How Turbopuffer is Building The Future of Vector Databases, with CEO Simon Eskildsen
In this episode of Barrchives, Barr Yaron sits down with Simon Eskildsen, co-founder and CEO of turbopuffer, to explore how he went from infrastructure challenges at Shopify to launching a groundbreaking vector database company.
Simon shares his journey from recognizing the inefficiencies of traditional vector storage solutions to creating TurboPuffer, a revolutionary database designed specifically for AI-driven applications. He details key moments of insight—from working with startups struggling with prohibitive storage costs, to realizing the untapped potential of affordable object storage combined with modern vector indexing techniques.
This episode is broken down into the following chapters:
- 00:00 – Intro: Simon Eskildsen, Founder of TurboPuffer
- 00:26 – The “aha” moment: Simon’s transition from Shopify and startup consulting to founding TurboPuffer
- 03:13 – Turning “strings into things”: The power of vector search
- 05:51 – Why vector databases? Economic drivers and technology shifts
- 07:35 – Building TurboPuffer V1: Key architecture choices and early trade-offs
- 10:44 – Challenges of indexing: Evaluating exhaustive search, HNSW, and clustering
- 17:23 – Finding product-market fit with Cursor: TurboPuffer’s first major customer
- 20:05 – Defining TurboPuffer’s ideal customer profile and market positioning
- 23:43 – Gaining conviction: When Simon knew TurboPuffer would scale
- 25:39 – TurboPuffer V2: Architectural evolution and incremental indexing improvements
- 32:12 – How AI-native workloads fundamentally change database design
- 35:41 – Key trade-offs in TurboPuffer’s database architecture (accuracy, latency, and cost)
- 38:07 – Ensuring vector database accuracy: Production vs. academic benchmarks
- 41:03 – Deciding when TurboPuffer was ready for General Availability (GA)
- 42:27 – The future of vector search and storage needs for AI agents
- 45:03 – Building customer-centric engineering teams at TurboPuffer
- 47:12 – Common storage hygiene mistakes (or opportunities) in AI companies
- 49:42 – Simon’s personal growth as a leader since founding TurboPuffer
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/37O8Pb0LgqpqTXo2GZiPXf
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/barrchives/id1774292613
Twitter: https://x.com/barrnanas
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barryaron/
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