Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
In this fireside at Startup School Paris, Datadog CEO Olivier Pomel reflects on the journey and challenges of building one of the defining companies of the cloud era.
Apply to Y Combinator: ycombinator.com/apply
Work at a startup: ycombinator.com/jobs
Chapters:
00:00 — Intro
00:57 — A Chip on Your Shoulder
01:52 — From France to New York
03:29 — How Olivier Met Alexis
05:06 — The Secret to a 15-Year Co-founder Marriage
07:33 — Building in the Early Cloud
10:44 — How Olivier Still Runs the Company
13:39 — When to Ask for Approval (and When Not To)
15:14 — How Datadog Decides What to Build Next
17:53 — 25 Products, 8,000 People
18:51 — Surviving the Pandemic Lockup
20:19 — Winning the AI Wave
23:21 — The Dream of the Machine That Fixes Itself
24:10 — AI Inside Datadog
26:25 — Advice to 2010 Olivier
27:40 — Hire Slow, Stay Sane
In this fireside at Startup School Paris, Datadog CEO Olivier Pomel reflects on the journey and challenges of building one of the defining companies of the cloud era.
Apply to Y Combinator: ycombinator.com/apply
Work at a startup: ycombinator.com/jobs
Chapters:
00:00 — Intro
00:57 — A Chip on Your Shoulder
01:52 — From France to New York
03:29 — How Olivier Met Alexis
05:06 — The Secret to a 15-Year Co-founder Marriage
07:33 — Building in the Early Cloud
10:44 — How Olivier Still Runs the Company
13:39 — When to Ask for Approval (and When Not To)
15:14 — How Datadog Decides What to Build Next
17:53 — 25 Products, 8,000 People
18:51 — Surviving the Pandemic Lockup
20:19 — Winning the AI Wave
23:21 — The Dream of the Machine That Fixes Itself
24:10 — AI Inside Datadog
26:25 — Advice to 2010 Olivier
27:40 — Hire Slow, Stay Sane
