Native Integrations and Expanding Generative AI Support – Puneet Gupta, Amberflo

This is Textron tv. Hey everyone. Welcome back here to Textron tv.

I've got a, a first time company here on Textron to talk to you about today. I want to introduce you to Mr. Punit Gupta.

Punit. Punit is the c e o founder of a company called Amber Flow, and I hope I got all those names correctly. Punit, welcome to Tech Drunk tv.

How are you? I'm doing great, Alan. Great to be with you.

Thanks for having me. It's great to have you on. Thank you for coming on.

Um, Punit, why don't we start with you, right? C e o, founder, if you don't mind, share with our audience a little of your background. Yeah, sure.

io. Um, what can I say? Uh, you know, about 25 years in tech.

Uh, call out a couple of seminal experiences. Uh, some of them, uh, obviously intersect with the starting of Amber Flow, and one of those is, uh, I'm one of those lucky ones. I like to kind of say that.

Uh, we got a seat, uh, front row seat inside a w s back in the early days. So I joined a w s back in 2011. Um, to their credit, they trusted me with a lot.

Uh, my team ended up building two Amazon Tier one services, one called Amazon Cloud Search, another called Amazon Elasticsearch. Uh, so that was a seminal experience, relatively early days of cloud, cloud computing, and really just having a front row seat, uh, into the overall cloud operations and building cloud services at scale. Uh, after that went on to, um, was part of the early founding team, uh, when Oracle got serious about building their next generation cloud infrastructure from the ground up.

So was part of the founding team at Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, uh, owned some of the core components of building the technology stack there. But yeah, NetNet about, you know, 20, 25 years in tech, uh, started amper flow about three years back. Uh, I'd like to say off to, uh, after a good start.

Absolutely. And, um, well, let's talk about Aaron. Before, you know, Punit, I, I've never met a founder who wasn't or who didn't think that in some small way, even what they were doing was gonna make the world better in some somehow, right?

Some, some have bigger, you know, dreams than others, but everyone thinks that what they are building their company is, is gonna somehow make someone's life easier, somehow Make, save someone money, right? Somehow make it, make it better. What, what was that passion behind Amber Flow?

Yeah, for sure. Um, glad you asked. Um, you know, we are, um, uh, I like to say at Amber Flow, you know, this was part of, been the founding thesis.

Um, we are mission oriented and values driven. Uh, perhaps maybe, you know, all companies kind of think of them, uh, in, in that regard, but we certainly do and we are pretty prescriptive. Uh, and, you know, we could probably spend the entire session here today, and I could just unwind what I mean by, you know, mission oriented and values driven.

But since you asked, um, see, I've, uh, uh, we are basically a product of our experiences. That's the way I look. I like to think, uh, as, as humans, right?

So, uh, I'm a little bit, uh, I like to say a little bit old hand at technology. I've been around for a while and, uh, I've seen and contrasted, you know, different things across the, across the spectrum. I worked across different companies.

I've seen, uh, things at scale. I've seen things at the beginning, uh, of the incubation period. Um, anyways, uh, long story short, uh, I felt that there was an opportunity to transition, help the world transition to a more fair and transparent business model.

Okay. And like I said, you know, we are sort of products of our own experiences and background. So, you know, I, you know, I wasn't born with that thesis.

I kind of picked that up along the ways. Mm-hmm. And as you might connect the dots, you know, uh, my time at a w s was some sort of Seminole in that regard where, uh, you know, I joined Amazon Web Services having already worked for maybe 15 odd years in the industry.

So that's kind of what I refer to. You know, I'd already seen a few things. I've been at companies, I've been, uh, lucky to be part of bringing new products to market and scaling them.

And then I came into, uh, a w s and I saw this world of, uh, what was being termed as usage-based pricing and billing, consumption-based pricing. Mm-hmm. So this was really the monetization model, uh, that in many ways you can sort of attribute it to a w s as sort of pioneering it.

Now, in all fairness, I don't know if they were the inventors of it, but they certainly scaled it, uh, usage based pricing, pay as you go, consumption based pricing. And, you know, from the outset, maybe, uh, it would not capture your imagination, but having sort of a front row seat and sort of looking at it from inside out. And then contrasting that with some of the earlier experiences I've had at some other companies on a different business model, I was sold, I was sold in a sense that, you know, this is really Alan, if there is quote unquote a holy grail for pricing and billing, this is that model usage based.

I mean, there is no greater alignment between the vendor and the customer on the backs of this usage based pricing and billing business model. And, uh, I have thesis on thesis. I mean, every aspect of it I can unwind and I can stand behind on ultimately why this is better across the board, right?

So if there is a greater alignment between the vendor and the customer, then that is literally raising the tide, right? And if you're raising the tide, then as to say, you know, all boats are gonna rise with that. So for us, and for me, it was sort of that profound that if this business model change can occur, it can really drive the next level of productivity.

It can drive the next level of trust between customers and vendors. And, uh, something that I think had been missing in a traditional business model. Yeah.

So that was, uh, sort of what I call, this has been a labor of love. I've been thinking about this. If you and I had curbside each other back in 20 11, 20 12, I would've pitched you the Amber Blow story back then.

I kid you not, I, you know, once yeah, I knew that, um, world is, is gonna have to go in this direction. I mean, once people taste it, sure. You know, just like with everything new, uh, there are some reservations, uh, you know, uh, there are some concerns, rightfully so.

But, uh, uh, I could see, uh, there was no turning back at a w s this was the model. In fact, they are doubling down on it as they grow. Okay.

Yeah. So That's hard to argue with their success that, you know, certainly, and, and, and quite frankly, I mean, they, they invent, they, I don't want to say they invented the model. com boom, right?

We helped put together a company called Inter Reliant, and we, we had a model like this, right? We, we didn't have, we didn't have what a w s had, but or has. But yeah, I, I, I do agree with you.

It is, uh, it's hard to argue with the success there. Yeah. Um, so is AMLO the first company that you've actually founded, though?

So this is the first time, Pretty much, yeah. It's actually my second company. I did another company in the dotcom days, uh, as we call 'em, or was that back in early two thousands?

Actually started, uh, mid two thousands, 2006, 2007. Mm-hmm. Uh, yeah.

So that was my first foray into a startup. Uh, and that was a good run. Uh, I was, I ran that company for about five, six years.

Uh, got some venture funding, build it out. 0 days? Sure, sure.

com bubble burst around 2000 right before two, right before 2001, before September 11. And then there was Web two. Oh, I, I remember those days.

Well, as well. I mean, that was, that's right. Yeah.

The heyday of, of a lot of the blogging and, and you know, the intranets and all of these things, right? That's right. Yeah.

com. 0, uh, eras, I think now where we recall right around 2006, 2007. Yeah.

It was basically taking, uh, the idea was all of these blogging and new set of tools, social media, which was just coined back then, and the idea was the information is now getting disseminated, you know, uh, the end users, so the consumers have more power, more leverage on the backs of these modern tools. Uh, so yeah. So that was sort of my first company.

Um, and then, uh, after that company, I actually ended up joining a w s and, uh, so the clouds parted, saw a different world, uh, on the backs of cloud computing, modern cloud computing. Uh, and that's what led to, uh, later starting amper. I Got it.

So it seems you've been riding, you know, new technology, uh, you know, developments in the market, and of course today everything is ai, it seems, right? AI has come on since, like last November, so maybe in, uh, eight, what, eight, nine months. And I don't, you know, like you, I we're contemporaries.

I don't think I've seen anything this hot. Yeah. Maybe since the internet itself even, right?

Yeah. Um, can't, you can't walk more than three feet in Silicon Valley without tripping over some something ai, right? That's right.

Um, why don't you, and so I, I know AI has had an effect even here on a flow, right? Yeah. It's, it's affecting everything.

Let's talk about that a little bit, if you don't mind. Totally. Yeah.

Um, you know, uh, this has actually, it's been, it's been great. I'll, uh, I'll share a perspective. I think that I think your audience might, uh, at least might be intrigued by.

Now, of course, you know, we all know sort of Silicon Valley against sort of the ground zero for AI ml, right? Uh, and then this next wave of, of flavor of AI ML L lms, and within that particularly open AI's chat, G P T, right? So that's kind of what woke everybody up to the potential of a flavor of AI ML in the form of lms, uh, delivered as on a prompt basis.

Okay? So that's what's kind of taken everybody by storm. Um, for us, uh, there's been a silver lining in this, uh, aligned back to our mission of what I shared with you, uh, which is ultimately to help the world transition to a more fair and transparent business model.

Let me connect the dots and why I won't, you know, uh, profess to say that we had, uh, precisely thought of it this way, uh, but we knew that something will happen along the way. So let me unpack what I mean. You know, when we started the company Allen, um, three years ago, as was typical for maybe, perhaps most startups, not everybody gets it.

And I think, you know, and, and there's value in that by the way, right? Because if you go out and pitching your startup and everybody says, yeah, yeah, yeah, I think it's already too late, right? By the time it becomes part of the narrative lexicon, and you are coming in as a startup, the fact that people already kind of come full circle on it is they've already either seen it or experienced it, right?

So I think it's, it's a little too late at that point. So it's good that you're getting some pushback and either people not getting what you're talking about or not believing in what you're talking about. So we certainly encountered that, you know, three years ago, as I said, when we started the company, not all investors, uh, were behind it.

Not everybody got it. Uh, and one other things that, you know, I would get pushback on. 'cause I would come in and say, look, we envision that it's only a matter of time before the entire world shifts will shift to this model.

This will be the dominant model, usage-based pricing and billing. Everything that's come before, call, call, whatever you wanna call it, subscription, seed based, user base term, perpetual, all of that's going out the window in the fullness of time going forward. Usage-based pricing and billing, bar none across verticals, across domains worldwide will be the dominant model.

And, you know, people said, well, that's a pretty broad claim, you know, back that up with some, uh, either anecdote or some empirical data. And by and large, you know, people got around the fact. Yes, okay.

I will concede to you Punit that I can see infrastructure companies, I can see platform type companies like database data warehouse, you know, those companies certainly will go down the path of usage-based pricing and billing. But many said that, you know, I, I don't know if the last application company standing will go down the path of usage-based pricing and billing. They might still stay on to a traditional seat based or user base.

And I said, no, look, it's gonna happen. Now, of course, I couldn't quite tell 'em exactly how it would happen, but other than just the conviction and strong conviction that it'll happen, well, I don't guess what the, the catalyst for the SaaS layer and the thousands of SaaS and application companies do now capitulate down the path of usage-based pricing and billing turned out to be this generative AI L L M, right? I, you know, as you just called out, maybe right at the outside in Silicon Valley, you can't walk free feet without kind of tripping over a conversation about ai ml.

Everybody's having that conversation. I, you know, you would agree, no matter what company you are, who you are on what part of the planet at this point, you have probably gathered your product in some form of engineering and go-to-market teams and have had a conversation about how do I incorporate LLMs generative AI flavor of that into my products and services, okay? And tell you what the moment you're gonna decide to do something about it, you are down the path of usage-based pricing and billing as a form of your modernization line.

Okay? Done. I agree.

Alright. So that has been a great silver lining. Uh, like I said, I couldn't have told you this three years ago that AI ml and a particular form of AI ML will end up being that catalyst.

And that kind of basically, you know, covers the entire spectrum where yes, now this will become the dominant business model, but we've seen it. And, uh, and that's why, you know, it's just a natural extension of, uh, we're going down this path. And it's good because like I said, at the end of the day, it provides greater alignment between the vendor and the customer, which is the basis for a good relationship.

Absolutely. What I find fascinating is, okay, so this is how A I M L is going to disrupt your world, your industry. You know, we, we, we started a new site three, four months ago now called Tech Strung ai, because we saw that ai, it was just, it was eating our other sites, right?

Like, you know, mark Andrew said, SOFA is eating the world. AI was eating all of our sites up, all the new. So we said, all right, let's give it a home right where it belongs.

And, um, what we find interesting is almost every vertical you look at, every business model you look at, there's a disruption coming from this, right? And it's not necessarily bad. Some people think of disruption as a bad word, but it's not necessarily a bad word, but there's a disruption coming and, and it'll, it's going to change how a business is run, how it's done.

It's changing our business here, right? We're looking at, Hey, we're gonna record this, this video you and I are doing, I'm going to ingest it into an AI who may shrink it down to a three minute or a 32nd TikTok or something, right? Um, it's changing.

And, and so it, this is why I say it is as big as it is. It's, it's just crazy. Anyway, really.

Yeah. You know, nee, we're, we're running outta time. I want, so people, look, people, everyone in today's world's looking to save money, right?

We're all dealing with reduced budgets and interest rates and everything else. Ambi Flow is a company that can help here, uh, as we all move more onto usage-based pricing and billing platforms, whether it is cloud or otherwise, right? We, we want to be smart about our spend.

How do people engage? How do, how do they get onto the on-ramp, if you will, for Amber Flow? You bet.

Yeah. So, you know, we provide, um, what we call cloud metering and usage-based pricing and billing platform. So, uh, you know, just a quick summary then, you know, it enables you to build your own customer facing usage, base pricing plans, right?

Yep. And then, so give you that turnkey infrastructure. Uh, let me also just, uh, kind of, uh, highlight for your audience, since we talked about this Gen ai, how it's impacting you.

You already kind of, uh, created a flavor of it as part of, uh, your tech stack. Um, so I think since there's a lot of focus within that, let me just unpack a use case on Gen ai, uh, because I think there's a slight nuance here, just from my experience, at least share for what it'll be worth so folks don't fall into the same trap. Uh, so that's one.

And then I'll talk about, you know, just how they can come on board and they can start to engage. Um, if you are bringing Gen AI into your platform as you've already done, Alan, like you said, you know, you might actually take this video and then just ask gen ai, Hey, crunch this down and do a three minute or gimme a soundbite or whatever. Uh, inevitably you are now working in an ecosystem where you are leveraging a third party tool or some framework, and there's gonna be some cost for you to do what we just said to execute on this use case, okay?

Uh, and you're gonna justify that cost because it's gonna deliver the value, uh, a summary of this video. Uh, but you're gonna have to pay somebody on the backend to do some work, whether it's your own infrastructure or whether you are using a third party model or whatever you have. Similarly, anybody else who's looking to bring in Gen AI into their technology stack, we'll have to sort of think about those vectors.

So think about, you know, what I'm getting at is, in the traditional world, usually pricing and billing was sort of a little bit of an afterthought. You build a product and then you invited a team of sales or maybe managers or accounting folks, and they kind of build out the pricing plan and you kind of slapped it on top. The, if you're going down the path of gen ai, LLMs, you cannot take that approach anymore.

You have to bring in our process about pricing and billing into the product development lifecycle, because you're going to have to usage instrument how much of AI and whose AI that you're using. And you're gonna have to align and reconcile what are your backend costs for using that AI model, and how do you propose to then charge on a value added basis to your customers. So just a heads up for your audience, you know, unfortunately, you can't just wait till the end.

Bring this conversation, uh, early on, the best analogy, I can give something I thought of literally, uh, a few days back. You remember the good old, or, uh, you know, for what we've heard, the good old California gold rush days, uh, I think we're kind of in the similar pattern, uh, with this whole generative ai. And I would say, you know, don't show up without the shovel.

And what I mean by that is think about how you're gonna monetize this thing and put that infrastructure in place from day one. So, uh, that's just a little bit about, you know, how to think about a go to market motion with respect to generative ai, l l m baked into your product. io.

Uh, reach out to us, connect with me directly. Uh, no strings attached, not a sales pitch. If you are not sure, if you're not, uh, if you're wondering if this is right for you, maybe you are on the fence.

Uh, not sure if usage-based pricing and billing would be right for you. Maybe you in a particular industry. I can talk about this all day, all night.

Uh, happy to share with you some of my experiences, some, um, stories at a w s Oracle, uh, when we transitioned to usage-based pricing and billing. So happy to engage with you at a personal level. Uh, but, uh, if you're ready to jump on, uh, sign up again on our platform, uh, in production, several customers on our platform, large volume, large use cases, uh, we are a domain agnostic.

Cloud metering, usage-based pricing and billing platform can tackle pretty much any use case. Fantastic. You know, why they worked for a w s it could work for you.

Beif, thank you for coming on and, and getting us a little educated here about Amber Flow and, uh, good luck in the future with it. And, and just yet another example here of generator of ai, you know, kind of changing businesses over, you know, not overnight, but you know, really quickly for sure. Come back and visit us again, and best of luck to you.

Awesome, Alan. You bet. We love to.

Thanks very much. All right, we're gonna take a break here on Text Drunk tv. We'll be right back after this.