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#1365
Mar 18, 2020 · 1 hr 18 min
Infrastructure Investing with Vivek Saraswat
Software investing requires a deep understanding of the market, and an ability to predict what changes might occur in the near future. At the level of core infrastructure, software investing is particularly difficult. Databases, virtualization, and large scale data processing tools are all complicated, highly competitive areas. As the software world has matured, it has become apparent just how big these infrastructure companies can become. Consequently, the opportunities to invest in these infrastructure companies have become highly competitive. When a venture capital fund invests into an infrastructure company, the fund will then help the infrastructure company bring their product to market. This involves figuring out the product design, the sales strategy, and the hiring roadmap. A strong investor will be able to give insight into all of these different facets of building a software company. Vivek Saraswat is a venture investor with Mayfield, a venture fund that focuses on early to growth-stage investments. Vivek joins the show to discuss his experience at AWS, Docker, and Mayfield, as well as his broad lessons around how to build infrastructure companies today.
#1364
Mar 17, 2020 · 56 min
Sisu Data with Peter Bailis
A high volume of data can contain a high volume of useful information. That fact is well understood by the software world. Unfortunately, it is not a simple process to surface useful information from this high volume of data. A human analyst needs to understand the business, formulate a question, and determine what metrics could reveal the answer to such a question. Sisu is a system for automatically surfacing insights from large data sets within companies. A user of Sisu can select a database column that they are interested in learning more about, and Sisu will automatically analyze the records in the database to look for trends and relationships between that column and the other columns. For example, if I have a database of user purchases, including how much money those users spent on each purchase, I can ask Sisu to analyze the purchase price column, and find what kinds of attributes correlate with a high purchase price. Perhaps there will be correlations such as age and city that I can use to understand my customers better. Sisu can automatically surface these correlations and display them to me to help me make business decisions. Peter Bailis is the CEO of Sisu Data and an assistant professor at Stanford. Peter joins the show to give his perspective on the development of Sisu, which came out of his research on data-intensive systems, including MacroBase, an analytic monitoring engine that prioritizes human attention.
#1363
Mar 16, 2020 · 53 min
Location Data with Ryan Fox Squire
Physical places have a large amount of latent data. Pick any location on a map, and think about all of the questions you could ask about that location. What businesses are at that location? How many cars pass through it? What is the soil composition? How much is the land on that location worth? The world of web-based information has become easy to query. We can use search engines like Google, as well as APIs like Diffbot and Clearbit. Today, the physical world is not so easy to query, but it is becoming easier. Location data as a service is a burgeoning field, with some vendors offering products for satellite data, foot traffic, and other specific location-based domains. SafeGraph is a company that provides location data-as-a-service. SafeGraph data sets include data about businesses, patterns describing human movement, and geometric representations describing the shape and size of buildings. Ryan Fox Squire develops data products for SafeGraph, and he joins the show to talk about the engineering and strategy that goes into building a data-as-a-service company.
#1362
Mar 13, 2020 · 46 min
Descript with Andrew Mason
Descript is a software product for editing podcasts and video. Descript is a deceptively powerful tool, and its software architecture includes novel usage of transcription APIs, text-to-speech, speech-to-text, and other domain-specific machine learning applications. Some of the most popular podcasts and YouTube channels use Descript as their editing tool because it provides a set of features that are not found in other editing tools such as Adobe Premiere or a digital audio workstation. Descript is an example of the downstream impact of machine learning tools becoming more accessible. Even though the company only has a small team of machine learning engineers, these engineers are extremely productive due to the combination of APIs, cloud computing, and frameworks like TensorFlow. Descript was founded by Andrew Mason, who also founded Groupon and Detour, and Andrew joins the show to describe the technology behind Descript and the story of how it was built. It is a remarkable story of creative entrepreneurship, with numerous takeaways for both engineers and business founders.
#1361
Mar 12, 2020 · 58 min
Flyte: Lyft Data Processing Platform with Allyson Gale and Ketan Umare
Lyft is a ridesharing company that generates a high volume of data every day. This data includes ride history, pricing information, mapping, routing, and financial transactions. The data is stored across a variety of different databases, data lakes, and queueing systems, and is processed at scale in order to generate machine learning models, reports, and data applications. Data workflows involve a set of interconnected systems such as Kubernetes, Spark, Tensorflow, and Flink. In order for these systems to work together harmoniously, a workflow manager is often used to orchestrate them together. A workflow platform lets a data engineer have a high-level view into how data moves through the system, and can be used to reason about retries, resource utilization, and scalability. Flyte is a data processing system built and open-sourced at Lyft. Allyson Gale and Ketan Umare work at Lyft, and they join the show to talk about how Flyte works, and why they needed to build a new workflow processing system when there are already tools available such as Airflow.
#1360
Mar 11, 2020 · 1 hr 9 min
Cloud Investing with Danel Dayan
Cloud computing caused a fundamental economic shift in how software is built. Before the cloud, businesses needed to buy physical servers in order to operate. There was an up-front cost that often amounted to tens of thousands of dollars required to pay for these servers. Cloud computing changed the up-front capital expense to an ongoing operational expense, with businesses increasingly shifting to Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Compute Platform. Although the initial motivation for moving onto cloud providers might have been decreased cost, over time the cloud providers have developed unique services that make software even easier to build than before. There has also been a proliferation of new software infrastructure companies that have been built on top of the cloud providers, giving rise to new databases, logging companies, and platform-as-a-service products. Danel Dayan is a venture investor with Battery Ventures and a co-author of the State of the OpenCloud 2019, a report that compiles a wide set of statistics and information on how cloud computing and open source are impacting the software industry. Danel joins the show to talk about his work as an investor, as well as his previous career at Google, where he worked on mergers and acquisitions. If you want to reach Danel you can email him at ddayan@battery.com or tweet at him via @daneldayan.
#1359
Mar 10, 2020 · 1 hr 15 min
OneGraph: GraphQL Tooling with Sean Grove
GraphQL is a system that allows frontend engineers to make requests across multiple data sources using a simple query format. In GraphQL, a frontend developer does not have to worry about the request logic for individual backend services. The frontend developer only needs to know how to issue GraphQL requests from the client, and these requests are handled by a GraphQL server. GraphQL is mostly used to issue queries across internal databases and services. But many of the data sources that a company needs to query in modern infrastructure are not databases–they are APIs like Salesforce, Zendesk, and Stripe. These API companies might store a large percentage of the data that a given company needs to query, and executing queries, subscriptions, and joins against these APIs is not a simple task. OneGraph is a company that builds integrations with third-party services and exposes them through a GraphQL interface. Sean Grove is a founder of OneGraph, and he joins the show to explain the problem that OneGraph solves, how OneGraph is built, and some of the difficult engineering challenges required to design OneGraph.
#1358
Mar 9, 2020 · 1 hr 2 min
DBT: Data Build Tool with Tristan Handy
A data warehouse serves the purpose of providing low latency queries for high volumes of data. A data warehouse is often part of a data pipeline, which moves data through different areas of infrastructure in order to build applications such as machine learning models, dashboards, and reports. Modern data pipelines are often associated with the term “ELT” or Extract, Load, Transform. In the “ELT” workflow, data is taken out of a source such as a data lake, loaded into a data warehouse, and then transformed within the data warehouse to create materialized views on the data. Data warehouse queries are usually written in SQL, and for the last 50 years, SQL has been the primary language for executing these kinds of queries. DBT is a system for data modeling that allows the user to write queries that involve a mix of SQL and a templating language called Jinja. Jinja allows the analyst to blend imperative code along with the declarative SQL. Tristan Handy is the CEO of Fishtown Analytics, the company that created DBT, and he joins the show to discuss how DBT works, and the role it plays in modern data infrastructure.
#1357
Mar 6, 2020 · 55 min
React Best Practices with Kent Dodds
ReactJS developers have lots of options for building their applications, and those options are not easy to work through. State management, concurrency, networking, and testing all have elements of complexity and a wide range of available tools. Take a look at any specific area of JavaScript application development, and you can find highly varied opinions. Kent Dodds is a JavaScript teacher who focuses on React, JavaScript, and testing. In today’s episode, Kent provides best practices for building JavaScript applications, specifically React. He provides a great deal of advice on testing, which is unsurprising considering he owns TestingJavaScript.com. Kent is an excellent speaker who has taught thousands of people about JavaScript, so it was a pleasure to have him on the show. Kent is also speaking at Reactathon, a San Francisco JavaScript conference taking place March 30th and 31st in San Francisco. This week we will be interviewing speakers from Reactathon, and if you are interested in JavaScript and the React ecosystem then stay tuned, and if you hear something you like, you can check out the Reactathon conference in person.
#1356
Mar 5, 2020 · 59 min
React Stack with Tejas Kumar
JavaScript fatigue. This phrase has been used to describe the confusion and exhaustion around the volume of different tools required to be productive as a JavaScript developer. Frameworks, package managers, typing systems, state management, GraphQL, and deployment systems–there are so many decisions to make. In addition to the present-day tooling choices, a JavaScript developer needs to watch the emerging developments in the ecosystem. ReactJS is evolving at a rapid clip, and newer primitives such as React Hooks and React Suspense allow developers to handle concurrency and networking more robustly. Tejas Kumar works with G2i, a company that connects React developers with organizations that are looking for high-quality engineers. His role at G2i is head of vetting, which requires him to assess engineers for their competency in JavaScript-related technologies. Tejas joins the show to discuss the modern stack of technologies that a React developer uses to build an application. Full disclosure: G2i, where Tejas works, is a sponsor of Software Engineering Daily. Tejas is also speaking at Reactathon, a San Francisco JavaScript conference taking place March 30th and 31st in San Francisco. This week we will be interviewing speakers from Reactathon, and if you are interested in JavaScript and the React ecosystem then stay tuned, and if you hear something you like, you can check out the Reactathon conference in person.
#1355
Mar 4, 2020 · 1 hr 5 min
JavaScript Deployments with Brian LeRoux
Full-stack JavaScript applications have been possible since the creation of NodeJS in 2009. Since then, the best practices for building and deploying these applications have steadily evolved with the technology. ReactJS created consolidation around the view layer. The emergence of AWS Lambda created a new paradigm for backend execution. Serverless tools such as DynamoDB offer autoscaling abstractions. CDNs such as Cloudflare and Fastly can now do processing on the edge. Brian LeRoux is the founder of Begin.com, a hosting and deployment company built on serverless tools. He’s also the primary committer to Architect, a framework for defining applications to be deployed to serverless infrastructure. Brian joins the show to talk about his work in the JavaScript ecosystem and his vision for Begin.com. Brian is also speaking at Reactathon, a San Francisco JavaScript conference taking place March 30th and 31st in San Francisco. This week we will be interviewing speakers from Reactathon, and if you are interested in JavaScript and the React ecosystem then stay tuned, and if you hear something you like, you can check out the Reactathon conference in person.
#1354
Mar 3, 2020 · 51 min
React Fundamentals with Ryan Florence
ReactJS began to standardize frontend web development around 2015. The core ideas around one-way data binding, JSX, and components caused many developers to embrace React with open arms. There has been a large number of educators that have emerged to help train developers wanting to learn React. A new developer learning React has numerous questions around frameworks, state management, rendering, and other best practices. In today’s episode, those questions are answered by Ryan Florence, a co-founder of React Training. React Training is a company devoted to helping developers learn React that trains large companies like Google and Netflix how to use React. Ryan has a strong understanding of how to be productive with React, and in today’s episode, he explains some of the fundamentals that commonly confuse new students of React. Ryan is also speaking at Reactathon, a San Francisco JavaScript conference taking place March 30th and 31st in San Francisco. This week we will be interviewing speakers from Reactathon, and if you are interested in JavaScript and the React ecosystem then stay tuned, and if you hear something you like, you can check out the Reactathon conference in person.
#1353
Mar 2, 2020 · 1 hr 18 min
NextJS with Guillermo Rauch
When ReactJS became popular, frontend web development became easier. But React is just a view layer. Developers who came to React expecting a full web development framework like Ruby on Rails or Django were required to put together a set of tools to satisfy that purpose. A full-stack JavaScript framework has numerous requirements. How does it scale? How does it handle server-side rendering versus client-side rendering? Should GraphQL be included by default? How should package management work? Guillermo Rauch is the creator of NextJS, a popular framework for building React applications. He is also the CEO of ZEIT, a cloud hosting company. Guillermo joins the show to discuss NextJS, and his vision for how the React ecosystem will evolve in the near future, as features such as React Suspense and Concurrent Mode impact the developer experience. Guillermo is also speaking at Reactathon, a San Francisco JavaScript conference taking place March 30th and 31st in San Francisco. This week we will be interviewing speakers from Reactathon, and if you are interested in JavaScript and the React ecosystem then stay tuned, and if you hear something you like, you can check out the Reactathon conference in person.
#1352
Feb 27, 2020 · 1 hr 5 min
Slack Frontend Architecture with Anuj Nair
Slack is a messaging application with millions of users. The desktop application is an Electron app, which is effectively a web browser dedicated to running Slack. This frontend is built with ReactJS and other JavaScript code, and the application is incredibly smooth and reliable, despite its complexity. When a user boots up Slack, the application needs to figure out what data to fetch and where to fetch it from. Companies that use Slack heavily have thousands of messages in their history, and Slack needs to determine which of those should be pulled into the client. There are profile images, and logos, and custom emojis, all of which are used to define the user’s custom workspace experience. Anuj Nair joined Slack in late 2017. In the years since he has been with the company, Anuj helped rewrite the Slack frontend client, including work on the bootup experience, the caching infrastructure, and the role of service workers. Anuj joins the show to discuss his work on the Slack frontend architecture and the canonical view layer problems that Slack faces.
#1351
Feb 27, 2020 · 49 min
Makerpad: Low Code Tools with Ben Tossell
Low code tools can be used to build an increasing number of applications. Knowledge workers within a large corporation can use low code tools to augment their usage of spreadsheets. Entrepreneurs can use low code tools to start businesses even without knowing how to code. Modern low code tools have benefited from steady improvements in cloud infrastructure, front-end frameworks like ReactJS, and browser technology such as the V8 JavaScript engine. These building blocks led to the popular low code products such as Webflow, Bubble, Retool, and Airtable. The low code products are supported by a broad selection of domain-specific APIs such as Stripe, Twilio, and Zapier. Ben Tossell runs Makerpad, a site devoted to low-code and no-code applications. Makerpad describes how to use these tools to design sophisticated applications that don’t require you to write code. But they do require a different kind of software engineering. To create applications intelligently with low-code tools, you need to know how the tools fit together, and you need to be willing to persist through a process of iteration and debugging that is similar to traditional software engineering. Ben joins the show to talk about his experience building low-code tools, the use cases for these tools, and his predictions for how they will impact the future of software.
#1350
Feb 26, 2020 · 57 min
Parabola: No-Code Data Workflows with Alex Yaseen
Every company has a large number of routine data workflows. These data workflows involve spreadsheets, CSV files, and tedious manual work to be done by a knowledge worker. For example, data might need to be taken from Salesforce, filtered for new customers, and piped into Mailchimp. Or perhaps you need to sort all your customers to find only the ones who have spent more than $50. These data workflows might require some basic knowledge of SQL, or an understanding of how to make an API request. Not everyone knows how to execute these technical commands. A software company can be slowed down due to a shortage of technical analysts who have the necessary programming skills to build these data workflows. Parabola is a low-code tool for building data workflows. Parabola lets the user drag and drop different components together to build an application without using a programming language. Parabola lowers the technical barrier for knowledge workers who want to build these kinds of data workflows. Alex Yaseen is the CEO of Parabola, and he joins the show to talk about the ideas behind Parabola and his goals with the company. parabola.io parabola.io/careers Twitter: @alexyaseen
#1349
Feb 25, 2020 · 1 hr 19 min
Decentralized Finance with Tom Schmidt
Cryptocurrencies today serve two purposes: store of value and speculation. The application infrastructure that has been built around cryptocurrency is mostly to support these use cases. At some point in the future, perhaps cryptocurrencies can be used as a global medium of exchange that is accepted at the grocery store. Perhaps we will use the blockchain for supply chain management, and as a universal ledger for real estate ownership. But today, cryptocurrencies are mostly used for speculative trading. Users buy and sell different cryptocurrencies and stablecoins, looking to make short-term profits. And the markets for trading cryptocurrencies have evolved to have a sophistication that looks like the centralized markets of derivatives and leverage-based day trading. The term “decentralized finance” refers to this phenomenon of cryptocurrency lending markets. Decentralized finance increases the volume of speculated capital by providing liquidity through smart contracts. This short-term liquidity is often collateralized by a volatile cryptocurrency such as Ethereum, creating an opportunity for a type of market participant called a “liquidator.” Tom Schmidt is an investor with Dragonfly Capital, a cryptoasset investment firm. Tom joins the show to describe the dynamics of decentralized finance.
#1348
Feb 24, 2020 · 1 hr 12 min
Infrastructure Management with Joey Parsons
At Airbnb, infrastructure management is standardized across the organization. Platform engineering teams build tools that allow the other teams throughout the organization to work more effectively. A platform engineering team handles problems such as continuous integration, observability, and service discovery. Other teams throughout a company use the tools that a platform engineering team builds. For example, there is a team at Airbnb that builds the search and discovery system that is used by customers who are looking for a place to stay. That team does not want to have to worry about how they are deploying, how their service is being logged, and how to scale up. All of that should be taken care of by the platform engineering team. At a large company like Airbnb, there is so much happening across the infrastructure. Services are being deployed, services are having outages, databases are being resharded. With all of this change occurring, it can be difficult for a team to pinpoint the cause of a service outage. Digging through logs and dashboards is often insufficient. Joey Parsons is the founder of Effx, a company that is building a platform for observing and managing the changes across the infrastructure. Effx is like a newsfeed for a service. An application instrumented with Effx gives the engineers a single endpoint that they can navigate to for understanding the history of their service. Joey joins the show to talk about his experience as an infrastructure engineer at Airbnb, and how that experience informs the work of his new company, Effx.
#1347
Feb 21, 2020 · 1 hr 12 min
Courier with Troy Goode
A gig economy application generates lots of notifications. There is SMS, mobile phone updates, emails, and native application updates. If you order a ride from Uber, you might receive a text message and a push notification at the same time. If an app overloads the user with notifications, the user might end up annoyed and delete the app from their phone. But perhaps all of these notifications are necessary. You would rather get three simultaneous notifications from your food delivery app than fail to get your food on time. If you are the mobile application developer building the food delivery app, what other choice do you have? At large companies such as Linkedin, there are entire teams devoted to figuring out how to optimize the notifications that they send you. It has a surprisingly large impact on the usability of a mobile application. Troy Goode is the founder of Courier, a company that provides notification optimization. This might sound like a small, trivial problem. But it actually has a large impact on the usage of apps. And it is not an easy engineering problem. Troy joins the show to talk about the problem that Courier solves and the backend infrastructure that powers it. Courier is built entirely on serverless APIs. This is a great case study in how to build a completely scalable infrastructure product based on serverless tools.
#1345
Feb 20, 2020 · 1 hr 8 min
Data Infrastructure Investing with Eric Anderson
In a modern data platform, distributed streaming systems are used to read data coming off of an application in real-time. There are a wide variety of streaming systems, including Kafka Streams, Apache Samza, Apache Flink, Spark Streaming, and more. When Eric Anderson joined the show back in 2016, he was working at Google on Google Cloud Dataflow, a managed service for handling streaming data. Today, he works as an investor at Scale Venture Partners. In his current job, he analyzes companies built around data infrastructure, developer tooling, and other enterprise engineering domains. Eric also hosts the podcast Contributor, which explores open source maintainers and the stories of their projects. His podcast has featured the creators of projects such as Envoy, Alluxio, and Chef. In today’s episode, Eric returns to the show to discuss data infrastructure, investing, and the evolving world of open source.

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