M&A Strategies And The Road To An IPO With Scott Haylon Of Datadog

Episode Summary:
On this episode Rob and Matt speak with Scott Haylon, Director of Business and Corporate Development at Datadog.  This episode dives into Scott’s unique background & trajectory to corporate development, and is packed with advice for founders considering a merger or acquisition.  Scott also provides great insight into his role at Datadog and the secrets to success for a M&A and the road to an IPO. 

What is Uncovered: 

• How Scott’s role evolved over the last 3 years working in Corporate Development for Datadog 
• Inbound vs. Outbound: How Datadog approaches mergers and acquisitions  
• Scott’s advice to entrepreneurs on how to have conversations early on with Corporate Development execs 
• The key strategies Scott’s team uses to find the best companies to acquire or merge with
• Why a company’s deal size may hinder or benefit buyers 
• The most common mistakes founders & corporate development execs make that cause a deal to fall apart 
• Financial vs strategic buyers: The advice Scott gives to founders looking to IPO & how it’s best to fully understand a buyers motives 
• What post acquisition looks like at Datadog 
• 7 key takeaways on what a founder should do ahead of a M&A 

Learn More About:

Scott Haylon

Datadog:
Datadog has seen tremendous growth over the years and in August of 2019 went public and today is estimated to be a $31B market cap company.  Founded in 2010 with HQ in NYC, it is the essential monitoring platform for cloud applications. Datadog brings together data from servers, containers, databases, and third-party services to make your stack entirely observable.  These capabilities help DevOps teams avoid downtime, resolve performance issues, and ensure customers are getting the best user experience. Learn more on their website: https://www.datadoghq.com/about/latest-news/ 

This episode was recorded on August 11, 2020.