Connect with Alex on Upwork
Connect with Valere on Upwork
Transcript
00;00;00;01 - 00;00;01;09 So while I'm the Head of
00;00;01;09 - 00;00;05;06 Growth at Valere Labs, I'm also the Founder and CEO of Valere Digital.
00;00;05;06 - 00;00;06;22 They are a cloud-based U.S.
00;00;06;22 - 00;00;10;25 office that does mostly our digital experience, marketing
00;00;10;28 - 00;00;14;16 and creative services that we often extend to our clients outside
00;00;14;16 - 00;00;16;21 of traditional software design and development.
00;00;16;21 - 00;00;17;28 I've worn many hats,
00;00;17;28 - 00;00;22;04 including operating my own project portfolio as well as potential,
00;00;22;04 - 00;00;25;13 I'm brought in on messages almost every other day that I get to chime
00;00;25;13 - 00;00;28;14 in on making sure that we're kicking things off right and ensuring
00;00;28;14 - 00;00;29;04 that we're
00;00;29;04 - 00;00;32;20 just providing that quality level services that we always want to our clients.
00;00;32;23 - 00;00;36;03 I'm the one usually working hand in hand with folks as the Chief Growth
00;00;36;03 - 00;00;37;10 Officer over at Valere.
00;00;37;10 - 00;00;40;15 So I certainly, I set up interactions with most
00;00;40;15 - 00;00;43;20 if not all of folks that we end up working through on Upwork.
00;00;43;23 - 00;00;48;11 Then, as I mentioned, as CEO and Founder over at Valere Digital, for us, that's
00;00;48;17 - 00;00;51;23 we're really the tip of the spear any time we’re interfacing with a client.
00;00;51;23 - 00;00;55;03 So from a client management perspective, from our discoveries
00;00;55;03 - 00;00;59;08 where we're sitting down and mapping out what the client has, what they want
00;00;59;11 - 00;01;02;15 and where they need to go and what we need to do in between to ensure
00;01;02;15 - 00;01;07;02 that we're having an efficient and smooth software design and development process.
00;01;07;02 - 00;01;08;00 That's really
00;01;08;00 - 00;01;11;08 what we're doing as discovery leads and working with those clients
00;01;11;10 - 00;01;17;00 and oftentimes hanging on to be retained as product managers on those projects.
00;01;17;02 - 00;01;21;02 So that way we're allowing our clients to continue to be the CEO of the business
00;01;21;02 - 00;01;24;11 while our product managers get to be the CEO of the product and ensure
00;01;24;11 - 00;01;27;12 that their vision is seen all the way throughout these engagements.
00;01;27;15 - 00;01;29;21 So pick a day of the week and it's something different.
00;01;29;21 - 00;01;32;17 By that means, oftentimes within head of growth
00;01;32;17 - 00;01;36;02 on the Valere side of things, that's both external and internal, some days
00;01;36;02 - 00;01;40;12 it's more of the external client-facing opportunities, business development,
00;01;40;15 - 00;01;44;05 marketing, communications, ways in which we can identify additional value
00;01;44;05 - 00;01;45;22 that we can bring to our clients.
00;01;45;22 - 00;01;49;13 Some days it's even working with our own teams on the internal side of things
00;01;49;13 - 00;01;50;16 and the cost side of things.
00;01;50;16 - 00;01;54;08 What are processes, efficiencies that we can gain 00;01;54;10 - 00;01;56;19 through other activities at scale,
00;01;56;19 - 00;02;00;07 optimizing those processes, being able to wait to identify
00;02;00;07 - 00;02;04;09 even how our teams are structured and performing and leveraging,
00;02;04;09 - 00;02;07;16 even in some cases like, looking at AI is a good example, right?
00;02;07;18 - 00;02;11;01 We'll find ways that we can use AI to extrapolate and provide
00;02;11;01 - 00;02;14;23 greater value to our clients, but also find and leverage ways to use AI
00;02;14;24 - 00;02;16;21 to make us more efficient, to make the work
00;02;16;21 - 00;02;19;26 that we're doing a lot more streamlined, and then ultimately apply it
00;02;19;26 - 00;02;22;00 to both ends of the spectrum at Valere.
00;02;22;00 - 00;02;26;01 I dipped my toes in it when I was an undergrad at Clark University.
00;02;26;01 - 00;02;30;17 I started my first startup with my co-founder, Abhijit Singh, both as
00;02;30;17 - 00;02;35;00 sophomores in school it’s called WooConnect, because we went to a school in Worcester.
00;02;35;02 - 00;02;38;00 We launched our first startup called WooConnect, which
00;02;38;00 - 00;02;40;11 it was a smartphone application that connected students
00;02;40;11 - 00;02;43;17 with different opportunities, promotions and events going on in the city.
00;02;43;17 - 00;02;48;07 And so we had the opportunity to launch and then pivot
00;02;48;09 - 00;02;51;13 and then even by some definitions, fail, dissolve,
00;02;51;14 - 00;02;55;19 evolve, into what ended up becoming First Pulse Consulting.
00;02;55;22 - 00;02;58;10 First Pulse Consulting was my freelance practice
00;02;58;10 - 00;03;02;07 that I had essentially put on hold because again, in that quarter-life crisis
00;03;02;07 - 00;03;05;00 of what do I do, I only know startups.
00;03;05;00 - 00;03;07;02 I had the opportunity coming out of college
00;03;07;02 - 00;03;10;28 to go down to Washington, D.C., to work for Booz Allen Hamilton.
00;03;10;29 - 00;03;14;23 I think I noted that in my bio there. Had the opportunity
00;03;14;23 - 00;03;19;00 to work for a handful of clients, but that most outstanding and most recent
00;03;19;02 - 00;03;22;18 to me leaving Booz was with the United States Postal Service
00;03;22;18 - 00;03;27;03 as the UX business team lead for USPS.com and the postal store.
00;03;27;06 - 00;03;30;18 Had great exposure to many projects, different initiatives.
00;03;30;18 - 00;03;34;19 Some of the most interesting ones were detailing the USPS continuous
00;03;34;19 - 00;03;35;17 improvement approach.
00;03;35;17 - 00;03;39;17 Our approach to UX research, really product management in a lot of ways.
00;03;39;17 - 00;03;43;19 Awesome, amazing opportunities, great large-firm experience
00;03;43;19 - 00;03;47;12 in Washington DC, serving a bigger, a broader good,
00;03;47;15 - 00;03;50;21 but having the opportunity at that point to partner
00;03;50;21 - 00;03;54;02 with Guy who way back when, when I first started WooConnect,
00;03;54;02 - 00;03;57;27 I'd actually first met him my sophomore year of college as he was
00;03;57;27 - 00;04;01;24 just about to graduate in a pitch competition where all of these judges
00;04;01;24 - 00;04;04;00 threw us softball questions except for Guy.
00;04;04;00 - 00;04;07;10 And ever since then he had been kind of a, you know, like a second brother,
00;04;07;16 - 00;04;10;10 the older brother that I never had, a de facto mentor to me,
00;04;10;10 - 00;04;13;03 even in between my opportunities with WooConnect,
00;04;13;03 - 00;04;16;24 First Pulse, and Booz Allen, I had actually interned for him
00;04;16;24 - 00;04;18;14 at his first startup Fitivity,
00;04;18;14 - 00;04;21;23 which through Fitivity and Elite Basketball, he parlayed into
00;04;21;23 - 00;04;25;19 what is now Valere Labs and his experiences working with domestic
00;04;25;19 - 00;04;29;16 onshore, near-shore and offshore software development companies.
00;04;29;19 - 00;04;34;07 And so over the last six months, had a handful of engagements,
00;04;34;08 - 00;04;38;16 opportunities to work together to the point where most recently this year
00;04;38;16 - 00;04;41;01 he had approached me to essentially acquire
00;04;41;01 - 00;04;44;01 First Pulse, rebranded underneath Valere Digital.
00;04;44;07 - 00;04;47;07 And then I come in as a part of that deal and become once again
00;04;47;07 - 00;04;49;01 not just an extension of the Valere team
00;04;49;01 - 00;04;52;23 in terms of their services and capabilities, but would get to join,
00;04;52;26 - 00;04;57;04 you know, a pretty fast growing company as the Chief Growth Officer
00;04;57;04 - 00;05;00;15 and take a lot of the experiences that I had previously to Valere with me.
00;05;00;15 - 00;05;03;21 I found that going out there and just kind of seeing where
00;05;03;24 - 00;05;07;27 rubber meets the road and where theory and practice don't always line up.
00;05;08;01 - 00;05;10;22 If it's in practice with the framework of theory,
00;05;10;22 - 00;05;13;01 you're going to learn so much more by doing.
00;05;13;01 - 00;05;15;12 rather than, you can take so many courses on YouTube
00;05;15;12 - 00;05;19;06 traditionally university or even through like certificate certification programs.
00;05;19;06 - 00;05;22;08 But the best thing that I can say is go get that experience.
00;05;22;11 - 00;05;24;22 And in the nature and in
00;05;24;22 - 00;05;28;15 the intent of continuous improvement, you're going to do exactly that.
00;05;28;15 - 00;05;31;14 You’re never really failing as long as you're learning, right?
00;05;31;14 - 00;05;35;13 And as long as you take, you go, do, fail, learn, and grow.
00;05;35;17 - 00;05;37;00 that's how I got to where I was.
00;05;37;00 - 00;05;39;02 I think that there's also something
00;05;39;02 - 00;05;42;29 be said, but like, I do think there's there's something around the idea of like,
00;05;43;01 - 00;05;46;16 you want to go and do the job no one else wants to do, right?
00;05;46;16 - 00;05;50;26 There are less glamorous things in life, but there's still valuable lessons
00;05;50;26 - 00;05;54;20 to be learned, and it shows that you're willing and able to again, just not
00;05;54;20 - 00;05;58;27 the glamorous experiences, to get you to where you want to be at the end of day.
00;05;59;00 - 00;06;02;23 I've seen this happen time and time again at large organizations, it can be,
00;06;02;24 - 00;06;06;15 you know, you're doing the non glamorous work, you're taking meeting notes
00;06;06;20 - 00;06;08;22 for a high level executive.
00;06;08;22 - 00;06;10;17 Well, awesome if you're taking meeting notes
00;06;10;17 - 00;06;13;11 for a high level executive, no one wants to necessarily do that,
00;06;13;11 - 00;06;15;22 but that might provide opportunities for you, such as being able
00;06;15;22 - 00;06;18;23 to get in the room of conversations where you can be a fly on the wall
00;06;19;00 - 00;06;22;20 and you're going to learn and absorb so much more than if you hadn't taken
00;06;22;20 - 00;06;25;25 that opportunity, even if it meant extra work for you.
00;06;25;25 - 00;06;30;05 I think people don't realize just how high touch it is with people.
00;06;30;05 - 00;06;31;00 There's a lot of things
00;06;31;00 - 00;06;34;22 that I think a lot of people will think of, like general workforce activities
00;06;34;22 - 00;06;38;25 and in the inclusion of AI right, like, oh, things are going to be automated
00;06;38;25 - 00;06;43;00 and robots are going to be able to do, you know, 50% plus of someone's job.
00;06;43;00 - 00;06;46;25 And I think people don't realize, call it either high value or high touch
00;06;46;28 - 00;06;51;26 activities. At the end of the day, I work with our clients daily,
00;06;51;26 - 00;06;55;19 threw a slew of Slack channels where I'm ensuring that
00;06;55;19 - 00;06;56;22 we're sinking up with them.
00;06;56;22 - 00;07;00;08 Every client has a different goal, KPIs they're looking to hit.
00;07;00;11 - 00;07;02;14 I mean, that's and that's the nature of the business, right?
00;07;02;14 - 00;07;05;14 Like as much as we like to do process improvement,
00;07;05;16 - 00;07;09;04 our business at the end of the day is client services. Which it doesn't mean
00;07;09;04 - 00;07;12;15 that it's not to say like you're selling yourself out for the client
00;07;12;15 - 00;07;14;21 but no, we make it a point at the end of the day
00;07;14;21 - 00;07;18;16 to partner with our clients to drive more value
00;07;18;19 - 00;07;21;17 and provide greater value than what they might
00;07;21;17 - 00;07;23;14 just be perceiving it to be.
00;07;23;14 - 00;07;23;27 At the end of the day,
00;07;23;27 - 00;07;27;12 we know we have to keep the business running from that perspective in terms of
00;07;27;12 - 00;07;28;23 at the end of the day, it needs to be a business
00;07;28;23 - 00;07;32;08 that we're billing and are providing adequate client services for,
00;07;32;08 - 00;07;34;15 but we love to go above and beyond and integrate with teams
00;07;34;15 - 00;07;38;10 in a way that we feel like we're a part of something so much bigger
00;07;38;10 - 00;07;41;06 and as we say, like building something meaningful.
00;07;41;06 - 00;07;44;29 And we only get that when you are becoming a trusted advisor
00;07;44;29 - 00;07;46;00 to a lot of the clients.
00;07;46;00 - 00;07;49;10 When you work with them day in, day out, and have an understanding of
00;07;49;13 - 00;07;51;27 not just what they're looking to do, but why they're doing it.
00;07;51;27 - 00;07;55;06 Again, six plus months ago, we never looked at a project
00;07;55;06 - 00;07;56;14 where a client was looking at
00;07;56;14 - 00;07;59;20 one of our teammates as, again, the CEO of the product.
00;07;59;20 - 00;08;01;26 So that way they could be the CEO of the business.
00;08;01;26 - 00;08;06;13 And so to see that come through on our projects now, it's,
00;08;06;13 - 00;08;08;13 I think that's kind of the proof is in the pudding
00;08;08;13 - 00;08;11;25 and something that that we've been able to say like, you know, we're not done yet.
00;08;11;25 - 00;08;14;11 There's always improvement, but we've been able to look back
00;08;14;11 - 00;08;16;20 on the last six months and be like, there's been some good here.
00;08;16;20 - 00;08;18;27 And we're seeing that return on investment.
00;08;18;27 - 00;08;19;18 I see myself
00;08;19;18 - 00;08;22;18 in another five years later being like, if I look back five years and say
00;08;22;22 - 00;08;26;10 I'm exactly where I was, where I wish I was, five years ago,
00;08;26;12 - 00;08;27;14 I want to look
00;08;27;14 - 00;08;31;07 ahead of another five years to be like, I'm still exactly where I wanted to be.
00;08;31;07 - 00;08;34;04 As I mentioned, Guy’s not just a mentor or partner or a second
00;08;34;04 - 00;08;38;18 brother to me in many ways, but like is someone that I look up to, right?
00;08;38;21 - 00;08;42;17 And so having a business partner in that same space, one that checks
00;08;42;17 - 00;08;46;06 your balances, right, it's something that I want to continue to grow.
00;08;46;06 - 00;08;48;17 What we want to do with Valere is we've had the opportunity
00;08;48;17 - 00;08;51;27 to take a lot of our experiences and parlay it into
00;08;51;29 - 00;08;53;04 as someone that can empathize
00;08;53;04 - 00;08;56;07 with startup founders and entrepreneurs that are looking to,
00;08;56;07 - 00;08;58;05 you know, from pre-seed all the way up to Series
00;08;58;05 - 00;09;02;00 B, looking to develop, launch and scale their startup.
00;09;02;00 - 00;09;04;12 And we love that. We never want to get away from that.
00;09;04;12 - 00;09;05;20 We're starting to get to a point
00;09;05;20 - 00;09;08;20 now between our capabilities within machine learning,
00;09;08;20 - 00;09;13;26 AI, and then just our technical know-how to be able to go to some larger
00;09;13;26 - 00;09;15;27 fish, to be able to go to enterprise clients
00;09;15;27 - 00;09;19;14 and say, we are comfortable in knowing we can deliver this novel
00;09;19;14 - 00;09;22;29 solution We know the enterprise clients that have an agile mindset,
00;09;22;29 - 00;09;24;12 we can also deliver that too.
00;09;24;12 - 00;09;28;09 So that's where I think we're really being forward-looking to think
00;09;28;09 - 00;09;31;19 it's important to kind of know why you're bringing in certain things.
00;09;31;20 - 00;09;35;08 One thing that we do at Valere, that I think is very different than
00;09;35;08 - 00;09;39;12 other ways in terms of other folks approach to AI, is we look at
00;09;39;18 - 00;09;43;29 AI as the core function, not a simple add on or a chat bot,
00;09;44;00 - 00;09;45;07 like something that's just
00;09;45;07 - 00;09;48;15 kind of slapped on like a Band-Aid or a sticker and be like AI, right?
00;09;48;15 - 00;09;49;29 And it's like, you just covered it,
00;09;49;29 - 00;09;54;03 you just threw a Band-Aid on a boat, like it’s still a boat.
00;09;54;05 - 00;09;57;05 So we like to approach it from a way that it's like at the end of the day,
00;09;57;08 - 00;09;59;03 you're starting a business from scratch,
00;09;59;03 - 00;10;01;24 you want to look at it from AI being the core competency.
00;10;01;24 - 00;10;05;29 So in terms of how you reframe it and shape how you're structuring a business,
00;10;06;02 - 00;10;10;12 how building a product or service, make it core to to what you're doing.
00;10;10;15 - 00;10;12;03 It's like, what's the problem I’m solving for?
00;10;12;03 - 00;10;15;15 In which case the solution is like ChatGPT,
00;10;15;18 - 00;10;17;29 open AI, or like a different AI
00;10;17;29 - 00;10;19;01 capability or tool.
00;10;19;01 - 00;10;22;15 And I would say at the end of the day, in terms of skills, what you need to do,
00;10;22;22 - 00;10;27;11 AI is foundational in the data that you have. So good data in, means
00;10;27;14 - 00;10;31;24 good data out, but that also extends to AI and the capabilities that you could do.
00;10;31;26 - 00;10;34;27 The model is only as good as the data, so don't overlook
00;10;35;01 - 00;10;38;24 basic data analytics, machine learning, before you get into AI.
00;10;38;24 - 00;10;41;09 And so that's what I would recommend. At the end of the day, I
00;10;41;09 - 00;10;45;00 think ultimately, no matter what you do, as long as you're kind of a marshal of,
00;10;45;01 - 00;10;47;10 I like to say I'm the Marshal of Customer Experience,
00;10;47;10 - 00;10;49;24 I think that's the most important thing that you can be considering any time
00;10;49;24 - 00;10;50;28 you're building something.
00;10;50;28 - 00;10;53;00 And I learned that from my own experiences.
00;10;53;00 - 00;10;55;01 It's all there. You just got to connect all the dots.
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