Meeting Title: Friday Brainforge Demos & Retro Date: 2026-05-01 Meeting participants: Lisa Whall’s Calendly Notetaker, Lisa Whall, Greg Stoutenburg, Mustafa Raja, Demilade Agboola, Abdullah Ahmad, Uttam Kumaran, Davis, Kaela Gallagher, Garrett Gibson, Nikhil G, Michele Altomare, Ashwini Sharma, Rico Rejoso, Brylle Girang, Robert Tseng, Awaish Kumar, Hannah Wang, Amber Lin, Miranda Wen, Jasmin Multani, Michele Altomare
WEBVTT
1 00:00:11.220 ⇒ 00:00:12.640 Greg Stoutenburg: What’s up?
2 00:00:12.860 ⇒ 00:00:14.860 Greg Stoutenburg: Hey, Mustafa, been a while.
3 00:00:16.950 ⇒ 00:00:18.000 Greg Stoutenburg: Hey, Demi.
4 00:00:18.790 ⇒ 00:00:20.629 Demilade Agboola: I’m so for health, Greg.
5 00:00:20.860 ⇒ 00:00:21.930 Demilade Agboola: Hi, Lisa.
6 00:00:26.170 ⇒ 00:00:26.920 Lisa Whall: Hey guys!
7 00:00:28.260 ⇒ 00:00:29.240 Greg Stoutenburg: Hello!
8 00:00:29.770 ⇒ 00:00:31.170 Greg Stoutenburg: Hello and welcome.
9 00:00:31.340 ⇒ 00:00:32.280 Lisa Whall: Thank you.
10 00:00:32.600 ⇒ 00:00:34.750 Demilade Agboola: Yes, welcome.
11 00:00:35.330 ⇒ 00:00:36.130 Abdullah Ahmad: Hi, team.
12 00:00:38.110 ⇒ 00:00:39.130 Greg Stoutenburg: Hello, hello?
13 00:00:39.830 ⇒ 00:00:41.040 Greg Stoutenburg: Hi, Abdullah.
14 00:00:41.220 ⇒ 00:00:42.349 Abdullah Ahmad: Hey, how’s it going, Greg?
15 00:00:43.890 ⇒ 00:00:45.000 Greg Stoutenburg: You’re here.
16 00:00:45.010 ⇒ 00:00:46.000 Abdullah Ahmad: I’m here.
17 00:00:46.950 ⇒ 00:00:48.170 Greg Stoutenburg: Cool.
18 00:00:52.510 ⇒ 00:00:54.400 Kaela Gallagher: Happy Friday, everybody!
19 00:00:55.600 ⇒ 00:00:56.370 Greg Stoutenburg: Happy Friday.
20 00:00:56.370 ⇒ 00:00:57.180 Lisa Whall: Happy Friday!
21 00:00:57.480 ⇒ 00:00:59.000 Davis: Happy Friday!
22 00:00:59.500 ⇒ 00:01:01.330 Uttam Kumaran: Mustafa, big haircut.
23 00:01:04.410 ⇒ 00:01:05.180 Greg Stoutenburg: Check it out.
24 00:01:05.180 ⇒ 00:01:05.970 Mustafa Raja: Yeah.
25 00:01:06.920 ⇒ 00:01:08.080 Mustafa Raja: Amazing.
26 00:01:08.220 ⇒ 00:01:09.810 Uttam Kumaran: Hi, Davis. Hi, Abdullah.
27 00:01:10.720 ⇒ 00:01:13.009 Davis: What’s up, Utom? How are y’all?
28 00:01:13.010 ⇒ 00:01:13.790 Abdullah Ahmad: Hey guys.
29 00:01:14.560 ⇒ 00:01:17.840 Greg Stoutenburg: Are we gonna end up on a… are we gonna have a two-screener?
30 00:01:18.130 ⇒ 00:01:22.300 Greg Stoutenburg: Join a… join a call, and there’s, like, so many tiles that people are on more than one screen.
31 00:01:22.980 ⇒ 00:01:24.250 Kaela Gallagher: This is exciting!
32 00:01:24.670 ⇒ 00:01:25.839 Greg Stoutenburg: Is that where we’re going?
33 00:01:27.090 ⇒ 00:01:30.359 Uttam Kumaran: I remember it would just be me on this call, presenting to me.
34 00:01:31.790 ⇒ 00:01:35.099 Uttam Kumaran: What? Great update! Thanks! Love it!
35 00:01:35.610 ⇒ 00:01:37.610 Greg Stoutenburg: It’s like, no, I’m busy, I can’t talk to you.
36 00:01:37.610 ⇒ 00:01:40.990 Uttam Kumaran: I heard your video on.
37 00:01:41.690 ⇒ 00:01:45.249 Demilade Agboola: On the bright side, there won’t be any interruptions, it’s just, you know…
38 00:01:46.280 ⇒ 00:01:47.050 Uttam Kumaran: True.
39 00:01:48.000 ⇒ 00:01:51.990 Uttam Kumaran: Only small talk. No, we don’t get to the updates.
40 00:01:55.230 ⇒ 00:01:56.340 Uttam Kumaran: Hey, Nikhil.
41 00:01:56.520 ⇒ 00:01:57.900 Uttam Kumaran: Hey, Mickey, good to see you.
42 00:01:58.630 ⇒ 00:02:00.199 Nikhil G: Hey everyone.
43 00:02:03.470 ⇒ 00:02:06.260 Demilade Agboola: Could we wait a minute more, or should we just get started?
44 00:02:07.210 ⇒ 00:02:09.219 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, let’s wait a minute.
45 00:02:09.229 ⇒ 00:02:09.769 Demilade Agboola: Sure.
46 00:02:27.690 ⇒ 00:02:31.459 Uttam Kumaran: Everybody needs some music to Greg’s music thread.
47 00:02:31.460 ⇒ 00:02:39.149 Greg Stoutenburg: I know, what’s the deal? You know, like, I’m gonna give one more go at trying to encourage team culture, and then I’m just video off for the rest of the quarter.
48 00:02:39.740 ⇒ 00:02:41.669 Uttam Kumaran: Hey, I always respond with something.
49 00:02:41.670 ⇒ 00:02:43.050 Greg Stoutenburg: I know, I appreciate that.
50 00:02:43.510 ⇒ 00:02:46.329 Greg Stoutenburg: We got to hear from Kayla today, a little Lauryn Hill.
51 00:02:47.270 ⇒ 00:02:50.439 Uttam Kumaran: Kayla’s been on Lauryn Hill for 4… for 3 weeks now.
52 00:02:51.330 ⇒ 00:02:55.380 Kaela Gallagher: I’ve been on Lauryn Hill for, like, 3 years now.
53 00:03:03.050 ⇒ 00:03:09.249 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah, Utam, I will ask again. Did you… when you said you were waiting for this, did you mean specifically Primus, or did you just mean…
54 00:03:09.250 ⇒ 00:03:14.070 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, for their thread! For your thread. I thought it came late today, but I don’t know, maybe…
55 00:03:14.070 ⇒ 00:03:16.409 Greg Stoutenburg: Okay. I, I, yeah, I think I will.
56 00:03:16.410 ⇒ 00:03:18.140 Uttam Kumaran: Almost, it was almost noon.
57 00:03:18.140 ⇒ 00:03:18.770 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah.
58 00:03:19.150 ⇒ 00:03:19.750 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah. What’s going on.
59 00:03:19.750 ⇒ 00:03:20.410 Uttam Kumaran: What’s going on?
60 00:03:20.410 ⇒ 00:03:22.000 Greg Stoutenburg: 10.49 my time.
61 00:03:22.810 ⇒ 00:03:26.250 Uttam Kumaran: I woke up… At 8 AM, I said, no thread.
62 00:03:26.250 ⇒ 00:03:27.610 Greg Stoutenburg: Like, where is it?
63 00:03:27.610 ⇒ 00:03:30.890 Uttam Kumaran: Something must be going on.
64 00:03:31.800 ⇒ 00:03:34.750 Uttam Kumaran: That was the first light that entered my eye.
65 00:03:34.750 ⇒ 00:03:35.200 Greg Stoutenburg: What’s up?
66 00:03:35.200 ⇒ 00:03:37.579 Uttam Kumaran: Was Slack fun and random?
67 00:03:37.580 ⇒ 00:03:38.970 Greg Stoutenburg: Where is it?
68 00:03:39.450 ⇒ 00:03:42.529 Robert Tseng: Talk about Greg’s music, music list, DJ Greg.
69 00:03:42.700 ⇒ 00:03:43.410 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
70 00:03:43.410 ⇒ 00:03:49.480 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah. We’re trying to crowdsource it, trying to crowdsource a, Brainforge playlist.
71 00:03:51.440 ⇒ 00:03:52.950 Uttam Kumaran: I listened to your other, like.
72 00:03:53.070 ⇒ 00:03:56.210 Uttam Kumaran: Heavy rock, or punk rock one. It was good.
73 00:03:56.890 ⇒ 00:03:57.829 Uttam Kumaran: It was great.
74 00:03:58.950 ⇒ 00:04:00.780 Greg Stoutenburg: Oh, I think that was Story of the Year.
75 00:04:00.780 ⇒ 00:04:02.100 Uttam Kumaran: Yes, yes.
76 00:04:02.300 ⇒ 00:04:06.519 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah. I remember that on the radio, like, when I first got my driver’s license.
77 00:04:09.170 ⇒ 00:04:13.320 Greg Stoutenburg: You could buy it on a CD, I’ll say that, so… just to get the date back.
78 00:04:13.320 ⇒ 00:04:15.820 Uttam Kumaran: My 50 Cent Get Richard Dietronics CD.
79 00:04:17.050 ⇒ 00:04:17.959 Greg Stoutenburg: Nice.
80 00:04:20.769 ⇒ 00:04:22.949 Uttam Kumaran: Cool, okay, Demi, go for it.
81 00:04:23.750 ⇒ 00:04:34.500 Demilade Agboola: Alright, let’s… let’s do it. Give me one second… Can we see my screen?
82 00:04:35.660 ⇒ 00:04:36.340 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
83 00:04:36.690 ⇒ 00:04:41.769 Demilade Agboola: Alright, so today’s icebreaker… will be a Kahoot.
84 00:04:42.590 ⇒ 00:04:47.400 Demilade Agboola: So… Please feel free to scan the QR code.
85 00:04:47.820 ⇒ 00:04:49.800 Demilade Agboola: We’ll use the game pin.
86 00:04:50.600 ⇒ 00:04:52.700 Demilade Agboola: And just kinda let me know when you’re in.
87 00:05:07.500 ⇒ 00:05:09.450 Demilade Agboola: Okay, nice, nice, nice.
88 00:05:10.490 ⇒ 00:05:13.719 Demilade Agboola: Also, let me know if you have any issues.
89 00:05:14.620 ⇒ 00:05:15.929 Demilade Agboola: Signing in.
90 00:05:17.880 ⇒ 00:05:18.560 Awaish Kumar: Nope.
91 00:05:19.730 ⇒ 00:05:20.829 Demilade Agboola: Nice, nice.
92 00:05:20.990 ⇒ 00:05:25.180 Demilade Agboola: So the concept of this Kahoot is we’re a global team.
93 00:05:25.440 ⇒ 00:05:29.690 Demilade Agboola: Unfortunately, if the new members of the team, the team that just joined, like.
94 00:05:29.990 ⇒ 00:05:35.970 Demilade Agboola: they’re not necessarily, like, factored in, because, like, I did not know where they’re based. But, for members of the team.
95 00:05:36.100 ⇒ 00:05:42.320 Demilade Agboola: Or spread across the world in different places, so we have questions about that, you know?
96 00:05:42.460 ⇒ 00:05:46.549 Demilade Agboola: And we’ll kind of see who gets the highest score.
97 00:05:47.510 ⇒ 00:05:48.970 Demilade Agboola: Are we all in?
98 00:05:52.530 ⇒ 00:05:54.320 Demilade Agboola: Garrett just joined…
99 00:05:58.860 ⇒ 00:06:02.790 Demilade Agboola: Can we do it like a thumbs up if we’re in, so I can just kind of get an idea of who’s left?
100 00:06:08.650 ⇒ 00:06:11.249 Demilade Agboola: Gotcha. Alright, so let’s get it started.
101 00:06:20.250 ⇒ 00:06:26.639 Demilade Agboola: Alright, so the game is Where in the World Are We? So… It’s about to get started.
102 00:06:27.740 ⇒ 00:06:28.610 Demilade Agboola: Alright.
103 00:06:28.930 ⇒ 00:06:34.830 Demilade Agboola: So, the first question is which of the team’s countries drives on the left side of the road?
104 00:06:34.930 ⇒ 00:06:37.150 Demilade Agboola: So, that means the steering is on the right.
105 00:06:37.260 ⇒ 00:06:38.520 Demilade Agboola: Like, in the car.
106 00:06:40.270 ⇒ 00:06:42.739 Uttam Kumaran: What is it here? Oh, here it’s left, right?
107 00:06:43.040 ⇒ 00:06:44.489 Demilade Agboola: Yes, it’s on the left in the US.
108 00:06:45.220 ⇒ 00:06:46.730 Uttam Kumaran: I was just driving.
109 00:06:51.120 ⇒ 00:06:52.199 Uttam Kumaran: God, I don’t know.
110 00:06:56.920 ⇒ 00:07:05.999 Demilade Agboola: It’s actually Malta, so, the other countries, it’s, again, like, the US on the steering wheel is on the left side, and they drive on the right side.
111 00:07:07.220 ⇒ 00:07:08.919 Awaish Kumar: In the Europe, it’s right.
112 00:07:09.270 ⇒ 00:07:10.350 Demilade Agboola: Exactly.
113 00:07:11.970 ⇒ 00:07:17.469 Uttam Kumaran: Demi, is there something on your screen? Like, as a host… is there supposed to be a host screen, or are we just watching on ours?
114 00:07:18.160 ⇒ 00:07:19.840 Awaish Kumar: There’s hungry.
115 00:07:19.840 ⇒ 00:07:20.440 Demilade Agboola: I bet.
116 00:07:20.830 ⇒ 00:07:22.190 Demilade Agboola: Give me one second.
117 00:07:22.190 ⇒ 00:07:23.749 Uttam Kumaran: And then Greg got locked out.
118 00:07:24.850 ⇒ 00:07:25.800 Demilade Agboola: Greg did.
119 00:07:27.290 ⇒ 00:07:37.170 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah, it timed out before it let me put the pin in, so then when I went to try to do it again, it said, limit reached, joining is no longer available as the participant limit has been reached.
120 00:07:37.920 ⇒ 00:07:39.000 Uttam Kumaran: Dang!
121 00:07:39.000 ⇒ 00:07:40.440 Greg Stoutenburg: Downsides of scale.
122 00:07:40.440 ⇒ 00:07:41.770 Uttam Kumaran: We have the free plan.
123 00:07:44.050 ⇒ 00:07:46.280 Greg Stoutenburg: Nope, now I know who’s going on that second page.
124 00:07:46.280 ⇒ 00:07:51.100 Uttam Kumaran: Well, Greg, I’ll play with you, I’ll send you a screenshot and DM, and me and you can be on… Sounds good.
125 00:07:51.100 ⇒ 00:07:54.009 Greg Stoutenburg: Alright, cool, we’re gonna… we’re gonna do this as a team.
126 00:07:55.250 ⇒ 00:07:57.240 Demilade Agboola: Okay.
127 00:07:58.230 ⇒ 00:08:02.040 Nikhil G: Hang on a sec, like, is it, like, multiple…
128 00:08:02.350 ⇒ 00:08:09.380 Nikhil G: to answer the question, because I think the answer should be Pakistan and Malta.
129 00:08:11.360 ⇒ 00:08:13.930 Uttam Kumaran: What is it in Pakistan? Because I guess Pakistan.
130 00:08:13.930 ⇒ 00:08:16.070 Abdullah Ahmad: Yeah, exactly, it’s on the left side of the road.
131 00:08:16.070 ⇒ 00:08:19.999 Awaish Kumar: India, Pakistan, all are on the left side.
132 00:08:20.000 ⇒ 00:08:20.710 Abdullah Ahmad: Oh, yeah.
133 00:08:21.020 ⇒ 00:08:22.530 Abdullah Ahmad: all British colonies.
134 00:08:22.690 ⇒ 00:08:25.850 Demilade Agboola: Interesting. Well, apologies then, like.
135 00:08:25.850 ⇒ 00:08:29.219 Uttam Kumaran: I need a refund. I need a refund, my point.
136 00:08:29.220 ⇒ 00:08:31.129 Demilade Agboola: Okay, in that case, because I actually did…
137 00:08:31.560 ⇒ 00:08:36.499 Demilade Agboola: search it, and I found Malta, and I was like, alright, cool. So, yeah, in this case.
138 00:08:36.880 ⇒ 00:08:38.850 Demilade Agboola: you learned something new. I’ve learned for Pakistani.
139 00:08:39.500 ⇒ 00:08:40.959 Demilade Agboola: On the left side of the room.
140 00:08:41.110 ⇒ 00:08:46.419 Abdullah Ahmad: I think every country that was colonized by the UK drives on the left with the steering on the right.
141 00:08:46.420 ⇒ 00:08:49.119 Demilade Agboola: You will think that, but that’s not true.
142 00:08:49.120 ⇒ 00:08:51.250 Uttam Kumaran: This, except, except this country.
143 00:08:52.080 ⇒ 00:08:53.220 Uttam Kumaran: Changed it up.
144 00:08:53.220 ⇒ 00:08:56.820 Demilade Agboola: the US, and also Nigeria, and also Nigeria. Nigeria and Ghana.
145 00:08:57.130 ⇒ 00:09:03.180 Demilade Agboola: We are also on the other side of work. We drive on the, like, the right side with the steering on the left.
146 00:09:03.590 ⇒ 00:09:12.119 Demilade Agboola: Because, like, that’s because of, like, geographical reasons. So because we’re, like, the other colonies around us were French colonies.
147 00:09:12.480 ⇒ 00:09:25.599 Demilade Agboola: And we wanted to, like, have easy transport within all the countries in West Africa, so we flipped things in 1972 to the other side, so you can drive across the different parts of West Africa.
148 00:09:28.070 ⇒ 00:09:30.050 Demilade Agboola: So, just random stuff.
149 00:09:30.790 ⇒ 00:09:34.140 Demilade Agboola: Okay.
150 00:09:34.670 ⇒ 00:09:41.259 Demilade Agboola: So, based off the answer, which is apparently not the complete answer, we have, the ahead.
151 00:09:44.230 ⇒ 00:09:48.990 Demilade Agboola: Alright, so this is… a US-based question.
152 00:09:49.420 ⇒ 00:09:56.360 Demilade Agboola: And I feel the US team should get this, so this is, like, an easy question. So which of the team… which USCT is the farthest west?
153 00:09:56.740 ⇒ 00:10:05.460 Demilade Agboola: And this is based off where team members are located, so LA, New York, Portland, and Texas.
154 00:10:05.790 ⇒ 00:10:06.360 Awaish Kumar: You?
155 00:10:11.460 ⇒ 00:10:16.259 Demilade Agboola: Don’t tell me Ellie is the… because, like, again, I googled this and it says, Portland.
156 00:10:18.870 ⇒ 00:10:24.759 Uttam Kumaran: I literally ran out of time, I was about to hit Portland. Me and Greg were just, like, confirming.
157 00:10:25.090 ⇒ 00:10:27.340 Demilade Agboola: Okay, yeah, it is Portland, based off my.
158 00:10:27.340 ⇒ 00:10:28.269 Robert Tseng: Wait, who’s Portland?
159 00:10:28.270 ⇒ 00:10:29.640 Michele Altomare: Who’s in Portland?
160 00:10:31.290 ⇒ 00:10:32.730 Demilade Agboola: V is in Portland?
161 00:10:34.650 ⇒ 00:10:36.209 Uttam Kumaran: No, Advaita’s in Ohio.
162 00:10:36.420 ⇒ 00:10:38.510 Amber Lin: Well, previously, Annie was in Portland.
163 00:10:38.510 ⇒ 00:10:39.539 Uttam Kumaran: And he wasn’t for…
164 00:10:39.540 ⇒ 00:10:39.920 Amber Lin: Yeah.
165 00:10:39.920 ⇒ 00:10:41.620 Uttam Kumaran: It’s my back.
166 00:10:41.620 ⇒ 00:10:43.830 Demilade Agboola: Yeah, because I know this one on the team.
167 00:10:44.130 ⇒ 00:10:45.130 Awaish Kumar: ill data.
168 00:10:46.390 ⇒ 00:10:50.579 Uttam Kumaran: I just stopped because LA’s kind of inland, right? It kind of, like, peels in.
169 00:10:51.120 ⇒ 00:10:52.180 Uttam Kumaran: It’s a quick question.
170 00:10:52.650 ⇒ 00:10:54.269 Uttam Kumaran: Classic trick question.
171 00:10:56.190 ⇒ 00:11:01.540 Demilade Agboola: New updates… Great, we have a new leader.
172 00:11:02.810 ⇒ 00:11:06.280 Demilade Agboola: So, with locations on our team.
173 00:11:06.390 ⇒ 00:11:07.930 Demilade Agboola: Our archipelagos.
174 00:11:11.030 ⇒ 00:11:13.069 Uttam Kumaran: It can’t be Nigeria.
175 00:11:19.230 ⇒ 00:11:21.340 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t know, I’m just… sorry.
176 00:11:27.140 ⇒ 00:11:29.960 Uttam Kumaran: No way, it’s Malta!
177 00:11:29.960 ⇒ 00:11:34.819 Demilade Agboola: Malta is a metropolo, Philippines is also a metropolo, so…
178 00:11:34.820 ⇒ 00:11:37.750 Uttam Kumaran: Bool me twice.
179 00:11:38.750 ⇒ 00:11:39.880 Demilade Agboola: Alright.
180 00:11:40.670 ⇒ 00:11:46.260 Uttam Kumaran: I’m always, like, the person where if you… if it’s C too many times on the Scantron, like, you have to put a different one.
181 00:11:49.300 ⇒ 00:11:51.340 Demilade Agboola: Alright, so B’s forging ahead.
182 00:11:52.600 ⇒ 00:11:53.420 Michele Altomare: B.
183 00:11:56.050 ⇒ 00:11:59.310 Demilade Agboola: Alright, which of our team’s countries has the most coastline?
184 00:12:06.830 ⇒ 00:12:09.810 Uttam Kumaran: It’s gonna be my… I feel like I have to pick Valta.
185 00:12:12.760 ⇒ 00:12:13.990 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
186 00:12:14.680 ⇒ 00:12:16.170 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, my God.
187 00:12:16.170 ⇒ 00:12:17.300 Michele Altomare: Oh, so it’s been…
188 00:12:17.300 ⇒ 00:12:20.989 Demilade Agboola: Philippines, because the Philippines apparently has, like, 7,000 islands.
189 00:12:22.790 ⇒ 00:12:23.260 Awaish Kumar: Yeah.
190 00:12:23.260 ⇒ 00:12:26.480 Demilade Agboola: So, yeah, the Philippines has the largest coastline.
191 00:12:28.520 ⇒ 00:12:30.829 Demilade Agboola: Okay, so, let’s move on.
192 00:12:32.220 ⇒ 00:12:34.969 Demilade Agboola: Again, like I said, be smashing it.
193 00:12:35.470 ⇒ 00:12:37.810 Demilade Agboola: I would expect him to, actually.
194 00:12:37.810 ⇒ 00:12:40.480 Brylle Girang: I’m only here because you’re not playing, Demi.
195 00:12:40.480 ⇒ 00:12:44.159 Demilade Agboola: We’re gonna switch it up, we’re gonna switch it up.
196 00:12:46.860 ⇒ 00:12:51.650 Demilade Agboola: Alright, so which of our team’s locations has the highest naturally occurring peak?
197 00:12:54.540 ⇒ 00:12:56.350 Awaish Kumar: So, we have 2 times, Pakistan.
198 00:12:58.830 ⇒ 00:13:00.820 Mustafa Raja: We have two Pakistans here.
199 00:13:01.230 ⇒ 00:13:02.020 Demilade Agboola: Ugh.
200 00:13:02.270 ⇒ 00:13:03.849 Nikhil G: Maybe 2 cacos.
201 00:13:04.990 ⇒ 00:13:07.580 Uttam Kumaran: I’m gonna just have to vote Malta again.
202 00:13:09.930 ⇒ 00:13:11.020 Awaish Kumar: It’s… it’s in…
203 00:13:11.730 ⇒ 00:13:12.239 Mustafa Raja: as it is.
204 00:13:12.880 ⇒ 00:13:13.660 Demilade Agboola: Pakistan.
205 00:13:13.660 ⇒ 00:13:14.950 Mustafa Raja: to Lubakistan.
206 00:13:14.950 ⇒ 00:13:15.980 Demilade Agboola: Oh, dammit.
207 00:13:17.830 ⇒ 00:13:24.600 Demilade Agboola: Really, for people who picked, I did not notice I had done two Pakistan. Apologies for everyone who, picked the…
208 00:13:24.790 ⇒ 00:13:37.159 Demilade Agboola: last, Pakistan? But yes, Pakistan is the actual answer to the question. It has, K2 in there, which is the highest, occurring, like, naturally occurring, peak.
209 00:13:37.570 ⇒ 00:13:48.200 Demilade Agboola: It’s… Akron is supposed to be the second largest mountain in the world, too, so… that’s a fun fact to also know. Again, apologies to everyone who’s missed this at this point.
210 00:13:50.190 ⇒ 00:14:00.580 Demilade Agboola: Next question… So, which country on our team has the highest population density?
211 00:14:15.920 ⇒ 00:14:28.850 Demilade Agboola: So the answer is Malta. So, here’s the thing. Though Malta has a really small population, it’s also a really, really small island. So by the time you look at the density, it’s the most dense,
212 00:14:28.970 ⇒ 00:14:30.160 Demilade Agboola: Country there is.
213 00:14:30.470 ⇒ 00:14:33.599 Demilade Agboola: So, that is the highest population density.
214 00:14:35.760 ⇒ 00:14:41.230 Nikhil G: Someone’s showing me, limit range, and it kicked me out.
215 00:14:41.980 ⇒ 00:14:43.470 Demilade Agboola: It did? Oh, damn it.
216 00:14:44.640 ⇒ 00:14:48.669 Demilade Agboola: like, again, this is the first time using Kahoots for this, so…
217 00:14:49.100 ⇒ 00:14:52.940 Demilade Agboola: These weird bugs are… can you try rejoining and seeing, like, what he does?
218 00:14:52.940 ⇒ 00:14:54.749 Uttam Kumaran: We’ll put your answer in the chat.
219 00:15:08.890 ⇒ 00:15:09.820 Demilade Agboola: Alright.
220 00:15:10.100 ⇒ 00:15:12.640 Demilade Agboola: So, okay, let’s move on to the next question.
221 00:15:14.170 ⇒ 00:15:17.740 Demilade Agboola: Which country on our team has the most languages spoken?
222 00:15:18.140 ⇒ 00:15:21.260 Demilade Agboola: So, Philippines, Pakistan, Nigeria, Malta.
223 00:15:39.980 ⇒ 00:15:41.920 Demilade Agboola: So, the answer is Nigeria.
224 00:15:42.090 ⇒ 00:15:54.250 Demilade Agboola: Depending on where you look, Nigeria has over 250 languages, some say 500 languages, so it’s a lot of languages, basically. So that would be the answer to that question.
225 00:15:58.630 ⇒ 00:16:05.429 Demilade Agboola: And then, second on the list will be Pakistan. Apparently, they have… there’s, like, 180 languages in Pakistan as well, so…
226 00:16:10.800 ⇒ 00:16:14.700 Demilade Agboola: Nice, nice, Kayla and Davies are coming up. Let’s get it.
227 00:16:17.150 ⇒ 00:16:18.040 Demilade Agboola: Alright.
228 00:16:18.260 ⇒ 00:16:23.859 Demilade Agboola: So how many hours separate the earliest and latest time zones on our team?
229 00:16:42.940 ⇒ 00:16:48.980 Demilade Agboola: So, yeah, it’s approximately 14. So, like, LA to Pakistan is approximately 14 hours.
230 00:16:49.240 ⇒ 00:16:49.760 Demilade Agboola: So…
231 00:16:49.760 ⇒ 00:16:55.929 Nikhil G: Like, we have someone from Philippines as well, so… are we not… Including that.
232 00:16:56.450 ⇒ 00:16:57.130 Demilade Agboola: Here we are.
233 00:16:59.280 ⇒ 00:17:00.830 Uttam Kumaran: Wait, LA to Philippines?
234 00:17:02.410 ⇒ 00:17:02.970 Nikhil G: Yeah.
235 00:17:04.550 ⇒ 00:17:06.629 Nikhil G: Pakistan will be between, right?
236 00:17:08.290 ⇒ 00:17:12.360 Demilade Agboola: I think… also, to be fair, I think it also is…
237 00:17:14.089 ⇒ 00:17:15.829 Nikhil G: Maybe you’re going the other way.
238 00:17:16.640 ⇒ 00:17:20.399 Demilade Agboola: Yeah, no, like, it’s just basically, like, once they cross over into the new day.
239 00:17:20.750 ⇒ 00:17:24.130 Demilade Agboola: What is… how many hours behind are we… are we looking at?
240 00:17:29.610 ⇒ 00:17:30.920 Demilade Agboola: Okay…
241 00:17:35.680 ⇒ 00:17:36.720 Demilade Agboola: Nice.
242 00:17:38.570 ⇒ 00:17:41.950 Demilade Agboola: And then, question 9.
243 00:17:42.910 ⇒ 00:17:48.399 Demilade Agboola: Which two of our team’s locations are geographically close… closest to each other?
244 00:17:58.340 ⇒ 00:18:01.290 Uttam Kumaran: California’s… the West Coast is surprisingly big.
245 00:18:04.370 ⇒ 00:18:05.689 Uttam Kumaran: Alright, I don’t know.
246 00:18:07.180 ⇒ 00:18:14.870 Demilade Agboola: Alright, so, again, unfortunately, Portland turns out to not be a current team’s location, but yes, LA to Portland will be Portland.
247 00:18:15.510 ⇒ 00:18:20.650 Amber Lin: I think right now it’s LA and SF, because Miranda’s in San Francisco.
248 00:18:20.650 ⇒ 00:18:21.950 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, we have SF.
249 00:18:22.610 ⇒ 00:18:24.320 Amber Lin: So that should be the closest.
250 00:18:24.320 ⇒ 00:18:26.410 Miranda Wen: The missing fish.
251 00:18:28.030 ⇒ 00:18:31.669 Demilade Agboola: So now we have an idea of who’s, like, people that are close to each other.
252 00:18:32.780 ⇒ 00:18:35.990 Demilade Agboola: Alright.
253 00:18:36.840 ⇒ 00:18:38.810 Demilade Agboola: Kayla is coming back.
254 00:18:42.700 ⇒ 00:18:44.619 Demilade Agboola: The penultimate question.
255 00:18:45.770 ⇒ 00:18:50.530 Demilade Agboola: So, which of our locations has never naturally experienced snowfall?
256 00:18:55.330 ⇒ 00:18:56.560 Nikhil G: Malta.
257 00:19:00.260 ⇒ 00:19:01.420 Awaish Kumar: Philippines.
258 00:19:07.030 ⇒ 00:19:08.629 Uttam Kumaran: Pakistan has a lot of snow.
259 00:19:09.350 ⇒ 00:19:10.560 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. But I learned.
260 00:19:11.790 ⇒ 00:19:12.530 Awaish Kumar: Yes.
261 00:19:12.530 ⇒ 00:19:12.990 Demilade Agboola: So, welcome.
262 00:19:12.990 ⇒ 00:19:18.210 Uttam Kumaran: Ashwini showed… Ashwini showed me, like, his backyard. It’s, like, basically, like, the Himalayas.
263 00:19:19.920 ⇒ 00:19:26.820 Demilade Agboola: So, while, like, Malta doesn’t snow frequently, it has actually snowed before.
264 00:19:27.040 ⇒ 00:19:27.730 Demilade Agboola: Right.
265 00:19:27.960 ⇒ 00:19:30.349 Demilade Agboola: So in terms of where has never.
266 00:19:30.780 ⇒ 00:19:32.970 Demilade Agboola: Experience, no, that would be the Philippines.
267 00:19:36.140 ⇒ 00:19:42.680 Demilade Agboola: So… Let’s do this. And then, final question.
268 00:19:43.620 ⇒ 00:19:44.920 Demilade Agboola: Drum roll, please.
269 00:19:46.090 ⇒ 00:19:49.789 Demilade Agboola: So, which of our team’s countries has the longest river?
270 00:20:09.160 ⇒ 00:20:10.140 Demilade Agboola: So…
271 00:20:10.940 ⇒ 00:20:19.749 Demilade Agboola: The answer is Nigeria. So Nigeria has the river Niger, which forms the basis of the name Nigeria, and it’s the third largest river in Africa.
272 00:20:20.440 ⇒ 00:20:25.449 Demilade Agboola: So, based off all of that, drum roll please, let’s look at the podium.
273 00:20:27.940 ⇒ 00:20:29.330 Uttam Kumaran: Dang!
274 00:20:32.340 ⇒ 00:20:33.630 Uttam Kumaran: Brainiacs.
275 00:20:34.950 ⇒ 00:20:43.409 Demilade Agboola: Now, there are caveats to the fact that question 1 and 3, I believe, or questions 1 and 4, did have some question marks about them.
276 00:20:43.600 ⇒ 00:20:46.680 Demilade Agboola: But, right now, based off of this.
277 00:20:46.850 ⇒ 00:20:50.860 Demilade Agboola: Our podium will be Mickey, Kayla, and Abdullah.
278 00:20:51.150 ⇒ 00:20:52.820 Demilade Agboola: So, congrats to them.
279 00:20:57.130 ⇒ 00:21:01.320 Demilade Agboola: So, yeah, I felt that was going to be fun, just to try, like.
280 00:21:02.210 ⇒ 00:21:03.579 Uttam Kumaran: Thanks, Demi, that was good.
281 00:21:03.930 ⇒ 00:21:06.130 Demilade Agboola: Different things about different parts of…
282 00:21:06.440 ⇒ 00:21:08.830 Demilade Agboola: the world, because I think…
283 00:21:09.760 ⇒ 00:21:17.450 Demilade Agboola: Part of being in a global team is that there’s so much happening, like, around the world to different people, and just being able to, like, know about that would be pretty cool.
284 00:21:19.120 ⇒ 00:21:23.380 Demilade Agboola: Okay, so, in terms of lab share…
285 00:21:24.770 ⇒ 00:21:31.240 Demilade Agboola: So, my lab here is on tennis, work, and life. Now, if you know me, you know I love to play tennis.
286 00:21:31.400 ⇒ 00:21:36.159 Demilade Agboola: I started playing tennis just last year, like, July of last year, and I think…
287 00:21:36.320 ⇒ 00:21:40.790 Demilade Agboola: Part of the reason why I now have, like, an obsession with tennis…
288 00:21:40.940 ⇒ 00:21:48.890 Demilade Agboola: is just kind of how, like, I’m able to extrapolate things about tennis into, like, life, work, and just the general concept.
289 00:21:49.020 ⇒ 00:21:51.500 Demilade Agboola: of things, so I just want to talk about that for a bit.
290 00:21:52.050 ⇒ 00:21:59.440 Demilade Agboola: And so, like, the first thing with, like, tennis is just basically… like…
291 00:22:00.030 ⇒ 00:22:06.409 Demilade Agboola: you have to be comfortable with losing, right? Like, when you start, you’re just going to suck, you’re terrible.
292 00:22:06.620 ⇒ 00:22:11.360 Demilade Agboola: Nothing seems to work, and being able to embrace that is the first step.
293 00:22:11.870 ⇒ 00:22:18.320 Demilade Agboola: Basically, the people who can get better have to navigate not being good.
294 00:22:19.520 ⇒ 00:22:32.530 Demilade Agboola: they can sit with that feeling and reset from that feeling, and I feel like that just applies to a lot of things. We’re, like, as a company, we’re constantly trying new things, we’re constantly trying, like, new roles, people are learning new skills.
295 00:22:32.710 ⇒ 00:22:39.300 Demilade Agboola: Sometimes it just doesn’t work initially. Like, you try out, a certain tool, you try out a certain skill.
296 00:22:39.490 ⇒ 00:22:42.909 Demilade Agboola: And it just feels weird, it feels clunky, it feels awkward.
297 00:22:43.100 ⇒ 00:22:49.919 Demilade Agboola: But being able to sit with that feeling, being able to sit with that and push it through is kind of how you end up in a position of, like.
298 00:22:50.330 ⇒ 00:22:55.880 Demilade Agboola: Actual skill, an actual… an actual ability to, like, execute at a very high level.
299 00:22:57.150 ⇒ 00:23:02.239 Demilade Agboola: Sorry, I had no idea.
300 00:23:02.440 ⇒ 00:23:04.360 Demilade Agboola: Why you moved? Alright.
301 00:23:04.500 ⇒ 00:23:07.850 Demilade Agboola: So, consistency beats brilliance.
302 00:23:08.710 ⇒ 00:23:22.309 Demilade Agboola: I know, like, generally speaking, if you watch Tennis highlights, it looks so cool when people hit, like, amazing shots. But ultimately, it’s not really about the crazy shots, it’s really about not missing.
303 00:23:22.430 ⇒ 00:23:35.999 Demilade Agboola: And it’s about just being consistent, not making mistakes, just, like, building that. And sometimes, when I play, I have to remind myself to not be so eager to hit a crazy shot, just…
304 00:23:36.190 ⇒ 00:23:44.819 Demilade Agboola: Be consistent, do the simple things. And I feel like just being consistently good is just the key to a lot of things, even beyond tennis, off the court.
305 00:23:45.070 ⇒ 00:23:47.260 Demilade Agboola: It’s great to have
306 00:23:47.530 ⇒ 00:24:02.819 Demilade Agboola: consistently good days across the week than an out-of-the-world, most productive day on a Tuesday, for instance, and, like, under… like, the rest of the days are under par. So, yeah, just being consistent with turning up with work, with life.
307 00:24:03.040 ⇒ 00:24:16.650 Demilade Agboola: It helps and makes a huge difference over trying to have, like, supercharged, super productive days once a week, or once in two weeks. That doesn’t really, make the biggest difference, generally speaking.
308 00:24:18.590 ⇒ 00:24:20.820 Demilade Agboola: Number three, it’s only a point.
309 00:24:21.160 ⇒ 00:24:26.689 Demilade Agboola: Even the greatest players lose almost half the points in the match.
310 00:24:27.210 ⇒ 00:24:31.559 Demilade Agboola: Right? Like, the best players, the greatest players, they lose a lot.
311 00:24:31.720 ⇒ 00:24:36.840 Demilade Agboola: And so, being comfortable with, like, such frequency of, like, losing and winning.
312 00:24:37.200 ⇒ 00:24:45.620 Demilade Agboola: It means you’re able to handle, like, failure and winning as, like, individual pieces, rather than, like, a summation of who you are or what your efforts are.
313 00:24:46.860 ⇒ 00:24:59.500 Demilade Agboola: On the good days, on the bad days, it’s literally just a point, right? So, same thing with the client. You have a good meeting, it’s just a point. You have a bad meeting, it’s just a point. Sometimes…
314 00:25:00.760 ⇒ 00:25:12.840 Demilade Agboola: clients have feedback. Good feedback, great. It’s just a point. Bad feedback? Great. It’s also just a point. And sometimes I feel like in the fast-paced, high, like, fast-paced environment we’re in.
315 00:25:12.840 ⇒ 00:25:24.299 Demilade Agboola: Sometimes it’s very easy for us to, like, get caught up in both the highs and the lows, and just being able to be balanced through it all is a very important, like, trait to have, and a very important, like.
316 00:25:24.490 ⇒ 00:25:29.620 Demilade Agboola: Way to, like, view things, because you don’t want to get caught up in, like, O.
317 00:25:30.720 ⇒ 00:25:43.189 Demilade Agboola: the client said this, the world is falling. The client said that, the world is falling, or, like, everything is great. Sometimes there are weeks, even within one week, we can have good meetings and bad meetings, all within that week.
318 00:25:43.190 ⇒ 00:25:51.110 Demilade Agboola: And just being able to, like, be level about it, and take what we’ve learned from both the good and the bad, to, like, keep moving forward is, like, a very important thing.
319 00:25:53.070 ⇒ 00:26:00.200 Demilade Agboola: 4 is, like, you only get what you put in, and I feel like the difference between, like, delusion and self-confidence
320 00:26:00.590 ⇒ 00:26:02.760 Demilade Agboola: is ultimately…
321 00:26:03.580 ⇒ 00:26:14.210 Demilade Agboola: how much work have you put in to feel confidence in that? So sometimes I know, like, there are times I will, be playing tennis, and
322 00:26:14.490 ⇒ 00:26:21.320 Demilade Agboola: I know there are shots I should never try, because I’ve never practiced it, so why in the world would I try it at even, like.
323 00:26:21.710 ⇒ 00:26:37.279 Demilade Agboola: attempt it, but there are times I do, and it goes badly, as you would expect. But also that… but that is just a function of the fact that I haven’t tried that often, like, often enough to feel confident in it. And I noticed that the certain shots that I’ve practiced and practiced, like my serve, for instance.
324 00:26:37.360 ⇒ 00:26:57.009 Demilade Agboola: And now I feel more confident trying those things, because ultimately, the reason why it has switched from, like, delusion to, like, confidence in certain shots, or certain abilities, or certain situations is just really the practice, the time you’ve put in there. And again, like, it comes to… back to, like, when I said.
325 00:26:58.110 ⇒ 00:27:03.869 Demilade Agboola: We’re getting, like, new roles, new, like, positions. All of that is just a function of
326 00:27:04.180 ⇒ 00:27:16.609 Demilade Agboola: building the experience and building confidence in that. The reason why you can handle client meetings very well is because you’ve done that over and over, and you know how to handle that. The reason why you know how to handle
327 00:27:18.800 ⇒ 00:27:34.909 Demilade Agboola: tough, sticky situations when clients are unhappy. It’s because you’ve been there, you know how to handle it, you know what to say, you know what to listen out for. And ultimately, that’s what builds confidence. It’s just the same act of, like, doing the same thing over and over. You get to a point where, like…
328 00:27:34.940 ⇒ 00:27:43.279 Demilade Agboola: you’re not stressed, you kind of know what to do, you know what outcomes are expected based off the, imputes to what you’ve done.
329 00:27:44.610 ⇒ 00:27:49.450 Demilade Agboola: And then, ultimately, like, pressure reveals, it doesn’t create.
330 00:27:49.890 ⇒ 00:27:52.799 Demilade Agboola: So, I have signed up for tournaments here in Malta.
331 00:27:53.370 ⇒ 00:28:00.030 Demilade Agboola: And I have played a couple. In, like, the juniors category, like, I was the highest points winner in, like.
332 00:28:00.930 ⇒ 00:28:10.090 Demilade Agboola: the juniors category for the quarter, like, Q1. And part of things I’ve learned is just, like, when the score is tight, like, you don’t become a different player. Like, when the matches are tough.
333 00:28:10.230 ⇒ 00:28:22.439 Demilade Agboola: you’re not going to, like, just magically, like, again, like I said, you’re not just going to magically do a new thing you’ve never done. You have to be honest with yourself. What are my strengths? What are my weaknesses? How well am I doing this today?
334 00:28:22.700 ⇒ 00:28:27.570 Demilade Agboola: And if I’m not doing this well today, what am I comfortable doing that I can switch to?
335 00:28:27.800 ⇒ 00:28:39.650 Demilade Agboola: And ultimately, like, that’s just the same thing. Like, when you have, like, deadlines, you know, tough conversations, like uncertainty, like, you’re not really going to find new trades, per se, right? They just reveal what’s there, like…
336 00:28:39.820 ⇒ 00:28:53.959 Demilade Agboola: how, like, what have you been, like, what skills have you been doing? Like, what have you worked on? Is it, like, the Omni certification, for instance? Like, oh, like, you’ve been doing that, I’ve worked in Omni, and now when the client says, hey, we need a turnaround by tomorrow.
337 00:28:54.080 ⇒ 00:29:12.799 Demilade Agboola: you’re not necessarily going to start learning Omni right there, right then. It’s the fact that you’ve done it over and over and over, that you’re like, okay, yeah, this can be done in 4 hours, 5 hours, and I can turn it around to the client. And so, like, ultimately, the real work is not just, like, the big moment, the, like, high pressure, oh, we need this done by tomorrow.
338 00:29:12.880 ⇒ 00:29:22.109 Demilade Agboola: that’s not the… the big moment, that’s no way you figure stuff out. It’s like building the habits and the mindset before those moments arrive, like, it’s…
339 00:29:22.790 ⇒ 00:29:31.519 Demilade Agboola: basically preparing in peace before war comes, and it’s kind of like that. You just kind of have to… in the moments where, like.
340 00:29:31.700 ⇒ 00:29:43.880 Demilade Agboola: you know, things are calmer, that’s the period in which we need to, like, build and fortify ourselves for those periods in which, like, we have so many clients, everything is just, like, spinning. So we kind of just need to have that.
341 00:29:44.910 ⇒ 00:29:51.640 Demilade Agboola: And finally, it’s just, like, in a small team, Any fast… peace, environment.
342 00:29:51.880 ⇒ 00:29:57.119 Demilade Agboola: The goal is just to keep, like, rolling with the punches. Like, there’s just going to be so much happening, there’s going to be, like.
343 00:29:59.480 ⇒ 00:30:07.679 Demilade Agboola: a lot going on, but ultimately, like, unlike tennis, like, we’re not… you’re not alone. You’re not out there just trying to figure things out by yourself.
344 00:30:07.830 ⇒ 00:30:16.579 Demilade Agboola: I’m wondering why, like, your skill that you’ve practiced isn’t working that day. We’re all here to support, and just kind of, like, be there for each other.
345 00:30:16.700 ⇒ 00:30:24.770 Demilade Agboola: So if it’s in, like, DBT, Omni sales, whatever, if you’re trying to do stuff, and you feel like, hey, I’m stuck, if…
346 00:30:25.410 ⇒ 00:30:37.269 Demilade Agboola: you’re trying to do things and it feels, like, very, like, overwhelming. Ultimately that’s the beauty of having a team, where we can all kind of, like, rely on each other and get feedback and, you know, build each other up.
347 00:30:37.620 ⇒ 00:30:44.419 Demilade Agboola: And so with that, that’s the end of today’s live share. I’m not sure if you have any questions or anything you want to talk about.
348 00:30:48.300 ⇒ 00:30:55.149 Greg Stoutenburg: Compared to other sports, do you feel like, the mindset encouraged by playing tennis is similar or different?
349 00:30:56.130 ⇒ 00:31:02.640 Demilade Agboola: I think as someone who grew up playing football, football being soccer for our North American folks.
350 00:31:02.840 ⇒ 00:31:16.620 Demilade Agboola: I think it’s very different from football in the sense that with football, you have a team around you, so if you’re having a bad game, people can come up to you and go, like, you know, get your head up, we need you, in that moment.
351 00:31:16.720 ⇒ 00:31:19.090 Demilade Agboola: So you constantly get those sort of pep talks.
352 00:31:19.290 ⇒ 00:31:24.039 Demilade Agboola: In tennis, you’re literally just by yourself, especially unless you’re playing doubles, but, like, you’re literally just by yourself.
353 00:31:24.300 ⇒ 00:31:29.070 Demilade Agboola: And… you have to be the one to remind yourself that, like, stay calm.
354 00:31:29.730 ⇒ 00:31:39.190 Demilade Agboola: You’ve practiced this, you’ve done this before, like, you’ve been here before, you can handle this, and it’s way different in that, way.
355 00:31:39.320 ⇒ 00:31:49.929 Demilade Agboola: Because, again, you’re problem solving just by yourself, rather than in football, where, like, you have your team around you who can either motivate you and just kind of get you going, or put you in the right position to succeed.
356 00:31:53.020 ⇒ 00:31:54.139 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah, cool, makes sense.
357 00:31:57.150 ⇒ 00:31:59.980 Demilade Agboola: I’m sorry, I just saw the AI image.
358 00:32:02.140 ⇒ 00:32:03.710 Uttam Kumaran: There’s a lot of you.
359 00:32:08.070 ⇒ 00:32:18.679 Demilade Agboola: Oh, this… oh, so for the juniors categories, it’s a skill-based ranking system. So… ultimately, yeah, like, people who are just starting were considered junior in that sense.
360 00:32:18.800 ⇒ 00:32:26.650 Demilade Agboola: But yeah, you’ll be so right, like, this past weekend, I saw, I saw a match between someone who is, like, 40,
361 00:32:27.280 ⇒ 00:32:33.180 Demilade Agboola: Apring, he used to play when he was, like, a kid, but he stopped playing for 20 years because the pressure was a lot.
362 00:32:33.780 ⇒ 00:32:35.989 Demilade Agboola: And he was playing this 13-year-old girl.
363 00:32:36.310 ⇒ 00:32:46.320 Demilade Agboola: And she was hitting so hard. I was so confused as to how good she was. Like, this was, like, upper echelon tennis. She’s operating number 2 in Malta for her age.
364 00:32:46.460 ⇒ 00:33:00.990 Demilade Agboola: So she is super good. I was… I was, like, in awe. Like, if I played her, I’m losing 6 love, 6 Love. Like, honestly, like, there’s no competition. So it’s really not an age thing, to be honest. Like, people, if you’re good, you’re good. Like…
365 00:33:05.300 ⇒ 00:33:09.849 Demilade Agboola: Sure, Kayla. Well, do you want me to share? I could do either.
366 00:33:11.030 ⇒ 00:33:12.489 Kaela Gallagher: Either or, it doesn’t matter.
367 00:33:12.770 ⇒ 00:33:13.450 Demilade Agboola: Okay.
368 00:33:14.350 ⇒ 00:33:15.870 Demilade Agboola: Alright, let me share then.
369 00:33:23.880 ⇒ 00:33:31.230 Uttam Kumaran: Cool. Yeah, I sent this message yesterday, I think I probably just want to, in effort of time, I think, just have a look.
370 00:33:31.340 ⇒ 00:33:37.130 Uttam Kumaran: I think we had a… kind of today, some of the other team will be kind of going through what we learned from VixelCon.
371 00:33:37.390 ⇒ 00:33:51.700 Uttam Kumaran: And I feel like we’re in a really good position to capitalize. So, you know, a couple ways we’re seeing this is, like, all the new people and faces that are joining the company, but we’re also thinking really hard about how to invest in this group, and how to…
372 00:33:51.720 ⇒ 00:33:58.640 Uttam Kumaran: you know, actually approach a lot of the demand that we’re seeing in the market for our services. So, just highly encourage
373 00:33:58.770 ⇒ 00:34:05.660 Uttam Kumaran: you know, if when you’re… folks that are joining, when you join, just… we’ll probably try to pin this, but I feel like this kind of captures, like.
374 00:34:06.030 ⇒ 00:34:10.220 Uttam Kumaran: some of the sentiment that I’m feeling as I’m, like, thinking about the business.
375 00:34:10.520 ⇒ 00:34:16.499 Uttam Kumaran: So I’ll, yeah, that’s sort of my encouragement there. Maybe we can go to one more slide, Demi.
376 00:34:17.090 ⇒ 00:34:22.849 Uttam Kumaran: The other piece, I just wanted to talk about, I’m having this conversation with many different people, and I think Demi.
377 00:34:22.960 ⇒ 00:34:25.210 Uttam Kumaran: mentioned this.
378 00:34:25.260 ⇒ 00:34:39.299 Uttam Kumaran: A little bit is, like, we all have, like, roles, especially on the delivery side, that we’re starting to really set expectations pretty clear. I think everyone has come with feedback, and we’ve sort of shifted folks around, but this is the team.
379 00:34:39.300 ⇒ 00:34:50.879 Uttam Kumaran: And so, between me and sort of head of delivery with CSOs, service leads, and ICs, we all have a role to play. But what you don’t see here are account managers, project managers.
380 00:34:50.880 ⇒ 00:35:00.980 Uttam Kumaran: Like, we’re not biasing towards, like, way too much process and huge pods. We want to give clients, like, really clear expectations of how we’re delivering for them.
381 00:35:01.030 ⇒ 00:35:16.229 Uttam Kumaran: And so I’ve been talking about this, you know, with several folks this week and last week, and each of these folks has a… has a… each of these roles has a job to do, you know, and expectations. It’s not a… it’s not necessarily, like, a linear hierarchy.
382 00:35:16.280 ⇒ 00:35:24.070 Uttam Kumaran: It is, like, roles that each one of us can rely on each other for when we’re attacking, you know, a client problem.
383 00:35:24.240 ⇒ 00:35:34.220 Uttam Kumaran: So the folks that are new, you’ll kind of get a sense of this when you join, about, like, how these relationships work, and how the set of expectations are sort of different across both.
384 00:35:34.580 ⇒ 00:35:36.959 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, you can continue.
385 00:35:38.730 ⇒ 00:35:41.389 Uttam Kumaran: Cool. Maybe, Mickey, I can hand it to you.
386 00:35:42.910 ⇒ 00:35:45.159 Michele Altomare: Or… you guys can hear me? Yeah.
387 00:35:45.330 ⇒ 00:35:50.610 Michele Altomare: What’s up, guys? I recognize a few faces from the,
388 00:35:51.130 ⇒ 00:35:56.220 Michele Altomare: from meeting before, if we haven’t met yet, I’m Mickey, working with Brain Forge on
389 00:35:56.330 ⇒ 00:36:06.369 Michele Altomare: marketing, media, things in between. But to jump straight in, as we just covered, Brainforge presented at VixelCon… what was that now? Two weeks ago?
390 00:36:06.530 ⇒ 00:36:12.279 Michele Altomare: That’s what people, come into town for Austin for it, which was great.
391 00:36:12.400 ⇒ 00:36:24.360 Michele Altomare: Robert and Utam did a great job sharing the mission and talking with people in our ICP. I don’t know, Demi, maybe you can just press play and I can talk over it really briefly. We can just go through this quickly.
392 00:36:24.860 ⇒ 00:36:29.450 Michele Altomare: I don’t know if Ray is on the call, he might be, he messaged me that he had a power outage.
393 00:36:29.450 ⇒ 00:36:36.689 Demilade Agboola: Rain Forge is an embedded data and AI team helping organizations build their brain. So we take data…
394 00:36:36.690 ⇒ 00:36:37.060 Michele Altomare: shoes.
395 00:36:37.060 ⇒ 00:36:38.500 Demilade Agboola: System Sprawl, and we make that all.
396 00:36:38.500 ⇒ 00:36:39.309 Michele Altomare: You’re not gonna do that.
397 00:36:39.310 ⇒ 00:36:40.810 Demilade Agboola: in a customizable…
398 00:36:40.810 ⇒ 00:36:49.910 Michele Altomare: Ray did a really great job editing this, so I can’t take credit, but simply wanted to share, we’re gonna be able to do and cover a lot more content similar to this.
399 00:36:50.010 ⇒ 00:36:55.190 Michele Altomare: But if anybody ever has ideas now, or in Slack, anything in between, as far as
400 00:36:55.370 ⇒ 00:37:03.929 Michele Altomare: how they think we could use some of this. Lisa, we jumped on a call, it was great to meet her yesterday. She has some good ideas for how we might be able to use this for partnerships and different things.
401 00:37:04.090 ⇒ 00:37:07.790 Michele Altomare: But, yeah, we have…
402 00:37:08.060 ⇒ 00:37:18.309 Michele Altomare: VixelCon shot their own version of… or their own content from the conference. That’s the lower right. It’s just a screenshot there, because Google Drive was being…
403 00:37:18.470 ⇒ 00:37:30.589 Michele Altomare: a bit difficult. But we have the keynote from Robert and Utam, as well as some clips from the event. That’s the other little clip that’s there. So… I’ll pause for a second. Maybe, Utam, if you wanna…
404 00:37:31.190 ⇒ 00:37:34.609 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, dummy, can you click on the bottom left one? I guess I don’t know if I…
405 00:37:34.610 ⇒ 00:37:36.890 Michele Altomare: Well, this is just… this is just raw footage. That’s just raw footage.
406 00:37:36.890 ⇒ 00:37:37.330 Demilade Agboola: But it’s.
407 00:37:37.330 ⇒ 00:37:39.780 Michele Altomare: If you scroll through it, you’ll see, like.
408 00:37:40.510 ⇒ 00:37:45.460 Michele Altomare: really live, you know, obviously unrehearsed conversations between Futon.
409 00:37:45.460 ⇒ 00:37:46.789 Demilade Agboola: It’s next year.
410 00:37:46.790 ⇒ 00:37:47.890 Michele Altomare: ICPs, Robin…
411 00:37:47.890 ⇒ 00:37:51.259 Demilade Agboola: firms were doing this in-house, they were just kind of, like, I guess…
412 00:37:51.260 ⇒ 00:37:55.450 Michele Altomare: Clean all this up in editing, but there’s tons of stuff there, so…
413 00:37:56.080 ⇒ 00:37:59.029 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, like, one… maybe one point I want to make here is, like.
414 00:37:59.510 ⇒ 00:38:00.149 Demilade Agboola: You know?
415 00:38:00.150 ⇒ 00:38:00.490 Uttam Kumaran: You’re gonna.
416 00:38:00.490 ⇒ 00:38:00.860 Demilade Agboola: what?
417 00:38:00.860 ⇒ 00:38:16.289 Uttam Kumaran: a lot of, kind of, like, feedback that we’ve gotten from the industry is about the way we show ourselves and show up, which is not only just in our day-to-day with clients, but in our LinkedIn, our website, our branding. It’s something that, you know, I think me, Hannah.
418 00:38:16.290 ⇒ 00:38:36.230 Uttam Kumaran: And a few others have been working on for a long time, and it’s actually starting to show that we’re differentiated than the crowd in this industry. Most of the industry, it looks really boring and dated, doesn’t have a point of view, and I think that we’re trying to be the opposite. And so I think, you know, we’ve tried everything. We’ve tried LinkedIn content, so we’re gonna continue to try.
419 00:38:36.230 ⇒ 00:38:37.870 Uttam Kumaran: I’ve always believed that, like.
420 00:38:37.870 ⇒ 00:38:55.780 Uttam Kumaran: video and images, and doing in-person events, you know, really, really hit hard. You’re seeing that in the consumer industry, and so we’re gonna start to do a lot more of that, and Mickey’s, you know, hopefully gonna, you know, lead quite a bit of that with Ray. And, like, what is our intent to share with the world, and how can we convey that through, like.
421 00:38:55.810 ⇒ 00:38:59.450 Uttam Kumaran: video images. In the IT service business.
422 00:38:59.570 ⇒ 00:39:18.959 Uttam Kumaran: not many folks are doing stuff like this at all. And so, you know, although we’re gonna position things like, you know, our keynote, you know, speech, we’re also gonna do clips, and, like, more animated videos, explainers, you know, just to get our word out about our expertise in the industry. So, yeah, super excited.
423 00:39:22.130 ⇒ 00:39:26.210 Michele Altomare: Your fearless leaders did a great job presenting, so…
424 00:39:26.690 ⇒ 00:39:29.870 Michele Altomare: I’ll drop the links in the Slack after this.
425 00:39:35.470 ⇒ 00:39:38.489 Demilade Agboola: I’m sorry, I seem to have skipped a bit.
426 00:39:38.710 ⇒ 00:39:39.470 Demilade Agboola: Alright.
427 00:39:39.660 ⇒ 00:39:40.780 Demilade Agboola: This is where we are.
428 00:39:43.080 ⇒ 00:39:50.909 Rico Rejoso: For the operations, it’s a fast break. We’re adding one new linear S, which is called the extra, extra time request.
429 00:39:51.040 ⇒ 00:40:04.799 Rico Rejoso: So, basically, if your contract says that you can only work up to X hours per week, maybe 40, 20, depending on what you sign on, and you think you’ll go over, based off the linear tasks, client requests, what your CSO service lead has mentioned.
430 00:40:04.900 ⇒ 00:40:15.019 Rico Rejoso: then this is where it comes into place. Reason why is because payroll and… we want to make sure that payroll and billing match what we agreed, and nobody’s surprised at the end of the month. Now, who approves this?
431 00:40:15.170 ⇒ 00:40:31.499 Rico Rejoso: Let’s say you’re an individual contributor, CSO and service leads on the project that you’re working on will be approving this, or if you’re a CSO or a service leads, then that request will be approved and be, I mean, will be oversight by the executives. Now, how do we submit?
432 00:40:31.580 ⇒ 00:40:46.290 Rico Rejoso: this request. We can submit it via Linear Ask for those new folks. You can just simply go into Slack, type in forward slash ask, then enter, select delivery, then extra time request, fill it out, then submit.
433 00:40:46.850 ⇒ 00:40:52.299 Rico Rejoso: Now, take note and remember that no approval means that you can go over your cap.
434 00:40:52.520 ⇒ 00:40:58.310 Rico Rejoso: And wait… I mean, just basically wait for approval coming from your CSO or from the executives.
435 00:40:58.460 ⇒ 00:41:14.010 Rico Rejoso: Details regarding these changes and this added, request, on these linear S will be on our clockified time policy in the documentation in Notion. We will be forwarding it to our, Brain Forge team Slack channel later on after this meeting.
436 00:41:14.010 ⇒ 00:41:24.029 Rico Rejoso: And you can, you know, ask your questions there in the thread, or maybe if you have questions in the back of your mind, you can just submit a general ops request, and we’ll be more than happy to assist and confirm any questions you have.
437 00:41:26.260 ⇒ 00:41:28.439 Rico Rejoso: That’s it from the operations.
438 00:41:30.920 ⇒ 00:41:32.180 Demilade Agboola: All good.
439 00:41:36.260 ⇒ 00:41:38.099 Davis: Okay, I’m gonna jump in here.
440 00:41:38.390 ⇒ 00:41:39.909 Davis: Can y’all hear me okay?
441 00:41:39.910 ⇒ 00:41:40.910 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
442 00:41:40.910 ⇒ 00:41:51.429 Davis: Alright, lovely. Yeah, I’m Davis, nice to meet everyone. I’ve been working on a skill audit that Utam gave me.
443 00:41:51.600 ⇒ 00:41:53.379 Davis: We had a lot of skills.
444 00:41:53.540 ⇒ 00:41:56.280 Davis: And I feel like… Having…
445 00:41:56.480 ⇒ 00:42:04.450 Davis: a bunch of skills is lovely, because there’s a lot of things that you can do with Cursor, with, different, you know, I guess, coding harnesses.
446 00:42:04.750 ⇒ 00:42:06.040 Davis: And,
447 00:42:07.750 ⇒ 00:42:18.479 Davis: the issue there, I guess, is just that if you have too many, it’s hard to find them. So I was working on just consolidating them into orchestrators. So the idea is that a lot of these skills
448 00:42:18.480 ⇒ 00:42:30.430 Davis: We’re similar enough that you can kind of just combine them into an orchestrator with modes. So, for example, we have… I have a legal orchestrator now, and it combined the legal NDA, compare.
449 00:42:30.510 ⇒ 00:42:32.500 Davis: contract review, risks.
450 00:42:32.730 ⇒ 00:42:47.780 Davis: skills into just Orchestrator, and those modes are, like, notated within the orchestrator. So if you type, you know, forward slash legal orchestrator, it will either try and auto-detect what mode you’re gonna use it in, or it’ll just ask you if it’s not sure.
451 00:42:47.960 ⇒ 00:42:52.940 Davis: So we went from 152 first-party skills to 75.
452 00:42:53.250 ⇒ 00:42:57.780 Davis: With, you know, further consolidation happening, if possible.
453 00:42:58.000 ⇒ 00:43:04.219 Davis: I’ve automated skill indexing on the, PR push.
454 00:43:05.010 ⇒ 00:43:13.500 Davis: So, new skills or skill changes automatically get put into the index, which is, like, helpful for…
455 00:43:13.620 ⇒ 00:43:19.810 Davis: auto-triggering skills, because the goal eventually is to have these skills
456 00:43:20.170 ⇒ 00:43:25.800 Davis: Just happen, if, like, it’s applicable within whatever program you’re using.
457 00:43:25.990 ⇒ 00:43:32.759 Davis: Just to, like, fit company best practices and stuff. And I also added a skill review tag.
458 00:43:32.950 ⇒ 00:43:38.170 Davis: to the PR itself, so if skills are edited in each, push.
459 00:43:38.600 ⇒ 00:43:43.000 Davis: they will be tagged on the PR as skill review.
460 00:43:45.000 ⇒ 00:43:57.509 Davis: I got some feedback that I broke some workflows with people that were already comfortable with the skills, so I did add, all of them kind of back in.
461 00:43:57.610 ⇒ 00:44:13.190 Davis: But these are just shims, so they don’t actually contain the skill itself. All the skills still rest in the orchestrators, but if you did enjoy using, like, the, like, specific skills beforehand, you can still do that.
462 00:44:13.400 ⇒ 00:44:18.379 Davis: I guess this also hasn’t been pushed to main yet, so once this gets pushed, these changes will take effect.
463 00:44:18.540 ⇒ 00:44:29.660 Davis: You can still use the specific skills that you liked, but now they’re just pointers, essentially, to the modes within the orchestrator that they are attributed to.
464 00:44:29.890 ⇒ 00:44:40.340 Davis: Yeah, and then auto-invoking skills, already talked about that. I need to do some work on getting cursor and or open code, or whatever we’re using.
465 00:44:40.530 ⇒ 00:44:48.450 Davis: to, auto-select skills. It’s still a little bit resistant to it. So I’m gonna do that, and I’ll do some updates.
466 00:44:48.550 ⇒ 00:44:51.350 Davis: And then up next, pending…
467 00:44:51.480 ⇒ 00:45:07.970 Davis: review on what I have done so far. I was gonna work on, skill stratification. So essentially just having the different, like, global skills, skills that everybody’s gonna have, and then skills that are specific to the engineering team or the legal team, finance.
468 00:45:09.740 ⇒ 00:45:20.950 Davis: And then, working on the marketplace, I want to create a subscription system where it’s like, you know, we have this new setup that I’ve made.
469 00:45:23.020 ⇒ 00:45:38.499 Davis: that doesn’t have the pre-existing skills in it, but if you want to go, like, use the pro mode, you can, have all of those shims that relate to these new orchestrators, so you don’t break, or I don’t break, your existing workflows.
470 00:45:38.630 ⇒ 00:45:41.179 Davis: Yeah, I think that’s about it.
471 00:45:45.490 ⇒ 00:45:46.020 Uttam Kumaran: Cool.
472 00:45:46.610 ⇒ 00:45:56.069 Kaela Gallagher: Awesome. Thanks, Davis. Wanted to take a moment here just to introduce our new team members. So, if you’re on the call.
473 00:45:56.070 ⇒ 00:46:08.879 Kaela Gallagher: These folks have either recently joined our team or are starting with us very shortly. If we can just go around, introduce yourself with your name, your location, and, what you’re going to be doing with Brainforge.
474 00:46:08.890 ⇒ 00:46:11.109 Kaela Gallagher: So, Lisa, we can start with you.
475 00:46:11.110 ⇒ 00:46:28.339 Lisa Whall: Sure. Lisa Wall, I’m running partnerships. I moved about a year ago from San Diego to Knoxville, Tennessee. I don’t have a southern accent yet, but it’ll come. And I’m super happy to be here, I have a lot of experience building partnerships, and we’ve got a great start already.
476 00:46:30.080 ⇒ 00:46:30.850 Kaela Gallagher: Awesome.
477 00:46:32.060 ⇒ 00:46:33.040 Kaela Gallagher: Mickey?
478 00:46:41.640 ⇒ 00:46:43.320 Kaela Gallagher: Mickey, do you want to go next?
479 00:46:44.340 ⇒ 00:46:47.809 Michele Altomare: Sorry, yeah, I heard… I heard Nikki… wait a minute.
480 00:46:50.650 ⇒ 00:47:07.620 Michele Altomare: I was logged in on the phone and on the computer. But yeah, Mickey again, I just had the Vixel slide earlier, but looking forward to, to working with a lot of you. Mickey or Michele, I see Michele is written on the, PowerPoint slide. It’s Italian for Michael, so it gets mixed up.
481 00:47:07.620 ⇒ 00:47:08.390 Lisa Whall: Amen.
482 00:47:08.390 ⇒ 00:47:26.149 Michele Altomare: quite a bit. But yeah, as Utom said, there’s a lot of really interesting marketing playbooks, for lack of a better word, from the consumer world, which is where I spent the last few years, so I think it’ll be really interesting to see how we can port some of those ideas to here,
483 00:47:26.290 ⇒ 00:47:29.860 Michele Altomare: And share some of what Brainforge is doing, because I think it really is…
484 00:47:30.490 ⇒ 00:47:33.870 Michele Altomare: It really is good, so… excited, to be here.
485 00:47:34.860 ⇒ 00:47:35.690 Kaela Gallagher: Awesome.
486 00:47:35.960 ⇒ 00:47:37.090 Kaela Gallagher: Abdullah?
487 00:47:39.320 ⇒ 00:47:46.289 Abdullah Ahmad: Hi everyone, I’m Abdullah, I’m joining the team as a CSO. My background is in data and consultancy.
488 00:47:46.560 ⇒ 00:47:50.230 Abdullah Ahmad: Across the United States, Qatar, and Pakistan.
489 00:47:50.520 ⇒ 00:47:56.680 Abdullah Ahmad: So we’re super excited to join the team and learn more about it and get to know each and every one of you.
490 00:47:58.760 ⇒ 00:48:01.200 Kaela Gallagher: Awesome, thank you. And then, Nikhil?
491 00:48:02.170 ⇒ 00:48:08.959 Nikhil G: Hey, hey everyone, this is Nikhil, I’m… data engineer, on…
492 00:48:09.070 ⇒ 00:48:20.850 Nikhil G: My 11th, originally, I’m from, India, but currently in Lanirov. My family lives here, so excited to be, with, with, here, here with you all.
493 00:48:22.340 ⇒ 00:48:30.839 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, cool. Thank you guys, welcome to the team, we’re excited to have you. And next, I will announce the team member of the month.
494 00:48:31.080 ⇒ 00:48:35.829 Kaela Gallagher: Drum roll… Tammy, go ahead.
495 00:48:36.160 ⇒ 00:48:54.449 Kaela Gallagher: Jasmine, congrats, Jasmine. I don’t know, are you still on the call? Okay, yes, awesome. So, Jasmine, your peers, your team recognize you for bringing, fresh thinking, being super quick to respond, highly collaborative, you always go above and beyond.
496 00:48:54.570 ⇒ 00:49:04.480 Kaela Gallagher: And you, you know, stand up for your team, recognize your team, and just deliver excellence in everything you do. So, congratulations!
497 00:49:09.500 ⇒ 00:49:19.860 Jasmin Multani: Sorry, guys, I’m literally grabbing coffee. Thank you so much! That’s very kind! I was not expecting this, but I’m really grateful, and I hope I can keep raising the bar, because…
498 00:49:20.060 ⇒ 00:49:33.580 Jasmin Multani: even just watching Amber and Edith work hard, I’m like, oh, I need to knock this energy, because they just, keep a high bar, and I want to help them grow in any way they can, and the entire team. So thank you!
499 00:49:36.020 ⇒ 00:49:36.590 Uttam Kumaran: Nice.
500 00:49:36.990 ⇒ 00:49:37.900 Kaela Gallagher: Congrats!
501 00:49:38.730 ⇒ 00:49:40.130 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, moving on.
502 00:49:42.870 ⇒ 00:49:59.269 Brylle Girang: Okay, for L&D, everyone here, we have the Quick Start and AI Accelerator course coming, especially for our two new team members here, the Quick Start course and the AI Accelerator course will be perfect for you in making sure that we get up to speed with Brainforge, with how we do things in Brainforge.
503 00:49:59.400 ⇒ 00:50:16.890 Brylle Girang: For our AI tools, some of you may have been thinking about what we’re going to stick with. We have cursor, we’re trying to teach people open code. Our end goal here is that we’re going to try and give you options, and then you’ll just try and pick whatever works best for you.
504 00:50:16.890 ⇒ 00:50:32.380 Brylle Girang: Currently, we have Courser, we have OpenCode, we are exploring more tools that helps us make things better for everyone here. For next week, we’ll have more courses coming up. Compound Engineering, I know that I have teased on this, a bit.
505 00:50:32.380 ⇒ 00:50:46.089 Brylle Girang: And we’ll also have guides on AI-enabled productivity tools. We have SuperHuman, Handy, Slack, we’ll make sure that you’ll get the chance to test this out, and you’ll get the chance to better understand how we can maximize these tools.
506 00:50:46.210 ⇒ 00:50:53.090 Brylle Girang: Just a quick note, Omni Platform Quick Start, as well as Snowflake, we have certifications coming up from here.
507 00:50:53.090 ⇒ 00:51:09.879 Brylle Girang: The new team members, we have an amazing certification program here at Brainforge, and we’re trying to make sure that it’s going to be a win-win for you and for the business. And speaking of certifications, I’m going to be passing this over to the GTM team, especially Lisa, do you want to…
508 00:51:09.880 ⇒ 00:51:11.520 Brylle Girang: Hopping on the train?
509 00:51:11.520 ⇒ 00:51:20.490 Lisa Whall: Sure, sure. So, one of the things as we grow with these partners, kind of… previously.
510 00:51:20.830 ⇒ 00:51:33.799 Lisa Whall: I’m not going to say we skirted the system, but we were doing partners and getting traction. But in order for us to really grow, I’ll just focus on Omni and Snowflake specifically, we do have to have people
511 00:51:34.200 ⇒ 00:51:52.969 Lisa Whall: certified and put into their portal. So this is really critical, you guys, for us to grow these partnerships. We have to have a certain number of people certified on these platforms in order for us to grow with these companies in an official capacity. So please, please, please
512 00:51:53.160 ⇒ 00:52:09.120 Lisa Whall: get certified, especially on Omni and Snowflake. We also are looking at Google and Amazon, GCP and AWS, but right now, if we can get our certification numbers up on Omni and Snowflake, I would be very grateful.
513 00:52:10.300 ⇒ 00:52:23.429 Brylle Girang: Yeah, also, also, I’m going to, like, double down on this. We have bonuses that are ready once you get certified. We will reimburse whatever costs that you’ll encounter when it comes to being certified.
514 00:52:23.470 ⇒ 00:52:32.010 Brylle Girang: So, the only thing that you need to do is learn, get certified, get certified, upskill, and it’s going to be a huge, huge win for you.
515 00:52:35.000 ⇒ 00:52:36.549 Brylle Girang: Alright, that’s it for L&D.
516 00:52:39.990 ⇒ 00:52:52.050 Lisa Whall: Great, I’ll go ahead and jump in, for Robert. He had a drop. So, this is super exciting. Sunstone closed at a $35K for a one-month discovery. Eden renewed, which I just found out I’m
517 00:52:52.350 ⇒ 00:52:56.159 Lisa Whall: So happy about that. That’s great. You guys, recurring revenue is…
518 00:52:56.770 ⇒ 00:53:04.679 Lisa Whall: the holy grail, right, of our business. And then E&Y closed at blank. Maybe, maybe Uzum can help us fill that blank.
519 00:53:04.680 ⇒ 00:53:09.249 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, this is, like, gonna be a longer-term thing, so I’m starting with them on a project.
520 00:53:09.550 ⇒ 00:53:23.290 Uttam Kumaran: And then we’re sort of going through the vendor negotiation process, but this is, like, sort of will probably be our first Fortune 500, you know, which is… which is a pretty big deal. And I know some people here worked at UI before, so it’s kind of a full-circle moment.
521 00:53:23.400 ⇒ 00:53:24.270 Uttam Kumaran: Huh.
522 00:53:24.500 ⇒ 00:53:27.380 Lisa Whall: That’s my first job out of college ever. Yes.
523 00:53:27.380 ⇒ 00:53:30.920 Uttam Kumaran: And I think Amber also did a little short stint there, so…
524 00:53:31.890 ⇒ 00:53:32.920 Lisa Whall: That’s awesome.
525 00:53:33.720 ⇒ 00:53:43.620 Lisa Whall: And then we’ve got a number of other companies at Verbal, so really great week in sales, you guys, and I know everybody’s contributed to this, so thank you.
526 00:53:44.140 ⇒ 00:53:45.630 Lisa Whall: I’ll hand it over to Hannah.
527 00:53:47.480 ⇒ 00:54:06.519 Hannah Wang: Yeah, just a short, call-out for marketing. I think we’re continuing to push on event-based activations, so just to reiterate what everyone said about PixelCon, I think we had good momentum there, and some booked calls from that. And we also have others queued up for the rest of
528 00:54:06.640 ⇒ 00:54:12.999 Hannah Wang: I guess, Q2, and into Q3. And then it’s been a while since I’ve…
529 00:54:13.440 ⇒ 00:54:30.929 Hannah Wang: asked for case studies. I know we’re doing a lot of good work for a lot of clients, and we want to showcase that to other leads, so I’m… I think the marketing team will work on a way to make sure that whenever a project finishes,
530 00:54:31.040 ⇒ 00:54:36.239 Hannah Wang: I’ll reach out to you, and we can build a case study together around it, because…
531 00:54:37.020 ⇒ 00:54:41.269 Hannah Wang: We want to show off our work. So, yeah, that’s it for marketing.
532 00:54:41.650 ⇒ 00:54:44.079 Lisa Whall: Partners love case studies, too, so…
533 00:54:44.080 ⇒ 00:54:44.600 Hannah Wang: Yes, if.
534 00:54:44.600 ⇒ 00:54:57.270 Lisa Whall: are very welcome. And then we already talked about partnerships that we’re focused on. Snowflake and Omni, we’ve deemed as gold partners. We’ve made a ton of progress this week in terms of AWS and GCP.
535 00:54:57.270 ⇒ 00:55:07.659 Lisa Whall: So, you know, our partnerships are growing, but we are going to stay focused, so we don’t want to have too many partners and be spread too thin. We already talked about certifications, guys, again, I’m begging.
536 00:55:07.660 ⇒ 00:55:20.710 Lisa Whall: And then introductions. If you have people in your network, people you went to college with, that are working at any of these companies, or any company that we can partner with, you know, from a vendor perspective.
537 00:55:20.790 ⇒ 00:55:40.530 Lisa Whall: Let’s talk. Just DM me, let’s talk about how we can potentially work with your network. That’s the best way for us to grow, why we kind of do the official channels that I’ll be working on. We still want to keep, in parallel, our informal asks and introductions, and keep moving
538 00:55:40.530 ⇒ 00:55:44.049 Lisa Whall: And getting more and more of these clients while we kind of grow
539 00:55:44.050 ⇒ 00:55:49.779 Lisa Whall: You know, in the official capacity. Udom, do you have anything to add on the partnership side?
540 00:55:49.780 ⇒ 00:55:53.619 Uttam Kumaran: No, that’s it. I think the certs are gonna be the next big focus, and yeah, we’re…
541 00:55:54.010 ⇒ 00:55:56.320 Uttam Kumaran: It’s easy money, so, yeah.
542 00:55:56.320 ⇒ 00:56:10.860 Lisa Whall: Oh, and by the way, you guys, once we get official in these… they give us money. They give us money to do projects. We just were on the phone with GCP yesterday, and there’s… I worked a lot with Microsoft, and there’s so much…
543 00:56:11.130 ⇒ 00:56:18.010 Lisa Whall: I’ll say free money available, with all of these different companies. So, again, if we get those certifications.
544 00:56:18.130 ⇒ 00:56:24.269 Lisa Whall: we get paid by those vendors to do projects, so it’s… it’s all good.
545 00:56:26.330 ⇒ 00:56:27.670 Lisa Whall: That’s all I’ve got.
546 00:56:33.080 ⇒ 00:56:45.700 Uttam Kumaran: Cool. Yeah, just in terms of, like, client updates, I feel like we just talked about a few of these. I mean, we’re gonna be winding down on default. I think we’re still kind of getting an understanding of, like, what’s gonna happen longer term on Eden AI.
547 00:56:45.700 ⇒ 00:56:54.469 Uttam Kumaran: But we do have, like, a few expansions with CTA, and, like, a few upcoming opportunities beyond just Hype that are, like, kind of in the late stage.
548 00:56:54.690 ⇒ 00:57:07.970 Uttam Kumaran: So yeah, I mean, I think we’re sending almost, like, two to three proposals out a week, so it’s… it’s, you know, quite a dramatic, you know, acceleration that we’re seeing compared to, like, one a week, and then, you know, one a month, like last year, so…
549 00:57:14.830 ⇒ 00:57:17.879 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, this one is old, I think we can go next, Demi.
550 00:57:19.260 ⇒ 00:57:20.020 Uttam Kumaran: Great.
551 00:57:23.660 ⇒ 00:57:27.850 Demilade Agboola: So, yeah, just shoutouts, for the…
552 00:57:27.960 ⇒ 00:57:33.559 Demilade Agboola: Like, to anyone on the team for all the work done over the last, like, week or two since our last meeting.
553 00:57:38.020 ⇒ 00:58:02.179 Kaela Gallagher: I’ll give a couple shout-outs. My first one goes to Rico. Thank you for covering for me while I was out last week. I felt like I didn’t have to worry at all about things getting done and moving forward, so appreciate your support there. And then another shout-out to Bea for just being such a great partner and just showing up so enthusiastic and, ready to go every single day.
554 00:58:08.100 ⇒ 00:58:15.720 Uttam Kumaran: Now, I want to shout out to Amber. She’s really crushing on CTA. I think it’s… we’re… it’s a brand new technology we’re doing on Snowflake.
555 00:58:16.120 ⇒ 00:58:30.220 Uttam Kumaran: And she’s just driving, like, that entire client forward, which is great, because as, like, CSO, I’m now able to get us booked to go see them in person, which Amber and I are going in…
556 00:58:30.440 ⇒ 00:58:31.669 Uttam Kumaran: A week or two?
557 00:58:31.680 ⇒ 00:58:42.910 Uttam Kumaran: And then we got an expansion, and a lot of that was due to her coming up and just, like, grinding out this, like, really new technology. And I think it’s, like, it’s a really good example of, like, the relationship that can happen when…
558 00:58:42.910 ⇒ 00:58:54.499 Uttam Kumaran: you know, as a CSO, I can focus on the relationship with Catherine. I’m also able to call some other stakeholders and really, like, nurture that while, like, we’re able to deliver a lot of the work on the IC side, so…
559 00:58:54.650 ⇒ 00:58:56.560 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, really good example.
560 00:58:57.270 ⇒ 00:59:05.949 Brylle Girang: Doubling down on the shoutout to Amber. I think Amber’s really doing a great job when it comes to helping the strategy team be certified with Omni.
561 00:59:06.030 ⇒ 00:59:21.440 Brylle Girang: She’s doing everything that she can to help you out. Recording demos, making really detailed guides, just to make sure that the certification process is a really smooth one. Thank you, Amber.
562 00:59:22.040 ⇒ 00:59:24.280 Amber Lin: Thank you, thank you both, I appreciate it.
563 00:59:34.480 ⇒ 00:59:44.809 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I wanted to shout out all the new folks, like Mickey, Davis, Nikhil, Abdullah, like, super pumped to work with you guys. Like, I think you’re seeing a small slice of, like, what we are up to, but
564 00:59:44.900 ⇒ 01:00:01.309 Uttam Kumaran: like, I think you’ll be impressed, you know, when you guys join, and you know, I think some of the folks, like Davis and Mickey have already given feedback at, like, how our pace operates, but regardless of the domain that people are joining, you know, we try to keep a high bar, so… super excited to have you guys.
565 01:00:04.470 ⇒ 01:00:06.060 Davis: Thanks, super excited to work with y’all.
566 01:00:11.100 ⇒ 01:00:11.780 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
567 01:00:12.040 ⇒ 01:00:14.139 Uttam Kumaran: Cool. I think we’re good, Demi.
568 01:00:16.320 ⇒ 01:00:20.340 Demilade Agboola: Alright then, thanks everyone, let’s keep questioning it, and have a good weekend.
569 01:00:21.070 ⇒ 01:00:24.000 Kaela Gallagher: Thank you. Thanks, everyone. Thanks, Demi, for hosting.
570 01:00:24.590 ⇒ 01:00:25.530 Uttam Kumaran: Thanks, everyone.
571 01:00:25.930 ⇒ 01:00:26.710 Uttam Kumaran: Bye.