How to Grow from Idea to IPO with Eliot Horowitz of MongoDB & Viam

When Eliot Horowitz, Founder and CEO of Viam, was locked down with
his family during COVID, he did what any engineer might do—he built
a robot to play chess. Once that project was complete, he turned
his attention to his ever-problematic sprinkler system. After that?
He added smart software to his HVAC system. Through this series of
home improvements, he uncovered a problem he was eager to solve,
and his third startup was born. Eliot founded Viam to build a
product that connects hardware to software and unlocks AI,
automation, and data for the physical world. A career software
developer and technology leader, Eliot previously co-founded
MongoDB, writing the core code base for the pioneering database and
leading the engineering teams for 13 years as CTO. MongoDB went
public in 2017 and has a market cap of over $20 billion. Eliot
shares why he enforces a no-jerk policy when it comes to hiring,
how he evolved as a founder from the seed stage to post-IPO, and
why he believes that being the product’s biggest user is essential
to success.