slow to get going. They, I think they were originally based or started in India, and then they, expanded to the U.S. So, we’re working with their U.S. arm, if you will.
191 00:15:04.670 ⇒ 00:15:14.969 Holly Condos: And they do, they do, like, data integration and optimization of the…
192 00:15:15.150 ⇒ 00:15:18.419 Holly Condos: architect… the cloud architecture, but… Okay.
193 00:15:19.030 ⇒ 00:15:33.550 Holly Condos: But they’re not necessarily, BI-oriented, so it’s a good dovetail with us, right? But their customer base is, like, higher educat… like, universities.
194 00:15:33.890 ⇒ 00:15:43.069 Holly Condos: Hospitals, insurance companies, right, which also is a… A little bit different.
195 00:15:45.210 ⇒ 00:15:50.679 Holly Condos: Different energy thing, but just, like, figuring out, okay, what is our common message?
196 00:15:50.910 ⇒ 00:15:56.820 Holly Condos: What is our bang for the buck for the customer? So that took some time.
197 00:15:58.490 ⇒ 00:16:07.659 Amber Lin: And do you also, like, negotiate, say, how a contract gets split of who in… if somebody introduces a client, like, how we design?
198 00:16:07.660 ⇒ 00:16:11.100 Holly Condos: You know, Robert was like, okay, do we really want to put our effort into this?
199 00:16:11.300 ⇒ 00:16:20.880 Holly Condos: Exactly, exactly. And they actually did give us, a referral to a customer. I should have actually asked U-Tam about where we’re at with that, but…
200 00:16:21.120 ⇒ 00:16:31.899 Holly Condos: But then, Utam and Robert also, with my, you know, with my input, decided, okay, let’s also put a lot of effort
201 00:16:35.580 ⇒ 00:16:42.000 Holly Condos: effort and energy into developing came on to that decision was, that…
202 00:16:42.110 ⇒ 00:16:50.350 Holly Condos: a lot of Brainforge customers are already using Snowflake in some capacity, right? So it’s almost like…
203 00:16:50.570 ⇒ 00:16:53.490 Holly Condos: no-brainer. We don’t have to sell it.
204 00:16:54.320 ⇒ 00:17:01.750 Holly Condos: To our customers, per se, as far as… And the lift…
205 00:17:01.940 ⇒ 00:17:08.660 Holly Condos: as a partner is not as heavy as it is with AWS or Google, so…
206 00:17:08.900 ⇒ 00:17:14.810 Holly Condos: we’re working on that, but what I’m trying to help Utam and Robert with understanding is…
207 00:17:14.910 ⇒ 00:17:19.009 Holly Condos: That there are thousands of brain forges in the world, from
208 00:17:19.050 ⇒ 00:17:35.940 Holly Condos: the perspective of small, or startup, or mid-market companies, right, who want to partner with Snowflake. Yeah. And so, you have to, as that startup, you have to figure out what your differentiators are, like, why are you special? Why are you…
209 00:17:36.100 ⇒ 00:17:45.239 Holly Condos: you know, what bells and whistles do you have that are different than the next guy? And you have to sell that, and you have to be in front of the reps
210 00:17:45.760 ⇒ 00:17:57.830 Holly Condos: to get their attention. So, it’s kind of a different motion with the enterprise, or the hyperscalers, than it is with, like, a Teleisma, or an Omni even, right?
211 00:17:57.830 ⇒ 00:17:58.540 Amber Lin: Wow.
212 00:17:58.540 ⇒ 00:18:00.310 Holly Condos: So, I don’t know if that helps, but…
213 00:18:00.310 ⇒ 00:18:05.270 Amber Lin: Yeah, that’s so interesting. I really do see more of the strategy part right now.
214 00:18:05.270 ⇒ 00:18:05.670 Holly Condos: Okay.
215 00:18:05.670 ⇒ 00:18:12.700 Amber Lin: you gotta… Because strategy is, essentially, you weigh what you want and what you can’t have.
216 00:18:12.700 ⇒ 00:18:14.870 Holly Condos: Well, yeah, yeah, exactly.
217 00:18:14.870 ⇒ 00:18:15.659 Amber Lin: That’s really cool.
218 00:18:15.660 ⇒ 00:18:21.600 Holly Condos: You know, we’re trying to be lean and mean, and not necessarily… Add…
219 00:18:22.120 ⇒ 00:18:28.220 Holly Condos: headcount, if you will. We’re trying to figure out, okay, how do we do this most efficiently? And part of…
220 00:18:28.410 ⇒ 00:18:34.270 Holly Condos: The whole push at the beginning of this year, you know, to get things automated, to…
221 00:18:34.860 ⇒ 00:18:44.180 Holly Condos: really utilized HubSpot for our sales motion. Just the parts and pieces that have come together that I think the team is…
222 00:18:44.600 ⇒ 00:18:48.460 Holly Condos: seeing. A lot of that helps us
223 00:18:48.590 ⇒ 00:18:58.100 Holly Condos: Not spend time on some of the admin tasks, and so that we can put our energy to doing what we need to on the partner side or the other go-to-market ends.
224 00:18:58.430 ⇒ 00:19:08.449 Holly Condos: And ultimately, right, we’re all here for the same goal, like, we’re trying to help customers, we’re trying to drive business, so…
225 00:19:08.670 ⇒ 00:19:23.270 Holly Condos: we’re all in that boat together, it’s just how the different functions can collaborate to get that done. So, that’s kind of what I’m just trying to help with. I have my own business, so I do a lot of different kinds of.
226 00:19:24.050 ⇒ 00:19:27.860 Holly Condos: Work… operational workflow things for different customers?
227 00:19:27.860 ⇒ 00:19:29.290 Amber Lin: Oh, I see.
228 00:19:29.290 ⇒ 00:19:38.349 Holly Condos: But I think, you know, Brainforge has… like I said, when I first met Utam, they were really just getting started. It was just the two of them.
229 00:19:38.670 ⇒ 00:19:39.030 Amber Lin: Wow.
230 00:19:39.030 ⇒ 00:19:48.420 Holly Condos: And, so I’m really proud of them, right? And proud of you guys, because you’ve really grown, and the whole company is just really…
231 00:19:48.960 ⇒ 00:19:52.839 Holly Condos: catching on, and I think, you know, it’s on a good path.
232 00:19:53.100 ⇒ 00:19:54.320 Amber Lin: Yeah, I agree.
233 00:19:54.770 ⇒ 00:20:00.060 Holly Condos: And we’ll see how things go, right? Like, just… just as,
234 00:20:00.310 ⇒ 00:20:09.459 Holly Condos: maybe by Q3 or Q4, we’ll say, okay, we tried Snowflake, we haven’t really gotten a lot of traction, we only got, you know.
235 00:20:09.500 ⇒ 00:20:24.669 Holly Condos: two new clients, then maybe we decide, okay, let’s pivot from them and do something different. But we kind of have to see how it goes. I’ve also said to the guys that, you know, you gotta give it some time. It doesn’t happen overnight, especially with the big.
236 00:20:25.150 ⇒ 00:20:32.460 Holly Condos: companies, you gotta develop the relationships, and like I said, you have to show the reps why they should use you.
237 00:20:32.780 ⇒ 00:20:37.459 Holly Condos: So, it’s, it’s, it’s a challenge, but I think, I think we’re doing good.
238 00:20:37.950 ⇒ 00:20:48.169 Amber Lin: That’s so interesting. You mentioned we’re going lean. I mean, why do we want less partners? Isn’t it always good if somebody brings you business?
239 00:20:48.960 ⇒ 00:21:01.529 Holly Condos: Well, this is, that’s a great question, and I think that even within ourselves, like me and Utam and Robert, we’re not necessarily
240 00:21:01.640 ⇒ 00:21:06.590 Holly Condos: in sync every month, okay?
241 00:21:06.590 ⇒ 00:21:07.480 Amber Lin: Oh, really?
242 00:21:07.480 ⇒ 00:21:19.839 Holly Condos: So I would say… and it’s not a bad thing, right? It’s just… it’s just kind of a difference of opinion. I would say that, yeah, you know, you want… you want to…
243 00:21:20.220 ⇒ 00:21:25.269 Holly Condos: You want to build your partner ecosystem.
244 00:21:25.590 ⇒ 00:21:31.709 Holly Condos: And that might mean that you have 10 partners, but you’re also working on the snowflakes, right?
245 00:21:32.560 ⇒ 00:21:33.300 Holly Condos: But
246 00:21:34.070 ⇒ 00:21:49.999 Holly Condos: and I understand where Robert’s coming from. We only have so much time and effort to put into developing the partnerships, right? I mean, our main goal is generating business and then serving our customers and doing service delivery. So…
247 00:21:50.410 ⇒ 00:21:55.079 Holly Condos: From a revenue, or from a, overhead perspective.
248 00:21:56.210 ⇒ 00:22:14.729 Holly Condos: and this is, again, what we talked about probably, maybe in February. Like, do we want to have 10 customer… or 10 partners, and try to figure out how we’re generating things with 10, or should we pair it back to 5? Or 6, right? And so, to your question.
249 00:22:14.890 ⇒ 00:22:32.969 Holly Condos: sometimes less is more, because of the journey that you need to go on with a partner. Like, it takes time to develop, right? So, like the Teleisma example, it was a little bit slow going, but the relationship is very strong, and…
250 00:22:33.100 ⇒ 00:22:42.290 Holly Condos: you know, we’re gonna do an event with them, and I think it’ll be good, and they’ve referred us at least one customer. It may be that it’s two or three by, you know, the summer.
251 00:22:42.740 ⇒ 00:22:47.180 Holly Condos: But that takes time, right? So…
252 00:22:47.540 ⇒ 00:23:03.620 Holly Condos: again, that… it’s… it’s… and I think it’s an evolving and shifting kind of, analysis, because you’ve got to see how things are doing. And Robert and Newtown are really good at that. You know, they’re really good at assessing, okay, is this working?
253 00:23:03.950 ⇒ 00:23:07.199 Holly Condos: it’s not working. What should we do differently? Or.
254 00:23:07.580 ⇒ 00:23:23.650 Holly Condos: kind of working, like, you know, how do we make it faster, better? How do we scale? They’re really good at that, and that’s why I think that… I didn’t mean to suggest that there’s any issue with us, there isn’t. It’s just that we’re…
255 00:23:23.870 ⇒ 00:23:37.939 Holly Condos: you know, we’re shifting from a partner perspective about how many we want to try to develop, and what we’re doing with them. And I think, where we’re at right now is good.
256 00:23:38.120 ⇒ 00:23:42.460 Holly Condos: And, like, by June, we’ll reassess and see where we’re at.
257 00:23:42.600 ⇒ 00:23:46.860 Holly Condos: You know, again, like… Take… take a pulse point on.
258 00:23:47.400 ⇒ 00:23:53.080 Holly Condos: we put this much time and effort into these 5 partners, what has it yielded for us, right?
259 00:23:53.080 ⇒ 00:23:53.450 Amber Lin: Huh.
260 00:23:53.450 ⇒ 00:23:55.410 Holly Condos: been,
261 00:23:55.690 ⇒ 00:24:02.199 Holly Condos: what’s the percentage of new business that we’ve derived, right? Because you kind of got to look at it that way.
262 00:24:03.090 ⇒ 00:24:11.289 Holly Condos: So, I’m with you. You know, I’m a very, meet and greet, let’s develop a collaboration type.
263 00:24:11.790 ⇒ 00:24:17.500 Holly Condos: But, by the same token, you gotta take it into account what…
264 00:24:17.970 ⇒ 00:24:23.349 Holly Condos: Is involved from a resource perspective to make those relationships happen, and…
265 00:24:23.470 ⇒ 00:24:30.300 Holly Condos: like I said, just to reiterate, Utam and Robert are really good at it. So, I think it’s all on a really good path.
266 00:24:30.640 ⇒ 00:24:35.539 Holly Condos: But at the end of the day, you know, we want to have
267 00:24:35.950 ⇒ 00:24:52.530 Holly Condos: probably 4 to 5 really strong partners that it almost becomes seamless with, so that, you know, we’re not spending as much time as we do in the rev up and the relationship creation, because we will have established things. So, that’s the goal.
268 00:24:52.530 ⇒ 00:24:53.150 Amber Lin: Si.
269 00:24:53.750 ⇒ 00:25:01.729 Amber Lin: Well, that’s… that’s really cool insight that you shared. I mean, I… I’ve never really looked into the partnership stuff, but, like, that’s a…
270 00:25:01.990 ⇒ 00:25:05.899 Amber Lin: piece of the company that I’m hearing for the first time, so thank you for.
271 00:25:05.900 ⇒ 00:25:09.379 Holly Condos: Good. I’m glad. I mean, I guess, to me, it’s…
272 00:25:09.510 ⇒ 00:25:15.070 Holly Condos: maybe boring, but, I’m glad that it’s interesting for you, so that’s good.
273 00:25:16.210 ⇒ 00:25:28.190 Amber Lin: All right, any… do you have any questions for me? We’re almost at time, so if you want… if you want, we can end it here, and when you drive up, or when I go down to SD, we can meet again.
274 00:25:28.190 ⇒ 00:25:42.509 Holly Condos: That would be great, yeah, let me know about your dates, and I’ll do the same. My son is gonna come to visit, at the end of this month here, but I’ll probably be up there, like, in May. Okay. So…
275 00:25:42.510 ⇒ 00:25:50.789 Holly Condos: yeah, let me know about you and your partner’s plans, and we can at least meet for coffee here, and then I’ll come up there as well.
276 00:25:51.050 ⇒ 00:25:52.390 Amber Lin: Awesome. Great to meet you.
277 00:25:52.390 ⇒ 00:25:53.449 Holly Condos: you in a…
278 00:25:53.450 ⇒ 00:25:54.960 Amber Lin: Nice to meet you, thanks for the talk.
279 00:25:54.960 ⇒ 00:25:57.220 Holly Condos: to keep working with you guys, and…
280 00:25:57.400 ⇒ 00:26:00.139 Holly Condos: I think you’re all doing a great job, so…
281 00:26:00.600 ⇒ 00:26:02.410 Holly Condos: Keep, keep doing what you’re doing.
282 00:26:02.570 ⇒ 00:26:05.299 Amber Lin: I’m glad to hear that. Alrighty.
283 00:26:05.300 ⇒ 00:26:06.320 Holly Condos: Have a good weekend!
284 00:26:06.320 ⇒ 00:26:08.370 Amber Lin: Yeah, have a good week. Bye!
285 00:26:08.560 ⇒ 00:26:09.390 Holly Condos: Bye-bye.