Chapter 12 Email Correspondence - Jude and Veronica
Email correspondence between Jude Tilde and Veronica Cochran
Subject: Welcome to Codeify!
Hi Veronica,
I hope you’re doing well. My payroll manager has let me know that half of the payment has been direct deposited into your account as of yesterday afternoon. Please select the laptop and desk chair and send both receipts to me as an email attachment. I will forward them along for your reimbursement.
Now that you’re officially on board, I’d like to get things rolling. Attached you’ll find slides detailing:
Our company and product background
Marketing goals and strategy
Current assets and collateral
Point of contact and workflow for the consulting agreement (for now you will be working with me, but at some point we will spin your discussions off to engage with the project lead, Adam)
Once you’ve had a chance to review this, I’ll send over our first planned pitch for you to help us design.
I look forward to working with you.
Best,
Jude
Hi Jude,
Thanks for sending this information, it was very helpful.
Although I understood about a teaspoon of the coding info, the technology is impressive, and my research tells me your programmers are at the top of their game.
I am confident that you have a lot of strength to leverage here, and with a strong marketing plan should see good growth.
Like programming, marketing is a blend of creativity, calculation, and strategy, and I find that knowing a bit more of the “behind the curtain” things about the company can help find the right tone for the campaign.
I’ve read that Codeify was founded by your older brother Jason, but that you’ve taken over since his accident. Can you tell me a bit of your history with the company? What are your goals, and how do they differ from Jason’s original ones?
I’ll have more questions for you as we move forward, but I think that’s a good place to start.
-Veronica
Veronica,
Yes, Jason founded the company ten years ago.
He had a business background, and had done well in corporate finance, but when he and his wife Kelly had their first child, Jason quit to do something a little less soul-sucking and which allowed him more time with his family.
With my tech background and his MBA, we decided to go into business together.
Jason would be the CEO and handle the business end of things, and I would be the tech lead and get to play in programming all day.
I never had much interest in being in charge, but here we are, and I’m very dedicated to making sure that we get back to where we once were—pulling in a strong profit and growing each year.
We certainly have the innovation for it; it’s just a matter of making sure the scaffolding around this innovation is strong.
Unfortunately, my degree is in computer science, so there are many aspects of the business side of things that go way over my head.
We’ve got a great finance person, a great HR person, a team of incredible programmers, but what we lacked before you was the vision to tell the world outside what we do.
I’m attaching the information on our newest custom app program, which we have yet to officially name. I’m very excited about this technology because it will be one of the fastest and most user-friendly custom app designing services on the market once we launch.
Let me know your first impressions and brainstorms,
Jude
Jude,
This is so cool! I’m honestly over here trying to think of an app that I would want made just because it looks really fun to build one. Now that I’ve seen you can design a huge range of beautiful app interfaces, I’m even more curious: what happened to your PowerPoint slides, my dude!
Thanks for sharing the information about Jason, too.
I’m sure that’s been really hard on all of you, and having to take over a new role on top of that is a lot.
Not to get too personal, but my mother suffered a traumatic brain injury when I was a teenager, and it shook us all up pretty significantly, so I know the disruption, stress, and anguish that comes with TBIs.
My heart goes out to you and to Jason’s family.
Can I just say, though, that having worked with a lot of different people in business, you are uniquely open to feedback and help in a way that I find refreshing. Although this change wasn’t one you wanted, I still think you will be great for the company.
After looking at the slides, what do you think of the name PixelPerfect for the app development platform? It plays nicely on the company name, while also giving a sense of playful and flawless design. Let me know—we can brainstorm more, too!
I’m also including a short list of questions that might seem totally random, but I find that the tastes and vibes of leadership have a huge impact on the culture of the company. These will actually help me considerably in moving forward to make this campaign a perfect fit for Codeify.
-Veronica
Veronica,
I think PixelPerfect is, in a word, perfect. Everyone here thinks so, too. Why didn’t I think of it? You’re already crushing it!
Thank you for your kind words about Jason, and about me in this new role.
I’m very much in a fake-it-till-you-make-it space but feel more comfortable in the position every day.
I’m very sorry to hear about your mom. I hope that she is doing okay.
Jason is dealing with seizures and some cognitive changes, mostly verbal.
His speech is no longer very fluid, although he understands verbal communication just fine. Brains are wild.
The questions you sent were indeed very random, but I will indulge your marketing method and answer them each here.
Music I’ll put on at parties: This answer is embarrassing. “Alexa, play some music.” She usually chooses well for me, like Tame Impala, Anderson .Paak, Phoebe Bridgers, Kendrick, Frank Ocean.
Music I’ll put on when I’m alone: Same as above. I really am letting AI live my life for me. Let me reconsider all of my life choices while I type this.
My always-stop-and-watch movie: Hot Fuzz.
Movie I’ve never seen and never will: The live action Cats one? It looked so bad I think I’d be embarrassed for everyone involved.
Favorite season: Fall
Pet peeve: Flat-earthers. For obvious reasons, but also because I can’t help but engage with the content on Instagram because I find it so incredibly stupid.
“The horizon looks flat, so the Earth must be flat.” Like, my man, the earth is 25,000 miles in circumference.
That’s way too big for someone to notice a curvature from just a few feet above its surface, especially when at sea level the horizon is only like 3 miles away.
“Pilots never adjust for curvature, and if the Earth was round, they’d be dipping the nose all the time.
” Really? Airplanes maintain altitude by keeping a constant angle to the Earth’s surface, which already accounts for curvature.
Whatever, this is where I sound unhinged.
It’s one of those communities that believes something so wholeheartedly but also seems completely unwilling to spend as much time thinking through their own arguments as they spend trying to debunk science.
Hope all that helps!
Jude
Jude,
I honestly couldn’t love these answers more, and yes they’re very helpful, but I’m just cracking up that most of the time, people answer the pet peeve question with something like, “When people don’t use their turn signals” or “When businesses have the air-conditioning on too high” and you’re like, “Here’s a dissertation about physics. ”
-V
Veronica,
I mean, both of those examples are also annoying, but not nearly as annoying as flat-earthers. What’s your pet peeve?
-Jude
Oh, that’s simple: It’s the fact that I must get an entirely new set of cords and charging blocks and God knows what else every time I upgrade one of my devices.
Like please don’t tell me that this specific USB is so much better than the old USB that you need to make me pay hundreds of dollars to have everything be able to simply charge a phone.
-V
So you’re saying your pet peeve is . . . capitalism.
-J
Hahahah omg yes, that’s true and I’m in marketing. Shit I’m a hypocrite.
-V