Vishal Korlipara, Intuit

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Florida Man…and Data Science? Yes! Vishal Korlipara joins Ariel and Louis for a wild ride educating Ariel on the “wonders” of “Florida Man,” accidentally being an accomplice to ‘gator thieving, NYC tips from an Atlanta guy, and of course…. Data Science? We absolutely guarantee you will never hear any mobile app industry podcast episode like THIS one…and it’s debatable if that’s a good or bad thing! Check it out for yourself, but first buckle up, because it’s going to be a crazy and wild ride on this one!

Louis Tanguay: And welcome to the Appy Hour,-

Ariel Niedermeier: the always fun-

Louis Tanguay: semi-informative,-

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Ariel Niedermeier: Appy Hour Talk Show presented by App Growth Summit.

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Ariel Niedermeier: or on your way home from work-

Louis Tanguay: or you’re bored at work,-

Ariel Niedermeier: then hop in an episode and take a quick shot of the Appy Hour.

Louis Tanguay: Hey Ariel Niedermeier, Director of Content, Queen of Content. How you doing?

Ariel Niedermeier: I’m good, Louis Tanguay, Managing Director of App Growth Summit. We are here with Vishal Korlipara, Senior Manager of Mobile Marketing Strategy at Intuit Mint.

Vishal Korlipara: Yes. I’m here. I just joined. I’m excited. It’s a great opportunity. I’m happy to be here guys.

Ariel Niedermeier: Yeah. And you were at, where were you before Mint?

Vishal Korlipara: I was at Credit Karma, focused on growth marketing and really building out some of their emerging verticals. Fun times, learned a lot. It was a great company.

Ariel Niedermeier: Yeah. Cool. And we were actually, when you came in, we were talking about, you’ve been in San Francisco for how long now?

Vishal Korlipara: Just two years. So I’m still a rookie, still learning the tech ropes here. So slowly but surely, I’ve already moved one company, so I feel like I’m picking up pretty quickly here.

Louis Tanguay: Yeah right. Yeah, that’s typical. All right.

Vishal Korlipara: Yeah, exactly.

Ariel Niedermeier: Yeah. People in San Francisco, they just hop from place to place it seems like. And in terms of East Coast, West Coast, what’s the initial, what are your thoughts?

Vishal Korlipara: Oh, man. West coast people are smart. They’re really into nature, is my vibe so far.

Louis Tanguay: Because they have nature.

Vishal Korlipara: Yeah. They have a lot of nature. They enjoy hiking a lot. I feel like the going out scene, just is very different. I enjoy staying out late every now and then. I’m getting older, but you know. Here just, I don’t think it’s as cool as the New York scene and stuff like that but…

Ariel Niedermeier: Yeah, yeah. Well, so I, we were talking about that I’m moving to New York. Yeah, so I’m moving to New York. You heard it here first.

Vishal Korlipara: This is the dramatic pause. It’s almost like she just announced it just now.

Ariel Niedermeier: I know, to everyone.

Vishal Korlipara: It seems new to you, which is like the concerning thing.

Louis Tanguay: I’m moving to New York, question mark.

Ariel Niedermeier: It has been booked. There are tickets booked. Things have been confirmed. But I am, it is funny to talk to people about it.

Louis Tanguay: So it’s an exclamation point, not a question mark.

Ariel Niedermeier: Yeah, exactly. I’m moving to New York!

Louis Tanguay: Yay!

Ariel Niedermeier: But yeah, so like what should I expect, Vishal, in terms of the nightlife?

Vishal Korlipara: No pressure, no pressure here.

Louis Tanguay: Vishal, the nightlife of New York expert.

Vishal Korlipara: I know. I lived in Atlanta, in Florida, but I got you. I got you.

Louis Tanguay: Tell us about the nightlife in New York. What was studio 51 like?

Ariel Niedermeier: Oh God.

Vishal Korlipara: You’ll love it. New York has a great energy. There’s always a lot going on. And the thing I like about the differences is, it’s like a diversity of mind other than just tech, it’s like a lot of different people, doing a lot of cool different things. So in that way, you’ll get like a little bit more exposure to just so many different walks of life.

Ariel Niedermeier: Yeah. Cool.

Vishal Korlipara: Sorry. I mellowed it out. I didn’t know what bar to recommend or what, I don’t know.

Ariel Niedermeier: I know. I feel like you’re really, “Oh, God. I didn’t have a list prepared.”

Vishal Korlipara: Let me Yelp some stuff really quick.

Louis Tanguay: Can you Yelp some stuff for her?

Ariel Niedermeier: Oh my God, okay.

Louis Tanguay: So what we’re going to do is we’re going to have an opening segment here. That’s going to ask you some non-sequitur, fun questions. Because other podcasts we’ll let them ask the serious questions all the way through. We like to have more of a talk show style, make it more fun and semi-informative.

Vishal Korlipara: So the New York question wasn’t fun?

Vishal Korlipara: That was the serious part?

Ariel Niedermeier: You looked very uncomfortable. I don’t know if that was fun for you.

Louis Tanguay: You know what, for us, that probably is one of the more serious questions.

Ariel Niedermeier: Honestly, that was hard-hitting for us. It really was. Oh my God.

Ariel Niedermeier (cont’d): Okay. So what song makes you dance uncontrollably?

Vishal Korlipara: Oh, okay. So this is going to go real personal.

Ariel Niedermeier: We’re here for it.

Vishal Korlipara: Anything Gucci Mane is like my jam. I’m from Atlanta for 10 years. He just speaks to me, all his stuff. Lemonade is a classic. So I’m going to leave it there.

Louis Tanguay: How does that go?

Vishal Korlipara: I don’t got the smooth dulcet tones that you have over there, Louis.

Louis Tanguay: Almost close. I was close.

Vishal Korlipara: I thought about it.

Louis Tanguay: Exactly.

Ariel Niedermeier: That was a great answer. Because the ATL.

Ariel Niedermeier: What is the most important thing to carry with you all the time?

Vishal Korlipara: Well, I’m going to eliminate phone because that’s boring. Let’s go, my iWatch. I’ve got addicted to my iWatch and that’s also boring, but at least it’s true. But yeah, I guess all my Apple stuff is just always on me.

Louis Tanguay: That’s true that it’s addicting, because you said, “Oh my phone’s too boring. But my iWatch!”

Vishal Korlipara: Yeah, I’m into it right now. So I even rode a bike from the Caltrain here, so like I’m tracking everything. I love it.

Louis Tanguay: Not only are you tracking it, so are they.

Vishal Korlipara: Yeah but they know. Apple’s going to stand outside, they’re going to like, I don’t know what they’re going to do, sell me another iPhone or something. I don’t know.

Ariel Niedermeier: That’s so funny.

Ariel Niedermeier (cont’d): Okay. If you, and this may be a hard one but I’m still going to lob it at you, if you created an app, what would it be?

Vishal Korlipara: Gee, you guys are like heavy hit… You guys said these are the fun questions. Like, no, I’m just kidding, there are good. So if there was an app I’d create right now-

Ariel Niedermeier: Or like, what is the app that the world needs right now? One of the two.

Vishal Korlipara: Okay so, for me, this is going to get a little bit serious.

Ariel Niedermeier: No, I love it.

Vishal Korlipara: I think sustainability like more on the environment side of stuff where, wow I moved to the Bay, I sound like a Bay Area person now, over like 2 years.

Ariel Niedermeier: Nature lover.

Vishal Korlipara: I am a tree hugger.

Louis Tanguay: 2 years, he’s already…

Vishal Korlipara: Our world won’t exist in like 30 years. Like 30 to 50 years in the way it does right now. So there has to be something to track and like, I’ll give you an example, you go to these three trash cans, no one knows what to put in these things.

Louis Tanguay: That’s true. We have that problem at lunch

Vishal Korlipara: You watch as they approach.

Ariel Niedermeier: It’s so true, yeah. And also, most people it’s not sorted correctly, even if you are following like compost, recycle, plastic…

Louis Tanguay: And it’s on the semi-honor system, like you could just throw whatever you want into any of them.

Ariel Niedermeier: Right. Anyways, not to cut you off, but yeah, it’s a good point. Yeah.

Vishal Korlipara: And so, I think something that would reward people for doing stuff correctly, could be like really powerful. I’m thinking about this right now, but I think it could be a cool idea.

Louis Tanguay: There is a question that I just started saying, ellipsis and question mark. Do you use Siri?

Vishal Korlipara: I do.

Louis Tanguay: And do you actually say ellipsis, question mark, exclamation point, and things like that to add punctuation or you just talk?

Vishal Korlipara: No, I just talk. I haven’t gotten to that point yet. I’m going to start trying it, now that you’ve mentioned it. But no, I haven’t gotten there yet.

Louis Tanguay: Because usually people make fun of me because I’ll be like, “Hey there, exclamation point, how are you doing Ariel, ellipsis, are we still meeting, question mark.” And it works.

Vishal Korlipara: So the funny thing is, I don’t use it for texting and now I’m like thinking about doing it more. My number one Siri question is, “Hey Siri, what’s the weather in whatever city I’m in that day.” Because the number one thing, and I’m in California, which is like the dumbest question, because it’s literally sunny and like 60, 70 every day.

Louis Tanguay: I guess it depends. Well, San Francisco, you probably still do have to ask, right?

Vishal Korlipara: Oh yeah, a little bit.

Louis Tanguay: LA, just 70’s.

Vishal Korlipara: Don’t even worry.

Ariel Niedermeier: What is the most dangerous thing you have ever done?

Vishal Korlipara: This podcast? No, no, no. This is dangerous for my career but my life is intact, I think. If I go to New York with you guys, I think that it’s all on the line at that point.

Ariel Niedermeier: Yeah, it’s over then.

Louis Tanguay: You don’t know New York. I’m from Atlanta. No excuses.

Vishal Korlipara: Most dangerous thing, okay, so I grew up in Florida and, I think everyone’s heard-

Louis Tanguay: That’s pretty dangerous I suppose.

Vishal Korlipara: That’s a starting point, but everyone has heard of Florida Man. But that’s a real thing, the people there just have like their screws-

Ariel Niedermeier: Wait, Florida made?

Louis Tanguay: Man. Florida Man.

Vishal Korlipara: Florida Man. So it’s a thing where if you Google Florida Man, like you say, Florida Man, any date, you can say your birthday, and there’s always a news article saying, “Florida man did XYZ.”

Louis Tanguay: Yeah, it’s crazy stories.

Vishal Korlipara: It’s just a thing, yeah. And so, I-

Ariel Niedermeier: I’m doing it right now.

Louis Tanguay: She’s Googling it right now.

Ariel Niedermeier: I’m doing it now.

Louis Tanguay: But go on.

Vishal Korlipara: Yeah, yeah. So, I’ve been in situations where my neighbors, when I was in middle-school, wrestled an al… We went fishing, he literally then eventually traps the gator and he’s like, “hold the fishing line.” And, guys, to give you context, I’m an Indian kid, like I’m Indian kid in America, first-generation, I’m like, “What is happening here?” He goes down, grabs the gator, wraps it with the fishing line and I mean, sorry if I’m offending people, I know I’m again in the Bay area, but like, he wraps it and then he literally doesn’t know what to do, he’s like, “Dude, what are we doing?” I’m like, “I don’t know what to do, I’m holding the line for you man!” And that’s like a thing, and it wasn’t even that dangerous for me, but I was just like, “What is happening right now?” And so that’s one.

Louis Tanguay: You catching gators, that’s what.

Ariel Niedermeier: It sounds dangerous.

Ariel Niedermeier: Okay, my first thing that came up when I say-

Louis Tanguay: Wait wait, what happened?

Vishal Korlipara: Oh, so here’s what happened.

Louis Tanguay: Did he catch the gator?

Vishal Korlipara: No, no, here’s what happened.

Louis Tanguay: He died… And then I moved to San Francisco.

Vishal Korlipara: Here’s what happened. He called his friend. We were in middle school. He calls a friend in high school who has a truck. Guy brings his pickup truck and they pick it up the gator and put it in the pickup truck. And I never saw it again. And so I never asked questions. I literally went home that day and was like, I went and studied. I was like, “Mom, give me a book.”

Louis Tanguay: I need to get out of here.

Ariel Niedermeier: Unsee what I just saw.

Louis Tanguay: I need to go to a good school.

Ariel Niedermeier: So funny.

Ariel Niedermeier: Okay, I Googled my birthday and it came up with, “A Florida man was rescued after trying to ride a hamster ball to the Bahamas”. And I kid you not, look at the picture.

Louis Tanguay: The picture is a guy riding a hamster ball. Inside a giant hamster ball.

Ariel Niedermeier: Oh my God. That is so funny. I’ve never heard of that. Wow.

Vishal Korlipara: To the Bahamas. That’s across water.

Ariel Niedermeier: That’s dangerous.

Ariel Niedermeier: Okay, one more of these, once we’ve all collected ourselves. Oh God. Okay.

Vishal Korlipara: The most recent one, just so you know, this wasn’t Googling the days, this was in the news. Some guy, they were like, alligator dies for some reason, and they’re like, actually update, alligator dies from eating a man that was overdosed on meth. And you’re like, wait a second.

Ariel Niedermeier: Alligator dies.

Louis Tanguay: The alligator died and that’s the guy.

Vishal Korlipara: I was like, what is happening over there. But yeah.

Ariel Niedermeier: God, these Florida men are crazy.

Louis Tanguay: That sounded strangely intrigued. Hmm, these Florida Men are a different flavor.

Vishal Korlipara: It’s not too late. You can still go. New York’s…

Ariel Niedermeier: I’m a little… I mean, yeah, I’m intrigued, I’m scared, I’m all of the things right now.

Ariel Niedermeier (cont’d): Okay.

Louis Tanguay: Ex-Florida man dies in podcast studio.

Ariel Niedermeier: So funny.

Ariel Niedermeier (c0nt’d): Well, a really softball question first, tell us how you got into growth marketing?

Vishal Korlipara: Oh yeah, great question. So actually I’m going to give a shout out here. Kelsey Bunyan, who’s my high school classmate. When I tried investment banking out of college and I hated it and then she was working at an agency, it was called Elite SEM, now it’s called Tinuiti. But, she was like, “Hey, we have an internship if you want to come join?” And I came, I fell in love with it. And then over time it just kept developing, if that makes sense.

Vishal Korlipara (cont’d): So then I went to a little bit more senior level at a medium-sized agency and eventually started my own agency. And in Atlanta and it didn’t work longterm, to be honest with you. We had sales issues, whatever. We had issues. But it was a cool experience and I had built my confidence from that whole situation. And eventually, when that agency shut, like we dissolved it, the company I was pitching, called [Huck’s 00:11:56] was an on-demand house cleaning company. I was like, “Hey, do you guys need anything?” And it just worked out. Then I got in brand and from there it’s been startup after startup to now I guess I’m at Intuit, which not a startup.

Ariel Niedermeier: Yeah. You’ve switched from startup to now definitely not startup. What’s been the difference with that?

Vishal Korlipara: This is, I’m still learning again. Again, first week at Intuit. I’m at Mint, which is like a startup-ish, but within Intuit, because we’re still really in the growth phase. But that being said, the work-life balance is like a real thing. And I thought it was a joke, but people like, the managers care about your wellbeing. You can work from home. It’s like these things aren’t an issue. And that’s the biggest difference, I would say. It’s like not as like, we survive or die, kind of thing. Which has been my, at other companies.

Louis Tanguay: What’s is one industry topic that you’re really fired up about right now, that gets you excited to get to work every day and start working on?

Vishal Korlipara: For me, it’s literally, the reason I joined Mint in the first place, it’s complete personalization to the product experience, the marketing experience, end to end, we can create audiences, make a specific use case for those people, and tailor everything towards them. And we have the tech to do that now. And it’s like, why should we not? And number one is their personalization. Let’s get them signed up, to an extent monetize them, right. That sounds weird, but let’s give them a good customer experience where they use the products we offer. But lastly, it’s how can we automate everything, right?

Vishal Korlipara (cont’d): I’ll give you an example, let’s say I have $10,000 in debt, I have this amount of credit card, how much I’m paying per month. We know this information. Hey, guess what? You press a button, we’re going to switch you to this low-interest personal loan that we also have access to. You’re going to get pre-qualified for it. You’re pretty much almost automatically going to get approved. And then all of a sudden you have this personal loan, you’re saving X amount of dollars per month. It’s like, that’s a really powerful number one message. But also, we’re actually putting money back in people’s pockets, taking it away from the banks. Which I have no problem with banks, but it’s helping the actual people of the US, which will be pretty cool.

Louis Tanguay: So when you do segmentation, are you segmenting your users? Are they onboard or are they from different targeting groups?

Vishal Korlipara: So that’s a great question. So at Mint, I’m still diving into this. So I can speak to my experience at Credit Karma.

Louis Tanguay: Sure or in general experience.

Vishal Korlipara: In general, well, it’s both. So it depends on the product. So I was on emerging verticals at Credit Karma. So the credit score onboarding for let’s say Canada, which I was a major part of, it’s a pretty standard [lee flow 00:14:20] in like the biggest drop off is just entering your email, right, or like your social. There’s no real data collection. It’s like post that we get all this data that we can personalize the actual experience. But if you deal with a mortgage product, which I worked, on the actual lead flow, which is how we connect with banks and stuff, we collect a lot of stuff in that process and then tailor it. So if you’re in the market for a refinance versus a purchase, very different experience, different partners. If you’re in for a cash out refi versus a generic refi, those are also different experiences, right? So it’s like a little bit of everything just depends on what product.

Ariel Niedermeier: Which is more important, good targeting or strong creatives?

Vishal Korlipara: I think it’s a mix. What I’m seeing nowadays is that everyone’s focusing on targeting, which is great. It’s an essential part, but without good creative, we’re still marketers. Like we have to have good, relevant creative. The old school direct response, like 1990 ads, those probably don’t work anymore. We need to have more engaging, we need to have video, we need to have the stuff that people actually want to look at. It’s more important also, because channels are evolving. As we’re trying to capture people on Instagram, you’re on your story, you have to have the right story, like actual image sizes or video sizes, and like to catch people the right way. It’s like, you can’t just throw an image ad that looks kind of spammy. It’s not going to work anymore. So I think that’s a huge missing lever across the board. But I think argument is very important as we talked about personalization. So just, they have to go hand in hand.

Louis Tanguay: Do you consider targeting segments into different ad unit types or are you targeting only specifically user demographics? Or how are you targeting? How do you determine your segmentation?

Vishal Korlipara: That’s very much based on a mix of two things, behavioral and attributes. So with the rich data sets I have, we can kind of say, hey, this person fits into this bucket based on their, let’s say credit profile, debt profile, and even their, let’s say their verified income and we can say, hey, this person is this kind of person, let’s call him Joe or whatever. And then we know what, like the kind of marketing that will attract a person at this level, now let’s have a ton of variations around use cases that might draw them in and that’s kind of how we approach it.

Louis Tanguay: Do you feel that your preference for creatives over targeting is based on your app in your business, or is this a general philosophy that you would carry through a best practice for most apps?

Vishal Korlipara: That’s a great question. I think right now that’s how I feel based on just the experience I’ve had and what I’ve seen people putting their focus on. I think I went to an e-commerce site and then, I guarantee you, they have amazing let’s call it, I don’t know, pick like Macy’s, their creative is going to be really good, but I guarantee you, their targeting is where they’re lacking. So I think it depends on a case-by-case basis.

Vishal Korlipara: The only reason I say that is, I get targeted for female clothes on Revolve and stuff. And I’m like, you know I bought a present one time. It’s like, clearly you’re targeting isn’t working, but the creative itself is legit, right. And so that’s my take, in that way.

Ariel Niedermeier: What is a word or phrase you hear in the industry too much?

Vishal Korlipara: Let me think of that. Let me think about that for a second.

Ariel Niedermeier: Okay.

Louis Tanguay: Cue the jeopardy music. Do, do, do, do…

Ariel Niedermeier: do, do, do, do…

Vishal Korlipara: I think the word I overhear too much is programmatic. And I hate to say that. I think people have gotten lazy and they just say programmatic about everything. And then-

Louis Tanguay: When they mean automated or?

Vishal Korlipara: Yeah, they mean automated, they mean cost per acquisition bidding. It’s like, they just say programmatic for everything. And the second thing is agents. There’s all these programmatic firms that are essentially playing off of this. Like there’s a zillion programmatic agencies now. And they all do the same thing playing in the same space, all bidding up the prices, right. So for me, that’s probably the most frustrating thing.

Louis Tanguay: So just saying, calling themselves an agency, but they’re really just a rebroker.

Vishal Korlipara: Yeah, exactly.

Louis Tanguay: In a different shirt.

Vishal Korlipara: Yeah. And like with a different drink, they’re going to offer you or a different, you know, swag or whatever it is.

Ariel Niedermeier: Yeah.

Louis Tanguay: All right. There’s a question and it just says, “Data science?”

Ariel Niedermeier: I know. I meant to flesh that one out.

Louis Tanguay: So Vishal, data science?

Vishal Korlipara: Oh yeah, I mean, we can touch on data science.

Ariel Niedermeier: Okay, you’re looking at my raw notes right now.

Louis Tanguay: Raw notes?

Vishal Korlipara: The only reason I think that’s valuable right now is something we should talk about is, going back to the personalization thing I mentioned, we should be powering our products with data science to make it as effective as possible. So I don’t think it’s as simple as saying, “Hey, you have these attributes, you will have this specific thing.” Should also be like, “Hey, what’s your propensity to do an action or to care or to return or to not churn?” Those things matter. And how you integrate that with your product and make your product smarter is the future of every app, I would hope.

Louis Tanguay: Do you have any data scientists to work there at Mint and how many and how important do you think they’re increasing role in your whole overall growth strategy is?

Vishal Korlipara: Yes, so.

Louis Tanguay: Period.

Vishal Korlipara: Done. Yes, period or ellipsis, whatever you said earlier. Either way, yeah, we do. On my team alone, I think we have at least two and it was by ask. I want to have a renowned focus on that and making that the better experience and I just think that’s how we’re going to win. In the world where everyone’s kind of, there’s a lot of personal finance apps, there’s literally a lot now, the only way to do it is to make it so specific to you that it almost knows what you want to do. And so we want to invest in that big time.

Ariel Niedermeier: Okay, cool. Thanks for talking nerdy with us.

Vishal Korlipara: Anytime guys.

Ariel Niedermeier: I think we needed that come down. Honestly, we needed that. We have a couple more fun questions for you-

Louis Tanguay: And then we’ll let you go back into the real world.

Ariel Niedermeier: To deal with all those Florida men.

Vishal Korlipara: Get me out of this studio. I’m just kidding.

Ariel Niedermeier: Oh man, Okay.

Louis Tanguay: He’s going to say, “Man, that was worse than Florida.”

Ariel Niedermeier: I’m going back. That’s so funny. So like what would you be doing if you weren’t working in apps, do you think?

Vishal Korlipara: Oh Yeah, that’s a great question. So, my main hobby right now, my main two hobbies are, I coach AU basketball for elementary, all the way to middle school and high school. So that’s a huge passion of mine. I love working. I love going from spending time with people our age and having these kinds of conversations, but then all of these have been pretty fun too, then going to hanging out with the goofy kids is like, amazing. I love that experience. So maybe something like that. And then second is I got a drone and they’re just so cool. I love traveling number one and using the drone while you’re doing is awesome getting footage and stuff. So those are my two main buckets, I would say.

Ariel Niedermeier: Okay. Have you tried anything new recently?

Vishal Korlipara: In what regard?

Louis Tanguay: Ah-oh, it sounds like there’s a real answer and an answer he’s going to give us.

Ariel Niedermeier: I know, I’m trying to back into it. No, have you-

Vishal Korlipara: I haven’t been to New York in a while, is that where we’re going here again?

Ariel Niedermeier: Oh my God. Like for example, I just came back from a trip to Guatemala. I went paragliding for the first time. I don’t know. Have you tried any-

Louis Tanguay: And?

Ariel Niedermeier: Oh, well, it was great.

Louis Tanguay: How was that experience?

Ariel Niedermeier: Oh, it was great.

Vishal Korlipara: It was great. I did paragliding, it was cool.

Ariel Niedermeier: I don’t know what I thought it was going to be, I think I thought I was confusing it with hang gliding, which is when you literally run off the side of a cliff and just hope that the wind takes you, by the grace of God go high, or whatever. But like, with paragliding, it’s like they put up a giant human carrying kite, and then you just float. And you’re strapped to a person it’s not…

Vishal Korlipara: I’ve done it. It’s really boring.

Ariel Niedermeier: It’s really boring. I actually got motion sickness. I was kind of like, okay, like what’s happening here.

Vishal Korlipara: Let me down.

Vishal Korlipara (cont’d): Well, for me, the thing I’ve done, I think most, so it’s a funny story, I skied for the first time. And it was like embarrassing. So I went with my girlfriend who is borderline pro, she didn’t tell me. So she’s like, let’s start on like-

Louis Tanguay: Let’s go skiing.

Vishal Korlipara: -let’s go on the bunny slope. And I was like, all right. She knew right away that I was struggling. I couldn’t even walk properly. And I couldn’t feel my toes for like three months. I couldn’t move my big toe, literally for like three months after that. I was-

Louis Tanguay: What, did you go in sandals?

Vishal Korlipara: Yeah. No, I fell like probably 30 times plus. And it was like Tahoe, like a busy weekend. So I’m just dodging kids, right. There is nothing cool about it to me but-

Louis Tanguay: They’re like shooting snow at you.

Vishal Korlipara: -I’ll give snowboarding and try next. That’s my next one.

Ariel Niedermeier: Oh, you’re going to try snowboarding? So you didn’t like the skiing? You’re going to move onto the other side.

Vishal Korlipara: Not at all.

Louis Tanguay: Are you still with the girl?

Vishal Korlipara: She’s here.

Louis Tanguay: All right, well there you go, she’s a keeper. Or you’re a keeper.

Vishal Korlipara: Exactly. Depends on how you look at it.

Louis Tanguay: Well, he can’t ski, but whatever, he works at Mint.

Ariel Niedermeier: I can’t believe she didn’t-

Vishal Korlipara: He’s doing okay. He has a dog.

Louis Tanguay: He has our user data.

Ariel Niedermeier: You have a dog, what kind of dog?

Vishal Korlipara: He’s a Beagle Rottweiler mix. Name’s Diego, great guy.

Louis Tanguay: I have an English bulldog.

Vishal Korlipara: Oh my God, that dog is awesome.

Ariel Niedermeier: That’s [Palu 00:22:59].

Louis Tanguay: Showing a picture of the best English bulldog ever.

Vishal Korlipara: He is cool.

Ariel Niedermeier: Yeah.

Louis Tanguay: Yeah.

Ariel Niedermeier: You have to come to an AGS event. He usually comes.

Vishal Korlipara: I came last year, I think I even saw him.

Louis Tanguay: Yeah, on the West coast. Yeah, you were here in October, right?

Vishal Korlipara: Yeah.

Louis Tanguay: Yeah, so he was on stage trying to eat the microphone.

Vishal Korlipara: Like father, like son, right. Like Florida man, like dog.

Louis Tanguay: Or in my case, Rhode Island man.

Ariel Niedermeier: I feel like we should name this episode Florida Man.

Louis Tanguay: Yes. That will be the name of this episode.

Ariel Niedermeier: Florida man and then the date.

Louis Tanguay: Florida man and data science, question mark. If that doesn’t rope him in-

Ariel Niedermeier: I don’t know what will.

Louis Tanguay: It’s over. Forget about it. That’s the saying they have in New York. He knows, he knows the New York vernacular.

Ariel Niedermeier: Yeah, he does.

Louis Tanguay: From Atlanta, you know.

Ariel Niedermeier: He’s going to show me around. After a long day-

Louis Tanguay: like today.

Ariel Niedermeier: Yes. In the growth hacking Fintech trenches, what drink do you wind down with?

Louis Tanguay: What drink are we going to order from Appy Hour next.

Vishal Korlipara: Scotch or old fashioned, one of the two. Scotch is like the Indian in me, old fashioneds are like the cool, like I’m in a cocktail bar. So that’s like the two options.

Ariel Niedermeier: The Indian in you? Like, they drink a lot of scotch?

Vishal Korlipara: Are you kidding me? That’s how I got into it. My uncle’s all drink this high-end stuff and they leave it in my place. And I was like, all right, I’ll try it. And then the cool thing about scotch is, after a while, you don’t need mixers or anything, it tastes good and you don’t get hungover. Like, as you pace yourself a little bit, you don’t get hungover from it really. So that’s the cool part.

Ariel Niedermeier: That is cool. I didn’t know.

Louis Tanguay: That answer was borderline as useful as all the growth strategy.

Vishal Korlipara: You’re welcome everyone, you’re welcome.

Louis Tanguay: That’s what they listen to.

Ariel Niedermeier: Oh man.

Vishal Korlipara: I’m going to go invest in like a Macallan. I don’t even know how you do that, but yeah.

Louis Tanguay: Or the new Conor McGregor one.

Vishal Korlipara: There you go.

Ariel Niedermeier: Okay. You know what, let’s play some this or that.

Louis Tanguay: Let’s do it, Ariel.

Ariel Niedermeier: Do you want to play some this or that? Okay.

Louis Tanguay: We’ll end this podcast on some this or that.

Ariel Niedermeier: Yeah.

Vishal Korlipara: All right.

Ariel Niedermeier: So this is-

Vishal Korlipara: Question mark.

Louis Tanguay: Florida man?

Ariel Niedermeier: Hamster wheel or alligators?

Louis Tanguay: Oh, that’s the first one. Okay, go ahead [crosstalk 00:00:25:12].

Ariel Niedermeier: So it’s really complicated, data science question mark. Okay. So I’m going to name two things. You need to choose one.

Vishal Korlipara: All right.

Ariel Niedermeier: All right.

Vishal Korlipara: Two?

Louis Tanguay: Not three.

Vishal Korlipara: Okay, one.

Ariel Niedermeier: Oh man, okay.

Louis Tanguay: Alligators or Crocs?

Vishal Korlipara: Alligators. Had way too many experiences for that not to be the answer.

Ariel Niedermeier: Oh God. Pancakes or waffles?

Vishal Korlipara: Pancakes all day. All day.

Ariel Niedermeier: Do you have a topping we should know about?

Vishal Korlipara: Blueberry. Blueberry toppings with some butter, syrup, just plain syrup. That’s the way.

Ariel Niedermeier: I like the decisive, like you know.

Vishal Korlipara: That’s it, it’s a brunch move right there.

Ariel Niedermeier: Computer games or video games?

Vishal Korlipara: Video games, but neither. So my answer is, question mark. There you go.

Louis Tanguay: Data science.

Vishal Korlipara: Data science, yeah.

Ariel Niedermeier: Oh God.

Louis Tanguay: East Coast or West Coast?

Ariel Niedermeier: Oh yeah, East Coast or West Coast.

Vishal Korlipara: Wow… that’s actually a really good one. Okay. So I’m going to actually give you a tricky answer. Depending on your age, there’s differences. So I think 35 or younger, East Coast. 35 or older, I think West Coast. Because your appreciation for things just change and both have different pros and cons. If that makes sense.

Louis Tanguay: Yeah, totally.

Ariel Niedermeier: So 35, you should go to the West Coast.

Louis Tanguay: At 35 or older.

Ariel Niedermeier: Yeah, 35 or older.

Louis Tanguay: That makes sense.

Vishal Korlipara: Then you have your kids, the great education. You can go enjoy the outdoors. Because that’s what families do, I guess. And like…

Ariel Niedermeier: I heard that they enjoy that.

Ariel Niedermeier: Okay. Text message or call?

Vishal Korlipara: Good friends call, anyone else text.

Louis Tanguay: Okay so-

Ariel Niedermeier: You can’t, you’re flouting the rules.

Vishal Korlipara: Okay, okay fine. I’ll say call.

Louis Tanguay: So Vishal doesn’t just text you, then you know where you’re at.

Ariel Niedermeier: Yeah seriously. You just called yourself out in a big way.

Vishal Korlipara: It’s actually real though. So it’s like, they know.

Louis Tanguay: Hey, you better know where you’re at.

Vishal Korlipara: The real ones know. The real ones know.

Louis Tanguay: They know it’s real.

Ariel Niedermeier: Oh man. Okay. Iced coffee or hot coffee?

Vishal Korlipara: Man. These are good. Iced.

Ariel Niedermeier: Ice coffee?

Vishal Korlipara: Yeah. Easier to drink. Don’t burn your tongue.

Ariel Niedermeier: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ooh, so this is a very contested one.

Louis Tanguay: Oh God.

Ariel Niedermeier: I will not get over this. I’ve asked so many people. I can’t believe the answer.

Louis Tanguay: If you’ve been listening to this podcast for more than three episodes, I have to do my duty and apologize in advance that you’re going to hear the same thing and probably going to hear the same exact answer and Ariel’s same exact frustration.

Ariel Niedermeier: Okay. So cups in the cupboard, right side up or upside down?

Vishal Korlipara: Right side up.

Louis Tanguay: See.

Ariel Niedermeier: I just can’t believe all of you. Why? Tell me why?

Vishal Korlipara: Because I’m lazy. And that just seems like the easiest thing to do.

Ariel Niedermeier: Wait why? One person was like, because aesthetically it’s more pleasing. Another reason was like, it’s cleaner. Like if the cups are turned upside down, then the rim of them isn’t like sitting the dirty cupboard.

Vishal Korlipara: I kind of see your side. But for stackability purposes, upsides also easier.

Ariel Niedermeier: No. I feel like upside-down stacking is easier, isn’t it?

Louis Tanguay: No.

Vishal Korlipara: Not if you were going in for a stack while it’s already in the cupboard. If you remove to stack, it’s easier upside down. But there you go.

Louis Tanguay: I think the right answer is whatever makes you happy, Ariel.

Ariel Niedermeier: Well, you know what, I’m out here, I’m living my upside-down life.

Ariel Niedermeier (cont’d): Okay-

Louis Tanguay: Well, you’ll never have a bug in your cup.

Ariel Niedermeier: So this was my main thing, is like, don’t you get nervous that dust or whatever gunky, like bugs or something, would crawl… and then you have to look…

Vishal Korlipara: I just wonder where he did.

Louis Tanguay: Because if he did, he would turn them upside down.

Ariel Niedermeier: There’re cockroaches in New York, isn’t this a thing?

Vishal Korlipara: Oh no, it is. And rats.

Louis Tanguay: She’s prepping. She’s prepping already for New York. And by the way, New York isn’t like that anymore, in most places.

Vishal Korlipara: Okay, you want to [crosstalk 00:28:52].

Ariel Niedermeier: No, I think there is cockroaches in New York.

Louis Tanguay: There are cockroaches everywhere.

Louis Tanguay (cont’d): Almost everywhere. Not here right now.

Vishal Korlipara: Possibly.

Louis Tanguay: I’ll live in denial until I see one, right.

Ariel Niedermeier: Okay. Superman or Batman?

Vishal Korlipara: Superman. Not passionate but Superman.

Louis Tanguay: Oh. Who would you be passionate about? What’s your favorite superhero?

Vishal Korlipara: Oh, if we’re going to do it, Nightcrawler. X-Men. He’s the coolest guy. Like he can teleport anywhere. Like you can literally just be here. I could be out there at the same time. It’s wonderful.

Ariel Niedermeier: Does Nightcrawler have any other superpower? I actually don’t know.

Vishal Korlipara: He’s blue.

Louis Tanguay: Talking about Nightcrawler.

Vishal Korlipara: Not really a power, but like it’s pretty cool. I don’t know. I think like who I grew up with. Him and Gambit. Gambit had the cards and like not the greatest power, but it was pretty cool.

Ariel Niedermeier: Do you have a superpower that would take from one of these guys? Like your number one?

Vishal Korlipara: So it wouldn’t be the cards, even though it’s cool. But like I think the transporting to me, so my two last two years-

Louis Tanguay: You definitely need data science to be able to teleport.

Vishal Korlipara: Probably.

Louis Tanguay: Because you don’t want to end up in a wall or floating a hundred feet in the air.

Vishal Korlipara: Customized data science. Where would this guy like to go? It’s like you enter a destination. It’s like really, you need to go New York or Florida.

Louis Tanguay: Florida man.

Ariel Niedermeier: Exactly. Maybe yes.

Louis Tanguay: Maybe that’s what happened to Florida man. He didn’t project his route properly.

Vishal Korlipara: Once I get past the gators, I’m good.

Ariel Niedermeier: Oh my God.

Louis Tanguay: On that note-

Ariel Niedermeier: Yeah, you know what, I think that we’ve all had enough, but this has been so much fun. Vishal, how can people get in touch with you,-

Louis Tanguay: Talk to you about Florida man.

Ariel Niedermeier: follow you? Are you on social media? You want to give…

Vishal Korlipara: Sure, you can find me on LinkedIn, just search my name. On Twitter, I’m Vishaldonttweet, so feel free to follow a really unresponsive user. And that’s what I got. You can follow me, but I’m not going to open the app.

Ariel Niedermeier: I don’t tweet.

Ariel Niedermeier: Oh man. Well, thanks so much for joining us. This has been so much fun and just… a ridiculous good time.

Louis Tanguay: Thank you very much.

Vishal Korlipara: Thanks, guys. Thanks for having me.

Louis Tanguay: Okay. See ya.

Ariel Niedermeier: Bye-bye.