Meeting of two or more bodies of flowing water
POPULARITY
Tim Berglund talks to Gunnar Morling (Confluent) about his career in open source Java and data infrastructure. Gunnar's first job: a student PHP developer in AMD's e-learning group. His challenge: building Hardwood, a fast, multi-threaded Parquet engine for Java with minimal dependencies.► The One Billion Row Challenge blog post: https://www.morling.dev/blog/one-billion-row-challenge/SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo
If you're a consultant and you're not using AI agents yet, your competitors are. No surprise, but they're delivering faster, cheaper, and better than ever.Chris Tabb, founder of LEIT Data, joins me live at Confluent Current London 2026 to talk honestly about how AI agents are reshaping the consultancy model, from billing structures and team rollouts, to building internal tribal knowledge and outpacing firms that are still staffing up the old way.Timestamps:0:33 — How Chris is Going Agentic1:56 — Token Maxing Leaderboards5:26 — AI Agents: Year-Over-Year7:08 — Tagile: Agentic Development9:00 — AI in Consultancy17:22 — Prompt Management & Context Quality
Gunnar Morling, technologist at Confluent and Java Champion, shares his experiences with building high-performance applications in Java, especially in the data space. He shares insights from experiments with building durable execution engines, bootstrapping, and AI natively developing Apache Hardwood - a minimal dependencies Java parser for Apache Parquet. Read a transcript of this interview: https://bit.ly/49cwnoI Newsletter: Subscribe to the Software Architects' Newsletter for your monthly guide to the essential news and experience from industry peers on emerging patterns and technologies: https://www.infoq.com/software-architects-newsletter InfoQ online certification cohorts: Online cohorts for senior engineers and architects, built around QCon talks. Join a 5-week confidential peer group to validate your approach and apply practitioner frameworks to the technical challenges you face at work. Learn more: https://certification.qconferences.com/ Upcoming Events: QCon AI Boston 2026 (June 1-2, 2026) Learn how real teams are accelerating the entire software lifecycle with AI. https://boston.qcon.ai QCon San Francisco 2026 (November 16-20, 2026) https://qconsf.com/ The InfoQ Podcasts: Weekly inspiration to drive innovation and build great teams from senior software leaders. Listen to all our podcasts and read interview transcripts: - The InfoQ Podcast https://www.infoq.com/podcasts/ - Engineering Culture Podcast by InfoQ https://www.infoq.com/podcasts/#engineering_culture - Generally AI: https://www.infoq.com/generally-ai-podcast/ Follow InfoQ: - Mastodon: https://techhub.social/@infoq - X: https://x.com/InfoQ?from=@ - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/infoq/ - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InfoQdotcom# - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/infoqdotcom/?hl=en - Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/infoq - Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/infoq.com Write for InfoQ: Learn and share the changes and innovations in professional software development. - Join a community of practitioners. - Increase your visibility. - Grow your career. https://www.infoq.com/write-for-infoq
This interview was recorded for the GOTO Book Club.http://gotopia.tech/bookclubEkaterina Gorshkova - Apache Kafka Engineer at SOFTEC & Author of "Kafka for Architects"Viktor Gamov - Principal Developer Advocate at Confluent & Co-Author of "Kafka in Action"Check out more here:https://gotopia.tech/episodes/440RESOURCESEkaterinahttps://www.linkedin.com/in/ekaterina-gorshkova-978bb6https://medium.com/@katyagorshkovaViktorhttps://bsky.app/profile/gamussa.devhttps://x.com/gAmUssAhttps://github.com/gamussahttps://www.linkedin.com/in/vikgamovhttps://gamov.ioLinks45% off discount code (expires on 25 May 2026): GOTOKGKafkaAffiliate link: https://hubs.la/Q044HgTvhttps://current.confluent.io/londonDESCRIPTIONApache Kafka has evolved far beyond a simple message broker — it has become a foundational layer for modern enterprise software. In this GOTO Book Club episode, Ekaterina Gorshkova, author of "Kafka for Architects", shares how her decade-long journey with Kafka — starting in a Czech bank's integration team in 2015 — shaped her understanding of what it really takes to design Kafka-based systems at scale. The conversation covers core architectural decisions, real-world patterns for enterprise integration, the role of Kafka Streams, and how to avoid the classic pitfalls of building systems that "only three engineers understand".The episode also looks forward: Ekaterina and host Viktor Gamov explore how Kafka is increasingly becoming the connective tissue for AI-driven systems, acting as an orchestration layer between intelligent agents, real-time data, and business workflows. Her book's central argument is that while AI and tooling change fast, the fundamental knowledge of how to design robust, event-driven systems is durable and career-proof. Kafka for Architects is framed not just as a technical manual, but as a roadmap for architects who want to get Kafka right from day one — requirements, design, testing, and all.RECOMMENDED BOOKSEkaterina Gorshkova • Kafka for Architects • https://amzn.to/42mDarUDylan Scott, Viktor Gamov & Dave Klein • Kafka in Action • https://amzn.to/4vJ3KcjViktor Gamov, Tartakovsky, Rasputnis & Fain • Enterprise Web Development • https://amzn.to/3CezL0RShapira, Palino, Sivaram & Petty • Kafka: The Definitive Guide • https://amzn.to/3RPtdLPBill Bejeck • Kafka Streams in Action • https://amzn.to/3CGJiiMBlueskyInstagramLinkedInFacebookCHANNEL MEMBERSHIP BONUSJoin this channel to get early access to videos & other perks:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs_tLP3AiwYKwdUHpltJPuA/joinLooking for a unique learning experience?Attend the next GOTO conference near you! Get your ticket: gotopia.techSUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL - new videos posted daily!
durée : 00:58:04 - Avec philosophie - par : Géraldine Muhlmann - Alexandrie s'est imposée comme carrefour intellectuel et culturel de l'Antiquité, devenant un lieu majeur de rencontre entre la culture grecque et les traditions orientales, notamment juives. On y observe un véritable échange d'idées, de langues et de savoirs entre les civilisations. - réalisation : Anna Pheulpin, Carla Michel, Corinne Amar, Nicolas Berger, Nassim El Kabli, Luna Hadjla - invités : Mireille Hadas Lebel Historienne, spécialiste du judaïsme antique et de la langue hébraïque, Nathalie Cohen Agrégée de lettres classiques, enseignante en grec et latin, essayiste Vous aimez ce podcast ? Pour écouter tous les épisodes sans limite, rendez-vous sur Radio France
Adi Polak talks to Russell Spitzer (Snowflake) about his career in open source data infrastructure. Russell's first job: software engineer in test at DataStax. His challenge: making Apache Iceberg ready for AI and streaming.SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo
Patrick Moorhead and Daniel Newman dig into the week's biggest moves in enterprise AI: Anthropic and OpenAI launching PE-backed enterprise JVs on the same day, Anthropic filling its compute gap with SpaceX's Colossus, Cerebris filing for a $3.5 billion IPO, NVIDIA going deep on co-packaged optics with Corning, and a full IBM Think and ServiceNow recap. Plus, for The Flip, hosts debate whether Anthropic, at $1.2 trillion, is the most important company in enterprise tech. The handpicked topics for this week are: 1. Anthropic and OpenAI Launch PE-Backed Enterprise JVs on the Same Day — Both companies announced private equity joint ventures, with OpenAI backed by Bain, Brookfield, and Advent, and Anthropic partnering with Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, Apollo, and General Atlantic. Daniel's read is that this is fundamentally a distribution play, using private equity portfolio companies as a deployment channel for AI at scale. Pat sees it as the clearest admission yet that enterprise AI cannot be self-implemented at scale without specialized consulting support, and flags that mid-tier systems integrators (SIs) could get cut out of the middle. (The Decode) 2. Anthropic Signs Massive Compute Deal with SpaceX Colossus — Anthropic urgently needed compute and SpaceX had 300 megawatts and 220,000 GPUs sitting at Colossus One in Memphis without enough business to fill them. Pat's take is blunt: this move is pragmatic. Anthropic needs it, xAI has it. Daniel adds that Dario himself said they planned for 10x growth and got 80x, and this deal is the fast backfill that reality demanded. The side note both hosts flag: Anthropic is running on H100s, H200s, and B200s, which puts the whole "Anthropic only runs on Trainium and TPUs" narrative to rest. (The Decode) 3. Cerebris Files for a $3.5 Billion IPO at $26.6 Billion Valuation — This marks their second attempt at an IPO after pulling the first filing. The architecture is genuinely unique, a complete wafer with massive on-chip SRAM and interconnects built directly onto the wafer rather than copper or photonics. Pat calls it the first credible Western alternative for AI inference. Daniel's framing cuts through: you do not have to beat NVIDIA to sell right now. You just need to have availability. The more interesting headline, both hosts agree, is that Sam Altman and Greg Brockman are angel investors, which adds fuel to the ongoing OpenAI lawsuit. (The Decode) 4. NVIDIA and Corning Announce $500 Million Optical Partnership — Three new US factories, co-packaged optics for Vera Rubin, and a supply chain strategy that mirrors what NVIDIA did with Coherent. Pat's context: this is vertical integration through investment rather than acquisition. Daniel's observation is that the pace of movement toward co-packaged optics is accelerating faster than anyone expected, and his "rule of and" applies here too. Copper is not going away. Optics are being added on top because the data volumes moving across these racks are outrunning what copper alone can handle. US manufacturing in North Carolina and Texas is a strategic bonus. (The Decode) 5. IBM Think 2026: Day Zero, Sovereign Core, and the Quantum Plus AI Bet — Pat moderated on stage with CEO Arvind Krishna and calls this IBM's best showing in five years. Arvind opened with the AI divide, the gap between companies still running POCs and companies already in production, and framed where IBM sits as day zero, not because nothing has happened, but because enterprise AI deployment at scale is still so early. Daniel's biggest takeaways: watsonX Orchestrate updates, Sovereign Core going GA with policy at runtime, and the Confluent acquisition potentially being IBM's most important asset since Red Hat, given that 40% of Fortune 500 companies run on it and real-time streaming data is foundational to agentic systems. Both hosts land on quantum plus AI as IBM's next inflection moment. (The Decode) 6. ServiceNow Knowledge 2026: Enterprise SaaS 2.0 is Emerging — Daniel got there on day three of the event and noted the conference was densely packed. His observation: enterprises have not gotten the memo from Wall Street that SaaS is supposedly dead. His emerging thesis is that middleware could make a comeback for AI, with companies needing a layer that lets agents work across any infrastructure, any app, and within the rules of their specific business. Pat agrees and adds that the growth question is about mix, not survival. (The Decode) 7. The Flip: Is Anthropic at $1.2 Trillion the Most Important Company in Enterprise Tech? — Daniel took the affirmative citing that Claude Code is deeply entrenched in developer workflows. Anthropic went from $9 billion to $45 billion ARR in months. Every major hyperscaler is both a customer and an investor. The PE JVs are turning verticals into Anthropic engines. Dario said they planned for 10x and got 80x. Pat's counter: the enterprise trust gap is real after what Anthropic pulled on pricing and performance. Microsoft has 2 billion users across 365, Azure, and Copilot. NVIDIA is the infrastructure Anthropic runs on. And workforce replacement, which is how Anthropic extracts its terminal value, is not arriving as fast as the valuation suggests. In reality, both hosts admit their notes looked almost identical. (The Flip) 8. AMD — Lisa Su guided AI data center growth up from 60% to 80%. With OpEx growing 83%, net income up 95%, free cash flow ripping, and CPUs growing at nearly 40% without price increases, Pat reads this as unit market share gains coming soon. Daniel's framing: AMD is now a two-headed juggernaut with CPUs and GPUs for the data center. And Helios has not even started shipping yet. Both hosts take a victory lap for previously calling this one. (Bulls and Bears) 9. Palantir — Triple beat on revenue, EPS, and forward guidance. Rule of 40 at 145%. Government revenue up 84%, 47 deals over $10 million, and the largest guidance raise in the company's history. Daniel's take: Palantir is redefining the category entirely. It's not a software company in the Salesforce or ServiceNow sense. It's technology, plus ontology, plus people, deployed at the deepest layers inside governments and enterprises. Pat adds that the four deployed FTE model lets them stand up AIP POCs within a week, which is why they are winning business at this pace. (Bulls and Bears) 10. ARM — AGI processor demand doubled from $1 billion to $2 billion within 45 days. Record revenue, strong pipeline, royalty growth at 21% for the full year. The stock ripped after hours, then sold the next day when management confirmed only enough supply for $1 billion of that $2 billion demand. Pat's read: 50% CPU market share with hyperscalers at the core level is the most underdiscussed signal on the call. Daniel adds that the worry about ARM competing with its own customer base in custom silicon has been quietly swept away by the sheer volume of compute demand. (Bulls and Bears) 11. Supermicro — A board member allegedly used a hairdryer to remove labels from GPU boxes being shipped to China. Approximately 20% of their revenue has reportedly been illegally shipped to China. They beat on EPS and Q4 guide but missed Q3 revenue versus consensus. Stock still ripped 18%. Daniel's take: if you are selling picks and shovels during a gold rush and you are this messed up, he cannot imagine owning it with the overhang that is building. (Bulls and Bears) 12. Lattice Semi and Coherent — Lattice revenue up 42%, back into growth, guiding to 50% year-on-year at midpoint. The AMI acquisition at $1.65 billion doubles their serviceable market from $6 billion to $12 billion and puts them inside every AI server on the planet at the BIOS and platform firmware layer. Pat calls the timing right: core financials crushing it, time to make a move. Coherent printed 21% year-on-year growth, 55% EPS growth, margins expanding, debt coming down, entered the S&P 500, and sits at the center of the co-packaged optics trend that is accelerating. Pat's choke point note: Indium phosphide capacity is the constraint. Six-inch fabs are doubling capacity in 2026, a quarter ahead of plan, and competitors are still ramping their transitions. (Bulls and Bears) Want the full breakdown from IBM Think and ServiceNow Knowledge, and check out our on-the-ground coverage linked in the show notes. Be part of our community. Hit that subscribe button and let us know what you want us to cover next week in the comments. Intro Pat on Stage at IBM Think https://x.com/PatrickMoorhead/status/2051381046537601101?s=20 The Decode OpenAI and Anthropic Both Launch PE-Backed Enterprise Services JVs on the Same Day — The Palantir FDE Model Goes Mainstream https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-05-04/openai-finalizes-10-billion-joint-venture-with-pe-firms-to-deploy-ai https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/04/anthropic-and-openai-are-both-launching-joint-ventures-for-enterprise-ai-services/ https://www.semafor.com/article/05/04/2026/openai-anthropic-ramp-up-enterprise-push Anthropic and SpaceX Sign Massive Compute Deal — Full 300MW / 220,000 GPU Colossus 1 Memphis Data Center Plus Exploration of Multi-Gigawatt Orbital AI Compute https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/06/anthropic-spacex-data-center-capacity.html https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-05-06/anthropic-inks-computing-deal-with-spacex-to-meet-ai-demand https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/musks-spacex-has-rented-out-access-to-its-supercomputers-220-000-nvidia-gpus-and-300-megawatts-of-ai-compute-power-to-rival-anthropic Cerebras Files for $3.5B IPO at $26.6B Valuation — The First Major AI Chip IPO of 2026 https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/04/cerebras-ipo-ai-chipmaker.html https://theaiinsider.tech/2026/05/06/cerebras-systems-eyes-3-5b-in-largest-tech-ipo-of-2026-on-strength-of-ai-chip-demand/ https://www.briefs.co/news/ai-chipmaker-cerebras-just-filed-for-a-3-5-billion-ipo/ NVIDIA and Corning Announce Game-Changing Optical Partnership — $500M Investment, 3 New U.S. Factories, and Co-Packaged Optics for Vera Rubin and Beyond https://www.corning.com/worldwide/en/about-us/news-events/news-releases/2026/05/nvidia-and-corning-announce-long-term-partnership-to-strengthen-us-manufacturing-for-ai-infrastructure.html https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/06/nvidia-corning-optical-factories-nc-texas-ai.html https://www.wsj.com/tech/nvidia-corning-form-partnership-to-expand-fiber-optic-manufacturing-17f525de https://kfgo.com/2026/05/06/corning-partners-with-nvidia-to-expand-us-fiber-optic-output-for-ai-growth/ IBM Think 2026 Boston — Watsonx Orchestrate Next-Gen, Confluent Real-Time Data, IBM Concert, and Sovereign Core Define IBM's Agentic Operating Model https://newsroom.ibm.com/2026-05-05-think-2026-ibm-delivers-the-blueprint-for-the-ai-operating-model-as-the-ai-divide-widens https://www.ibm.com/new/announcements/ibm-announcements-at-think-2026 https://www.instagram.com/reel/DX42DlrglOs/ ServiceNow Knowledge 2026 Las Vegas https://www.servicenow.com/events/knowledge.html https://newsroom.servicenow.com/press-releases/details/2026/Cohesity-and-ServiceNow-Deliver-Real-Time-Recovery-for-Enterprise-AI-Agents/default.aspx https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/04/nvidia-backed-cohesity-eyes-2026-ipo-with-valuation-rivaling-17-billion-rubrik.html The Flip: Anthropic at $1.2T Now the Most Important Company in Enterprise Tech — More Important Than NVIDIA, Microsoft, or OpenAI FOR: Dual-hyperscaler compute anchor (Amazon $33B + Google $40B = $73B) is structural — unmatched https://futurumgroup.com/insights/anthropics-gigawatt-scale-tpu-deal-with-broadcom-creates-a-structural-advantage/ Constitutional AI safety positioning wins regulated industries https://www.anthropic.com/news/anthropic-nec-japan-ai-engineering-workforce $900B valuation surpasses OpenAI ($852B) at faster revenue growth and lower burn rate https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/30/anthropic-potential-900b-valuation-round-could-happen-within-two-weeks/ AGAINST: NVIDIA still controls the substrate — every Anthropic dollar of revenue requires NVIDIA inference at some layer https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/27/nvidia-just-hit-an-all-time-high-why-some-think-a-rally-is-just-getting-started.html Microsoft has the enterprise distribution — 365 + Azure + Copilot reach >2 billion users https://www.marketbeat.com/originals/microsofts-maia-200-the-profit-engine-ai-needs/ $900B valuation is venture marketing — the IPO will reset the number https://www.semafor.com/article/05/04/2026/openai-anthropic-ramp-up-enterprise-push Bulls & Bears: AMD Q1 2026 — Revenue $10.3B (+38% YoY), MI300X Data Center GPU Demand Drives Stock +20% on the Print https://ir.amd.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/1284/amd-reports-first-quarter-2026-financial-results https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/05/amd-q1-2026-earnings-report.html https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/amd-q1-2026-earnings-revenue-203331768.html Palantir Q1 2026 — Revenue +85% YoY, US Commercial +133%, Rule of 40 Score Hits 145%; Largest Guidance Raise in Company History https://investors.palantir.com/files/Palantir%20-%20Q1%202026%20Business%20Update.pdf https://www.reddit.com/r/PLTR/comments/1t3t0me/palantir_reports_q1_2026_us_revenue_growth_of_104/ https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/palantir-technologies-inc-q1-2026-002218719.html https://semiconalpha.substack.com/p/palantir-q1-2026-rewriting-the-rule Arm Holdings Q4 FY2026 — Record $1.49B Quarter, Full-Year Revenue Crosses $4.92B, $2B AGI CPU Pipeline; Stock +16% After Hours https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/arm-q4-earnings-call-highlights-225942093.html https://www.stocktitan.net/sec-filings/ARM/6-k-arm-holdings-plc-uk-current-report-foreign-issuer-7e9ca9ac7dda.html https://semiconalpha.substack.com/p/arm-q4-fy2026-record-quarter-2-billion Super Micro Computer Q3 FY2026 — Revenue $10.2B (+123% YoY), Strong Q4 Guide; Stock +18% AH on First Earnings Call Since Co-Founder Indictment Drama https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/05/super-micro-smci-q3-earnings-report-2026.html https://www.stocktitan.net/sec-filings/SMCI/8-k-super-micro-computer-inc-reports-material-event-e70b2f8b3cb7.html https://www.instagram.com/reel/DX42DlrglOs/ Lattice Semiconductor Q1 2026 — Beat-and-Raise Quarter ($170.9M, +42% YoY) Paired With $1.65B AMI Acquisition That Doubles Lattice's SAM to $12B https://www.stocktitan.net/sec-filings/LSCC/8-k-lattice-semiconductor-corp-reports-material-event-642a862b2bf9.html https://www.ami.com/resources/ami-announces-agreement-to-be-acquired-by-lattice-semiconductor/ https://www.linkedin.com/posts/patmoorhead_lattice-semiconductor-posts-beat-and-raise-activity-7457411226944425984-xA8T Coherent Q3 2026 Earnings https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/coherent-cohr-tops-revenue-expectations-in-q3-as-ai-demand-accelerates-shares-decline/ar-AA22Bz24?ocid=finance-verthp-feeds
Tim Berglund talks to Caleb Grillo (Confluent / WarpStream) about his career in data streaming product management. Caleb's first job: washing windows. Their challenge: reshaping Confluent Cloud's billing and pioneering diskless Kafka to trade latency for huge cost savings.SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo
Vandaag aan tafel:Barend BaarssenTonny BastiaansKarel van der WoudeRishi DoergaTimeline:00:00 – Intro00:30 – Introductie van Rishi Durga en de overname door IBM02:09 – Wat is Kafka?07:40 – De technische werking13:04 – De toegevoegde waarde van Confluent15:03 – Mainframe offloading en latency20:03 – Data filteren en combineren22:05 – Confluent en AI24:25 – Security en RBACShownotes:In deze aflevering schuift Rishi Doerga aan, Solution Engineer bij Confluent, om de recente overname door IBM en de essentie van data streaming te bespreken. De kern van het gesprek draait om Apache Kafka en hoe Confluent deze open-source technologie transformeert naar een robuust, enterprise-ready platform. Centraal staat het concept van 'events', waarbij data niet als statische eindstaat in een database wordt gezien, maar als een continue stroom van gebeurtenissen.Het platform biedt een oplossing voor de beperkingen van traditionele systemen, zoals mainframes, door data direct te 'offloaden' naar een schaalbare integratielaag. Met meer dan 300 connectoren stelt Confluent bedrijven in staat om binnen enkele minuten diverse databronnen te ontsluiten en te koppelen. Door gebruik te maken van stream-processing via Flink kan deze data bovendien direct gefilterd, geaggregeerd en geanalyseerd worden met een latency van milliseconden.Tot slot wordt de cruciale rol van data streaming binnen moderne AI-architecturen besproken, specifiek voor het aansturen van autonome agents. Door Kafka als asynchrone communicatielaag te gebruiken, blijven AI-ketens robuust en schaalbaar, zelfs als individuele onderdelen vertragen. Confluent voegt hier een essentiële governance-laag aan toe met Role Based Access Control en automatische encryptie, waardoor ontwikkelaars zich volledig kunnen richten op innovatie in plaats van complexe security-vraagstukkenLinks:Confluent: https://www.confluent.ioLinkedIn Rishi Doerga: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rishi-doerga-393901/Overname in het nieuws: https://www.dutchitchannel.nl/news/727461/ibm-voltooit-miljardenovername-van-confluentOp- en aanmerkingen kunnen gestuurd worden naar: ofjestoptdestekkererin@nl.ibm.com
Adi Polak talks to Mateo Rojas (LittleHorse) about his career working with Kafka Streams. Mateo's first job: building a real-money policy management platform on early Kafka Streams. His challenge: working at LittleHorse with Kafka as a workflow engine and deciding whether it should be the source of truth.SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo
Mettre un pantalon plutôt qu'une robe, acheter une voiture, recruter un nouvel employé, accorder un prêt bancaire, investir dans une start-up, tirer un missile... Tous ces actes, du plus anodin au plus déterminant, relèvent de la prise de décision. Et à ce jeu-là, il semblerait que l'intelligence artificielle ait pris une longueur d'avance. L'an dernier, (2025) Microsoft vantait la supériorité de son outil médical. Lors d'un test, l'IA du géant de la tech avaient obtenu 85,5% de bons diagnostics contre 20% des médecins participant à l'expérience. Précision importante, ces derniers n'avaient pas la possibilité de consulter ni leurs manuels, ni leurs collègues. Il n'empêche, la place de l'intelligence artificielle dans la prise de décisions est appelée à grandir. Selon une étude réalisée pour Confluent, une entreprise américaine spécialisée dans les technologies, 62% des dirigeants interrogés ont déclaré utiliser l'IA pour la majorité de leurs décisions. Finis donc, les doutes et le stress pour les humains, désormais l'IA décide pour nous mieux et plus vite. De nombreuses questions demeurent néanmoins. Il suffit de penser aux fameuses « hallucinations », ces réponses inventées par ChatGPT pour renoncer à déléguer ses décisions à la machine. Dans le domaine militaire, le recours à l'IA suscite même de sérieuses inquiétudes. Une étude du King's College de Londres, a démontré que les principaux modèles d'IA développés par OpenAI, Anthropic et Google choisissent de recourir à l'arme nucléaire dans 95% des cas de conflits auxquels ils sont exposés. Une décision plus que radicale, qui soulève également une question cruciale, si l'IA décide qui porte la responsabilité de la décision ? Et plus globalement, à quoi ressemblera une société dont les choix importants seront délégués aux machines? Avec : • Eric Hazan, dirigeant d'un fonds d'investissement, référence de la transformation digitale et de l'IA, enseignant à HEC Paris et à Sciences Po et co-auteur avec Olivier Sibony de Faut-il encore décider ? La décision humaine à l'ère de l'intelligence artificielle (Flammarion, 2026) • Eric Sadin, écrivain et philosophe, penseur des technologies numériques. Il est l'auteur de 10 ouvrages sur ces enjeux décisifs de notre temps, dont le dernier Le Désert de nous-même - Le tournant intellectuel et créatif de l'intelligence artificielle (L'échappée, 2026). Il est également à l'initiative du « contre-sommet de l'IA » qui s'est tenu à Paris en février 2025, au moment même du sommet mondial organisé par la France. En fin d'émission, Le monde des enfants de Charlie Dupiot. La parole aux enfants 8 milliards de voisins » avec le « Monde des enfants » de Charlie Dupiot ! Aujourd'hui, ils sont 6 à nous plonger au coeur de la nuit, de leurs nuits... Ils nous racontent leurs rêves et surtout, leurs cauchemars ! Domingo, Mayas, Luciana, Tyron, Ishak et Evelina ont 10 ans, ils sont en classe de CM2 à l'école Edgar Quinet à Aubervilliers, en région parisienne. Programmation musicale : ► Doucement - Fally Ipupa, Joé Dwet Filé ► Encore une fois - Orelsan, Yamê.
Tim Berglund talks to Joseph Marais (Confluent) about his career in data streaming. Joseph's first job: SAN administrator. His challenge: AI radically changing how developers build software.The Pragmatic Engineer episode ft. Grady Booch: https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/software-architecture-with-grady-boochSEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo
Tim Berglund talks to Will LaForest (Confluent) about his career in software and data streaming. Will's first job: a high school internship at DARPA. His challenge: turning advanced technology into something people actually care about.SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo
Viktor Gamov talks to Baruch Sudakurski (TuxCare) about his career in developer advocacy. Baruch's first job: fixing electric kettles. His challenge: figuring out how to map a non-relational database (MongoDB) into Spring Data's SQL-oriented model.SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo
Jay Kreps is the co-founder and CEO of Confluent, the company built around Apache Kafka — the open-source data streaming platform he originally built while at LinkedIn. In this conversation, Jay shares his full journey: how Confluent grew from a scrappy group of engineers with no go-to-market experience into a publicly traded enterprise software company. He makes the case that the difference between what a company can do, and what it must do, is one of the most underrated building levers; illustrated through his years spent pushing Confluent towards a cloud product, in the face of widespread opposition. In this episode, we discuss: Why moving from software engineer to CEO requires almost an entirely new skillset The product marketing pyramid Jay built to explain Kafka to the world How Confluent bludgeoned its way to a cloud-first business when the early product was “embarrassing” The critical difference between what a company can do and what it must do What keeps scaling companies from becoming "Chipotle” References: Amazon Web Services: https://aws.amazon.com/ Apache Kafka: https://kafka.apache.org/ Benchmark: https://www.benchmark.com/ Confluent: https://www.confluent.io/ Jun Rao: https://www.linkedin.com/in/junrao LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/ McKinsey & Company: https://www.mckinsey.com/ MySpace: https://www.myspace.com/ Neha Narkhede: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nehanarkhede Oracle: https://www.oracle.com/ Red Hat: https://www.redhat.com/ Snowflake: https://www.snowflake.com/ Where to find Jay: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaykreps/ Twitter/X: https://x.com/jaykreps Where to find Brett: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-berson-9986094/ Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/brettberson Where to find First Round Capital: Website: https://firstround.com/ First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/ Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/firstround YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRoundCapital This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast Timestamps: 01:18 Making the leap from engineer to CEO 03:33 The 80% rule: what a CEO actually needs to know 04:54 Scaling different business disciplines 09:31 How Confluent's story began in LinkedIn 12:13 The growing need for scalable data tech 13:37 What the early Kafka product looked like 16:38 Kafka's underwhelming open-source launch 18:38 The blog post that accelerated Kafka's adoption 20:16 Why so many marketing messages fail 28:08 The decision to build Confluent 34:24 Planning to fundraise before building the product 39:19 Confluent's early years: Tough product decisions 47:07 The underrated growth lever question for companies 55:46 Why founder optimism is an overrated trait 1:00:29 What should founders give up as they scale? 1:02:47 Why people become trapped in a failure mindset 1:08:33 The Chipotle problem: Losing excellence at scale
Adi Polak talks to Arvind Suresh (OpenAI) about his career in distributed systems and real-time streaming. Arvind's first job: coding at school. His challenge: turning OpenAI's fragile Kafka setup into a reliable, multi-region streaming backbone.SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo
Mountains of data. Instant delivery. AI co-pilots ready to process it all in seconds. By all logic, our decision-making should be getting sharper, easier, and infinitely more effective. Yet, the exact opposite is happening. Leaders are more stressed, more disconnected from their teams, and increasingly regretting their choices.The reality is a much more sobering masterclass in data-driven self-deception. This week, I am examining a recent vendor report from Confluent that argues the solution to our modern leadership crisis is simply more and faster data. But if you look closely at the numbers (like 62% of executives using AI for a majority of their decisions, and 70% second-guessing their own judgment) the data actually holds the keys to why our decision-making processes are breaking down, and exactly what we can do to fix them. I'll explain why we must aggressively interrogate the lenses behind both external vendor reports and internal dashboards, how AI is secretly acting as an echo chamber that isolates executives, and why the ultimate leadership skill right now isn't just moving faster, but knowing how and where to inject "strategic friction".My goal is to move you out of "Spectator Mode" to "Strategic Preparation" by highlighting the greatest opportunities to prepare your organization for what's ahead:Decoding Data Lenses: We love to assume internal dashboards are objective truth. I break down why every metric has a hidden motive, like a talent acquisition leader celebrating a 20% increase in speed-to-hire while completely missing a drop in 90-day retention. You cannot blindly consume data; you must go into your next meeting prepared to ask what context is missing before making a call.Escaping the Lethal Triad: We casually assume AI is a collaborative partner, but it's often an echo chamber that isolates leaders from their teams. I share why you must actively fight the triad of isolation, overreliance on AI, and willful ignorance. You need to pause major decisions this week and force messy, human collaboration before you become part of the 75% of leaders who regret moving too fast.Injecting Strategic Friction: We are making sweeping organizational decisions just to appease the intense social pressure to move faster. I explain why using AI to just execute faster is a disaster waiting to happen. You must use AI and data to map out validation plans, like quickly testing assumptions on a massive upskilling push, so you can apply strategic friction and actually move at the right speed.By the end, I hope you see that true leadership isn't about blindly matching the speed of the machines. You cannot simply wait for a dashboard to tell you what to do; you have to define the friction points that will lead your team to the right outcomes.⸻If this conversation helps you think more clearly about the future we're building, make sure to like, share, and subscribe. You can also support the show by buying me a coffee at https://buymeacoffee.com/christopherlindAnd if your organization is wrestling with how to lead responsibly in the AI era, balancing performance, technology, and people, that's the work I do every day through my consulting and coaching. Learn more at https://christopherlind.co⸻Chapters00:00 – Introduction & The Big AI Stat02:00 – Unpacking the Confluent Report04:30 – The Danger of External Lenses10:30 – Action 1: Auditing Your Upcoming Pre-Reads12:00 – The Lethal Triad: Isolation, AI Overreliance & Regret21:00 – Action 2: Forcing Human Collaboration23:30 – The Speed Trap vs. Strategic Friction29:30 – Action 3: Identifying Friction Points in Fast Projects31:00 – Conclusion & How to Work With Me#ArtificialIntelligence #DataStrategy #Leadership #BusinessStrategy #ChristopherLind #FutureFocused #DecisionMaking #TechTrends #FutureOfWork
Plus: Microsoft reorganizes its Copilot teams. And Nvidia and Uber will expand their partnership to launch a global fleet of robotaxis. Julie Chang hosts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
IBM CEO Arvind Krishna discusses IBM's $11 billion acquisition of Confluent. Krishna also spoke about the impact of AI, his expectation for IBM to pursue more AI deals, the regulatory environment for those deals, and how AI is a tailwind for the company, causing no net decrease in workers. Krishna spoke with Bloomberg's Caroline Hyde.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Tim Berglund talks to Gunnar Morling (Confluent) about his career in open source Java and data streaming. Gunnar's first job: a student PHP developer in AMD's e-learning group. His challenge: working at Decodable on the 1 Billion Row Challenge.SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo
A structural shift is occurring in the managed IT services landscape as AI capabilities are rapidly embedded across enterprise applications, with oversight and risk management functions increasingly separated out and monetized as add-on services. Vendors, including Microsoft and OpenAI, are deploying AI agents in essential tools such as Outlook, Teams, and Excel, then selling governance, security, and compliance capabilities as additional paid layers. The core mechanism is the transfer of operational and liability risk downstream to IT service providers and their clients, while ownership of the control plane and margin on risk mitigation remain with the vendors. The episode highlights consequential findings regarding AI reliability and adoption. A Nature Medicine study found that OpenAI's ChatGPT Health underestimated emergency severity in 51.6% of cases, prompting concerns about overreliance on AI for critical decisions. Additionally, Confluent's UK executive survey indicated that 62% of organizations are already shifting decision-making to AI, but only 7% have a company-wide AI strategy, and fewer than half of executives and employees agree on actual daily AI usage. Most leaders receive little formal AI training yet are second-guessing their own judgment in favor of AI output. Further reinforcing the governance gap, Microsoft is launching Agent 365 and new enterprise security tiers, while OpenAI's acquisition of Promptfoo signals a focus on AI reliability testing and compliance monitoring. Funding for GRC platforms like IntelliGRC demonstrates capital flowing into third-party oversight solutions. The recurring pattern is vendors first pushing broad agent adoption, then introducing and monetizing governance as a discrete add-on, often outside the default package. Operationally, MSPs and IT leaders face increased liability exposure if they rely on vendor-native governance without independent audit or measurement capability. The absence of industry-standard reliability metrics for AI, combined with the perception and usage gaps inside organizations, calls for MSPs to lead in auditing, documenting, and independently measuring AI usage and performance. Failing to proactively manage these controls can result in silent risk absorption and unfavorable positioning as vendors bundle compliance and pass residual risk downstream to service providers. Three things to know today 00:00 AI vs. Judgment 02:35 Agents vs. Oversight 04:04 AI Reliability Gap 05:15 Why Do We Care? Supported by: ScalePad
Adi Polak talks to Sage Pierce (Indeed) about his career in software engineering and event-driven architectures. Sage's first job: Java Swing development at a Department of Defense–affiliated research lab. His challenge: working at Indeed on event-driven views and IMI to join data across domains in a polyglot microservices world.Sage's Atleon project: https://github.com/atleon SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo
Viktor Gamov talks to Leonid Igolnik (Former CTO at Clari) about his career in B2B SaaS engineering leadership. Leonid's first job: teaching kids Pascal. His challenge: changing buyer behavior and scale complex systems.Books mentioned:► Influence without Authority: https://www.amazon.com/Influence-Without-Authority-Allan-Cohen/dp/0471463302► Drive: https://www.danpink.com/books/drive/► Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking: https://www.amazon.com/Blink-Power-Thinking-Without/dp/0316172324SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo
In this episode, Jenna interviews Adi Polak, director of advocacy and developer experience engineering at Confluent, about why developers need to embrace a head chef mindset when working with AI agents.They discuss:What it means to adopt a "head chef" mindsetThe mental shifts needed to work this wayWhat role data streaming plays in enabling this
Tim Berglund talks to Colt McNealy (LittleHorse Enterprises) about his career in distributed systems. Colt's first job: software engineer at a real estate company. His challenge: working in a complex microservices environment and turning that pain into Little Horse.Colt's Current 2024 talk: https://current.confluent.io/2024-sessions/kafka-streams-as-a-data-store-for-a-workflow-engineGunnar Morling's blog: https://www.morling.dev/blog/Jack Vanlightly's blog: https://jack-vanlightly.com/SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo
Pour ce numéro de «Parlez-moi d'histoire», Guillaume Perrault reçoit l'historien Pascal Raggi, co-directeur du «Dictionnaire historique de la sidérurgie française» (Confluent des sciences) et l'historienne Diana Cooper-Richet, auteur du «Peuple de la nuit, mines et mineurs en France XIX-XXe siècles» (Perrin).Hébergé par Ausha. Visitez ausha.co/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.
Adi Polak talks to Daniel Doubrovkine (Shopify) about his career building data‑intensive systems. Daniel's first job: delivering pharmacy medications by bike. His challenge: building Artsy's Art Genome and auctions as simple as possible.SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo
Viktor Gamov talks to Jeremy Custenborder (Confluent) about his career in large-scale systems. Jeremy's first job: paper boy. His challenge: keeping MySpace running at a massive pre-cloud scale while building the tools that didn't exist yet and learning to fail fast.SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo
Tim Berglund talks to Richie Artoul (WarpStream/Confluent) about his career in data infrastructure. Richie's first job: working at Howie's Game Shack, a walk‑in LAN gaming cafe. His challenge: working at Datadog on a new log storage system.SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo
Adi Polak talks to Bryan Oliver (Thoughtworks) about his career in platform engineering and large-scale AI infrastructure. Bryan's first job: building pools and teaching swimming lessons. His challenge: running large-scale GPU data centers while keeping AI workloads predictable and reliable.SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo
In this episode of Tank Talks, Matt Cohen sits down with Timothy Chen, the sole General Partner at Essence VC. Tim shares his remarkable journey from being a “nerdy, geeky kid” who hacked open-source projects to becoming one of the most respected early-stage infrastructure investors, backing breakout companies like Tabular (acquired by Databricks for $2.2 billion). A former engineer at Microsoft and VMware, co-founder of Hyperpilot (acquired by Cloudera), and now a solo GP who quietly raised over $41 million for his latest fund, Tim offers a unique, no-BS perspective on spotting technical founders, navigating the idea maze, and rethinking sales and traction in the world of AI and infrastructure.We dive deep into his unconventional path into VC, rejected by traditional Sand Hill Road firms, only to build a powerhouse reputation through sheer technical credibility and founder empathy. Tim reveals the patterns behind disruptive infra companies, why most VCs can't help with product-market fit, and how he leverages his engineering background to win competitive deals.Whether you're a founder building the next foundational layer or an investor trying to understand the infra and AI boom, this conversation is packed with hard-won insights.The Open Source Resume (00:03:44)* How contributing to Apache projects (Drill, Cloud Foundry) built his career when a CS degree couldn't.* The moment he realized open source was a path to industry influence, not just a hobby.* Why the open source model is more “vertical than horizontal”, allowing deep contribution without corporate red tape.From Engineer to Founder: The Hyperpilot Journey (00:13:24)* Leaving Docker to start Hyperpilot and raising seed funding from NEA and Bessemer.* The harsh reality of founder responsibility: “It's not about the effort hard, it's about all the other things that has to go right.”* Learning from being “way too early to market” and the acquisition by Cloudera.The Unlikely Path into Venture Capital (00:26:07)* Rejected by top-tier VC firms for a job, then prompted to start his own fund via AngelList.* Starting with a $1M “Tim Chen Angel Fund” focused solely on infrastructure.* How Bain Capital's small anchor investment gave him the initial credibility.Building a Brand Through Focus & Reputation (00:30:42)* Why focusing exclusively on infrastructure was his “best blessing” creating a standout identity in a sparse field.* The reputation flywheel: Founders praising his help led to introductions from top-tier GPs and LPs.* StepStone reaching out for a commitment before he even had fund documents ready.The Essence VC Investment Philosophy (00:44:34)* Pattern Recognition: What he learned from witnessing the early days of Confluent, Databricks, and Docker.* Seeking Disruptors, Not Incrementalists: Backing founders who have a “non-common belief” that leads to a 10x better product (e.g., Modal Labs, Cursor, Warp).* Rethinking Sales & Traction: Why revenue-first playbooks don't apply in early-stage infra; comfort comes from technical co-building and roadmap planning.* The “Superpower”: Using his engineering background to pressure-test technical assumptions and timelines with founders.The Future of Infra & AI (00:52:09)* Infrastructure as an “enabler” for new application paradigms (real-time video, multimodal apps).* The coming democratization of building complex systems (the “next Netflix” built by smaller teams).* The shift from generalist backend engineers to specialists, enabled by new stacks and AI.Solo GP Life & Staying Relevant (00:54:55)* Why being a solo GP doesn't mean being a lone wolf; 20-30% of his time is spent syncing with other investors to learn.* The importance of continuous learning and adaptation in a fast-moving tech landscape.* His toolkit: Using portfolio company Clerky (a CRM) to manage workflow.About Timothy ChenFounder and Sole General Partner, Essence VCTimothy Chen is the Sole General Partner at Essence VC, a fund focused on early-stage infrastructure, AI, and open-source innovation. A three-time founder with an exit, his journey from Microsoft engineer to sought-after investor is a masterclass in building credibility through technical depth and founder-centric support. He has backed companies like Tabular, Iteratively, and Warp, and his insights are shaped by hundreds of conversations at the bleeding edge of infrastructure.Connect with Timothy Chen on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/timchenVisit the Essence VC Website: https://www.essencevc.fund/Connect with Matt Cohen on LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/matt-cohen1Visit the Ripple Ventures website: https://www.rippleventures.com/ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com
Tim Berglund talks to Sophie Blee-Goldman (Responsive) about her career in container orchestration and Kafka Streams. Sophie's first job: interning at Google. Her challenge: helping a hyper-growth customer whose Kafka Streams app was about to hit partition-based scalability limits.SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo
Viktor Gamov talks to Dhiraj Suri (Confluent) about his career in systems engineering and stream governance. Dhiraj's first job: software developer at NetApp. His challenge: working at Splunk to stitch together disparate systems into an event-driven provisioning platform.SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo
This is a special episode, highlighting a session from ELC Annual 2025! Bill Coughran (Partner @ Sequoia Capital & former SVP of Engineering @ Google) and Bret Reckard (Talent Partner @ The General Partnership) deconstruct the evolving role of engineering leadership in an era dominated by AI hype. Bill is a legendary leader who joined Google right after the .com bubble and has seen every major industry shift since. Drawing on his experience scaling Google and advising world-class startups, Bill shares why the best leaders are "catastrophic thinkers," how to balance servant leadership with the need for decisive action, and why AI is forcing every leader to return to their technical roots. Plus they cover enduring companies and real value capture in the AI era, the nuances of organizational design, the "apprentice model" for mentorship and the dangers of over-layered hierarchies that stifle speed. Bill also provides a candid look at leadership transitions, offering a tactical guide for those moving from Big Tech to early-stage startups. ABOUT BILL COUGHRANBill Coughran works as a founders' coach and partner at Sequoia Capital to help build spectacular technology-centric companies. Previously, Bill was Senior Vice President of Engineering at Google with oversight of Chrome, YouTube, maps, google.com, underlying infrastructure systems, and security.ABOUT BRET RECKARDBret Reckard is Talent Partner at The General Partnership (TheGP), a hands-on venture firm working alongside ambitious founders in talent, engineering, go-to-market, and product. He leads TheGP's Talent vertical, matching foundational leaders, early engineers, and key specialists across the portfolio. Before this role, Bret spent over a decade at Sequoia Capital leading Talent and Network, where he helped hundreds of founders at companies like Stripe, Confluent, Retool and DoorDash build their early teams. This episode is brought to you by Span!Span is the AI-native developer intelligence platform bringing clarity to engineering organizations with a holistic, human-centered approach to developer productivity.If you want a complete picture of your engineering impact and health, drive high performance, and make smarter business decisions…Go to Span.app to learn more! SHOW NOTES:Introduction and Bill Coughran's background at Sequoia and Google (1:36)Hiring pitfalls and the biggest mistakes made as a leader (3:49)Managing crises: Acting as a dictator during the 2010 Google hack (5:25)Building for the AI world without chasing "shiny objects" (7:09)Developing context: How to learn AI without relying on LLM summaries (9:02)Identifying enduring companies and real value capture in the AI era (10:53)The debate on coding assistants and the future of junior engineering talent (13:23)Transitions: Making the leap from large organizations to early-stage startups (15:59)Staying curious and finding excitement in the next professional challenge (18:23) LINKS AND RESOURCESLink to the video for this sessionLink to all ELC Annual 2025 sessions This episode wouldn't have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-HostJerry Li - Co-HostNoah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan's also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Tim Berglund talks to Daniel Hinojosa (an independent consultant) about his career in software development, data engineering, and event-driven architecture. Daniel's first job: Sears credit card telemarketing. His challenge: working at a company with internal bad blood and being called at 11 p.m. to pull off a late night “security research” hack on Windows and Lotus Notes systems.SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo
Tim Berglund talks to Mike Agnich (Confluent) about his career in product leadership and startups. Mike's first job: refereeing youth basketball. His challenge: leading product across connectors, governance, stream processing, and partnerships at Confluent.SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed Music by Coastal Kites Artwork by Phil Vo
This week, we discuss how Netflix is disrupting media, IBM's Confluent acquisition, and Anthropic buying Bun. Plus, an important discussion on fonts and typography. Watch the YouTube Live Recording of Episode (https://www.youtube.com/live/nNpiI00HPDg?si=s_G3zr_Z8yPvGNbB) 550 (https://www.youtube.com/live/nNpiI00HPDg?si=s_G3zr_Z8yPvGNbB) Runner-up Titles Blame the children I never liked that font No emojis, this is business time Mahalo You need a Chief Economist On the cutlery tray Rundown Rubio Deletes Calibri as the State Department's Official Typeface (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/us/politics/rubio-state-department-font.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share) Cartridge (https://www.fontspring.com/fonts/simplebits/cartridge) Source Code Pro (https://adobe-fonts.github.io/source-code-pro/) It's Official: Netflix to Acquire Warner Bros. in Deal Valued at $82.7 Billion (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/netflix-warner-bros-deal-hollywood-1236443081/) Confluent stock soars 29% as IBM announces $11 billion acquisition deal (https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/08/ibm-confluent-deal-data.html) Bun is joining Anthropic (https://bun.com/blog/bun-joins-anthropic?utm_source=changelog-news) Claude Code is coming to Slack, and that's a bigger deal than it sounds (https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/08/claude-code-is-coming-to-slack-and-thats-a-bigger-deal-than-it-sounds/) OpenAI enterprise usage study (https://cote.io/2025/12/10/highlights-from-that-openai-the.html). Relevant to your Interests Antigravity Is Google's New Agentic Development Platform (https://thenewstack.io/antigravity-is-googles-new-agentic-development-platform/) Amazon CTO Werner Vogels' Predictions for 2026 (https://thenewstack.io/amazon-cto-werner-vogels-predictions-for-2026/) ‘End-to-end encrypted' smart toilet camera is not actually end-to-end encrypted (https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/03/end-to-end-encrypted-smart-toilet-camera-is-not-actually-end-to-end-encrypted/) AWS AI IDE, AgentCore throw down gauntlets for Microsoft (https://www.techtarget.com/searchsoftwarequality/news/366635669/AWS-AI-IDE-AgentCore-throw-down-gauntlets-for-Microsoft) Admins and defenders gird themselves against maximum-severity server vuln (https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/12/admins-and-defenders-gird-themselves-against-maximum-severity-server-vulnerability/) Andy Jassy says Amazon's Nvidia competitor chip is already a multibillion-dollar business (https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/03/andy-jassy-says-amazons-nvidia-competitor-chip-is-already-a-multi-billion-dollar-business/) 52 things I learned in 2025 (https://medium.com/@tomwhitwell/52-things-i-learned-in-2025-edeca7e3fdd8) State of AI | OpenRouter (https://openrouter.ai/state-of-ai) Microsoft has a problem: nobody wants its poor AI products (https://www.windowscentral.com/artificial-intelligence/microsoft-has-a-problem-nobody-wants-to-buy-or-use-its-shoddy-ai) DHH & Open Source (https://ma.tt/2025/12/dhh-open-source/) Gruber: Apple employees 'giddy' about Alan Dye's departure - 9to5Mac (https://9to5mac.com/2025/12/04/gruber-apple-employees-giddy-about-alan-dyes-departure/) Apple announces (https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/04/apple-announces-departure-lisa-jackson-kate-adams.html) the (https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/04/apple-announces-departure-lisa-jackson-kate-adams.html) departure of general counsel and policy chief (https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/04/apple-announces-departure-lisa-jackson-kate-adams.html) Nonsense All of the Men's Clothing We Loved (and Didn't) From Costco's Kirkland Signature (https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/costco-kirkland-signature-menswear/) Conferences cfgmgmtcamp 2026 (https://cfgmgmtcamp.org/ghent2026/), February 2nd to 4th, Ghent, BE. Coté speaking and doing live SDI (https://www.softwaredefinedinterviews.com) with John Willis. DevOpsDayLA at SCALE23x (https://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale/23x), March 6th, Pasadena, CA Use code: DEVOP for 50% off. Devnexus 2026 (https://devnexus.com), March 4th to 6th, Atlanta, GA. Whole bunch of VMUGs, mostly in the US. The CFPs are open (https://app.sessionboard.com/submit/vmug-call-for-content-2026/ae1c7013-8b85-427c-9c21-7d35f8701bbe?utm_campaign=5766542-VMUG%20Voice&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_YREN7dr6p3KSQPYkFSN5K85A-pIVYZ03ZhKZOV0O3t3h0XHdDHethhx5O8gBFguyT5mZ3n3q-ZnPKvjllFXYfWV3thg&_hsmi=393690000&utm_content=393685389&utm_source=hs_email), go speak at them! Coté speaking in Amsterdam. Amsterdam (March 17-19, 2026), Minneapolis (April 7-9, 2026), Toronto (May 12-14, 2026), Dallas (June 9-11, 2026), Orlando (October 20-22, 2026) SDT News & Community Join our Slack community (https://softwaredefinedtalk.slack.com/join/shared_invite/zt-1hn55iv5d-UTfN7mVX1D9D5ExRt3ZJYQ#/shared-invite/email) Email the show: questions@softwaredefinedtalk.com (mailto:questions@softwaredefinedtalk.com) Free stickers: Email your address to stickers@softwaredefinedtalk.com (mailto:stickers@softwaredefinedtalk.com) Follow us on social media: Twitter (https://twitter.com/softwaredeftalk), Threads (https://www.threads.net/@softwaredefinedtalk), Mastodon (https://hachyderm.io/@softwaredefinedtalk), LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/software-defined-talk/), BlueSky (https://bsky.app/profile/softwaredefinedtalk.com) Watch us on: Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/sdtpodcast), YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi3OJPV6h9tp-hbsGBLGsDQ/featured), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/softwaredefinedtalk/), TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@softwaredefinedtalk) Book offer: Use code SDT for $20 off "Digital WTF" by Coté (https://leanpub.com/digitalwtf/c/sdt) Sponsor the show (https://www.softwaredefinedtalk.com/ads): ads@softwaredefinedtalk.com (mailto:ads@softwaredefinedtalk.com) Recommendations Brandon: Short Power Extension Cord Outlet Saver (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H9MCTGL?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1) Matt: Everything is Tuberculosis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everything_Is_Tuberculosis) Octopus Project - Music is Happiness (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6y5hisXx7s) Coté: The Octopus Organization (https://www.theoctopusorganization.com). Photo Credits Header (https://unsplash.com/photos/white-and-black-dice-on-black-surface-IrQrT37qDQE)
In this episode, Scott Becker breaks down the week's top stories, including the bidding battle for Warner Brothers Discovery, IBM's Confluent acquisition, expected Fed rate cuts, Medline's $55 billion IPO, and Magnum's $9 billion valuation as it spins out from Unilever.
The AI Breakdown: Daily Artificial Intelligence News and Discussions
Today's episode breaks down Trump's decision to allow Nvidia to export H200 chips to China, a reversal of a decade of bipartisan China-hawk policy that could radically reshape global AI power dynamics, US industrial strategy, and the geopolitical balance around compute, with a close look at industry reaction, national-security concerns, and why this move may accelerate China's capabilities even as it deepens their reliance on US hardware. In the headlines: Google readies a full line of AI smart glasses for next year, Claude Code lands inside Slack, Apple's chip chief signals he is staying put, and IBM announces an $11B acquisition of Confluent to strengthen its AI data platform. Brought to you by:KPMG – Discover how AI is transforming possibility into reality. Tune into the new KPMG 'You Can with AI' podcast and unlock insights that will inform smarter decisions inside your enterprise. Listen now and start shaping your future with every episode. https://www.kpmg.us/AIpodcastsGemini - Build anything with Gemini 3 Pro in Google AI Studio - http://ai.studio/buildRovo - Unleash the potential of your team with AI-powered Search, Chat and Agents - https://rovo.com/AssemblyAI - The best way to build Voice AI apps - https://www.assemblyai.com/briefLandfallIP - AI to Navigate the Patent Process - https://landfallip.com/Blitzy.com - Go to https://blitzy.com/ to build enterprise software in days, not months Robots & Pencils - Cloud-native AI solutions that power results https://robotsandpencils.com/The Agent Readiness Audit from Superintelligent - Go to https://besuper.ai/ to request your company's agent readiness score.The AI Daily Brief helps you understand the most important news and discussions in AI. Subscribe to the podcast version of The AI Daily Brief wherever you listen: https://pod.link/1680633614Interested in sponsoring the show? sponsors@aidailybrief.ai
This week on Market Mondays, we kick things off with our Futures Trading Tip of the Week and a breakdown of the biggest investing mistake of the year. We dive into the shocking rebound of Carvana joining the S&P 500 after nearly going bankrupt — debating whether it's a true comeback story or a sign the market is getting reckless again. We also break down the massive bidding war for Warner Bros Discovery, who needs WBD the most to survive the next decade, and what this means for the future of media. Caleb Silver, Editor-in-Chief of Investopedia, joins us with expert data and insight throughout the discussion.We compare Paramount's heavy debt load to Netflix's growth and free cash flow dominance and question whether a Netflix–WBD deal would spark a new era of media consolidation or run into regulatory roadblocks. From there, we shift to AI and corporate strategy, analyzing IBM's $11B acquisition of Confluent and whether M&A is becoming the quiet force powering the next leg of the AI boom. We also cover holiday spending vs weak investor sentiment, whether investors should rotate into safer stocks, and what Wednesday's Fed decision could mean for markets heading into 2026.To wrap up, we go rapid-fire: the most attractive stocks currently dipping for LEAPs and swing trades, which companies are less likely to be corrupt or mismanaged, whether failed AI bets could force bailouts in tech, Bitcoin's next move toward $65K or $70K, Apple's potential talent crisis after losing multiple key executives, and if an oil collapse into the $30s could make the entire energy sector uninvestable. A packed episode with strategy, clarity, and expert perspective. #MarketMondays #EarnYourLeisure #CalebSilver #Investopedia #Investing #StockMarket #Bitcoin #OptionsTrading #AIStocks #MediaMergers #Carvana #Apple #OilPrices #WealthBuilding #FinancePodcast #EYLSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/marketmondays/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Hojjat Jafarpour lives with his family in California. He got his PhD in databases and data streaming, back when the landscape was different and data streaming wasn't "cool" yet. He was an early member at Confluent, but also spent time at Quantcast, Informatica, and NEC Labs. Outside of tech, he has a family with young kids. He enjoys traveling, and can't wait until the kids are old enough to take on big trips.Hojjat joined Confluent in their early days. He was on a project that built out kSQL, which was a key cornerstone of Confluent. As these were the early days of stream processing, he started to think about ways to make it easier - to make this sort of tech available without all the infrastructure.This is the creation story of DeltaStream.SponsorsIncogniNordProtectVentionCodeCrafters helps you become a better engineer by building real-world, production-grade projects. Learn hands-on by creating your own Git, Redis, HTTP server, SQLite, or DNS server from scratch. Sign up for free today using this link and enjoy 40% off.Full ScalePaddle.comSema SoftwarePropelAuthPostmanMeilisearchLinkshttps://www.deltastream.io/https://www.linkedin.com/in/hojjatjafarpour/Our Sponsors:* Check out Incogni: https://incogni.com/codestory* Check out NordProtect: https://nordprotect.com/codestorySupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/code-story-insights-from-startup-tech-leaders/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Plus: IBM strikes $11 billion deal for Confluent. And President Trump says he will sign an executive order targeting state AI laws. Danny Lewis hosts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Plus: Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global shares rose after Paramount's hostile takeover bid, while Netflix stock fell. And shares of Confluent surged after IBM announced plans to buy the data-infrastructure company. Danny Lewis hosts. Sign up for WSJ's free What's News newsletter. An artificial-intelligence tool assisted in the making of this episode by creating summaries that were based on Wall Street Journal reporting and reviewed and adapted by an editor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Plus: IBM is in advanced talks to acquire data-infrastructure company Confluent. And investors anticipate another rate cut as the Federal Reserve prepares to meet. Luke Vargas hosts. Sign up for WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
IBM is reportedly in talks to acquire Confluent, CRH, Carvana, and Comfort Systems are being added to the S&P 500, the Trump administration will forgive the remaining $11m civil fine against Southwest Airlines, the Trump administration will unveil its aid package for farmers, and “Five Nights at Freddy's 2” won the box office this weekend. Squawk Box is hosted by Joe Kernen, Becky Quick and Andrew Ross Sorkin. Follow Squawk Pod for the best moments, interviews and analysis from our TV show in an audio-first format. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
David Faber, Sara Eisen, and Michael Santoli began the hour with breaking news on Netflix's deal for Warner Bros. Discovery - as Paramount Skydance makes a new hostile tender offer. Hear what CEO David Ellison had to say about what's at stake, and why they should be the buyer... Along with what the CEO of IMAX thinks of both offers. Plus: more on IBM's $11B bet on big data - CEO Arvind Krishna joined the team to talk about the company's new deal for Confluent. Also in focus: A big decision on interest rates ahead. Sara broke down where the Fed stands on both sides of its mandate (employment & inflation) before Crossmark's Bob Doll gave his predictions. Squawk on the Street Disclaimer Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
In a CNBC Exclusive: David Faber interviewed Paramount Skydance Chairman & CEO David Ellison, whose company announced a tender offer to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery for $30 per share in cash. The hostile offer comes after Netflix won a bidding war and agreed to buy Warner Bros. assets. Ellison explained why he believes Paramount's offer is superior to that of Netflix, better for WBD shareholders and Hollywood — and more likely to pass regulatory muster. He also sounded off about the WBD sale process. David, Sara Eisen and Michael Santoli discussed stocks' upward momentum ahead of this week's Fed rate decision. Also in focus: IBM's $11 billion deal to acquire Confluent, Morgan Stanley's new Tesla analyst downgrades the stock.Squawk on the Street Disclaimer Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Meta delays its next mixed reality glasses, IBM acquires Confluent, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan named Time's CEO of the Year. MP3 Please SUBSCRIBE HERE for free or get DTNS Live ad-free. A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, none of this would be possible. If you enjoy what you see you can support theContinue reading "Paramount Launches Hostile Bid To Acquire Warner Bros. Discovery – DTH"
Andrew, Ben, and Tom discuss IBM's near $11B deal for data-infrastructure company Confluent, the Trump administration's $12B farm-aid program, and why the ECB's next move could be a rate hike.Song: The Space Between - Dave Matthews BandFor information on how to join the Zoom calls live each morning at 8:30 EST, visit:https://www.narwhal.com/blog/daily-market-briefingsPlease see disclosures:https://www.narwhal.com/disclosure
Today on BlockHash: Robinhood goes global — entering Indonesia’s booming crypto market, IBM drops $11 B for data-infrastructure firm Confluent to power the AI boom, and Binance earns the first global crypto license under Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM). Get the full breakdown on what this means for crypto, AI, and emerging tech — and why institutional money could be on the move.