The Infra Pod

In this episode of The Infra Pod, Tim (Essence VC) and Ian (Keycard.sh) delve into the fascinating world of AI memory with Charles, the CEO and co-founder of Letta. They explore the intricacies of memory in AI, its current state, how it’s implemented in various applications, and its potential to revolutionize productivity tools such as coding assistants. Charles shares insights on how Letta is leading the way by creating platforms ...

In this episode of the Infra Pod, Tim (Essence VC) and Ian (Keycard) hosted DBOS building a reliable backend service, with guests including CEO Jeremy and cofounder Qian. The discussion delves into the company's motivation, their research work making software durable and reliable by default, their choice to be betting on Postgres, and how they integrate AI with traditional systems.

00:51 DBOS: Mission and Origins01:37 Creating ...

Join Tim from Essence VC and Ian from Keycard as they sit down with Gilad Kleinman (CEO of Epsio), to explore the next generation incremental query engine they're building. Gilad shares his journey from a software developer focusing on low-level Linux kernel development to identifying fundamental gaps in data processing. They delve into the philosophical questions regarding data complexity and redundancy, discuss the theoretica...

In this episode of the Infra Pod, hosts Tim from Essence VC and Ian from Keycard, are joined by Gil, CTO and co-founder of Merge.dev. They discuss the inception and mission of Merge, its growth, and how the company is solving complex integration problems for businesses. The conversation covers the challenges of integration, the future of APIs, and the impact of AI and MCP on the industry.00:37 The Integration Nightmare07:09 Common ...

In this episode of The Infra Pod, Tim (Essence VC) and Ian (Keycard) are joined by Branden Wagner, Head of Information Security at Mercury. They delve into the nuances of Information Security, discuss the interplay between human and technical controls, and explore the evolving role of AI in security. Wagner shares insights on fostering a collaborative culture and building secure systems, providing valuable advice for both engineers...

Ian and Tim host a conversation with Hamel Husain, an AI influencer and consultant who has worked with major tech companies like GitHub and Airbnb. They delve into Husain's journey to becoming an independent consultant, his insights on the common struggles with AI evaluation and data literacy, and his pragmatic approach to improving AI systems. The discussion also covers the importance of error analysis, measuring AI performanc...

In this episode of the Infra Pod, Tim and Ian sit down with Jake, CEO of Railway, to explore how Railway is reinventing cloud deployment.

Jake shares the origin story of Railway, their unique approach to simplifying cloud deployments, and the innovations that separate Railway from traditional cloud providers. With a focus on developer experience, cost efficiency, and leveraging hard-to-build technologies, Jake outlines Railway&...

Tim from Essence and Ian dive deep into why Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) is now getting hot with special guest Jon Morehouse, CEO of Nuon. The discussion traverses Jon's journey to founding Nuon, the significance and complexities of BYOC, and the emerging trends shaping the future of software deployment. Jon shares insights on the shifting paradigms in SaaS, the integration of AI in BYOC models, and the evolving conversations in the...

In this episode of the Infra Pod, Tim from Essence and Ian Livingston host Paul Klein, CEO of Browser Base, to discuss the intricacies and future of browser automation, the challenges of running headless browsers, and the emergence of AI-driven web agents.00:29 What's Browserbase?01:20 Challenges with Headless Browsers02:57 AI Agents and Headless Browsers09:21 The Future of Browser Automation13:26 Technical Challenges in Browser Au...

In this episode of Infra Pod, Ian and Tim chat with Simon, the CEO of Turbopuffer, about his journey from working at Shopify to building the fastest vector store known to man. They delve into the intricacies of scaling infrastructure, the challenges with traditional databases like Postgres and MySQL, and why Simon believes in building databases on top of object storage. They also explore the trade-offs Turbo Puffer has made, includ...

In this engaging episode of the Infra Pod, Tim and Ian dives deep into the world of real-time audio and video infrastructure with Russ D'sa, CEO of Livekit. Russ shares the story of how Livekit evolved from an open-source project into a company and discusses the challenges it tackles, including scaling real-time communication, building AI infrastructure, and the future of human-computer interaction. They also explore LiveKit...

In this episode of the Infra Pod, hosts Tim Chen and Ian Livingston welcome Joao, CEO and founder of Crew AI. The discussion dives deep into the world of AI agents, exploring the journey of Crew AI, the intricacies of multi-agent systems, and the future possibilities of automation using AI. Joe shares his personal journey, founding stories, and hot takes on the evolving landscape of AI, including the rise of open-source solutions l...

In this episode of the Infrapod, Tim and Ian sat down with Ian Nowland (ex-SVP of Datadog, co-author of Platform Engineering book), a platform engineering expert and co-founder of Junction Labs. They dive deep into the nuances of platform engineering, discussing the evolution of roles like sysadmin, DevOps, and SRE, and the current state and future of platform engineering. Ian shares his journey from Amazon to Datadog and talks abo...

In this episode of 'The Infra Pod,' Tim and Ian delve into a deep, insightful conversation with a special guest, Chris Chris Riccomini. As an acclaimed author and inventive mind in the realm of infrastructure, Chris shares his spicy takes on durable execution, BYOC, and modern infrastructure trends. They also discuss the evolving roles of analytics engineers, data pipelines, and the complex web of modern application archi...

In this episode of The Infra Pod, Tim and Ian are joined by guest Elliot Durbin, General Partner at Bold Start Ventures. They dive deep into the world of inception-stage investing, the evolution of venture capital, and shed light on the complexities of backing infrastructure companies. 00:00 Introduction 00:14 Guest Introduction 00:53 Investing Across Technological Waves 02:02 What to Look for in Founders 29:58 Premature Scaling a...

Future of Data in Climate and Earth Sciences In this episode of The Infra Pod, Tim and Ian sat down with the cofounders of Earthmover Ryan and Joe to discuss the cloud native multi-dimensional data lake they're building for climate and geospatial data. They delve into the role of advanced data handling methods, multidimensional array data, the impact of cloud-native technologies, and how these influence various sectors ranging fro...

In this episode of The Infra Pod, Tim and Ian sat down with with Sagar Batchu (CEO of Speakeasy) about APIs and software development. Sagar shares his journey in creating Speakeasy, challenges in API development, market trends, and his unique perspective on the future of QA in the context of rapidly advancing AI technology.

A must-listen for anyone involved in the tech and developer tools / API space! 00:00 Introduction 00:16 Gue...

Ian and Tim sat down with Jonathan Schneider, CEO of Moderne, about large-scale source code refactoring and the journey of starting a company focused on automating this complex task. Jonathan shares insights from his experience at Netflix and discusses the intricacies of automatic refactoring, the importance of maintaining code consistency, and the interplay between deterministic rules and AI tools in managing code migrations. The ...