Want to learn more Postgres? Check out my Postgres 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.

Database school on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLI72dgeNJtzqElnNB6sQoAn2R-F3Vqm15
Database school audio only: https://databaseschool.transistor.fm

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