Omry Hay | env0 | How to Build a Product for DevOps - Product Builder Podcast episode with Eyal David
Updated: 00:49:41

Omry Hay | env0 | How to Build a Product for DevOps

Host: · Guest: Omry Hay · About the host

Omry Hay, co-founder and CTO of env0, a platform for managing cloud environments on top of Infrastructure as Code, says the product only took off once the company stopped selling a developer self-service vision and started solving the daily pain of DevOps engineers, who also hold the budget. He recounts how env0 survived HashiCorp's Terraform license change by teaming up with its competitors to create OpenTofu, the fork that now lives in the Linux Foundation.

In this episode

  • In a technical B2B product, the vision doesn't always sell: env0 struggled while it sold developer self-service through the VP R&D, and sales became easy and short once it focused on the daily pain of DevOps engineers, who understand the problem, feel it and hold the budget.
  • One customer's requirement can open a whole segment: JFrog couldn't run everything in SaaS, env0 built a self-hosted agent that runs in the customer's cloud account, four more customers closed because of it, and today most enterprise customers use it.
  • Validate before code: Omry and Ohad talked to 50 to 60 companies, mostly CTOs, VPs of R&D and Heads of DevOps, and the feedback was so strong that angels offered to invest before they even asked for money.
  • The most important product skill with technical, vocal customers is understanding the story behind the feedback and generalizing it, because the customer's specific request isn't necessarily the thing to build.
  • When the product is deeply technical, R&D does part of the product work: developers write PRDs, join customer calls and review marketing content, because a technical customer won't listen to someone who doesn't speak their language.
  • Facing an existential threat, you can unite with competitors: when HashiCorp changed Terraform's license, env0 and its competitors launched a petition, created a fork called OpenTofu and brought it into the Linux Foundation in under two months.

Listen to this episode

Listen on SpotifyListen on Apple PodcastsWatch on YouTube

Episode Description

Omry Hay is the co-founder and CTO of env0, which builds a platform for managing deployments and cloud environments on top of Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, CloudFormation, Pulumi and more). In conversation with Eyal David he tells how the pain of waiting for a ticket to land in the DevOps team's sprint became a company: validation with 50 to 60 companies, a $650K pre-seed from Grove Ventures in 2019, then a seed, a Series A with Microsoft and $42M raised in total. He walks through two decisive pivots: moving from VP R&D and the self-service vision to DevOps engineers and their day-to-day, and building a self-hosted agent for JFrog that opened up a whole enterprise segment. He explains why, in such a technical product, a product person must understand the story behind feedback and generalize it, and why at env0 R&D does much of the product work. Finally he tells the story of the August 2023 earthquake, when HashiCorp changed Terraform's license, and of founding OpenTofu together with competitors, as well as five months of reserve duty after October 7 that reshaped his role.

Chapters

  1. 0:00 · Opening and meeting Omry Hay
  2. 2:05 · env0 by the numbers: people, sites and funding
  3. 3:52 · What Infrastructure as Code is and what env0 does
  4. 6:27 · Self-service: templates and policies for developers
  5. 7:57 · The pain behind the idea: waiting for the DevOps sprint
  6. 10:57 · Validation with 50 companies and the first pre-seed
  7. 14:45 · The first bet: converting legacy environments to code
  8. 17:07 · Who to sell to: VP R&D or Head of DevOps
  9. 19:09 · The pivot to the DevOps persona
  10. 23:07 · JFrog and the self-hosted agent that opened up enterprise
  11. 25:00 · The funding journey: from $650K to $42M
  12. 27:12 · Where env0 is today
  13. 28:38 · A co-founder's day-to-day and five months of reserve duty
  14. 31:21 · The most important product skills in a technical product
  15. 35:06 · When R&D does product
  16. 38:37 · The earthquake: HashiCorp changes Terraform's license
  17. 43:55 · Competitors unite: founding OpenTofu
  18. 46:25 · From petition to fork to the Linux Foundation
  19. 47:59 · Closing: what Omry wishes himself in ten years
Read the full transcript
Full transcript with speakers and timestamps

Selected quotes

“I think one of the most significant product skills for us is understanding the customer and the story behind what they give as feedback, and understanding how to adapt it so it's more generalist.”
— Omry Hay
“When we made that pivot, suddenly we saw that it was much easier to get in and much easier to start the conversation from a simpler place of, here, I'm solving the things you need.”
— Omry Hay
“If on the other side there's a technical person who doesn't respect you enough on the technical side, they'll hear it as who are you and what do you want from me, let me talk to someone who speaks my language.”
— Omry Hay

Questions & answers

Who is Omry Hay?

Co-founder and CTO of env0, leading the company's product and R&D and its Israeli site. Before env0 he spent about 17 years in development and team management, including at Ituran, and his last role was engineering manager at Proofpoint.

What does env0 do?

env0 is a platform for managing deployments and cloud environments on top of Infrastructure as Code such as Terraform, OpenTofu, CloudFormation, Pulumi and Terragrunt. Beyond running them, it adds role-based access, approval policies, cost and budget management, an audit log, and templates that let developers spin up environments themselves without opening a ticket for DevOps.

Why did env0 decide to sell to DevOps engineers rather than the VP R&D?

At first they approached VPs of R&D with a developer self-service vision, but the product is too technical for them and moving to self-service is a long process. DevOps engineers understand the problem, feel it and hold the budget, and once the product focused on their day-to-day, sales became much easier and shorter.

What is OpenTofu and how was it created?

OpenTofu is an open source fork of Terraform. When HashiCorp changed Terraform's license in August 2023 so that competitors could no longer use it, env0 and its competitors banded together, launched a petition and, with no change forthcoming, created the fork (initially called OpenTF). Today it lives in the Linux Foundation, which ensures it stays open source.

How much has env0 raised?

According to Omry, $42M in total: a $650K pre-seed from Grove Ventures in early 2019, a $3.3M seed extended to about $8M, a $16M Series A with Microsoft, and an extension of it with Venture Guides.

People & resources mentioned

People

Companies & orgs

DevOps Infrastructure as Code env0 Terraform OpenTofu Open source Technical product Pivot Fundraising Entrepreneurship B2B

Related Episodes