Zero Prime Podcast

In this episode we talk to Jake Moshenko – Co-Founder and CEO of AuthZed. Hear from Jake as he traces his journey from building flight simulators to creating cutting-edge authorization systems – not mincing words when discussing the security challenges in AI-driven applications.Jake offers new perspectives on the future of permissions and access control in a technical discussion that captures the evolution of authorization from legacy systems to today’s AI revolution.You won’t want to miss this! -- Thank you to everyone who made Data Council 2025 Oakland an incredibly experience! This year's talk videos will be uploaded to YouTube by end of May 2025. Subscribe to our newsletter to get updates for once they're ready to view!

In this episode we talk to Sudarshan Lakshminaraseemhan – a founding engineer at e6data who cut his teeth during the formative years at global technology consultancy ThoughtWorks. Hear from Sudarshan as he dissects the evolution of software development from early waterfall processes to today's rapid iteration cycles – pulling no punches when discussing the cost crisis in data analytics.Sudarshan offers candid perspectives on the future of lakehouse technology – as someone who has operated from the trenches of agile adoption to the bleeding edge of data systems. This technical  discussion captures the evolution of software development and what Sudarshan sees as the unchanging foundations that survive cyclical disruptions. -- Thank you to everyone who made Data Council 2025 Oakland an incredibly experience! This year's talk videos will be uploaded to YouTube by end of May 2025. Subscribe to our newsletter to get updates for once they're ready to view!

In this episode of the Zero Prime podcast, we chat with Charity Majors, Co-Founder and CTO of Honeycomb, who traded piano keys for keyboard commands on their journey from classically trained pianist to a systems firefighter.Tune in to get Charity's unfiltered thoughts on why engineers should toggle between coding and management, challenging the "three pillars" monitoring model and insights on how AI introduces non-deterministic challenges to software engineering.-- Thank you to everyone who made Data Council 2025 Oakland an incredibly experience! This year's talk videos will be uploaded to YouTube by end of May 2025. Subscribe to our newsletter to get updates for once they're ready to view!

In this episode of the Zero Prime podcast, engineer-turned-founder Rob Woollen gives a refreshingly honest take on the founder journey. Rob shares his path from Unix coder to BEA Systems architect to Salesforce CTO, and finally to pioneering data analytics at Sigma.Get Rob's reflections on turning deep tech into market wins and navigating the AI revolution from an engineer who's built it all.1. 00:00 - Introduction and Early Career2. 04:25 - Salesforce Years and Career Evolution3. 06:51 - Path to Entrepreneurship4. 10:41 - Sutter Hill Ventures and Sigma's Genesis5. 14:38 - Building Sigma6. 20:30 - AI and the Future of Business Intelligence7. 28:55 - Closing Thoughts-- Thank you to everyone who made Data Council 2025 Oakland an incredibly experience! This year's talk videos will be uploaded to YouTube by end of May 2025. Subscribe to our newsletter to get updates for once they're ready to view!

In this new episode of the 0P podcast, we welcome back Spencer Kimball, co-founder and CEO of Cockroach Labs, to discuss the evolving landscape of software licensing in the cloud era. Spencer shares insights on how companies are innovating with new licensing models to bridge the gap between open source ideals and sustainable business growth.Drawing from his experience leading Cockroach Labs, a distributed database company, he offers a unique perspective on finding equilibrium between community collaboration and commercial success.-- Thank you to everyone who made Data Council 2025 Oakland an incredibly experience! This year's talk videos will be uploaded to YouTube by end of May 2025. Subscribe to our newsletter to get updates for once they're ready to view!

Vijay Subramanian, an engineer-founder and visionary behind Trace, shares insights into the transformative power of metric layers in business. He breaks down the differences between metric layers, metric trees, and semantic layers, emphasizing their significance in data analytics. Vijay discusses how tech giants like Uber and Airbnb leverage these systems for operational excellence. He also stresses the need for a data-driven mindset among analysts and highlights the potential of generative AI to revolutionize business data storytelling.

In this episode, I sit down with Paul Dix, the founder and CTO of InfluxData to explore his journey from a self-taught programmer to a leader in database systems. We discuss his role in building the NYC Machine Learning meetup, the creation of InfluxDB and the strategic move to make it open source. He shares insights into the decision to rewrite InfluxDB in 2020 and the power of community in tech development. We also touch on his transition from CEO to CTO and his advice for founders on making business-driven decisions. This discussion left me inspired and excited for the future of InfluxData.Highlights:[00:48] - Paul shares his circuitous route towards getting to school after working in technology directly out of high school[04:41] - Getting involved with Ruby meetups and developing applications on Rails[05:50] - Paul talks about his motivation behind starting the New York Machine Learning meetup[09:22] - We dive into how Paul's early experiences translated into what he built with InfluxDB[15:08] - Paul shares how InfluxDB has approached open source and, later,  commercialization, including how they've navigated challenges presented by the cloud providers[21:57] - Paul talks through some of the changes they’ve made to InfluxDB recently and what motivated those changes[27:40] - Digging into how the Influx team has taken a different approach to open source over the last few years[28:42] - Paul shares advice for engineer-founders considering CEO vs. CTO roles-- Thank you to everyone who made Data Council 2025 Oakland an incredibly experience! This year's talk videos will be uploaded to YouTube by end of May 2025. Subscribe to our newsletter to get updates for once they're ready to view!

In this episode, I sit down with Alex Mashrabov, the visionary CEO of Higgsfield AI. We journey through Alex's impressive career, beginning with his time at Yandex where he witnessed the early implementations of neural networks. We explore what ignited his entrepreneurial spirit and delve into the stark contrasts between the Russian and American educational landscapes.Our discussion then moves to Alex's experiences in building generative AI products, starting with AI Factory, which focused on innovative face animation technology and strategic planning for mobile devices. We also examine his time at Snap, where he addressed the challenges of balancing scale and cost. Finally, Alex highlights Higgsfield AI's groundbreaking approach to efficiently training text-to-video models. He discusses the common challenges organizations face when scaling models and allocating resources and emphasizes the importance of rapid experimentation in AI development.Highlights:[01:07] - Alex discusses his time at Yandex and what gave him the confidence to leave and become a founder[03:29] - Differences between American and Russian educational systems and how Yandex leveraged these differences for recruitment[06:57] - Alex describes what he built at AI Factory and his experiences on the Snap team[10:10] - Alex shares the engineering efficiencies he introduced at Higgsfield AI[14:03] - Exploring how experimentation influences the AI stack[15:52] - Alex talks about Higgsfield’s architecture and world models[21:32] - We delve into Alex's views on copyrighted material, deep fakes, and other ethical challenges of generated video[26:20] - Alex outlines the long-term vision for Higgsfield AI-- Thank you to everyone who made Data Council 2025 Oakland an incredibly experience! This year's talk videos will be uploaded to YouTube by end of May 2025. Subscribe to our newsletter to get updates for once they're ready to view!

In this episode, I chat with Jordan Tigani, the dynamic engineer-founder of MotherDuck who previously led Google's BigQuery team and headed up product at SingleStore.  Jordan shares the inspiring origin story of MotherDuck, which emerged from the overlooked analytics' long tail, focusing on serving small users in data analytics. Our conversation delves into thought-provoking topics such as the conundrum of big data, bridging the gap between unstructured AI data and traditional data structures, the impact of scale-up data warehouses on customer decisions and MotherDuck's relationship with the open-source DuckDB. Tune in to uncover more gems from the founding story of one of the hottest data infrastructure startups in the market today.Highlights:[00:45] - Jordan shares his “aha” moments working at Google BigQuery that gave him the inspiration to start MotherDuck[3:14] - Jordan digs into where we’re at in the era of data evolution and whether big data is still an issue[6:14] - We discuss how data and compute requirements are shifting with the rise of AI & ML[8:15] - Jordan shares the significance of scale up vs. scale out and how it impacts user experience and the speed of development[12:52] - We explore MotherDuck’s relationship with the open source project DuckDB and how they work together[15:45] - Jordan talks about the user progression from DuckDB to MotherDuck[18:20] - Quantum Round-- Thank you to everyone who made Data Council 2025 Oakland an incredibly experience! This year's talk videos will be uploaded to YouTube by end of May 2025. Subscribe to our newsletter to get updates for once they're ready to view!

In this episode, Pete speaks with Alvaro Morales, the co-founder and CEO of Orb, who shares his journey from being an engineer to becoming the founder of a flexible billing engine for modern software pricing. Alvaro traces his path from Lima, Peru to San Francisco, discussing the rise of startups in his home city as well as his early engineering experiences at Yahoo, Palantir and Asana.  His early days founding Orb were not without challenges, especially when it came to signing up customers and building trust. However, Orb’s customer-centric and collaborative approach helped them build strong relationships and turn early customers into champions. Pete and Alvaro also discuss the shift to usage-based pricing in the AI world and how Orb supports customers in implementing these pricing schemes. Listen in for a fantastic conversation!Highlights:[00:45] - Alvaro discussed his origins in Lima and what the tech world is like in Peru.[3:36] - We dig into what Alvaro learned from early engineering internships at Yahoo, Palantir and Asana.[6:55] - Alvaro shares the key insight that led him to start Orb.[10:16] - We discuss encouraging flexibility and experimentation of pricing and any downsides it can create.[12:27] - I ask Alvaro how he worked with design partners and started signing early customers.[17:42] - We talk about who was involved in their customer-acquisition and relationship building conversations.[18:20] - Alvaro shares insights into usage-based pricing and how it applies to the AI world.[22:35] - We discuss the biggest challenges in transitioning from engineer-founder to CEO.-- Thank you to everyone who made Data Council 2025 Oakland an incredibly experience! This year's talk videos will be uploaded to YouTube by end of May 2025. Subscribe to our newsletter to get updates for once they're ready to view!