How to choose a vector database

Hosted by Adam Hevenor and Doug Turnbull (Maven)

Mon, Aug 10, 2026

4:00 PM UTC (1 hour)

Virtual (Zoom)

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Cheat at Search with Agents
Doug Turnbull
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What you'll learn

How to make sense of vector pricing calculators

Validating their output against your real corpus, domain, and usage patterns

Linking features to outcomes

Learn what the APIs give users, and what the docs leave out

What everyone forgets to factor in when choosing a vector db

Integrating with existing search systems, Leveraging AWS credits and factoring in data growth + updates

Why this topic matters

Choosing a vector database is an expensive, sticky decision often made using feature lists and generic benchmarks. Teams commit, load their real corpus, then discover costs far above budget. By then, pipelines, schemas, and queries depend on the vendor. Measure first, and you enter procurement with your own numbers—ready to evaluate vendors instead of being sold to.

You'll learn from

Adam Hevenor

CEO and Founder Hevmind

Adam led efforts for AI and search at Aerospike, covering research and development of vector search and graph database offerings. Today he's focused on accelerating the pace of software development by founding Hevmind — a model-first consulting practice and search R&D lab where he helps teams wrangle search infra, write effective evals, and design for agents.


Doug Turnbull (Maven)

Led teams at Shopify, Reddit, Wikipedia

In 2012, Doug got bit by the search bug and he's still trying to keep up. From full-text search, to Learning to Rank models, to search agents that generate their own code, he knows the endless landscape first hand. Yet Doug wants to deeply understand the what / how / why, and help teams use these technologies practically, distinguishing hype from reality.

He’s led search at Reddit, Shopify, and Wikipedia, authored Relevant Search and AI Powered Search, and advised 100+ organizations over the years - all in pursuit of the same question: how does search actually work?

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