Confluent, a startup co-founded by Neha Narkhede, Jun Rao, and the author, emerged from their work at LinkedIn on the open-source project Apache Kafka, a horizontally scalable messaging system that enables real-time data streaming. Initially developed to address LinkedIn's scaling challenges by transitioning to distributed data systems like Hadoop, Kafka evolved into a central nervous system for the company, managing vast data flows for analytics, monitoring, and real-time processing. Although LinkedIn open-sourced Kafka, the founders recognized that its full potential required additional software to facilitate real-time data integration across various systems, leading to the creation of Confluent. The company aims to commercialize this vision, supported by investment from Benchmark and other partners, while maintaining a commitment to open-source development. Confluent's recent recognition as Microsoft's 2024 OSS on Azure Global Partner of the Year underscores the growing importance of data streaming as a foundational element of modern business infrastructure.