Solomon Hykes, born in New York, United States, in 1983, is an American entrepreneur who grew up in France and founded Docker, a company based on software containers. This concept, now firmly established in the computing world, refers to a package that bundles an application together with all the resources it needs to run. It is a lightweight form of software that operates in a way comparable to a virtual machine.
From an early stage, Hykes developed a strong interest in computing. Before founding Docker, he was involved in a company called dotCloud, a software provider. After participating in multiple conferences and events, he decided to pursue a new direction and in 2013 launched Docker, a company that scaled rapidly due to its innovative approach.
Between 2013 and 2018, Hykes held several positions within the company. In 2018, he announced his departure from Docker, at a time when the company was valued at over one billion dollars. “I have held many roles at Docker over the years, and today I hold a new and definitive one: active board member and majority shareholder,” he wrote at the time.
The founder clarified that his departure was neither dramatic nor intended to be perceived as such by the community. Hykes served as CEO during Docker’s early years, later took on an executive director role, and currently remains involved from a more distant position through the board of directors.
Computing, Hykes’s central passion
At the age of four, Hykes moved with his family to France, where he grew up and spent his adolescence. From a very young age, he was deeply drawn to computing, to the point of skipping school on several occasions in order to program from different locations. In 2001, after completing secondary school, he enrolled at Epitech, a private higher education institution focused on computer science and programming.
In 2006, he began his first job at a cybersecurity company, a field closely aligned with his interests. His first entrepreneurial experience emerged when he co-founded dotCloud with a fellow Epitech student. That project later evolved into Docker, although Hykes has explained in interviews that several open-source tools were released at the time, with Docker becoming the most widely adopted and successful.
“We have open-sourced perhaps two dozen other projects over the past four years, and now we work extensively in open source,” he commented about his professional path, adding that his experience was shaped directly by his work within the company.
Hykes has described experimentation with new technologies as “a way of life.” After promoting hundreds of open-source initiatives, he has stated that he enjoys trying new ideas and, if they do not work, moving on to something else. Computing defines both his professional trajectory and his personal interests.
What is Dagger, Hykes’s new company?
Only one year passed between Hykes’s departure from Docker and the launch of his new company, Dagger. After Docker was sold in 2019, Hykes and several former collaborators introduced Dagger to the market, securing a multi-million-dollar funding round.
DevOps is a computing concept that integrates software development and operations, enabling faster and more agile software delivery. It relies on automation systems that streamline processes, and this approach is central to Dagger’s model.
Hykes explained the problem the company addresses in simple terms: “People find a way to make it work, but they do not like the experience, and everyone wastes time and resources trying. So we focus on that.” His statement refers to inefficiencies in development workflows and resource management.
Dagger implements faster processes that combine code and simulate real-time software execution. Hykes and his team identified recurring obstacles faced by developers, which led to the creation of the new company.
At the launch of its public beta, the founders also introduced the Dagger ecosystem, a collection of software packages available to engineers. According to sources within the project, the company’s objective is to optimize software supply chain management.
Solomon Hykes was born in New York and raised in France. He studied at a prestigious programming and computer science school, built his early career in cybersecurity, co-founded a startup with a university peer, and later founded Docker. After announcing his departure from Docker, he brought together several former colleagues to launch a new technology startup. That project took shape as Dagger, continuing his trajectory of experimentation and innovation.
