Event-Driven Architecture, Webhook Chaos, and the Rise of AI Agents | Better Stack Podcast Ep. 17
In this episode of the Better Stack Podcast, we sit down with Alex Bouchard, founder of Hookdeck, the company on a mission to kill webhooks. Alex shares how a frustrating basement side project — sparked by a Medium post titled "Webhooks suck, but there's something you can do about it" — turned into a fully-funded event infrastructure company. We dig into why he coined the term "Event Gateway," how Hookdeck's open-source Outpost project stays aligned with its business incentives, and why AWS EventBridge's vendor lock-in leaves the door open for a more agnostic alternative. Alex also breaks down the hidden latency problems behind vendor webhooks (and why GitHub, Shopify, and Stripe outages hit harder than you'd think), how AI agents are reshaping event-driven architecture, and why he thinks push-based queues are underrated compared to poll-based ones. Plus: the Vercel testimonial that came out of nowhere, running a 10-person team with an async-first culture, and a spicy hot take on why most queuing systems are "just very dumb." 🔗 Relevant Links Hookdeck: https://hookdeck.com EventCatalog by David Boyne: https://www.eventcatalog.dev ❤️ More about us Radically better observability stack: https://betterstack.com/ Written tutorials: https://betterstack.com/community/ Example projects: https://github.com/BetterStackHQ 📱 Socials Twitter: https://twitter.com/betterstackhq Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/betterstackhq/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@betterstack LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/betterstack 📌 Chapters: 00:00 Introduction to Hookdeck and Alex Bouchard 00:25 Understanding Hookdeck's Products and Services 03:15 The Frustration Behind Webhooks 06:32 Event-Driven Architecture and Its Challenges 09:42 Open Source Approach and Community Engagement 14:05 Customer Use Cases and Market Positioning 19:06 Comparing Hookdeck with AWS EventBridge 26:19 Challenges with GitHub and Webhook Stability 36:51 The Impact of AI on Webhooks and Event Gateways 50:41 The Hybrid Approach to Event-Driven Architecture 51:44 Evolution of Event-Driven Architecture in Enterprises 52:55 Decoupling Systems and Programming Concerns 54:05 Learning from Experience: Building Hookdeck 55:49 The Journey of Hookdeck: From Idea to Market 58:40 Building a Remote Team: The Canadian Experience 01:01:55 Entrepreneurial Spirit: Alex's Journey 01:04:02 Kiwi Mornings: A Breakfast Startup Story 01:06:08 Spicy Hot Takes on the Industry