How Olivier Pomel Built Datadog By Refusing Every Shortcut

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: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply Work at a startup: https://www.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

Garry TanhostOlivier Pomelguest

Aug 20, 202629mWatch on YouTube ↗

EPISODE INFO

Released: August 20, 2026
Duration: 29m
Channel: YC Root Access
Watch on YouTube: ▶ Open ↗

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

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: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply Work at a startup: https://www.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

SPEAKERS

Garry Tan
host
President and CEO of Y Combinator and host of YC Root Access.
Olivier Pomel
guest
Co-founder and CEO of Datadog.

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of YC Root Access, featuring Garry Tan and Olivier Pomel, How Olivier Pomel Built Datadog By Refusing Every Shortcut explores datadog’s CEO: scale by staying close to reality, always. Olivier Pomel recounts how early rejection and fundraising difficulty led Datadog to build a durable, customer-value-first culture designed to be sustainable even without easy capital.

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