Ignite Startups: How Osama Elkady Is Eliminating ETL and Unlocking Real-Time Insight | Ep168

Ignite: Conversations on Startups, Venture Capital, Tech, Future, and Society

Osama Elkady is the co-founder and CEO of Incorta, the only open data delivery platform enabling real-time analysis across all systems of record without complex ETL. With nearly two decades at Oracle—where he led innovations in BI, mobile strategy, and enterprise reporting—Osama holds several patents in data architecture and has helped numerous Fortune 100 companies become real-time enterprises. In this episode, he offers deep insights into unlocking the true power of enterprise data, challenging conventional architectures, and leading through radical innovation.

In this episode, he discusses how Incorta reimagines data access through direct data mapping, why most ETL is outdated, and how simplicity, cloud-native approaches, and smart hiring fuel innovation. His journey from Oracle to founding Incorta is filled with bold decisions, technical breakthroughs, and a relentless focus on business outcomes.

In Today’s Episode We Discuss:

00:01 Osama’s journey from Egypt to Oracle

02:30 Inventing XML Publisher and shaping Oracle’s BI tools

04:45 Why he left Oracle to build Incorta

07:30 The broken state of enterprise data and reliance on Excel

09:30 What is Direct Data Mapping—and why it matters

12:00 Why traditional ETL doesn’t scale in modern systems

14:45 How Incorta enables real-time data access from complex systems

17:30 ETL vs. ELT vs. Incorta’s streamlined approach

20:00 Real-world use cases: Starbucks, Broadcom, and Hormel

25:00 Technical challenges in building a new kind of engine

27:30 Why cloud storage was the unlock for Incorta’s model

30:45 Open standards vs. open source in enterprise data

32:00 Key inflection point: launching Incorta’s cloud-native platform

33:45 GTM strategy—selling outcomes, not tech

36:00 Culture of simplicity: “Think more, code less”

40:10 Building talent pipelines through high-leverage internships

42:30 Leadership lessons on trust, retention, and team dynamics

45:00 The future of data architecture and the rise of lakehouses

50:03 Wrap-up and Osama’s vision for innovation without limits

Subscribe on Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/6Ga6v0YUsHotLhjap67uu5

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ignite-conversations-on-startups-venture-capital-tech/id1709248824

Follow Brian Bell on X:

https://x.com/brianrbell?lang=en

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https://www.linkedin.com/in/osamaelkady/

Follow Osama Elkady on Twitter:

https://x.com/oelkady

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