Kernel

The problem

Engineering teams learn about slow database queries from angry customers, long after the change that caused them has shipped.

The solution

Kernel replays production queries against every pull request and blocks the merge when one gets slower, with the fix suggested in the review.

Who it's for

Product engineering teams running Postgres or MySQL in production.

Market

Bottom-up: about 120,000 customers like this in Germany and nearby, worth roughly $80 million a year at our prices.

Competition and edge

Headline metric

2,700 active users, growing 14% a month

The team

Lucas knows the customer and has sold to them before; Mila has built this kind of system at scale. We have worked side by side since before Kernel had a name.

Worked together

6–12 months

Hiring

A senior engineer and our first customer-success hire.

About the founder

Lucas Weber

Founder & CEO · Berlin, Germany · 11 years of experience

Lucas was a database engineer for a decade and maintained a widely used open-source query planner. Started Kernel in 2024 and works on it full-time from Berlin.

LinkedIn