January 26, 2022 • 33 mins
Agenda:
- Executive Stand up
Takeaways:
- Pull all the embroidered couches and disposable couches - NOW
- Contact Zola about pausing partnership temporarily
- Support doesn’t get to handle account deletion requests for a little while
- Thea will be in Des Moines for the rest of the week
- Kate to make executive decision on the Dessert Machine vote
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ben (00:07):
welcome to this startup is being recorded.
This recording is improvisedfiction.
Similarities between it and thereal world are entirely
intentional.
Now enjoy the recording.
Kate (00:22):
All right.
Uh, Hey everybody happyWednesday.
Um, I'm going to record thisstand up.
Uh, so I guess just before weget started, um, for anyone
who's listening, we are a couchmarketplace startup.
Uh, our name's in flux, we weremet a market.
Um, but don't matter.
(00:44):
I've I've realized it's notabout the name.
It's about the vision.
And our vision is to changetrade, give everyone a more
comfortable seat at the table,and we will do that no matter
what our identity is.
Oh, uh, I'm Kate Blanchet.
I'm the chief of staff here.
I work under John.
Um, John's not here.
(01:05):
Uh, he's taking his normal acouple of weeks after MLK day,
kind of around Valentine's day,a few weeks before spring break
a vacation.
Um, but yeah, let's let's goaround.
Thea (01:23):
Okay.
I'm I am the chief creatives areat Metta market soon to be
renamed.
Kate (01:31):
Very soon.
Matt (01:33):
Uh, I am, um, matt.yachts.
Uh, that's also my domain whereyou can learn more about me and
I'm the CTO here at companiesseem to be centered in.
Kate (01:43):
I know it was getting so much.
Barry (01:46):
yup.
Uh, Eric, Joy Carter, chiefproduct officer at company to be
re companied with renamed.
Uh, yeah.
Kate (01:55):
perfect.
Um, well I know we all have alot going on.
Like, I feel like the standupcould go super fast, frankly.
Uh, so let's just like jumpthrough the updates.
Um, anyone want to go for.
Thea (02:09):
I can go first.
I just have a real quick update.
We've been partnering with deMoines on a really great
campaign.
Um, a lot of people are movingout of the city into places like
Des Moines because of thepandemic, uh, by big McMansions,
that to be filled with a lot ofcouches.
So we are.
Targeting them, um, to get themto buy couches through us.
This is super great because insix months, once they go to a
(02:31):
state fair and realize that'sthe only social gathering of the
entire year, and they moved backto those big cities, we also
then reheat them to sell thosecouches on our marketplace.
Barry (02:42):
Nice.
Kate (02:44):
That is a much shorter like lifetime cycle then couches
normally have.
Thea (02:50):
Yeah.
I mean, it's been really helpfuland, you know, we, we know the
demographics so we can just likeconsistently hit them.
And we have been reallysuccessful in getting both the
purchases of their couches andthe selling of their couches,
because it is a quick turnaroundin Des Moines.
Let me tell you.
Kate (03:07):
cool.
Matt (03:09):
Yeah.
I wonder how long, uh, I mean,this isn't a projections
meeting, but I wonder how long,uh, that'll last, you know, it
feels like a short term bump,but then again, the pandemic was
supposed to be short-term.
Anyway, sorry.
I'm I might as well go.
I'm uh, exhausted.
Uh, I'm on PagerDuty again.
And, uh, we put up, uh, as youall know, we've been working on
(03:32):
pulling out the hard-coded termmeta market from the app, the
servers, all of themicroservices in the backend,
uh, several different, uh,third-party services that we
use.
And I'm on PagerDuty this week.
Uh, so I keep gettingnotifications, uh, anytime one
accidentally pops up, uh, and,um, you know, not difficult
(03:57):
work.
I just get to take them and firethem off into our bug system.
But you would be, oh yeah,there's another, um, I, I got,
this is another one.
Uh, somebody.
Kate (04:10):
Okay.
Okay.
Um, Uh, I'll just go real quick.
Um, obviously we're having thecompany voting contest about
what type of dessert machine weshould get.
Um, right now it's kind of tiedbetween crepe maker, a snow cone
machine and a specialty softserve.
(04:30):
Um, I I'm just like, I'm reallyconcerned about some of these
options because obviously wehave, uh, Jen who's allergic to
dairy and we have.
Uh, a few people who haveclaimed they're allergic to
snow, uh, which I don't know howthat's true, but I just am.
(04:52):
Yeah.
Matt (04:53):
That feels very contrarian.
Barry (04:56):
Well, can we, can we, not do this?
No cone maker?
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
It's been, I've been assault alittle salty.
The last couple of days.
I may have told some people towrite in that they were allergic
to snow.
Um, I don't want that snowballsare, are personal to me,
especially, you know, not havingthe knock-off of snowcones here.
(05:18):
Uh, Which is normally a pettything that I wouldn't, uh,
wouldn't bring up, but I've justbeen dealing with this other
issue that is, it's making meless joyful than I normally
would be.
Matt (05:28):
oh,
Barry (05:29):
Um,
Matt (05:30):
what's what's uh, I mean,
Barry (05:32):
So, yeah.
Yeah.
That's, that's my thing.
And I'm glad we're all here totalk about it.
Um, I could use another point ofview.
Um, so the investors, uh, Sentin a couple other requests, uh,
to tie to the funding round, uh,as you all know, um, one of
which was illogically to, uh,get our site compliant with
(05:54):
GDPR.
Um, even though we're notselling any couches or operating
a marketplace in the EU, feltlike it was important to prepare
for the next round of funding.
Uh, so, uh, Lars, uh, fromengineering and, uh, David on
our, on product, um, have beendigging into this and they've
just hit a complete impasse.
Um, we tried to scope this downas small as possible, you know,
(06:17):
put up the, you know, theslightly annoying cookies,
dialogue, you know, the, thethings things you have to do.
Um, and I don't mean to pick onLars Matt, but he has gone
through.
Every, every page ofdocumentation out there on the
law and the case law.
And he keeps coming up withthese ridiculous edge cases that
(06:38):
we just don't have time for.
And he's, he's just, I thinkhe's just scared of us getting
sued, which I understand, but
Matt (06:45):
I mean, oh no, you weren't, you weren't at the
meeting when legal, uh, talkedwith Deb about this.
Um,
Barry (06:52):
oh, no.
Kate (06:53):
wait, Devin legal are not supposed to be alone together in
a room.
Matt (06:57):
Well, I mean, this is part of why.
And, uh, I would say Lara's was,uh, asking some fairly good
questions, uh, and he waspunished severely for that.
So, um, yeah, I'm not, I'm nottoo surprised.
It's, it's a complicatedsituation, right?
Well, you know, it's, I'm tryingto see it from legal's
(07:18):
perspective.
Um, but I, I think it wasunnecessarily.
It's complicated stuff, right?
Like we're already flirting withCCPA stuff and California's law
is so close to GDPR that in manyways the same interventions are
going to work.
Um, but, uh, you know, kudos toLars, he's really kind of
(07:40):
shouldered a burden to, to learnthis.
Um,
Barry (07:42):
and this is
Matt (07:43):
I guess it
Barry (07:43):
is why.
Matt (07:44):
going a little far.
Barry (07:45):
exactly.
I want it.
I want to reward Lars for takingthis on so proactively and being
a good steward of the company,but.
It's getting to a ridiculouspoint.
Let me just, the one we can'tagree on is, so you can get a
couch embroidered with yourname.
And Lars wants us to have adata, a personal data removal
(08:06):
process for embroidered couches.
Matt (08:08):
Oh,
Barry (08:09):
So you can, you can ask to have your data removed.
You can remove consent underGDPR, and he wants us to be able
to have the name disappear offthe couch.
That's ridiculous nobody's evergot, nobody's ever going to ask
to have their name onembroidered from the couch.
We, we, maybe we just don't needto do this right now.
Matt (08:28):
Eric it's um, I mean the, the bit of this that I've
studied is, uh, Under the GDPR.
They don't have to explicitlyask for the embroidery to be
removed.
They make a blanket request thatMetta market deletes all of
their personal information.
And it's actually up to us tohunt that down, wherever it
(08:48):
lives, uh, and destroy it.
And if that means that thatsomeone like put their spouse's
name on a couch and then they,uh, through us, and then they
also sold that couch through.
Um, that's still within ourchain of custody.
Oh
Thea (09:05):
we.
We don't keep the couch.
I mean, it is technically in theperson's property.
And so like, when we say deletethe data, it would be only
deleting the record that wewould need for the name.
Is that correct?
Barry (09:20):
where it gets a bit complicated because we did also
integrate the embroidery featurewith the marketplace avatar
feature.
And so.
Use our marketplace avatarprogram and you get an
embroidered couch.
There's a linking between theembroidered couch and the avatar
and any couches you have in ourlittle showroom online.
(09:45):
So we can remove the name fromthe couch in the showroom.
Um, I mean, that's still seemsexcessive, but, uh, we can, we
can do that, but we can't go allthe way to, to removing the name
from the couch itself.
That's.
Matt (09:58):
Oh, and it, I mean, theoretically if the couch where
to go to be put up, uh, to beresold through the marketplace
and if we're to enter ourcustody,
Barry (10:07):
Yeah, it could return.
Matt (10:09):
our responsibility to, to find that out.
But in order.
To keep track of what couches weneed to remove the embroidery
from when they come in, we needto save a record
Barry (10:20):
we have to hold on to the personal
Matt (10:21):
of this person's data and
Thea (10:24):
Do you think this is going to be a problem in Des Moines?
Because there are a lot of, youknow, in bordered cautious
there.
I mean, people, their rents arereduced.
They've got money to spare.
And I mean, like I said, they'dcome back into the marketplace.
I mean, sometimes within threeto six months,
Kate (10:42):
And we've started at like partnering with Zola to do those
marriage couches so that, youknow, happy.
Holy matrimony, Sarah and Bryan.
Thea (10:53):
Yeah.
And we found, I mean, the rashof post corn team, like post
vaccination divorces was, Imean, really high we've had seen
a lot, a lot of those couchespieces.
Matt (11:07):
Uh, nuts.
Thea (11:10):
I bet.
This is also a really bad timeto talk about revenge and
bartering to
Matt (11:16):
uh, what's um, what's revenge embroidering.
Thea (11:19):
you, um, put, you know, somebody who brought you secret
isn't bartered in the couch, andthen you kind of basically
catfish them into buying thatcouch and seeing their shame.
Matt (11:33):
Oh, Is, um, what kind of moderation tools do we have on
this?
I mean, could people be doxingfolks through our couch
embroidery system?
We haven't seen, please tell mewe haven't seen any evidence.
Kate (11:52):
me, I mean, we can, can we just pull up real quick?
Like some of the most recentembroidery
Barry (11:56):
Yeah, that's a good idea.
Kate (11:58):
let's just go there if you, I, I bet these cases like
never happened, you know, wealways think of things.
Really our,
Barry (12:07):
How, how has that three of the first 10 results are
phone numbers
Matt (12:13):
oh
Barry (12:14):
who would put a FA up?
I guess I got promotional FAcouch would want a phone number,
I guess.
Matt (12:20):
yeah.
Hang on.
Let me
Barry (12:22):
What else?
Kate (12:23):
yeah, Maybe
Barry (12:23):
a weird
Kate (12:24):
commercial phone
Matt (12:25):
I'm doing a reverse lookup of, um, a hole that is not a
commercial number.
Uh, yeah, no, this is, um, aperson who was, uh, being doxed,
uh, politically.
Um, wow.
Uh, they were running for citycouncil and, uh, opposition.
(12:50):
Uh, yeah.
Um, it
Thea (12:52):
Wait in opposition to.
Matt (12:57):
you know, looks like it was left out of this article.
I just have this little snippetfrom, uh, I don't even recognize
this town.
Kate (13:08):
Wait,
Matt (13:09):
code looks like it's near.
Kate (13:16):
how exactly.
Did bug speak at, on the ballotfor the city council of Cedar
rapids
Thea (13:26):
Oh, I mean, bag speak was just inspired by the couch to
get into the political.
Kate (13:33):
and then bugs be used our platform to docs his opponent.
Thea (13:38):
Listen, we, nobody here is nobody here is saying that
right.
For all we know bugs, we ran avery clean campaign.
Kate (13:49):
I'm just putting pieces together.
I've just.
Thea (13:52):
I get, I agree.
The evidence is a hundredpercent thing.
Matt (13:58):
I mean, these other two phone numbers in the, in the top
10, these are also 3, 1 9 areacodes.
Thea (14:05):
Why would bugs be, do that?
Bugs me bugs me has the meritsof himself.
I cannot teach my son to cheat.
Kate (14:13):
It's technically not cheating.
It's just like a terrible tacticthat people use now.
Um, let's go through a fewother, can you pull up the next
10, Eric?
I just, when need let's solveone problem at a time.
Barry (14:28):
I these look like he's with like Twitter image links.
I,
Matt (14:35):
oh,
Barry (14:36):
I,
Kate (14:37):
Great.
Someone, someone
Barry (14:38):
I feel like the more we look into this, the form, the
more we look into this more, themore we're incriminating.
Bugsby I?
Matt (14:44):
I'm going to hang on.
I'm going to open a privatebrowser.
Actually.
I'm going to open up a Torbrowser window.
Barry (14:50):
Yeah.
Okay.
Um, if I look, if I look sixmonths ago, I start to see
normal.
Normal first names, neural firstand last names.
A couple, couple names.
Um,
Kate (15:01):
Okay.
Matt (15:02):
some of these early ones.
Sorry, I'm
Barry (15:04):
looks totally fine.
Matt (15:05):
Kind of update the Tor browser.
You have there's some key ones.
Uh, people moved in together,anniversaries, uh, you know,
together forever.
Very cute.
Barry (15:16):
very, yeah, reasonable.
But the last two weeks
Kate (15:21):
or more interesting.
Barry (15:22):
that, yeah.
Kate (15:24):
Uh, sorry, circling back to like a little while ago, you
mentioned something about CCPAand like, we have to follow
that.
So when we get a lot of supportrequests that are people, like I
would like to delete my accountand, uh, we usually say, okay,
it's been deleted.
Um, but we just changed theirpassword.
(15:44):
They can't get in is that it'snot, not really.
Matt (15:49):
uh, yeah, no, no.
Um, under, under Californiaprivacy law, um, I mean,
technically, if they are not aresident of California, we don't
have to honor that request.
Um, it's rare that companieswould choose not to, uh, we're
supposed to delete any recordsassociated with, uh, that
(16:10):
person, at least in so much asthey, uh, contain identifying
information.
Uh, and there's a pretty broaddefinition of identifying
information.
Kate (16:20):
okay.
Okay.
Well,
Barry (16:23):
so this is the kind of stuff.
Yeah.
This is the kind of stuff that Iwas excited about.
Lars, uh, working on
Kate (16:29):
Uh, we
Matt (16:30):
I've never, you know, I haven't audited this stuff.
Do, do we not have, uh, likecustomer data deletion
functions?
I really
Kate (16:40):
R R yeah.
The admin tool was prettylimiting.
Barry (16:44):
It's very manual.
Kate (16:45):
yeah, I just, you don't think it's a problem if we like
changed all the passwords toyou, two password, right?
Matt (16:55):
I'm sorry.
You.
Kate (17:00):
We find that not very many people use password as their
password, some do, but not many.
So we think that's a safepassword to change their
password to
Barry (17:09):
how do we know?
Kate (17:12):
uh, in the admin tool, there's this table with user
data.
So we just like go in and lookat their password to change
their password to somethingelse.
Matt (17:23):
oh my God.
Barry (17:27):
oh, no.
Kate (17:28):
but.
Matt (17:28):
not, no, that can't be right Kate, because the login
system, I mean, I've looked atthis schema before I'm looking
at it.
Now we clearly hash theirpasswords.
Uh it's.
It's exactly how, like I'mlooking at the code when they
sign in.
We check this, this table.
Yeah, it looks good.
And then, oh, what the F what isthis?
(17:52):
And when there's a successfullogin, we write an initial.
Kate (17:57):
we
Matt (17:57):
What's
Kate (17:58):
like a while ago where we didn't know what to change their
passwords to because we wouldchange it to something that was
already their password, like 1,2, 3, 4, and then we just
thought the solution was to knowtheir password, to change her
password to something else.
Thea (18:14):
I feel really bad about this because it used to be the
creative team's job to come upwith creative passwords that you
could replace them with.
And we just, you know, we'vebeen working too hard on the
name and Bugsby to really like,provide that service to.
Matt (18:30):
Um,
Kate (18:31):
I mean, it's okay.
It's, it's super easy for oursupport team to, to, you know,
be able to go in and.
Matt (18:38):
it's uh, yeah.
Okay.
Kate, what, what other steps dowe have when we off-board a
customer like this?
Um, we changed their password.
Do we also make sure to deletetheir, uh, saved addresses or
any payment methods that they'vestored with us and, uh, social
media account that they've tiedin?
Kate (19:00):
Nope.
Uh, none of those things.
Um, but, and it's because wewant to.
Try to get them to be userslater, you know, at one point,
uh, we wanted to do surveys forpeople that had offboarded.
And so we have a weekly emailsurvey that goes to them, a
monthly mailer, um, bi-weeklytext message campaigns to try to
(19:22):
re-engage them.
Uh, I know I, this might be newto you, but I just thought the
support team could do more thanwe were.
And I thought you guys wouldappreciate.
Matt (19:33):
Um, uh, okay.
I, I don't know that we're goingto resolve this here.
We're getting away from astandup, but, um, this is very
bad.
This is extremely bad.
Um, by changing people'spasswords to, um, very easily
get.
(19:53):
Uh, passwords, uh, automaticallyguessable passwords.
Um, we're opening up theiraccounts to, uh, all kinds of
malicious hacking, uh, or ifthey have, uh, any stalkers or,
uh, prank pranksters, uh, itmakes it very easy to get into
their account.
And because we haven't deletedany of their payment
information, uh, they could be,there could be a whole
(20:18):
underground market using resetpassword accounts.
To move couches or,
Barry (20:24):
back and forth,
Matt (20:25):
transactions.
Barry (20:26):
back and forth in Iowa.
Matt (20:31):
Oh,
Kate (20:33):
Wait, what are you
Matt (20:34):
the large cities
Barry (20:36):
yeah, maybe there's
Matt (20:39):
and back again.
Barry (20:40):
a bot network.
Matt (20:43):
Well, look, we have this table of passwords.
I might as well.
Barry (20:46):
way more couch sales than you would expect for that number
of people.
Matt (20:51):
right.
Yeah.
So we have from, from users thispassword, let's go ahead and
join this table, uh, who havesold a couch.
Wait, who have bought a couch inthe last 90 days.
And then who sold it againwithin the last well, uh, 90
(21:13):
days to now, uh, the previouslogin activity did not match
before the password change.
Oh, Califia what were thenumbers we had on,
Thea (21:29):
yeah, we
Matt (21:30):
two Moines?
Hot swappers.
Thea (21:32):
yeah, we had about, um, 3000 active.
Who did both?
Uh, it was 3,102, um, active whoboth worked with us to buy a
couch and sell a couch in thepast six months since we started
the campaign.
Matt (21:51):
okay.
Um, I'm seeing about 2,900couches, um, moved by deleted
accounts, uh, in that timeperiod.
Kate (22:04):
so this is, this might be not relevant, but I feel like I
should bring it up.
I did.
I read an article the other dayabout kind of like the uptick
in.
Illegal drug trafficking in Iowaand the methods of moving it,
uh, primarily being likehousehold, um, seating.
Thea (22:30):
this would explain why.
I mean, the couches, in mostcases, I just assumed that, you
know, And New York, like coucheswould sell at a premium, but
there is generally a large, uh,change even from a new to use
couch.
Like most people are makingmoney off of selling their
(22:51):
couches in Munich.
Matt (22:55):
Uh, and there's a handful that seemed to be a nexus for
this activity, kind of a hubthat many of these couches of
past.
One or more times.
Kate (23:07):
w we can, let's just change their passwords.
It's just something else.
Barry (23:12):
or we could delete the account.
Matt (23:17):
uh, it's, it's a database.
You delete, you delete stufffrom it.
Um, I mean, I could do that now.
Um, we'd be potentially wipingout records.
Self-dealing drug traffickingand credit card fraud.
Barry (23:34):
oh, okay.
Let's.
Thea (23:40):
I mean, I, I am just, obviously there are so many
issues with the optics of thiswhole situation.
Um, but I think also we shouldjust remember that on de Moines,
we ran on like Nancy Reagan ask,say no to drugs, really strict
campaign.
(24:02):
Because of these issues.
And I mean, that's why bugs.
We was riding in Cedar rapids.
We found it so effective to bethe face of drug-free couches
that.
Matt (24:14):
here's I think I can, I think we can knock these two
birds out of the air, uh, with,with one thrown couch.
Uh,
Kate (24:26):
are you leaning towards throne?
Matt (24:28):
do y'all?
How, oh, no, no, no.
Like, like, like, uh, the pasttense of the throat, um, Eric,
how do you like this?
We solve the embroidery problem.
We flag every couch that we'veembroidered or not, uh,
especially any in the Des Moinesarea to come back through our
(24:50):
facility.
We tear those things.
if there are drugs inside, wedispose of them.
I guess.
I don't know that's going to be,it's going to be up to the
warehouse team.
Kate (25:02):
you definitely.
I mean, what are some ideas ofhow to dispose of drugs?
got
Matt (25:08):
don't know.
Everything burns.
Barry (25:10):
yeah, w we've we've we've we've dealt with more difficult
contraband before, so, um, yeah,so we we'd just be out the cost
of the shipping.
Um, that's a small price to payfor, for dealing with this.
And, um, we can, we can justturn off the embroidery feature.
For awhile, let's take, takethat away.
People will maybe hit our netpromoter score, but we can solve
(25:35):
that problem in a few months andthen we
Matt (25:36):
Yeah, I mean,
Barry (25:37):
GDPR.
Matt (25:38):
you know, we let them know we it's for their privacy.
Right.
We're doing
Barry (25:41):
Exactly.
It turned into a feature.
There you
Matt (25:43):
a compliance issue.
Thea (25:45):
I think you can do.
Spin it as once one for theprivacy, but too, like in this
world of constant change, weknow nothing's permanent.
Matt (25:55):
Hey, there you
Barry (25:56):
That's some teamwork.
Okay.
Matt (25:58):
All right,
Kate (26:01):
Oh, maybe this is a good time to introduce our disposable
couches with that campaign.
Matt (26:07):
well, can you remind.
Kate (26:10):
Yeah, no, we were, we thought what's the best way to
sell more and it's just, ifpeople don't have couches that
lasts very long.
And so the idea is that after amonth or two, your couch, um,
actually kind of turns into.
Options do you a bonfire, right?
Like people like couch bonfiresanyway.
(26:31):
So, um, there's a sort of a, acool chemical.
We found that, uh, turns wouldweigh more flammable, uh, and it
sort of a delayed release thing.
Barry (26:42):
When, when was that going on?
Kate (26:45):
What we did over the holidays, you know, and we had a
couple of weeks to just likeplay around while a lot of
people were on vacation.
Uh, yeah.
Disposable, flammable coucheswere one of the
Matt (26:54):
sorry, are we, are we shipping these?
Kate (26:58):
just in beta.
Barry (27:00):
yeah.
When did the, when did the betastart?
Kate (27:03):
it was, uh, w we were sort of getting organic demand for it
before new years when we startedkind of regroup.
Social media campaign.
I know this is like pretty muchall of your guys's domains that
we probably shouldn't be doingit, but
Thea (27:16):
Could we check the bug speed couches, please.
I don't want to think the worstabout, about, you know, our
mascot.
It's sad, but could we justcheck what type of pouches bugs
bees got embroidered?
Barry (27:30):
yeah, let's, let's pull all the embroidery couches.
Let's pull all the disposablecouches.
We did a big marketing campaignwith flakes by Georgia, which is
also flammable.
So this is not, not, not a goodcommon.
Thea (27:44):
I I had to spend a lot of time on a boat to get flaked by
Jorge,
Barry (27:49):
Jorge.
I'm sorry.
Thea (27:51):
It's okay.
And if they find out that wepotentially put them in another
flaming light fire liability, Imean,
Kate (28:03):
The idea is people move the
Thea (28:04):
at sea here.
Barry (28:07):
we've got to pull it all back.
We've got to pull it all back.
We settle down and.
Matt (28:12):
uh,
Barry (28:13):
Hold off on new ideas.
Matt (28:15):
one of the beta couches was put through the embroidery
program.
Barry (28:20):
Oh,
Matt (28:21):
I'm pulling those now.
Okay.
We definitely have our phonenumbers are in there, um,
Kate (28:28):
Okay.
Matt (28:29):
though there there's Twitter image links, uh, gosh, I
forgot to open that.
I think my tour browsersupdated, so.
You know, and actually I'm notgoing to look at that during
this meeting and that's, we'lljust assume.
Um, okay.
Yeah, I think, I think, uh, whatis the time clock on those
Flambeau accounts?
Kate (28:50):
Two months.
Um, so it's been about a month,which means they'd be at like
50%, uh, flammability at the
Thea (28:59):
So they would go on flame two weeks before city council
elections.
Kate (29:07):
Yeah.
I mean, they will go, they won'tflame by themselves a hundred
percent.
It's only if they're, uh, in aenvironment that's like 75
degrees or.
Thea (29:18):
That just makes it worse.
Kate.
Matt (29:20):
That's a Cate, that's a regular room temperature.
A lot of rooms are thattemperature.
Kate (29:25):
No, no, no, no, no.
Winter.
Everyone keeps it at like 62, 63for short
Matt (29:31):
That's absolutely not true.
And if it was that cold, thenthey would put electric blankets
and other things on theircouches.
The unit, the human body is 98.6degrees and sitting on a couch
will warm.
Thea (29:42):
Oh, God.
Matt (29:44):
Okay, where we're recalling the beta couches.
Um, I'm flagging all of thesepassword accounts, uh, for
deletion as soon as we cansecurely save their history
somewhere.
Um, and, uh, rather than have aK I know.
(30:05):
You are excellent with theresponsibilities.
And I do not want you to hearthis as taking something away
from your team, but I would likein lieu of, uh, customer
service, handling those, uh,two, please forward those to dev
until we have a tool built foryou to delete people's data.
Kate (30:23):
Okay.
Okay.
We can do that.
Um,
Matt (30:27):
Oh God.
Okay.
Kate (30:29):
cool.
Thea (30:30):
Um, we'll be out of the office for the rest of the week.
It's come to my attention that Ithink the Cedar rapids campaign
team greatly needs someattention.
Um, so I will be out there.
Kate (30:46):
Okay.
Matt (30:46):
okay.
That's um, that's not officiallycompany business, right?
I mean, books, bees emancipated.
Thea (30:55):
I know this.
I understand if you want me totake it off his personal time,
I'm happy to take it off hispersonal style, but I mean, it
was run.
It was run through our, ourservices.
Um, bikes be still is.
Our mascot for the time being.
And if you remember what I wassaying, that these are the
(31:17):
dangers of having a mascot who,you know, um, has a mind of its
own.
So I, I feel like this is apretty pretend big potential for
a PR disaster, um, and just aparenting disaster.
So I'm just gonna go and have atalk.
Kate (31:39):
Yeah.
Matt (31:40):
Oh,
Kate (31:41):
Okay.
Well
Matt (31:42):
I just got to, oh, sorry.
It's uh, another hard-codedMehta market popped up.
Um,
Kate (31:48):
much less important
Matt (31:49):
somebody's, somebody's looking at our privacy.
Kate (31:55):
Okay.
Okay.
Well, On that note.
It seems everyone has plenty todo so maybe we should wrap this
up.
Barry (32:04):
Yeah,
Kate (32:07):
Great.
Barry (32:09):
no snowcones please.
Matt (32:11):
we at least get like those Italian flavored syrups then I
just want this.
Barry (32:15):
Oh yeah, the syrups are great.
Okay.
Yeah.
Kate (32:18):
would you do with those by themselves?
Barry (32:20):
Uh, put them in soda water, put them in coffee,
drizzle over a piece ofcheesecake,
Matt (32:25):
Oh
Barry (32:26):
of things.
Matt (32:27):
yeah.
Kate (32:28):
Okay.
Maybe our dessert bar will justbe soda flavors.
Matt (32:34):
And I'm okay with that.
Kate (32:36):
Yeah.
Okay.
Wonderful.
One thing resolved a few, a fewto go.
I'll stop the recording.
Ben (32:48):
This meeting has ended.
To subscribe to this startup isbeing recorded.
Go to the podcast player of yourchoice and tap a button that
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More content is on Twitter atstartup recorded, or shoot us an
email with ideas, feedback, oryour personal startup horror
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At hello@startuprecorded.com.
Kate is played by ValerieGarrison.
(33:08):
Valerie is a health tech productmanager and regularly plays with
the improv troupe letters tochicken online.
You can find her on Twitter atthevalgarris eric has played by
Barry wright Barry is a productmanager at Spotify and a
co-founder of Highwire Improv.
Find him by his name onLinkedIn, where he holds regular
office hours or athighwireimprov.com.
Matt is played by MartinMcguire.
(33:30):
Marty is a senior web engineerand improviser in New York city.
You can find Marty's comedy codeand cats on his website at M M G
dot R E.
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Robyn is a digital campaignmanager for ocean Conservancy
and is a comedian mostly foundat Highwire improv.
You can find her on all thesocial medias.
And she does mean all at rsteggythank you for listening.
welcome to this startup is being recorded.
This recording is improvisedfiction.
Similarities between it and thereal world are entirely
intentional.
Now enjoy the recording.
Kate (00:22):
All right.
Uh, Hey everybody happyWednesday.
Um, I'm going to record thisstand up.
Uh, so I guess just before weget started, um, for anyone
who's listening, we are a couchmarketplace startup.
Uh, our name's in flux, we weremet a market.
Um, but don't matter.
(00:44):
I've I've realized it's notabout the name.
It's about the vision.
And our vision is to changetrade, give everyone a more
comfortable seat at the table,and we will do that no matter
what our identity is.
Oh, uh, I'm Kate Blanchet.
I'm the chief of staff here.
I work under John.
Um, John's not here.
(01:05):
Uh, he's taking his normal acouple of weeks after MLK day,
kind of around Valentine's day,a few weeks before spring break
a vacation.
Um, but yeah, let's let's goaround.
Thea (01:23):
Okay.
I'm I am the chief creatives areat Metta market soon to be
renamed.
Kate (01:31):
Very soon.
Matt (01:33):
Uh, I am, um, matt.yachts.
Uh, that's also my domain whereyou can learn more about me and
I'm the CTO here at companiesseem to be centered in.
Kate (01:43):
I know it was getting so much.
Barry (01:46):
yup.
Uh, Eric, Joy Carter, chiefproduct officer at company to be
re companied with renamed.
Uh, yeah.
Kate (01:55):
perfect.
Um, well I know we all have alot going on.
Like, I feel like the standupcould go super fast, frankly.
Uh, so let's just like jumpthrough the updates.
Um, anyone want to go for.
Thea (02:09):
I can go first.
I just have a real quick update.
We've been partnering with deMoines on a really great
campaign.
Um, a lot of people are movingout of the city into places like
Des Moines because of thepandemic, uh, by big McMansions,
that to be filled with a lot ofcouches.
So we are.
Targeting them, um, to get themto buy couches through us.
This is super great because insix months, once they go to a
(02:31):
state fair and realize that'sthe only social gathering of the
entire year, and they moved backto those big cities, we also
then reheat them to sell thosecouches on our marketplace.
Barry (02:42):
Nice.
Kate (02:44):
That is a much shorter like lifetime cycle then couches
normally have.
Thea (02:50):
Yeah.
I mean, it's been really helpfuland, you know, we, we know the
demographics so we can just likeconsistently hit them.
And we have been reallysuccessful in getting both the
purchases of their couches andthe selling of their couches,
because it is a quick turnaroundin Des Moines.
Let me tell you.
Kate (03:07):
cool.
Matt (03:09):
Yeah.
I wonder how long, uh, I mean,this isn't a projections
meeting, but I wonder how long,uh, that'll last, you know, it
feels like a short term bump,but then again, the pandemic was
supposed to be short-term.
Anyway, sorry.
I'm I might as well go.
I'm uh, exhausted.
Uh, I'm on PagerDuty again.
And, uh, we put up, uh, as youall know, we've been working on
(03:32):
pulling out the hard-coded termmeta market from the app, the
servers, all of themicroservices in the backend,
uh, several different, uh,third-party services that we
use.
And I'm on PagerDuty this week.
Uh, so I keep gettingnotifications, uh, anytime one
accidentally pops up, uh, and,um, you know, not difficult
(03:57):
work.
I just get to take them and firethem off into our bug system.
But you would be, oh yeah,there's another, um, I, I got,
this is another one.
Uh, somebody.
Kate (04:10):
Okay.
Okay.
Um, Uh, I'll just go real quick.
Um, obviously we're having thecompany voting contest about
what type of dessert machine weshould get.
Um, right now it's kind of tiedbetween crepe maker, a snow cone
machine and a specialty softserve.
(04:30):
Um, I I'm just like, I'm reallyconcerned about some of these
options because obviously wehave, uh, Jen who's allergic to
dairy and we have.
Uh, a few people who haveclaimed they're allergic to
snow, uh, which I don't know howthat's true, but I just am.
(04:52):
Yeah.
Matt (04:53):
That feels very contrarian.
Barry (04:56):
Well, can we, can we, not do this?
No cone maker?
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
It's been, I've been assault alittle salty.
The last couple of days.
I may have told some people towrite in that they were allergic
to snow.
Um, I don't want that snowballsare, are personal to me,
especially, you know, not havingthe knock-off of snowcones here.
(05:18):
Uh, Which is normally a pettything that I wouldn't, uh,
wouldn't bring up, but I've justbeen dealing with this other
issue that is, it's making meless joyful than I normally
would be.
Matt (05:28):
oh,
Barry (05:29):
Um,
Matt (05:30):
what's what's uh, I mean,
Barry (05:32):
So, yeah.
Yeah.
That's, that's my thing.
And I'm glad we're all here totalk about it.
Um, I could use another point ofview.
Um, so the investors, uh, Sentin a couple other requests, uh,
to tie to the funding round, uh,as you all know, um, one of
which was illogically to, uh,get our site compliant with
(05:54):
GDPR.
Um, even though we're notselling any couches or operating
a marketplace in the EU, feltlike it was important to prepare
for the next round of funding.
Uh, so, uh, Lars, uh, fromengineering and, uh, David on
our, on product, um, have beendigging into this and they've
just hit a complete impasse.
Um, we tried to scope this downas small as possible, you know,
(06:17):
put up the, you know, theslightly annoying cookies,
dialogue, you know, the, thethings things you have to do.
Um, and I don't mean to pick onLars Matt, but he has gone
through.
Every, every page ofdocumentation out there on the
law and the case law.
And he keeps coming up withthese ridiculous edge cases that
(06:38):
we just don't have time for.
And he's, he's just, I thinkhe's just scared of us getting
sued, which I understand, but
Matt (06:45):
I mean, oh no, you weren't, you weren't at the
meeting when legal, uh, talkedwith Deb about this.
Um,
Barry (06:52):
oh, no.
Kate (06:53):
wait, Devin legal are not supposed to be alone together in
a room.
Matt (06:57):
Well, I mean, this is part of why.
And, uh, I would say Lara's was,uh, asking some fairly good
questions, uh, and he waspunished severely for that.
So, um, yeah, I'm not, I'm nottoo surprised.
It's, it's a complicatedsituation, right?
Well, you know, it's, I'm tryingto see it from legal's
(07:18):
perspective.
Um, but I, I think it wasunnecessarily.
It's complicated stuff, right?
Like we're already flirting withCCPA stuff and California's law
is so close to GDPR that in manyways the same interventions are
going to work.
Um, but, uh, you know, kudos toLars, he's really kind of
(07:40):
shouldered a burden to, to learnthis.
Um,
Barry (07:42):
and this is
Matt (07:43):
I guess it
Barry (07:43):
is why.
Matt (07:44):
going a little far.
Barry (07:45):
exactly.
I want it.
I want to reward Lars for takingthis on so proactively and being
a good steward of the company,but.
It's getting to a ridiculouspoint.
Let me just, the one we can'tagree on is, so you can get a
couch embroidered with yourname.
And Lars wants us to have adata, a personal data removal
(08:06):
process for embroidered couches.
Matt (08:08):
Oh,
Barry (08:09):
So you can, you can ask to have your data removed.
You can remove consent underGDPR, and he wants us to be able
to have the name disappear offthe couch.
That's ridiculous nobody's evergot, nobody's ever going to ask
to have their name onembroidered from the couch.
We, we, maybe we just don't needto do this right now.
Matt (08:28):
Eric it's um, I mean the, the bit of this that I've
studied is, uh, Under the GDPR.
They don't have to explicitlyask for the embroidery to be
removed.
They make a blanket request thatMetta market deletes all of
their personal information.
And it's actually up to us tohunt that down, wherever it
(08:48):
lives, uh, and destroy it.
And if that means that thatsomeone like put their spouse's
name on a couch and then they,uh, through us, and then they
also sold that couch through.
Um, that's still within ourchain of custody.
Oh
Thea (09:05):
we.
We don't keep the couch.
I mean, it is technically in theperson's property.
And so like, when we say deletethe data, it would be only
deleting the record that wewould need for the name.
Is that correct?
Barry (09:20):
where it gets a bit complicated because we did also
integrate the embroidery featurewith the marketplace avatar
feature.
And so.
Use our marketplace avatarprogram and you get an
embroidered couch.
There's a linking between theembroidered couch and the avatar
and any couches you have in ourlittle showroom online.
(09:45):
So we can remove the name fromthe couch in the showroom.
Um, I mean, that's still seemsexcessive, but, uh, we can, we
can do that, but we can't go allthe way to, to removing the name
from the couch itself.
That's.
Matt (09:58):
Oh, and it, I mean, theoretically if the couch where
to go to be put up, uh, to beresold through the marketplace
and if we're to enter ourcustody,
Barry (10:07):
Yeah, it could return.
Matt (10:09):
our responsibility to, to find that out.
But in order.
To keep track of what couches weneed to remove the embroidery
from when they come in, we needto save a record
Barry (10:20):
we have to hold on to the personal
Matt (10:21):
of this person's data and
Thea (10:24):
Do you think this is going to be a problem in Des Moines?
Because there are a lot of, youknow, in bordered cautious
there.
I mean, people, their rents arereduced.
They've got money to spare.
And I mean, like I said, they'dcome back into the marketplace.
I mean, sometimes within threeto six months,
Kate (10:42):
And we've started at like partnering with Zola to do those
marriage couches so that, youknow, happy.
Holy matrimony, Sarah and Bryan.
Thea (10:53):
Yeah.
And we found, I mean, the rashof post corn team, like post
vaccination divorces was, Imean, really high we've had seen
a lot, a lot of those couchespieces.
Matt (11:07):
Uh, nuts.
Thea (11:10):
I bet.
This is also a really bad timeto talk about revenge and
bartering to
Matt (11:16):
uh, what's um, what's revenge embroidering.
Thea (11:19):
you, um, put, you know, somebody who brought you secret
isn't bartered in the couch, andthen you kind of basically
catfish them into buying thatcouch and seeing their shame.
Matt (11:33):
Oh, Is, um, what kind of moderation tools do we have on
this?
I mean, could people be doxingfolks through our couch
embroidery system?
We haven't seen, please tell mewe haven't seen any evidence.
Kate (11:52):
me, I mean, we can, can we just pull up real quick?
Like some of the most recentembroidery
Barry (11:56):
Yeah, that's a good idea.
Kate (11:58):
let's just go there if you, I, I bet these cases like
never happened, you know, wealways think of things.
Really our,
Barry (12:07):
How, how has that three of the first 10 results are
phone numbers
Matt (12:13):
oh
Barry (12:14):
who would put a FA up?
I guess I got promotional FAcouch would want a phone number,
I guess.
Matt (12:20):
yeah.
Hang on.
Let me
Barry (12:22):
What else?
Kate (12:23):
yeah, Maybe
Barry (12:23):
a weird
Kate (12:24):
commercial phone
Matt (12:25):
I'm doing a reverse lookup of, um, a hole that is not a
commercial number.
Uh, yeah, no, this is, um, aperson who was, uh, being doxed,
uh, politically.
Um, wow.
Uh, they were running for citycouncil and, uh, opposition.
(12:50):
Uh, yeah.
Um, it
Thea (12:52):
Wait in opposition to.
Matt (12:57):
you know, looks like it was left out of this article.
I just have this little snippetfrom, uh, I don't even recognize
this town.
Kate (13:08):
Wait,
Matt (13:09):
code looks like it's near.
Kate (13:16):
how exactly.
Did bug speak at, on the ballotfor the city council of Cedar
rapids
Thea (13:26):
Oh, I mean, bag speak was just inspired by the couch to
get into the political.
Kate (13:33):
and then bugs be used our platform to docs his opponent.
Thea (13:38):
Listen, we, nobody here is nobody here is saying that
right.
For all we know bugs, we ran avery clean campaign.
Kate (13:49):
I'm just putting pieces together.
I've just.
Thea (13:52):
I get, I agree.
The evidence is a hundredpercent thing.
Matt (13:58):
I mean, these other two phone numbers in the, in the top
10, these are also 3, 1 9 areacodes.
Thea (14:05):
Why would bugs be, do that?
Bugs me bugs me has the meritsof himself.
I cannot teach my son to cheat.
Kate (14:13):
It's technically not cheating.
It's just like a terrible tacticthat people use now.
Um, let's go through a fewother, can you pull up the next
10, Eric?
I just, when need let's solveone problem at a time.
Barry (14:28):
I these look like he's with like Twitter image links.
I,
Matt (14:35):
oh,
Barry (14:36):
I,
Kate (14:37):
Great.
Someone, someone
Barry (14:38):
I feel like the more we look into this, the form, the
more we look into this more, themore we're incriminating.
Bugsby I?
Matt (14:44):
I'm going to hang on.
I'm going to open a privatebrowser.
Actually.
I'm going to open up a Torbrowser window.
Barry (14:50):
Yeah.
Okay.
Um, if I look, if I look sixmonths ago, I start to see
normal.
Normal first names, neural firstand last names.
A couple, couple names.
Um,
Kate (15:01):
Okay.
Matt (15:02):
some of these early ones.
Sorry, I'm
Barry (15:04):
looks totally fine.
Matt (15:05):
Kind of update the Tor browser.
You have there's some key ones.
Uh, people moved in together,anniversaries, uh, you know,
together forever.
Very cute.
Barry (15:16):
very, yeah, reasonable.
But the last two weeks
Kate (15:21):
or more interesting.
Barry (15:22):
that, yeah.
Kate (15:24):
Uh, sorry, circling back to like a little while ago, you
mentioned something about CCPAand like, we have to follow
that.
So when we get a lot of supportrequests that are people, like I
would like to delete my accountand, uh, we usually say, okay,
it's been deleted.
Um, but we just changed theirpassword.
(15:44):
They can't get in is that it'snot, not really.
Matt (15:49):
uh, yeah, no, no.
Um, under, under Californiaprivacy law, um, I mean,
technically, if they are not aresident of California, we don't
have to honor that request.
Um, it's rare that companieswould choose not to, uh, we're
supposed to delete any recordsassociated with, uh, that
(16:10):
person, at least in so much asthey, uh, contain identifying
information.
Uh, and there's a pretty broaddefinition of identifying
information.
Kate (16:20):
okay.
Okay.
Well,
Barry (16:23):
so this is the kind of stuff.
Yeah.
This is the kind of stuff that Iwas excited about.
Lars, uh, working on
Kate (16:29):
Uh, we
Matt (16:30):
I've never, you know, I haven't audited this stuff.
Do, do we not have, uh, likecustomer data deletion
functions?
I really
Kate (16:40):
R R yeah.
The admin tool was prettylimiting.
Barry (16:44):
It's very manual.
Kate (16:45):
yeah, I just, you don't think it's a problem if we like
changed all the passwords toyou, two password, right?
Matt (16:55):
I'm sorry.
You.
Kate (17:00):
We find that not very many people use password as their
password, some do, but not many.
So we think that's a safepassword to change their
password to
Barry (17:09):
how do we know?
Kate (17:12):
uh, in the admin tool, there's this table with user
data.
So we just like go in and lookat their password to change
their password to somethingelse.
Matt (17:23):
oh my God.
Barry (17:27):
oh, no.
Kate (17:28):
but.
Matt (17:28):
not, no, that can't be right Kate, because the login
system, I mean, I've looked atthis schema before I'm looking
at it.
Now we clearly hash theirpasswords.
Uh it's.
It's exactly how, like I'mlooking at the code when they
sign in.
We check this, this table.
Yeah, it looks good.
And then, oh, what the F what isthis?
(17:52):
And when there's a successfullogin, we write an initial.
Kate (17:57):
we
Matt (17:57):
What's
Kate (17:58):
like a while ago where we didn't know what to change their
passwords to because we wouldchange it to something that was
already their password, like 1,2, 3, 4, and then we just
thought the solution was to knowtheir password, to change her
password to something else.
Thea (18:14):
I feel really bad about this because it used to be the
creative team's job to come upwith creative passwords that you
could replace them with.
And we just, you know, we'vebeen working too hard on the
name and Bugsby to really like,provide that service to.
Matt (18:30):
Um,
Kate (18:31):
I mean, it's okay.
It's, it's super easy for oursupport team to, to, you know,
be able to go in and.
Matt (18:38):
it's uh, yeah.
Okay.
Kate, what, what other steps dowe have when we off-board a
customer like this?
Um, we changed their password.
Do we also make sure to deletetheir, uh, saved addresses or
any payment methods that they'vestored with us and, uh, social
media account that they've tiedin?
Kate (19:00):
Nope.
Uh, none of those things.
Um, but, and it's because wewant to.
Try to get them to be userslater, you know, at one point,
uh, we wanted to do surveys forpeople that had offboarded.
And so we have a weekly emailsurvey that goes to them, a
monthly mailer, um, bi-weeklytext message campaigns to try to
(19:22):
re-engage them.
Uh, I know I, this might be newto you, but I just thought the
support team could do more thanwe were.
And I thought you guys wouldappreciate.
Matt (19:33):
Um, uh, okay.
I, I don't know that we're goingto resolve this here.
We're getting away from astandup, but, um, this is very
bad.
This is extremely bad.
Um, by changing people'spasswords to, um, very easily
get.
(19:53):
Uh, passwords, uh, automaticallyguessable passwords.
Um, we're opening up theiraccounts to, uh, all kinds of
malicious hacking, uh, or ifthey have, uh, any stalkers or,
uh, prank pranksters, uh, itmakes it very easy to get into
their account.
And because we haven't deletedany of their payment
information, uh, they could be,there could be a whole
(20:18):
underground market using resetpassword accounts.
To move couches or,
Barry (20:24):
back and forth,
Matt (20:25):
transactions.
Barry (20:26):
back and forth in Iowa.
Matt (20:31):
Oh,
Kate (20:33):
Wait, what are you
Matt (20:34):
the large cities
Barry (20:36):
yeah, maybe there's
Matt (20:39):
and back again.
Barry (20:40):
a bot network.
Matt (20:43):
Well, look, we have this table of passwords.
I might as well.
Barry (20:46):
way more couch sales than you would expect for that number
of people.
Matt (20:51):
right.
Yeah.
So we have from, from users thispassword, let's go ahead and
join this table, uh, who havesold a couch.
Wait, who have bought a couch inthe last 90 days.
And then who sold it againwithin the last well, uh, 90
(21:13):
days to now, uh, the previouslogin activity did not match
before the password change.
Oh, Califia what were thenumbers we had on,
Thea (21:29):
yeah, we
Matt (21:30):
two Moines?
Hot swappers.
Thea (21:32):
yeah, we had about, um, 3000 active.
Who did both?
Uh, it was 3,102, um, active whoboth worked with us to buy a
couch and sell a couch in thepast six months since we started
the campaign.
Matt (21:51):
okay.
Um, I'm seeing about 2,900couches, um, moved by deleted
accounts, uh, in that timeperiod.
Kate (22:04):
so this is, this might be not relevant, but I feel like I
should bring it up.
I did.
I read an article the other dayabout kind of like the uptick
in.
Illegal drug trafficking in Iowaand the methods of moving it,
uh, primarily being likehousehold, um, seating.
Thea (22:30):
this would explain why.
I mean, the couches, in mostcases, I just assumed that, you
know, And New York, like coucheswould sell at a premium, but
there is generally a large, uh,change even from a new to use
couch.
Like most people are makingmoney off of selling their
(22:51):
couches in Munich.
Matt (22:55):
Uh, and there's a handful that seemed to be a nexus for
this activity, kind of a hubthat many of these couches of
past.
One or more times.
Kate (23:07):
w we can, let's just change their passwords.
It's just something else.
Barry (23:12):
or we could delete the account.
Matt (23:17):
uh, it's, it's a database.
You delete, you delete stufffrom it.
Um, I mean, I could do that now.
Um, we'd be potentially wipingout records.
Self-dealing drug traffickingand credit card fraud.
Barry (23:34):
oh, okay.
Let's.
Thea (23:40):
I mean, I, I am just, obviously there are so many
issues with the optics of thiswhole situation.
Um, but I think also we shouldjust remember that on de Moines,
we ran on like Nancy Reagan ask,say no to drugs, really strict
campaign.
(24:02):
Because of these issues.
And I mean, that's why bugs.
We was riding in Cedar rapids.
We found it so effective to bethe face of drug-free couches
that.
Matt (24:14):
here's I think I can, I think we can knock these two
birds out of the air, uh, with,with one thrown couch.
Uh,
Kate (24:26):
are you leaning towards throne?
Matt (24:28):
do y'all?
How, oh, no, no, no.
Like, like, like, uh, the pasttense of the throat, um, Eric,
how do you like this?
We solve the embroidery problem.
We flag every couch that we'veembroidered or not, uh,
especially any in the Des Moinesarea to come back through our
(24:50):
facility.
We tear those things.
if there are drugs inside, wedispose of them.
I guess.
I don't know that's going to be,it's going to be up to the
warehouse team.
Kate (25:02):
you definitely.
I mean, what are some ideas ofhow to dispose of drugs?
got
Matt (25:08):
don't know.
Everything burns.
Barry (25:10):
yeah, w we've we've we've we've dealt with more difficult
contraband before, so, um, yeah,so we we'd just be out the cost
of the shipping.
Um, that's a small price to payfor, for dealing with this.
And, um, we can, we can justturn off the embroidery feature.
For awhile, let's take, takethat away.
People will maybe hit our netpromoter score, but we can solve
(25:35):
that problem in a few months andthen we
Matt (25:36):
Yeah, I mean,
Barry (25:37):
GDPR.
Matt (25:38):
you know, we let them know we it's for their privacy.
Right.
We're doing
Barry (25:41):
Exactly.
It turned into a feature.
There you
Matt (25:43):
a compliance issue.
Thea (25:45):
I think you can do.
Spin it as once one for theprivacy, but too, like in this
world of constant change, weknow nothing's permanent.
Matt (25:55):
Hey, there you
Barry (25:56):
That's some teamwork.
Okay.
Matt (25:58):
All right,
Kate (26:01):
Oh, maybe this is a good time to introduce our disposable
couches with that campaign.
Matt (26:07):
well, can you remind.
Kate (26:10):
Yeah, no, we were, we thought what's the best way to
sell more and it's just, ifpeople don't have couches that
lasts very long.
And so the idea is that after amonth or two, your couch, um,
actually kind of turns into.
Options do you a bonfire, right?
Like people like couch bonfiresanyway.
(26:31):
So, um, there's a sort of a, acool chemical.
We found that, uh, turns wouldweigh more flammable, uh, and it
sort of a delayed release thing.
Barry (26:42):
When, when was that going on?
Kate (26:45):
What we did over the holidays, you know, and we had a
couple of weeks to just likeplay around while a lot of
people were on vacation.
Uh, yeah.
Disposable, flammable coucheswere one of the
Matt (26:54):
sorry, are we, are we shipping these?
Kate (26:58):
just in beta.
Barry (27:00):
yeah.
When did the, when did the betastart?
Kate (27:03):
it was, uh, w we were sort of getting organic demand for it
before new years when we startedkind of regroup.
Social media campaign.
I know this is like pretty muchall of your guys's domains that
we probably shouldn't be doingit, but
Thea (27:16):
Could we check the bug speed couches, please.
I don't want to think the worstabout, about, you know, our
mascot.
It's sad, but could we justcheck what type of pouches bugs
bees got embroidered?
Barry (27:30):
yeah, let's, let's pull all the embroidery couches.
Let's pull all the disposablecouches.
We did a big marketing campaignwith flakes by Georgia, which is
also flammable.
So this is not, not, not a goodcommon.
Thea (27:44):
I I had to spend a lot of time on a boat to get flaked by
Jorge,
Barry (27:49):
Jorge.
I'm sorry.
Thea (27:51):
It's okay.
And if they find out that wepotentially put them in another
flaming light fire liability, Imean,
Kate (28:03):
The idea is people move the
Thea (28:04):
at sea here.
Barry (28:07):
we've got to pull it all back.
We've got to pull it all back.
We settle down and.
Matt (28:12):
uh,
Barry (28:13):
Hold off on new ideas.
Matt (28:15):
one of the beta couches was put through the embroidery
program.
Barry (28:20):
Oh,
Matt (28:21):
I'm pulling those now.
Okay.
We definitely have our phonenumbers are in there, um,
Kate (28:28):
Okay.
Matt (28:29):
though there there's Twitter image links, uh, gosh, I
forgot to open that.
I think my tour browsersupdated, so.
You know, and actually I'm notgoing to look at that during
this meeting and that's, we'lljust assume.
Um, okay.
Yeah, I think, I think, uh, whatis the time clock on those
Flambeau accounts?
Kate (28:50):
Two months.
Um, so it's been about a month,which means they'd be at like
50%, uh, flammability at the
Thea (28:59):
So they would go on flame two weeks before city council
elections.
Kate (29:07):
Yeah.
I mean, they will go, they won'tflame by themselves a hundred
percent.
It's only if they're, uh, in aenvironment that's like 75
degrees or.
Thea (29:18):
That just makes it worse.
Kate.
Matt (29:20):
That's a Cate, that's a regular room temperature.
A lot of rooms are thattemperature.
Kate (29:25):
No, no, no, no, no.
Winter.
Everyone keeps it at like 62, 63for short
Matt (29:31):
That's absolutely not true.
And if it was that cold, thenthey would put electric blankets
and other things on theircouches.
The unit, the human body is 98.6degrees and sitting on a couch
will warm.
Thea (29:42):
Oh, God.
Matt (29:44):
Okay, where we're recalling the beta couches.
Um, I'm flagging all of thesepassword accounts, uh, for
deletion as soon as we cansecurely save their history
somewhere.
Um, and, uh, rather than have aK I know.
(30:05):
You are excellent with theresponsibilities.
And I do not want you to hearthis as taking something away
from your team, but I would likein lieu of, uh, customer
service, handling those, uh,two, please forward those to dev
until we have a tool built foryou to delete people's data.
Kate (30:23):
Okay.
Okay.
We can do that.
Um,
Matt (30:27):
Oh God.
Okay.
Kate (30:29):
cool.
Thea (30:30):
Um, we'll be out of the office for the rest of the week.
It's come to my attention that Ithink the Cedar rapids campaign
team greatly needs someattention.
Um, so I will be out there.
Kate (30:46):
Okay.
Matt (30:46):
okay.
That's um, that's not officiallycompany business, right?
I mean, books, bees emancipated.
Thea (30:55):
I know this.
I understand if you want me totake it off his personal time,
I'm happy to take it off hispersonal style, but I mean, it
was run.
It was run through our, ourservices.
Um, bikes be still is.
Our mascot for the time being.
And if you remember what I wassaying, that these are the
(31:17):
dangers of having a mascot who,you know, um, has a mind of its
own.
So I, I feel like this is apretty pretend big potential for
a PR disaster, um, and just aparenting disaster.
So I'm just gonna go and have atalk.
Kate (31:39):
Yeah.
Matt (31:40):
Oh,
Kate (31:41):
Okay.
Well
Matt (31:42):
I just got to, oh, sorry.
It's uh, another hard-codedMehta market popped up.
Um,
Kate (31:48):
much less important
Matt (31:49):
somebody's, somebody's looking at our privacy.
Kate (31:55):
Okay.
Okay.
Well, On that note.
It seems everyone has plenty todo so maybe we should wrap this
up.
Barry (32:04):
Yeah,
Kate (32:07):
Great.
Barry (32:09):
no snowcones please.
Matt (32:11):
we at least get like those Italian flavored syrups then I
just want this.
Barry (32:15):
Oh yeah, the syrups are great.
Okay.
Yeah.
Kate (32:18):
would you do with those by themselves?
Barry (32:20):
Uh, put them in soda water, put them in coffee,
drizzle over a piece ofcheesecake,
Matt (32:25):
Oh
Barry (32:26):
of things.
Matt (32:27):
yeah.
Kate (32:28):
Okay.
Maybe our dessert bar will justbe soda flavors.
Matt (32:34):
And I'm okay with that.
Kate (32:36):
Yeah.
Okay.
Wonderful.
One thing resolved a few, a fewto go.
I'll stop the recording.
Ben (32:48):
This meeting has ended.
To subscribe to this startup isbeing recorded.
Go to the podcast player of yourchoice and tap a button that
likely says subscribe.
More content is on Twitter atstartup recorded, or shoot us an
email with ideas, feedback, oryour personal startup horror
story.
At hello@startuprecorded.com.
Kate is played by ValerieGarrison.
(33:08):
Valerie is a health tech productmanager and regularly plays with
the improv troupe letters tochicken online.
You can find her on Twitter atthevalgarris eric has played by
Barry wright Barry is a productmanager at Spotify and a
co-founder of Highwire Improv.
Find him by his name onLinkedIn, where he holds regular
office hours or athighwireimprov.com.
Matt is played by MartinMcguire.
(33:30):
Marty is a senior web engineerand improviser in New York city.
You can find Marty's comedy codeand cats on his website at M M G
dot R E.
Calathea is played by RobynStegman.
Robyn is a digital campaignmanager for ocean Conservancy
and is a comedian mostly foundat Highwire improv.
You can find her on all thesocial medias.
And she does mean all at rsteggythank you for listening.
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