Most early-stage founders I talk to are focused on getting their first customers, hiring their first employees, or maybe, if they’re lucky, closing their first round of funding. But what happens after that?

For Rohit Choudhary, the answer was building a whole new category.

Rohit is the CEO and co-founder of Acceldata, a data observability platform that helps companies manage the complexity of modern data infrastructure. Before starting the company, he spent years inside the problem — working on data engineering challenges at Hortonworks and other enterprise tech firms.

Like a lot of technical founders, Rohit didn’t start out dreaming of being a CEO — but the problem was too big to ignore.

In this episode, we talk about:

Why data engineering lacked the right tooling and how that led to Acceldata
How his team validated the concept with real-world customer pain points
The trade-offs of building in stealth mode vs. in public
What he’s learned about hiring, scaling, and making the leap from engineer to CEO

If you’re trying to figure out how to go from technical insight to scalable business, this one’s for you.

RUNTIME 37:37 EPISODE BREAKDOWN

(2:16) “ There are four of us co-founders, and we were all part of the same engineering team at Hortonworks.”

(4:33) “ We felt that here was a unique opportunity for us to be able to build something really, really large and big.”

(6:16) How Acceldata approached proof-of-concept programs in its early days.

(8:23) “ How did you decide which one of you would become the CEO?”

(11:31) Rohit’s seed-stage recruiting strategy: “ we had to excite them with the long-term vision.”

(14:35) “ People like me, we learned how to sell despite coming from an engineering background.”

(16:46) Why the co-founders “took a leap of faith” by formalizing their sales process early.

(18:46) “ We were familiar with how business is conducted in the U.S.,” which made expansion easier.

(21:08) Early challenges they faced after closing a Series A.

(23:08) How “a big mistake” from a previous startup still influences Rohit’s choices today.

(25:30) Wondering if it’s time to throw in the towel? Do a self-assessment.

(28:31) Three core skills engineers need to acquire if they want to become effective CEOs.

(31:39) “ I used to interview almost everyone until we were at about, you know, 170-180.”

(33:82) How creating a 10-year strategy informed their day-to-day decision making.

(36:27) The one question he’d have to ask the CEO in an interview before he could accept an offer.

LINKS

Acceldata
Rohit Choudhary, co-founder/CEO
Ashwin Rajeeva, co-founder/CTO
Gaurav Nagar, co-founder/Senior Architect
Raghu Mitra Kandikonda, co-founder/Director of Engineering
Lightspeed Venture Partners
Acceldata Announces $50 Million in Series C Funding to Expand Market Leadership and Product Innovation in Data Observability (press release)

Thanks for listening!

– Walter.