Episode 29: Why Story Beats Data, with Eshwar Umarengan

Melissa Reaves, Host (00:01.13)
Well, welcome back to the Storyteller's Mind Movie Makers. I'm Melissa, your host, and this is where we talk about the science to the art form of storytelling. And where do you put storytelling? You know, where are the different places that we use it on a daily basis in business? And today I would like to please welcome Eshwar Umarengan, who is with Seattle University, and we met because he was in the Seattle's business plan competition, known as the

Harriet Stevenson Business Plan Competition. And I want to welcome you. So, yay to you. How are you?

Eshwar Umarengan (00:38.432)
I'm good, I'm good. Glad to be here. How are you doing?

Melissa Reaves, Host (00:41.354)
Great, great, great.

So let me provide a little background, shall we? so this is something that Story Fruition has had the honor of coaching for the last eight years. In fact, at Seattle University's business plan competition is where I was standing and was hearing the pitches where there was 10, you know, there was like 12 contestants, and I kept noticing that everyone was starting with a number. They were starting with a graph or they were starting with a percent. And I was standing

next to the director, Amelia Markworth, who still runs the program, and said

What if we instead of doing a number, what if, what if we had a story about a person that the number is about and they told that because won't they remember the story longer than the number? And she listened and said, you know what, I want to give that a whirl. Let's give it a try. So the following year we test drove this entire idea. And now eight years later, several several companies have come through with this competition and I've been so honored to meet amazing, brilliant,

Visionary founders. And Eshwar, you're one of those people. So here's how it works.

Melissa Reaves, Host (01:58.185)
It starts off with the applications, and this year they had more than they'd ever seen before. They had 44 applicants. And these can be students, grad students, alumni. As long as they have a Seattle University, do you have to have an do you have to be in Albers? Or you can be in like computer science. You don't have to be in the Albers School of Business. Okay, yeah. So any student can enter. a lot of the MBA students are encouraged to do it because it's just a really good experience. And so what happens is they have two minutes.

Eshwar Umarengan (02:15.916)
You can be Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Melissa Reaves, Host (02:28.088)
In the first round to present their idea, and then that's the top 12. 44 goes to 12, they get two minutes, very stressful day, and then that goes down to the top four, and then the top four come back for the finals and they battle it out, and Ishwar's team won. So, congratulations again!

Eshwar Umarengan (02:51.918)
Thank you very much.

Melissa Reaves, Host (02:53.584)
And you know, it's so funny because as soon as I saw your team, he was the one team that came in the room. And sometimes, you know, you'd you'd have like two or three people, or many times it was just a single person that was entering. But your team, known as Gnome, like G-N-O-M-E, came in with five people. So tell me about day one when you came in. Like, like let's let's hear it from you. I've I've spoken enough. Tell me about like what it was like on day one.

Eshwar Umarengan (03:09.74)
Yep.

Yeah, we have a really big team.

Eshwar Umarengan (03:18.998)
Yeah. so this all kind of started I had this idea quite a while ago about GNOME and just for context so what it is it's it's kind of a it kind of allows you to figure out exactly what's going on with your garden, how to take care of your plants, and how to plan for the future of your garden through AI insights. So we're able to

take these readings with sensors about what's going on with your garden space and what plants you've planted and with that and the weather context and more such as you know how do you interact with your plants etc we can give really really specific catered advice to figure out exactly what's going on with an individual plant or how do you want to keep growing your garden. And so I had this idea a while ago

And it was just me and I was really stressed out, like, man, this is such a great idea and I don't know if I have the skills or whatever. I just a lot of imposter syndrome before it even existed. So I got my team together, yeah. I got my team together in January. and I was like when I saw that poster board at s in Albers, I was like, this could be like perfect, perfect opportunity. Let's just see where it goes. Like I think it's a great idea. got my team together, these are my

Melissa Reaves, Host (04:22.23)
Mm-hmm.

Normal.

Eshwar Umarengan (04:42.966)
childhood friends. So like yeah. Yeah. These are like I've known these guys yeah since like third grade. even younger for a couple of them. And I was like, guys, let's just let's just get this going. Like we have we have the technical skills. We have like we have somebody who knows finance. So put together the team and then I think the first time that I really like I was like okay this is like we're getting involved is like that workshop session that we had.

Melissa Reaves, Host (04:45.374)
Mm.

I didn't know that.

Melissa Reaves, Host (05:11.574)
Mm-hmm.

Eshwar Umarengan (05:12.566)
where a couple of people only sent like one member of their team and we we came with all five of us and we were like, okay, you know what? The more people the better. The more people listening to this and getting that advice, the better we're gonna be. And it ended up turning out really well. obviously, like getting on those the stage and presenting that two minute pitch was so nerve wracking and especially that final but, you know

I kind of I kind of whacked out when I go up there, but enough I practiced it enough times and you know, it just it just came through. I felt like I was just speaking my truth. Which is great.

Melissa Reaves, Host (05:49.763)
so great. It was I was really fun to watch you. So in the in so when he was talking about the workshop, the workshop is where story fruition comes in, and we teach the idea of the storytelling idea, like to come up with a character that people will follow in their imaginations having the problem that that their team is trying, that Gnome is trying to solve for, right? and and memorize it and work together, like how do you tell that? So, what was that exercise? Because so we broke you off into different rooms.

showed you the characters, the relationships, the objective, the where, the the framework of what mind movie making is about. And then sent you off to go do it. What was that like working with your team going, We have to find a story?

Eshwar Umarengan (06:33.688)
Yeah, so I mean, as a team of like very technical people, you know we came in with numbers off the bat, and boy was not that that was not the case, by the end of that first meeting because we realized that like it really is about like captivating the audience before you can go ahead and like spam them with all of this these different facts. So when when we got that a piece of advice of like, you know, starting off with

A character, I believe we named her Sarah, and

Melissa Reaves, Host (07:06.87)
Probably. I use Sarah and Jeremy too much. I like Kim. But is it a Sarah with an H or no H? You know, that's the difference that I wanna

Eshwar Umarengan (07:08.514)
I think so. I think so.

Yeah. They're they're they work.

Eshwar Umarengan (07:19.586)
Mm, true, difference maker. but yeah, after we came in and kind of made that story up of like, you know, her plants are struggling and she doesn't know what to do. It it was it was great. I I loved it and then when when we presented it we got a ton of laughs, which was awesome 'cause then I knew, you know, we had them hooked. We had them really good. Mhm. Yeah.

Melissa Reaves, Host (07:41.001)
You did. You did. And I think we were all just a little bit like 'cause we had written you had written it and we had practiced it a few times and I knew that there were some some some smirk lines, but people in the audience started giggling and that's when you knew you had them. Like you knew you had them. Yeah.

Eshwar Umarengan (07:56.854)
yeah. yeah. I think my my teammates were like, I saw you visibly chill out after the first set of laughs. I was like, Yeah, yeah. That

Melissa Reaves, Host (08:05.194)
That's good because it wasn't too much, but it just it just normalized it and it made it really relatable. It really did. So that's cool. And I remember on that day when it was the semifinals, we were in that room, and what was it like for you when unfortunately one of the founders who did not show up for the workshop, first speaker, he froze.

Eshwar Umarengan (08:12.556)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Eshwar Umarengan (08:29.671)
Mm. It was it was

Melissa Reaves, Host (08:31.466)
He literally froze for like thirty seconds. And God love him. I mean he was nervous already, but he was also struggling. I think it's his second language that adds that adds to the stress of it. And he froze and he was the first person. What was going on in your mind as a semifinal or yeah, you were fighting for semifinals. How did that feel for you? What'd you do?

Eshwar Umarengan (08:51.33)
Yep. it was r I mean, it was intimidating already just before he went up, seeing all of those judges and w after he went up there and it was we saw him freeze and we just were like that's like that's hopefully like that doesn't happen, but like that could totally happen to any one of us. Like, you don't know what it's like getting up there and speaking and just being able to like essentially like

memori have a two-minute memorized speech delivered. but something that I started doing while I was in line was kind of like retelling the story in my head. where it was like like I kind of like attached an emotion to each line in my head. I was like, man, I can't like I would hate to be Sarah in this position. Like her plant she just bought and they just died. And like I that's kind of how I practiced rehearsing it, because I was like

If I could remember the emotion or kind of feel the emotion before I said the line, it would doesn't that wouldn't mean that I had to c have it memorized. So when I went up there, I think I did end up changing my speech up a bit. But I was able to keep that, you know, that guideline, that that kind of again, like that story going because it felt like an actual story to me, because that's how I kind of rehearsed it and I like, I know, you know.

After seeing that first person freeze up it's like it's scary and I can't rely on memorization because so many people struggle with that and me included. So I was like I gotta find I gotta find a different way to just rehearse and it it it worked out really well. Yeah.

Melissa Reaves, Host (10:30.89)
Yeah.

Melissa Reaves, Host (10:34.611)
I love that.

Have you ever had theater? Did you ever do theater in school at any point? Okay, because I gotta be honest, that's like what an actor does. An actor, because I have been an actor since I was nine, an actor when they're learning their lines, they they they get the subtext underneath it. And that's what you were doing naturally, which helps you memorize it. Because the thing is, is that yes, it's a pitch, and yes, you're telling stories, and yes, you were being timed, you know, and there was all those stakes, it was all involved, but it never has to be verbatim.

Eshwar Umarengan (11:02.19)
Mm-hmm.

Melissa Reaves, Host (11:06.04)
You know, it's like depending on who you're talking to, we'll fluctuate. You know, you might even change her from Sarah to Steve because you're talking to a whole bunch of guys one time. You're like, I don't know what's gonna happen. But just to have that fluidity and that comfort in knowing your story. Do you still know the opening story? Do you still know it?

Eshwar Umarengan (11:12.077)
Mm-hmm.

Eshwar Umarengan (11:26.902)
I still remember I remember bits and pieces. I know that she sh she had bought her plants she bought her basil plant, a week before and she travelled for work and she comes home and she sees it brown and crispy and that was a line that got got him laughing. And after that it's just like the problem is that information is hard to find and with busy schedules and not much time to take care of your plants.

Melissa Reaves, Host (11:42.976)
Yeah.

Eshwar Umarengan (11:54.262)
It just feels like a lost cause and that's where Gnome comes in and from there it was just flowing.

Melissa Reaves, Host (11:57.993)
I remember the lineup.

It also great buy kill repeat. That was your line. She's looking at her Krispie Basil and she says, Great, buy, kill, repeat. And that's the audience did not expect that. And they all started giggling. Yeah. So good. So that's that's the other thing, is it's like, you know, the founders in their investor pitches, they're very serious, yes, but it doesn't mean you have to be flip, you know, you don't have to be like a clown, but you can still be relatable and you are

Eshwar Umarengan (12:04.524)
Mm-hmm. Yes.

Eshwar Umarengan (12:10.38)
Mm-hmm. That was it. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Eshwar Umarengan (12:27.597)
Mm-hmm.

Melissa Reaves, Host (12:29.888)
selling you know a gardening tool it's it's you know it's not solving you know a cancer you know it's it's it's it's an important thing and we want our plants to thrive but I was I was really pleased in watching you kind of play in it you know and enjoy it but still have serious software so that's the other thing. after they did their talk they then had a booth and I gotta be honest I was pretty impressed with how far your AI and your software

Eshwar Umarengan (12:37.187)
Mm-hmm.

Melissa Reaves, Host (12:59.768)
was developed. I mean, we were talking right into it and and and no one was answering it. Tell me about that, because if you met in January and our presentation was in our workshop was in April, the competition was in May, what was that like about the development?

Eshwar Umarengan (13:13.92)
Mhm. Yeah, so I when I had this idea, I I kind of I knew how to develop decently well. I kind of self taught a lot of my skills. and just after I realized that like at first I started this off as like a personal project 'cause I was like, let me, you know, practice my coding, like, you know, start it from the beginning.

But as I just kept thinking about it, I was like, you know, this could be great and I should get this out as fast as possible. So I I I took my team and we just I mean, we used we used AI to build an AI tool. but I mean it I yeah, it it works so well. and we we actually move very quickly because of it and I think it's kind of the next generation of how are we going to

Melissa Reaves, Host (14:02.399)
Yeah.

Eshwar Umarengan (14:12.82)
build something useful, fast. And just that that's kind of the it was mainly just, you know, having the right people together who knew the whole system and how to build it and then just bringing AI into the mix and letting it letting it cook cook with our vision. It was great. Like

Melissa Reaves, Host (14:33.462)
and also during the presentations as they were developing, we had Missy AI. We had my AI that was ag accessible to any of the students who wanted to use it. So you did use Missy, right? Okay, great. Tell me about that. I'd love to hear that.

Eshwar Umarengan (14:41.123)
Yeah.

Eshwar Umarengan (14:46.708)
yeah, pretty extensively. I mean, she came up with the buy kill repeat line. Yeah. Yeah, she came up with the buy kill repeat line. she was she was yeah, she was she was great. Like I used Missy for not only my semifinals pitch but also my finals pitch. and in my finals pitch I had a story again where it was about my mom and her banana plant and

Melissa Reaves, Host (15:05.515)
Mm-hmm.

Melissa Reaves, Host (15:13.034)
Yep. Yep.

Eshwar Umarengan (15:15.266)
how she grows a tropical banana plant in Washington State, which is like as we all know, it's not not tropical at all. So like Missy did a great job of just connecting my thoughts into like a coherent and like very convincing story. And I feel like that it really showed with the two minute pitch and like I mean it got me it got me so far.

Melissa Reaves, Host (15:23.882)
No no it's not.

Eshwar Umarengan (15:43.97)
with like being able to just segue into the details and technicalities of my idea while like keeping them hooked in that initial portion and weaving in that humor and banter. It it was actually genuinely an amazing tool.

Melissa Reaves, Host (15:57.791)
I'm so glad to hear that. Yeah, I'm proud of Missy. I mean, she's trained in my book. She's trained in my voice. Was it weird? Like working and then

Eshwar Umarengan (16:01.121)
She's great.

Yeah, hearing yeah. When we would we would pull up Zoom sessions and then we'd be like, let's use Missy and then like she'd start talking and then be like and then and then Melissa would actually start talking and be like, okay

Melissa Reaves, Host (16:13.27)
Yeah, I know, I know. It even freaks me out sometimes. that's cool. Did you use her? So there's two ways you can use Missy. You can use as the talk feature and you can just tell her your story and then she'll start interviewing like I would if I was story mining with you and then she makes suggestions but she's capturing every iteration. So then you can copy it and then start to like fine-tune it. So it's not like we're lazy using AI. We're actively working with AI to make sure that it's reaching what we were we're trying to do.

Eshwar Umarengan (16:16.938)
Yeah.

Eshwar Umarengan (16:28.576)
Mm-hmm.

Melissa Reaves, Host (16:43.254)
Do but you can also put your slide deck into the Missy program and she can read the slides and let you know if the slides are going to be crowded for a speaker's presentation and make suggestions. Did you use her for that?

Eshwar Umarengan (16:55.531)
Hm.

Eshwar Umarengan (16:59.423)
We didn't use I didn't use Missy for the second half with the the slideshow itself. But I for a week I would just go into like a cafe, just put my headphones in, and I would just converse with Missy. we'd go slide by slide. Like I was just like I don't do that with like Claude or like with any other AI tool. Like I'm I I had a full on conversation with her. her it I don't know. Yeah.

Melissa Reaves, Host (17:02.793)
Okay.

Melissa Reaves, Host (17:26.29)
I know. I do it too. I do it too. I love that app.

Eshwar Umarengan (17:29.533)
And yeah, it's great. and it she helped me organize like my thoughts just so well. It was great. Like it would just felt like I was talking to somebody. Yeah.

Melissa Reaves, Host (17:38.6)
Awesome.

Like you have her in your corner. That's that's really great. I'm glad to hear that. Okay, so so that was the process of getting to the finals. And then I gotta say, one of my favorite moments. So after they do and it's a ten minute pitch, correct? Yes, it's a ten minute pitch. So now it's ten minutes. The stakes the stakes are up. You've got four people. It's slides. There was no slides in the in the semifinal. It was only your words. And then you have slides. And your slides were beautiful. So if if you use Missy, or it sounds like you kinda used her, it just maybe in a different way. They were super

Eshwar Umarengan (17:43.115)
Mm-hmm.

Eshwar Umarengan (17:53.183)
Yes, ten minute pitch. Yep.

Eshwar Umarengan (18:07.371)
Mm-hmm.

Melissa Reaves, Host (18:10.812)
Clean. I was very pleased. I had no notes on your slides because a lot of times people in presentations they want to, I've got a slide, so I've got to throw the kitchen sink on it. And as a speaker, if you've been listening to this podcast at all, that's data dumping and that's what will spark distraction. Also known as the Wonder Wander event. None of that was happening with GNOME. GNOME had everything clean, but my favorite part was during the questions and answers where they don't know what they're gonna get asked by these judges. And these judges are smart.

they know entrepreneurship, okay? And they asked you a question and what there was a particular question and your finance guy was prepared for it. Tell us about that moment.

Eshwar Umarengan (18:52.639)
Yeah. Yeah. shout out Honschul. He like he basically before I had went up, he had asked me pretty much every question that like somebody could have thought of for about our startup. And so honestly, feeling those questions, it felt like a deep like I had to like a deep breath of relief because Hanschul had

Melissa Reaves, Host (18:57.727)
Yeah.

Eshwar Umarengan (19:21.119)
honestly ask me the hardest questions that I could have fielded and then he would come in and tell me, actually this is how you say it And I'd be like, Okay, so you can answer these questions way better than me. but I will, you know, try my best. And before we had started, I was talking to Amelia and she had said that, you know, the whole team can come up after you're done with the presentation. I was like, so so they can also field questions and she was like, Yeah, yeah

Melissa Reaves, Host (19:49.002)
Great. Yep.

Eshwar Umarengan (19:50.867)
And so me and Hancho were like, alright, cool, we can tag team these questions. Like we can absolutely go back and forth. And I forget the question that was asked to him, but it was the churn one. He had asked me that question at least seven or eight times before we he we even like knew like that was the question that was gonna ask, 'cause he he just has this intuition. It's crazy. Like he just knows what's what's coming up. Mm-hmm. yeah.

Melissa Reaves, Host (20:00.481)
Churn. It was a churn question.

Melissa Reaves, Host (20:17.11)
Stick with that. Keep that on your team. Yeah. But what did he do? He had a slide ready for it. He was like, yeah, we've thought about churn, click, click. And there's this this beautiful chart, super clean. And I think the judges were even like okay.

Eshwar Umarengan (20:20.613)
It's it's yeah. He's he's very smart.

Eshwar Umarengan (20:30.335)
Mm-hmm.

Eshwar Umarengan (20:37.427)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We came prepared with the appendix. Mm-hmm. We came very prepared with the appendix. Like I mean every question that he would ask, we were like, we need a slide to, you know, corroborate that. Make sure that we have numbers to back it up. We can't just be talking. We covered every use case.

Melissa Reaves, Host (20:40.35)
No one else did that.

Melissa Reaves, Host (20:45.728)
Yes.

Melissa Reaves, Host (20:54.706)
And and that's also something to think about as we're talking about presentations. It's like you want your speaker's deck to be very clean and whatnot. But if you are anticipating questions because you're smart and prepared like this team is, you could have some graphs and maybe some of the data dumpy, busier slides in the appendix. And if you're like, I have to pull this up because I need it, I believe that the audience will give grace for that if it is a little crowded. And in this case, he was so prepared it wasn't a crowded slide.

But it's one of those things where you have it because in the appendix portion of the deck, that's where you have the data. That's where you have the raw data, the surveys, the charts and the graphs and all of that. Because it's business and you know it's based on numbers, it's based on the science of the idea, right? But it's just not, I think it's a myth that you have to start with the with those slides in order to have credibility. And you proved, you proved, you proved me right, and you proved them.

Out there that that data dump that it that's not just because everyone's doing it doesn't mean it's right. I just worked with someone today and they're at a top, top, top, top, top company. And I said, let me see your slides. And she showed me the slides of her colleague that's gonna present, and I was like, don't do that. Don't do that.

Eshwar Umarengan (21:55.482)
Yeah.

Eshwar Umarengan (22:01.397)
Mm-hmm.

Melissa Reaves, Host (22:17.36)
And she is now going to be building her presentation ready to go using the speaker's note framework on how to make it clean because your audience doesn't want to get accosted by data. They wanna like tons of words, graphs, charts, you know. It it's what everyone's doing. It doesn't mean it's right. And that's what we're trying to change in the world. We're trying to make the audiences more delighted and the speakers more in control. And you know.

I just do it another applause for the entire team of Gnome. You can hear how hard they all worked. And that's why they walked away with first place. Like done. It was really great. So what's next for you? What's next with GNOME? What's going on?

Eshwar Umarengan (23:00.395)
Thank you.

so we're we're kind of I mean, after we won that twenty K celebrations all around. yeah. Yeah, it's great. It's perfect it's it's such a blessing to be able to start the company with that much money and just an idea. so our next step is like so we've been building, ever since then. Obviously took a little bit of a break, you know, enjoyed ourselves, but

Melissa Reaves, Host (23:08.982)
Twenty K, everyone, did you hear that? Twenty K. Yeah.

Melissa Reaves, Host (23:20.778)
Yeah.

Eshwar Umarengan (23:30.761)
We're right back to it. We're in Summer Venture Build at CL University. Or sorry, Red Hack Venture Labs. two different names. But we our next step is Yes. Yes. Mm-hmm. Yeah. so our next steps are to join this accelerator program and by next month, August third is when it begins, we want to have a fully fleshed out product.

Melissa Reaves, Host (23:38.038)
Mm-hmm. Red Hawk, right? Red Hawk. I just want to make sure everyone, it's Red Hawk Venture Labs. So they're the Red Hawks at Seattle U.

Melissa Reaves, Host (23:56.491)
Mm-hmm.

Eshwar Umarengan (24:00.243)
lot of features, just ready to go to market. And during our six week period over there, we want to figure out how are we going to approach the market? what type of angles can we go like use? What is our like advert I mean we have an advertising budget now which is great. like how are we gonna go about advertising? How are we gonna just hit the ground running the moment those six weeks are up and we get a lot of mentorship and guidance from the school.

Which is wonderful. Like they've really set us up with a wonderful opportunity with the last competition and now this program. and from now on it's just like once that school year starts, we're just gonna release product and see what happens, keep going.

Melissa Reaves, Host (24:34.814)
Yeah.

Melissa Reaves, Host (24:42.11)
And you had a B2B and a B2C. So the B2C is what you're rolling out with first. So home gardeners, urban gardeners, anyone like and by the way I could use Gnome right now because I want to know what's happening to my hydrengias. They're like burning up. And it's really upsetting me. but but then there's also a B2B play. Do you wanna talk about that at all? Or is that something you're Yeah.

Eshwar Umarengan (24:53.865)
Yeah, yeah. Ooh.

Eshwar Umarengan (25:03.005)
Mm. Yeah. so we do we have a couple B to B contacts and we we have met up or we haven't met up with anybody, but we have a contact that can kind of warm introduce us to a lot of nurseries, grow houses, greenhouses, etcetera. and with with that angle it's great because once we get some momentum we can just hit the adjacent person.

Melissa Reaves, Host (25:21.184)
Beautiful.

Eshwar Umarengan (25:30.655)
right off the bat and be like, hey, our product works. let's let's let's keep you know, we can we can utilize this for you guys. We can tailor it for you guys. And so it's great that with the B to C angle we can focus more on advertising and marketing. But with the B to B angle we can be as personable as possible and give them custom solutions, which is what we're really excited to do. and it's just gonna be a a fun journey. Like, you know, I'm I'm just I feel like

Melissa Reaves, Host (25:33.749)
Yeah.

Eshwar Umarengan (25:59.967)
the the competitions have set us up with the right connections to just have a warm intro to both these markets, which is just so amazing.

Melissa Reaves, Host (26:09.13)
Yeah.

Yeah, I mean and Seattle's such a start up friendly community. There's there's cohorts as and accelerators and pitch press I was at one yesterday on the east side, you know, where where founders can go up, they get one minute, you know, half the time you had, to present their ideas and there are people in the room that can write checks. I mean, they really are very quality here. So I know everyone thinks Silicon Valley, but do not underestimate what's going on here in the Seattle and the Northwest. So

Eshwar Umarengan (26:20.714)
Yeah.

Eshwar Umarengan (26:24.298)
Yeah.

Eshwar Umarengan (26:30.399)
Mm-hmm.

Eshwar Umarengan (26:39.362)
yeah.

Melissa Reaves, Host (26:39.746)
So again, I'm proud of you. I'm so glad that you had a positive journey with the competition. I wish you the best of luck. I want to hear like what's going on, you know, this time next year, because I'm sure they'll bring you back and want to hear what's going on. And enjoy your summer. You've got a really cool internship that you're doing. And were you here for FIFA at all? Did you get any of the FIFA energy?

Eshwar Umarengan (26:47.371)
Thank you.

Eshwar Umarengan (26:55.509)
Yeah. Yeah.

Eshwar Umarengan (27:02.719)
Yep. Yep. currently at United Airlines. no. No. I yeah, I get standby seats, so it's if I have a seat on a flight and there are probably not seats on the flight. So yeah, it was a rough.

Melissa Reaves, Host (27:08.855)
too bad.

Melissa Reaves, Host (27:15.722)
There yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Apparently everyone's saying that that Seattle won the World Cup. As host cities, yeah. We we we we cooked, as your generation likes to say.

Eshwar Umarengan (27:21.353)
Mm-hmm. yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. No yeah, that's what I said. But yeah, people loved it here. That's what I was seeing on social media. I wish I could have came out. One of my coworkers flew out, but it was cool. Yeah. Yeah.

Melissa Reaves, Host (27:32.564)
Yeah, it was great. Yeah, it's all good. It's all good. Well, again, thank you. Thank you for being here. Thanks for being such a great student and congratulations.

That's the conclusion of this podcast. And we are very grateful for you all. Please, you know, like, comment, share, let us know what what inspires you when you're thinking about your own investor pitches. You know, what challenges you. That's what this podcast is about. This podcast is about teaching, growing, and discussing how you can be the best presenter in whatever kind of environment you're in. And so investor pitches are a pretty active one. And there's real money.

waiting for you if you can do it right. So he did. All right. Thank you everyone and we will see you at the next episode of The Storyteller's Mind Movie Makers. Until then, see you later.

Eshwar Umarengan (28:19.445)
Definitely true. Yeah. Yeah.