Søren Bramer Schmidt, CEO and Founder of Prisma, shares his journey of transforming Prisma from Graphcool to a leading ORM trusted by Fortune 2000 companies. He discusses balancing open-source growth with enterprise needs and introduces Prisma Postgres, a user-friendly managed database. Søren also tackles the N+1 query problem and highlights the shift from Rust to TypeScript for enhanced performance. With AI shaping development, he emphasizes how Prisma is evolving to meet modern demands, making database interactions simpler and more efficient.
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question_answer ANECDOTE
Prisma's Origin Story
Søren Bramer Schmidt shared Prisma's evolution from Graphcool, a backend as a service, to a popular ORM used by half of Fortune 2000 companies.
They learned users prototyped with Graphcool but switched to other tech for production, inspiring Prisma's design.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Growing an Open Source Community
Simplify open source projects to invite community contributions by making codebases easier to understand.
Collaborate closely with frameworks early to grow adoption, as Prisma did with JavaScript frameworks.
insights INSIGHT
Shifting Prisma engine to TypeScript
Moving Prisma's query engine from Rust to TypeScript simplifies the codebase and improves developer accessibility.
Removing Rust also boosts performance by eliminating costly data serialization between TypeScript and Rust.
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In this episode of the Modern Web Podcast, hosts Rob Ocel and Danny Thompson chat with Søren Bramer Schmidt, CEO and Founder of Prisma, about the evolution of Prisma to a widely adopted ORM used by 50% of Fortune 2000 companies. Søren shares insights on balancing open-source growth with enterprise adoption, optimizing ORM performance, and addressing concerns like N+1 queries and vendor lock-in.The discussion also covers the launch of Prisma Postgres, a managed database designed to make provisioning as easy as creating a Notion page, and the shift from Rust to TypeScript for better efficiency. With AI transforming development, Søren explores how Prisma is adapting to new demands in database tooling. Keypoints from this episode:1. Prisma’s Evolution – Søren Schmidt discusses how Prisma started as Graphcool and evolved into a widely used ORM, now adopted by 50% of Fortune 2000 companies.2. Balancing Open Source and Enterprise – The conversation explores Prisma’s approach to maintaining an open-source community while ensuring enterprise-grade performance and stability.3. Prisma Postgres & Tech Shifts – Søren introduces Prisma Postgres, a managed database aimed at simplifying provisioning, and explains the decision to shift Prisma’s query engine from Rust to TypeScript.4. AI and the Future of Databases – The episode highlights how AI-driven development is shaping modern database tooling and how Prisma is adapting to meet the needs of today’s developers.Follow Søren Bramer Schmidt on Social MediaTwitter: https://x.com/sorenbsLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sorenbs/?originalSubdomain=de
Chapters
Introduction and Host Banter (00:00 - 02:26)
The Origins of Prisma (02:26 - 07:31)
Building an Open-Source Community (07:31 - 12:36)
Rearchitecting Prisma: Moving from Rust to TypeScript (12:36 - 18:31)
Prisma’s Role in Startups and Enterprises (18:31 - 25:40)
Introducing Prisma Postgres and the Future of Databases (25:40 - 33:10)
AI, Serverless, and the Evolution of App Development (33:10 - 42:25)
Optimizing Database Performance with Prisma (42:25 - 45:00)
Final Thoughts and Closing Remarks (45:00 - End)Sponsored by This Dot: thisdot.co
Modern Web 