I sat down with Werner Vogels, the CTO of Amazon
11 days ago
- #Startup Advice
- #AI Insights
- #Technology Leadership
- Werner Vogels, CTO of Amazon, shared key insights during a private fireside chat at Startup Summit 2025.
- Focus on solving real problems, not chasing hype or FOMO (e.g., blockchain, generative AI).
- Plan for failure by classifying systems into tiers (Tier 1: critical, Tier 2: can degrade, Tier 3: non-essential).
- Differentiate between reversible (fast decisions with 70% info) and irreversible (slow, deep thinking) decisions.
- Tech leadership priorities: Security > Operations > Cost.
- AI's real value lies in freeing up time for meaningful work, not replacing engineering fundamentals.
- Build in-house only for critical, unsolved problems (e.g., Amazon's custom key-value system).
- DevOps at Amazon means owning what you build—engineers carry pagers for their services.
- Cost visibility is crucial—track expenses in real time to make it a product discussion.
- AI is a tool, not magic—it accelerates work but doesn’t replace responsibility.
- Clarity and time management are the most valuable takeaways from Werner's talk.