The Problem: Our API Was Too Slow
Users were waiting 8-12 seconds for persona generation. That's an eternity when you're trying to test ideas quickly. We knew we needed faster inference, but didn't want to compromise on model quality.
Our original setup used standard GPU providers. It worked, but latency was killing the experience. Support tickets kept coming: 'Why is this taking so long?'
Why We Chose Baseten
Baseten promised optimized inference infrastructure with sub-second cold starts. Their platform offers pre-optimized model APIs for popular models like DeepSeek V3.2, GPT OSS 120B, and Kimi K2 Thinking.
The key selling point: custom performance optimizations without managing infrastructure ourselves. We're a small team. We need tools that just work.
The Migration (Took 2 Days)
Day 1: Set up Baseten account, tested model APIs. Day 2: Switched production traffic. That's it. No custom kernel tuning, no infrastructure headaches.
Baseten's inference stack handles the optimization automatically. We didn't rewrite our prompts or change our model. Just pointed our API calls to Baseten endpoints.
The Results: 70% Faster Generation
Before: 8-12 seconds average generation time. After: 2-4 seconds. Some queries complete in under 1 second.
But speed isn't everything. Our costs dropped 40% because Baseten's throughput is higher. Same quality, faster, cheaper. That's the trifecta.
User feedback changed immediately. 'This feels instant now' — actual customer quote.
What's Next
We're exploring Baseten Chains for our compound AI workflows. The promise is 6x better GPU usage and half the latency for multi-step operations.
For any team building AI products, inference optimization isn't optional anymore. Users expect instant responses. Baseten gets us there without hiring a dedicated infrastructure team.