The Invisible Layer Powering the AI Infrastructure | Co-Founder and CEO of Momento | Khawaja Shams

Startup Project: Build the future

We are republishing one of our favorite episode with the co-founder of Momento this week, we will be publishing a brand new episode next week.

Discover how a NASA engineer leveraged AWS to build a serverless caching solution.

About the episode:

Join Nataraj as he speaks with Khawaja Shams, co-founder and CEO of Momento, a serverless caching solution that just closed a $15 million Series A round. Khawaja shares his journey from processing images for Mars rovers at NASA to leading engineering teams at Amazon and now revolutionizing caching with Momento. He discusses the challenges of building scalable infrastructure, the importance of developer productivity, and how Momento is simplifying real-time data infrastructure for enterprises. Learn how Momento addresses the complexities of traditional caching solutions, enabling developers to focus on building interactive experiences.

What you’ll learn

- Hear Khawaja's experience at NASA, working on image processing for Mars Rovers and his transition to AWS to accelerate image processing.

- Find out how AWS inspired Khawaja to join Amazon and contribute to the growth of cloud computing and its impact on innovation.

- Learn how Momento addresses the complexities of traditional caching solutions, enabling developers to focus on building interactive experiences.

- Understand Momento's accidental discovery of a two-tier caching system that evolved into a web server, enhancing developer productivity and scalability.

- Discover the initial steps from zero to one in building Momento, including team hiring and partnering with design partners for customer feedback and product grounding.

- Hear about target customers for Momento's solutions, focusing on media, entertainment, gaming, and fintech companies with spiky traffic and mission-critical needs.

- Explore Khawaja's perspective on Amazon's leadership principles and Momento's core leadership values, emphasizing customer centricity and psychological safety.

- Gain insights into building a company culture that attracts top talent and addresses the challenges of convincing individuals to join a startup.

About the Guest and Host:

Khawaja Shams: CEO and Co-Founder of Momento, previously at NASA and AWS, building serverless and low-latency solutions.

Connect with Guest:

→ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kshams/

Nataraj: Host of the Startup Project podcast, Senior PM at Azure & Investor.

→ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natarajsindam/

→ Twitter: https://x.com/natarajsindam

→ Substack: ⁠https://startupproject.substack.com/⁠

→ Website: ⁠⁠⁠https://thestartupproject.io⁠⁠⁠

In this episode, we cover

(00:00) Introduction and Guest Introduction

(01:14) Khawaja's Early Career at NASA

(03:27) Transitioning Image Processing to AWS

(05:59) Joining Amazon and the Cloud Computing Revolution

(08:00) Early Days at Amazon and AWS Culture

(10:08) Roles and Products at Amazon: DynamoDB and Elemental

(13:58) The Vision Behind AWS's Growth

(15:55) The Genesis of Momento: Identifying a Gap in Caching Solutions

(19:07) Insights from DynamoDB Customers

(21:30) Building Momento: From Zero to One

(24:46) Ideal Design Partners and Target Verticals

(27:24) Validating Product-Market Fit

(28:43) B2B Marketing and Growth Strategies

(31:19) Amazon's Leadership Principles and Company Culture

(34:27) Building a Unique Culture at Momento

(36:56) Attracting Talent to a Startup

(39:26) Khawaja's Current Consumption (Books, Podcasts, etc.)

(40:32) Mentors and Influences

(41:50) Lessons Learned as a First-Time Founder

(43:27) Thoughts on AI and Its Impact on Infrastructure

(45:33) Concluding Remarks

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