Cloud Hosting

By Riley Kaminer

If youre an early stage startup, chances are that cloud hosting is one of your biggest expenses.

Miami-based serial entrepreneur Laurent Gil is keenly aware of how cloud costs can quickly rack up. In a previous company, I would spend millions of dollars on AWS, and we never understood why, he told Refresh Miami.

After successfully selling cybersecurity startup ZENEDGE to Oracle, Gil capitalized on this cloud frustration by launching startup CAST AI alongside CEO Yuri Frayman and CTO Leon Kuperman.

The main goal of CAST AI is simple: help businesses rightsize their cloud bill by optimizing the amount and type of machines they use at any given time. Clients still use their same cloud provider. But according to Gil, the companys Chief Product Officer, CAST AIs system is able to reduce their clients bill by an average of 65% all without compromising performance.

How does CAST AI accomplish this feat? 40% of the 65% is about rightsizing, or using fewer machines by tracking their customers demand at any given time. The remaining 25% comes from CAST AI picking a lower-cost virtual machine than what the client originally chose. These savings can come instantly and are updated automatically, ensuring that clients are constantly getting the best possible deal on their cloud services.

We provide confidence that whenever you use the cloud, you only use what you should use, said Gil. That confidence matters, he explained, because it empowers developers to end up using more cloud services in the long term.

CAST AI charges users based on their utilization after the optimization. The more you use us, the more you save, Gil explained. He underscored the importance of having these aligned values: The more youre optimized, the more revenue we make.

Since being founded in 2020, the company has scaled to 60 full-time employees around the world including a strong contingent in South Florida.

Gil, who relocated to South Florida from the San Francisco Bay Area in 2016, is very bullish on our regional tech ecosystem. There is easy access to talent here the pitch of Miami is very easy to make, he said.

What has changed is access to capital, with a lot of funds moving here in the last 12 months. Gil noted the importance of casual encounters between founders and investors, mentioning that the person who ended up acquiring his first company lived in the same building as he did in San Francisco.

While the major tech firms still lack a significant physical footprint here, Gil highlighted that many of their senior executives either live here or spend a significant amount of time here. That is telling of this ecosystem that is being built in Miami.

For Gil, CAST AI has grown even more quickly than expected a trend he expects to continue. Our acceleration is accelerating, he said. In October 2021, the company raised a $10 million Series A from Cota Capital, Florida Funders, Samsung Next and others.

While Gil remained tight lipped about plans to further develop CAST AIs offering, he reaffirmed his excitement about the companys future prospects: Its a great time to be in the business of simplifying how you manage applications on the cloud.

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I am a Miami-based technology researcher and writer with a passion for sharing stories about the South Florida tech ecosystem. I particularly enjoy learning about GovTech startups, cutting-edge applications of artificial intelligence, and innovators that leverage technology to transform society for the better. Always open for pitches via Twitter @rileywk or http://www.RileyKaminer.com.

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Youre probably overspending on cloud services. This AI-powered startup can help. - Refresh Miami