My guest today is Dev Ittycheria. Dev is the CEO of MongoDB, the developer data platform with tens of thousands of customers in 100 different countries. He joined the company as CEO in 2014, taking it public in 2017, and is now approaching a decade of leading MongoDB to become a go-to choice for the most sophisticated organizations around the world. We discuss Dev’s philosophy for constructing an exceptional enterprise sales organization, why he feels a leader must be incredibly judgemental to drive excellence, and how he plans to guide MongoDB through another technological transition. Please enjoy this conversation with Dev Ittycheria.

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For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

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Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.

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Show Notes:

(00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like the Best

(00:03:39) A CEO's Perspective Of The AI Revolution

(00:05:50) The Evolution of Apps From Trivial to Transformative

(00:08:12) MongoDB's Journey From Startup to AI Era

(00:10:03) Building a Modern Database Company: MongoDB's Story

(00:13:19) The Long-Term Vision for MongoDB

(00:15:51) Dev’s Formative Experiences as a Tech CEO

(00:19:18) The Art of Enterprise Sales

(00:25:28) The Development of Dev as a Leader

(00:29:01) Getting the Most Out of Your Talent

(00:33:17) Managing a Multi-Product, Multi-Channel Enterprise

(00:37:29) Dev’s Recruiting Philosophy

(00:43:12) The Role of Leadership and Mentorship in Career Growth

(00:46:08) Dev’s Deepest Worry With MongoDB

(00:49:35) Personal Investment Philosophy and Identifying Potential

(00:53:52) The Art of Leadership: Accountability and Development

(00:57:50) Learning from Legends: Andy Grove's Management Insights

(01:02:54) The Power in MongoDB’s Business

(01:06:13) Up Next for Dev and MongoDB

(01:08:34) The Kindest Thing Anyone Has Ever Done For Dev