As the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Kong Inc., Marco Palladino takes great pride in the company he has built from the ground up. Marco’s story begins with his move from Italy to San Francisco with no money and a 3-month visa. Today, he and his fellow Co-Founder, Augusto Marietti, have undoubtedly earned that pride.

In this episode of Cloud Native Startup, we explore Marco’s life journey, and he reflects on how his obsession with building Kong led to its innovative success. We also discuss why Kong’s pivot was a risk worth taking, compare building companies around open source, dive into the importance of releasing trust as a technical founder, and more.

Highlights:

• An overview of Marco’s role as Co-Founder and CTO, how it has evolved, and the origin of Kong. (00:10)
• Why Kong pivoted from an API marketplace to a technology vendor – and Marco looks back on the wins and challenges in the early days of Kong. (05:56)
• A discussion about building a company around open source – why Marco embraces mistakes as he reflects on Kong’s global impact. (13:20)
• Key pieces of advice for technical founders (22:15)
• Marco talks about his experience as a young entrepreneur and provides insight into why this journey has defined him as a leader. (27:49)

Links:

Marco

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcopalladino/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/thekonginc  
• Kong Inc.: https://konghq.com