E186: Unlocking Your Unstructured Data with Typedef
From Open Source Startup Podcast by Robby (MTF); Tim (Essence VC)
November 20, 2025 · 42 min
About this episode
Robby and Tim discuss unstructured data and AI workloads with Typedef co-founders Yoni Michael and Kostas Pardalis.
In our latest episode, our co-hosts Robby and Tim talk with Yoni Michael and Kostas Pardalis , Co-Founders of Typedef . Both have deep backgrounds in data infrastructure (Starburst, Tecton, etc.) and, after meeting through a "blind date" at Blue Bottle Coffee, decided to team up to address the growing brittleness of large-scale data pipelines - issues made worse by the rise of AI. They explain how traditional systems like Spark weren’t designed for today’s AI workloads, especially unstructured data and LLM inference. Fenic was their answer: an open-source engine and DataFrame library built specifically for LLM workflows, multi-step reasoning, and agentic systems - without the operational complexity. Their biggest lessons: start GTM early, talk to as many data leaders as possible, and keep validating - insights that led directly to open-sourcing Fenic and building its MCP-powered developer experience.
People in this episode
Hosts: Robby, Tim
Guests: Yoni Michael, Kostas Pardalis
Topics covered
- unstructured data
- data infrastructure
- AI workloads
- open-source
- data pipelines
- LLM workflows
Keywords
- unstructured data
- data pipelines
- AI
- open-source
- Fenic
- LLM
- data infrastructure
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Typedef, Starburst, Tecton, Blue Bottle Coffee
Products: Fenic, DataFrame, LLM
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