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**Ajay Kulkarni:** We started off thinking we were building a time series database for IoT. That's where we started. And so when we kind of pivoted to become a database company early 2017, we called ourselves Timescale. That seemed like a good name for a time-series database. |
**Adam Stacoviak:** I like it. |
**Ajay Kulkarni:** It's cool, it's pretty self-explanatory. And we actually saw there was a big demand in time-series that was more than IoT; some in finance, and events, and then soon crypto, and some other areas... But over time -- again, we were going with this journey with the industry. We started off as an enterpr... |
And then we realized what we had built was not just a better time-series database, but a better Postgres. And we kind of expanded that better Postgres theme by adding vector support, and better native AI support... And we got to the point where this year we realized "Hey, we keep calling ourselves Timescale, and people... |
And I think our first attempt was trying to make Timescale mean more than time-series. Like, you know, when it's time to scale, I don't know... \[laughs\] And I'm not sure if you've ever seen the movie Mean Girls, but there's a line in there that Mike has quoted, where he goes "It's like trying to make fetch happen. Li... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Yeah. |
**Ajay Kulkarni:** And Tiger Data was like the perfect name for us, because our mascot's always been the tiger... Internally, we talk about Tiger time, that's our all hands. We talk about state of the Tiger; it's my monthly presentation to the company. New people who joined the company are Tiger cubs... And -- yeah, we... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Was it scary to get to the point where you're like "You know what? The only way forward is a name change. Nothing else, just the name." |
**Ajay Kulkarni:** You know, it got to the point -- which probably means we'd waited too long... It got to the point where it was painfully obvious to us. |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Ah, yeah... |
**Ajay Kulkarni:** And I remember -- and I told the team "Look, this is not going to solve any problems, but it is going to remove an anchor that is holding us back." Like, it's still on us to kind of move the ship, you know... But it removes an anchor. I think the key thing is you just have to stick to the decision an... |
I actually think the name is catching on faster than I expected. I think the name change went as smooth as we could have hoped, and I think people -- TimescaleDB I think still has more brand awareness, but I think Tiger Data is catching up. |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Yeah. |
**Ajay Kulkarni:** Yeah... Some people made fun of us, but whatever... \[laughs\] |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Well, haters hate. That's how it works. |
**Ajay Kulkarni:** Haters hate, dude, yeah. |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Haters do hate. So our audience knows this, you've been a sponsor for a bit, too... And I mentioned maybe in the pre-call, maybe in the early part of it, Isabelle is someone who works for you, and we've known each other for years, since the MongoDB days... And we would have conversations -- and this... |
\[40:00\] And so when I saw the name change reflecting on your mention of "It seemed natural", essentially... When I saw the new name, the first thing I did was email Isabelle and I was like "Listen, that's an awesome name. We've gotta talk. When can you make time?" kind of thing. Because it had been a few months since... |
**Ajay Kulkarni:** I'm glad you felt that way, because I feel like people who knew the company mostly felt that way, which was like -- like, we didn't even change our logo. Our logo stayed the same. We just changed the name. And people were like "Yeah, no, they get it. And by the way, tigers are cool!" |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Tigers are cool. |
**Ajay Kulkarni:** They're cool, they're fun... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** What I liked too, when you did this, was the logo animated from Timescale to Tiger Data. Logo stayed the same, the mark that you have... I thought that was a nice little subtle touch. |
**Ajay Kulkarni:** That was our marketing team, yeah. |
**Adam Stacoviak:** I also -- I'm not a... I think a lot of people like dark mode, and I think your previous site was all dark mode... And you may even offer a dark mode version of your site... I don't know, because I see the stark white version of it... It doesn't bother me. Like, the yellow and the white and the blac... |
**Ajay Kulkarni:** Yeah. I mean, it was a team effort, but the marketing team drove that. Kudos to them... But I think it definitely gives you some thought on "Hey, does the name really matter?" And I think where I'm landing right now is that the name may not help you, but it can hurt you. I mean, there are two schools... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Tigers are cool. |
**Ajay Kulkarni:** Tigers are cool. |
**Adam Stacoviak:** So one of the things that you have now, I think, is this burgeoning idea of agents in our databases, right? |
**Ajay Kulkarni:** Yes. |
**Adam Stacoviak:** And I'm at this point where -- there was this arc of acceptance, I would describe it, of "Hey, come on now... AI hype, I'm over it. Too much", this and that. And I think the game changed when Claude Code changed the game. That's where I really think it happened. I had been a user of ChatGPT, like ma... |
**Ajay Kulkarni:** \[44:24\] Yeah. I think -- yes, I had a very similar experience with Claude Code. I remember one of my friends talking about agentic workloads in 2023, and I remember thinking "What are you talking about? Agentic? What does that mean?" And now I use the word "agentic" at least five times a day. And C... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** For developers it was a party trick. I mean, for everyone else it's pretty dang powerful. But as a developer -- and ChatGPT is not the right interface. Chat yes, but not \[unintelligible 00:44:59.24\] |
**Ajay Kulkarni:** I remember building -- because I was trying to talk to a friend. I was showing it to a friend, and he was like "Oh, can we build an app that tracks pushups?" And I'm like "I don't know. Let's try it." And I think 45 minutes later -- Claude had gone out and found the right computer vision library, and... |
I remember going to a social event that night and I couldn't even talk to people, because I was so excited. Like, I went home early. I was like "I need to go back to Claude Code." |
**Adam Stacoviak:** "I'm not feeling well, y'all. I've gotta go." |
**Ajay Kulkarni:** I swear to God. Well, I'm trying to talk to people about Claude Code, and they're like "Are you okay?" I'm like "No, this thing is amazing. You have to try it." |
**Adam Stacoviak:** What kind of party was it? Was it nerds, or was it normal people? |
**Ajay Kulkarni:** It was part nerds, part normal people. |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Okay. Part normal... |
**Ajay Kulkarni:** But even the nerds were like -- I mean, Claude Code had just come out. There was still "Yeah, I use Claude..." I'm like "No, not Claude. Claude Code." You know when I told you about that experience in 1996, using the internet for the first time? That's what this felt like. Number one, it felt like "I... |
\[47:28\] And yeah, so I'm really excited... I mean, I think as a company we're excited, because we see this trend, that like 80% of Claude Code is written by Claude... The majority of new software over the next 12 months will be written by AI... We already have customers who tell us that 70% of their code is written b... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** For sure. |
**Ajay Kulkarni:** ...but also as a company, it's like "Yeah, this feels like a problem someone should solve", and the answer is probably Postgres, and we might as well solve it. |
**Adam Stacoviak:** This lyric lands for me in this moment... It's from -- I had to look it up. I don't know this by memory, but it's from Marvin Gaye and Tammy Terrell. "Ain't nothing like the real thing, baby." So when you're in ChatGPT and you're just ideating the future of what your software thing could be, if that... |
**Ajay Kulkarni:** And it can be like "Okay, cool, commit those changes and push them upstream." And so you're like "Oh, it's actually fitting --" Because when I use Replit or Loveable - they're fine, but I was like "Okay, cool, but I don't build this way. Maybe other people do, I don't." But now I'm like "Yeah, I'd bu... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** The speed you can move at, I think, is kind of wild. I laugh about this, and I don't know how often you laugh about this, but I love when it makes a plan and it's like "Well, this is week one, this is week two, and this is week three." Meanwhile, four hours later, the thing's done. Or an hour later,... |
**Ajay Kulkarni:** That is always funny, yeah. |
**Adam Stacoviak:** And I like how it manifests its time ranges, but I'm like, "It's kind of funny." It's still making a plan, or it's making a plan with you, and the range of its timeframe is -- maybe it's actually accurate to how it should be if it was done with a team of humans, versus a team of one, with an agent a... |
**Ajay Kulkarni:** Or maybe it's just under-promising and over-delivering, because that's what humans like... \[laughs\] |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Yeah, maybe that's it; maybe it's psychology. Something's going on there... Even your mention of -- you know, we had a conversation, you and I, a few weeks back, and you mentioned the same thing, you mentioned this childlike play... And that's kind of the definition of flow. Like, flow state is that... |
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