Tech Brew Ride Home (BNS) Datadog Founder Olivier Pomel
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Sep 20, 2025 Olivier Pomel, co-founder and CEO of Datadog, shares his journey from a French open-source enthusiast to leading a tech powerhouse in NYC. He discusses the tension between development and operations that inspired Datadog's creation, and how they achieved product-market fit through strategic integrations. Olivier shares insightful scaling stories, company culture lessons, and the importance of observability in the AI landscape. He also reveals why Datadog chose independence over acquisition and offers advice for European founders entering the U.S. market.
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Dev Vs Ops Sparked Datadog
- Olivier Pomel and his cofounder sat on opposite sides of the DevOps divide at Amplify, running development and operations separately.
- Their friction and finger-pointing inspired Datadog’s founding to bring teams onto a single platform.
Name From A Scary Production Server
- The name came from a feared production database called Datadog 17 at a prior company.
- They shortened it to Datadog and designed a puppy logo that stuck with customers.
Validate Value With Early Revenue
- Build the right product by obsessively talking to customers and grounding features in real needs.
- Charge early and keep short contracts so revenue quickly signals whether a feature truly delivers value.