S12 Favorite - Overcoming Broken Right-Sizing Models to Automate Real-Time Cloud Cost Optimization with Sharad Kumar & Harshit Omar, Co-Founders of FluidCloud
Summary
Fluid Cloud co-founders Sharad Kumar and Harshit Omar discuss building a one-click multi-cloud migration tool to solve the pain of vendor lock-in and complex infrastructure moves. They reveal how an initial AI-driven MVP failed, leading them to build a robust, scalable mapping engine instead. The episode covers their disciplined engineering culture, hiring for problem-solvers, and advice on focusing on real user needs over hype.
Topics discussed
Intro: Data security challenges and Cohesity sponsorship
Host intro, .tech domains, and sponsor reads
Guest bios: Sharad Kumar and Harshit Omar
Origin story: Pain of cloud migration and Fluid Cloud founding
Why AI failed for Terraform generation and the mapping engine
Sponsor reads: .tech domains and Cohesity Data Cloud
Product roadmap philosophy and the bamboo parable
Team building: Hiring hustlers and problem solvers
Sponsor reads: BrainGrid and Mesmo telemetry
Engineering culture: Scaling architecture and sprint cycles
Market opportunity: VMware exit and multi-cloud demand
Launch strategy: Stealth mode, network effects, and sales
Sponsor read: Unblocked context layer for agents
Future vision and influences: Advisors and co-founder dynamics
Leadership lessons: Vision, execution, and personal connection
Founder advice: Sacrifice, product-market fit, and distribution
Outro and Working Smarter podcast promo
Capital One AI deployment case study
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