How Cockroach Labs Found Product-Market Fit: Peter Mattis on Leveraging Open Source Software

The SQL database that sits under most applications in the world is old technology that was not built with the Cloud in mind. Now we live in a Cloud-Native world and it's important for developers to have a database that offers the same guarantees as legacy SQL database technology while also taking advantage of life in the cloud.

Listen in as Peter Mattis Co-founder and CTO at Cockroach Labs talks about the cloud-native, distributed SQL database that provides next-level consistency, ultra-resilience, data locality, and massive scale to modern cloud applications.

Join us as we discuss:

• What were the unique insights that Peter and his team felt that drove them to creating a new database
• Why open source was a sensible approach for Peter and his team to take in terms of strategy
• Who were the early adopters of the open source project and Peter's advice to first time founders to be able to engage and foster a small community of users
• How Peter built his team early on to answer the technical problems that came with building a database    

About Unusual Ventures — Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building infrastructure software and application-level companies. Unusual was founded in 2018 with the mission to reinvent the venture capital engagement model by serving entrepreneurs with an unprecedented level of hands-on services. Described as a partner versus a top-down stakeholder by its portfolio companies, Unusual is laser-focused on serving exceptional founders and teams building innovative products. With offices in Menlo Park, San Francisco, and Boston, Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, Harness, and Vivun.

About Sandhya Hegde — Sandhya is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in enterprise SaaS companies. Previously an early employee and executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter (https://twitter.com/sandhya) and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandhyahegde/). 

Further reading:

• How to stand out in an established open-source community: https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/stand-out-in-an-open-source-community 
• How to pick the right GTM motion to reach $100M ARR: https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/picking-a-gtm-motion 
• How Cockroach Labs leveraged open source to find product-market fit: https://www.unusual.vc/post/cockroach-event 
• Free plan vs. free trial in PLG: https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/free-plan-vs-free-trial