Trino, Iceberg and the Battle for the Lakehouse | Justin Borgman, CEO, Starburst

In this episode, we explore the cutting-edge world of data infrastructure with Justin Borgman, CEO of Starburst — a company transforming data analytics through its open-source project, Trino, and empowering industry giants like Netflix, Airbnb, and LinkedIn.

Justin takes us through Starburst’s journey from a Yale University spin-out to a leading force in data innovation, discussing the shift from data lakes to lakehouses, the rise of open formats like Iceberg as the future of data storage, and the role of AI in modern data applications. We also dive into how Starburst is staying ahead by balancing on-prem and cloud offerings while emphasizing the value of optionality in a rapidly evolving, data-driven landscape.

Starburst Data

Website - https://www.starburst.io

X/Twitter - https://x.com/starburstdata

Justin Borgman

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinborgman

X/Twitter - https://x.com/justinborgman

FIRSTMARK

Website - https://firstmark.com

X/Twitter - https://twitter.com/FirstMarkCap

Matt Turck (Managing Director)

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/turck/

X/Twitter - https://twitter.com/mattturck

(00:00) Intro

(01:32) What is Starburst?

(02:32) Understanding the data layer

(05:06) Justin Borgman’s story before Starburst

(10:41) The evolution of Presto into Trino

(13:20) Lakehouse vs. data lake vs. data warehouse

(22:06) Why Starburst backed the lakehouse from the start

(23:20) Starburst Enterprise

(27:31) Cloud vs. on-prem

(29:10) Starburst Galaxy

(31:23) Dell Data Lakehouse

(32:13) Starburst’s data architecture explained

(38:30) The rise of data apps

(38:54) Starburst AML

(40:41) “We actually built the Galaxy twice”

(43:13) Managing multiple products at scale

(45:14) “We founded the company on the idea of optionality”

(47:20) Iceberg

(48:01) How open-source acquisitions work

(51:39) Why Snowflake embraced Iceberg

(53:15) Data mesh

(55:31) AI at Starburst

(57:16) Key takeaways from go-to-market strategies

(01:01:18) Lessons from the Dell partnership

(01:04:40) Predictions for 2025