In this Q&A series, Matthew Hirst and Nate Mitchell of Hornet discuss their experiences with Apache Cassandra® and open-source technologies in building cloud-native, data-driven applications. They share their technical backgrounds, current priorities for the team, systems in place at Hornet, key learnings and challenges faced while working on projects, vision for the project as a business, and advice for their younger selves. The discussion highlights the importance of stability, availability, Infrastructure as Code, and keeping up with upgrades to ensure the best possible experience for users.