Let's Build a Startup! S2E5 - Relationships! It's Complicated - Graph Databases for your Startup

Hello founders! Welcome back to another episode of AWS Let's Build a Startup! This week's episode delves (just like an LLM would say ;) ) into the fascinating world of graph databases and their role in building next-generation AI applications. With the expertise of Camilo Anania, Head of Solutions Architecture for Healthcare Startups in the UK, and Alex Bilbie, Head of Engineering at Muzz, we explored how graph databases can transform your AI projects.

Camilo shared his extensive experience with graph databases, offering an overview of what they are and how to get started on AWS. Graph databases are highly efficient in managing and querying complex relationships between data points, making them ideal for AI applications such as GraphRAG, Recommendation Engines, Customer 360, Identity Graphs etc. Camilo explained the two main types of graph databases: Property Graph and Resource Description Framework (RDF), each with its own query languages like OpenCypher, Gremlin, and ThinkerPop.

Camilo highlighted the practical applications of graph databases in various industries. He demonstrated their use in social networks, recommendation systems, and fraud detection. For instance, social networks can efficiently manage user connections and interactions, while recommendation systems can provide personalized content based on user preferences. In fraud detection, graph databases can identify suspicious patterns and connections between entities.

Camillo built for us a PartyRock application that will take your idea as an input and will generate architectural and data access patterns for your graph powered use-case. Check it out here!

Alex Bilbie joined the discussion to share how Muzz, the largest Muslim marriage app, leverages graph databases to manage its extensive social graph. Muzz's architecture includes a RESTful API backed by gRPC microservices running in ECS, using DynamoDB as the primary data store and Neptune for complex graph queries. Alex explained how this setup allows Muzz to scale efficiently while maintaining data consistency and low latency. If you want to learn more about Muzz's architecture, Alex published a comprehenive blog post here.

Alex emphasized the importance of content moderation and user safety in Muzz. They use a combination of Amazon Comprehend, Amazon Rekognition and other third party tools to ensure all content adheres to community guidelines and cultural principles. This rigorous moderation pipeline helps maintain a positive and safe environment for users.

Looking ahead, Muzz plans to enhance its use of graph databases for content recommendation and dynamic home pages. Neptune Analytics is on their radar to further optimize and analyze their social graph, opening up new possibilities for user engagement and monetization.

In the next episode, we’ll discuss how to get your MVP up and running quickly with the NAMA framework, focusing on no-code AI, microservices, and APIs. We'll also explore what makes a startup appealing to VCs with insights from Basil Fateen from AWS and Dipali Nangia from SpeedInvest. This will air on July 11th, 3pm BST / 10am EST.

Tune in next week to continue your journey in building a successful AI-powered startup. Don't forget to bookmark our live stream page on community.aws and follow us on Twitch to stay updated with the latest episodes and highlights.

 It was the 4th of July, so I am hoping all our US followers were out enjoyng the fireworks. Here in the UK, the collective attention was captivated by general elections, sooo I am hoping that these two events had something to do with our numbers lol! We were still the most watched show of the day though!

Peak Viewers: 31
Average viewers: 25
Unique Chatters: 14
Messages: 40
CTAs as of 05/07: 12

Alex Bilbie is the Head of Engineering at Muzz, the largest Muslim matrimonial app in the world. With 14 years of proven experience, Alex has developed products from conception to market and led technical teams within startups, SMEs, and academia. He is an expert in creating scalable cloud architectures and has extensive experience working on greenfield projects. Alex has a keen eye for great user experiences, ensuring that customer and business needs align seamlessly. Follow Alex on LinkedIn.

Camillo Anania is a Senior Solutions Architect at AWS. He is a tech enthusiast who loves helping healthcare and life science Startups get the most out of the cloud. With a knack for cloud technologies, he’s all about making sure companies can thrive and grow by leveraging the best cloud solutions. He is excited about the new wave of use cases and possibilities unlocked by GenAI and does not miss a chance to dive into them. Follow Camillo on LinkedIn.

Giuseppe Battista is a Senior Solutions Architect at Amazon Web Services. He leads soultions architecture for Early Stage Startups in UK and Ireland. He hosts the Twitch Show "Let's Build a Startup" on twitch.tv/aws and he's head of Unicorn's Den accelerator. Follow Giuseppe on LinkedIn