E8 - A Retrospective meets Squid Game

Agenda:

• Share feelings - not about OKRs or goals - share your true feelings

Takeaways:

• Eric to lock down the website so Kate can’t change it anymore
• Kate to coordinate Zoom interview with up to 40 intern candidates
• Thea to decide whose made it on her best friend list
• Store Thea’s holiday couches in John’s office

Transcript

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Ben 0:07

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 0:23

Okay. Yeah, the recording's on now. Um, Great. So this is a kind of,

Matt 0:32

oh, sorry.

Kate 0:33

sorry. It's okay, man. It's okay. I know this is kind of a spur of the moment meeting. Um, but Eric felt, it was really important even though, you know, we're holiday parties happening right now, um, to, to have a quick retrospective. Oh, I guess I'll just, you know, it was kind of myself. Matt's here. Eric's here. Thea's here. Uh, John. John. I saw him grab a bottle of vodka and just, uh, leave about an hour ago. So I, I don't, I don't know I texted him, but I assume he's probably not going to bake it.

Matt 1:03

Yeah, it's pretty classic.

Kate 1:06

Yup. Um, anyway, uh, let's do quick, quick interest, I guess, if anyone listens to this later on, who's a new employee.

Thea 1:15

I'm Kelly I am the chief creative czar of the company.

Matt 1:23

oh, I can go. I'm a matt.yachts and I am the CT.

Kate 1:29

uh, Eric.

Eric 1:31

Yeah. Um, so I've just been watching the clock, um, uh, Eric joy Carter, and I am chief product officer, uh, and, uh, call the, I call this ad hoc meeting. So thanks everyone for jumping on.

Kate 1:44

Yeah. Uh, and I'm Kate Blanchet. I'm chief of staff of Metro market, or I forgot Metro market. Well, Ben at is kind of our name, right? Not a Merck. It was her name. I'm sorry. Cider just makes me really emotional.

Matt 2:01

no. Okay.

Kate 2:01

so much good cider here,

Matt 2:02

I mean, Metta Metamarkets seller name, we've got a lot of red tape to get through, so.

Eric 2:08

And we'll always be part of the.

Kate 2:10

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So we're a couch marketplace still, even though our name is changing to something else. Um, Eric, you want to take it from.

Eric 2:22

Yeah. Um, so thanks everyone for joining. I'm waiting for it. So it's going to be midnight in a couple of minutes here. I'm just watching the clock. Uh, I, every may have noticed I've been running around, been pretty busy this month, um, as part of the. Personal reflection throughout this year, I've decided to celebrate every winter holiday. Um, and, but so in the, in that, in that, you know, kind of run down the 22nd is the day between, or right after the winter solstice, but before Festivus, uh, and so, um, it felt like the right time for me to treat that as my new year. Um, so I, I just wanted to bring us all together and. I do like just a retrospective on, on us, like this, this leadership constellation, um, you know, what's been working for us over the last year. What's been working for the company. Um, you know, there's been a lot of change and it's, I, it felt like the right time. So I know it's a little bit, uh, odd to do it in the middle of the holiday party, but I felt like everyone was going to come with their truest raw feelings, uh, now

Matt 3:30

oh, feelings. Yeah. I mean, I'm, I've been working on, you know, Mike, Mike end of quarter, end of, uh, end of year stuff in general, but I. I don't

Eric 3:40

oh, no, no, no, I don't. I don't care about any of the corporate OKR or any of your personal, okay. Ours. This is, this is a retrospective on us on, on, on our people. Our, our, our minds that the time we spend it is it is an expansive retrospective. Anything is on the table to discuss.

Matt 4:01

Okay. Sorry. You caught me on the way from the bathroom back to the server room, uh, where I'm pulling the overnight so that my team can go to the holiday party. Have you all been drinking?

Kate 4:13

Yeah,

Eric 4:14

yeah. A

Matt 4:14

so. Like I would hope so. Okay. Is that Eric? Is that what prompted this? You, you haven't some FICA fields you've had. Okay. Well,

Kate 4:24

I didn't know about.

Matt 4:26

I guess surprised was part of it. Otherwise

Eric 4:28

I, it can't be pre-planned it can't be premeditated. It's gotta be how you really feel. And if that means you're upset, I want to know.

Thea 4:37

Could I

Eric 4:37

to know.

Thea 4:37

before we start this, I mean, always love a good deep reflection, and I am feeling really great for you guys. I'm in a very vulnerable moment. Okay. And I'm just worried that if we share what we're feeling like, you know, as people after this year that we might become friends and I can't do that. if we could all just. Keep this as professional as possible. That would be really helpful for me.

Kate 5:07

okay, but you all are my best friends.

Matt 5:13

Oh, Kate. That's really sweet.

Thea 5:15

K.

Kate 5:16

I mean, I have other best friends too, but I think there should be no limit to best friends.

Matt 5:24

Yeah. Have, have all the best friends you can.

Kate 5:27

I think, and I think we're like family. Actually, I was thinking about rewriting the culture statement on our website for, you know, people who were trying to hire to talk about how we're family and friends and, um, you know, partners and, and we're ninjas together. And we're like astronauts that, you know, when astronauts go, they have to tie themselves together. So if they float into space, they never know actually why they have to do that. But I assume it's.

Matt 5:57

why. Yeah. That is why it's like Arctic climbers. That's a buddy system. So if one person drifts and they can be.

Kate 6:06

Arctic climbers. That's another great thing that we are all to each other.

Matt 6:13

okay. I just, I just want to take a quick moment. We're just talking about feelings, right? We're not creating actionable anything out of this meeting. Right.

Eric 6:21

no, I mean, it's, it's, it's just a retrospective, you know, I think it's more about how we interact with one another. And if you want to, if you want to do something about that, that that's up to you, but.

Matt 6:31

Okay. Well, I'm, I'm pretty new here. Um, I've only been with the company for a couple months, but I can say, um, you know, this is a team that really wants things to work. And I really appreciate that about all of you. I haven't met anyone really here at, at Metta market. That's not pulling their own weight and then some more. And, um, you know, that, that just feels nice. That's why, uh, you know, I really want to help give my team breaks where they can, uh, cause small teams doing, doing hard work. And, um, when it comes to this group here, um, I mean, obviously we're, we're on the stream. I don't want to go too deep into this stuff now, but like, um, you know, we're, we're, we're thick as thieves.

Kate 7:18

Yeah, I got you. We're all like weightlifters to each other and thieves. Okay, sure. I'll put that on the website too. I love how I can just change the website by myself. This such a good idea to set up this platform.

Matt 7:34

yeah. K, you're not putting that. You're not putting that on the job site right now. Are you? I, I wouldn't.

Kate 7:41

No time like the present.

Matt 7:44

I wouldn't put any of those things we've talked about so far, like these are, these are what happens in this room, stays in this room other than the livestream, obviously.

Eric 7:52

It's a retrospective. We're just kind of sharing. It just stays with us. And you know, that's why Kathy, you don't have to worry about us becoming best friends because all of this is going to disappear after the retrospectives over.

Thea 8:02

okay.

Matt 8:03

right. I was also thinking, I think since Eric called this, and once Eric is the one that wants the feedback, Kathy, you could just. Cover your ears and then you wouldn't have to learn how we feel. And that would probably keep.

Thea 8:17

I would be, I would be really helpful. I mean, yeah, really great. I will say that, um, I did break up with one of my best friends I left our religious retreat because I no longer wanted to be part of that family. So I do have one opening, um, now for somebody to raise up in the circle, uh,

Kate 8:46

So this is kind of like an audition.

Eric 8:50

I

Kate 8:50

anyone ever.

Eric 8:52

it's not going to be one of us.

Thea 8:54

I mean, it very well could

Eric 8:56

Wow. Wow. Really?

Thea 8:59

not for best friend. I'm probably gonna raise somebody else, but, know, as I raised that, that leaves one person on the lower tiers. Um, and. I haven't been at networking events in the past of weeks because I had been working so hard on the name. So, you

Matt 9:19

yeah.

Thea 9:19

what, fuck it. It might be one of you guys.

Kate 9:23

Well,

Thea 9:24

That's a lot for my brand to take in right now, but it's the truth.

Kate 9:31

Eric, how are you feeling? I feel like you've been so great and asked us how we're feeling. How are you feeling?

Eric 9:39

I, you know, I'm, I'm feeling, I'm feeling a lot right now. I feel like this has been so turbulent, uh, the last year,

Kate 9:47

um, like we were like we're pilots together. Co-pilots yes. Okay. Sorry. Go ahead.

Eric 9:57

no, no, that's, that's, that's, that's not quite it. I guess. I, I feel like it's, you know, we've had to change our name. We've had to change our business. W we, we, we burned a house down. Um, and all of this has kind of just like weighing on me a little bit and, you know, I just wanna to. To admit that to everybody it's, it's, it's been, it's been pushing some of my dreams out. It's been pushing, I'm not sleeping well. And I just want to make sure that other people weren't going through the same thing.

Thea 10:30

No Derrick my last guy, Alaska trip, I the Baldy.

Eric 10:39

What.

Thea 10:39

he's not happy. I thought told you as much that he to go. He loved couches so much. That is how he wanted to go. But I don't think that anymore. I think that was not in the plan. And now I feel really bad about it. I'm not used to feeling bad about my actions cause I a cleansing fire.

Eric 11:09

um, I don't know that I've ever heard you admit anything like that kind of theater. That's really helpful. I didn't realize I wasn't the only one going through some of this with the stress of everything going on and, um,

Thea 11:25

I keep one of his Eagle feathers underneath my keyboard.

Kate 11:30

oh,

Matt 11:31

um, so I'm a little lost. Are we talking about our real Eagle? I thought this was just a vision you had when you were doing the iOS.

Thea 11:41

No, the Eagle.

Kate 11:43

the one that got hurt by one of our couches, supposedly that there was the lawsuit about

Matt 11:50

oh,

Kate 11:51

at that meeting. I, cause I could send you the transcript.

Eric 11:55

Yeah. That's why we have to all of our giving, giving Tuesday donations to the U S national wildlife fund.

Matt 12:04

Good organization. And you know, it's nice that the government is now actually putting more weight behind the endangered species list. Um, but listen, I know everybody's stressed out where it's never fun when you're trying to pull a fast one and, you know, we wouldn't be tiptoeing around, uh, doing espionage if we were in a normal situation. You know, this is investing in America. Like we are, we're a tech company and we are in the gauntlet and it's not fair. I mean, this is the squid game and we're all the competitors and the VCs, they have the money.

Kate 12:45

a good one. Okay. We're all competitors in squid game together. Join us. We have three open roles.

Matt 12:53

not super good for a hiring website.

Eric 12:55

Yeah. It doesn't only one of them.

Matt 12:57

Yeah. And the rest done. Um, which, which I think as a metaphor for like companies that are competing for a small pool of big change, that that is a more apt metaphor.

Kate 13:10

okay. That's a great point. I'll put that on our differentiator. Um, you know, page.

Thea 13:17

we just, could we really lean into that? And could we have. 40 people come into his zoom interview together and put them through a test or challenges and slowly have them filter out. Um, I'm not talking murder, I'm just talking, showing them the

Kate 13:37

murder.

Thea 13:39

that

Eric 13:40

Nope. No, I think he took the wrong words out of that, Kate. Um,

Kate 13:46

I, I love that idea, you know, and we have that winter internship that starting in January, we have so many people applying for that. Um, yeah, people who love startups. Let me just write up a little note to them. Um, I love this. I just love how talking about our emotions leads to so much. Action. I'm getting so much done so much more done than I thought I would in the holiday party.

Eric 14:18

honestly, this is, it's just supposed to be a sharing of feelings. Like it's a retrospective. We don't have to have any action items or follow-ups, or you don't have to take all of this and go do stuff. You're, you're always, always doing stuff with everything. Like that's, I, I feel like every word I say, I put something on your to-do list and I don't want that burden on sometimes. I just want to be able to think.

Kate 14:40

That's so nice. You know, if you, I talking about emotions and to do lists, sometimes put emotions on my to-do list. Because I find that I'm neglecting certain things, you know, when you're so busy and the way to really not neglect is to, to do

Thea 15:06

Kate, is that why we've seen laugh on your to-do list?

Kate 15:10

yes. Yes. That one specifically came from my sister. She said, I don't think you've done this in awhile. I said, you know how you do it? You to do it.

Matt 15:23

I I've been wondering, um, like how, how are you in general? It's it seems like. You really have taken on a lot, not just here at the company and peripherally people related to the company, but in your, in your home life and, and your, your personal dealings. Um, when do you get.

Kate 15:46

I have a break. You're right. I should put that on my to-do list. So I guess I'm wondering when I take a. What, what do you do during

Thea 16:00

Um, okay. Okay. Kate, I feel like, I feel like need to have some about self care and I feel like this is all of us, you know, I feel like I been carrying. A baby for a while. And didn't realize that the baby is not Bugsby, but the baby is you.

Kate 16:31

oh, so sweet. Maybe I don't need to be your best friend. I could be like your, your child. Wait, am I happy about that?

Eric 16:44

no, no, I'm going to go, I'm going to say, I'm going to, I'm going to say no.

Matt 16:48

I mean, it's not my place, but, um,

Eric 16:53

Yeah, I know we're not supposed to interrupt during the retrospective, but I'm going to, I'm going to interrupt and say no, that's,

Thea 17:00

I just missed them so much. And I feel like my maternal energy is not going towards Eddie thing. You know, I just stare at a whiteboard with our names all day. And it's because I'm not in a creation mode because my creation has decided to stay in the Arctic possibly perpetually.

Eric 17:24

I mean, isn't that, I mean, it wasn't that part of the mission of Bugsby in the, in the first place to create, create something that was bigger than its.

Thea 17:39

yeah, bug SPI has been successful for everybody, in that process, I realized that bugs me. In his purest form is no longer serving me. that feels selfish. What if I'm the person who can't liberate bugs, SPE?

Matt 17:58

oh, Califia I don't think those feelings are selfish. I think if, I mean, obviously you've put so much of yourself into Bugsby you're going to miss those pieces. If you're, if you're not still in touch with.

Thea 18:13

yeah, I just feel like ghost. Good as it gets my core as a freedom fighter to fight against bugs. Peace, freedom.

Kate 18:26

Uh, maybe it's just cause I've been drinking, but like I'm lost. So we're definitely talking about bugs be again, right? Our mascot, our,

Eric 18:38

the lifeblood of our creative

Kate 18:41

I was excited for you to be my mother because I'm a human and I thought maybe that was you progressing, but I feel like you're not.

Thea 18:53

Kate, you were excited about me taking a maternal role over you because you don't believe that I can be a maternal figure to bugs B. Is that what you're saying?

Kate 19:06

Sort of E. I just, I was starting to imagine our little family, like if I was the baby. And if you were the mommy then would Matt or Eric be the daddy or would we have like a

Matt 19:23

like a cool neighbor or something.

Thea 19:25

first of all, there can be unconventional family they

Kate 19:29

Okay. Or.

Thea 19:30

to be in this family structure is what I mean.

Kate 19:33

Okay. What are you all? Yeah. What do you feel like your role in this family structure is Eric and Matt. I just kind of, don't want to talk about bugs, getting into the womb of my womb shit. So.

Matt 19:48

okay. Um, I mean, I think of myself as the S the CTO, and I know that's not what you're looking for. Um, I don't know. I, um, I think of myself maybe as, um, the elder son who went away and found success in the world and, uh, has now had to return home as the family has suffered a crisis and they need someone to see them.

Kate 20:17

oh,

Eric 20:20

wow. I saw myself as the, as like the youngest son. Is trying to live up to all these expectations and doesn't really know if they're doing what they're doing because they want to, or because they already saw their older siblings do it or trying to figure out their own identity. And are we all just John's kids

Kate 20:45

Oh,

Eric 20:46

No, that's, that's terrifying.

Matt 20:48

that's kind of where my head was at. Yeah.

Thea 20:51

I was, I w I am the older sister who was parentified at a very young age, who feels like she,

Kate 20:58

Hmm.

Thea 20:59

To be creative, but feels like she has to, you know, nurture

Kate 21:06

Wow. So we all just have like daddy problems. So.

Eric 21:12

yeah, I mean, what's the last time we saw

Kate 21:16

John. I mean,

Eric 21:17

not I, um, I wasn't going to John.

Kate 21:20

yeah. I mean, we saw, I saw him an hour ago when he came in and took that vodka bottle, but to be fair, he was trying to do that secretly. So people couldn't see him, but I did.

Eric 21:33

like the last time I saw John just, know, put a bunch of papers on my desk and I didn't really even fully like see his face. He just put, put some of like contracts down for, you know, what we need to do to change our name and wow.

Matt 21:51

I mean, the last time I saw John was, um, I thought he had stood me up for our quarterly ramen date and catch up and. I went to leave and pay, uh, I actually saw him leaving with someone else. Um, I didn't say anything. I just, it was awkward because I can't be a hundred percent sure it was him, but like, it was him, you know, who held

Eric 22:14

it's definitely, of course.

Matt 22:15

Yeah. I mean, that's a custom Tesla that he drives. I don't know who else was.

Thea 22:21

Yeah. I last saw him when he invited me out to a little meet and greet on Jack Dorsey's yacht and he just. Introduced me to Jack Dorsey said, do something. And then he jumped into the water and there was a smaller boat in the water

Matt 22:35

my God. I'm so sorry. Califia

Eric 22:39

my God.

Thea 22:42

nothing to say to Jack Dorsey.

Matt 22:44

no, um,

Thea 22:46

I mean, you can't sell couches on Twitter

Matt 22:50

Oh, God,

Kate 22:51

We do

Thea 22:52

extremist.

Matt 22:53

that

Eric 22:53

even buy them with block.

Matt 22:56

yeah, I meant, I don't know if we've updated the list Califia but, um,

Eric 23:01

Oh,

Matt 23:02

still runs square, uh, sorry, block now as of December 10th. Uh, so they've taken the name block and they also have taken the name spiral. Um,

Eric 23:12

Spiral.

Matt 23:13

And I know we were thinking about things related to couches and Springs.

Kate 23:16

Yeah.

Eric 23:18

Well, what can we just put TBD on the documents for now?

Matt 23:22

you know, what, the, the article that I read, um, on CNBC it's, it's not a hundred percent clear, but I think square also has a cryptocurrency focus division that seems to be named TBD, or it could have been an error in the CNBC document. I have. I feel, I know we've been using those placeholders, your app teams been doing a great job, finding places where we've hard-coded in Mehta market and getting ready for the name change. But we've got to be careful about TBD too.

Eric 23:50

thanks. Yeah, no, I appreciate it. It's good to hear that, you know, it's um,

Matt 23:55

Anyway, fucking Dorsey. Excuse my language.

Kate 24:01

anyway. Okay. So we're all, we're all children. We have problems with our father, John, and I don't know. I know Eric, we're not supposed to like come up with resolutions necessarily, but I feel like, I feel like we should, there should be something like that. Or do you just want us to stay sad like this all year?

Eric 24:27

now, I mean, now, now we know this is not where I expected it to go, but I mean, I think we needed to all, all come to this realization. I don't know. Did we just, do we tell John we need to meet with them more often or do we just rely on each other?

Matt 24:45

I guess what we've been doing?

Thea 24:49

Yeah,

Eric 24:50

I feel like I've been holding back the waiting, waiting for him to come in and yeah. Yeah.

Kate 24:55

No.

Eric 24:56

Why do that? And yeah, just screw, screw him.

Kate 24:59

Yeah. We are the boxcar children.

Eric 25:03

Yes. That's the one.

Matt 25:05

Uh, I kind of remember those.

Kate 25:09

Where I remember how many of them there were, but they were definitely orphaned, such as lived in the woods, in the box car for at least half of a book. And that's where we are. We're in. Oh, this is going, this is going to be such a good way to convince people to be on the website.

Matt 25:28

Uh, Kate, please, please. Don't use that.

Eric 25:30

Yeah, we don't need to change any.

Kate 25:32

I'm putting I'm using Photoshop, which thank you, Cathy, for giving me access to, to put our heads inside of box cars, everyone will understand it.

Matt 25:43

I know. I think you need to be more clear.

Eric 25:46

I think, I think we'll, we'll just lock the site until the start of the year. When we do the name.

Matt 25:54

Yeah, that's a good idea.

Kate 25:56

so seven potential interns have already responded. Yes.

Thea 26:02

Great.

Matt 26:02

Wait, you're a diet going through those now. Are you?

Kate 26:06

Yeah. Yeah. I sent out the note. So do you want to be in the squad game, but startup style?

Matt 26:13

Well

Kate 26:14

I realized now that I forgot to put a title on the email, but people are agreeing to it.

Matt 26:22

Okay. Well, let's all like tools down for the night. Um, yeah, once, once the drink start going down, the tools should stay down and, um, you know, what.

Eric 26:36

You too, Matt. Yeah.

Thea 26:37

a, there's a, listing for a murder doll on Craigslist. Do you think I should go get that for the squid games?

Kate 26:44

yes. What is it?

Thea 26:48

Uh,

Kate 26:49

Did they include pictures?

Thea 26:51

Yeah, they didn't include pictures and the, uh, description is a little esoteric, but I'm pretty sure it's like that all in like red light, green light, you know, it goes like at

Kate 27:04

that's scary.

Thea 27:05

fire.

Kate 27:06

Oh yeah.

Matt 27:07

not going to do the squid game games on the internet.

Eric 27:11

Right. Is this over zoom too?

Thea 27:14

I just thought we could adapt it, you know? And like you have to read the original fiction to adapt it. Like you have to get the first edition of of Notre Dame. If you're to adapt it into a musical set in a mall in the 1980s.

Matt 27:38

well, it's your team's budget. You have. You do that? Look, I am. I've been out of the server room for awhile and why most of our stuff is on, on PagerDuty. There's still a few things that are just beeps and boops inside the cage. So, uh, I'm going to have to go get back to it.

Kate 27:53

before you

Eric 27:54

come help out.

Kate 27:55

I just want to let you know that I bought you all a holiday present and it should be coming.

Thea 28:02

that.

Kate 28:03

It's fine. I love it because you're all my siblings slash parents. And. I got you all couches. I used our website to buy you couches. Now you have three new couches each coming to you. Yeah.

Matt 28:24

okay. God, where am I going to put it? Uh, okay. Thank

Kate 28:29

I'll know if you return them.

Eric 28:32

That's true.

Matt 28:33

do you want.

Thea 28:35

Um, I'm sorry. I have removed all furniture from my house until I come up with a new name. So there a place we could like store those here, you know, until, until I'm like not allowing myself to sit on furniture you notice. I am on the

Kate 28:55

Yeah, right right, Uh, should we use John's office?

Thea 29:02

I mean, it's not

Matt 29:03

Oh, that's a good idea. Yeah.

Kate 29:06

Okay. Okay. I'll have them shipped here. Not a problem, Kelsey. Yeah. Anyway. Yep. Matt, you cargo.

Matt 29:17

You guys, Hey, enjoy the rest of the party. Okay. We're this is a hard time. It's a confusing time, but we're, we're pushing through it. This is not how it's going to be forever. Okay. It's not just going to be crisis after crisis.

Kate 29:30

Nope.

Eric 29:32

Yeah, well, Sean.

Kate 29:34

Great. Okay. I guess I should stop the recording or Eric, did you have more emotions you want to share?

Eric 29:40

that's good.

Kate 29:42

Okay.

Eric 29:42

Thank you. All

Ben 29:45

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.