At Modal, the goal is to make running code in the cloud as intuitive and easy as running code locally. To achieve this, they've developed a system that spins up cloud-based containers quickly, ideally under 1 second. The key to achieving this involves understanding containers, shortening image pulls by reducing image bloat and avoiding unnecessary overhead like Docker, caching frequently accessed files locally, and implementing content-addressed caching. By focusing on what's essential for running an application and leveraging these techniques, Modal has significantly reduced the time it takes to start containers, making it easier for developers to deploy and scale their applications in the cloud.