February 23, 2022 • 40 mins
Agenda:
- We’re ready to reveal the new company name!
- Also, Executive Standup
Takeaways:
- Kate to keep wearing away at Francis’s fear of robots
- Take away the pavlovian shock keyboards from the Support team
- Eric to create final report on covert supply chain QA test
- Create a decriminalized typography zone for Tech and Creative to resolve conflicts in
- Try to subliminally convince John of different brand scents
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 (00:23):
okay.
Uh, Hey everybody.
Um, oh my gosh.
I can't believe this is thefirst recorded meeting.
We're going to say this, but weare.
No longer met a market.
We are set, we are set.
And remember, like, I hope youall have continued brainstorming
(00:43):
ideas for what sit means becauseJohn really insists that CIT is
an acronym.
So it's all capital S Y T.
Um, and we have like T minus twoweeks to come up with what our
name is.
anyway, for anyone who'slistening to this, we obviously
record all our meetings, uh, forfuture employees and folks who
(01:06):
want to learn about our companyset.
We are a couch marketplace rightnow, but you know, in the
future, we're really helpingshape trade for, for everyone
and everything.
And yeah, today we've got anexecutive stand-up to do, but,
um, let's go around real quick,do introductions, uh, in case we
got any new employees.
Thea (01:24):
I'll start I'm Kelly I'm the chief creative czar for SYT.
So excited to say that.
Kate (01:31):
say,
Matt.Yachts (01:32):
I can go.
Um, my name is matt.yachts.
That's also my website and I amthe CTO here at.
Kate (01:41):
I'm Kate I'm the chief of staff under John, the CEO of
SYT, uh, here at SYT.
Eric (01:48):
And, uh, yeah.
Are Carter chief productsofficer,SYT.
Set.
That's it.
Kate (01:57):
it said,
Thea (01:59):
Yeah, it sounds right.
You know, sometimes you gotta gowith those first ideas, just
like in your gut and sit withthat's great.
Kate (02:07):
Yeah.
Matt.Yachts (02:07):
My only problem so far is, uh, it's such a common
word.
It's starting to lose meaninglike we, you know, we use it so
much and I, now I feel like sitokay.
Did I say that?
Did I say it?
Weird, said, sit, sit, see yet.
I, Hmm.
I'll get there.
Kate (02:28):
a good thing.
Our office cat, like reallydoesn't know tricks.
I used to try to teach teachersset, but at this point I think.
Other, she'd just be sitting allthe time if she actually knew
how to do it.
So it's probably a good thing.
Um, she never caught on to thetricks.
Um, anyway, let's go throughstandup.
Anybody want to start?
Eric (02:48):
Yeah, I have some exciting news if that's
Matt.Yachts (02:50):
Oh yeah.
Eric (02:51):
announcing here,
Thea (02:53):
Yeah.
Um,
Eric (02:54):
uh, we went hard at this.
Uh, it took some convincing, butas, as you all know, uh, the New
York times recently acquiredportal.
Matt.Yachts (03:03):
Indeed.
Eric (03:04):
We were, we were trying to acquire world Wordle ourselves,
but that we were outbid by theNew York times as we all know.
Um, but they did agree to allowus to integrate the New York
times version of world into thecity.
Checkout flow.
Uh, and so people, as people arewaiting for the confirmation
(03:26):
page for their shippinginformation and for their order
confirmation, they can playWordle, uh, and it's really
increased customer engagementalready in the last 24 hours.
Uh, we're really, really excitedabout it.
Um, so, um, kudos to our legalteam, you know, using a couple
of those precious minutes tohelp us with the contract there.
(03:46):
Uh, and, uh, for the
Matt.Yachts (03:48):
so
Eric (03:49):
it up to.
Matt.Yachts (03:50):
Yeah.
I've got to
Thea (03:51):
It,
Matt.Yachts (03:51):
uh, oh, sorry.
Thea (03:53):
no, no, go ahead.
I was just going to a lot.
I mean, this is absolutelyamazing.
Our time on spent on our pageson the website has dramatically
increased.
Matt.Yachts (04:04):
Yeah.
And, uh, as you know, as a CTO,That horrifies me.
Uh, this is, this is all aband-aid for underlying
problems, dealing with ourpayment processors.
The fact that we have noautomation, uh, for, for a lot
of our shipment confirmationstuff.
And that's handled by somebodycopying cells between
spreadsheets in real time, whilea customer weights, uh, all of
(04:28):
that is the worst, but, um, I'venever seen.
Uh, more gilded bandaid.
This is, uh, just the,trade-offs never made sense in
my mind until I saw it up on thesite.
And I, I realized like this isit.
Like we've really accomplishedsomething.
And so thank you, Eric.
(04:48):
Thank you to your team.
Uh, for all this, we're going tokeep, uh, You know, from, from
tech side, we're going to keeppushing to modernize, uh, all of
our other teams stuff.
Oh, sorry.
Uh, Kate, by pushing in thiscase, I mean, uh, angry phone
calls and emails to, uh, to, youknow, the shipping teams, uh,
the people who organize them.
(05:08):
Um, I'm pretty sure you get CC'don all of these.
Um, they need to agree to somekind of automation process and
planning, uh, but in the short.
People are people are, you know,they're, they're getting their
three out of six, uh, and lovingit.
Thea (05:26):
I'll also just save that, you know, we've been in talks
with the New York times since weimplemented this of actually
doing a paid promotion.
Once they rolled that out onWordle to have couch B a, I
can't tell you what day, cause Idon't want to spoil it, but
upcoming, um, we are going toroll out.
With a small banner ad thatrefers people to play on our
(05:50):
website.
So really excited about it.
Kate (05:54):
Okay.
That's so good.
Um,
Thea (05:57):
God.
What we sell is a five letterword.
I'll just say really goodforesight on our part.
Eric (06:02):
Sometimes.
Kate (06:04):
yeah.
Um, and Matt, the teams havebeen thinking about automation,
for sure.
For sure.
It's just it's
Matt.Yachts (06:11):
thank goodness.
Kate (06:12):
you know, last year we had that situation where we tried to
implement robots in the factoryand, and it went so poorly that
frankly, there was just like avery visceral reaction to
anything that sounds like itmight have to do with like robot
overlords.
Matt.Yachts (06:28):
I totally get it.
Um, it's just that we'reprobably at like one, 200th of
where we could be on throughput,selling couches.
If we weren't reliant on.
Individuals like copying fromspreadsheet to spreadsheet, to
Google calendar.
Eric (06:48):
Yep.
We want to have the
Matt.Yachts (06:49):
this is the thing that computers are good for.
You know, I agree like, youknow, don't put those computers
on two ton robots that aremoving at 60 miles per hour
through a warehouse, uh, tragic.
But,
Thea (07:03):
With very pointy and.
Matt.Yachts (07:06):
I wasn't involved in that project.
Kate (07:08):
The pointy hands were helpful.
They stuck into the couch andmoved them much easier than any
sort of opposable thumb typerobots.
We tried to identify, but.
Okay, well, I will again have,um, another session with Francis
where we, we try to reintroducethe idea of, of macros and, you
(07:29):
know, really any type ofautomation in Excel, but she has
control C control V down, pat.
Matt.Yachts (07:39):
Don't get me wrong.
She's she's fast.
Okay.
But this is like a John Henrysituation.
Okay.
And I don't want to see hergetting carpal tunnel.
Kate (07:47):
situation
Matt.Yachts (07:49):
never heard them.
The myth of John Henry.
Kate (07:53):
down.
Matt.Yachts (07:53):
tunnel tunnel digging man who, uh, went up
against the, the first automatedsteam shovel and, uh, in the
myth, uh, he won, uh, in a raceto tunnel, but also he
immediately died.
Um, therefore proving that likethe humans are not sustainable
as tunnel diggers.
And so automation ultimately wonthe day.
(08:14):
It's a very confusing story, uh,morally, but,
Thea (08:18):
one die from like copy and pasting too much.
Matt.Yachts (08:23):
It definitely is an RSI risk.
Uh, that's a lot of work on thepinkie unless you have a special
keyboard.
And I, she was not interested inmy overtures about special
people, words.
Eric (08:34):
the eyestrain.
We're at least talking about adecrease in quality of life.
If not length of life.
Matt.Yachts (08:40):
Yeah.
Also her refusal to bring onsomeone, to do it in her off
hours.
I mean, she is clocking 1820hours.
And we can't take orders in themean, and you know, the
intervening.
Thea (08:54):
Yeah, that whole system that she has set up where she
just gets like a red light in amole alarm that goes off every
time we have an order and thefact that she lives in this
environment, I mean the bluelight from her computer and the
fluorescent light alone has tobe toxic.
Kate (09:11):
it's her, her doctors have tried to give her direct
warnings.
They've tried to be gentle, butI mean, at some point she just,
she just became.
Being very distrustful of likemedical institutions in general.
Um, most of her advice now comesfrom, uh, some, some Reiki
(09:31):
experts.
Uh,
Thea (09:33):
Well, well, that's not criticized Reiki.
I mean, it's, it's wonderful.
Kate (09:38):
sure.
It's Eric, go
Eric (09:41):
I know, I know I brought this up and I keep, I keep
bringing it up, but I don'tthink it's that unethical to
convince her that robots havetaken over.
And the result is that, youknow, she can no longer do the
18 to 20 hour days.
You know, we are in fact, ourrobots and have replaced this
program with a normal workingenvironment.
(10:03):
It would take away the fear andreplace it with a sense of
resignation, uh, but preserveher physical life.
Uh, and I think we should atleast reconsider it.
And if
Matt.Yachts (10:13):
Oh yeah.
Like,
Thea (10:15):
And Eric and I have worked on the script for that.
We've staged it.
We built the costumes.
We've figured out the set aroundher office.
I think we could very easilyimplement it whenever
Kate (10:29):
okay.
Matt.Yachts (10:29):
This is great.
Um, yeah, we're on board.
Um, you know, just let, uh, youknow, Devin it know what you
need, uh, to support this.
Eric (10:37):
Oh, that'd be great.
Thea (10:39):
that'd be great.
Matt.Yachts (10:39):
running our own version of the matrix, uh,
around one person.
And that's
Thea (10:44):
Yeah, could we borrow, um, what is his name?
Uh, Gerald.
He has like a very monotonousvoice.
He works on your team.
Matt.Yachts (10:53):
Yeah.
Um, yeah, you probably want tosnatch them up a little bit.
Uh, some kind of a suit.
Like he, he speaks in amonotone, but he's got a real
punk aesthetic on his own.
Um
Kate (11:05):
Hm.
Thea (11:06):
Yeah.
I, I just think that he's anatural in the way that he moves
and talks.
I mean, all we'd have to do isput a costume on him and he'd be
very believable.
Matt.Yachts (11:16):
Yeah.
Sounds great.
Kate (11:19):
Okay.
This, this seems just like, thisseems like a series a problem,
right?
I think we're so close to thatfunding.
We'll have to do the automation.
I think it's good to have theplan, but let's just hold off
until that's final.
Matt.Yachts (11:31):
Sure.
Yeah.
I mean they have no, they haveno further requirements of, uh,
order speed from us at themoment, which, you know,
Kate (11:38):
Right,
Matt.Yachts (11:38):
I'm tour.
Kate (11:40):
right.
Um, okay.
Thank you, Eric, for thatupdate.
Um, anyone else want to go nexton stand-up?
Matt.Yachts (11:50):
Uh, I can go since we, we mentioned a transition
stuff, um, as the, the new nameis coming in, I just want to
remind everyone of, uh, I guessspecifically like Califia is
team, but I know there's been alot of work done to get our
assets ready, uh, arts, uh,video for the new name, uh,
(12:11):
redoing a lot of our, how tovideos and so on.
Um, just everyone.
Remember the difference betweenthe CMS and the CDN.
Uh, because if you upload to theCDN, you're pushing that to
thousands of servers at theglobal edges of the network and
making them immediatelyavailable, uh, often overriding
(12:32):
content that is already in theapp or on the website that, uh,
we are not ready to overwriteyet.
Um, you should be using the CMS,uh, our content management
system to stage those assets,uh, new logos videos, uh,
photographs.
Uh, and schedule them forrelease on the CDN.
Kate (12:53):
Right.
You send out a lot of emailsabout this mat, if like.
Matt.Yachts (12:57):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, um, to be honest, it'staken a few tries to get the
messaging.
Right.
Um, and I think probably in oneor two of those, I have mixed up
the terms myself.
Uh, so there's definitelydepending on like, who's read
which emails, there's a lot ofmisinformation out.
Um, unintentional, I assume.
(13:19):
Uh, but, uh, yeah, we just needto really clear it up, uh, new
stuff, put it on the CMS andschedule it.
The CDN is what we're usingright now and leave it, leave it
be.
Thea (13:32):
totally understand.
I mean, our team has had a lotof confusion.
Um, we are implementing, uh,Pavlovian training right now
within our, uh, organization.
As you know, we already haveelectric shock.
Built into the keyboards of thecreative team and it's a small
(13:53):
shock, but right now, if they goto the CDM, they do get a small
shock to keep them steered onthe CMS.
I just find these words are veryconfusing and we want this to be
instinctual.
So really on, on the same pagewith you, Matt, um, we might
have a problem when we are readyto use the CDN because it is
(14:13):
now.
Mo we'll have to use your teambecause my team is now pretty
afraid of it.
Uh, I would say a little bit ofresistance.
There were some tears andcowering, um, but they're using
the CMS and, um, you know, it'sactually getting to a point
where they like get hungryalmost when they're about to use
(14:37):
the CMS.
So I think we're doing a reallygood job there.
Um, on that part.
Matt.Yachts (14:41):
great.
Well, yeah, definitely.
Sorry to cause emotionaldistress on this.
Uh, and you know, it's confusingwhen two pieces of technology
seem to do the same or similarthings, uh, and we're totally
happy to, to step up and handlethe transition from CMS to CDN
when that time comes.
Thea (14:59):
Great.
Yeah, that would be wonderful.
And anytime you need us to doanything on the CMS, it has
developed a cult-like followingamong the creative team.
So we're, we're happy to do, todo anything with the CMS now,
just, uh, not this year.
Matt.Yachts (15:15):
Great.
Yeah.
Very exciting.
It's a powerful system.
So it's cool to see peoplebuilding their own workflows
around it.
Kudos to.
Thea (15:23):
Yeah.
Kate (15:23):
maybe we should be discouraging things like
shocking our employees when theydo something wrong or like, I
mean, I'm pro like giving themfood when they do things.
Right.
But, um,
Thea (15:35):
I understand that, you know, sometimes, you know, a
carrot system works really well.
Uh, and that's usually, youknow, what we try in our team is
to, you know, have positivity,but it just didn't seem to be
working.
And there was a lot ofconfusion.
So we probably won't use theshock method in.
Anything or a lot of things downthe road, but it was really,
(15:58):
really effective.
Um, sometimes having that senseof resistance is a more powerful
motivator.
Matt.Yachts (16:04):
Definitely reduced our number of incidents, uh,
like pretty much overnight.
And, you know, we went from aweek of constantly having to
replace the old assets on theCDN, uh, to the following week.
Uh, none from your team at leastCalifia.
And although there were, therewere a few here and there, so,
um,
Thea (16:22):
Yeah.
I mean, the amount of peopleinfluencers we'd have to, we've
had to pay to keep our nameunder wraps.
Um, we've just, you know, wejust couldn't risk it.
Um, and my, my team, I think,understands that we have a
balance of both dark and lightin our, in my management style.
Kate (16:41):
Of course, of course.
Okay.
Well, it sounds like we'repretty much wrapped up with the
CDN CMS Chuck thing, uh, S.
Eric (16:51):
on, sorry.
W where, where is the CRM in allof this?
Is there any behavioralmodification for the CRM?
I've noticed some weird casescome through.
From our sales team.
Matt.Yachts (17:02):
oh, you know, I haven't been tracking that
because it is internal facing.
Uh, and I tend to fail, like,worry more about the stuff that
our customers are seeing.
Uh, what, what kind of stuffhave you been dealing with
there?
Eric (17:14):
Well, I just, you know, you kind of feed, you mentioned
some sort of fear.
I did, I did notice a number of,you know, customer support
tickets have a very, very kindof tense language.
And, you know, there were someof the call recordings that.
More screaming than is typical.
Now I'll just say, um, so I'm, II'm just, I hope the, the
(17:36):
behavioral modification hasn'tbled into some of our other
acronyms.
particularly since we're nowmoving into an acronym based
name as the company
Matt.Yachts (17:45):
Yeah,
Kate (17:48):
Oh God wait.
Were those, those were thoseshock keyboards.
Um, are those the, the Dell onesyou ordered?
Thea (17:56):
Yeah, of course the Dell one.
Kate (17:58):
I just have no.
If we're getting a new keyboardsfor your team, we should get new
keyboards for my team.
So the whole support team justhad their hardware updated.
And I mean, they said some ofthem has have tried, I think to
tell me they don't like it, butyeah, it's not easy for them.
Thea (18:18):
Oh God.
And that, I mean, withoutsomebody.
You know, trained, who's reallyreinforcing the negative versus
the positive had forced when, Imean, if they're just getting it
at random, they're living in aworld of chaos.
Matt.Yachts (18:31):
I mean, I mean, so many of them work out of the
CRM.
That's how we track supportrequests.
So, so it's a critical functionof their oh no.
Kate (18:40):
Okay.
Okay.
Well, just after this rightaway, I'll just, uh, I'll go in
there.
I'll I'll take all the keyboardsaway.
They'll use, they'll use thelaptop keyboards.
It'll be, it'll be fine.
I'll be fine.
Matt.Yachts (18:54):
Good looking out for your team to get them new
equipment though.
You know, you, it's important tostay on top of that stuff and
it's easy to let it slip.
Thea (19:01):
Yeah.
I'm so glad.
I'm honestly so glad that youfinally upgraded from the
typewriter system that you were,you.
Kate (19:09):
yeah, that one was really challenging to train people on.
Um, people make a lot ofmistakes, which really is hard
and typewriters, you know, and,and frankly screening all of our
candidates by the speed in whichthey could type without mistakes
was I think probably ultimatelynot the best quality, uh, for
(19:29):
support.
Matt.Yachts (19:30):
So it was nice to have so many, like, you know,
1950s and earlier business booksto help, right.
With that hiring language.
Kate (19:38):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Those are really easy to checkout from the library.
okay.
I can, oh, you wanna go to.
Thea (19:47):
no, no, no, go ahead, Kate.
I can save be the dessert forless.
Kate (19:51):
okay.
Great.
Um, so my update, this is just alittle awkward, but I wanted to
bring it to you all.
Um, we've been having a fewissues with, uh, couches
disappearing from the warehouse,um, like inventory numbers just
aren't matching up.
Um, and.
(20:12):
One of a few of our inventorymanagers have told me that, uh,
Eric, that it's you, that you'recoming in at night and taking
couches.
I didn't, I didn't want toassume.
I don't know.
I, I just, this is what theytold me.
Um,
Eric (20:33):
Uh,
Kate (20:37):
maybe there's someone else that looks like you
Eric (20:39):
no, it's me.
It's it's me.
Thea (20:42):
Okay.
Eric (20:42):
But this work, I was 80% through an elaborate and
well-planned QA process so thatwe could understand where
throughout the entire supplychain, we were seeing
discrepancies in our numbers andwhether they were being caught
or not.
And now the integrity of theexperiment is, is in question,
(21:05):
how many of you is anybodybesides us and everybody
watching?
No.
Kate (21:11):
I mean, yeah, it was just a few inventory managers that I
talked to.
Um, I mean, I don't know, Idon't know who they talk to.
Frankly.
The warehouse is just likegossip city.
So probably everyone
Eric (21:23):
yeah, absolutely.
Um,
Kate (21:26):
Wait, wait.
So you were doing, you
Eric (21:29):
I was doing this on purpose.
Yeah.
Kate (21:31):
a supply chain QA without telling you.
Eric (21:34):
Well, it's, I mean, Matt, you know, the security red
teaming, you know, It's awell-worn process to inject
chaos into the system and seehow the system reacts.
If I told people it washappening, they would have been
more vigilant.
Uh, and you know, I guess we, wehaven't lost everything.
We did learn that it took, youknow, you know, 16 days for
(21:56):
people to raise this to you, um,which is useful information.
Um, we can maybe do some, someinterviews and, and try and
backtrack and see, see what welearned.
Uh, sorry.
I blew up a little bit.
Um, just cause you know,sometimes like things to go
perfectly, but there's, there'sa lot, that's a valuable that we
can still get from this.
(22:16):
And actually, you know, it's, itmakes sense that it showed up in
the standup.
So it's a good learning.
It's a good money, but yes, I,I, will go and recover the
couches from the locations I putthem in and return them.
and we'll, we'll shut theexperiment down.
Matt.Yachts (22:32):
Okay.
I mean, if I know you feel likethe integrity is, uh, is now in
question, but I would still loveto see your after action on
this,
Eric (22:41):
Oh, Yeah.
absolutely.
Matt.Yachts (22:43):
Uh, you know, what, what have you learned, uh, who
were you able to conscript intotaking those couches, which
couches, uh, went missing thatwere not part of your experiment
and, um, you know, how can weget a beat on those?
Eric (22:56):
Yeah.
I'll get stuff.
We'll um, the team willactually, well, I guess we'll
move the.
The analysis for a week, whichis, is good.
Kate (23:04):
Yeah, I just, okay.
I just, you know, supply chainis kind of supposed to be my
area and I really thought of youas a mentor, Eric, and like, I
don't know what the fact thatyou didn't include me.
Just makes me question ourmentor, mentee relationship and.
(23:26):
Is there something wrong with
Eric (23:28):
I would never, I would never compromise.
How our mentor menteerelationship by making things
easier for you than I would foranybody else.
Kate (23:39):
I appreciate that.
I just thought, I mean, I couldhave been involved.
Maybe I could have explainedmore ways for you to steal
couches that would have beenmore effective.
Eric (23:51):
That is, that is something we should talk about after we do
the after action plan.
If you've got, if we walkedthrough all the things I did and
you have more ideas, I thinkthat's a great thing for us to
do.
Kate (24:00):
Yeah, no, there are definitely several ways that I
absolutely know that you didn'tdo that are probably the
highest, uh, likelihood ofescape.
anyway, this is just, well,yeah.
Okay.
Next week when we get coffeeapp, you're
Eric (24:17):
our one-on-one Yeah.
Kate (24:18):
6:00 AM on Tuesdays.
Okay, good, great.
Thea (24:22):
Okay.
Well, I think that leaves me.
My team has been workingincredibly hard on switching
over all of our assets, uh, andjust really building a brand
around sit, you know, sit isjust a name and now we need
colors and fonts.
And it's been honestlyincredibly hard with the minimum
feedback that we get from Johnon this.
(24:44):
So, you know, we're kind offlying in the dark a little bit.
Uh, the only.
Thing that he really sent anyfeedback on was the scent, which
I was not a huge, you know, liftit came from.
I think you've heard the ideathat the creative team has that
we should spray our couches downwith a light scent brand sense
(25:08):
so that like, you know, there'sthings like tide, right?
Tide has a very distinctivebrand, send people really get
addicted to it.
We really wanted one.
I set several options to John.
He ended up coming up with hisown scent, which contained
something called Amber grease,uh, which.
Frankly whale vomit and illegalin the United States.
(25:32):
So our team has been, um, tryingto figure out the feasibility of
that while we're also doing theheavy lifting of all of the
other brand identity pieces.
Kate (25:47):
Oh my God.
And we just, I mean, I know wehave to change scent, but we
have so much left over from theMetamarkets.
Thea (25:58):
I know, I.
Totally hear you.
You know, our team is all aboutsustainability.
I can definitely get our team towork on where we can possibly
donate that scent, you know, to,to possibly zoos.
They don't smell great.
Um, or other places, perhaps theocean at high tide.
(26:20):
Um, yeah, we can, we can thinkabout that.
Honestly.
We've been working around theclock though.
Um, and this Amber grease thingis, um, Uh, you know, really my
team's in a really fragilestate.
Uh, I'll be honest.
Kate (26:35):
Ooh.
Okay.
Um, probably doesn't help allthe emails I see between you and
Matt about, or I would say yourteam teams.
Uh, I know there's a lot ofcommunication happening.
That's
Matt.Yachts (26:50):
The, uh,
Kate (26:51):
the best.
Matt.Yachts (26:54):
I want to apologize for some of that.
Um, they got really excitedabout solving this acronym
problem, um, but went about itin a, a really attention hungry
way.
Um, CC-ing your team on thisvery long thread and then
rehabbing them every time theyremoved themselves.
And, uh, I apologize for that.
(27:14):
Califia.
Thea (27:16):
It's it's okay.
I'll be honest though, that weare going to have to figure out
how did you better connect, uh,communication, because most of
my team have now blocked yourteam, um, due to that thread,
um, I it's just, it's been toomuch and, you know, we already
went through the shock treatmentand all of that piece.
(27:37):
Uh they're just,
Matt.Yachts (27:38):
are high.
Thea (27:40):
yeah, I mean, And, um, you know, I have to bring up, you
know, the incident of your teamactually like putting up signs
and doing a ticker tape paradein favor of their favorite
iteration of CIT.
I was, you know, uh, verywell-designed, but maybe the
(28:01):
wrong time for it.
Matt.Yachts (28:03):
they're just very straightforward people.
And so settle your torso.
Like it just felt like it fitwith all of the things we were
trying to do.
to tell them that it's.
That's all that sitting is, thisis what that means.
So like it's not, it's notmeaningful that, yeah.
Um, I don't know that they havea hard time, uh, sometimes
(28:25):
grasping, you know, the, themore communication, the meaning,
the art, uh, the artistry, asignup language.
Um, if it's not, you know, forconcision than, uh, they, they
don't quite grasp it.
So yeah.
We'll have to figure somethingout.
I'm sorry.
Califia.
Thea (28:43):
Yeah, it's.
It's fine.
We're, you know, we're gettingthrough honestly, again,
compared to this set issue.
Um, it's it hasn't been theworst thing that's happened to
us this week.
Definitely.
Um, what was suggested that wedo to shampoo by Jod was the
(29:05):
worst thing that happened to usthis week.
Kate (29:08):
John.
Ah,
Matt.Yachts (29:11):
is the problem with him, palling around with all
these CEO's he's he's got waytoo much pull at SeaWorld, and
that is gross.
Kate (29:20):
I
Thea (29:20):
it really is.
Kate (29:21):
do.
They just sit around and talkabout aquatic, sea creatures all
day like that.
I feel like that's the onlything that he ever sends to us.
Eric (29:29):
I mean, what do you think Necker island.
Kate (29:32):
I don't know.
Matt.Yachts (29:33):
Uh, just hope this phase and soon, you know, it's
like when he was obsessed withthe, all the animals in
Australia, that
Eric (29:40):
Uh,
Thea (29:41):
Yeah.
Oh my goodness.
Matt.Yachts (29:43):
time with, uh, wildlife control in a lot of
different places.
He who knew he had that manyhouses.
Thea (29:50):
Yeah, it was, it was, um, we had a cash in a lot of our,
our tips and, um, you know, whatcan I say, Hugh Jackman will
never speak to me again.
Kate (30:03):
well, okay.
I'm sorry to hear about all thechallenges Califia.
Um, are we still on track forend of next week to.
Ready, uh, ready with thecreative assets ready to kind of
do launch the week after if thenew name
Thea (30:18):
I think we're mostly ready on the name, the colors.
Uh, we are having somenegotiations with the topography
people, as you know, they raisetheir rates and it's been a lot
of back and forth.
Negotiations.
Um, you know, but I think aftera very long sailing trip this
weekend that I can finally saythat, uh, it is on track and on
(30:43):
budget, um, which is veryexciting.
Minus of course the buddy wespent on the sailing expedition,
I will say that, uh, At thefirst iteration that they gave
us, uh, they weren't reallyhappy with us and it wasn't
really legible.
Um, I'm not even sure it was inArabic characters, but, uh, I
(31:08):
think we're working through someof those issues.
So I think you should now beable to read the new font when
we roll it out.
Matt.Yachts (31:15):
um, I would like to ask that, uh, someone on your
team, uh, on, you know,unblocked me, maybe I can be the
liaison for this, but, um, myteam has been going through the,
uh, the font files they sentover, uh, the ones for print,
uh, the ones for the app.
Um, most of those are comingthrough fine.
(31:36):
Uh, but they've been.
They've been slipping stuff into some of the other versions,
some of the web font versionsand not on every page load, uh,
long story short, like there'vebeen some rude messages popping
up in the beta, uh, for thewebsite and, and it turned out
not to be anything, uh, in thedatabase or the CMS.
(31:58):
Uh, it turned out to be packedinto the font files.
So, um, let's connect aboutthat.
And, uh, You know, I hopefullysquash this beef.
Um, I
Thea (32:11):
Is it.
Matt.Yachts (32:12):
type type foundries are really demanding.
Thea (32:14):
Yeah, it's been really bad.
Um, is it the bugs bedecapitated in the PB and D
Matt.Yachts (32:24):
Okay.
You've seen that one.
Yeah.
Thea (32:26):
Yeah, I, I have seen that one.
It is obviously really terriblefor our brand.
Um, yeah, so we can definitelysquash this,
Matt.Yachts (32:37):
ones have been, um, very clever uses of ligatures so
that they will catch onlycertain combinations of
characters and words, and thenreplace them, uh, often with the
same decapitated Bugsby picture.
But, uh, sometimes with thenames of our competitors, uh
it's.
Yeah.
Thea (32:55):
It's um, yeah, I, we might have to move to a new
typographer after this, buthonestly, we are so close to the
end that, um, To suit to moveover to somebody else.
So we're going to have to just,um, hold on and, you know, keep
pushing through.
And, um, luckily we havesomebody on our team who is
(33:18):
doing, who has experienced andtopography.
Who's kind of filling in, um,had just become really good at
turning the Bugsby to capitationinto something that kind of
looks like a automate.
So, um, that.
Matt.Yachts (33:35):
I know that tensions are high, but we
probably should pair somebody.
Um, because my team has beenworking on some, some hacks for
this as well.
And.
Uh, I think number one, we wouldlike to go through and, uh,
provide you with some simplifiedfiles where we strip out from
the variable fonts, the slidersthat they have, uh, for, um,
(33:58):
being penny pinchers, uh, forlack of a better word.
Uh, tightwads, there's a,there's a slider in there for
how much of a tightwad we are asa company.
Uh,
Kate (34:09):
what are we being braided?
That right now?
Matt.Yachts (34:12):
Uh, well, it's it's variable so we can set it in,
uh, in our code and our, ourCSS.
But, um,
Eric (34:20):
they're making us decide.
Matt.Yachts (34:22):
the joke is on us is that like, no matter where
you put it, it just moves aroundwhere the insults show up.
Um, yeah, if you, if you try toset it all the way to zero, then
the font just disappears and isreplaced by a text, uh, like,
you know, call us with theirphone number.
Thea (34:39):
Okay.
Um, I think I, their phonenumber.
Okay.
Matt.Yachts (34:44):
it's a, it's a message to us.
They expected us to find this.
Thea (34:48):
okay.
Um, yeah, I think Matt, if youcould just choose a couple of
employees that.
Basically have a true Swith.
Um, we could definitely find todemilitarize space between, um,
the barricades that we put up inthe creative team for us to
(35:08):
talk, you know, through this.
Um,
Matt.Yachts (35:12):
we can keep it super focused.
We'll make like, this is thetopography zone and only
business about typography iscarried out here.
Uh, everybody can leave theirpolitics, their respective
teams.
Thea (35:25):
That sounds really great.
Yeah.
And, you know, we might have tofigure out how to put more
Mudget in typography.
I know we extended ourselveswith both the couch campaign and
the bug speed campaign foroffice, but, um,
Kate (35:41):
We
Thea (35:41):
know,
Kate (35:41):
raised a series a, we can't spend like another$50,000
on type.
Thea (35:47):
believe me, this is the last resort that I want to get.
Um, I thought we
Kate (35:52):
At Google font.
Thea (35:53):
Handle this, uh, yeah, I mean, we're, this is our brand
at stake, you know, and not justour brand, but John's brand.
And I think that he certainly,if he wants Amber grease in our
perfume, he's not going to wantus to just choose a Google
thought.
He's really looking at it.
Very luxury rebranding, um, avery high-end rebranding and
(36:17):
he's the one actually whoreferred us.
Danish firm, uh, they're theones who invented Helvetica.
So, you know, like he chose thebest of the best and we're just
going to have to like,
Matt.Yachts (36:29):
The best of the best of
Eric (36:30):
Now we're paying for it.
Yeah.
Thea (36:32):
yeah, the best of his way.
Yeah, exactly.
Yes.
We're definitely paying for it.
Um, but uh, we are
Kate (36:40):
it's almost over.
Thea (36:40):
going to have to, going to have to go through, you know,
these are, this decision was insome ways made for us and, um,
we'll have.
Eric (36:48):
I,
Thea (36:48):
Push it through.
Eric (36:49):
I can offer a 10,$10,800, uh, from the QA experiment
budget that will no longer be.
Uh, so he wouldn't reallocatethat to the topography pod
project.
Um, maybe that'll start to getus in the way
Thea (37:04):
That's really great.
Um, Chelsea also has someexplosives that she didn't use
in the past that she is sellingoff that I think can also add to
our budget, um, just to helpmake up for some of the losses
that we had with bugs bees lostit in, uh, Iowa.
Kate (37:23):
Yeah, that was so sad.
Matt.Yachts (37:25):
And, uh, my team has been doing good about, uh,
banking overtime, not drawing onit too hard.
So, uh, we could take some ofthe.
Maybe our type specialist willbe somebody from the night
shifts or a couple of folks thatnormally sit the server room,
uh, at night and they can, uh,take some overtime for doing
font work in the day.
I've got a little extra budgetdropped for that.
Kate (37:46):
Okay, great.
We just got to make it throughit.
We're close to the series.
I could feel it.
Um, okay.
Any, any other we're a littlebit over time, but any other
major items?
Okay.
Awesome.
Um, I actually do have like aone-on-one meeting with John
later this week.
Um, I
Thea (38:06):
Wow.
That's that's crazy.
Eric (38:08):
Sit down.
Kate (38:10):
sit down.
Yes.
Um, I'll let you know how itgoes.
Um, but yeah, other than that,uh, it seems like we're all
resolved.
Thea (38:22):
And honestly, I, I, if you could just, um, I have some
other set samples that I swearsmell just like the mustiness of
Amber grease.
If you could just like maybeconvince him, um, it would, it
would be such a, such a hugegain for us.
Kate (38:39):
sure.
We can plan some like subliminalmessaging there.
Um, spray them with variousparts of the coffee shop, that
kind of thing.
Thea (38:47):
That would be great.
Kate (38:48):
Okay.
Okay.
Awesome.
Well, in that case, I'm going tostop the recording and we'll all
get back to work.
Matt.Yachts (38:55):
All right.
Thanks everybody.
Ben (38:58):
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.
(39:18):
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.
(39:39):
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.
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 (00:23):
okay.
Uh, Hey everybody.
Um, oh my gosh.
I can't believe this is thefirst recorded meeting.
We're going to say this, but weare.
No longer met a market.
We are set, we are set.
And remember, like, I hope youall have continued brainstorming
(00:43):
ideas for what sit means becauseJohn really insists that CIT is
an acronym.
So it's all capital S Y T.
Um, and we have like T minus twoweeks to come up with what our
name is.
anyway, for anyone who'slistening to this, we obviously
record all our meetings, uh, forfuture employees and folks who
(01:06):
want to learn about our companyset.
We are a couch marketplace rightnow, but you know, in the
future, we're really helpingshape trade for, for everyone
and everything.
And yeah, today we've got anexecutive stand-up to do, but,
um, let's go around real quick,do introductions, uh, in case we
got any new employees.
Thea (01:24):
I'll start I'm Kelly I'm the chief creative czar for SYT.
So excited to say that.
Kate (01:31):
say,
Matt.Yachts (01:32):
I can go.
Um, my name is matt.yachts.
That's also my website and I amthe CTO here at.
Kate (01:41):
I'm Kate I'm the chief of staff under John, the CEO of
SYT, uh, here at SYT.
Eric (01:48):
And, uh, yeah.
Are Carter chief productsofficer,SYT.
Set.
That's it.
Kate (01:57):
it said,
Thea (01:59):
Yeah, it sounds right.
You know, sometimes you gotta gowith those first ideas, just
like in your gut and sit withthat's great.
Kate (02:07):
Yeah.
Matt.Yachts (02:07):
My only problem so far is, uh, it's such a common
word.
It's starting to lose meaninglike we, you know, we use it so
much and I, now I feel like sitokay.
Did I say that?
Did I say it?
Weird, said, sit, sit, see yet.
I, Hmm.
I'll get there.
Kate (02:28):
a good thing.
Our office cat, like reallydoesn't know tricks.
I used to try to teach teachersset, but at this point I think.
Other, she'd just be sitting allthe time if she actually knew
how to do it.
So it's probably a good thing.
Um, she never caught on to thetricks.
Um, anyway, let's go throughstandup.
Anybody want to start?
Eric (02:48):
Yeah, I have some exciting news if that's
Matt.Yachts (02:50):
Oh yeah.
Eric (02:51):
announcing here,
Thea (02:53):
Yeah.
Um,
Eric (02:54):
uh, we went hard at this.
Uh, it took some convincing, butas, as you all know, uh, the New
York times recently acquiredportal.
Matt.Yachts (03:03):
Indeed.
Eric (03:04):
We were, we were trying to acquire world Wordle ourselves,
but that we were outbid by theNew York times as we all know.
Um, but they did agree to allowus to integrate the New York
times version of world into thecity.
Checkout flow.
Uh, and so people, as people arewaiting for the confirmation
(03:26):
page for their shippinginformation and for their order
confirmation, they can playWordle, uh, and it's really
increased customer engagementalready in the last 24 hours.
Uh, we're really, really excitedabout it.
Um, so, um, kudos to our legalteam, you know, using a couple
of those precious minutes tohelp us with the contract there.
(03:46):
Uh, and, uh, for the
Matt.Yachts (03:48):
so
Eric (03:49):
it up to.
Matt.Yachts (03:50):
Yeah.
I've got to
Thea (03:51):
It,
Matt.Yachts (03:51):
uh, oh, sorry.
Thea (03:53):
no, no, go ahead.
I was just going to a lot.
I mean, this is absolutelyamazing.
Our time on spent on our pageson the website has dramatically
increased.
Matt.Yachts (04:04):
Yeah.
And, uh, as you know, as a CTO,That horrifies me.
Uh, this is, this is all aband-aid for underlying
problems, dealing with ourpayment processors.
The fact that we have noautomation, uh, for, for a lot
of our shipment confirmationstuff.
And that's handled by somebodycopying cells between
spreadsheets in real time, whilea customer weights, uh, all of
(04:28):
that is the worst, but, um, I'venever seen.
Uh, more gilded bandaid.
This is, uh, just the,trade-offs never made sense in
my mind until I saw it up on thesite.
And I, I realized like this isit.
Like we've really accomplishedsomething.
And so thank you, Eric.
(04:48):
Thank you to your team.
Uh, for all this, we're going tokeep, uh, You know, from, from
tech side, we're going to keeppushing to modernize, uh, all of
our other teams stuff.
Oh, sorry.
Uh, Kate, by pushing in thiscase, I mean, uh, angry phone
calls and emails to, uh, to, youknow, the shipping teams, uh,
the people who organize them.
(05:08):
Um, I'm pretty sure you get CC'don all of these.
Um, they need to agree to somekind of automation process and
planning, uh, but in the short.
People are people are, you know,they're, they're getting their
three out of six, uh, and lovingit.
Thea (05:26):
I'll also just save that, you know, we've been in talks
with the New York times since weimplemented this of actually
doing a paid promotion.
Once they rolled that out onWordle to have couch B a, I
can't tell you what day, cause Idon't want to spoil it, but
upcoming, um, we are going toroll out.
With a small banner ad thatrefers people to play on our
(05:50):
website.
So really excited about it.
Kate (05:54):
Okay.
That's so good.
Um,
Thea (05:57):
God.
What we sell is a five letterword.
I'll just say really goodforesight on our part.
Eric (06:02):
Sometimes.
Kate (06:04):
yeah.
Um, and Matt, the teams havebeen thinking about automation,
for sure.
For sure.
It's just it's
Matt.Yachts (06:11):
thank goodness.
Kate (06:12):
you know, last year we had that situation where we tried to
implement robots in the factoryand, and it went so poorly that
frankly, there was just like avery visceral reaction to
anything that sounds like itmight have to do with like robot
overlords.
Matt.Yachts (06:28):
I totally get it.
Um, it's just that we'reprobably at like one, 200th of
where we could be on throughput,selling couches.
If we weren't reliant on.
Individuals like copying fromspreadsheet to spreadsheet, to
Google calendar.
Eric (06:48):
Yep.
We want to have the
Matt.Yachts (06:49):
this is the thing that computers are good for.
You know, I agree like, youknow, don't put those computers
on two ton robots that aremoving at 60 miles per hour
through a warehouse, uh, tragic.
But,
Thea (07:03):
With very pointy and.
Matt.Yachts (07:06):
I wasn't involved in that project.
Kate (07:08):
The pointy hands were helpful.
They stuck into the couch andmoved them much easier than any
sort of opposable thumb typerobots.
We tried to identify, but.
Okay, well, I will again have,um, another session with Francis
where we, we try to reintroducethe idea of, of macros and, you
(07:29):
know, really any type ofautomation in Excel, but she has
control C control V down, pat.
Matt.Yachts (07:39):
Don't get me wrong.
She's she's fast.
Okay.
But this is like a John Henrysituation.
Okay.
And I don't want to see hergetting carpal tunnel.
Kate (07:47):
situation
Matt.Yachts (07:49):
never heard them.
The myth of John Henry.
Kate (07:53):
down.
Matt.Yachts (07:53):
tunnel tunnel digging man who, uh, went up
against the, the first automatedsteam shovel and, uh, in the
myth, uh, he won, uh, in a raceto tunnel, but also he
immediately died.
Um, therefore proving that likethe humans are not sustainable
as tunnel diggers.
And so automation ultimately wonthe day.
(08:14):
It's a very confusing story, uh,morally, but,
Thea (08:18):
one die from like copy and pasting too much.
Matt.Yachts (08:23):
It definitely is an RSI risk.
Uh, that's a lot of work on thepinkie unless you have a special
keyboard.
And I, she was not interested inmy overtures about special
people, words.
Eric (08:34):
the eyestrain.
We're at least talking about adecrease in quality of life.
If not length of life.
Matt.Yachts (08:40):
Yeah.
Also her refusal to bring onsomeone, to do it in her off
hours.
I mean, she is clocking 1820hours.
And we can't take orders in themean, and you know, the
intervening.
Thea (08:54):
Yeah, that whole system that she has set up where she
just gets like a red light in amole alarm that goes off every
time we have an order and thefact that she lives in this
environment, I mean the bluelight from her computer and the
fluorescent light alone has tobe toxic.
Kate (09:11):
it's her, her doctors have tried to give her direct
warnings.
They've tried to be gentle, butI mean, at some point she just,
she just became.
Being very distrustful of likemedical institutions in general.
Um, most of her advice now comesfrom, uh, some, some Reiki
(09:31):
experts.
Uh,
Thea (09:33):
Well, well, that's not criticized Reiki.
I mean, it's, it's wonderful.
Kate (09:38):
sure.
It's Eric, go
Eric (09:41):
I know, I know I brought this up and I keep, I keep
bringing it up, but I don'tthink it's that unethical to
convince her that robots havetaken over.
And the result is that, youknow, she can no longer do the
18 to 20 hour days.
You know, we are in fact, ourrobots and have replaced this
program with a normal workingenvironment.
(10:03):
It would take away the fear andreplace it with a sense of
resignation, uh, but preserveher physical life.
Uh, and I think we should atleast reconsider it.
And if
Matt.Yachts (10:13):
Oh yeah.
Like,
Thea (10:15):
And Eric and I have worked on the script for that.
We've staged it.
We built the costumes.
We've figured out the set aroundher office.
I think we could very easilyimplement it whenever
Kate (10:29):
okay.
Matt.Yachts (10:29):
This is great.
Um, yeah, we're on board.
Um, you know, just let, uh, youknow, Devin it know what you
need, uh, to support this.
Eric (10:37):
Oh, that'd be great.
Thea (10:39):
that'd be great.
Matt.Yachts (10:39):
running our own version of the matrix, uh,
around one person.
And that's
Thea (10:44):
Yeah, could we borrow, um, what is his name?
Uh, Gerald.
He has like a very monotonousvoice.
He works on your team.
Matt.Yachts (10:53):
Yeah.
Um, yeah, you probably want tosnatch them up a little bit.
Uh, some kind of a suit.
Like he, he speaks in amonotone, but he's got a real
punk aesthetic on his own.
Um
Kate (11:05):
Hm.
Thea (11:06):
Yeah.
I, I just think that he's anatural in the way that he moves
and talks.
I mean, all we'd have to do isput a costume on him and he'd be
very believable.
Matt.Yachts (11:16):
Yeah.
Sounds great.
Kate (11:19):
Okay.
This, this seems just like, thisseems like a series a problem,
right?
I think we're so close to thatfunding.
We'll have to do the automation.
I think it's good to have theplan, but let's just hold off
until that's final.
Matt.Yachts (11:31):
Sure.
Yeah.
I mean they have no, they haveno further requirements of, uh,
order speed from us at themoment, which, you know,
Kate (11:38):
Right,
Matt.Yachts (11:38):
I'm tour.
Kate (11:40):
right.
Um, okay.
Thank you, Eric, for thatupdate.
Um, anyone else want to go nexton stand-up?
Matt.Yachts (11:50):
Uh, I can go since we, we mentioned a transition
stuff, um, as the, the new nameis coming in, I just want to
remind everyone of, uh, I guessspecifically like Califia is
team, but I know there's been alot of work done to get our
assets ready, uh, arts, uh,video for the new name, uh,
(12:11):
redoing a lot of our, how tovideos and so on.
Um, just everyone.
Remember the difference betweenthe CMS and the CDN.
Uh, because if you upload to theCDN, you're pushing that to
thousands of servers at theglobal edges of the network and
making them immediatelyavailable, uh, often overriding
(12:32):
content that is already in theapp or on the website that, uh,
we are not ready to overwriteyet.
Um, you should be using the CMS,uh, our content management
system to stage those assets,uh, new logos videos, uh,
photographs.
Uh, and schedule them forrelease on the CDN.
Kate (12:53):
Right.
You send out a lot of emailsabout this mat, if like.
Matt.Yachts (12:57):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, um, to be honest, it'staken a few tries to get the
messaging.
Right.
Um, and I think probably in oneor two of those, I have mixed up
the terms myself.
Uh, so there's definitelydepending on like, who's read
which emails, there's a lot ofmisinformation out.
Um, unintentional, I assume.
(13:19):
Uh, but, uh, yeah, we just needto really clear it up, uh, new
stuff, put it on the CMS andschedule it.
The CDN is what we're usingright now and leave it, leave it
be.
Thea (13:32):
totally understand.
I mean, our team has had a lotof confusion.
Um, we are implementing, uh,Pavlovian training right now
within our, uh, organization.
As you know, we already haveelectric shock.
Built into the keyboards of thecreative team and it's a small
(13:53):
shock, but right now, if they goto the CDM, they do get a small
shock to keep them steered onthe CMS.
I just find these words are veryconfusing and we want this to be
instinctual.
So really on, on the same pagewith you, Matt, um, we might
have a problem when we are readyto use the CDN because it is
(14:13):
now.
Mo we'll have to use your teambecause my team is now pretty
afraid of it.
Uh, I would say a little bit ofresistance.
There were some tears andcowering, um, but they're using
the CMS and, um, you know, it'sactually getting to a point
where they like get hungryalmost when they're about to use
(14:37):
the CMS.
So I think we're doing a reallygood job there.
Um, on that part.
Matt.Yachts (14:41):
great.
Well, yeah, definitely.
Sorry to cause emotionaldistress on this.
Uh, and you know, it's confusingwhen two pieces of technology
seem to do the same or similarthings, uh, and we're totally
happy to, to step up and handlethe transition from CMS to CDN
when that time comes.
Thea (14:59):
Great.
Yeah, that would be wonderful.
And anytime you need us to doanything on the CMS, it has
developed a cult-like followingamong the creative team.
So we're, we're happy to do, todo anything with the CMS now,
just, uh, not this year.
Matt.Yachts (15:15):
Great.
Yeah.
Very exciting.
It's a powerful system.
So it's cool to see peoplebuilding their own workflows
around it.
Kudos to.
Thea (15:23):
Yeah.
Kate (15:23):
maybe we should be discouraging things like
shocking our employees when theydo something wrong or like, I
mean, I'm pro like giving themfood when they do things.
Right.
But, um,
Thea (15:35):
I understand that, you know, sometimes, you know, a
carrot system works really well.
Uh, and that's usually, youknow, what we try in our team is
to, you know, have positivity,but it just didn't seem to be
working.
And there was a lot ofconfusion.
So we probably won't use theshock method in.
Anything or a lot of things downthe road, but it was really,
(15:58):
really effective.
Um, sometimes having that senseof resistance is a more powerful
motivator.
Matt.Yachts (16:04):
Definitely reduced our number of incidents, uh,
like pretty much overnight.
And, you know, we went from aweek of constantly having to
replace the old assets on theCDN, uh, to the following week.
Uh, none from your team at leastCalifia.
And although there were, therewere a few here and there, so,
um,
Thea (16:22):
Yeah.
I mean, the amount of peopleinfluencers we'd have to, we've
had to pay to keep our nameunder wraps.
Um, we've just, you know, wejust couldn't risk it.
Um, and my, my team, I think,understands that we have a
balance of both dark and lightin our, in my management style.
Kate (16:41):
Of course, of course.
Okay.
Well, it sounds like we'repretty much wrapped up with the
CDN CMS Chuck thing, uh, S.
Eric (16:51):
on, sorry.
W where, where is the CRM in allof this?
Is there any behavioralmodification for the CRM?
I've noticed some weird casescome through.
From our sales team.
Matt.Yachts (17:02):
oh, you know, I haven't been tracking that
because it is internal facing.
Uh, and I tend to fail, like,worry more about the stuff that
our customers are seeing.
Uh, what, what kind of stuffhave you been dealing with
there?
Eric (17:14):
Well, I just, you know, you kind of feed, you mentioned
some sort of fear.
I did, I did notice a number of,you know, customer support
tickets have a very, very kindof tense language.
And, you know, there were someof the call recordings that.
More screaming than is typical.
Now I'll just say, um, so I'm, II'm just, I hope the, the
(17:36):
behavioral modification hasn'tbled into some of our other
acronyms.
particularly since we're nowmoving into an acronym based
name as the company
Matt.Yachts (17:45):
Yeah,
Kate (17:48):
Oh God wait.
Were those, those were thoseshock keyboards.
Um, are those the, the Dell onesyou ordered?
Thea (17:56):
Yeah, of course the Dell one.
Kate (17:58):
I just have no.
If we're getting a new keyboardsfor your team, we should get new
keyboards for my team.
So the whole support team justhad their hardware updated.
And I mean, they said some ofthem has have tried, I think to
tell me they don't like it, butyeah, it's not easy for them.
Thea (18:18):
Oh God.
And that, I mean, withoutsomebody.
You know, trained, who's reallyreinforcing the negative versus
the positive had forced when, Imean, if they're just getting it
at random, they're living in aworld of chaos.
Matt.Yachts (18:31):
I mean, I mean, so many of them work out of the
CRM.
That's how we track supportrequests.
So, so it's a critical functionof their oh no.
Kate (18:40):
Okay.
Okay.
Well, just after this rightaway, I'll just, uh, I'll go in
there.
I'll I'll take all the keyboardsaway.
They'll use, they'll use thelaptop keyboards.
It'll be, it'll be fine.
I'll be fine.
Matt.Yachts (18:54):
Good looking out for your team to get them new
equipment though.
You know, you, it's important tostay on top of that stuff and
it's easy to let it slip.
Thea (19:01):
Yeah.
I'm so glad.
I'm honestly so glad that youfinally upgraded from the
typewriter system that you were,you.
Kate (19:09):
yeah, that one was really challenging to train people on.
Um, people make a lot ofmistakes, which really is hard
and typewriters, you know, and,and frankly screening all of our
candidates by the speed in whichthey could type without mistakes
was I think probably ultimatelynot the best quality, uh, for
(19:29):
support.
Matt.Yachts (19:30):
So it was nice to have so many, like, you know,
1950s and earlier business booksto help, right.
With that hiring language.
Kate (19:38):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Those are really easy to checkout from the library.
okay.
I can, oh, you wanna go to.
Thea (19:47):
no, no, no, go ahead, Kate.
I can save be the dessert forless.
Kate (19:51):
okay.
Great.
Um, so my update, this is just alittle awkward, but I wanted to
bring it to you all.
Um, we've been having a fewissues with, uh, couches
disappearing from the warehouse,um, like inventory numbers just
aren't matching up.
Um, and.
(20:12):
One of a few of our inventorymanagers have told me that, uh,
Eric, that it's you, that you'recoming in at night and taking
couches.
I didn't, I didn't want toassume.
I don't know.
I, I just, this is what theytold me.
Um,
Eric (20:33):
Uh,
Kate (20:37):
maybe there's someone else that looks like you
Eric (20:39):
no, it's me.
It's it's me.
Thea (20:42):
Okay.
Eric (20:42):
But this work, I was 80% through an elaborate and
well-planned QA process so thatwe could understand where
throughout the entire supplychain, we were seeing
discrepancies in our numbers andwhether they were being caught
or not.
And now the integrity of theexperiment is, is in question,
(21:05):
how many of you is anybodybesides us and everybody
watching?
No.
Kate (21:11):
I mean, yeah, it was just a few inventory managers that I
talked to.
Um, I mean, I don't know, Idon't know who they talk to.
Frankly.
The warehouse is just likegossip city.
So probably everyone
Eric (21:23):
yeah, absolutely.
Um,
Kate (21:26):
Wait, wait.
So you were doing, you
Eric (21:29):
I was doing this on purpose.
Yeah.
Kate (21:31):
a supply chain QA without telling you.
Eric (21:34):
Well, it's, I mean, Matt, you know, the security red
teaming, you know, It's awell-worn process to inject
chaos into the system and seehow the system reacts.
If I told people it washappening, they would have been
more vigilant.
Uh, and you know, I guess we, wehaven't lost everything.
We did learn that it took, youknow, you know, 16 days for
(21:56):
people to raise this to you, um,which is useful information.
Um, we can maybe do some, someinterviews and, and try and
backtrack and see, see what welearned.
Uh, sorry.
I blew up a little bit.
Um, just cause you know,sometimes like things to go
perfectly, but there's, there'sa lot, that's a valuable that we
can still get from this.
(22:16):
And actually, you know, it's, itmakes sense that it showed up in
the standup.
So it's a good learning.
It's a good money, but yes, I,I, will go and recover the
couches from the locations I putthem in and return them.
and we'll, we'll shut theexperiment down.
Matt.Yachts (22:32):
Okay.
I mean, if I know you feel likethe integrity is, uh, is now in
question, but I would still loveto see your after action on
this,
Eric (22:41):
Oh, Yeah.
absolutely.
Matt.Yachts (22:43):
Uh, you know, what, what have you learned, uh, who
were you able to conscript intotaking those couches, which
couches, uh, went missing thatwere not part of your experiment
and, um, you know, how can weget a beat on those?
Eric (22:56):
Yeah.
I'll get stuff.
We'll um, the team willactually, well, I guess we'll
move the.
The analysis for a week, whichis, is good.
Kate (23:04):
Yeah, I just, okay.
I just, you know, supply chainis kind of supposed to be my
area and I really thought of youas a mentor, Eric, and like, I
don't know what the fact thatyou didn't include me.
Just makes me question ourmentor, mentee relationship and.
(23:26):
Is there something wrong with
Eric (23:28):
I would never, I would never compromise.
How our mentor menteerelationship by making things
easier for you than I would foranybody else.
Kate (23:39):
I appreciate that.
I just thought, I mean, I couldhave been involved.
Maybe I could have explainedmore ways for you to steal
couches that would have beenmore effective.
Eric (23:51):
That is, that is something we should talk about after we do
the after action plan.
If you've got, if we walkedthrough all the things I did and
you have more ideas, I thinkthat's a great thing for us to
do.
Kate (24:00):
Yeah, no, there are definitely several ways that I
absolutely know that you didn'tdo that are probably the
highest, uh, likelihood ofescape.
anyway, this is just, well,yeah.
Okay.
Next week when we get coffeeapp, you're
Eric (24:17):
our one-on-one Yeah.
Kate (24:18):
6:00 AM on Tuesdays.
Okay, good, great.
Thea (24:22):
Okay.
Well, I think that leaves me.
My team has been workingincredibly hard on switching
over all of our assets, uh, andjust really building a brand
around sit, you know, sit isjust a name and now we need
colors and fonts.
And it's been honestlyincredibly hard with the minimum
feedback that we get from Johnon this.
(24:44):
So, you know, we're kind offlying in the dark a little bit.
Uh, the only.
Thing that he really sent anyfeedback on was the scent, which
I was not a huge, you know, liftit came from.
I think you've heard the ideathat the creative team has that
we should spray our couches downwith a light scent brand sense
(25:08):
so that like, you know, there'sthings like tide, right?
Tide has a very distinctivebrand, send people really get
addicted to it.
We really wanted one.
I set several options to John.
He ended up coming up with hisown scent, which contained
something called Amber grease,uh, which.
Frankly whale vomit and illegalin the United States.
(25:32):
So our team has been, um, tryingto figure out the feasibility of
that while we're also doing theheavy lifting of all of the
other brand identity pieces.
Kate (25:47):
Oh my God.
And we just, I mean, I know wehave to change scent, but we
have so much left over from theMetamarkets.
Thea (25:58):
I know, I.
Totally hear you.
You know, our team is all aboutsustainability.
I can definitely get our team towork on where we can possibly
donate that scent, you know, to,to possibly zoos.
They don't smell great.
Um, or other places, perhaps theocean at high tide.
(26:20):
Um, yeah, we can, we can thinkabout that.
Honestly.
We've been working around theclock though.
Um, and this Amber grease thingis, um, Uh, you know, really my
team's in a really fragilestate.
Uh, I'll be honest.
Kate (26:35):
Ooh.
Okay.
Um, probably doesn't help allthe emails I see between you and
Matt about, or I would say yourteam teams.
Uh, I know there's a lot ofcommunication happening.
That's
Matt.Yachts (26:50):
The, uh,
Kate (26:51):
the best.
Matt.Yachts (26:54):
I want to apologize for some of that.
Um, they got really excitedabout solving this acronym
problem, um, but went about itin a, a really attention hungry
way.
Um, CC-ing your team on thisvery long thread and then
rehabbing them every time theyremoved themselves.
And, uh, I apologize for that.
(27:14):
Califia.
Thea (27:16):
It's it's okay.
I'll be honest though, that weare going to have to figure out
how did you better connect, uh,communication, because most of
my team have now blocked yourteam, um, due to that thread,
um, I it's just, it's been toomuch and, you know, we already
went through the shock treatmentand all of that piece.
(27:37):
Uh they're just,
Matt.Yachts (27:38):
are high.
Thea (27:40):
yeah, I mean, And, um, you know, I have to bring up, you
know, the incident of your teamactually like putting up signs
and doing a ticker tape paradein favor of their favorite
iteration of CIT.
I was, you know, uh, verywell-designed, but maybe the
(28:01):
wrong time for it.
Matt.Yachts (28:03):
they're just very straightforward people.
And so settle your torso.
Like it just felt like it fitwith all of the things we were
trying to do.
to tell them that it's.
That's all that sitting is, thisis what that means.
So like it's not, it's notmeaningful that, yeah.
Um, I don't know that they havea hard time, uh, sometimes
(28:25):
grasping, you know, the, themore communication, the meaning,
the art, uh, the artistry, asignup language.
Um, if it's not, you know, forconcision than, uh, they, they
don't quite grasp it.
So yeah.
We'll have to figure somethingout.
I'm sorry.
Califia.
Thea (28:43):
Yeah, it's.
It's fine.
We're, you know, we're gettingthrough honestly, again,
compared to this set issue.
Um, it's it hasn't been theworst thing that's happened to
us this week.
Definitely.
Um, what was suggested that wedo to shampoo by Jod was the
(29:05):
worst thing that happened to usthis week.
Kate (29:08):
John.
Ah,
Matt.Yachts (29:11):
is the problem with him, palling around with all
these CEO's he's he's got waytoo much pull at SeaWorld, and
that is gross.
Kate (29:20):
I
Thea (29:20):
it really is.
Kate (29:21):
do.
They just sit around and talkabout aquatic, sea creatures all
day like that.
I feel like that's the onlything that he ever sends to us.
Eric (29:29):
I mean, what do you think Necker island.
Kate (29:32):
I don't know.
Matt.Yachts (29:33):
Uh, just hope this phase and soon, you know, it's
like when he was obsessed withthe, all the animals in
Australia, that
Eric (29:40):
Uh,
Thea (29:41):
Yeah.
Oh my goodness.
Matt.Yachts (29:43):
time with, uh, wildlife control in a lot of
different places.
He who knew he had that manyhouses.
Thea (29:50):
Yeah, it was, it was, um, we had a cash in a lot of our,
our tips and, um, you know, whatcan I say, Hugh Jackman will
never speak to me again.
Kate (30:03):
well, okay.
I'm sorry to hear about all thechallenges Califia.
Um, are we still on track forend of next week to.
Ready, uh, ready with thecreative assets ready to kind of
do launch the week after if thenew name
Thea (30:18):
I think we're mostly ready on the name, the colors.
Uh, we are having somenegotiations with the topography
people, as you know, they raisetheir rates and it's been a lot
of back and forth.
Negotiations.
Um, you know, but I think aftera very long sailing trip this
weekend that I can finally saythat, uh, it is on track and on
(30:43):
budget, um, which is veryexciting.
Minus of course the buddy wespent on the sailing expedition,
I will say that, uh, At thefirst iteration that they gave
us, uh, they weren't reallyhappy with us and it wasn't
really legible.
Um, I'm not even sure it was inArabic characters, but, uh, I
(31:08):
think we're working through someof those issues.
So I think you should now beable to read the new font when
we roll it out.
Matt.Yachts (31:15):
um, I would like to ask that, uh, someone on your
team, uh, on, you know,unblocked me, maybe I can be the
liaison for this, but, um, myteam has been going through the,
uh, the font files they sentover, uh, the ones for print,
uh, the ones for the app.
Um, most of those are comingthrough fine.
(31:36):
Uh, but they've been.
They've been slipping stuff into some of the other versions,
some of the web font versionsand not on every page load, uh,
long story short, like there'vebeen some rude messages popping
up in the beta, uh, for thewebsite and, and it turned out
not to be anything, uh, in thedatabase or the CMS.
(31:58):
Uh, it turned out to be packedinto the font files.
So, um, let's connect aboutthat.
And, uh, You know, I hopefullysquash this beef.
Um, I
Thea (32:11):
Is it.
Matt.Yachts (32:12):
type type foundries are really demanding.
Thea (32:14):
Yeah, it's been really bad.
Um, is it the bugs bedecapitated in the PB and D
Matt.Yachts (32:24):
Okay.
You've seen that one.
Yeah.
Thea (32:26):
Yeah, I, I have seen that one.
It is obviously really terriblefor our brand.
Um, yeah, so we can definitelysquash this,
Matt.Yachts (32:37):
ones have been, um, very clever uses of ligatures so
that they will catch onlycertain combinations of
characters and words, and thenreplace them, uh, often with the
same decapitated Bugsby picture.
But, uh, sometimes with thenames of our competitors, uh
it's.
Yeah.
Thea (32:55):
It's um, yeah, I, we might have to move to a new
typographer after this, buthonestly, we are so close to the
end that, um, To suit to moveover to somebody else.
So we're going to have to just,um, hold on and, you know, keep
pushing through.
And, um, luckily we havesomebody on our team who is
(33:18):
doing, who has experienced andtopography.
Who's kind of filling in, um,had just become really good at
turning the Bugsby to capitationinto something that kind of
looks like a automate.
So, um, that.
Matt.Yachts (33:35):
I know that tensions are high, but we
probably should pair somebody.
Um, because my team has beenworking on some, some hacks for
this as well.
And.
Uh, I think number one, we wouldlike to go through and, uh,
provide you with some simplifiedfiles where we strip out from
the variable fonts, the slidersthat they have, uh, for, um,
(33:58):
being penny pinchers, uh, forlack of a better word.
Uh, tightwads, there's a,there's a slider in there for
how much of a tightwad we are asa company.
Uh,
Kate (34:09):
what are we being braided?
That right now?
Matt.Yachts (34:12):
Uh, well, it's it's variable so we can set it in,
uh, in our code and our, ourCSS.
But, um,
Eric (34:20):
they're making us decide.
Matt.Yachts (34:22):
the joke is on us is that like, no matter where
you put it, it just moves aroundwhere the insults show up.
Um, yeah, if you, if you try toset it all the way to zero, then
the font just disappears and isreplaced by a text, uh, like,
you know, call us with theirphone number.
Thea (34:39):
Okay.
Um, I think I, their phonenumber.
Okay.
Matt.Yachts (34:44):
it's a, it's a message to us.
They expected us to find this.
Thea (34:48):
okay.
Um, yeah, I think Matt, if youcould just choose a couple of
employees that.
Basically have a true Swith.
Um, we could definitely find todemilitarize space between, um,
the barricades that we put up inthe creative team for us to
(35:08):
talk, you know, through this.
Um,
Matt.Yachts (35:12):
we can keep it super focused.
We'll make like, this is thetopography zone and only
business about typography iscarried out here.
Uh, everybody can leave theirpolitics, their respective
teams.
Thea (35:25):
That sounds really great.
Yeah.
And, you know, we might have tofigure out how to put more
Mudget in typography.
I know we extended ourselveswith both the couch campaign and
the bug speed campaign foroffice, but, um,
Kate (35:41):
We
Thea (35:41):
know,
Kate (35:41):
raised a series a, we can't spend like another$50,000
on type.
Thea (35:47):
believe me, this is the last resort that I want to get.
Um, I thought we
Kate (35:52):
At Google font.
Thea (35:53):
Handle this, uh, yeah, I mean, we're, this is our brand
at stake, you know, and not justour brand, but John's brand.
And I think that he certainly,if he wants Amber grease in our
perfume, he's not going to wantus to just choose a Google
thought.
He's really looking at it.
Very luxury rebranding, um, avery high-end rebranding and
(36:17):
he's the one actually whoreferred us.
Danish firm, uh, they're theones who invented Helvetica.
So, you know, like he chose thebest of the best and we're just
going to have to like,
Matt.Yachts (36:29):
The best of the best of
Eric (36:30):
Now we're paying for it.
Yeah.
Thea (36:32):
yeah, the best of his way.
Yeah, exactly.
Yes.
We're definitely paying for it.
Um, but uh, we are
Kate (36:40):
it's almost over.
Thea (36:40):
going to have to, going to have to go through, you know,
these are, this decision was insome ways made for us and, um,
we'll have.
Eric (36:48):
I,
Thea (36:48):
Push it through.
Eric (36:49):
I can offer a 10,$10,800, uh, from the QA experiment
budget that will no longer be.
Uh, so he wouldn't reallocatethat to the topography pod
project.
Um, maybe that'll start to getus in the way
Thea (37:04):
That's really great.
Um, Chelsea also has someexplosives that she didn't use
in the past that she is sellingoff that I think can also add to
our budget, um, just to helpmake up for some of the losses
that we had with bugs bees lostit in, uh, Iowa.
Kate (37:23):
Yeah, that was so sad.
Matt.Yachts (37:25):
And, uh, my team has been doing good about, uh,
banking overtime, not drawing onit too hard.
So, uh, we could take some ofthe.
Maybe our type specialist willbe somebody from the night
shifts or a couple of folks thatnormally sit the server room,
uh, at night and they can, uh,take some overtime for doing
font work in the day.
I've got a little extra budgetdropped for that.
Kate (37:46):
Okay, great.
We just got to make it throughit.
We're close to the series.
I could feel it.
Um, okay.
Any, any other we're a littlebit over time, but any other
major items?
Okay.
Awesome.
Um, I actually do have like aone-on-one meeting with John
later this week.
Um, I
Thea (38:06):
Wow.
That's that's crazy.
Eric (38:08):
Sit down.
Kate (38:10):
sit down.
Yes.
Um, I'll let you know how itgoes.
Um, but yeah, other than that,uh, it seems like we're all
resolved.
Thea (38:22):
And honestly, I, I, if you could just, um, I have some
other set samples that I swearsmell just like the mustiness of
Amber grease.
If you could just like maybeconvince him, um, it would, it
would be such a, such a hugegain for us.
Kate (38:39):
sure.
We can plan some like subliminalmessaging there.
Um, spray them with variousparts of the coffee shop, that
kind of thing.
Thea (38:47):
That would be great.
Kate (38:48):
Okay.
Okay.
Awesome.
Well, in that case, I'm going tostop the recording and we'll all
get back to work.
Matt.Yachts (38:55):
All right.
Thanks everybody.
Ben (38:58):
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.
(39:18):
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.
(39:39):
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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