Want to learn more Postgres? Get on the waiting list for the full course: https://masteringpostgres.com. Production ready Postgres for teams that ship fast: https://xata.io In this interview, I talk with Monica Sarbu and Tudor Golubenco from Xata about their journey from Elastic to founding Xata. We deep dive on building a Postgres hosting platform, handling schema changes, and how they've made their free tier economical. Links Mentioned: Xata.io: https://xata.io/ The economics of a Postgres free tier: https://xata.io/blog/postgres-free-tier Follow Monica & Tudor: Monica on Twitter: https://twitter.com/monicasarbu Monica on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/monicasarbu Tudor on Twitter: https://twitter.com/tudor_g Tudor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tudorgolubenco/ Follow Aaron: Twitter: https://twitter.com/aarondfrancis LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aarondfrancis Website: https://aaronfrancis.com - find articles, podcasts, courses, and more. Chapters:
00:00 - Introduction
00:26 - What is Xata? Overview and Mission
01:32 - Open Source Projects: PG Roll and PG Stream
02:33 - Synchronizing Data: Postgres to Elastic Search
03:12 - Monica and Tudor's Background & Journey to Elastic
04:00 - Founding of Packetbeat: The Start of Open Source Monitoring
06:08 - Transition from Elastic to Starting Xata
07:00 - Launching a Nonprofit and Insights on Database Challenges
08:29 - The Idea Behind Xata: Simplifying Application Development
10:00 - Tudor Joins Xata: The Decision to Start Again
10:47 - The Technical Vision for Xata's Platform
12:06 - Founding Xata During the Pandemic
13:11 - Funding Journey: From Seed to Series A
15:07 - Building a Platform, Not Just a Hosted Database
17:20 - Introducing Postgres to Xata's Stack
20:19 - Navigating Postgres as a DBA
22:44 - Open Source Strategy & Community Building
27:48 - PG Stream Use Cases & Postgres Replication
32:08 - PG Roll for Zero Downtime Schema Changes
36:05 - Implementing Safe and Fast Schema Changes
39:49 - Blob Storage and Cloudflare Integration
45:11 - Xata's Unique Features: Serving Builders and Larger Teams
49:20 - Free Tier Economics and Why It Matters
56:04 - Working as a Husband-Wife Team