AWS Podcasts – JAWS, Muterra, Betabrand, and DubSmash

Here’s the final batch of interviews that I recorded on Tuesday, September 1 at the AWS Loft in San Francisco as part of the Intel Startup Spotlight for the AWS Podcast. Episode 122 was recorded remotely (a first for me).

I spoke with representatives from JAWS, Muterra, Betabrand, and DubSmash. As usual, the “Episode” links go directly to the audio files; you can also visit the AWS Podcast page and subscribe to the feed.

Episode 119 – JAWS
For Episode 119, I spoke with Austen Collins, founder of the JAWS project (subsequently renamed to Serverless). JAWS optimizes all Lambda functions, with the plans to grow beyond that capability in the future. I emailed Austen after finding him online, and we began an ongoing conversation about Lambda, JAWS, and API Gateway. We discussed the future of Lambda (“Lambda has the potential to be the focal point of AWS cloud”) and its best qualities, as well as the future of serverless models as a whole.

Episode 120 – Muterra
For Episode 120, I spoke with engineer-turned-entrepreneur Nick Badger about his newly launched startup, Muterra. Muterra launched the Muse protocol to protect personal digital autonomy with ubiquitous encryption and functions with the goal of interoperability. Nick is also developing Ethyr, a new private email system built on Muse. Nick and I talk about his journey from mechanical engineer to entrepreneur, his upcoming Kickstarter campaign, advice for future entrepreneurs, and the technology behind Muterra.

Episode 121 – Betabrand
For Episode 121, I interviewed Seamus James, software engineer at Betabrand. Betabrand is an online crowdfunding clothing community based in San Francisco. Customers (“fans”) co-design and crowdfund new products in just a matter of weeks, bringing new, fresh ideas to life almost every day. While the company is not 100% AWS-powered,  Seamus and I met off of a Reddit thread when he shared a story of how AWS’s scalability helped the ecommerce site survive a high-traffic “success disaster.”

Episode 122 – DubSmash
For Episode 122, I spoke with DubSmash co-founder and CTO Daniel Taschik about the social media and audio-dubbing app. DubSmash enables users to dub audio and video together on an easy-to-use social platform. Daniel explains how they came up with the idea for DubSmash, how people use the app, and how they’ve been able to expand their user network to more than 75 million users in 192 countries.  I enjoyed learning about how AWS has enabled the now-viral app to scale exponentially.

Special Thanks
As always, special thanks are due to my awesome colleagues on the AWS Podcast team:

• Gloria Kim – Scheduling and hosting at the AWS Loft in San Francisco.
• Melissa Higa – Program Management.
• Sarah Silverstein – Editing and content management.

— Jeff;