Call —
Transcript batch
0:00 Caller: Hi, Jed.
0:00 You: This call will be recorded.
0:09 You: Hello.
0:14 You: Speaking.
0:14 Caller: Hey, this is Alec Ross.
0:20 Caller: You and I were supposed to connect a couple months back, but we, I don't think we ever did.
0:26 Caller: You got, you applied to an advertisement on mine on LinkedIn,
0:29 Caller: and I was hoping to check with you, check in with you and see if you found something.
0:30 You: I haven't, so correct.
0:35 Caller: You haven't.
0:39 You: Sure.
0:42 Caller: Well, I've got something pretty cool that I was hoping to chat with you about.
0:44 You: Sure.
0:45 You: And that works.
0:46 Caller: Is now a good time, or do you want me to give you a call back?
0:50 You: What does you have in mind?
0:53 You: I am.
0:53 Caller: Okay, great.
0:53 Caller: Are you still with Roe?
0:58 You: Thank you.
0:59 You: Thank you.
0:59 Caller: Okay, cool.
1:00 You: Thank you.
1:01 You: Thank you.
1:02 You: Thank you.
1:02 Caller: Well, let me talk to you about this, and then I'll jump back and ask you a few things about, you know, your situation.
1:04 You: Thank you.
1:09 Caller: But I'm working with a company called Take Us, T-A-E-K-U-S, likely haven't heard of them, but they are crushing it right now.
1:20 Caller: They've got 70 million A-R-R.
1:25 Caller: It's a pretty neat business that they have.
1:28 Caller: They are basically.
1:29 Caller: working in the premium banking and travel rewards platform space, specifically for,
1:34 You: So what's
1:35 Caller: like, the affluent market, which is interesting.
1:38 You: So what's
1:39 Caller: They are looking for a, like, staff, senior platform engineer who wants to be at an early-stage
1:44 You: So what's
1:46 You: So what specifically was the problem this role is meant?
1:46 Caller: startup.
1:47 Caller: They're 11 people, and they're trying to basically double in the next, like, few months.
1:55 Caller: And they're looking for people that can do that with them.
1:58 Caller: I guess they're building out their platform.
2:03 You: this role is meant to solve.
2:05 You: Okay, so it's a capacity problem.
2:10 Caller: Oh, you're talking about the company themselves?
2:14 Caller: Yes, I'd say. There, I mean, 70 million ARR against with 11 people. I think they are trying to catch up.
2:15 You: Right, so it's a capacity problem, not a skill problem necessarily.
2:19 You: Okay.
2:22 You: Okay.
2:23 You: Well, it's a card product, so it's a card product, so I'm
2:33 You: curious to know how the accounting works. If it's 70 million ARR of just the interchange rate,
2:40 You: then that's already $7 trillion of payments, and I don't think that's what's going on.
2:44 Caller: You know, honestly, I would say that's probably a question direct for them.
2:46 You: So are they just counting their payment volume as ARR?
2:49 You: Sure.
2:55 Caller: That's kind of the information that we talked about it.
2:58 Caller: That was the number they gave me that they said there's 70 million ARR.
3:01 Caller: They're pretty proud of it.
3:02 Caller: I'm not sure exactly how they're getting that, but definitely worth digging into.
3:03 You: Understood.
3:07 Caller: You're already asking the late stage questions.
3:09 Caller: Yeah, no, no, this is a new one back then was something for something different.
3:12 You: And I found our thread.
3:14 You: This was all the way back in April, so I guess the wreck hasn't filled since.
3:20 You: Okay.
3:24 Caller: Then actually, the reason why I was, well, I think we were trying to figure out the relationship we had with that company, and with that company, and I'm not working out.
3:33 You: Understood. Then what would the next steps be?
3:37 Caller: Which is why I've now circled.
3:39 Caller: Well, back around here.
3:40 Caller: And now I'll live on a solution.
3:46 Caller: Well, I have your resume on the work that you've done at Rowe, but I was hoping that maybe you can give me a bit more of an idea what's going on.
3:58 Caller: Are you, are you, so you're still with Rowe?
4:02 Caller: You're, are you taking, are you in interview processes elsewhere at the moment?
4:03 You: I am.
4:06 Caller: Okay. Late stages offers anything? Okay. Any exciting firms? Anything? Any exciting firms? Anything that you're actually, like, pretty thrilled about in process right now that I need, you know, keep an eye on?
4:13 You: Early to mid.
4:14 You: There's certain.
4:29 You: There's certain unanswered questions that I intend to
4:31 You: that I intend to ask leadership as I progress down their funnels.
4:36 Caller: Okay, noted. Would you, I know you said staff platform engineer and AI infrastructure lead. What do you see yourself leaning into more for the foreseeable?
4:48 You: So the problem is those titles are inconsistently defined across companies and occasionally within.
4:56 You: In practice, I use, I automate workflows and tools with tools.
5:00 You: It so happens. Prior to the advent of LLMs, I reached for code.
5:05 You: Now I reach for agents.
5:06 Caller: So, yeah, the Golden, I want to discuss with you, and it's with one end.
5:08 You: So depending on the nature of the workflow or the process or the problem, generally it's something I try to automate a way.
5:11 Caller: Are you for no deal with that?
5:15 You: Or in, I suppose, the case at, what is it, take us, scale.
5:15 Caller: Yeah, so there's, yeah, one of them committed to human rate and they're backed by OCI.
5:21 Caller: And there, there's...
5:23 Caller: Take us, yes.
5:24 Caller: Mm-hmm.
5:24 You: So I imagine if they're a card product being able to process the cards faster,
5:26 Caller: And so they are based in Sanford, California,
5:30 You: assess the creditworthiness of the card holders more frequently. Those are the kinds of solutions I've implemented already at Rowe.
5:31 Caller: specifically on the position.
5:33 Caller: Is that something that you feel?
5:34 Caller: So there is another one focused on Wayne and L.
5:37 You: So it should be a relatively doable re-implementation of the same solution to what I hope is a similar problem.
5:49 Caller: Neat, yeah.
5:52 Caller: Obviously, so you went to University of Connecticut, Yukon, you didn't do any software engineering work there?
5:59 Caller: You've clearly moved into that arena in the last 15 years.
6:00 You: Well, I've been writing code for the better part of 25.
6:03 Caller: the last 15 years.
6:06 Caller: Yeah, smart.
6:08 You: And in my hubris at the time as a teenager, I figured why take CSE when I can try and figure out
6:14 You: finance, securities finance.
6:20 Caller: That makes a lot of sense.
6:23 Caller: So I want to do this.
6:25 Caller: Can I...
6:26 Caller: Give me one moment.
6:30 You: Thank you.
6:30 Caller: I'm going to shoot you an email right now.
6:31 Caller: I'm going to shoot you an email right now.
6:32 You: Okay.
6:33 Caller: now with the job description that I'm looking at, and you can help me to see how you feel
6:41 Caller: about this sort of thing.
6:44 Caller: And if there's anything that you can point out to me while we talk about other things, one
6:52 Caller: moment.
6:57 Caller: Okay.
6:58 Caller: That's coming to your Jed Arden.com email.
7:02 You: I am.
7:03 Caller: So, there, you're based in New York?
7:12 Caller: Are you comfortable going in the office occasionally or on site fully?
7:14 You: I don't.
7:17 You: The office, my only ask is the flexibility is the flexibility to support my disabled wife is the flexibility to support my disabled wife and our autistic son when emergencies arise.
7:17 Caller: What's your stance there?
7:19 Caller: Gotcha.
7:29 Caller: Gotcha.
7:30 Caller: That shouldn't be a problem, I'm sure.
7:32 Caller: Sure.
7:32 You: It's been a problem before. That's why I put it up front now.
7:33 Caller: Yeah.
7:34 Caller: Well, it makes sense that you're covering it now, but yeah, I don't foresee that being an issue.
7:46 Caller: Obviously, we will work with you on that to make sure that's okay.
7:55 Caller: So you don't mind being in office.
7:59 Caller: And you're based in New York.
8:01 Caller: Cool.
8:02 Caller: Do you have a base target that you need to hit for something that's kind of more equity-leaning?
8:02 You: I would, if it's equity leaning, I would ask more for the cap table and the
8:10 Caller: I just want to hear a little bit more about your background, just because I figure out
8:13 You: preference stack so I can better value whatever the grant would be.
8:15 Caller: originally being a discussion with you, but we just were really retained by.
8:18 You: I see.
8:19 You: I see.
8:20 Caller: Absolutely. Not necessarily needing to be covered right now, but more on the what you need
8:21 You: I see.
8:28 Caller: from a cash perspective.
8:31 You: Do you have the budget for the budget?
8:32 You: for the role? I didn't...
8:32 Caller: I mean, it's flexible.
8:34 You: Hold up.
8:35 You: Don't...
8:36 You: I see. I wouldn't be able to...
8:37 Caller: We're talking somewhere between like 175 to like 2.30.
8:51 You: I'm in the...
8:52 You: I'm in process with now have a median of 290,000.
8:58 Caller: And are you looking at like larger and are you looking at like larger, larger energy?
9:02 You: The smallest one, I think I'd be number four or number five, but they also had like an $8 million seed.
9:02 Caller: Or smaller?
9:09 Caller: $8 million seed.
9:12 You: And then the largest one, seed, pre-seed series A, they have very little meaning in this day and age,
9:19 You: but they were able to secure a large enough seed round.
9:22 You: Assuming I get an offer, they will, they have assured me they'll provide the camp table and preference stack.
9:27 You: So I assume it's predicated on a very large...
9:31 You: large, a very large amount of growth in the next four years.
9:32 Caller: Okay. Yeah, that's helpful. I was excited, obviously, for this, for this position. But I think even their maximum, they said 230, but their maximum would roughly be around 250. If 290 to 300 is really where you're talking, I might be able to come back to you with a
9:36 You: It's usually how those go.
10:01 You: Understood.
10:02 Caller: maybe one or two other options that could be exciting.
10:06 Caller: A colleague of mine runs a startup arena for our options there, and then I could come back with something that could be just as interesting.
10:17 You: I am.
10:19 Caller: Okay. Also, you're a U.S. citizen?
10:20 You: I am.
10:25 Caller: Great. Okay. Let me do this. Let me work on this, and I'll get back to you, hopefully.
10:31 You: Sounds good. Thank you, Alek.
10:32 Caller: I'm sure.
10:34 Caller: Okay.
10:35 You: Of course, thank you very much.
10:36 Caller: No problem.
10:37 Caller: Good luck with the rest of your processes.
10:41 You: Take care.