Meeting Title: Kaela <> Uttam Weekly Sync Date: 2026-03-24 Meeting participants: Kaela Gallagher, Uttam Kumaran, Robert Tseng
WEBVTT
1 00:02:19.580 ⇒ 00:02:20.830 Uttam Kumaran: Hello?
2 00:02:25.490 ⇒ 00:02:26.260 Kaela Gallagher: Hey.
3 00:02:26.660 ⇒ 00:02:27.860 Kaela Gallagher: How’s it going?
4 00:02:28.510 ⇒ 00:02:29.840 Uttam Kumaran: Good, how are you?
5 00:02:30.050 ⇒ 00:02:31.230 Kaela Gallagher: Good.
6 00:02:31.980 ⇒ 00:02:34.130 Kaela Gallagher: Muhammad went well.
7 00:02:34.990 ⇒ 00:02:37.609 Uttam Kumaran: Well, well, yeah, I mean, I think,
8 00:02:37.740 ⇒ 00:02:44.350 Uttam Kumaran: I’m wondering what Sam said, but in terms of, like, presentation, and he had his depth, I think he’s the best AI candidate we’ve…
9 00:02:44.970 ⇒ 00:02:46.590 Uttam Kumaran: Sort of talked to so far.
10 00:02:46.750 ⇒ 00:02:50.699 Uttam Kumaran: I mean, sometimes it’s hard with the AI people, because,
11 00:02:51.050 ⇒ 00:02:52.910 Uttam Kumaran: they all use AI for stuff.
12 00:02:53.080 ⇒ 00:02:59.059 Uttam Kumaran: So you don’t really… It’s hard to tell, like, if they’re, like…
13 00:02:59.520 ⇒ 00:03:03.549 Uttam Kumaran: They have a cursory understanding of the system.
14 00:03:03.800 ⇒ 00:03:09.679 Uttam Kumaran: And, or they actually just, like, really know it in depth, and they, like, just use data to, like, get through it all.
15 00:03:11.050 ⇒ 00:03:16.160 Uttam Kumaran: So, I feel like… I feel like he was, more of the second, like, I think he actually knows all the details.
16 00:03:16.390 ⇒ 00:03:20.520 Uttam Kumaran: But it’s just interesting interviewing AI candidates, because you’re like.
17 00:03:20.660 ⇒ 00:03:24.840 Uttam Kumaran: I mean, I kind of expect… I don’t want the answer to be, I didn’t use AI to do this.
18 00:03:25.390 ⇒ 00:03:32.539 Uttam Kumaran: But I also, like, you can… I want you to have, like, a basic understanding of everything, so it’s kind of interesting.
19 00:03:32.810 ⇒ 00:03:38.630 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah, okay, well, I’m glad to hear that. I don’t know if you saw my comment, but he was one that I, like.
20 00:03:38.630 ⇒ 00:03:54.399 Kaela Gallagher: recruited, targeted, and brought him into the process, so I’m glad to hear that he did well. He also works for, like, a similar organization to ours. That, like, list of competitors that you sent me, I used that to target people at those competitors, so…
21 00:03:54.400 ⇒ 00:03:55.480 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, nice!
22 00:03:55.480 ⇒ 00:03:59.360 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah, so, okay, cool. That’s exciting.
23 00:03:59.360 ⇒ 00:04:02.429 Uttam Kumaran: I should send that to Jarrell, actually, that list, too.
24 00:04:02.430 ⇒ 00:04:03.360 Kaela Gallagher: Oh, yeah.
25 00:04:03.360 ⇒ 00:04:05.159 Uttam Kumaran: I… I have this, like.
26 00:04:05.540 ⇒ 00:04:10.070 Uttam Kumaran: It’s a good list of, like, people that I, you know, I used to sort of keep in touch… keep tabs on, so…
27 00:04:10.320 ⇒ 00:04:10.850 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah.
28 00:04:10.850 ⇒ 00:04:11.520 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
29 00:04:11.640 ⇒ 00:04:18.950 Kaela Gallagher: met with him. He… I’m, like, pumped to… to work with him moving forward.
30 00:04:20.339 ⇒ 00:04:27.969 Kaela Gallagher: I guess… so I have a few things for you guys, just, like, talent planning related.
31 00:04:27.969 ⇒ 00:04:40.639 Kaela Gallagher: Just to make sure we’re aligned moving forward. So, the initial four roles we had discussed was a data engineer, analytics engineer, an AI engineer, and a, like, senior strategy person.
32 00:04:42.289 ⇒ 00:04:54.129 Kaela Gallagher: So, obviously, we did, like, 3 AI final rounds. I think we like Muhammad the best. We could go ahead and extend him an offer and onboard pretty quickly.
33 00:04:54.129 ⇒ 00:05:04.399 Kaela Gallagher: In terms of data engineers, our pipeline right now looks pretty good. You guys had two finals and decided that you liked, I think it was Godwin better?
34 00:05:04.409 ⇒ 00:05:18.959 Kaela Gallagher: Or, sorry, Gilbert better, but we do have one more data engineer right now, like, in the pipeline that I had targeted, in first rounds, so those are kind of our options there.
35 00:05:19.319 ⇒ 00:05:28.159 Kaela Gallagher: In terms of analytics engineer, that one, we only have one person right now in first rounds.
36 00:05:28.289 ⇒ 00:05:37.799 Kaela Gallagher: So, if we still want to fill that role, I’ll probably do some more, like, targeted recruiting there, once I get into Sales Nav.
37 00:05:38.029 ⇒ 00:05:44.449 Kaela Gallagher: And then we have a lot of strategy people in the pipeline right now, with very different skill sets.
38 00:05:44.619 ⇒ 00:05:59.969 Kaela Gallagher: Obviously, we have, like, Garrett and Jonathan that we’re, looking at, but we have Harakesh, who I think you both met with, previously, like, Deloitte background. We have Allison that was referred through Robert, who’s, like.
39 00:06:00.269 ⇒ 00:06:12.649 Kaela Gallagher: could be a great product analytics CSO, or, like, a product analyst is an expert in amplitude, so that might be relevant, and then we have Jasmine’s referrals, so we have a lot going on there, so…
40 00:06:13.119 ⇒ 00:06:22.629 Kaela Gallagher: just curious if four roles, those four roles are still all needs, and like, I guess especially on the strategy side, like, what’s most important to us?
41 00:06:23.150 ⇒ 00:06:28.359 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I think I… I chatted with Robert briefly. I think there’s, like, two things. I think one…
42 00:06:28.460 ⇒ 00:06:44.060 Uttam Kumaran: your message about, like, continue to level up who we get, I think would be… would be great. Like, I think you said some things about grit, and, like, I think those things are great. I think there’s almost, like, two things I want to share. I think one is we…
43 00:06:44.500 ⇒ 00:06:51.750 Uttam Kumaran: are… We continue to need like, CSOs, and we continue to need strong
44 00:06:51.890 ⇒ 00:07:03.590 Uttam Kumaran: mid-level people that we can map to either CSO or an SL in their career. And so I think that’s an additional filter that I don’t think I, like, said before really well.
45 00:07:03.970 ⇒ 00:07:20.130 Uttam Kumaran: So, one is, like, I think we have a good amount of people that are gonna lead services. Each of them is gonna need at least, like, one person on their team. So if you think about it, like, Demolade is leading, like, analytics engineering. Awish has Ashwini on his team,
46 00:07:20.620 ⇒ 00:07:39.300 Uttam Kumaran: Jasmine as the strategy folks right now. Zoron doesn’t have anyone either, so I do want to make sure that each of those people at least have, like, one person on their team. So I think this sort of starts to round that out. We haven’t talked to Zoran much about what he needs on the MarTech side.
47 00:07:39.920 ⇒ 00:07:45.219 Uttam Kumaran: So that’s probably… that’s just something we should do. I think… but the other piece is really, like.
48 00:07:45.440 ⇒ 00:07:49.649 Uttam Kumaran: I want to make sure we are, for the CSOs, we’re bringing people that
49 00:07:51.570 ⇒ 00:08:09.330 Uttam Kumaran: I guess one… one thing that we’re starting to look at is, like, how our CSOs are gonna evolve longer term to become more account managers. And I think you’re gonna see and actually, like, be able to sell net new business into clients. So what you’re gonna see is that, like, I think Greg and Pranav…
50 00:08:09.720 ⇒ 00:08:19.390 Uttam Kumaran: are going to change, like, you’re gonna see their day-to-day and their kind of behaviors change, to actually get… become a lot less, like, technical, but a lot more of, like, account management.
51 00:08:19.460 ⇒ 00:08:30.420 Uttam Kumaran: And so, I think that role is also something that we want to see whether we can hire people into. So one of my asks was going to be, like, if we think we can just define…
52 00:08:31.810 ⇒ 00:08:38.980 Uttam Kumaran: like, the CSO role broadly, and start to hire into that. I know something before, I was like, these are internal roles.
53 00:08:39.970 ⇒ 00:08:43.869 Uttam Kumaran: you know, do they have an external sort of counterpart? But I think…
54 00:08:44.330 ⇒ 00:08:47.659 Uttam Kumaran: I feel pretty confident that this is gonna be the structure
55 00:08:47.890 ⇒ 00:09:03.010 Uttam Kumaran: And that smart technical people are gonna be able to fit into service leads, or they need to show a path towards ramping into that. And then, everybody else, I want to try and see as much of the fact that they can go into CSO as possible.
56 00:09:03.120 ⇒ 00:09:03.680 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
57 00:09:03.980 ⇒ 00:09:07.079 Kaela Gallagher: So that means that people that we’re hiring on
58 00:09:07.250 ⇒ 00:09:19.320 Kaela Gallagher: the strategy side, for example, should be able to move into that CSO role, like, should show capability for it. I think so. So, for example, like, Allison Robert, who was referred through you.
59 00:09:19.950 ⇒ 00:09:36.309 Kaela Gallagher: I, like, when I filtered her through, did a Brainforge chat, like, I labeled her with a product analytics title, but also a CSO title, and, like, left notes, like, we should evaluate for CSO, and that’s kind of how Amber conducted the first interview, is to, like.
60 00:09:36.540 ⇒ 00:09:38.690 Kaela Gallagher: filter for those skills, I guess?
61 00:09:39.380 ⇒ 00:09:43.389 Kaela Gallagher: But I can come up with maybe more of, like, a structured…
62 00:09:44.250 ⇒ 00:09:48.699 Kaela Gallagher: JD, so people have more of an expectation of, like, what that would look like.
63 00:09:48.970 ⇒ 00:09:56.810 Kaela Gallagher: But then you’re saying, on, like, the engineering side, all of our technical talent should show ability to move into an SL role.
64 00:09:58.930 ⇒ 00:09:59.540 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
65 00:10:00.300 ⇒ 00:10:04.440 Uttam Kumaran: And I think, like, for example, some services now are pretty broad.
66 00:10:04.650 ⇒ 00:10:13.010 Uttam Kumaran: Where there’s individual service lines within them that we’ll kind of craft out. But I guess more to say is that a lot of engineers are gonna want to go
67 00:10:13.680 ⇒ 00:10:17.469 Uttam Kumaran: So, towards service lead, it’s the easier path.
68 00:10:17.750 ⇒ 00:10:20.209 Uttam Kumaran: Like, with the more complementary skill set.
69 00:10:20.690 ⇒ 00:10:25.980 Uttam Kumaran: So, for anybody that doesn’t, they need to have a really clear path to going towards account management.
70 00:10:26.310 ⇒ 00:10:28.400 Uttam Kumaran: And going towards, like, owning a client.
71 00:10:29.080 ⇒ 00:10:39.170 Uttam Kumaran: So that’s where I would say, like, if the people we’re interviewing on the strategy side are, like, more analysts, I think there’s still room for that, but if you were to… if you were to… in a tie-break situation.
72 00:10:39.580 ⇒ 00:10:45.989 Uttam Kumaran: I would try to go for the person that has a path towards, like, owning an account and becoming an account manager versus someone that’s just…
73 00:10:46.110 ⇒ 00:10:49.110 Uttam Kumaran: a great… Data analyst, you know?
74 00:10:49.600 ⇒ 00:10:50.320 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah.
75 00:10:50.470 ⇒ 00:10:53.030 Kaela Gallagher: That’s fair. That’s what I was kind of like…
76 00:10:54.110 ⇒ 00:11:02.529 Kaela Gallagher: concerned about maybe with Jasmine’s referrals, too, is that they all look like analysts. Of course, I’m gonna talk to each of them and, you know…
77 00:11:02.900 ⇒ 00:11:09.169 Kaela Gallagher: C, but… Yeah, it seems like we’re not hiring for a role like that right now.
78 00:11:10.450 ⇒ 00:11:12.339 Kaela Gallagher: Just a straight analyst.
79 00:11:12.340 ⇒ 00:11:27.959 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I mean, I think… so, as far as, like, the whole SL thing, so I think that’s great from the delivery side. I’ll give you the sales perspective. I… I owe Jarrell some, like, accounts, because he was like, who are the SLs right now? Like, what… like, what are they…
80 00:11:28.090 ⇒ 00:11:32.419 Robert Tseng: like, what are they, like, the subject matter expert on? And, like, we’ve…
81 00:11:32.710 ⇒ 00:11:51.489 Robert Tseng: like, I think for some people, it’s easier to articulate than others, and so it requires us kind of, like, refreshing, like, our service. We have a services catalog, and I need to, like, map that to the SLs, and, like, I have, like, a… I feel like I know what I need to build there, but I’m not gonna get it done until Thursday. So hopefully that’ll assist in, like.
82 00:11:51.750 ⇒ 00:11:58.079 Robert Tseng: Basically, like, when you’re filtering candidates, and
83 00:11:58.170 ⇒ 00:12:16.999 Robert Tseng: you know, we’re not looking for all-around engineers, like, they need to be, like, a specialty in something, is basically what it is. And, like, it’ll be… if you could map them to, like, one of those service lines, I think that would probably help. Like, filter for the SL qualification.
84 00:12:17.240 ⇒ 00:12:32.590 Robert Tseng: And then for the CSO side, on the account management, I… yeah, on… so on the… on Jasmine’s side, yeah, I’ve looked through their… I looked through their LinkedIn backgrounds, they have purely in-house roles, like, I’ve only really worked in, like, team settings, like, maybe, yeah, like…
85 00:12:32.780 ⇒ 00:12:47.929 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I think that’s… that’s an interesting kind of, background, like, maybe they’re effective if they work in a team under Jasmine. Like, maybe… but, like, maybe they’re not, like… but then there’s, like, another referral that I sent you. I mean, you’ll talk to them eventually, but,
86 00:12:48.160 ⇒ 00:12:57.729 Robert Tseng: he’s, like, a data… data science guy, but, like, was formerly at EY Parthen or whatever, like, consulting background turned data person. That’s interesting to me, feels like that could.
87 00:12:57.730 ⇒ 00:12:58.130 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah.
88 00:12:58.130 ⇒ 00:13:00.560 Robert Tseng: a better background for a CSO analyst.
89 00:13:00.560 ⇒ 00:13:00.960 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah.
90 00:13:00.960 ⇒ 00:13:14.260 Robert Tseng: even though they’re both analysts now, but, like, just, like, looking at their career trajectories, like, one was a consultant before, one was, like, not, and so I don’t know, like, maybe… I guess I don’t want to prescribe too much, like, what that journey should look like, but…
91 00:13:14.260 ⇒ 00:13:14.680 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah.
92 00:13:14.680 ⇒ 00:13:19.519 Robert Tseng: We can think about what questions we need to ask to kind of filter that at the beginning.
93 00:13:19.910 ⇒ 00:13:21.120 Kaela Gallagher: Okay. Okay.
94 00:13:21.120 ⇒ 00:13:23.690 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I think put another way is, like,
95 00:13:26.830 ⇒ 00:13:33.150 Uttam Kumaran: like, I think we’re gonna reach a lot of tiebreaks with some people. We’re getting a lot of great candidates, which is kudos.
96 00:13:33.400 ⇒ 00:13:35.120 Uttam Kumaran: And a lot of them are making it.
97 00:13:35.330 ⇒ 00:13:40.800 Uttam Kumaran: So, my immediate take is, like, We need another filter.
98 00:13:41.200 ⇒ 00:13:46.300 Uttam Kumaran: Like, I think because our traditional filter right now is, like, are they good at the engineering that they do?
99 00:13:46.520 ⇒ 00:13:52.389 Uttam Kumaran: And then we’re getting to the end and saying, okay, do they… can they map to CSOSL, or are they just an engineer?
100 00:13:52.800 ⇒ 00:14:05.150 Uttam Kumaran: again, for everybody that’s through the door, through the door. But one thing I want to try and see is whether up front we can DQ or queue people because they fit towards,
101 00:14:06.260 ⇒ 00:14:10.040 Uttam Kumaran: they fit towards a CSO. Ultimately.
102 00:14:10.920 ⇒ 00:14:17.710 Uttam Kumaran: The leaders and the people that we want on the delivery team are people that can go manage a client and expand.
103 00:14:17.980 ⇒ 00:14:18.430 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah.
104 00:14:18.430 ⇒ 00:14:24.049 Uttam Kumaran: Or they have, like, they’re super, super opinionated about the way a service gets executed and service excellence.
105 00:14:24.170 ⇒ 00:14:26.409 Uttam Kumaran: So hopefully that starts to…
106 00:14:26.920 ⇒ 00:14:32.200 Uttam Kumaran: remove some of the middle ground of people that are just good, because I actually think… I think…
107 00:14:32.350 ⇒ 00:14:34.010 Uttam Kumaran: We’re getting plenty of that.
108 00:14:34.610 ⇒ 00:14:35.080 Kaela Gallagher: I think.
109 00:14:35.080 ⇒ 00:14:38.890 Uttam Kumaran: What’s tough that we’re finding is, like, okay, can this person, like, run an account?
110 00:14:40.010 ⇒ 00:14:40.410 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah.
111 00:14:40.410 ⇒ 00:14:44.659 Uttam Kumaran: even a small one, like, do they… do we see that they have that?
112 00:14:44.910 ⇒ 00:14:53.490 Uttam Kumaran: You know, or do we see that this person is, like, really obsessed with one technical service versus just being, like, I can do anything?
113 00:14:53.720 ⇒ 00:14:56.020 Uttam Kumaran: In a given field, you know?
114 00:14:56.420 ⇒ 00:15:00.549 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, okay, that makes sense. I just wanted to make sure, like, all
115 00:15:00.630 ⇒ 00:15:12.519 Kaela Gallagher: four of those openings we discussed previously, like, we’re still willing to extend offers on soon. I think the trickiest part for us is going to be maybe the strategy side.
116 00:15:12.520 ⇒ 00:15:22.019 Kaela Gallagher: Of things, but I like that we’ve all been, like, especially in the Garrett and, like, Jonathan situation, just kind of going back and forth on ideas and such, so…
117 00:15:22.040 ⇒ 00:15:23.679 Kaela Gallagher: Okay.
118 00:15:23.770 ⇒ 00:15:25.620 Kaela Gallagher: Cool. And then…
119 00:15:25.620 ⇒ 00:15:29.940 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, that’s a great, like, that’s a great example of, I was like, okay.
120 00:15:30.360 ⇒ 00:15:42.460 Uttam Kumaran: Can… there’s… we were thinking about this delivery assist role. I’m also, like, I’m still gonna need both of those people to work on a client, like, there’s… you know, that’s still gonna be really amazing, so…
121 00:15:42.580 ⇒ 00:15:47.410 Uttam Kumaran: And if, like, Garrett can start earlier, versus if we’re still talking to Jonathan.
122 00:15:47.510 ⇒ 00:15:54.539 Uttam Kumaran: And then it’s also like, okay, if Garrett does start, and let’s say totally remove the sort of delivery lead stuff.
123 00:15:54.670 ⇒ 00:15:55.450 Uttam Kumaran: Ow.
124 00:15:55.580 ⇒ 00:16:04.329 Uttam Kumaran: do we have a place for him? And I think that’s what… that’s what Robert and I were… were talking more about. So I think when you… when you talk to Jonathan, keep that in mind, that
125 00:16:04.510 ⇒ 00:16:11.200 Uttam Kumaran: We are still looking for great account owners, and our accounts are gonna start looking bigger and look more like
126 00:16:11.460 ⇒ 00:16:14.360 Uttam Kumaran: account management style, then…
127 00:16:14.890 ⇒ 00:16:21.840 Uttam Kumaran: both account management and engineering. And Pranav and Greg have both expressed their interest in moving in that direction.
128 00:16:21.940 ⇒ 00:16:25.629 Uttam Kumaran: And the service lead model that I’m pushing is gonna give them, like, really
129 00:16:25.840 ⇒ 00:16:30.439 Uttam Kumaran: A clear partner within the technical organization to execute a service, you know?
130 00:16:30.680 ⇒ 00:16:45.409 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah, okay, okay, awesome. Any other, like, roles you guys foresee coming up soon, to kind of, like, add to my radar? Like, anything else I should be watching out for right now?
131 00:16:46.100 ⇒ 00:16:50.670 Robert Tseng: Yeah, like a partnerships manager.
132 00:16:51.040 ⇒ 00:16:51.860 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah.
133 00:16:52.140 ⇒ 00:16:53.070 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
134 00:16:53.670 ⇒ 00:16:54.260 Kaela Gallagher: I might have some…
135 00:16:54.260 ⇒ 00:16:56.060 Robert Tseng: It’s all equivalent on the partnership side.
136 00:16:56.060 ⇒ 00:17:01.520 Uttam Kumaran: I’m honestly at the point where, like, I’m kind of seeing how fast your L can ramp.
137 00:17:01.680 ⇒ 00:17:09.449 Uttam Kumaran: Because right now, we don’t even… I would say we do need a partnerships manager, but the, like, partnership AE stuff…
138 00:17:09.690 ⇒ 00:17:21.869 Uttam Kumaran: he can actually fill in, but yes, we basically need someone that is selling and managing partners, like we sell and manage to clients, is sort of what a partnership manager is. It’s like a… it’s what I do, it’s just like…
139 00:17:22.099 ⇒ 00:17:23.650 Uttam Kumaran: Huge relationship.
140 00:17:24.119 ⇒ 00:17:24.529 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah.
141 00:17:24.530 ⇒ 00:17:25.880 Uttam Kumaran: business, yeah.
142 00:17:26.170 ⇒ 00:17:29.240 Kaela Gallagher: I might have a guy, but I’ll keep you guys posted, and I’ll.
143 00:17:29.240 ⇒ 00:17:30.160 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, great!
144 00:17:30.160 ⇒ 00:17:38.660 Kaela Gallagher: I’ll stay on the lookout. I just talked to somebody recently, I forgot how I got in touch with him. Oh, a Pranav reference.
145 00:17:38.660 ⇒ 00:17:39.450 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, really?
146 00:17:39.450 ⇒ 00:17:44.020 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah, okay, so I’ll keep you guys posted on that.
147 00:17:44.020 ⇒ 00:17:45.240 Uttam Kumaran: Partnerships manager…
148 00:17:45.470 ⇒ 00:17:46.260 Kaela Gallagher: More urgently.
149 00:17:46.480 ⇒ 00:17:48.740 Uttam Kumaran: Partnerships Manager would be great.
150 00:17:48.980 ⇒ 00:17:49.630 Kaela Gallagher: Cool.
151 00:17:49.760 ⇒ 00:17:54.699 Uttam Kumaran: And we could… we have actually clear sales KPIs we can tie.
152 00:17:54.880 ⇒ 00:17:59.330 Uttam Kumaran: And they’re walking into a company with some great partners that want to do business with us.