Olivier Pomel built Datadog into a $40B company while burning only $25M in capital. In our conversation, he shares the fundraising lessons, operating principles, and core insights that made this possible. He also discusses the pros and cons of building a tech company in NYC, how early-career professionals should approach learning AI tools, how Datadog is building a trusted relationship with their users around AI features, and much more
(00:00) Intro
(01:30) Datadog's Early Challenges and Lessons
(04:32) The Core Insight Behind Datadog
(05:20) Building the Right Product
(07:46) Transitioning to Open Beta
(09:38) Expanding Datadog's Product Line
(11:26) Platform Vision and Modular Products
(18:12) Empowering Product Teams
(22:14) Acquisitions and Integration Strategy
(33:18) Customer-Centric Approach
(36:39) Bottom-Up Sales Strategy
(46:04) Navigating Founder Challenges
(46:37) Building a Collaborative Management Team
(48:32) Staying Close to Customers
(51:36) Maintaining a Culture of Discipline and Efficiency
(56:26) Pricing Strategy and Market Positioning
(01:01:24) Fostering a Low-Ego, High-Performance Culture
(01:06:32) Hiring and Promoting for Long-Term Success
(01:12:21) Fundraising and Investor Relations
(01:16:03) Deciding Whether to Sell or Scale
(01:18:26) The Impact of AI on Software Development
(01:23:24) Choosing New York Over Silicon Valley
(01:28:04) Final Thoughts and Reflections
Executive Producer: Rashad Assir
Producer: Leah Clapper
Mixing and editing: Justin Hrabovsky
Check out Unsupervised Learning, Redpoint's AI Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@UCUl-s_Vp-Kkk_XVyDylNwLA
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About the Show
Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode of The Logan Bartlett Show, we sit down with the people behind today’s most important startups and extract the tactics, lessons, and frameworks they’ve learned the hard way. Conversations span hiring to GTM, product, growth, fundraising and everything in between - collectively forming the ultimate playbook to make you a better CEO, investor or board member.
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