Meeting Title: Brainforge Introductory Call with James Date: 2026-04-02 Meeting participants: Kaela Gallagher, James Wilson
WEBVTT
1 00:01:04.250 ⇒ 00:01:04.910 Kaela Gallagher: Hey, James.
2 00:01:04.910 ⇒ 00:01:05.899 James Wilson: Thank you, Matt.
3 00:01:06.540 ⇒ 00:01:16.009 James Wilson: Oh, can you hear me? My AirPods are connected… Test? Test?
4 00:01:16.010 ⇒ 00:01:18.270 Kaela Gallagher: Can you hear me now? Yeah, it’s all good on my end.
5 00:01:18.270 ⇒ 00:01:20.220 James Wilson: Yeah, I can hear you. Yep, that’d be great.
6 00:01:20.220 ⇒ 00:01:24.120 Kaela Gallagher: Perfect. Thanks for taking the time to meet with me. Appreciate it.
7 00:01:24.120 ⇒ 00:01:26.490 James Wilson: Yeah, it’s a pleasure to meet you, how’s your day going?
8 00:01:26.490 ⇒ 00:01:29.080 Kaela Gallagher: It’s been going great. How about you?
9 00:01:29.550 ⇒ 00:01:42.380 James Wilson: Not too bad. A little busy. We have our, tech breather next week, so everybody’s trying to get a lot of, Q1 stuff done before then, but… no, things are great. Good weather today, so… Are you based in LA?
10 00:01:42.380 ⇒ 00:01:48.710 Kaela Gallagher: Yes, I was gonna say, we’ve been pretty lucky with the weather. What part of LA are you in?
11 00:01:49.050 ⇒ 00:01:52.000 James Wilson: I live in West LA, closer to, like, Venice area.
12 00:01:52.130 ⇒ 00:01:54.510 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, cool, I’m in Palms, so…
13 00:01:54.510 ⇒ 00:01:55.940 James Wilson: Yeah, great bar town.
14 00:01:55.940 ⇒ 00:02:02.669 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah, awesome. Cool. Well, I think it was Pius that had connected us.
15 00:02:03.050 ⇒ 00:02:13.509 Kaela Gallagher: And, yeah, excited to get to know a little bit more about you. I can tell you more about Brainforge, too, but I’m curious, like, what is kind of putting you on the market for something new?
16 00:02:14.440 ⇒ 00:02:38.260 James Wilson: Yeah, I’ll be transparent. Pius was, talking to me a little bit about, you know, opportunities he’s been looking at as he’s been kind of, like, on the job hunt as of late in his new role, and he mentioned Brainforge to me, and he was like, oh, like, I’d love to connect you with them just to do intros at a minimum. I… like, if you ask me today if I’m looking for a new job, I’d say no. However.
17 00:02:38.510 ⇒ 00:02:44.019 James Wilson: You might have heard that, Warner Bros. is gonna be acquired by Paramount very soon.
18 00:02:44.280 ⇒ 00:03:00.919 James Wilson: And so there’s a realistic chance that I will not be employed at some point in, like, 6 months. And so, I’m just starting to put feelers out there to get a sense of, you know, basically what the status is of the industry, and kind of what people are looking for, and kind of what roles are available.
19 00:03:01.330 ⇒ 00:03:07.170 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, okay. And I noticed that you came from, like, a consulting background.
20 00:03:07.380 ⇒ 00:03:13.589 Kaela Gallagher: Curious, like, what kind of industries are of interest to you, and if you’re interested in returning to consulting?
21 00:03:14.170 ⇒ 00:03:24.199 James Wilson: Totally. Yeah, I think I really enjoyed consulting in many ways. I’ll give you a quick TLDR of my background, since I know I didn’t send a resume, I apologize.
22 00:03:24.200 ⇒ 00:03:40.959 James Wilson: I was remembering that. Yeah, 2019, graduated from UCLA Statistics. I did a mix of consulting for about, I guess, total five and a half years, where I was in litigation consulting to start off with, doing, like, expert witness testimony and forensic analysis.
23 00:03:40.960 ⇒ 00:03:50.520 James Wilson: And then from there, I worked at Capgemini for about three and a half years, doing data science consulting for a variety of clients. I worked in pretty much
24 00:03:50.520 ⇒ 00:04:04.299 James Wilson: I had a little bit of every industry I could find. I did cruise lines, I did entertainment at NBCUniversal, I worked for Virgin Voyages for Cruise Lines, I worked for Meta for about a year, and then I worked for T-Mobile.
25 00:04:04.300 ⇒ 00:04:06.189 James Wilson: And then I worked for…
26 00:04:06.660 ⇒ 00:04:16.860 James Wilson: There was at least one more in there, but, you know, and then, oh, and Nestle as well. That was a food com… company we worked for. So, you know, doing a variety of projects for all those different
27 00:04:16.860 ⇒ 00:04:41.619 James Wilson: consulting firms for everything ranging from optimization work to forecasting, marketing analytics strategy, MMMs, MTAs, some machine learning and, like, computer vision as well. And then we were just getting into LLM stuff when I left. And now I’ve been at Warner Brothers for what will be soon 2 years this summer. I really enjoyed the industry.
28 00:04:41.620 ⇒ 00:05:04.569 James Wilson: you know, I never imagined working in entertainment, but here we are. And it’s been really great. I do kind of a lot of the same stuff from consulting, but now all internally, where I work on a variety of projects on marketing and content strategy. Basically just helping our VPs understand kind of where our KPIs are, where they’re moving, how to strategize them with just any type of model you can think of.
29 00:05:04.750 ⇒ 00:05:15.319 James Wilson: And yeah, I think that’s kind of my current status. In terms of, like, my ex… yeah, I guess that’s kind of my background. I’ll answer that for now.
30 00:05:15.320 ⇒ 00:05:24.699 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, okay. I guess as you’re looking forward, what kind of roles are standing out to you, and like, what do you want to do next in your career?
31 00:05:24.940 ⇒ 00:05:33.510 James Wilson: Yeah, that’s a great question. I think it’s a mixed bag where… and I’m kind of in that middle ground of deciding right now, where I’m… I’m either…
32 00:05:33.620 ⇒ 00:05:40.209 James Wilson: Planning to pursue a higher level of, like, technical role, where, like, you know, if, for example.
33 00:05:40.250 ⇒ 00:06:02.929 James Wilson: this acquisition was not happening, I’d probably be on track to be a staff data scientist in, like, a year, right? And that might be what happens. But at the same time, I’m interested in management. I was… I did management for a while when I was in consulting as well. I enjoyed that experience. It was good to lead teams and deliver projects and, you know, work with different clients, and I like that variety of work.
34 00:06:02.940 ⇒ 00:06:27.470 James Wilson: And that’s kind of where I was like, oh, okay, if, you know, Pius is also from that background of someone who, you know, it’s a mix of working with data and information, but also, you know, the key requirement of you’re still talking with stakeholders and, like, working with people to actually, deliver meaningful insights, which, you know, and not every technical role has that blend, and I’m very lucky to have that in my current role, and to a degree, I had it at Capgemini as well
35 00:06:27.470 ⇒ 00:06:32.830 James Wilson: I think my only fear with… with consulting is… not fear, but…
36 00:06:32.830 ⇒ 00:06:38.920 James Wilson: It’s probably my only weak point is, like, sales work. It’s something that interests me, but I just…
37 00:06:38.920 ⇒ 00:06:53.260 James Wilson: I didn’t really like the way we did sales at Capgemini, and that was one of the reasons I left. I won’t say more than that. It was just a culture that I didn’t really appreciate around that aspect of the role.
38 00:06:53.600 ⇒ 00:07:08.520 James Wilson: And so I think in a healthier environment, perhaps, but anyways, I know that’s a key requirement, usually, as well in a lot of consulting gigs, especially, you know, I don’t know how long Brainforge has been around, but I’m sure sales is an important aspect of that, compliancy.
39 00:07:08.850 ⇒ 00:07:29.089 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, just to tell you a little bit more about us, and then, like, the openings that we have available right now, we do data and AI consulting, and we offer, like, three kind of delivery, streams to clients. So we have a data team, an AI team, and then a strategy and analytics team.
40 00:07:29.470 ⇒ 00:07:36.659 Kaela Gallagher: So we’re able to offer, you know, multiple services, multiple streams to clients, even, you know, simultaneously.
41 00:07:36.820 ⇒ 00:07:56.329 Kaela Gallagher: Right now we are fully remote, but there’s actually, like, 5 of us in LA right now, and we just get together and have lunch and co-work once a week, and so that’s been really great. We definitely, like, have a preference towards people that are in, either LA or Austin. Those are kind of, like, our hubs right now.
42 00:07:56.330 ⇒ 00:08:05.380 Kaela Gallagher: We’re all, like, also weirdly located in either Palms or Venice, or sorry, not Palms or… Palms or Sautel, so, like, we just.
43 00:08:05.380 ⇒ 00:08:05.830 James Wilson: Oh, yeah.
44 00:08:05.830 ⇒ 00:08:08.670 Kaela Gallagher: together in Culver.
45 00:08:09.140 ⇒ 00:08:28.109 Kaela Gallagher: But, yeah, one more logistic about, like, the hiring. Right now, everybody’s 1099, so on an independent contracting basis. We’re working on getting some people transitioned to W-2, but, just want to preface, like, starting with us, probably for…
46 00:08:28.110 ⇒ 00:08:31.440 Kaela Gallagher: even a couple quarters, it would be on a 1099 basis.
47 00:08:31.720 ⇒ 00:08:52.170 Kaela Gallagher: And then in terms of the open positions we have right now, we have a few engineering roles, including a data engineering position. So pretty, pretty hands-on, although we do expect very, like, strong communication from our engineers, because we have them, like, on client calls and sometimes interacting with clients.
48 00:08:52.420 ⇒ 00:09:11.829 Kaela Gallagher: That being said, we also have an open role for what we call… call a CSO, client success owner, and this person is basically, like, a project manager and, an account manager that is, like, the face of Brainforge to our clients. So each of our CSOs might have
49 00:09:12.250 ⇒ 00:09:26.210 Kaela Gallagher: you know, one or two clients that they, work with directly and manage kind of all the work streams that are, falling under that client and ensuring everything’s being delivered on time.
50 00:09:26.770 ⇒ 00:09:42.800 Kaela Gallagher: this does have a sales aspect to it. So, we have a sales team, we have a go-to-market lead, like, we’re hiring a partnerships manager right now, so we have that process built out. What we would expect
51 00:09:42.800 ⇒ 00:09:46.780 Kaela Gallagher: like our CSOs to do is to…
52 00:09:47.410 ⇒ 00:09:58.419 Kaela Gallagher: expand the scope of work with current clients, and be able to recognize opportunities to do that. But then also, like, a lot of our CSOs come from…
53 00:09:58.680 ⇒ 00:10:08.999 Kaela Gallagher: a technical background, so they’re truly, like, an expert in something, in which case, like, we would want them to join some… some sales calls, because…
54 00:10:10.650 ⇒ 00:10:20.410 Kaela Gallagher: We want the expert to be there, like, basically pitching the plan, and we want the future client to see, this is the person you’re going to be interacting with.
55 00:10:20.670 ⇒ 00:10:21.040 James Wilson: Totally.
56 00:10:21.460 ⇒ 00:10:21.940 James Wilson: Yeah.
57 00:10:21.940 ⇒ 00:10:28.000 Kaela Gallagher: So that’s kind of the sales aspect of the position, but I know I just said a lot, curious if you have any thoughts.
58 00:10:28.300 ⇒ 00:10:42.810 James Wilson: No, I mean, that’s definitely, yeah, that’s the classic stack of, you know, any consulting firm, especially in the technical role. You know, some people are more focused on the tech side, some people are working on the management and sales and delivery side, and, you know, and then they work together to kind of
59 00:10:42.890 ⇒ 00:10:58.310 James Wilson: work to, you know, deliver on that aspect, right? So, no, that all makes complete sense. I’m curious, like, so, in terms of, like, the type of work you guys are doing right now, you mentioned AI and digital data and strategy analytics, like.
60 00:10:58.370 ⇒ 00:11:03.360 James Wilson: Talk me through some of the specifics of, like, the type of project work you’re actually delivering on.
61 00:11:04.490 ⇒ 00:11:05.150 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah!
62 00:11:05.160 ⇒ 00:11:25.000 Kaela Gallagher: It could be a variety of things. We have clients, that have been with us for over a year. So, for example, like, we have a healthcare client that we’ve been working with for a long time, and we’re almost, like, an in-house data team to them at this point, so just doing, like, all the usual maintenance and upgrades.
63 00:11:25.000 ⇒ 00:11:33.100 Kaela Gallagher: But then there’s, clients that we have a more targeted,
64 00:11:33.320 ⇒ 00:11:40.170 Kaela Gallagher: mission to accomplish with them. They’re typically, like, 3 to 6 months in length engagements.
65 00:11:40.170 ⇒ 00:11:48.359 Kaela Gallagher: And it could be a variety of things. Like, it could be a migration from one data warehouse to the next, it could be…
66 00:11:48.360 ⇒ 00:12:01.100 Kaela Gallagher: implementing, like, new tools for them, so we are partners with, Snowflake and also with Omni, which is a BI, platform, similar to, like, a Tableau.
67 00:12:01.100 ⇒ 00:12:09.690 Kaela Gallagher: So we might be, like, actually going in, implementing Omni, building out dashboards, and doing that kind of work.
68 00:12:09.690 ⇒ 00:12:21.670 Kaela Gallagher: on the AI side, maybe they need, like, a chatbot or some sort of, like, AI feature. So, each client, like, in the SOW, it’s kind of specified and… and can vary.
69 00:12:21.670 ⇒ 00:12:25.580 Kaela Gallagher: Most of our clients are, like, small to mid-sized organizations.
70 00:12:25.580 ⇒ 00:12:31.330 Kaela Gallagher: We have quite a few in the CPG space, brands that are, like.
71 00:12:31.350 ⇒ 00:12:35.200 Kaela Gallagher: on the shelf at Target and Walmart that you’d probably recognize.
72 00:12:36.300 ⇒ 00:12:51.010 James Wilson: Totally. No, I mean, that’s a decent and healthy client base, and yeah, I mean, that’s kind of market that, you know, a newer consulting firm would focus on. I mean, you guys have a very polished website, which is good, and I can imagine you’re, you know.
73 00:12:51.040 ⇒ 00:13:09.940 James Wilson: That’s very… somewhat relatable to the things we’re doing at CAP. It sounds a little more maintenance-focused, in terms of, like, what you’re mentioning, which is, like, dashboard reporting and things like that, where trying to make sure that their data is, you know, stored correctly and, you know, any migrations, for example.
74 00:13:10.050 ⇒ 00:13:15.810 James Wilson: But, yeah, okay, and the chatbot, yeah, I mean, who doesn’t want a chatbot these days?
75 00:13:16.180 ⇒ 00:13:38.029 Kaela Gallagher: Also, just, like, a disclaimer, I recently joined about a month ago, and I’m on the people and recruiting side, so I’m not actually hands-on with any of these clients, so maybe you ask that question again to the people you would chat with in the next rounds, they would have a little bit different of an answer, but, that’s, I think, an accurate overview, at least.
76 00:13:39.460 ⇒ 00:13:56.580 James Wilson: Nice! No, I mean, this is super cool. Well, I appreciate you guys kind of giving me, like, a breather on what you’re looking for. Also, welcome to the company. You know, I always… I always trust, like, did you work with Pius before, or how do you know Pius? I’m curious, or…
77 00:13:56.780 ⇒ 00:14:01.240 Kaela Gallagher: Ias Nose knows… Robert.
78 00:14:02.120 ⇒ 00:14:06.610 Kaela Gallagher: Let’s see… yeah, Pius Knows Robert, who is one of our founders.
79 00:14:06.610 ⇒ 00:14:08.070 James Wilson: Okay, that’s what I thought, yeah.
80 00:14:08.070 ⇒ 00:14:12.889 Kaela Gallagher: Yes. And then, Robert, like, looped me into the conversation. Yeah.
81 00:14:13.630 ⇒ 00:14:18.249 James Wilson: Okay, nice. No, that’s wonderful.
82 00:14:18.340 ⇒ 00:14:33.660 James Wilson: And I guess, you know, getting the annoying questions out of the way, what’s, like, the typical… I know you mentioned that, you know, you’re hiring currently on a 1099 basis, and you’re expanding in LA. You know, what are the typical compensation bans for the roles you’re hiring for at the moment?
83 00:14:34.430 ⇒ 00:14:43.399 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah, so for our CSO roles, we are typically looking, I would say, in, like, the 150 to 180 range.
84 00:14:45.500 ⇒ 00:14:54.300 Kaela Gallagher: And… that would be broken down, obviously, into, like, an hourly number, but that’s, like, overall what we… we can offer.
85 00:14:55.290 ⇒ 00:14:58.139 Kaela Gallagher: What is the range that you’re targeting?
86 00:15:00.420 ⇒ 00:15:07.840 James Wilson: If we’re being honest, it’s, it’s higher than that.
87 00:15:08.170 ⇒ 00:15:11.860 James Wilson: My base is definitely higher by about…
88 00:15:12.110 ⇒ 00:15:14.920 James Wilson: a fair amount at the moment.
89 00:15:15.220 ⇒ 00:15:18.120 James Wilson: I’m, like, trying to think about what that range would look like.
90 00:15:18.270 ⇒ 00:15:23.840 James Wilson: If I really… If I really knew what my range was. What is my range?
91 00:15:23.900 ⇒ 00:15:32.240 James Wilson: Yeah, it’s probably closer to 250 at this point, as my base, if we’re being honest. And so…
92 00:15:32.290 ⇒ 00:15:43.330 James Wilson: That is definitely lower, but again, you know, I like what you guys have kind of outlined, and it’s a cool company. I’m always, applauding people for, you know, these new
93 00:15:43.330 ⇒ 00:16:01.679 James Wilson: consulting firms, I think it’s pretty cool. And again, at some point in the coming future, that might be a range I’m okay with, especially if I’m laid off. But… or in a different… in a different employment position. I think at the moment, I would not be able to explore that range.
94 00:16:01.680 ⇒ 00:16:10.079 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah, that makes sense. I know you mentioned 250 base. What does, like, a total comp look like for you?
95 00:16:11.230 ⇒ 00:16:14.900 James Wilson: If I… if we’re talking total…
96 00:16:15.330 ⇒ 00:16:18.180 James Wilson: Looking at what I’m at now…
97 00:16:19.030 ⇒ 00:16:23.630 James Wilson: I’ll try and negotiate that. Let’s say… 310.
98 00:16:24.320 ⇒ 00:16:25.130 Kaela Gallagher: Okay.
99 00:16:25.150 ⇒ 00:16:26.140 James Wilson: Okay. Yeah.
100 00:16:26.140 ⇒ 00:16:36.849 Kaela Gallagher: That gives me, a good idea, too, because we… we are able to offer bonuses even to 1099, engagements.
101 00:16:37.340 ⇒ 00:16:49.629 Kaela Gallagher: So, it helps me understand, like, how I could get creative and try to… try to meet certain things. That is definitely, like, higher than, you know, anyone on the team is currently at, but…
102 00:16:49.630 ⇒ 00:17:06.469 James Wilson: Totally. Yeah, and that’s where, you know, I always wanted to be transparent, you know? I’m in a weird position right now where we’ve been kind of rewarded for some of the things that are going on in the industry that, in the short run are great, but in the long run, who knows how long that’s gonna last.
103 00:17:06.550 ⇒ 00:17:25.570 James Wilson: But I will say, I think, like, an important thing, like, when you think about these compensation packages is what, you know, we’re talking about, which is, like, base versus bonus versus, you know, anything else you can spike on. Like, I don’t know if you guys are offering… offering… offering equity, you know, in your company. I don’t know if that’s a thing in consulting anymore.
104 00:17:25.569 ⇒ 00:17:28.240 James Wilson: But, like, that’s something to consider too, right?
105 00:17:28.240 ⇒ 00:17:29.080 Kaela Gallagher: Damn.
106 00:17:29.290 ⇒ 00:17:30.030 James Wilson: I don’t know.
107 00:17:30.430 ⇒ 00:17:45.129 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Agreed. Yeah, I can definitely, like, partner with Robert. I think you would be a huge asset to our team, but obviously, yeah, the pay is something I would want to make sure, like, we could
108 00:17:45.130 ⇒ 00:17:50.859 Kaela Gallagher: even get closer to before I, you know, send you into any other interviews or anything.
109 00:17:51.520 ⇒ 00:17:56.089 James Wilson: Totally, and for now, I think, like, you know, we can kind of put a.
110 00:17:56.440 ⇒ 00:17:56.870 Kaela Gallagher: A penis.
111 00:17:56.870 ⇒ 00:18:15.400 James Wilson: A pin in it. Yeah, is that the phrase? I’m like, you know, they were just talking about idioms that work yesterday. Yeah, put a pin in it, and then, you know, we can kind of keep the connection alive. But regardless, it’s a pleasure to meet you today. Always a pleasure knowing people in LA, and being friends of Pius, so,
112 00:18:15.400 ⇒ 00:18:22.380 James Wilson: Wishing you the best of luck, and yeah, just keep me in the loop on how your guys’ progress as a team grows in the coming, months.
113 00:18:22.630 ⇒ 00:18:26.529 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah, that sounds great, and keep me updated with everything at Warner, too.
114 00:18:26.710 ⇒ 00:18:32.969 James Wilson: Of course, no, we definitely will. And if we’re not already connected on LinkedIn, I’ll reach out.
115 00:18:32.970 ⇒ 00:18:33.480 Kaela Gallagher: Okay.
116 00:18:33.710 ⇒ 00:18:34.600 James Wilson: Yeah.
117 00:18:34.630 ⇒ 00:18:36.480 Kaela Gallagher: Alrighty! Awesome!
118 00:18:36.480 ⇒ 00:18:36.969 James Wilson: Okay, but…
119 00:18:36.970 ⇒ 00:18:37.950 Kaela Gallagher: your time.
120 00:18:37.950 ⇒ 00:18:42.339 James Wilson: No, thank you so much, it’s a pleasure to talk with you, and have a great rest of your day.
121 00:18:42.340 ⇒ 00:18:44.160 Kaela Gallagher: You too. Bye.