Navigating Startup Challenges: The Birth of Datadog

Alexis is the co-founder and CTO of Datadog, which was founded in NYC in 2010. He shares with the Pete the origin story of the company, how & why raising capital was very different in that period, and their thought process as engineer-founders in arriving at the right product to build for their customers.  We also chat a bit with Alexis about his angel investing activity and what types of founder characteristics he looks for in an ideal angel investment.

Highlights:
[2:10] - Alexis nurturing his earliest startup ideas alongside his day job
[4:50] - Datadog’s early funding experience in NYC, and their 20k “pre-seed” round
[9:45] - How did they discover the right product to build?
[15:15] - How should engineer-founders think about the skills they need to start a company?
[19:00] - what Alexis looks for in founders from an angel investing perspective

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Thank you to everyone who made Data Council 2025 Oakland an incredibly experience! This year's talk videos will be uploaded to YouTube by end of May 2025.

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