Our Mission is to Empower Every Organization to Build a Productive, Scalable Data Platform: Pete Hunt, CEO of Dagster Labs

Dagster Labs is the organization behind Dagster, the open-source project, and Dagster Cloud. It is a small, well-funded, and collegial team with a proven track record of shipping open-source software, adopted around the world. With roots in engineering, the company is shaping a future where data pipelines run reliably and transparently, giving teams visibility, control, and predictability over their workflows.

Dagster Labs’ flagship platform, Dagster, is a unified control plane that allows teams to build, scale, and observe their AI and data pipelines with reliability. For engineers, it feels like a tool designed with empathy and structure. For leaders, it provides the assurance that data driving their business decisions is fresh and trustworthy. But for Pete Hunt, who now leads Dagster Labs as CEO, the real story is not just about the product. It is about building a company with values that last.

From Facebook to Dagster Labs

Pete’s journey into Dagster Labs came after years of experience at the forefront of software engineering. At Facebook, he was part of the small team that created React, the framework that transformed front-end development. At Smyte and later at Twitter, he focused on building systems that scaled under immense pressure while balancing speed and resilience.

When he joined the company, then still known as Elementl, he found something familiar. Dagster reminded him of React in its early days. Both were built on principled abstractions designed to remove unnecessary complexity. Both were meant to empower engineers rather than burden them with overhead. He started as head of engineering but soon became CEO, while founder Nick Schrock took on the role of CTO. That partnership freed each to focus on strengths: Pete on scaling the business, Nick on deepening the product vision.

For Pete, the appeal went beyond the software. He saw Dagster Labs as an opportunity to create a company that respected the craft of engineering, moved with urgency, and built for the long term.

Scaling Open Source Globally

The results of that leadership change became clear quickly. Within a year, Dagster Labs shipped its 1.0 release, introduced its first commercial product, and saw revenue begin to grow. The team expanded across engineering, product, marketing, and support, while remaining small enough to stay connected and collaborative

Dagster itself became widely adopted in the open-source community, powering data pipelines for teams across industries. The company also launched Dagster Cloud, giving organizations a managed experience with the same principles of observability and reliability.

Pete describes the company’s rhythm as alternating between “quarters on” and “quarters off.” During the push quarters, the team focuses on shipping features quickly. In the following cycle, they step back to refine, reduce technical debt, and polish. This approach allows Dagster Labs to balance speed with quality. As Pete puts it, “shipping fast matters, but cleaning up the corners with intention matters even more.”

The philosophy has earned trust not only among engineers but also among business leaders who need assurance that growth will not come at the expense of stability.

Building Trust Through Culture

Dagster Labs stands out for how its culture shapes the way it builds technology. It operates with a set of values that emphasize craftsmanship, transparency, and collective success. Ambition is paired with respect for detail. Feedback is welcomed early, even when critical, because it builds trust. And decisions are made with an eye on sustainability, not just short-term wins.

This approach shows up in how the company interacts with its customers. Many organizations already rely on Airflow to orchestrate data, and Dagster Labs understands that replacing it outright is not realistic. Instead of demanding a complete switch, the team built Airlift, a tool that lets companies layer Dagster’s observability on top of existing Airflow clusters and migrate step by step. It is a clear expression of the company’s ethos: meet people where they are, reduce friction, and build trust over time.

Pete emphasizes that Dagster Labs is not trying to be the biggest company in the room overnight. It is trying to be the company that people can depend on for the long haul, one that combines open-source credibility with a thoughtful commercial model.

What’s Next for Dagster Labs

As Dagster Labs grows, Pete sees its future in deepening integrations with the tools data teams already use, expanding the asset-centric model, and making orchestration so seamless it feels invisible. But even as the technology advances, the core of the company remains its people and values.

Pete continues to stay closely involved in product and technical direction, ensuring the company’s growth aligns with the needs of its community. That dual focus, leading the business while staying hands-on with product decisions, helps Dagster Labs remain grounded in the problems it set out to solve.

Data engineering will always be complex, but with Dagster Labs it no longer has to feel chaotic. Under Pete Hunt’s leadership, the company is proving that a small, principled team can scale globally without losing its humanity.

Pete Hunt, CEO, Dagster Labs

Building is hard and we believe it will be more sustainable, and we will have more fun when we engage authentically and inject some levity into our daily interactions.