{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Database School","title":"Scaling DuckDB in the cloud with MotherDuck CEO Jordan Tigani","html":"<iframe width=\"100%\" height=\"180\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless src=\"https://share.transistor.fm/e/08d07c12\"></iframe>","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":3915,"description":"In this episode of Database School, Aaron Francis sits down with Jordan Tigani, co-founder and CEO of MotherDuck, to break down what DuckDB is, how MotherDuck hosts it in the cloud, and why analytics workloads are shifting toward embedded databases. They dig into Duck Lake, pricing models, scaling strategies, and what it really takes to build a modern cloud data warehouse.\nFollow Jordan:\nTwitter/X:  https://twitter.com/jrdntgn\nLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordantigani\nMotherDuck: https://motherduck.com\nFollow Aaron:\nTwitter/X:  https://twitter.com/aarondfrancis \nDatabase School: https://databaseschool.com\nDatabase School YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@UCT3XN4RtcFhmrWl8tf_o49g  (Subscribe today)\nLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aarondfrancis\nWebsite: https://aaronfrancis.com - find articles, podcasts, courses, and more.\nChapters:\n00:00 - Introduction\n01:44 - What DuckDB is and why embedded analytics matter\n04:03 - How MotherDuck hosts DuckDB in the cloud\n05:18 - Is MotherDuck like the “Turso for DuckDB”?\n07:38 - Isolated analytics per user and scaling to zero\n08:51 - The academic origins of DuckDB\n10:00 - From SingleStore to founding MotherDuck\n12:28 - Getting fired… and funded 12 days later\n16:39 - Jordan’s background: Kernel dev, BigQuery, and Product\n18:36 - Partnering with DuckDB Labs and avoiding a fork\n20:52 - Why MotherDuck targets startups and the long tail\n24:22 - Pricing lessons: why $25 was too cheap\n28:11 - Ducklings, instance sizing, and compute scaling\n34:16 - How MotherDuck separates compute and storage\n37:09 - Inside the AWS architecture and differential storage\n43:12 - Hybrid execution: joining local and cloud data\n45:14 - Analytics vs warehouses vs operational databases\n47:41 - Data lakes, Iceberg, and what Duck Lake actually is\n53:22 - When Duck Lake makes more sense than DuckDB alone\n56:09 - Who switches to MotherDuck and why\n58:02 - PG DuckDB and offloading analytics from Postgres\n1:00:49 - Who should use MotherDuck...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/QPpKhRBWtM56k1sC7Y7j7aqGy8sd-XKWw6mEKgA1jmw/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9lMmRl/ZTM5ZTAxOTMzNTgy/MmJmZTA4MWE1ZjMw/YjE4Ny5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}