Hello and welcome to e4n's D2C revolution. Today we are in conversation with Bharat Dhala, the co-founder of YouFood Labs. Hi Bharat, how are you doing? Good, good. Thank you for having me. How do you how do you feel being here? Very nice. I feel very good to actually be a part of this series that you are doing. So excited. Thank you. Thank you so much. I would love to dive right in. How did the idea of this business come up? What is the gap in the market that you noticed? Sure. So I'll tell you a little bit about what we are doing here. You will essentially re-match the concept of package food. When I say that, what I mean by that is you are using absolutely simple real ingredients in the package food format, which is something which is completely unheard of. So you are making package food as close as possible to freshly prepared food. All of this while still retaining the convenience of package food. This is essentially the overall concept of which we, our vision and how we conceptualize. So if you actually look at globally what's happening in the package food space, there's a lot of chatter now about package food actually being dead. So dead food is nothing but chemically processed food that doesn't have any nutritional value. So if you look globally, there's a lot of chatter around the fact that package food is actually dead food and it's not really good to consume. What we are doing at youth food is essentially starting a fresh food movement to make package foods alive again. So this is the simple principle of which we, with which Varun and I have co-founded youth foods. So to make package food as close as possible to freshly prepared food using no artificial ingredients, using only natural substances. We do that largely through two things. One is making the food chef crafted. So the entire food is not really prepared in the lab. It's actually prepared by chefs who only worked in restaurants or home kitchens throughout their careers. And we couple that to the very advanced food science technology, which is called lyophilization. So essentially what we do is we freeze the food that we prepare freshly and then we dry it out. So this is something which is very unique. So an entire principle is based off of this. So what happens is you're able to preserve the nutritional value of the food because you're not giving direct heat. And more importantly, the taste aroma and texture of the food in the lab. So what you're essentially doing is why we say reimagining package food is we're kind of giving a consumer food that is as close as possible to freshly prepared food, yet in a package food format that has a shelf life of 12 months at room temperature. So this is what we conceptualized over the last, say, three years, one year in research and two years in operation. Great. And I believe Hardik Fanya invested and is also the brand ambassador of the brand. That is correct. Yes. What does he bring to the table for the brand? So Hardik came on board in April of this year. Me and my co-founder were doing a lot of thinking around, does it merit to actually get a brand ambassador so early on in a journey of a brand because as you know, one thing is to sign a brand ambassador and the second thing is to spend the marketing dollars around it. But from a top of the funnel perspective, if you actually look at it, Hardik is somebody, you know, your food essentially is a challenger brand. What we're doing at you is challenging the standards for trying to see how we can do things completely different in a market that has always been dominated by the larger package food, larger formats. So we're essentially a challenger brand and that is exactly what Hardik is as well. So he's come from, he's somebody who came from very limited resources when he was coming up to ranks and today he's the vice captain of the Indian Community. He's somebody who is a youth icon, somebody that people look up to to and what better than a sports person actually endorsing the fact that package foods can now be healthier for people that can be better for you. So from an overall awareness perspective, the fact that he's a youth icon, I think he brings a lot of value to the table and he, you know, when we connected with him, we were initially talking about just a brand endorsement. But when he tasted our products, he realized that there is so much more that can be done to promote this for the youth of this country and in general, that he said that he wanted to be a part of this. So he's in fact, common board is not just a brand ambassador but in fact an equity investor. So very invested in the brand and very keenly follows the marketing activities that we do. Great. And recently I was invited to one of your Delhi Airport campaigns which happened, a huge branding that happened on the plane. What was that campaign all about? I would love for you to be Gail and speak about it. Sure. So, you know, we, when we signed out in April, like I said, we did our first meeting campaign during the course of the IPL. That was our first campaign which revolved around purely product.  To take the campaign further, you know, we've come back with our new campaign which is Rise and Conqueror. It is, it is a team built around the World Cup, you know, where we are wishing Harvick all the best for the World Cup, India all the best for the World Cup. So as a part of this, you know, and there are so many campaigns out there, there's so many brands that are actually launching campaigns during ICC and for a young brand like ours to stand out as often as possible. So we've always believed in keeping outside the box as far as our marketing activities are concerned. So we, we are an Omi channel brand. We're available in stores, we're available online, we're also available in two airlines. So we thought that what better to do, you know, to break our campaign than to actually brand a plane. So the team at Spicejet was very kind and we work with them to really put together this entire aircraft wrap. So the entire plane of Spicejet is actually branded new foods with the team of the campaign which is Rise and Conqueror. So, so you were part of that particular unveil as well. So this is, this is actually monumental for us for a two year old brand to actually do something that we have put on a plane. And that too at such an opportune time where we're wishing even India all the best. You probably saw the aircraft wrap and it's painted in Indian colors with hard brick right there, wishing them all the best. So the entire kind of campaign is built around this. So this was pretty much how we opened the campaign. So this team now goes across Spicejet planes as well as offline stores, all our online apps as well. So, you know, we have this team running across the full 45 days of the work. So interesting. Sounds good. We've done a lot about the brand. I would love to speak from the consumer perspective now. Today if I have to, I'll be very honest, today if I have to try a new noodle which I find on either Zepto, Pinky, or any of the quick commerce, e-commerce standards, I will be a little hesitant because my caseboards are very accustomed to the ones which are age-old brands that I've been having since Spicejet. So, and that is all around. So Indians are not very open to trying new things. They're very adaptive to the taste that they have been habitual of. Yes. How difficult was it for you to launch a noodle brand and then get the Indian taste bud to get adopted to it? We're not just a noodle brand. So what we've done, I think we've been smart about this. We've always invented a round cat. It's an innovative round cat. So, I'll give you an example. When we, before entering the cup noodle space, it was pretty much the first brand that did pasta in a cup format. The reason for that, we know that the market for pasta is smaller than that at noodle store. We were the only one, there were still the only ones that have pasta in a cup format. So, that really differentiated us in the mind of an instance because we are not able to move the product. When we then launched our noodles for nine months after we did our cup pastas, we were already an established brand, I would say to a large extent, at least in the minds of consumers, we're consuming our pasta. So, at least we had the mind space for people in the ready to eat or the instant food category at that point. And I think that helped us. That helped us. And if you look at us, we are probably the only D2C brand when we started out that has managed to really disrupt the cup noodle category. Because before us, they were really just two really legacy brands that have dominated this market forever. And a lot of people have tried, interestingly, a lot of people have tried, but they've not been able to penetrate that particular market for a new brand like ours to do that. We've actually been very fortunate and consumers have liked the concept. So, whenever we do something, we always believe in differentiating our product. So, our differentiation was that it's all let's say a noodle is soup and it comes to a cup format, ours would be sauce because that's how Indians enjoy it. So, that in itself is a differentiation in terms of the taste and the texture of the food. Having said that, the goodness of the product is already there. So, I think that obviously followed through from the past as the other products that we did. So, I think at some level, it's about how you're bringing products to the market and kind of innovating around categories to sort of get into the mind, get the right mindset. Correct. Okay. Quite makes sense. Also, if you see there are a lot of new players in the market, small, big, medium. I personally have seen a lot of rise in the Korean noodle market growing because of the K-dramas and everything. Everybody wants to go towards the ramen and the tukpa side of the market. So, what different do you bring to the table when the market is getting so cluttered with this kind of an option? So, if you look at us and you look at the way we are building this food, food is essentially trying to build a brand that is authentically transparent and brings kind of a trust in the mind of a consumer. So, this is essentially what we want to build. So, whether we're building let's say a noodle category or a pasta category, even beverages for that matter.  In a category, if you look at packaged food, there's a category it's infamous. And the reason why I say that it's infamous is because the quality of ingredients that go into packaged foods in general. So, this goes across categories, across players and there is a sort of trust deficit that exists in this particular category amongst consumers because for very many years, a lot of people call out something and it's actually not that. I'll give you, I can give you examples. For example, if you say whole wheat noodles. So, everybody talks about whole wheat noodles or whole wheat bread. If you look at the back of the bag, it's actually something like a percent whole wheat and the rest is metha. With us, you don't get it. We are authentic. We use simple ingredients and we believe that and we're open to any kind of stuff. As you could, we believe the consumer cannot be fooled. And there is merit in us giving what we're seeing. I just feel like at some level, there is still a lack of trust and we are trying to bridge that gap. At UFOOT, UFOOT is not about a noodle company or a pasta company. I feel it's a vision much stronger. So, we started off the noodles and pasta. UFOOT has got beverages now. But it's the idea is very simple. How can you make a packaged food with simple ingredients such that there is a lot of goodness in the aspects of better for you that come for an end consumer. I just feel like India and the world is coming to a point where they bridge this trust deficit. And I think we're right there. We're waiting for this new India to really kind of push this pushing power. Great. One tough question now that you may or may not like. Before coming for this interview, I had put up a story, a poll on my Instagram saying that how many of you have tasted UFOOT and if yes, what is the price and the taste? So, you'll be surprised to know that there was a 75 to 25 sort of divide of people saying that 25 of them have tasted it and 75% have not tasted it yet. So, these are all Gen Z and Millennial kids mostly situated in Delhi, so what do you think about the reach and the availability of your product and why do you think that after two years, 75% of people, I'm just taking an example. So, I have around 1500 to 2000 followers. So, you can guess about how many responses I have. So, 25% have tasted it and 75% have not. So, what is your take on that? I look at it as a huge opportunity. To be honest, you're talking about Delhi and Seattle, some numbers, right? So, if you look at, and you mentioned apps like Indigate or one step forward, you know today, a short span of say, well-bought ones applications were already of 20 or 30%, maybe even of 30% in some cases, off of the kind of some of the categories that operate. So, if you're saying that we're only known to about 25% of the people and this is the kind of response that we're getting, I think it's quite hard. I think distribution takes time. Grants are not built for the time. I'd like to know how the 25% of people have actually... So, yeah, I did get comments. So, most of them said that it's very Indian taste friendly, it's very different and it's nice. So, I did get positive comments. So, yeah. So, yeah, so that I take that as good. See, food can never be 100%, right? Everybody says about the different way we look at it in your piece. So, 80% of the people, I think are doing good job. So, I think that at some level, this is a huge problem. Right? Delhi NCR being our home is just 25% of the folks know about it. That itself, say, is actually a good number. The way I see it, we have to build from it. I think this is not something that we're going to do overnight and say, okay, 100% of the folks know about it. I think it's a huge offer. In terms of distribution, I think it's just a matter of time. We're an only channel brand with available across online offline. We can get it to export now. So, I think from an awareness, it's a matter of time. What's important is you're getting general customer acceptance of the whole brand. Yeah. In a category that has not really seen anybody for the last, I don't know how many years. Correct. So, I think that is where, that is a big takeaway for us as I look at it. I like how you find the silver lining in every situation. Yeah, it is. It is. I think if I were at your place, I would have also seen that way that if the 25% of them are happy, then of course it makes sense for the business to go further and make more people happy in the business. Yes. I do not know you have to do that. Yeah. Makes sense. Okay. And how do you think are you marketing the brand in order to kind of challenge the age old brands which have a great marketing presence in India? So, I think if you look at, like I said, youth is a better way. Everything that we do is about creating a sort of awareness as far as the end of the business. So, all our marketing activities revolve around that. So, to make the consumer more aware, to make people more conscious about what they are putting inside their bodies. I think this is where our marketing efforts is actually something that is benefiting them. There is more education in that sense. So, now I think that is the principle factor. Now, how we do that can be two or three different things. The first aspect being working with say college students with the younger population of this country, younger professionals through various programs that we are now running, I do to make people more aware about the brand. I think that is one very big aspect. We are very passionate about getting the younger consumers more aware, inculcating that sense into them, that there now exists an option where they can choose better and choose wisely. I think that is very important. From a top of the funnel perspective, we obviously have hard way to drive awareness amongst people. I think that is the other aspect which helps us. And the third aspect which I touched upon is that we are not necessarily competing with age-old brands directly. The way I see it is product innovation is a huge role in the way we are going about it. Again, a simple example, if you are looking at the hakaan, today one of our best seller products in this particular category is our whole wheat, which is 100% whole wheat by the way. There is nobody who really does that. It is actually 100% whole wheat? It is 100% whole wheat. How does the taste then match with that of me? Because I think people don't accept health, so there is a thing that healthy, tasty is not there. So, is it that way? Well, what kind of feedback have you received on what? So, you know, very interesting. I am glad you say that because I am not a fan of whole wheat. Same. Because of the bite. So, if you look at whole wheat and taste it, it's a hard bite. We understand that. So, one of the things, we could call it dawn, to really see how we can get this right and make it as close as possible to foods that people put that you and I enjoy. And I think that was good. So, it took us six months to get the texture of the whole wheat to be right. And like I said, I am not a consumer of whole wheat. So, the biggest problem as a consumer of whole wheat, I am assuming it is a hard bite. That is what most people have. So, we kind of tailor with the texture of the whole wheat and the thickness of the whole wheat to ensure that we are eating it. It is as soft as NRO is in content. So, working around categories, working around product innovation to build a larger gap. I think this is where we come in. I think we have learned that to do something which is exactly similar to a new product is harder. So, I think that there is merit in moving around categories and delivering them. So, this is what we follow from the company and everything that you see around us revolves around makes sense. And what is your media mix like? How much percent of it goes into print or edge digital kind of advertising TV?  This is really our second campaign because something like this comes into play when you are actually doing your campaigns. So, on a regular basis, a lot of us spend is actually directed more on this because I think between e-commerce, e-commerce, offline retail, I think a lot of the spend goes there because we believe that to drive awareness, that is to drive product awareness and differentiation online with it. So, from that perspective on an ongoing basis, you see a lot of us spend that particular about how much in person can be in this time. So, see if you actually look at our current campaign, our current campaign will be far more diversified. So, with the onset of rise and conquer as a campaign, we've made a conscious choice of splitting it between, say, OOH and I classify the every brand amongst OOH. So, between that, between offline and then a lot being on Hotstar because this is now going to be visible on Hotstar during the post-world cup as well. So, it's a, I would say it's almost like an equal split between OOH, digital and offline. Offline is probably almost there, say about 20 or percent and the rest split between OOH and OOH and I'm including Hotstar and OOH. Makes sense. I think it's pretty good in terms of share about if in case you're a two three-year-old brand, it's pretty nice because most of the D2C brands which are out there for about 10 to 12 years also don't have that good divide among all the channels. The problem with D2C brands today is that they focus too much on digital because they feel that's the only place that they need to excel. So, for us, we've been very clear from the only channel brand. So, we're available today in 6,500. So, a lot of us spend also goes towards offline and I think at some level that D2C brands, which is the first strategy is great for people and it's worked great for some people but I think the real challenge really comes when you're building offline in this country. I think that's where the real thing and we've also learned the hardware in the last few years but the great thing is that we actually have acceptance today across value-rated, modern trade, general trade and to be in 6,500 stores is in itself a test. So, that's why the spend and what you see today is this kind of good mix between digital and offline. Also, at the top of your mind, if you're supposed to list top three consumer trends that you've noticed change because you're a brand that launched post the pandemic, I'm sure you must have seen a lot of consumer wearable changes happen. Yes. What are the top three in your category? If you look at the package overall, I think there are two or three very interesting that I mentioned. The first aspect is humanization of products. Consumers today want to try new products. Consumers today are at some level bored of trying the same thing again and again. So, there's a lot of awareness that is out there. So, people are open to experimenting. So, I think that has given the ability for a lot of brands to come in, especially with a younger population. I think that's definitely something that is important. There is a certain kind of humanization. While people are willing to pay more, we feel that brands at least in the food category to price it more than say 25-25% is hard because then you're just catering to a very different and a very short one. You're only catering to India, which is a huge market by itself in India, but I think it's just for us, the way we look at it is we want to cater to a wide variety and I feel that if you want to build something better, we will have to do something that is a bit more horizontal. So, I think definitely humanization is one aspect. One thing that is emerging, but I'd like to see a lot more of it and I think India will kind of adopt this is quality of ingredients and the quality of the labels. So, we've spoken enough about this, but people being more conscious about what they're going to do, whether it's in terms of the quality of ingredients, whether it's in terms of feeding the labels that are there behind the back of the bag and really understanding what it means. I think that's where awareness will really be given. I can bet that if a consumer today looks at the back of a bag of anything, they'll be shocked to really see what all those inside some of these particular products. So, I think I'd like to see a lot more awareness that kind of exists over the next two years. I really hope that happens. And then third aspect that I feel that is going to happen is in a lot of ways, I feel like the trend for Indian brands to grow global is really going to be in the next two years. I think we've seen that with IT and IT services over the last 20 or years, they were the first ones out of the cage. But I really feel that Indian brands today will manufacture in problems with all the incentives that are coming out of PLI. I just feel like there is going to be a very big opportunity for brands to expand globally. So, for them to actually quality brands and gain acceptance across markets outside India. I just feel like that trend is waiting to come out. So, I think consumer companies will be the next ones out of the cage to really kind of push the envelope as far as exports is concerned. It's great for our theme because our team has always been making India for the world. We believed in that from day one. So, we catered to about five different export markets outside of India already. So, we're in South Africa, we're in 2000 stores across South Africa already. So, a lot of it and the great thing is the product has been accepted not just in India and abroad, but a wide variety of ethnic diversities across that particular market. So, that has been very hard. So, they love our butter chicken noodles over there. Oh really? Yes. It's a butter chicken noodles is something that we've been surprised. In fact, we made the product for South Africa first and then introduced to India. We're well in India also. But imagine that something like this is so popular. Yeah, I'm surprised that Africans are liking the butter chicken. They love it. Not just Africans, people the world over. In fact, if you actually look at it, our theme really revolves around taking a lot of the Indian goodness in spices and flavors, packaging is a format that is very convenient for consumers and people to work with. That is what you refer to with Korean. So, why can't Indian companies do that globally? So, that's what we do then. So, we are in South Africa, we're in Singapore already. Australia as a marketer is something that we just entered. And in the US and UK, we do some work with Amazon. So, there we are available mainly online with Walmart and Amazon. And we're just starting our entry into the GCC region. Good Dubai. Again, really positioning ourselves not just as an Indian brand or catering to only Indians abroad. We are an Indian brand of course. But catering to a more global population abroad, I think that's where the real brand will be created. So, I think that's very impressive. Nice. One small question and I want to one-liner off the top answer to this very quick. What one tip would you have given yourself as a younger or that you wish you had? I think to start earlier, I think me and my co-founder, we've been investment bankers for about 15 years before we really took the entrepreneur's plunge, they did not have these. But it's very satisfying. I think at some level, it is very satisfying. So, I think India should produce a lot more entrepreneurs going forward. This is the wave of entrepreneurship over the next decade in India. India is going to see a lot more brands, a lot more entrepreneurs to drive this going forward. So, definitely start early. I've been much more fortunate when I started out 10 years ago. Never do it. Yes. Never do it. Yes. Okay. Last question. Your growth and future plans for 2024? I think there's a lot that we wanted to I think a lot of this is based on the kind of innovation that goes across products that we're launching. We started off with largely instant food that we can see. So, these pastas when we're ready to go to the Hanqan which has seen a great amount of acceptance in a very short span of time. We now have recently launched beverages without open water. Again, something that has got a lot of acceptance from consumers. So, really pushing this in terms of categories, in terms of the kind of products that we bring to the market across these particular categories. This is what we see in terms of product innovation and distribution. Obviously, we grow as we end up becoming forward exports. Like I said, it's a big market for us. So, I think between domestic and international, we'd like to sort of see more products coming to the and really innovating. Great. I think we've bothered you enough with a lot of questions, no more to do. I'll try to try some of the open water. I think it's something that we've just launched. So, I give very honest opinions. You should. You should really help us. I'm not sure of the openness. I don't want to spoil it. Let me open it. No, no. There you go. I don't want to, but so far, it's too pretty to spoil. There you go. See, I made it difficult for you. I even, you know, I do this for a living. Oh yeah. How much sugar does it have? It does not have a lot of sugar, I guess. There's no added sugar. There's no added sugar. There's no added sugar. I want you to just actually read the ingredients. Yeah, that's why I was reading it. It just says coconut water, a legit one word. It's really very natural and nice. So, it's, if you see, no preservatives. Actually, the smell is also very natural. It is. So, we've tried to ensure and this is pretty much the only water in the market, that is. Yeah, I had one or two others. I would not like to take the name, but then they are so sweet that they do taste like coconut water. So, both I think from a sweetness perspective and the second aspect is, you know, the preservatives aspect of this. So, it gives us that metallic taste. Yeah. With us, I think we can kind of, going back to the same philosophy, how do you make this? Like, if I were to give this to you in just a glass, you should not be able to tell that, oh, this is a bottle or a, I think that's, whether it's onions or whether it's coconut water. So, this is the principle kind of factor driving. Okay. Yes. Wow, make sense. Okay, people, I think it's good time to wrap up the conversation as we enjoy our coconut water. Please stay tuned to D2C Revolution as we bring more co-founders on our stage. That's Bhalla signing off and that's Srinith Bhalla signing off. Thank you so much.


And I'm going to turn this, the moderation of the feedback over to Scott Horstein, our dramaturg who's been working with us on this project, and then here's Scott. Okay, so before we launch, and I'll just explain briefly for those of you who may not be familiar with the term dramaturg, my job is to be sort of the story analyst or story consultant for the production to sort of be a mirror back for the ensemble, tell them how I think what they're doing is going to read to the audience and dialogue about what are the goals of the piece and how can we get it to where they want it to be. So this is a big part of it. And as Ben indicated before the show started, what you saw tonight was not sort of what the piece will look like in the sense of we're not going to have all these pieces of things back to back necessarily. There was sort of a bunch of snapshots of different theatrical investigations that we've done into the notion of evolution in the circus and what that looks like in the theatrical setting. So there were some bits that you saw that very clearly had a story to it with the girl in the mining town and is she going to leave and the evolutionary wonderments and so forth. And then there were some sections that you saw that had no real story to them at all necessarily but were more sort of performance based. We don't know exactly how it's all going to fit together, if it's all going to be story, if it's all going to be not story with the performance bits or if somehow they're all going to fuse together. So for this feedback tonight we're less interested in hearing about whether it sort of thumbs up or thumbs down on different sections or whether this should go next to this or after that or we're really interested in just responses to the individual sections in and of themselves, something that struck you, something that might stick with you tomorrow if you thought back on the piece and it could be something just in the theatricality and performance of it or it could be something that happened to you intellectually or something thematically that you responded to and those insights will be really, really helpful to us and once all the cast is out I'll ask them to introduce themselves as well. So just to start, what was something that struck you in watching this performance? Yeah? Yeah, the way the last piece kind of evolved into umbrellas and riddens really struck me as like a primordial ooze or jellyfish type of image that I really liked and we'd love to see that explain. OK. And did it seem that way to you? You were the first person to give feedback with the soundtrack. And did it strike you that way because of the voiceover or do you think it would have struck you that way without the voiceover? The voiceover I think definitely looked me. So it helped you give a way to look at what you were saying? Yeah. OK. OK, great, great, great. Something else that struck you? Yeah? I was intrigued by the idea that there's with the girl having the glowing jeans and the idea that there can be something unusual and weird about someone that you don't see that's just kind of. That's a really lovely way of framing it, but I haven't heard it to me before. That's just an unsort of a character level, the idea of someone who's got something hidden that no one else knows about. That's really helpful. Thank you. Something else that might have struck you with one of the little scene lists that you saw? Yeah. Well, there's two really interesting instances of rehearsals. One is in the opening, and the aliens are the other sentient life are avoiding us. They tend to pretend to think we're pretty human-centric, like, oh, they want our planet. They want to make us sleep. Instead, it's like, you don't want to have anything to do with us. That was really interesting and compelling, especially since it comes to the beginning. It sort of seems to foreshadow what's about to happen, especially the second reversal, which is that the thing that makes her genetically abnormal makes her desirable.  So I think those were two really interesting reversals. That's great. And the word reversal is really helpful in helping us understand that those are things that we started looking for or enjoying when they happened. So that's fantastic. Now that we're all here, I'll just ask the cast to briefly introduce them. Hi, I'm Michelle. I'm Caroline. I'm DeBora. Lisa. Kurt. Rob. And just a quick hand again for the cast. Yeah. Woo! Great. Other things that struck you, something that you saw and that you responded to and that sort of stayed with you? Yeah. I missed, I came in somewhat late, so I missed the whole storyline that was being delivered. But I did really enjoy the part that I've been narrated with the actors rising on the ground and going through the progression of the evolutionary possibilities. So yes, that was quite enjoyable. I'm sorry. It was just very engaging, every single one. It kind of had me captivated. I'm just watching the development of each person on the floor and what they were going to be taking on. And you made some great noises. Yeah, I enjoyed the participation as well. But so it sounds like there was maybe even a little bit of suspense in sort of seeing what was going to happen and how it was going to evolve? Yeah, yeah, sure, for each individual. OK, that's great. Along with that suspense, were you surprised when Brian got up and was walking and started talking, or was that something that you sort of saw coming? I did not see it coming, even though I was kind of watching when it courted my eye and watching his response to what was happening. But no, I did not anticipate that happening. OK, very good, good, good. Another response, yeah? In the same scene, I think it was really striking when Brian starts talking about trying to see the beauty of things while there's some kind of predation or sexual act going on. That seems like a little base or whatever. I had a really cool, interesting contest. It was very striking. Great, great. Perhaps a reversal, perhaps not, but just going with the lovely word that you gave us to begin with. Something else that might have struck someone up, it could be a moment, it could be a line, it could be a thought. Yeah? I was very fond of the freezing in a tableau, doing something totally different than coming back and getting to it. I haven't quite figured out in my head how that's connected to the theme, but it felt very, very much evolutionary. That's interesting. I just thought of it as a stage device and bring us back to the scene. Now, that's great. And the thing that's nice about this workshop presentation is we throw some things next to each other, and we don't know if them being next to each other will wind up being meaningful or not, but you're suggesting to us that we should pay attention to how the things butt up against each other, which I think is really valuable for us. Thank you for offering that. Yeah? The whole child routine, which was just phenomenal, and also contrasted with Lisa's discomfort around this writing one-off story. Pretty fantastic. And I also really liked the Apple theme the whole offensive story before he was even said about the Bible. There was a tweet that went out over the interwebsk today about how somebody had seen this last night and decided to never have children. I don't know. It's her own guess. It's her own guess. It's her own guess. It's her own guess. Thank you for what you're saying. That scene, that image of the apple in the mouth three feet in the air, in the quote from Genesis just made me enraged by the way that I'm mad that it's in the play, but it, you know, yeah, I think you get it. Right, right, right. But it was potent for you. Yes. Right, right. It was more, I saw it as Friday, and it seemed to me almost even more individualization of each creature. I don't know what you mean. Each creature. And that was interesting. That they're more delineated as different. Right, right. But creatures do mean ones in the mind-times scenes as opposed to the, is that a point you're talking about? Any of them. Especially the rioting ones. So the great value of it actually performing something a couple of times. But that's great. That's very useful for us. It's definitely something that we were striving for, so that's good. Other things that people have to offer, something that struck you, yeah? Getting back to the childbirth scene. I mean, it kind of struck me that Lisa looked like she was going to push her away. I wasn't sure if she was going to push her away or comfort her. And that's kind of what our attitude is towards women in childbirth now. And I thought that was, I mean, it was just a tiny little detail, but I thought it was very powerful. That's particularly helpful, because that kind of uncertainty and that kind of tension is the kind of thing that you can build some theater around. So thank you for pointing that out. And she had told me, I'm Lisa's roommate. No favoritism here. She had told me yesterday that somebody said that they felt that that scene was too aggressive. And I can see where that's coming from, but I also think that that particular attitude is sort of encapsulated in that gesture that's either pushing her away or comforting her. We don't know how to handle the reality of it. I do have to say that the person who felt it was too aggressive was my mother. She felt it went on too long. The two-minute labor. Is that how she felt about it when she was... Excellent. Any other thoughts that you would like to offer, something that struck you? I disagree with Ben's mom and I thought it was just fine. I also enjoyed the texture of the scene and the basic feeling of the ensemble versus the more individualized moments that came out. I thought that was a fun interplay for me to have that richness that the ensemble brings. And they have a richness, but then they clear out that richness every once in a while and just be able to focus on something very simple, very small, very individual. So that's a balance perhaps for us to continue to pursue. That's good. When we introduced the Sky Harbor story, there's a few different things going on. There's a voiceover and there's music and there's very energetic dancing going on. For me, they weren't syncing up with each other. The Sky Harbor story was... I like the pitch tone of it. It's really cool. The music just wasn't matching for me with...


Hello, welcome to the session on Scrum Team roles and responsibilities of Scrum Master and the Product Owner. Let us see the learning outcome. At the end of this session, students will be able to describe Scrum Team roles and responsibilities. The Scrum Team consists of three roles, the Scrum Master, the Product Owner and the Development Team. Even outside the core team does not have any direct influence over the team. Each of these roles in the Scrum Team has a very clear set of responsibilities. Under this section, we will discuss in detail about the Product Owner roles and responsibilities. Another very crucial role that we are going to discuss in this tutorial is the Product Owner. Product Owner is the vice of the customer or stakeholders and hence is responsible for bridging the gap between the development team and the stakeholders. Product Owner manages the gap in such a way which would maximize the value of the product being built. Product Owner is said to be involved throughout the sprint activities and the development efforts and plays a very crucial role in the success of the project. In the success of a product. At the name suggests, a Product Owner should own the product on behalf of the company. The individual is responsible for ensuring that a product creates value for its customers and users as well as the company providing it. You can think of the Product Owner as the person who champions the product, who facilitates the product decision and who has the final say about the product. To fulfill this responsibility, a Product Owner has to connect with the users, collaborate with the development team and understand how the company works. As the Product Owner, you should directly interact with the customers and the users. The development team and other key stakeholders as the picture shows. I have circled the Scrum team, the unit consisting of Product Owner, Scrum Master and the development team in the picture above to indicate that the Product Owner should have close and trustful relationship with other Scrum team members. Scrum views the Product Owner as a part of the wider Scrum team. This makes sense as a great product emerges when the Product Owner takes a market and business knowledge and collaborate with the development team. Let us see the roles and responsibilities of a Product Owner. The first one is bridging the gap. Product Owner works closely with the internal and external stakeholders to gather the inputs and synthesize a vision to place the product features in the product backlog. It is the Product Owner's responsibility to understand the requirements and preference of the stakeholders or customers' community as he is the one who is acting as their representative and shoulders the responsibility of building the right solution. At the same time, Product Owner ensures that the development team understands what needs to be built and when. He collaborates with the team on a daily basis. Product Owner's engagement with the team increases the feedback, frequency and response time when which is as a result boosts the value of product being built. Absence or less collaboration of a Product Owner can lead to a disastrous result and ultimately the Scrum failure. The next role is to manage the product backlog. As an outcome to the above point, the Product Owner is responsible for creating and managing the product backlogs, ordering the items in the product backlog to best achieve the stakeholders' requirement i.e. pre-orderization of product backlog items and finally he should always be available to answer or give the clarification to the development team's query. Overall, he is responsible to groom the product backlog in order to improve the delivered values. Anyone who wants to add or remove the item in the product backlog or needs to change the priority of the item should be directed to the Product Owner. Next roles and responsibility is certifying a product. His another responsibility is to certify the features being built. In this process, he defines the acceptance criteria for each of the product backlog items. The Product Owner might also create the acceptance test representing the acceptance criteria defined by him or might take an assistance from the software management experts or the development team in creating them. Now he is the one who ensures that the acceptance criteria are met by executing the acceptance test. He may choose to execute these acceptance tests on his own or can ask the expert to do so to ensure that the functional and quality aspects are fulfilled and expectations are met. The activity is usually done throughout the sprint as and when the items are completed so that the mistakes could be uncovered and can be fixed before the actual sprint review meeting. The next role is participation as Product Owner is a key participant in the sprint related activities. He works closely with the development team in explaining the items, the scopes and the value it holds. He also acts as an enabler for the development team to be able to pick up the product backlog items that they are supposed to deliver by the end of the sprint. Besides the sprint activities, Product Owner also works on the product releases activity. During the product release activities, the Product Owner engages with the stakeholders to discuss the item of the next release. One of the key success factors for a team to flourish is that the entire team should respect the Product Owner and his decisions. No one other than the Product Owner should tell the team what items to work on. It is recommended to have a single full-time Product Owner for a single product. However, there can be an arrangement where the Product Owner is a part-time role. Product Owner is a person enrolled by the Product Owner himself who can take over all his responsibilities, his absence and support him. Layable and accountable for all the responsibilities that he has been delegated to but the responsibility of work being done eventually still lies with the actual Product Owner. Remember to make the necessary decisions on behalf of actual Product Owner. So in order to succeed, Product Owners require the right skill set. Product Owner is a scrum team member, good communicator, he bridges the gap between stakeholders and the development team and holds the accountability, is available and committed, except the responsibility of a product has business and domain proficiency. Let us pause the video for a while and answer the question. Why can't the scrum master and the Product Owner be the same person? As we discussed in the previous tutorial, the scrum master roles and responsibility. So why can't the scrum master and the Product Owner be the same person? Yes, the answer is Product Owner represents the customer, scrum master represents the team. While a Product Owner is in meeting with the client discussing additional requirements, the scrum master will be facilitating the scrum meetings and helping to remove the impediments. So how could these two scenarios be possible performing by the same person? So the both should be a different scrum master and the Product Owner should be a different. These are the following references I referred. Thank you.


This paper presents a novel approach for estimating the electrical parameters in single-phase distribution transformers. The authors used a non-linear programming, NLP, model to represent the parametric estimation problem, which was solved using the sine cosine algorithm, a combinatorial optimization technique. The results showed that the proposed NLP model accurately estimates the electrical behavior of the transformers under various load conditions. Additionally, the simulation results were compared with those obtained using the GAMS optimization package. This article was authored by Sarah Yulieth Bokenegra, Oscar Danilo Montoya, and Alexander Molina.


I've been very busy recently, it's nice to take it out for an evening, watch the sunset, watch the clouds, listen to the birds, and relax looking into the flames of a stick fly. I've been cooking on sticks for about 20 years, started when I improvised, and then over the years I developed my own little grates. Talking with the Free Range Network recently, we thought, why don't we actually publish the designs for a free, build-it-yourself grade.  Costs just less than £10 if you buy the parts from a DIY superstore. And we've put all the designs and the instructions for how to build it in this handout, which is available from the Free Range Activism website. The grates made from three things, angled galvanized steel, threaded rod, and 24 nuts. Angled steel, any old lightweight angled steel will do, galvanize is better. Fraded rod, a little bit hard to get from skips. Nuts, any old nuts to fit your threaded rod will do. Here's the design. There's no dimensions on this because the idea is you fit it to your saucepins, whatever size you want to make it. The issue is, it needs to be about 10 centimetres off the ground. Begin by marking up your steel, holes and lines. Very important to have square lines. Now if you have an engineering square, fine. If not, any old square card or railway ticket will do. Fraded rod, difficult to mark up because it's a spiral. Just pick a little spot that's the right distance and mark it for cutting. I'm using an old toolbox which has a little V cut into it. Note how I keep the blade below my thumb. We don't want to slice thumbs off doing this. And keeping it tight up beneath your thumb allows you to steady the blade and cut more easily. You cut from one edge to the middle.  If you try and cut through the whole thing at once, it's difficult to keep it exactly straight and stable and you never make such a good job of doing it in two pieces. And boom, off it goes. Very important when you've cut your pieces of metal to finish them with a file. It's not to make them look neat and tidy. It's because cutting it makes some very sharp edges.   Give it a good going over a file. Give it a fair wee of your fingers. It doesn't have to be a beautiful job. Just feel with your fingers and make sure there's no sharp edges. The threaded rod is harder to cut. You put a nut either side of the cut. Cut through the middle and then undo the nut. Because when you cut it, you're going to damage the thread. And undoing the nut fixes the thread again. Here's all the pieces cut. I haven't drilled the holes yet. That comes next. But you can see all the pieces have been the grate laid out. I'm using a pillar drill. Nice and quick. If you use a power drill, you'll need to use something to get skinning everywhere. Or drill a pilot hole. It's all explained in the handout. So here are all the drilled parts ready for assembly. I begin with the hinges. The hinges are the shorter the two lengths. Put the two sides on. And then do up two more nuts either side. Now the nuts lock together either side of the metal and create a hinge. You see here adjusting the nut. Get it just the right distance. And then put another nut on the outside. Oops. Now we're going to lock the nuts together. Locking the nuts together means they don't move. So you get two spanners or a spanner and pliers. Twist them towards each other and they won't move. Now do up the inside nuts. And again lock them together makes a nice tight hinge. There we are. That's one end of the finished hinges. Now I'll do the same at the other end. Next we put the the base section in. Now notice how I've got the nuts because it has to go all the way through and then go back in itself. Put the nut side aside and lock off one end. And do the other end. This is quite difficult because you have to slowly bend the metal as you push it out by tightening the nut outwards. And in the end lock the nuts together at the other end and it holds it. There's a nice trapezoid shape. It's not going to go around nice and stable to hold your grater. Of course doing that you've got a little bit of metal that sticks up. That's quite sharp. So what you do get some pliers bend it around your studding. And there you can see it makes a nice flat surface so it stands without being unstable. So final test take the sides fold them inwards and if you've got it nicely cut they should just meet in the middle like this one. If you want them if you want a longer grate no problem at all. It just has to be about 10 centimeters off the ground. Final load test stand it down give it a good bang all nice and steady. Great finished. Here you are. I got these two saw spoons in a sale recently which is why I had to make myself a new grate. And here they are in use outdoors. There's an R2 lighting fires and it's purely a matter of practice of actually getting out and doing it. Now I'm doing this in grass and you would make a scorch mark if you just lift the fire on grass. So I begin cutting a square of turf out about five centimeters deep, cut a rectangle, lever up one corner and then use the knife to slowly cut away underneath to remove the live part of the turf. And what you do is you expose the subsoil so that when you light your fire you're actually damaging the soil the turf because you've taken away the live skin of the earth so to speak. I've collected some grass from out of the hedge, some old hogweed sticks, chopped them up small, heat them from the heat. Now I've got some very thin sticks that I'm going to add to that, thin because they burn more quickly. So when you start to fire the grass goes first because that will set fire to the thin sticks then I finish off with some bigger sticks and now my fire is all ready to light. What I need is some tinder. I've yet to meet anybody except really hardcore primitivists who don't take a toilet roll walking.  What you're trying to do is make a sort of cotton wall-like fluff of shredded tissue fibers and that's going to catch the spark from my fire steel. Could use a match to set fire to that just as good but I prefer a fire steel because unlike matches it doesn't get damp it it will you can get it wet and scrape it and it will still light. I have very few luxuries but this is my biggest outdoor luxury. It's a Serium Iron fire steel, a quick scrape and it produces very hot sparks ritual. Quickly set fire to my toilet roll tinder. Put that underneath and away it goes. I let it burn up for a little while. Quick blow, get it all going. This is where the practice comes in, knowing when to blow and there's the grate put over the top. Now whilst that fire is establishing itself and getting a bed of ashes to keep burning I'm preparing what I want to cook. I'm going to have one saucepan full of boiling water to make tea and the other is some leftovers from home which I'm just going to warm through and really it's just a matter of sitting and watching the sunset and occasionally throwing a little stick onto the fire. This is a short distance out of town, no great effort to walk here. After a very busy week it's just the end to a nice relaxing day. I grabbed these sticks as I was coming up to the top of the hill. I mean literally it's just a stick here, a stick there, pick them up off the ground. You can see the the water's beginning to boil now so I'm going to find something to make tea. It's too late for hedge garlic, it's too early for yarrow so I've got some nettles. I've got four or five nettle stalks to just pull off the stalk, stick the leaves wholesale into the boiling water, tamp them down and leave them to stew for five minutes to make some more lovely luscious nettle tea. Strange that the nettle tea you buy from the shops tastes very sort of dank and bitter. When you make it from fresh nettles it has a lovely sweet aromatic flavour you just can't get if you buy it in the shops. There we are, just about done.  It's very important that you leave the site looking spotless. Now that begins by dousing your embers in water to completely put them out and to make sure they're out run your fingers over it make sure there's no hot spots if you come across a hot charcoal to pour some more water over it. And whilst the water soaks in and the embers cool down and the soil cools down I'll sit, drink my tea and watch the sunset. There we are luscious nettle tea once they've been in the boiling water for a few seconds the stings completely disappear leaving with some lovely tea. Sunset not a brilliant sunset but a lovely airy sunset with clouds and birdsong. So I've scattered the coals to get rid of them into the grass and the hedgerow now I'm just neatening up the hole a little bit take off the charred size now put the turf in place, tamp it down and then before I go away I'll water it to make sure that the grass can keep growing and actually the the embers will help fertilize it a little bit. And here you are this is unpacked and ready to leave you wouldn't know I've lit a fire there. End of the day feeling refreshed time to trudge home start a new week. You can find the details online I hope you build yourself a great and really get into the idea of use and stick fires and all the wonderful joys of the outdoor.


Yeah, we on boss talk one on one, one on one. Yeah, we gon' talk. Man, so how do you process the music? Like, what's your process?  Yeah, I punch in. I used to then like punching in at the same time, but it just like, I ain't gon' write nowhere. It just like, I don't got time to write. And then it just like, you know, when I signed, I think I was 16 or 17 turning. And then it just like, I go in the studio with other artists and then I'll be writing and then my studio time down there with type shit, see what I'm saying? So it, that really take too long. So I just go in and punch in. But only time I'm writing is like I'm in jail or something like that. Yeah, yeah. So mentioning jail, Mad Max, I think that's your homeboy. Yeah, am I cousin? Yeah, he locked up now, right? So have you been linking up with him since he been locked up or? Like talking to him? Yeah. Yeah, I've been talking to him a few times. He had signed, he just signed, he done cut his dress up. Oh, really? Yeah. Dang, what you laughing at the niggas? Yeah, nigga, you laughing at the niggas, right? No, it's just funny cause everybody know like when we was younger, we both had the biggest heads. So he couldn't see when he was here. Yeah, so he signed for some time or? Yeah. Yeah. So is he gonna be, give me his address, man. I'll be writing niggas, man. Yeah. Cause yeah, I come from that. So I always, I'm a real one when it come down to that. Yeah, he's still in the county right now. I know, but it's somebody, when he leave, give it to me then cause somebody getting a kite nigga.  I let him know what's going on, boss talk. That'll help a nigga to make it through a day. Not for everybody can interview him on the phone. Yeah, something like that. They just did that with, I think that boy, Ralo. Yeah, down now. So what's up with you in the music though, man? Do you have any more music awarded? Yeah, I got a lot of stuff awarded, but it just like, it's only crazy cause most of them is the person that, you know what I'm saying? That did it to Wadi. So it's just like, it's just like that. Yeah. It's just like me, him and Wadi on the same song or me, him and Wadi and somebody else like that. So it's just like... It's hard to even deal with it. Yeah. Is this the first time somebody close passed away for you like that? Not just this close, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's like family members done passed away, but not as close as it ain't hit me like that. Yeah, yeah. Well, fast forward, we're gonna talk about it cause I didn't get to talk about R. Kelly while ago. They found my boy, they found my boy guilty. They found him guilty, yeah. They got him. Free R. Kelly, man. They got him. Last time he was messing with Wadi about R. Kelly. And that was like... I know what's going on. Free R. Kelly, man. R. Kelly. You know, they got him. They got him. They're gonna find any way to get us. They got him, man. They're gonna find any way to get us. A black man with some money, you think they wasn't gonna get him? They got him. They got him, they're gonna get R. Kelly. R. Kelly was showing his ass, though.  They were getting him.  I don't think he was R. Kelly. He'd say R. Kelly was showing his... I don't think it was R. Kelly. He was showing his ass, though. I don't think it was R. Kelly. I think it was the people around him. R. Kelly, the one with the money life, he gonna live the life.  Yeah. bringing in the money, they want to do this. He don't want to do, he know what he want. You hear me?  He ain't no young nigga.  He was young. Something he was doing. He was doing. He ain't coming on to them, girl. They coming on to him. Not for real. For sure. No, you right, you right. Come on, man. They got this bread. He had that bread, man. But that don't matter, though. But that don't matter, though. No.  Or Kelly, look. Stop. My mama will talk to her, I can't lie. I can't even need it, like. I can't even don't need it, like. That's all I told you. Come on, man. I can't need you. Talk about them, come on, girl.  Stop playing, man.  We came up on her, Kelly, um, what does she call? Stepping and I didn't believe in shit, like. Stop playing with her, Kelly, like. I can't even eat that bread.  What did he do? He probably was rich, so he probably, like. Do you want some stuff? Put it down. It was some peeing and stuff they were talking about. Pissed, I don't see he trying.  You can't just pee on them kids like that, bro. He was pissing on kids? Nah, they young girls, like 16, you know, 17. I can't even ask for that, you know what I'm saying? That's how I don't say it.  The black men, they got us, they got us. Well, let me ask you this, do you? Hold on, Aang's network, negative two million dollars? Yeah, they got us, they got us, they got us. They want us to live, bro. They hear that money. They want us to live, bro. They hear that money. He got that money for sale. He got that money for sale. It cool though, the white men our way, they gon' try to get us, it cool.


Hello everybody and Merry Christmas from my family to yours. We're here on a Hot Wheels festive holiday track here in Assetto Corsa in this R34 with some pretty nice holiday lights and livery. We also have my Mosa Racing V2 RS in the holiday spirit with some red and green lights. So make sure you guys follow me on social media, I've found the description box below. I hope you guys enjoyed the beginning of the holiday spirit. Now we're going to go full drive, let's get to it. So this is a track that I've seen before but never actually really driven. So now we're going to go full send on this track here. We almost died in the car rolling down a little bit. So it's a Hot Wheels track but of course it's the holiday season so we have a lot of holiday festive stuff going on in this track. And what better way to drift in to Merry Driftmas than a holiday style track with an old Hot Wheels track because I mean as a kid who didn't want a Hot Wheels track. We're in this R34 just full sending this thing. We got our red and green lights on our Mosa Racing RS V2. So there's a couple of routes that we can take and we're going to try and take a couple different routes. First we're going to do the full track itself. Yeah we're going to jump over to that side. Oh boy. Oh man. So this is a bit of a modified world drift course street car with the holiday livery on it. Of course I have the extensions for the red and green underglow otherwise this is the standard World Drift Tours Street R34 and this track is so much fun. Definitely get on here and get some Tandems on this track. This is a fun track. There's a bunch of different versions out. This is the version with the obviously the holiday spirit involved. So I hope you guys are having a very Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays and I'm guessing getting everything that you guys wanted for Christmas. Definitely a fun time of the year and going into the new year here soon figured a very special Christmas episode. So now we're going to go try and jump to the other side. We're going to bring ourselves all the way around. This environment just looks so cool seeing everything. The sim rig over there, Christmas trees and presents. I mean if I had a Hot Wheels track that had drift cars on it that would be been super epic. Now I feel like I need to do that in real life. Make a pretty big Hot Wheels track but with like a small micro radio controlled drift car that would be so much fun. Alright so now we're going to try and jump over to that side of the track. Wrong gear. So we're going to try and jump over to that side of the track. So we probably need to just send it this way. We made it. Now we're on a different part of the track that I have not driven yet but now we get to go around some presents. Oh this is a jump. Let me make it. We made it. Oh man. Something totally different here in this other course of this track. This car is going to have no power to do this. Oh. I guess remember last year I had the Polo with the Christmas tree sticking out of the back. I'm sad that I remember where I put that mod. Oh that's clear. I thought we were going to fully die on that. So I think that's going to do it for this little holiday special edition drift video here on the set of Corsa. If you guys like this and you want to see more let me know down in the comment section down below. I appreciate it and once again I wish you guys a very merry Christmas and happy holidays from my family to yours and as always I thank you guys for coming back and watching. I'm EvilRabbit. I'll see you guys on the track.