30:30How Two French Engineers In New York Built The Company That Monitors The Entire Cloud
Olivier Pomel, CEO of Datadog, recounts how two French engineers in New York built the company that monitors the entire cloud, starting with a Y Combinator rejection that became a driving force. He attributes Datadog’s success to staying close to raw customer feedback and support tickets, building culture by example rather than writing it down, and betting early on the cloud explosion. Datadog now employs 8,000 people and offers 20–25 products. Pomel reveals that the company went public on COVID lockdown day, saw its stock drop 65% in two weeks, and recovered through consistent storytelling to public investors. On AI, his co-founder told engineers that in two quarters they would not be writing any code anymore; Datadog is investing in agents and smarter observability. His key advice for founders is to move faster on both hiring and firing, since hiring quickly and fixing mistakes beats waiting for the perfect hire.
In this chat at Startup School Paris, Datadog CEO Olivier Pomel reflects on his startup journey in New York, how staying close to raw customer feedback and support tickets keeps an 8,000 person company honest, and why moving faster on both hiring and firing remains the hardest thing for any founder to actually execute. Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply Work at a startup: https://www.ycombinator.com/jobs Chapters: 00:00 — Intro 01:43 — How Datadog Actually Started 04:47 — The DevOps Insight Behind the Company 06:17 — Riding the Cloud Explosion 07:29 — Was It Ever Obvious It Would Work? 09:03 — Building Culture Without Writing It Down 10:28 — Why Olivier Still Reads Support Tickets 14:22 — 20–25 Products: How They Decide What to Build 16:04 — Going Public on COVID Lockdown Day 19:19 — AI: Winner or Loser? 21:40 — The New Bets: Agents & Smarter Observability 24:17 — "In Two Quarters, No Code Anymore" 25:49 — 20 Years With a Co-Founder 27:10 — Start in Europe or Move to the US? 28:39 — Outro