At ICONIQ Growth, we believe that achieving uncommon outcomes demands uncommon leadership. Amit Agarwal, former President of Datadog, exemplifies this in spirit and action, and we are honored to welcome him as our newest General Partner.
Our relationship with Amit spans over a decade, beginning with Datadog’s earliest days and our initial investment in 2015. Over 13 years at the company, Amit played a pivotal role in transforming Datadog from an ambitious startup into a global software leader. By steering product strategy, driving critical marketing, sales, and operational initiatives, and helping guide the company through global growth, Amit was instrumental in delivering outcomes that redefined industry benchmarks.
But Amit’s influence extends far beyond Datadog. As a prolific angel investor and trusted advisor, he has helped shape the trajectory of multiple startups, championing innovation and empowering the next generation of entrepreneurs. His passion for supporting bold leaders aligns seamlessly with our mission to help transformative founders from the earliest stages to IPO and beyond.
Now, as Amit joins ICONIQ Growth, he brings unparalleled expertise in scaling businesses, building high-performance teams, and driving innovation. His deep alignment with our mission to drive extraordinary outcomes for entrepreneurs makes him an invaluable addition to our team. Together, we look forward to partnering with a new generation of founders charting their own paths toward success.
In a recent conversation, Amit reflected on his remarkable career, shared lessons from his journey, and offered insight into the mindset that enables leaders to seize uncommon opportunities.
You bring an incredible depth of knowledge. What are some key learnings you’d share with entrepreneurs who are where you were a decade ago?
The world changes constantly, so your five- or ten-year plans rarely pan out exactly as imagined. What really matters is staying nimble—keeping your ear to the ground, listening to feedback from customers, and constantly challenging your plans. Strategic thinking is important, but you have to be ready to adapt as new information comes to light. After all, the stories of success are written in hindsight. We often package it like they had perfect foresight, but my experience has been the opposite: constant iteration and slight pivots.
What does that look like in terms of your leadership style?
When the company is small—seven or eight people—you do everything yourself. You dive in and handle everything, from filling out order forms to depositing checks. As the company grows, you hire specialists and delegate. Once you learn how to do something, you can hand it off to someone who can do it even better. Eventually, you ask, “What’s my role as a leader now that I’ve delegated away most of my responsibilities?” For me, it’s about focusing on the two or three things that truly move the needle for the business. I go deep into those areas, rolling up my sleeves and driving them forward. That kind of hands-on leadership—where you’re putting yourself on the line—brings the entire company together around what matters most.
Of course, sometimes we fail. You’ve also talked to me about how the freedom to make mistakes and learn from them is so core to fostering a culture of innovation.
Yes, but failure is tricky. Even when your company culture says it’s good to embrace failure, the natural tendency is still to sugarcoat mistakes and call them successes. I struggled with this early on in my career. I didn’t want to admit when things weren’t working because, of course, my ideas had to be successful, right? If you’re always correct, you’re not learning. Failure isn’t inherently bad—it’s a way to figure out what doesn’t work so you don’t repeat it. As a leader, I try to model this by admitting my own mistakes. If I say, “That was a disaster—remind me not to do it again,” it signals to the team that it’s okay for them to fail, too.
As you embark on your journey with us, what trends are you most excited about?
It’s a very exciting time to be an investor. Every decade or so, there’s a shift in technology that changes everything. When I started my career almost 30 years ago, it was a shift to distributed computing, servers and clients, desktop PCs and laptops. Then, about 15 years ago, the cloud and SaaS completely transformed how companies operate.
Today, I feel the same energy with AI. I believe it’s changing how software is developed and creating entirely new paradigms. Of course, some companies will fail—that always happens during periods of innovation—but I believe the next generation of iconic companies will emerge from this wave, just like Amazon and Google from the early internet era and Datadog and Snowflake from the cloud era.
Following your success at Datadog, you certainly had no shortage of opportunities. How did we get so lucky to have you join ICONIQ Growth full-time?
When I decided to enter the VC industry, I put myself back in the familiar shoes of an entrepreneur choosing between VC firms. I wanted to be with a firm that was highly differentiated among the peers. In 10 years of working with ICONIQ Growth, while I was at Datadog, I saw this differentiation in ICONIQ’s network which includes many highly successful entrepreneurs, industry leaders, and experts in the technology business. For example, when I faced a business challenge, like launching a new program and needing to talk to a very specific person who had done it before, ICONIQ Growth could somehow magically connect me with the exact individual who could help, and they were happy to take my call. There were also times when we had customer issues—situations where we needed higher-level access to resolve a problem. ICONIQ’s network was incredibly effective in getting us that access.
Beyond the network, I was really impressed by the level of empathy and thoughtfulness of the ICONIQ Growth team. At this stage in my career, I prefer to be around people who I want to grab a beer with after work. The fact that I got to know everyone deeply over the years ultimately made it an easy decision to join. And now that I have, I look forward to partnering with inspired entrepreneurs and playing a role in helping them and their teams realize their ambitions.
Published:
January 10, 2025