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soumyadeb

627 karma · joined June 30, 2011

Founder of RudderStack, an opensource alternative to segment https://github.com/rudderlabs/rudder-server/
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soumyadeb··on GPT-6 Astra has gained the ability to drive a car
This also explains why Astra is so good at video generation. I have an Astra+Higgsfield setup. I could point it to a Github repo and ask it to generate a product walkthrough and it did a very good job by generating fake screens (e.g. with data filled in) from real ones - which wasn't possible in earlier models
soumyadeb··on The privacy problems hidden in your period tracker
Even the statement, "RudderStack is contractually prohibited from selling or using it for its own purposes," implies that the "contract" is what prevents us from selling customer data. In reality, that's not our business model and not how we operate.

Granted, that statement came from our customer and not incorrect, but these small things can be mis-interpreted.

soumyadeb··on The privacy problems hidden in your period tracker
And others - customer support, feature flags, personalization, data quality, machine learning, internal BI, operational databases, security systems etc.

Ultimately, RudderStack is infrastructure that moves first-party data between systems more like message queues.

soumyadeb··on The privacy problems hidden in your period tracker
Even this page is behind a paywall :)

Managed to copy the email though. Thanks for the pointer

soumyadeb··on The privacy problems hidden in your period tracker
That one was a security incident—data that had been legitimately collected by an analytics provider was exposed due to a breach.

This one is about privacy — what data an app chooses to collect and which third parties it intentionally sends that data to. The concern isn't that someone hacked those companies. The distinction is important for us.

Disclaimer: RudderStack founder.

soumyadeb··on The privacy problems hidden in your period tracker
Will do. Thanks
soumyadeb··on The privacy problems hidden in your period tracker
My concern is that terms like "data management company" (and another article described us as an "analytics company") are broad enough that many readers could reasonably infer we're collecting, storing, or monetizing sensitive end-user data.

I wanted to clarify that distinction because we've already had people reach out asking whether we were involved in collecting or using this data.

Its bad PR for us

soumyadeb··on The privacy problems hidden in your period tracker
RudderStack founder here.

Although the article doesn't accuse us of doing anything improper, we weren't contacted for comment, so I'd like to clarify our role.

We are customer data infrastructure, not a data broker. We do not buy, sell or monetize the customer data that passes through our systems.

Our role is analogous to infrastructure: customers choose what data to send, and RudderStack routes that data to the destinations they configure (analytics tools, data warehouses, marketing platforms, etc.). The customer owns the data and decides where it goes; RudderStack does not repurpose it for its own business.

Infrastructure providers like us should be held to high standards for security and privacy, but we should not be confused with companies that collect or monetize end-user data.

soumyadeb··on Ask HN: Why do recommender systems not seem good?
Would LLMs change anything?
soumyadeb··on Microsoft Hires Former OpenAI CEO Sam Altman
Being discussed here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38344196
soumyadeb··on Sam Altman, Greg Brockman and others to join Microsoft
Does Microsoft (under the OpenAI agreement) have access to the model code etc or just the output? If not, they would have to rebuild it.

Not sure if its obvious that people would leave OpenAI in troves to join Microsoft just to be with Sam.

soumyadeb··on Sam Altman, Greg Brockman and others to join Microsoft
Seems like a good compromise?

OpenAI continues to develop core AI offered over API. Microsoft builds the developer ecosystem around it -- that's Sam's expertise anyway. Microsoft has made a bunch of investment in the developer ecosystem in GitHub and that fits the theme. Assuming Sam sticks around.

Also, the way the tweet is worded (looking forward to working with OpenAI), seems like its a truce negotiated by Satya?

soumyadeb··on Emmett Shear becomes interim OpenAI CEO as Altman talks break down
Is it true? Lot of folks have left the OpenAI board recently (Musk, Hoffman etc). For various reasons but its not that everyone in SV is happy in the direction OpenAI was going.

Plus giant competitors like Google, Facebook might step in to fill the void.

soumyadeb··on Show HN: RudderStack Profile Builder – warehouse native customer 360 profiles
RudderStack has come a long way since our Github repo got posted on HN in 2019 (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21081756) and we made our first Show HN post in 2020 (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22637302).

We recently launched a new product called Profiles to solve the technical challenges around identity resolution — detailed here on our blog (https://www.rudderstack.com/blog/why-it-s-hard-to-build-a-36...).

The problem is one that we are intimately familiar with. At my previous company, these engineering hurdles prevented us from shipping ML projects that had the potential to make bottom-line impact.

Profiles is a data unification product that allows you to specify important customer traits, then runs the joins and computations automatically, producing an identity graph, user features, and full customer 360 table in your warehouse.

We created a public project, called Profile Builder, that showcases much of Profile’s functionality. Check out the repo for a quickstart project that showcases the basics, and please give us your feedback.

soumyadeb··on Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium
Citation for this statement.

>The FTC has been more active on anti-trust issues in the past two years than at any time in the past 30

FTC being more active in past two years over previous 30 is a strong statement.

soumyadeb··on Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium
Citation? FTC against Google doesn't produce much results on Google (kind of an irony :))

Have seen FTC going against Amazon because the FTC chair had published prior work against Amazon's practices. Not defending Amazon but FB/Google are a much bigger threat than Amazon.

soumyadeb··on Show HN: RudderStack Profile Builder – warehouse native customer 360 profiles
RudderStack has come a long way since our Github repo got posted on HN in 2019 (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21081756) and we made our first Show HN post in 2020 (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22637302).

We recently launched a new product called Profiles to solve the technical challenges around identity resolution — detailed here on our blog (https://www.rudderstack.com/blog/why-it-s-hard-to-build-a-36...).

The problem is one that we are intimately familiar with. At my previous company, these engineering hurdles prevented us from shipping ML projects that had the potential to make bottom-line impact.

Profiles is a data unification product that allows you to specify important customer traits, then runs the joins and computations automatically, producing an identity graph, user features, and full customer 360 table in your warehouse.

We created a public project, called Profile Builder, that showcases much of Profile’s functionality. Check out the repo for a quickstart project that showcases the basics, and please give us your feedback.

soumyadeb··on Submarine missing near Titanic used a $30 Logitech gamepad for steering
Ha, udpated the comment.

My point was, why would this content be gated.

soumyadeb··on Submarine missing near Titanic used a $30 Logitech gamepad for steering
"BBC iPlayer only works in the UK. Sorry, it’s due to rights issues".
soumyadeb··on Goodbye, Twilio
Twilio has to go for high margin business than their usual SMS business. Old HN discussion on why Twilio acquired Segment.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24781493

(Disclaimer: I was the author of the blog)

soumyadeb··on Launch HN: Dittofeed (YC S22) – open-source customer engagement platform
What you are saying is true but wonder if that's how it should be?

Marketing (via email, push, ad, whatever channel) should be an extension of their product experience and it can be owned by the product/engineering team. I have seen instances where growth-marketing reports to prod/eng.

Makes sense to have more right-brain activities (brand marketing, ads etc) to not come under engineering but growth marketing is often very analytical.

soumyadeb··on Andreessen Horowitz is now openly courting capital from Saudi Arabia
Decisions like whether it's ok to do business with Saudi, whether they were responsible for killing etc should be left to politicians. They should make the laws which businesses should follow.
soumyadeb··on Andreessen Horowitz is now openly courting capital from Saudi Arabia
The US govt has been courting the Saudi regime to help with the oil prices for a while now so its unfair to call out a16z.
soumyadeb··on SVB Hall of Shame
Scenario planning on two VC reactions on Thus (3/9)

1) VC1 - SVB is perfectly safe . Don't worry and keep the money there.

2) VC2 - We are hearing rumors about SVB. You should play safe and move it to another bank. Here is a guy who can help with opening accounts etc.

And SVB shuts down on Friday (3/10).

Guess, which VC would I recommend to a new founder?

Yes. Feds saved SVB but there is a world where it might not have and my money could have been locked for days forcing me to miss payroll. In any case, I would have had a sleepless weekend.

Founder here.

soumyadeb··on Silicon Valley Bank unmasks the hypocrisy of libertarian tech bros
haha
soumyadeb··on Silicon Valley Bank unmasks the hypocrisy of libertarian tech bros
As far as I know, haven't seen any tweet/quote from Peter Theil asking for a bailout. Shouldn't the onus be on the article author to do more research on their primary target. Can't blame him for being friends with people who asked for it.
soumyadeb··on The End of Silicon Valley (Bank)
There are better monetary instruments (like short term Treasury Bonds) to keep money at scale. Most startups don't have a team (CFOs etc) but I am sure the larger ones don't keep cash like that.
soumyadeb··on SUVs emitted more carbon dioxide last year than most countries
Such mindless activism is what drives away popular opinion from climate change.

Lot of folks have SUVs because they have large families. Its a pain to keep a huge car in a city like NYC or London anyway so people generally have reasons. There were a wave of such tire puncture incidents in NYC which forced some people to drive 30-40 miles every week to park the car in suburb or NJ (parking in city is very expensive)

The end result was more emission, more pain and less sympathy for the actual problem.

soumyadeb··on The art of knowing when to quit
Related and relevant question for software products: At what point we should say the product is DONE and no new features will be added. There will always be new customer requests for some weird corner case but there is a cost of adding every feature - engineering cost and complexity cost for the user.

Thinking for consumer products like Gmail etc but applies broadly.

soumyadeb··on Mexico’s subway drivers depend on WhatsApp to keep the trains running
After the outage from yesterday, maybe FAA should do the same :)
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