Building Event Catalog: From AWS to Solo Bootstrapping with David Boyne

Dec 12, 2025

David Boyne, an open-source founder and event-driven architecture advocate, shares his journey from AWS serverless advocate to solo bootstrapper of Event Catalog. He discusses the struggles teams face with event-driven systems, especially around governance and discoverability. David reveals how his visualization tools emerged from his note-taking system and underscores the need for better event documentation. He also talks about his decision to go solo, building in public, and how he uses AI in his daily tasks as a founder.

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ANECDOTE

From Book Idea To AWS Advocate

David Boyne joined AWS after proposing a book and was invited to work there as a serverless advocate.
He focused on EventBridge and event-driven architectures while creating talks, tooling, and content for customers.

INSIGHT

Scale Exposes Governance Gaps

Event-driven systems start simple but governance and visibility break down as events scale.
Teams end up with inconsistent telemetry, duplicated events, and chaotic self-service patterns without guardrails.

ANECDOTE

Event Catalog Began As A Side Project

David built early visualization tools and an initial Event Catalog as side projects before and during his AWS tenure.
The Christmas side project evolved into an open-source project that gathered user interest over time.

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David Boyne joins us to share his journey from AWS serverless advocate to solo bootstrapper building Event Catalog, an open source tool bringing discoverability to event-driven architectures.

We start by exploring David’s background at AWS, where he spent over two years as a serverless advocate focusing on event architectures, EventBridge, and helping customers navigate the complexities of distributed systems. He shares insights into the problems he consistently saw teams struggling with as they scaled their event-driven systems, particularly around governance and discoverability - noting that event architectures are still 10-15 years behind API documentation, with most organizations lacking machine-readable specifications for their events.

Seeing these governance challenges repeatedly, David made the decision to leave AWS and pursue Event Catalog full-time as a solo bootstrapper. He shares candid insights into the realities of that journey and discusses how Event Catalog evolved from a Christmas side project to a tool used by developers, architects, business analysts, and product owners, each finding different value in the platform.

Topics include:

David’s journey from AWS serverless advocate to solo bootstrapper
Visual thinking: how EDA Visuals emerged from David’s Zettelkasten note-taking system
Event-driven architecture fundamentals and alignment with domain-driven design
The governance challenge: why EDA needs better discoverability and documentation
Transitioning from AWS: making the leap to full-time open source work
Solo developer journey: the highs, lows, and lessons learned from bootstrapping
Open core business model: balancing open source with sustainable revenue
Building in public: sharing the journey and making the pie bigger for everyone
Customer discovery: how to engage with users as a solo builder
Building for developers: the unique challenges of B2D (business-to-developer) markets
Pricing strategies: understanding value and avoiding the “too cheap” trap
Event Catalog: bringing discoverability to event architectures
Event Catalog Studio: visual design tools for event architectures
Tech stack decisions: choosing Astro, self-hosting, and GitOps workflows
AI integration: MCP tools, context-aware documentation, and the future of architecture docs
The importance of talking to customers and focusing on problems over features

Finally, we explore how AI is changing architecture documentation, with David sharing his experiments with MCP tools that provide context-aware assistance to developers working with event architectures; while recognizing that business context, domains, and ubiquitous language must come from human understanding.

Throughout the conversation, David emphasizes the importance of being human, focusing on problems over features, and advocating for the space rather than just the product. Whether you’re interested in event-driven architectures, considering a solo bootstrapping journey, or curious about building developer tools, this episode offers both practical insights and inspiration.

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