Everything Is a Graph (Even Your Dad Jokes) with Roi Lipman
In this episode of Screaming in the Cloud, host Corey Quinn sits down with Roi Lipman, CTO and co-founder of Falco DB, to unpack the evolving role of graph databases in a world overflowing with data stores. Roi shares his journey from building RedisGraph at Redis to spinning it out into Falco DB, along with his enduring love of the C programming language (dad jokes included). The conversation explores why graph databases remain niche, but powerful, especially for pathfinding problems like supply chains and access management, how vector search became a feature rather than a standalone database, and what AI-assisted development means for modern engineering. Along the way, they tackle open source sustainability, Rust rewrites, AI-generated pull request chaos, and the looming question of where the next generation of senior engineers will come from. Highlights: (00:00) C Language (00:27) Welcome (01:18) Database Landscape Overview (03:17) Why Graph Databases Matter (07:25) AI Built Apps and Data Choices (10:29) How FalcoDB Fits In (12:20) Vector Search as a Feature (16:48) FalcoDB Origin Story (19:54) Open Source Business and Rust Rewrite (25:23) Toy Graph Problems and Closing Thoughts Sponsored by: duckbillhq.com