This Startup is being Recorded

E1 - A New CTO and an Ambiguous Goal

• Valerie Garrison • Season 1 • Episode 1

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Agenda:

  • Onboard Matt.Yachts! It’s his first day, we’re so excited to have a new CTO!
  •  Overview of each person's domain - not to overwhelm Matt, just give him a glimpse into the amazing rocketship that is Meta Market

Takeaways:

  • Reminder (again) to make sure to stop Victor if you see him in a fast food parking lot
  • Eric to send documentation on the 1, 3, 5, 10 and 20 year roadmaps
  • Dig into Series A goal and progress (and lack of progress) so far
Ben:

welcome to this startup is being recorded. This recording is improvised fiction. Similarities between it and the real world are entirely intentional. Now enjoy the recording.

Kate:

Okay. Um, and we're recording. Uh, so for the posterity of this recording and for anyone who may be listening to this in the future, let's all just quickly recap what this meeting is about and who is here. First, we are in Metamarkets headquarters, specifically in conference room. B Mehta market, of course, is the startup where we work. It's a couch marketplace today, but our ultimate goal is to shape the future of trade by giving everyone a more comfortable seat at the time. I mean, yeah, today we're only in three major markets and one medium market, but our vision is set on the future. Anyway, today is a very exciting meeting. We were welcoming our new CTO, Matt yachts. So, uh, our agenda will just be quick intro of each exec team member and their domain. And then Matt will hand you off your 30, 60, 90 day goal doc. Um, oh yeah. And lastly, for the recording, everyone just introduce yourself. I'm Kate, Kate Blanchet. I'm the chief of staff for John who? Our CEO, who sadly couldn't be here today. Uh, but yeah, I had oatmeal for breakfast.

Thea:

I'm Califia Natalie Lova. Matt, don't worry if you don't get that right on the first time Pope Frankie had to take a couple of tries and he's infallible, you know, I'm the director of design here.

Eric:

Yeah. Hi everyone. I am Eric joy Carter. I am the head of product here at Metro market. And, uh, yeah. Excited to meet you on the other side of the table, not a interviewing welcome mat.

Matt:

Uh, yeah. Thank you both. Um, well, thank you. Thank you. All three of you. Uh, thank you for putting this. my name is matt.yachts. That's also my website, uh, matt.yachts, where you can learn more about me. Um, I'm going to be coming on as the new CTO. So I'm hoping, you know, uh, if you'll excuse the nautical pun, I don't want to rock the boat too much. Uh, I want to make sure that like, everything keeps sailing along smoothly, but, um, you know, I've worked with John on a lot of different projects. Uh, some of them have been, uh, you know, All rocket ships already on their way to the moon. Some of them have been, uh, you know, real skunkworks projects that needed a lot to get on their feet. And I'm just looking forward to finding out which one this is so, uh, excited about.

Kate:

We're so happy to have you. I mean, our, our previous technical team was, you know, they did their best, but, uh, it's time for an upgrade. So.

Matt:

Yeah, that's a, that's what I'm learning, uh, as I've been going through these first couple of days, so have a great looking forward to, uh, to learning more about all of you and, uh, these high level teams. And I mean, you're, you know, you're the, the heart that, uh, that pumps the blood of this.

Kate:

that's right. I actually, with that via, do you want to start, I mean, I feel like you really are part of the Oregon system here.

Thea:

Of course. Yes, I do. Do you believe that I am the cleansing blood of this organization? Uh, for sure. Yeah, of course. I'm really happy to talk about just some of the things our team is working on first and foremost. I'm sure you're all very curious to know what's going to happen next in our bugs. Be saga, Matt, you might be new to this, but bugs we is, are most. Beloved brand ambassador. He is a small green furry creature from the planet of new couch. Yeah. And he is just a little Wiley wily creature who gets to really tell our brand story. So we've been doing an interactive social media, immersive experience for our, uh, audience members. And they've really loved it. So. Just this week, just to give you guys a heads up Bugsby is on a boat that is sinking slowly into the frigid Arctic waters. Yes, I know. It's so hard. Um, you know, I'm sure you all remember last week that he was betrayed by his best friend, a beautiful little green calmer rant that he thought was going to help him. Propel into new frontiers, but the calmer ONT instead poked a hole through his little boat and bugs B is sinking.

Matt:

thank you.

Kate:

thought we were kind of close to wrapping up this saga bugs. Our, our, our budget with the agency is getting really, really tight. How are we getting out of a drowning scenario? This.

Thea:

Oh, I approved an extension. I just we've been getting. Great feedback on bugs. Beat people are very wrapped into the storyline and I just feel like, you know, what does it say if we end bugs species story does that because our story is not ending and will not end until we change the future of trade and neither should bug speed.

Eric:

Yeah, it's, it's really been good from the product side too. We added a, uh, a bail, uh, bugs be out. Option at checkout, you donate 99 cents on top of your order to, you know, to bail water for Bugsby. Uh, and I'm surprised like 28% of purchases have, have opted into spend the extra 99 cents. So, you know, really great, really good.

Matt:

Yeah, look at that. Um, and that that's just extra money that, uh, that goes on top of the order. We don't actually pay that out to a, like a charity that.

Kate:

No, No,

Matt:

Helps with drowning victims and their families, or, uh, water safety courses online, or perhaps a local coast guard.

Kate:

no. So those are really good ideas.

Eric:

straight profit, right?

Matt:

Well, I mean, yeah, as, as it is, it's it's profit. Um, if people are into it, um, okay.

Kate:

Yeah. Just think of it. Like if you ever have days where you feel like you're drowning, maybe just think of that as what the money is going.

Thea:

Yes. Yes. So. So astute, you know, it really shows that Bugsby is kind of the psychic link. We all have to a market in our couches and the way that we all feel all want to feel about matters.

Matt:

I'm just clicking through. I, um, I'm really impressed by the use of animation on this page and, uh, bugs me. It looks like he's in real. I mean,

Kate:

oh,

Matt:

it looks, he keeps looking like he's going to go down. I can't tell if this is like a looping animation or it's really good. It's very effective.

Thea:

Yeah, that's actually pulled from a two hour YouTube video. One of our designers found of the dark web of actually a boat actually capsizing, uh, in the Caspian sea.

Eric:

it takes a long time. It's it takes longer than you

Thea:

It's

Kate:

you watch it

Thea:

really does. Uh, yeah, of course. I had to watch it to compare. I had to compare the source material to Bugsby to make sure that we changed enough of it, that people wouldn't see, you know, the core correlation, it's more of a inspiration, but I mean, riveting stuff. I mean, honestly, I could watch that for more than two hours.

Kate:

well, you know, you know, Thea that you're not supposed to watch things from the dark web on the office VPN and.

Thea:

Listen, if you want good creative work, it has to come from the wellspring of the darkness of the human soul. Okay. The creators of some of your most beloved character. All deeply fighting inner demons. And I just want our creative team to feel comfortable with their own battles. Because from only from that only from battling from darkness, do we have the brightness? That is my vision for Madam.

Kate:

Okay. Okay.

Matt:

just sorry, a quick technical question. Um, I haven't been keyed into a lot of our systems yet. Um, is that VPN something that we run in house? Is that a service that we pay for, or is that a private VPN that you're using?

Kate:

yeah.

Thea:

yeah. Worry are using a VPN. I believe that was built in house. I think one of our designers created.

Matt:

uh, one of the designers. Okay. Um, interesting.

Kate:

I was trying to remember that too. It was, oh gosh, probably documented somewhere in one of the systems that

Matt:

Okay. And is, uh, is everybody on it, Kate? Uh, Eric, are you also on the VPN?

Kate:

Yeah, it just, once you connect, you'd never disconnect. So I just it's been great. Haven't had to deal

Matt:

That's interesting. Okay. And do we, um, I mean, typically VPN is only useful for remote devices. So are you also using this, like when you take your machines home,

Eric:

oh yeah. Every everything that logs in to any Metamarkets services connecting through the VPN, our users log into the VPN.

Matt:

uh, I'm sorry. They, uh, our users are logged into, um, like using standards. You're talking about users of our iOS and.

Eric:

yeah. And, and the desktop, uh

Matt:

Uh, okay. And so we, we bundle a VPN client with this, uh, I mean, that's, that's routing all traffic for iOS and Android, um, through Metamarkets servers.

Eric:

Victor said it would give us end to end security.

Kate:

Yeah,

Matt:

that's okay. So sorry was Victor the designer that put this together. Okay, great. Okay.

Thea:

was it genius? We literally found him in a McDonald's parking lot, but he really changed so much of what we did.

Matt:

um, okay. And, uh, does Victor still work on your team? Califia.

Thea:

Oh, no. Victor came as mysteriously as he, I mean, he left as mysteriously as he came.

Eric:

I could've sworn, I saw him in the McDonald's parking lot again three weeks ago,

Thea:

What

Eric:

it wasn't, it wasn't him.

Kate:

okay. I'm telling you guys, if you see him in any fast food parking lots again, you really have to catch him. We still have like six outstanding questions on that security questionnaire that we filled out and got approved for that we can't validate. So anyway, Matt, so glad.

Matt:

Um, yeah, looking forward to, uh, looking into this VPN, um, which apparently all of our internal and external traffic runs through

Kate:

Yep.

Matt:

very interesting, uh,

Kate:

we really need to keep moving though. So I guess, Thea, anything besides bugs, be related to all of design and creative, you feel like is worth.

Thea:

Um, I'll just remind everybody that it is a full moon on Saturday, and we will be here in the office, making sure that we bring out all of the technical equipment in basket, into the full moons close so that it will pick up the energy and be able to propel us forward to this next.

Matt:

uh, great. And I just, I just want to ask, uh, quickly that's limited to your team's hardware. Right?

Thea:

our team, as I said, as a cleansing blood of this entire organization. So of course not, it's every single piece of equipment here.

Matt:

Okay. I haven't, I haven't been in the server cages yet, but you, you roll the servers outside into the moon.

Thea:

That would be ridiculous. No, we use a complex system of mirrors to trap the moon's light and beam it into the surfer cage.

Eric:

it does get a little warm when we do that.

Kate:

do you think we could exclude personal devices this time? I had some plans on Saturday, not big plans.

Thea:

If you would like to deny the energy of our mother, then that is up to you. But that's, I've always said that personal voices are a personal choice, you know, but I don't know why you would not want to get the gifts of our celestial.

Kate:

You're you're right. You're right. I'm still learning this whole startup thing and you're a great mentor to me. So. I'll be there. I'll cancel the plants.

Thea:

Thank you.

Kate:

Um, but w we really do, Eric, can you, Brent, through product?

Eric:

Yeah. Yeah, sure. Um, so, uh, we have. Uh, great product culture here at Metro market, um, myself and four PMs. Uh, we've got an embedded UX designer as well. Uh, and we just finished working on our 20 year vision. Uh, I spent the last two weeks, uh, reconstructing our personas and mission and vision for the company. You heard Kate say at the beginning, uh, you know, during the introduction which we've been using in all the meetings, uh, you know, that we're here to shape the future of global trade. Uh, And so we spent a lot of time thinking about, you know, who that might impact what that means for our 1 3, 5, 10, and 20 year roadmaps, uh, and starting to work backwards from there. So, uh, I think in six or eight weeks, we should get back to the now, uh, and have some updated, uh, requirements documents for the team to start working on. Um,

Matt:

okay. So currently, currently you're working on the 20 year

Eric:

Yeah. Just finished 20 year. Yeah. I'm going to go

Matt:

oh, you're finished. Okay. now. 10.

Eric:

three.

Matt:

Oh, wow. Okay. And, um, do you maybe have an existing document where you've already gone through this process and you like we've got to, okay. So there's like a past iteration of the one-year plan that I, that I could look at. All

Eric:

are numerous, uh, past versions. Uh, we have a really great documentation culture here. Um, really great with version control. Uh, and there are thousands of pages of thoughts and ideas and experiments that we've set up here. Yeah, definitely definitely recommended reading, especially the last two versions. I'd say to give you a good sense of where our thinking is evolving, uh, where it started, where it's going, uh, and you can get a sense of what we've all been through.

Matt:

great. That's yeah, reading the last couple of versions. Sounds a reasonable. Um, how, how much would you say things? Oh, sorry.

Kate:

I was just going to say, Eric mentioned briefly experimentation, but he really promotes us great experimentation culture. So. It's just amazing you log in and you really don't know what version you're going to get, and that's just fun.

Matt:

oh, so we, we have every version stored, uh, w um, is this like a custom interface?

Eric:

well, no, it's, I mean, I, I would say it's configured rather than customized, you know, we have, we just have a huge volume of AB test running at any one time that it's rare that you ever get the exact same user experience that

Matt:

Right.

Thea:

like, it's like being able to experience nonlinear time that, you know, you're always, there's always changes and improvements and sometimes you go back and sometimes you go forward, but Breely, there is no back or forward. It's all together.

Matt:

Okay. So if, if I wanted to, for example, read the most recent version of our one-year plan. I would have no guarantee that I could find that page through our interface. Is that

Eric:

I'm sorry. That's confusing. The, the plans are very well-documented, there's only one of those every three months, the application that users are logging into the, the iOS and the Android apps. Those are basically a random experience based on all the experiments are running.

Matt:

good, good. You know, I thought for a second, you were talking about running AB tests on our own in-house tools and our in-house staff, and that was a hoof.

Eric:

Well, we, we, we do, we do apply a product mindset to how the, how the operations of the business run to, um, you know, we've been running a really great breakfast experiment. Uh, Kate, Kate actually was the only one who followed the protocol this morning actually announced at the beginning of the meeting, what she ate for breakfast, which is important for our logging, I, uh, vegetarian sausage and tomatoes, and I'm feeling I'm feeling great about it. So that's all.

Kate:

Yeah, Eric, I mean, We'll get to this. I am chief of staff, so I run more like operations and administrative functions, but Eric has been also a great mentor to me, teaching me about product culture and experimentation. And, um, you know, it's great because experimentation can be applied to anything, right? Like breakfast benefits. Like you don't need to know what you're getting. You can just test multiple things on different people and then see what's.

Eric:

Yeah. I really like to take a alpha and omega framework, uh, to what we do here. I want to stay really, really well aligned on what's happening 20 plus years in the future and focus the rest of our attention as much as possible on improving things as quickly as possible in smaller iterations. Now it's a lot to handle at lots to keep, keep track of, but it's, it's it's it's served us well.

Kate:

I will say, Eric, we got a little bit of feedback from the last investor meeting that they felt that the deck we presented was so radically different from the one that we had previously presented that they weren't actually confident which companies, you know, presentation. They were listening to until five to six minutes into it.

Eric:

yeah. That's to be expected at this stage. Uh, I, I heard the feedback. I will, we'll make some adjustments for some stability, but you know, right now we're in. You know, or an non collapsed wave form, right. We could be anywhere and everywhere as a startup. And we have to be open to those possibilities. As we learn more, as things get clearer, you know, the decks will we become more stable?

Kate:

Okay. I'll write up something. Similar to that to respond to them

Eric:

cat experiment.

Kate:

uh Hmm.

Matt:

office cat.

Kate:

Mm. Anyway, uh, sorry, Eric, anything last you want?

Eric:

Um, no, just looking forward to integrating with whatever new engineering processes you put forth and, uh, yeah, we're gonna make it.

Matt:

Yeah, looking forward to it. Um, you know, always really excited to, uh, take market research from a real users and integrated into our products. Uh, and likewise, Califia looking forward to, uh, having our dev processes be integrated with, uh, your design team, as much as we can, of course tracking all the usual things like software licenses and, um, you know, checking out machines and, uh, yeah, I haven't really talked to it yet. So I'm looking for. Uh, but, uh, Kate, did you, uh, did you want to talk a little more about what you do?

Kate:

sure. Yep. So chief of staff, uh, HR administration, operations, um, recruiting, I kind of just fill in the gaps where they need to be, um, um, Primarily a team of one. Uh, I like to think John and I are on the same team. Uh, but he is my boss technically and uh,

Matt:

Yeah. I mean, from, uh, from our discussions, John says like, you've pretty much got this, so he stays hands off.

Kate:

oh, wow. He's never told me that, but anyway.

Matt:

sorry. If I wasn't supposed to, uh, to let that slip. Yeah, he, um, I mean, uh, what's a polite way to say it. Um, I think that was the polite way to say it. You've you've got this and he doesn't pay much.

Kate:

Okay. I mean, that, that kind of makes sense. Based on the text messages, he sends me that seem, uh, mostly not related to our company, but anyway, um, yeah, so I handle a little bit of all of that and we have. Quite a bit set up. We're experimenting with operations as well as we decide if we want to go outside of software and do things like build our own couches, deliver our own couches, uh, invent new types of couches, um, invent new types of products that can replace couches, but aren't really the same market as couches. So, uh, that's been really fun. Though, you know, it's, what's very important to me is just that we can pay every one every month and we continue to have our office space and our standard benefits. Um, people continue to be able to use their computers on non full moon days and breakfast. I like to just, you know, throw in some breakfast experiments. Yeah.

Matt:

Um, just I, yeah, do chime in, I guess. I'm not sure if I'm doing it right, but I had a blueberry RX bar and, um, uh, lock Columbia, canned oat milk latte. And I'm feeling, feeling, I guess, ready for a late lunch, if I'm honest.

Kate:

Um,

Matt:

Yeah. It's kind of, kind of.

Kate:

yeah, that's fair. Anyway, I also obviously helped with onboarding. And one important thing to onboard you is your 30, 60, 90 day plan. So, um,

Matt:

Yeah. Great.

Kate:

do

Matt:

know, it's, it's really thoughtful, like, uh, often I'm kind of thrown in and just kind of have to figure out like, okay, who's got the server passwords, where's the source code. Ah, uh, so it's cool to have, you know, like gated goals to reach.

Kate:

I'm so glad you feel that way. I mean, I will say those things you mentioned are, are not going to be easy to find. Uh, the 30, 60, 90 day goals are actually sort of outside of your CTO function. There they're just like a general, general executive goals. Um, let me just pull it up.

Matt:

All right. That's yeah.

Kate:

Yeah. Oh, so you're familiar with our stage, right? Where we got our seed funding last year, a million and a half.

Matt:

Yeah. And, uh, and John came in as, as part of that, uh, kind of shepherding through Andy. Yeah. I'm not a hundred percent sure. Um, but I, I know you're talking to investors and you're looking to do a series a, I should say, we're looking to do a series a, sorry. I need to slip, slip into that.

Kate:

No worries. Yeah, we, we are, we actually have, uh, some series, a paperwork already signed, um, have the investors

Matt:

Oh, that's great news.

Kate:

is. You know, for the last few months, we've just been trying how to fulfill, trying to figure out how to fulfill their requirements. Uh, and we think you coming on board will get us really close.

Matt:

okay. Sorry. That's a little unusual. Um, typically when, when investment rounds are closed, it's because the company is already in a state that the investors are happy with and they're, they're ready to move forward with the cash injection and see the. On there's a, I guess, could we start there and let's, let's go over. Like, what are, what are some of the requirements we need before the series they can close?

Kate:

Yeah, fortunately, it's just one. Uh, we just have to.

Matt:

Oh,

Kate:

The top couch marketplace in all our respective markets,

Matt:

I'm sorry. Uh, so Metta market needs to be the highest selling marketplace in. We only in three markets right now. Right.

Kate:

uh, three large, one medium. Um,

Matt:

Okay. In four. So in four markets.

Kate:

that exact wording

Matt:

Yeah.

Kate:

couch market.

Matt:

I see. And there's no, so there's, there's no like sales metrics tied to this in terms of dollar values or couches sold.

Thea:

No, but they did point to our success in Des Moines, which is our media market. Um, we have just an incredible on the ground team over there. Um, Just an amazing, uh, creative woman who has actually gotten one of our couches running for office in Des Moines and, and our, our investors, just, they really, they really self that is like a great example of, you know, the potential that we could replicate in every.

Matt:

Uh, okay. So that's, that's quite a saturation model there. Um, when, when you say, um, that we need to be the, the top, what are some of the other folks we're competing against? I mean, you know, I think. Uh, obviously some of the big box online, uh, places, uh, and there's there's big box stores, probably even with a presence in Des Moines. Um, who else are we considering as a competitor?

Kate:

I mean, if you think about marketplaces, there's obviously Facebook, eBay. um, Craigslist. Yeah, I guess I hadn't thought about the big box. Do we have the compete with like Ikea and is Amazon count as a marketplace for couches?

Matt:

um, they absolutely are a marketplace and they sell couches.

Eric:

I Kia, no, you can't sell your out your couch to Ikea. I feel like Ikea, I feel like we're, we're, we're separate from Ikea at this point.

Matt:

but if I was a person say in Des Moines who wanted a couch, I might go to Ikea and. And I might consider that I'll sale last for Metro market.

Eric:

Yes. But remember what we're talking about top marketplace and, you know, we think that might mean both sales and purchases, right. And so, you know, we're outselling, you know, people using Metamarkets have sold more couches than Ikea.

Kate:

Yeah, just,

Matt:

oh, do we know that we, so we have some metrics on this? I mean, cause we're, we're talking. I mean, we're talking about a lot of marketplaces who don't give up their numbers.

Kate:

w we don't need to get into

Eric:

the poll values in Des Moines or extrapolating from, from that to say that we don't have metrics yet.

Thea:

Well, we do have some, we do have some metrics we did deploy. Um, this was Victor's idea, just such a genius. We did deploy a. Small round of corporate espionage at some of our competitors, just to kind of start getting baselines.

Kate:

right. That is a past thing that we are no longer doing, uh, right. According to.

Eric:

well, this was one of the questionnaire, you know, outstanding points that I really thought I saw him in the parking lot. I really did.

Kate:

Oh, God.

Thea:

but also also, I mean, I actually did run into Romero at a, uh, yeah. Who as you guys know was the person that we planted in the Facebook marketplace. He's still working for Facebook. And, you know, the tricky thing about what we did is we made sure that they had no direct contact to us. Um, and so that they really. You know, really felt like they were employees of whatever, you know, marketplace that we sent them to. So, you know, without Victor, we've kind of lost the ability to recall them from the field.

Matt:

Okay. So with, with the metrics we have, uh, which it sounds like are not alive. Where are we, how, how far away from the top are we, I mean, just say in de Moines, uh, let's not talk about the three large.

Kate:

Well, I mean, if you think about the cycle of corn growing, right? So, uh, usually in the winter, there is nothing it's the ground and at its peak it's it's corn maze, right? So we're probably like a late spring, early maze plant.

Matt:

so like, like the earth has been tilled and the seed is going in the ground.

Eric:

I think we're seeing shoots.

Kate:

Yeah. Yeah. Sh uh, shoots,

Matt:

But there's no, but there's no corn. There's no corn at this point.

Eric:

I mean, there's no visible ear.

Matt:

Okay. Okay,

Kate:

Anyway, we're going to have a whole separate meeting about this. Um, we felt that it was of course, a kind of week, two priority for you week one. We'll get you set up with like the 401k, give you some time to figure out how to access servers and server rooms and things like that. Um, but yeah,

Matt:

Right. Well, um, I, um, I have so many, um, I guess all I will leave for, um, for now, uh, is the first one that my racing mind, uh, comes to, which is, um, do we have a snack machine somewhere on this? Just like that, that are expired was not, it's not.

Kate:

so. I think there were some leftovers from breakfast, the ado does the creative team still have any of their creeks?

Thea:

actually, we do have, we've been testing some plant-based placenta substitute. Um, so if you want any of that, it's definitely available in our conference room.

Eric:

it's not as bad as you think. It's not as bad as you think, but you can also, if you want to come over to my office, I have a mini fridge with some, some fruit, some veggies.

Matt:

Eric, maybe we should, uh, yeah, we can talk product and, uh, and your tech

Eric:

Yep.

Matt:

Okay.

Kate:

Um, well, lovely. Thanks so much. Uh, let me just stop the recording.

Ben:

This meeting has ended. To subscribe to this startup is being recorded. Go to the podcast player of your choice and tap a button that likely says subscribe. More content is on Twitter at startup recorded, or shoot us an email with ideas, feedback, or your personal startup horror story. At hello@startuprecorded.com. Kate is played by Valerie Garrison. Valerie is a health tech product manager and regularly plays with the improv troupe letters to chicken online. You can find her on Twitter at the vulgaris. Eric has played by Barry. Right. Barry is a product manager at Spotify and a co-founder of high-wire improv. Find him by his name on LinkedIn, where he holds regular office hours or@highwireimprov.com. Matt is played by Martin Maguire. Marty is a senior web engineer and improviser in New York city. You can find Marty's comedy code and cats on his website at M M G dot R E. Califia is played by Robin Stegman. Robin is a digital campaign manager for ocean Conservancy and is a comedian mostly found at Highwire improv. You can find her on all the social medias. And she does mean all at our steaky. Thank you for listening.