Meeting Title: Brainforge x Element Project Check-in Date: 2026-03-27 Meeting participants: Advait Nandakumar Menon, Robert Tseng
WEBVTT
1 00:00:46.080 ⇒ 00:00:47.080 Robert Tseng: Hey, Andre.
2 00:00:47.080 ⇒ 00:00:47.740 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Hey.
3 00:00:48.740 ⇒ 00:00:50.449 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Hey, Robert, how’s it going?
4 00:00:50.810 ⇒ 00:00:51.879 Robert Tseng: Good, how are you?
5 00:00:53.250 ⇒ 00:00:54.140 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Living good.
6 00:00:55.250 ⇒ 00:00:56.390 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Happy Friday!
7 00:00:56.700 ⇒ 00:00:58.069 Robert Tseng: Yeah, happy Friday!
8 00:00:58.200 ⇒ 00:01:00.890 Robert Tseng: It’s, it’s been end of week 2 now?
9 00:01:03.460 ⇒ 00:01:06.619 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Yeah, you can say week, one and a half, but yeah.
10 00:01:06.620 ⇒ 00:01:08.770 Robert Tseng: Week one and a half. Okay.
11 00:01:10.630 ⇒ 00:01:11.350 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Yeah.
12 00:01:14.370 ⇒ 00:01:23.899 Robert Tseng: Cool. Yeah, I guess I… I know you wanted to grab a one-on-one with me. I mean, I’m not doing, kind of, regular one-on-ones right now, I think…
13 00:01:24.260 ⇒ 00:01:40.170 Robert Tseng: Eventually, like, Jasmine will be somebody who you will do one-on-ones with, but I understand things are still early, and, you know, we want to just make sure that you’re… you’re, ramping up well, and kind of finding a good… good fit on clients, so…
14 00:01:40.260 ⇒ 00:01:54.440 Robert Tseng: Yeah, so we can… we can… I mean, I’m happy to chat today, kind of hear what’s… what’s anything that’s on your mind, and then, yeah, I’m happy to kind of make any… push anything along so that we can get… if we need to make adjustments, we can.
15 00:01:55.240 ⇒ 00:02:03.590 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Sure. It’s been going good. So, I asked for a one-on-one primarily because it was there on my ramp-up plan as well, to set up.
16 00:02:03.590 ⇒ 00:02:04.040 Robert Tseng: Okay.
17 00:02:04.040 ⇒ 00:02:08.150 Advait Nandakumar Menon: a recurring one with you, so yeah, that’s why I reached out.
18 00:02:08.240 ⇒ 00:02:21.220 Advait Nandakumar Menon: But, yeah, it’s been a fun challenge. It’s a fast-moving environment, I’ll admit that, but I’m also learning a lot of things quickly. Like, yesterday I got introduced to default by Uptame and Mustafa, so…
19 00:02:21.310 ⇒ 00:02:33.530 Advait Nandakumar Menon: I’ve already worked on a dashboard there, just some refinements, with respect to the… I think it’s the customer enablement dashboard is what it’s called.
20 00:02:33.820 ⇒ 00:02:40.660 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Yeah. So, yeah, slowly settling in with the tools and the way you guys are working, so…
21 00:02:40.750 ⇒ 00:02:59.749 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Yeah, I’m also working on Element right now with respect to some modeling with Amber and Avesh, so that’s another piece of work I’m handling right now, and we can get in some of those modeling done out and implement the topics in Omni, so that we can answer those specific questions, which I think Element is waiting for.
22 00:03:00.910 ⇒ 00:03:08.269 Robert Tseng: Great, yeah. So, I mean, I was… I was conferencing, kind of, the past two days. Yesterday, I was at the Omni conference.
23 00:03:08.280 ⇒ 00:03:23.780 Robert Tseng: Yeah, just getting the Element deal over the line. So, it’s good. We’re full… expecting a full ramp-up. April 6th, it’ll be a bigger team. Jasmine will be full-time then. We’re bringing in somebody else to project manage that project specifically. His name’s Garrett. He’ll start on Monday.
24 00:03:23.930 ⇒ 00:03:29.540 Robert Tseng: And then you are… I mean, we’re basically wind… the target is to wind Amber down by then, so, like, hopefully you.
25 00:03:29.540 ⇒ 00:03:29.900 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Okay.
26 00:03:29.900 ⇒ 00:03:32.970 Robert Tseng: take over from her, by the end of next week.
27 00:03:34.770 ⇒ 00:03:53.179 Robert Tseng: So yeah, I think kind of in… kind of in advance of that, I mean, Greg is still kind of, like, working with you a bit on… on Omni, but, like, any further, like, Omni development is really kind of gonna be on… on you for… for Element. So, I… you know, if you haven’t done the Omni certification or anything yet, like.
28 00:03:53.470 ⇒ 00:03:59.920 Robert Tseng: they should reach out to Kayla, try to… try to just get that done while you have some time, like I, and sure.
29 00:04:00.100 ⇒ 00:04:08.790 Robert Tseng: you know, I think it’s great. We do bonuses based off certifications as well, so it’ll be a quick, easy bonus for you while you’re not fully utilized, while all
30 00:04:09.140 ⇒ 00:04:19.930 Robert Tseng: So, yeah, you get to kind of establish yourself as an Omni expert on the team, which would be great, because, like, I think I was meeting with Omni’s,
31 00:04:20.040 ⇒ 00:04:36.789 Robert Tseng: kind of go-to-market team yesterday, and, you know, we’ve brought them 3 deals at this point, and they’re excited, they want to do more with us, so I think we’re gonna keep selling more Omni, and, like, you know, if you become an expert at Omni, then, like, I think you’ll be really involved on all of those deals.
32 00:04:36.790 ⇒ 00:04:37.350 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Yeah.
33 00:04:37.350 ⇒ 00:04:37.960 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
34 00:04:38.840 ⇒ 00:04:43.900 Robert Tseng: And I guess, like, you know, beyond the tool itself, like,
35 00:04:44.120 ⇒ 00:04:54.310 Robert Tseng: I think just, you know, seems like he has some experience with dbt. I think what we like about Omni is that, you know, Topics is a great kind of, like, semantic layer.
36 00:04:56.150 ⇒ 00:04:58.560 Robert Tseng: integration with the BI tool.
37 00:05:00.120 ⇒ 00:05:12.039 Robert Tseng: So, I think we’re running into more objections, and I’m just giving you some context that you don’t probably see, but, like, as I’m selling, kind of, even as I’m selling Omni or selling other, kind of, our services, you know, with
38 00:05:12.140 ⇒ 00:05:20.500 Robert Tseng: how good Cloud code is and some of these other adjantic workspaces, people are asking, like, oh, why can’t I just throw my data into Claude code, right?
39 00:05:20.500 ⇒ 00:05:21.190 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Hopefully.
40 00:05:21.190 ⇒ 00:05:33.040 Robert Tseng: you know, you may not see the differences here yet, but I would, you know, encourage you to just kind of develop a point of view on, like, why… yeah, I mean, do you believe that, like, Brainforge’s work is necessary, and, like.
41 00:05:33.150 ⇒ 00:05:35.950 Robert Tseng: You know, our hypothesis is, like.
42 00:05:36.770 ⇒ 00:05:46.290 Robert Tseng: data needs to be well-structured, and there needs to be a well, like, kind of maintained, semantic layer in order for, like, these agentic tools to work. Otherwise, it’s just a pure…
43 00:05:46.290 ⇒ 00:06:01.320 Robert Tseng: text-to-SQL, like, kind of generalized inference, and it doesn’t actually, like, anchor to anything kind of substantial that we can… that we have guardrails around, and, like, can produce consistent results. So, I think that’s gonna be a very common
44 00:06:01.480 ⇒ 00:06:10.360 Robert Tseng: you know, objection that we talk about when clients are first being exposed to something like an Omni, or even the way that we do things at Brainforge.
45 00:06:10.360 ⇒ 00:06:10.910 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Yeah.
46 00:06:11.340 ⇒ 00:06:30.929 Robert Tseng: So yeah, I think, like, you know, that I… that’s… that’s kind of something that I’m seeing on… on the sales side more, and, you know, really wanting, like, our team to be able to… when you’re… especially when you’re more… when you’re working with clients, and they’re asking questions, to kind of, like, think of… kind of build… build your own point of view on, like, kind of how…
47 00:06:31.560 ⇒ 00:06:38.849 Robert Tseng: how AI and, and our data modeling and, you know, all the infrastructure that we work, like, how do they actually fit together?
48 00:06:39.970 ⇒ 00:06:44.089 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Yeah. Yeah. No, I agree with that, like…
49 00:06:44.430 ⇒ 00:06:59.309 Advait Nandakumar Menon: it can be as simple as just uploading something to ChatGPT or Cloud and asking questions, but if you really want to ask some specific question that drives insights or recommendations, like, the data should be modeled and structured properly first, otherwise it’s…
50 00:06:59.360 ⇒ 00:07:05.930 Advait Nandakumar Menon: something not as simple as uploading to GPT or Cloud and just asking questions, so… No, I agree with that point, so…
51 00:07:06.280 ⇒ 00:07:08.200 Advait Nandakumar Menon: I think that’s something more…
52 00:07:08.770 ⇒ 00:07:14.789 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Obviously, we’re working on it, but something we can highlight to potential clients and our existing clients. Yeah.
53 00:07:15.940 ⇒ 00:07:16.520 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
54 00:07:18.260 ⇒ 00:07:29.029 Robert Tseng: Cool. So, I mean, I think, yeah, week 2, the element ramp-up, it seems like you’re kind of going… there were some… I have the team put together some expectations for you. I’m looking at your 1030, 60, 90 day plan now, so, like, yeah, I mean…
55 00:07:29.350 ⇒ 00:07:45.110 Robert Tseng: you know, the checkboxes are for you. I’m not really gonna go and monitor this, so making sure that you feel like you’ve met all these… all these steps. On the global vet link situation, so we’re pitching… I was hoping to pitch it this, like, today, but we didn’t end up getting the meeting until next week, which…
56 00:07:45.110 ⇒ 00:08:00.130 Robert Tseng: It’s fine with the expectations, so, our con… yeah, our renewal, it’s up for renewal at this point, so we’re gonna try to get that deal over the line next week, and then, you know, assuming that goes through, then you’ll be able to kind of be pulled onto that client as well.
57 00:08:00.450 ⇒ 00:08:01.530 Robert Tseng: Yep.
58 00:08:02.090 ⇒ 00:08:15.299 Robert Tseng: Yeah. Then we have one more deal coming through the pipeline that, like, I… we’re, like, kind of close to signing. We’re just going back and forth with the legal team. They’re called, LE Mental Health.
59 00:08:15.710 ⇒ 00:08:16.420 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Oh, girl.
60 00:08:16.420 ⇒ 00:08:34.289 Robert Tseng: And so, this is gonna be more product analytics focused. They’re an amplitude shop, and they’re gonna want some, just, like, help on building reporting there, and then really just working with their growth team to kind of give them… give them insights there. So, I’ll kind of…
61 00:08:34.940 ⇒ 00:08:42.290 Robert Tseng: make a couple changes. I mean, I’m not gonna add it to a week yet, but… potential clients… Yes.
62 00:08:42.500 ⇒ 00:08:58.160 Robert Tseng: We’re gonna do LA Mental Health, and then, also… We have, sunstone Therapies coming down.
63 00:08:58.350 ⇒ 00:09:05.989 Robert Tseng: This is more… Yeah, so this is amplitude,
64 00:09:08.920 ⇒ 00:09:25.960 Robert Tseng: Amplitude, GA4, you know, kind of a, gross… Marketing analytics, you know, How to optimize intakes…
65 00:09:29.570 ⇒ 00:09:36.590 Robert Tseng: standardizing… Reporting across the network of clinics.
66 00:09:38.940 ⇒ 00:09:44.610 Robert Tseng: I mean, there’s more context on this stuff, but I’m just giving you some ideas. And Sunstone is more kind of like a…
67 00:09:45.260 ⇒ 00:09:48.120 Robert Tseng: Snowflake.
68 00:09:49.180 ⇒ 00:09:51.449 Robert Tseng: Filled out from 0 to 1.
69 00:09:56.780 ⇒ 00:10:04.300 Robert Tseng: Setting up health… But I’ll stick telemetry…
70 00:10:09.160 ⇒ 00:10:10.699 Robert Tseng: Oh, spelled that wrong.
71 00:10:12.160 ⇒ 00:10:15.490 Robert Tseng: Yeah, and then there’s also hip.
72 00:10:15.810 ⇒ 00:10:23.489 Robert Tseng: Access… So this one is a former client of ours that’s coming back around.
73 00:10:24.630 ⇒ 00:10:29.900 Robert Tseng: also health, so I think I feel like anything health-related, I might end up bringing you onto, so…
74 00:10:30.140 ⇒ 00:10:31.340 Robert Tseng: Yep.
75 00:10:31.690 ⇒ 00:10:35.940 Robert Tseng: Is there a specialty, clinic?
76 00:10:36.440 ⇒ 00:10:52.980 Robert Tseng: We’re, meeting, architecture… Or… Building data platform,
77 00:10:52.980 ⇒ 00:10:53.780 Advait Nandakumar Menon: And…
78 00:10:53.780 ⇒ 00:11:06.270 Robert Tseng: from… Health… Which is a native… additional native EHR software.
79 00:11:09.850 ⇒ 00:11:15.180 Robert Tseng: Yeah, so, I mean, Awish started… started,
80 00:11:16.380 ⇒ 00:11:20.989 Robert Tseng: this project in October 35, so…
81 00:11:21.690 ⇒ 00:11:33.180 Robert Tseng: Moving from this go to implementation. Okay, so I think these are, like, if Global VetLink doesn’t come through, these are, like, the three clients that I expect to come through in April.
82 00:11:33.180 ⇒ 00:11:33.840 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Okay.
83 00:11:34.410 ⇒ 00:11:37.469 Robert Tseng: So, yeah, I think that idea…
84 00:11:38.280 ⇒ 00:11:41.430 Robert Tseng: I think as far as, like…
85 00:11:44.150 ⇒ 00:11:49.789 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I mean, curious, like, working, like, kind of day-to-day, like.
86 00:11:50.640 ⇒ 00:12:00.629 Robert Tseng: I mean, what… how… any challenges that you’re facing right now, or, like, kind of what… what’s… any… yeah, like, I’m trying to see… maybe…
87 00:12:00.920 ⇒ 00:12:10.289 Robert Tseng: Because I only really meet with the delivery leaders currently, so I meet with the CSOs and SLs, so I’m not really meeting with, like, the analysts and engineers right now.
88 00:12:10.360 ⇒ 00:12:26.349 Robert Tseng: I have a one-on-one with Amber, because she’s working on a couple things for clients that I’m trying to… to sell… sell for, so I… but I don’t really know what… what you do day-to-day, so, yeah, curious, kind of, like, any… anything that I can help with there.
89 00:12:27.380 ⇒ 00:12:46.560 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Yeah, so my day-to-day currently looks like, I’m working on Element, specifically setting up the topics for, the retail schema. So that’s what I’m doing now. So, we sent out one version, like Greg sent out one version just yesterday to them, so that they can demo asking questions.
90 00:12:46.620 ⇒ 00:12:57.049 Advait Nandakumar Menon: But they do want to focus on 3 other specific metrics, like, velocity, sales velocity, sell-through, and one more as well, I think weeks of stocks.
91 00:12:57.220 ⇒ 00:13:09.629 Advait Nandakumar Menon: So, for this specifically, we need, modeling to be done in Snowflake dbt before Omni can take it, because, modeling it within Omni will be a little complicated, is what, I fail.
92 00:13:09.780 ⇒ 00:13:15.009 Advait Nandakumar Menon: So, that’s what I’m working on right now. So, day to day, with respect to challenges.
93 00:13:15.190 ⇒ 00:13:30.450 Advait Nandakumar Menon: I guess Omni as a platform, I think the certification will help here as well, but it’s something new I’m getting used to, so maybe a little bit challenge of understanding certain stuff here and there is a little prominent nowadays.
94 00:13:30.890 ⇒ 00:13:32.529 Robert Tseng: Do you have snowflake experience?
95 00:13:33.400 ⇒ 00:13:36.310 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Yeah, Snowflake is, something I used before, yeah.
96 00:13:36.780 ⇒ 00:13:42.399 Robert Tseng: Okay then yeah, I think what I’m also going to tell Utam is, like.
97 00:13:42.520 ⇒ 00:14:01.399 Robert Tseng: So we have a couple partners, partners and clients that, well, because, like, the Snowflake ecosystem, we are a Snowflake partner, but we want to get more embedded in it. We don’t have enough true Snowflake experts, so Udam is, like, the only true Snowflake expert. Like, he’s just… he just got brought onto a deal. We’re subcontracting with EY, but, like.
98 00:14:01.400 ⇒ 00:14:01.790 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Oh, she’s gonna…
99 00:14:01.790 ⇒ 00:14:05.119 Robert Tseng: take that on himself. He’s gonna put 10 to 15 hours a week on it.
100 00:14:06.120 ⇒ 00:14:06.630 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Okay.
101 00:14:06.630 ⇒ 00:14:21.119 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I mean, it’s a big deal, and so, assuming they expand, then we’re gonna need to put more staff on it. Like, it’s… yeah, I mean, we’re… we’re… we’re able to get… get a good… get a good bite out of them if we… we can grow there. And so there’s a couple of.
102 00:14:21.120 ⇒ 00:14:21.460 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Thank you.
103 00:14:21.460 ⇒ 00:14:26.379 Robert Tseng: paths forward for what you can do to work on Snowflake, right now.
104 00:14:26.590 ⇒ 00:14:34.140 Robert Tseng: One is, we have a partner that we’re exploring with, it’s called OpenDB, you can look them up, but, like, they’re…
105 00:14:34.570 ⇒ 00:14:40.070 Robert Tseng: They’re, like, a Bloomberg alternative, working mostly with fintech, or, like, kind of financial services.
106 00:14:40.090 ⇒ 00:14:59.799 Robert Tseng: So yeah, they’re like a Snowflake native app. Yeah, kind of similar to Omni, to be honest, but, like, just probably worse UI, but it’s… it’s out of Snowflake directly, so it’s a lot more integrated, and it’s way cheaper. And then, like, CTA is one of our clients, where we’re building a lot of just, like,
107 00:15:00.320 ⇒ 00:15:11.329 Robert Tseng: stuff off of Snowflake Cortex AI. So, like, I think, yeah, those are, like, a couple leading, like, Snowflake products that we’re dabbling into now, that, like.
108 00:15:11.650 ⇒ 00:15:27.100 Robert Tseng: probably kind of loop you into, as well. So, I don’t know if you’re Snowflake certified, but, like, yeah, I mean, I would say, you know, as you’re ramping up, and when you have time and you’re not fully staffed on clients, because I know you’re only on one right now, and typically want to put people on two or three.
109 00:15:27.110 ⇒ 00:15:44.190 Robert Tseng: I mean, obviously, ramping up on Element is your biggest priority, making sure you can really get a full handoff of Amber by the end of next week. But also, yeah, I think, like, to kind of prepare yourself for these opportunities, what happens is, like, these deals come through the line, and then we look at our staff and see, like, who…
110 00:15:44.280 ⇒ 00:15:57.790 Robert Tseng: like, who we feel like is ready to take it on, and then we staff them. So, I’m just kind of trying to give you a sense of, like, what opportunities are coming, and like, you know, if you’re OMI certified, and you’re, like, and you feel comfortable in Snowflake.
111 00:15:57.790 ⇒ 00:16:11.270 Robert Tseng: then those are the tools that, like, are popping up the most often that, like, we probably would be able to staff you on more. So, and yeah, obviously, I wanna… I wanna give you… wanna give you more… more opportunities, so…
112 00:16:11.440 ⇒ 00:16:12.480 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Yeah.
113 00:16:12.910 ⇒ 00:16:22.040 Robert Tseng: Yeah, there’s always going to be ad hoc stuff that people may ask you for here and there, but I’m just thinking, kind of, like, for you to kind of really position yourself, what would be ideal is, like.
114 00:16:22.050 ⇒ 00:16:39.120 Robert Tseng: I mean, Element’s a big project, so, like, everybody’s gonna… there’s gonna be a big team on it, but some of these other deals, like, if you end up becoming the main person on one of these clients, then I think that gives us, like, a faster track to kind of, you know, work… train you, and get you to… to a senior… senior level.
115 00:16:39.120 ⇒ 00:16:48.009 Robert Tseng: You know, I think that’ll be better for your progression, and then also, like, it allows you to be looped into sales as well, so that if I am selling.
116 00:16:48.010 ⇒ 00:17:05.379 Robert Tseng: OpenDB, or CTA, or, like, or Snowflake Cortex, then I can bring you in, kind of, like, in a sales engineering context, and you can help me close deals, and you can get… you can get bonuses off of that. So, that’s kind of the relationship I have with Zoran right now, where, yeah, he’s, like, really good at his, kind of, technical skill set.
117 00:17:05.380 ⇒ 00:17:20.280 Robert Tseng: But as I’m selling work that’s related to him, I can pull him into sales conversations as well. And, yeah, I’m able to give him commission when he, like, kind of helps close the deal. So, I’m just trying to, you know, I know this is not related to your day-to-day, I’m just trying to… I’m thinking more forward, you know.
118 00:17:20.280 ⇒ 00:17:21.460 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Yeah, yeah, that’s…
119 00:17:21.460 ⇒ 00:17:27.740 Robert Tseng: Kind of how to best position yourself, to, you know, pretty much, like, you know, make the most here.
120 00:17:27.740 ⇒ 00:17:28.789 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Happy birthday, too.
121 00:17:28.790 ⇒ 00:17:29.340 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
122 00:17:29.510 ⇒ 00:17:45.339 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Yeah, no, that’s a really nice opportunity. I don’t think I’ve thought of it before, or came across an opportunity like this before, so… that’s a nice skill set as well, to develop, able to win deals by positioning yourself best, so… yeah, no.
123 00:17:45.340 ⇒ 00:17:45.700 Robert Tseng: Yes.
124 00:17:45.700 ⇒ 00:17:49.240 Advait Nandakumar Menon: So that, like, yeah, that’s something I can work towards as well.
125 00:17:49.510 ⇒ 00:18:05.749 Robert Tseng: Yeah, and if you’re curious, kind of, you can ask Zora Pranav also is somebody recently. I just sold my first AI deal with him, like, you know, 2 weeks ago, so, yeah, he was really curious. He’s pretty new here, he started in January. Then, by February, he was like, I want to start being involved in sales.
126 00:18:05.750 ⇒ 00:18:15.549 Robert Tseng: So we kind of tried a few different calls… I mean, yeah, he tried, like, 3 times, and by the third time, like, the deal went through. So, like, yeah, I think we’re definitely…
127 00:18:15.600 ⇒ 00:18:31.480 Robert Tseng: you know, your role is kind of what you make of it, like, I think this… we’re still a very small but fast-growing, like, consultancy, so kind of wherever you want to go is… you have the ability to kind of drive in that direction, and we’ll support you.
128 00:18:32.130 ⇒ 00:18:44.619 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Yeah, yeah, no, that makes perfect sense. Thanks for that. I’ll make sure to keep that in mind. So, even with that in mind, like, not just analytics, like, I am also…
129 00:18:44.690 ⇒ 00:18:55.900 Advait Nandakumar Menon: into, like, analytics or even data engineering, so I’m not saying immediately, but down the lane, like, if I can be in some of the engineering projects as well, it would be really nice, just not the analytics part, so…
130 00:18:55.980 ⇒ 00:19:06.939 Advait Nandakumar Menon: No, I appreciate you saying that, like, there is opportunity to grow into whatever you want here, and you guys are ready to support it, so that’s really helpful to know.
131 00:19:08.370 ⇒ 00:19:15.950 Robert Tseng: Okay, great. Yeah, I think that’s helpful context, because CTA is about to renew, we’re going to sign a one-year contract with them, and it’s going to be.
132 00:19:15.950 ⇒ 00:19:16.290 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Danger.
133 00:19:16.290 ⇒ 00:19:27.970 Robert Tseng: So, they need analytics, engineering, data engineering support. We’re actually… I mean, we’re always hiring, but we might… we were exploring bringing someone else on, but if you want that deal, maybe I’m gonna tell Utom.
134 00:19:28.020 ⇒ 00:19:42.400 Robert Tseng: instead of putting, like, Amber and another data engineer or analytics engineer on it, maybe we try to put… try to staff, Advait on it instead. So we’ll see, I mean, so I’m gonna tell him, we’ll see what he says. I think, like.
135 00:19:42.400 ⇒ 00:19:42.930 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Yeah.
136 00:19:43.110 ⇒ 00:19:53.980 Robert Tseng: you know, obviously we have, like, a few possible health deals coming down the line, so I mean, I would rather… I mean, I would rather kind of keep you around for those deals, because then you can…
137 00:19:54.000 ⇒ 00:19:54.550 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Yeah, yeah.
138 00:19:54.550 ⇒ 00:19:59.369 Robert Tseng: more similar context, but, I mean, we’ll see. I think these are just different options we have. Yeah. Okay.
139 00:19:59.370 ⇒ 00:20:13.659 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Yeah, no, I’m just, yeah, trying to say that I am, like, about the analytics point as well, but I’m also a builder, so… I have held a data engineer role before, I’ve done some BI development work early in my career, so…
140 00:20:13.870 ⇒ 00:20:14.280 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
141 00:20:14.280 ⇒ 00:20:25.299 Advait Nandakumar Menon: I would say I’m into both, like, a mix of both, but yeah, if there’s an opportunity to build as well, that’s something probably worth mentioning to you. So, yeah, that’s why I brought it up. Yeah, yeah.
142 00:20:25.300 ⇒ 00:20:41.230 Robert Tseng: Yeah, and we can definitely support that. Like, Mustafa started here on just doing, kind of, AI engineering work, and then he wanted to do analytics engineering, so we taught him everything about dbt, and he now works on that, so we definitely can do that.
143 00:20:41.230 ⇒ 00:20:59.770 Advait Nandakumar Menon: That’s… yeah, I would love that. That’s… I spoke with him yesterday, and he was telling me how he’s working on default as well, with respect to the analytics engineering just mentioned, and what he did with respect to AI automation as well. So, yeah, I would really love to explore similar parts, but yeah, appreciate the…
144 00:20:59.830 ⇒ 00:21:07.279 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Transparency and… the path you want me to go forward, and that you’re providing, so… that’s really nice.
145 00:21:07.280 ⇒ 00:21:07.810 Robert Tseng: Okay.
146 00:21:08.150 ⇒ 00:21:12.429 Robert Tseng: Cool, yeah, I mean, I know things are still early, so, like, you’re not locked into any path, like.
147 00:21:12.810 ⇒ 00:21:20.699 Robert Tseng: If you’re… sure, there’s always something… there’s always some things that, like, what you’re assigned to do, you gotta do, but, you know, I think you’re still early in figuring…
148 00:21:20.700 ⇒ 00:21:37.839 Robert Tseng: figuring out what, you know, what you’re interested in, and, like, we want to support you in that, too. So, okay, cool. So hopefully that gives you a few different ideas for kind of direction, personal direction on what you can… what you can do, you know, beyond, kind of, the job description and the day-to-day assignment, so…
149 00:21:37.840 ⇒ 00:21:38.270 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Yeah.
150 00:21:38.270 ⇒ 00:21:39.200 Robert Tseng: Yep.
151 00:21:39.410 ⇒ 00:21:51.599 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I mean, business is… business is growing. I mean, we grew 40% in the past quarter, so, like, you know, I’m… I’m, like, setting… you know, after this call, I’m, you know, I have to go and set, Q2 targets for our… for our growth, like.
152 00:21:51.640 ⇒ 00:22:03.269 Robert Tseng: you know, if we grow 40% every quarter, like, we’re… things are gonna get big pretty fast. So, yeah, I think it’s… that’s kind of been the trajectory the past… past two quarters, like, we’ve… or the past three quarters.
153 00:22:03.270 ⇒ 00:22:12.710 Robert Tseng: Where we’ve been kind of growing between 30% to 50% per quarter. So, yeah, I think you’re here at an exciting time. There’s a lot can change. I’m sure the business will look different.
154 00:22:12.710 ⇒ 00:22:19.660 Robert Tseng: Even a month from now, because we have to, like, kind of keep staff up more to handle the clients coming in, but…
155 00:22:19.800 ⇒ 00:22:26.239 Robert Tseng: Yeah, hope you’re… I did hear from Kayla that you’re open to relocation. Nothing is, like, gonna happen to that.
156 00:22:26.240 ⇒ 00:22:28.059 Advait Nandakumar Menon: I didn’t know that’s from… yeah.
157 00:22:28.340 ⇒ 00:22:30.850 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I think the thought is more, like.
158 00:22:31.260 ⇒ 00:22:39.809 Robert Tseng: Yeah, for US-based hires, especially, like, if we need to move… we’re considering moving to a hybrid model in Austin and LA.
159 00:22:40.540 ⇒ 00:22:44.289 Robert Tseng: Because that just seems to be, like, where people are…
160 00:22:44.290 ⇒ 00:22:45.470 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Ending up.
161 00:22:45.470 ⇒ 00:22:45.890 Robert Tseng: But.
162 00:22:45.890 ⇒ 00:22:46.700 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Yeah, yeah.
163 00:22:46.700 ⇒ 00:22:53.560 Robert Tseng: But I’m… but yeah, I mean, I’m in New York, so that’s not gonna happen anytime soon. Like, it has to, like, like, I have to move my family to…
164 00:22:53.910 ⇒ 00:23:00.929 Robert Tseng: To one of these places as well. So, definitely not something that would happen in the next, like, 3 months. So, anyway, like, just so…
165 00:23:00.930 ⇒ 00:23:04.759 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Yeah, I’m open to it if it’s… if that’s happening, so yeah, that’s not…
166 00:23:04.760 ⇒ 00:23:05.090 Robert Tseng: Okay.
167 00:23:05.090 ⇒ 00:23:05.870 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Finally.
168 00:23:06.420 ⇒ 00:23:07.750 Robert Tseng: Okay, cool.
169 00:23:08.140 ⇒ 00:23:11.469 Robert Tseng: Alright, well, that’s all I got for now. Any other questions?
170 00:23:11.950 ⇒ 00:23:25.850 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Yeah, I know it’s still early, like you said, but I want to check in, like, and see if there’s been any feedback so far on how I’m doing, or any area of improvement you want me to focus on, so that I can be better aligned with you guys.
171 00:23:26.030 ⇒ 00:23:37.290 Robert Tseng: Yeah, yeah, like I said, day-to-day, I’m not as tapped into what you’re doing right now. I mean, I think feedback overall has been positive, like, so I think, I think that really the big…
172 00:23:37.390 ⇒ 00:23:45.170 Robert Tseng: I mean, we’ll see, kind of. The element handoff, I think, is probably the thing that I’m kind of looking ahead to next week.
173 00:23:45.170 ⇒ 00:23:45.630 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Okay.
174 00:23:45.630 ⇒ 00:23:59.820 Robert Tseng: when Amber winds down, like, if you’ll… if we have, like, if we feel… feel… I mean, it’s not gonna just be on you, like, the team has to be able to… I mean, we’re shifting at it. It was just Utam, Awash, Amber, and now it’s gonna be, you know,
175 00:24:00.040 ⇒ 00:24:16.679 Robert Tseng: Bhutam, me, Jasmine, you, and this guy, Garrett. So it’s gonna… like, the team is gonna completely shift, and we’re gonna go up a notch, so we’ll see. And once that happens, you’ll probably work with me a bit more closely, because I’ll actually be, like, active on my client.
176 00:24:16.730 ⇒ 00:24:20.120 Robert Tseng: But other than that,
177 00:24:20.240 ⇒ 00:24:34.089 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I guess I’ll… I could ask the… I mean, really, Jasmine, I know she’s, like, kind of in and out right now, because she hasn’t started full-time yet, but, yeah, I can ask… I can ask the team to see if there’s any other feedback. Otherwise, just kind of wait a week, and she’ll… she’ll be in.
178 00:24:34.860 ⇒ 00:24:43.250 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Yeah, no, that’s completely fine. I was just trying to understand, so that I could make the best next couple of weeks, improve, so that
179 00:24:43.310 ⇒ 00:24:56.359 Advait Nandakumar Menon: you can really feel strong about me as well, and continuing this relationship as well. So, yeah, that’s, completely fine, like, if you can’t provide anything now, but I’m happy to hear it’s positive otherwise.
180 00:24:56.900 ⇒ 00:25:16.169 Robert Tseng: Okay, yeah, I mean, I’ll let you know if we have anything else, but, you know, I gave you a few things that you can, kind of, to think through. Yeah, the certifications, some of these potential partners, partners and clients, yeah, so, you know, you can, I mean, you can start asking more questions around it, like, I can always answer it over Slack.
181 00:25:16.900 ⇒ 00:25:18.549 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Sure, yep, sounds good.
182 00:25:18.820 ⇒ 00:25:21.849 Robert Tseng: Okay, cool. Alright. Thanks, Abbott. Talk to you later.
183 00:25:21.850 ⇒ 00:25:23.360 Advait Nandakumar Menon: Yep, talk soon. Have a nice one.
184 00:25:23.360 ⇒ 00:25:24.580 Robert Tseng: Bye. You too.