Founders in Arms
01:15:27 · Rajat Suri, Jean-Denis Greze
[01:15:27] S1: Maybe someone whose hands are gone. [01:15:29] S2: Yeah. I have a question for, actually. How do you evaluate how good the answer that you generate are and and use that to, like, maybe self improve your own system? Yeah. So the the answer for you is we don't because we think for business customers from a privacy perspective, looking at what they're talking to their agent about is the wrong stance. So that's like an example where we have a pretty different position than maybe others do. So what we do is we go talk to our customers and we ask them what are you actually using Town to do. And then they tell us, and then we go and try to do those things and learn from it and see how we can improve the trajectories. I think in today's day and age, the reality is the labs are investing in the core that's gonna make our models better. Right? And so the things we control are contacts and contacts objection, like synthesis that that we do so that trajectories are shorter. We can measure how long the trajectory is. And the tools that are being used. So we look at those three things, but we look at it more in, like, an eval part of the universe. And then the last little answer is when things go wrong, some users tell us, and then we ask them, hey. Can we look at this session to try [01:16:47] S1: to understand? Well, we don't do... [01:16:48] S2: We only do it with our permission and not an aggregate way. So we don't have aggregate, let's say, like, evals based on on user data today. [01:17:00] S1: One last question, and then we can go to chatting.
01:17:00 · Rajat Suri, Jean-Denis Greze, S10, Immad Akhund
[01:17:00] S1: One last question, and then we can go to chatting. [01:17:04] S2: Go ahead. [01:17:06] S10: I have a question for all three of you. You all have successful games. So can you name one thing that... Maybe one core thinking or skill set that leads you to where you are right now? And then second is what you're trying to develop a skill set or maybe core thinking that you're to learn or adopt in the next few years of setup. [01:17:24] S0: So the question is, number one, what's the core skill set of thinking that has everything has led us to success? And number two, what do we wanna develop in the future to, I guess, continue? I'll go first. Yeah. I I really like learning new things, and I think I'm, like, pretty good at learning new things. And I think as a CEO, you're often, like, yeah, what your job is for this six months won't necessarily be the same job for the next six months. So I think, like, getting really good at learning, you know, new spaces. Like, every startup I've done has been in [01:18:03] S1: a different space and, you [01:18:04] S0: and learning about, like, you know, what it takes to succeed there. So I think that's, like, a really valuable sort of skill set. Like, not just being good at learning, but enjoying learning. I think for what I wanna develop, that one's, like, kind of a tricky one, so I'm gonna I'm gonna pass. [01:18:20] S1: You're perfect already? [01:18:21] S2: Well, I
01:18:21 · Jean-Denis Greze, Rajat Suri
[01:18:21] S2: Well, I [01:18:21] S1: guess You must have some goals, some personal development. Yeah. I wanna hang on. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. First... Yeah. So first of all, yeah, I I think I think one thing that really helps as a founder is just being long term oriented. And, you know, you could make sacrifices for a really long time. You know, as I mentioned, my last answer is, like, took five years to get your product market fit. You know, a lot of people who may not wanna grind for five years while their friends are working at Google and and, you know, making bank, whatever it is. Right? You know? If if they care about that, then they won't do it. I mean, they won't work. They they won't drive for that long. So I think I've I've been pretty long term oriented in general. In terms of what I still want to develop, and it's not an easy question as it sounds initially. But, you know, I think I'll... Always looking to be a better manager. You know, I think, you know... And one thing about being a good manager is, like, how do you, like, motivate your people to the exact right amount? And and I think there's there's a skill in, like, man management, like, knowing the other person really well and knowing what's gonna get the best out of that person, plus more global management, which is, like, how do you get the best out of a team of people? And I feel like there's always some killer in there. There's always some being better. The human interface is, like, [01:19:43] S2: the toughest one, I feel. And so you you have to... I I feel [01:19:47] S1: like I'm way better, but
01:19:47 · Rajat Suri, Jean-Denis Greze, Immad Akhund
[01:19:47] S1: like I'm way better, but [01:19:48] S2: I still haven't perfected that. [01:19:49] S1: It's always been like, come on to me. I'm like, could I have done that better? You know? I have a question in [01:19:54] S0: my mind. You know? JD?
01:19:57 · Jean-Denis Greze
[01:19:57] S2: Yeah. I mean, I I always pride myself in going deep. It, like, doesn't matter how senior you are and what your role is. Like, there are many times we need to go deep and really understand what... What's happening. And you realize, like, the product analyst that's giving you a report didn't go deep enough, and they have the wrong insight. Or, you know, the story you're hearing from your sales team about why market is difficult is because they have some totally wrong assumption that you have to go and correct for them. And so it's hard. The more senior you are, it's hard to go deep. And then once you've gone deep and you know what should have happened, it's also really tricky. How do you, like, reorient without pissing people off? But I think it is a it is a very important skill, and it is easy to lose sight of it. It's easy to fall in love with what it means to be, like, a super manager as opposed to someone who's still gonna get close to the tarmac. And then, I mean, I have, like, so many personality flaws. So part of... Like, part of it is... I I think learning skills for me is like, yeah, I'm a student of the game, so I read, and I I try to learn new things all the time. But then the way I allocate my time, sometimes, like, comical and not the right thing for the business. So, you know, it's like, really... And maybe it's the long term thinking, but, like, aligning... I wish I were much better in just aligning my calendar to what's important for the business and not necessarily, like, the things that I like doing, the things that I'm pulled into. You know? Because if you don't spend your time on the important things as CEO, no no one else really is. So those are the two for me.
01:21:37 · Immad Akhund, Jean-Denis Greze
[01:21:37] S0: I'm still not gonna answer the second question. So I think that's a wrap. This was fun. We're gonna hang out for at least a little bit longer. Thanks for coming on, JD. [01:21:48] S2: Thanks for having me.