This week on The Data Stack Show, John welcomes back repeat guest Ben Rogojan, Owner and Data Consultant of Seattle Data Guy. John and Ben discuss the evolving relationship between data teams and businesses, highlighting the challenges of proving value in a cost-conscious environment. Ben explores the impact of technological advancements, the rise of AI, and the critical skills data professionals need to succeed. Key insights include the importance of understanding business context, being proactive, and focusing on delivering tangible outcomes rather than just producing dashboards. Ben also emphasizes the need for data teams to communicate value effectively, show rather than tell, and be willing to take calculated risks. The conversation provides practical advice for data professionals looking to advance their careers, with a focus on developing business skills, understanding organizational needs, creating meaningful impact beyond technical expertise, and so much more. 

This week on The Data Stack Show, John Wessel and Matt Kelliher-Gibson converse current tech trends through the lens of LinkedIn posts, discussing AI interfaces, technology evolution, and programming languages. They examine the overuse of dashboards and chat interfaces, explore the potential of AI hardware, and challenge the notion that programming languages like R are “dead”. The conversation highlights the importance of maintaining a cynical yet open-minded perspective on technological innovation, emphasizing that established technologies often persist because they work effectively. Key takeaways include the need for more thoughtful KPIs in tech, the unpredictability of technological advancement, the value of deterministic solutions in an increasingly AI-driven landscape, and so much more. 

This week on The Data Stack Show, John Wessel and Matt Kelliher-Gibson dive into the recent Duck Lake announcement, exploring the evolving landscape of data analytics technologies. They discuss DuckDB’s role as a lightweight, local analytics database and its potential as a caching layer for open table formats like Iceberg. The conversation also highlights the current state of data storage standards, focusing on agreements around Parquet and Iceberg, while noting the ongoing complexity in catalog management. Key takeaways include the importance of local compute solutions, the early stage of open table formats, and the potential for simplified data infrastructure that can provide faster, more cost-effective analytics workflows. The episode underscores the ongoing innovation in data technologies and the need for more streamlined, flexible data management solutions. Don’t miss it!

This week on The Data Stack Show, Eric and John welcome Michael Driscoll, Co-Founder and CEO of Rill Data. Mike discusses the transformative impact of AI on business intelligence (BI) and data analytics. He also explores the shift from traditional dashboard-based tools to more dynamic, code-driven, and AI-powered interfaces that provide deeper insights. During the conversation, the group emphasizes the importance of a metrics-first approach, the potential of leapfrog architectures using technologies like data lakes and real-time analytical databases, and how AI agents are increasingly becoming the primary users of data tools. The conversation highlights the evolving landscape of data infrastructure, where open standards, flexibility, and intelligent interfaces are reshaping how businesses interact with and understand their data, and more. 

This week on The Data Stack Show, Eric and John welcome back Matt Kelliher-Gibson for another edition of the Cynical Data Guy. The group dives into the latest tech trends, discussing Klarna’s AI-first customer support strategy and subsequent reversal, the high costs and limitations of big consulting firms in AI strategy, and the often-overlooked simplicity of data management in successful companies. The group critically examines the current state of AI implementation, data science practices, and corporate technology transformation, highlighting the importance of understanding business needs over technical accuracy. The conversation provides listeners with a humorous yet insightful look into the challenges of integrating new technologies, the role of human expertise, the potential pitfalls of blindly following industry trends, and so much more.

This week on The Data Stack Show, Brooks and John welcome Pete Hunt, CEO of Dagster Labs. During this conversation, Pete takes listeners on a fascinating journey through the evolution of data platforms, sharing insights from his experiences at Facebook and Twitter. Pete discusses the critical challenges of managing data complexity, emphasizing the importance of software engineering best practices and strong abstractions in data orchestration. He explores how emerging technologies like AI are transforming data workflows, breaking down traditional team boundaries, and enabling more collaborative, self-service data engineering. The conversation also highlights Dagster’s innovative approach to building a data control plane, with a focus on empowering different stakeholders through flexible, composable tools. Listeners will gain valuable perspectives on the future of data engineering, the role of AI in development, the importance of creating adaptable, user-friendly data infrastructure, and so much more.

This week on The Data Stack Show, the guys chat with Pranav Aurora, Co-Founder of Mooncake Labs. Pranav shares his innovative approach to simplifying data infrastructure by bridging Postgres and Iceberg technologies. He also discusses his journey from Single Store to launching a startup that aims to solve real-world data challenges, focusing on creating a seamless, developer-friendly extension that allows businesses to easily sync row and column store tables with minimal configuration. The conversation explores the complexities of modern data stacks, the importance of first-principle thinking, and how startups can leverage AI and community feedback to build transformative technologies. Key takeaways include Mooncake’s mission to provide operational analytics with just a few lines of SQL, the potential of Postgres extensions, the value of solving genuine pain points for developers and data teams, and more. 

This week on The Data Stack Show, the guys are chatting with Aaron Katz & Sai Krishna Srirampur live at Data Council in Oakland, California. Aaron and Sai discuss the evolution of database technologies, focusing on transitioning from traditional transactional databases like Postgres to purpose-built analytical databases like ClickHouse. They explore the challenges of using Postgres for analytics, the benefits of open-source technologies, and the importance of simplifying database infrastructure. Sai shares his background with CITUS Data and Peer DB, highlighting the motivation behind creating ClickPipes, a native ingestion service for ClickHouse Cloud. Aaron discusses the company’s journey, the open-source strategy, and the diverse use cases for ClickHouse, including observability, data warehousing, and real-time analytics. The conversation emphasizes the need for efficient data migration, native querying capabilities, the potential of combining Postgres and ClickHouse to create a more streamlined data stack, and more.

This week on The Data Stack Show, the crew brings you another conversation live from Data Council in Oakland, California. In this episode, Viktor Kessler from Vakamo explores the evolution of data architecture from rigid warehouses to flexible Lakehouse systems. Powered by Apache Iceberg, this new approach enables seamless data sharing, governance, and potential monetization. Viktor discusses how open-source innovation is transforming data management, highlighting the shift towards treating data as a product and the emerging potential for AI-driven data exchanges. The conversation provides insights into the future of decentralized, adaptable data infrastructure and so much more. 

This week on The Data Stack Show, the crew records live from Data Council in Oakland, California, as they welcome Ruben Burdin, Founder and CEO of StackSync.Ruben explores the emerging convergence of operational and analytical data, revealing how modern technologies are breaking down traditional data system barriers. The key insight is that businesses can now create more efficient data infrastructures through two-way synchronization, enabling seamless integration between different databases without vendor lock-in. By leveraging a centralized database approach, companies can build faster, more responsive internal tools and transform their data management from slow, siloed processes to real-time, interconnected ecosystems. Other topics include the evolving data infrastructure, practical use cases of integrating systems like Salesforce and Postgres for real-time data management, and more.