How Preset Is Reinventing BI with Open Source and Geospatial Power

Spatial Stack with Matt Forrest

What happens when a hackathon project becomes one of the most influential open-source BI tools in the world?

In this episode, we sit down with Max Beauchemin — creator of Apache Superset and Apache Airflow — and Evan Rusackas from Preset, the company behind Superset’s enterprise evolution.

We explore:

The origin story of Superset at Airbnb — and why Max says it became his “life’s mission”
How open-source BI tools are outpacing traditional vendors like Tableau and Power BI
Why geospatial data is more than just maps — it’s a core analytical dimension
The design philosophy behind Superset: from SQL-first thinking to visual storytelling
Lessons from building geospatial capabilities into dashboards with Deck.GL and H3
The future of BI, and why the open ecosystem is winning

Whether you're a data engineer, GIS pro, or just curious how modern BI is evolving, this episode is packed with insights from two people who are building that future.

📍 Guest Links:

Apache Superset: https://superset.apache.org/
Preset: https://preset.io/

🎧 Tune in now and hear how Superset is redefining what modern, open, and geospatial-aware BI looks like.