#81: Post-PMF Trap & Datadog: Scaling w/ Obsession
May 11, 2025 – DevTools Brew #81
I’m Morgan Perry, co-founder of Qovery. Every week, I share the real, often uncomfortable lessons from building and scaling devtool startups—from 0 to 1 and beyond.
In today's edition:
1. Post-PMF Trap
→ What really changes after product–market fit (PMF)—and why we had to rethink it at Qovery.
2. Datadog: Scaling With Obsession
→ The mindset shifts from Olivier Pomel (CEO) that helped Datadog grow without losing the signal—or the customer.
Let’s get into it.
Post-PMF Trap
What got you here won’t get you there.
“Post-PMF isn’t the ‘easy part’. It’s just a different game—with different rules.”
You fight like hell to reach product–market fit.
You iterate, hustle, listen to every user, ship fast, move scrappy.
You think: once we get there, it’s going to unlock everything.
And it does… until it doesn’t.
Because PMF gives you pull.
But scaling? That demands a different game.
At Qovery, it’s exactly the shift I’ve just been through it recently.
We reached traction.
We had repeatability - some clear wins, some momentum.
So we did what felt natural: we doubled down.
→ More features
→ More hires
→ More speed
→ More of what was already working
But momentum started to stall.
Not dramatically. Quietly.
And that’s the trap:
Post-PMF doesn’t feel like a cliff.
It feels like running in place.
Here’s what I wish someone told me:
Post-PMF is not the time to double down on execution.
It’s the time to upgrade how you think.
The bottlenecks shift:
→ From product → to system
→ From founder instinct → to org and team alignment
→ From doing everything → to doing the right things, repeatably
What worked pre-PMF doesn’t scale post-PMF:
→ Shipping fast isn’t enough - you need compounding leverage
→ Great engineers aren’t enough - you need real owners
→ Building what users ask for isn’t enough - you need clarity, positioning, and systems
We had to shift our posture… from speed to precision.
That means:
→ Codifying what used to live in our heads
→ Clarifying who owns what (and what great looks like)
→ Building systems that don’t rely on founder energy to work
→ Making space for strategic planning - not just more output
Even our role as founders changes.
From “doers” and “firefighters” to orchestrators.
From short-term fixers to long-term aligners.
From driving everything to enabling everything.
And that’s uncomfortable—because it feels slower at first.
But it’s the only way to scale what you’ve built without breaking it.
If I had to do it again?
I’d pause right after PMF.
Not to celebrate—but to re-architect.
→ What are we actually scaling?
→ What systems will this require?
→ What breaks if we grow 5x next year?
→ Who do we need to own the next chapter?
Because post-PMF, the biggest risk…
is not losing momentum.
It’s scaling a model that doesn’t compound.
The biggest mistake?
Trying to go faster, when you should be going deeper.
And if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s this:
Post-PMF isn’t the reward. It’s the real beginning.
Datadog: Scaling With Obsession
Customer-driven growth—without losing the signal.
“The truth isn’t in the dashboard. It’s in the complaints you’re willing to hear.”
Datadog has always been a model for us when building Qovery. Product, growth, clarity. We’ve studied them closely for years - and we’re proud to count them among our investors.
But what makes Datadog exceptional isn’t just the $37B valuation, the global reach, or the relentless product expansion.
It’s the mindset.
Especially from the two founders (Olivier CEO and Alexis CTO)
Here’s what stood out to me from how Olivier (CEO) approaches scaling:
1. Start with conversations, not code.
Olivier spent months talking to potential users - before writing a single line of code. Not to pitch, but to listen.
That gave Datadog clarity on where the pain was real—and where the bar for “better” was actually high enough to matter.
2. Avoid the trap of engineering vs. sales.
Olivier says most companies skew too hard in one direction.
You don’t need to be sales-driven or product-driven.
You need to be customer-driven.
And that means building what matters—not what’s loudest, easiest, or shiny.
3. Customer complaints are gold.
Olivier personally reads through support threads and complaints.
Not to answer—but to spot patterns.
It’s a forcing function to stay connected to reality. Because “the truth” doesn’t show up in your dashboard—it shows up in people’s words.
4. Empathy is a team sport.
At Datadog, engineers rotate through support. They demo at events. They talk to users.
Not just to fix bugs—but to feel the weight of the problems they’re solving.
That’s not just culture—it’s strategic clarity.
5. Growth without values doesn’t scale.
Every hire, every fire, every promotion at Datadog was tied to one filter: do they actually care about customers?
Olivier’s belief: You don’t scale customer obsession by writing it on the wall. You scale it by rewarding the people who live it.
6. The most underrated superpower? Wanting the bad news.
Olivier doesn’t shy away from what’s broken—he hunts it.
Because progress doesn’t come from praise.
It comes from friction, disappointment, and the willingness to go deeper.
Datadog isn’t just a product story—it’s a culture story.
The best companies aren’t the ones with the cleanest pitch decks.
They’re the ones who stay close to the user—long after PMF is found, long after scale is reached.
That kind of obsession compounds.
And we’re learning to build the same.
Final Thoughts
Getting to PMF feels like the goal. But it’s not.
It’s just the starting line of a new game - with new constraints, new blind spots, and new stakes.
At Qovery, I’ve learned that post-PMF isn’t about pressing harder on what already works.
It’s about learning how to scale it - without breaking what made it work in the first place.
And Datadog’s story is a reminder: scale only compounds if the culture does too.
Systems, clarity, and obsession - not just velocity.
PMF is about finding traction.
What comes next? It’s about finding repeatability, without losing what matters most.
That’s it for me today! :)
Thanks for reading and Happy Sunday!
— Morgan
Do you like personal lessons like this? More insights/stories from other devtool founders? Let me know, I’m always open to feedback.
You can reach out to me on LinkedIn.