Scaling DuckDB in the cloud with MotherDuck CEO Jordan Tigani

In this episode of Database School, Aaron Francis sits down with Jordan Tigani, co-founder and CEO of MotherDuck, to break down what DuckDB is, how MotherDuck hosts it in the cloud, and why analytics workloads are shifting toward embedded databases. They dig into Duck Lake, pricing models, scaling strategies, and what it really takes to build a modern cloud data warehouse.Follow Jordan:Twitter/X:  https://twitter.com/jrdntgnLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordantiganiMotherDuck: https://motherduck.comFollow Aaron:Twitter/X:  https://twitter.com/aarondfrancis Database School: https://databaseschool.comDatabase School YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@UCT3XN4RtcFhmrWl8tf_o49g  (Subscribe today)LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aarondfrancisWebsite: https://aaronfrancis.com - find articles, podcasts, courses, and more.Chapters:00:00 - Introduction01:44 - What DuckDB is and why embedded analytics matter04:03 - How MotherDuck hosts DuckDB in the cloud05:18 - Is MotherDuck like the “Turso for DuckDB”?07:38 - Isolated analytics per user and scaling to zero08:51 - The academic origins of DuckDB10:00 - From SingleStore to founding MotherDuck12:28 - Getting fired… and funded 12 days later16:39 - Jordan’s background: Kernel dev, BigQuery, and Product18:36 - Partnering with DuckDB Labs and avoiding a fork20:52 - Why MotherDuck targets startups and the long tail24:22 - Pricing lessons: why $25 was too cheap28:11 - Ducklings, instance sizing, and compute scaling34:16 - How MotherDuck separates compute and storage37:09 - Inside the AWS architecture and differential storage43:12 - Hybrid execution: joining local and cloud data45:14 - Analytics vs warehouses vs operational databases47:41 - Data lakes, Iceberg, and what Duck Lake actually is53:22 - When Duck Lake makes more sense than DuckDB alone56:09 - Who switches to MotherDuck and why58:02 - PG DuckDB and offloading analytics from Postgres1:00:49 - Who should use MotherDuck and why1:03:39 - Hiring plans and where to follow Jordan1:05:01 - Wrap-up