"Turpentine VC" | Venture Capital and Investing
00:47:40 · Brendan Foody, Usman Hanif
So working with that team has been incredible. And it's it's been a fun ride since. [00:47:45] S1: So in high school, you're working with cloud interfaces, as every average high schooler does, right? And send you went to college, you guys went to college together and then dropped out or and sort of what is your kind of background? Is it more of a technical one? Are all three of you sort of technical? Or what is it? [00:48:02] S2: Yeah, I would say all three of us are technical to varying degrees. Was at Georgetown with Suria. I was studying finance and econ. So he was studying international econ. But like, I started coding when I was in third grade, so very young. And then a Darsh was at Harvard saying CS. And I've mainly was doing like front end development for the lifecycle or for the early stages of the business. And I don't do much coding now. But Adarshan Surya do in a significant way. And so yeah, I actually never originally wanted to go to college, I refused to apply to schools, and my parents were not excited about that. And so I appeased them and applied at the last minute. I told them I would drop out the entire time. They didn't believe me until until I actually did it. But I think now they finally come around on the decision.
00:48:02 · Brendan Foody, Usman Hanif
[00:48:02] S2: Yeah, I would say all three of us are technical to varying degrees. Was at Georgetown with Suria. I was studying finance and econ. So he was studying international econ. But like, I started coding when I was in third grade, so very young. And then a Darsh was at Harvard saying CS. And I've mainly was doing like front end development for the lifecycle or for the early stages of the business. And I don't do much coding now. But Adarshan Surya do in a significant way. And so yeah, I actually never originally wanted to go to college, I refused to apply to schools, and my parents were not excited about that. And so I appeased them and applied at the last minute. I told them I would drop out the entire time. They didn't believe me until until I actually did it. But I think now they finally come around on the decision. [00:48:53] S1: Yeah, yeah. Well, man, coding at three, mid seven figure business at twenty. I hope my parents never sort of hear about you and Manu. Let's get those feet rough for me. But that's that's honestly very impressive. And congratulations on Teal fellowship. Saw that alongside the Esh team. That's amazing. And I guess, you know, sort of the final questions here. In terms of the building the team, how many people are you at right now? Are you guys hiring? And if so, who are the types of people you're looking for? What's sort of the culture that people can expect, and and what can they be working on when they join?
00:48:53 · Usman Hanif, Brendan Foody
[00:48:53] S1: Yeah, yeah. Well, man, coding at three, mid seven figure business at twenty. I hope my parents never sort of hear about you and Manu. Let's get those feet rough for me. But that's that's honestly very impressive. And congratulations on Teal fellowship. Saw that alongside the Esh team. That's amazing. And I guess, you know, sort of the final questions here. In terms of the building the team, how many people are you at right now? Are you guys hiring? And if so, who are the types of people you're looking for? What's sort of the culture that people can expect, and and what can they be working on when they join? [00:49:28] S2: Absolutely. So we're at 11 full time employees in The US as well as about 20 contractors internationally in India, And we're hiring hugely, we have big things to announce soon, not yet on the fundraising front, and are are really stepping on the gas with full stack engineer hires, machine learning engineer hires, as well as operations people to help out with managing engagements with clients, particularly large foundation model customers. So there's a lot of interesting aspects on that. And I think anyone who's looking for a really intense environment of working super hard, that has an exceptional background, not per se on the resume, but just having worked on very cool things. It is certainly someone we'd love to talk to. So feel free to just shoot me an email at brendanmccord dot com. And I would love to chat and hopefully explore adding you to the team.
00:49:28 · Brendan Foody, Usman Hanif
[00:49:28] S2: Absolutely. So we're at 11 full time employees in The US as well as about 20 contractors internationally in India, And we're hiring hugely, we have big things to announce soon, not yet on the fundraising front, and are are really stepping on the gas with full stack engineer hires, machine learning engineer hires, as well as operations people to help out with managing engagements with clients, particularly large foundation model customers. So there's a lot of interesting aspects on that. And I think anyone who's looking for a really intense environment of working super hard, that has an exceptional background, not per se on the resume, but just having worked on very cool things. It is certainly someone we'd love to talk to. So feel free to just shoot me an email at brendanmccord dot com. And I would love to chat and hopefully explore adding you to the team. [00:50:25] S1: And they can also just join Merkur and perhaps get recruited from there. [00:50:29] S2: That's true. That's true. That's another way that that we hire. [00:50:33] S1: Exactly. And I guess sort of, you know, some of the final things here, you know, looking into the future, what sort of next for you guys? What is the big problem you're trying to solve right now? What can folks expect as updates on the product in the coming year or two?
00:50:33 · Usman Hanif, Brendan Foody, Erik Torenberg
[00:50:33] S1: Exactly. And I guess sort of, you know, some of the final things here, you know, looking into the future, what sort of next for you guys? What is the big problem you're trying to solve right now? What can folks expect as updates on the product in the coming year or two? [00:50:49] S2: Yeah, there's this recurring effort to improve the models of the product. And so that's very significant and ongoing. Then the other one is just a whole new suite of feedback tools, ability to share profiles on the applicant experience, I think changing the applicant experience from a application process to a platform that people can interact with that they can visit on a regular basis is one of the largest changes that the, you know, large volumes of users are going be seeing soon. [00:51:23] S1: That's awesome. Well, Brandon, thank you so much for taking the time. As mentioned, anyone interested, please check out Merkur. If you're looking for a job, definitely use them. And if you're interested in Merkur, feel free to reach out to Brendan directly. It was so great having you here and best of luck in the future. [00:51:39] S2: Absolutely. It was a wonderful conversation, and I appreciate you having me. [00:51:43] S1: Awesome. [00:51:44] S0: Turpentine VC is a podcast from Turpentine, the network behind Moment of Zen and Econ one zero two. If you like the episode, please leave a review in the Apple Store or rate us on Spotify.