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**Ashley Jeffs:** I had an actual real company. It really existed, actually. It was a UK company. But it was basically my consulting company, so I owned all the assets. I think we called it a few times the Benthos Company. But basically, it was what I was using to operate as. And I had lots of different sources... The ... |
**Jerod Santo:** So we're talking like a few thousand bucks a month, or a year...? What are you talking about? |
**Ashley Jeffs:** \[43:48\] So there was the point where GitHub was matching the donations, and that was also a point where lots of people were getting really excited about it. I think at that point, it was paying my mortgage at the time. And then that meant my actual income could just go to Pokémon cards. But the amou... |
Because again, that was the majority of my job, was just supporting people, and trying to get through the procurement process for these future contracts. So you're spinning plates and none of them are actually paying you yet. It was only me, but the number of maintainers we had was quite vast. So we were kind of -- if ... |
**Jerod Santo:** And your product wasn't really taking off because of the procurement process that you described... |
**Ashley Jeffs:** Yeah. |
**Jerod Santo:** And so... |
**Ashley Jeffs:** It was easy for European companies, but the big ones are the US companies. |
**Jerod Santo:** Right. |
**Ashley Jeffs:** So damn you, US. |
**Jerod Santo:** Fair enough. So Alex comes by, he's got a plan... You guys go way back, a couple of years at least, know each other well... It makes sense for Redpanda, it makes sense because Benthos is kind of struggling, as a business at least, to find that perfect equation of all the different strings you have to p... |
**Ashley Jeffs:** It's a whole ordeal. I think technically, I'm not allowed to talk about it. |
**Jerod Santo:** To talk about it. |
**Ashley Jeffs:** And emotionally, I'm not ready to talk about it. But yeah, I mean, it's a formal process. Doing acquisitions, it's a formal process. Like, it's a whole thing. It's lawyers, and paperwork, and stuff... Because obviously, you need to prove various things, and there's an exchange of assets, and control o... |
**Jerod Santo:** How long does that process take you? |
**Ashley Jeffs:** Well, it's supposed to take a long time. I think if you asked a normal procurement lawyer, then they would tell you... I don't know, six months I think I was told is how long it takes to like sort something like that out. But myself and Alex are apparently very good at procuring when it comes to that,... |
**Jerod Santo:** \[48:00\] So at the end of the day, however long that was - 60 days maybe, 30 days? |
**Ashley Jeffs:** It was probably a couple of months, I'd say, to go from like -- |
**Jerod Santo:** 60 days, let's call it that. No one's fact-checking. |
**Ashley Jeffs:** Please don't fact check. |
**Break**: \[48:14\] |
**Jerod Santo:** What was your demeanor at the end? Were you over the moon? Were you going out for steak dinner? Were you resolute? Were you -- |
**Ashley Jeffs:** Yeah, I mean, I was pretty chill. Thing is, I had a kid, so I wanted to go and do all this crazy stuff. I wanted to go off the rails. But my wife's like "You've got a kid, Ash..." |
**Jerod Santo:** Well, what do you mean off the rails? For instance, what were a few of your ideas that she turned down? |
**Ashley Jeffs:** So Las Vegas for a month... |
**Jerod Santo:** Okay. |
**Ashley Jeffs:** Otherwise, I don't really see the point, going there for just a couple days... You know, I could have done a shampers binge for a few weeks... I think I could have managed. |
**Jerod Santo:** I don't know what that is. Adam, do you know what that is? |
**Adam Stacoviak:** No. What is it? |
**Ashley Jeffs:** Let me break this down for you. Shampers is the champagne. |
**Jerod Santo:** Okay. |
**Ashley Jeffs:** I don't know if you call it shampers in the US. That might be a UK thing. It might be a very specific thing in the UK as well. |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Shampers. Is this slang, or is this...? |
**Ashley Jeffs:** It would probably classify as slang, I think. |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Okay. I'm going to start calling it shampers, Jerod. |
**Jerod Santo:** Shampers. |
**Ashley Jeffs:** I've gotta crack out the shampers. |
**Jerod Santo:** A shampers binge. Now you don't have to explain any further. Now I know what it is. |
**Ashley Jeffs:** Alright, lads, let's go crack out shampers. |
**Jerod Santo:** So, I mean, that's pretty much the same idea, with different objects involved, right? |
**Ashley Jeffs:** And then I just wanted to play video games. |
**Jerod Santo:** There you go. But thing is, day one everything was sorted, I was, like, there, at the company, getting stuff done. Because the thing is as well - I had so many people wanting to have a support contract that as soon as you've got the people there to do the procurement, do the sales engineering, do the s... |
**Jerod Santo:** So that was actually an unlock for you. |
**Ashley Jeffs:** Oh, yeah, yeah. 100%. I mean, it's basically -- it doesn't frustrate me to know that there's money on the table. When you've got like support contracts, people are saying "Oh, please let us give you this money. Please." Like, it doesn't really annoy me, because I know that -- |
**Jerod Santo:** It wouldn't annoy me either. |
**Ashley Jeffs:** Again, I would just compare it to -- I could just get a job at Google. Like, if I wanted to make a lot of money very, very fast, I could get -- |
**Jerod Santo:** You want your kid to be happy. |
**Ashley Jeffs:** Yeah, exactly. If I want my child to have a fulfilled life, then there's lots of things I could do. |
**Jerod Santo:** Yeah, his father needs to work at Google. |
**Ashley Jeffs:** But I've made my decision. I want to draw stupid blobfish pictures and post them online. That's my job. And he'll get over that in time... |
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