Max Schireson, who spearheaded the rapid growth of MongoDB Inc. over the past 18 months, is ending his successful streak at the helm of the database startup and handing over reins to Dev Ittycheria, an outsider who Schireson said brings all the right credentials to the table.

MongoDB’s incoming president and chief executive is joining after a stint as managing director at OpenView Venture Partners, a Boston-based investment firm that focuses on mid-stage enterprise software companies. Prior to that, he worked for the better known Greylock Partners, where he also focused on firms catering to large corporate customers.

Before breaking into the venture capital scene, Ittycheria founded two startups. The second, a provider of infrastructure automation solutions called BladeLogic Software Inc., he took public in 2007 and eventually sold to BMC Software Inc. in 2008 for approximately $900 million. He briefly ran the systems software giant’s  core service management business until deciding to trade his BMC business card for one with “investor” written on it.

The top position at MongoDB, which Ittycheria is set to assume early next month, represents a return to his roots and a change of pace from the VC landscape.  His appointment is just as welcome for Schireson, who divulged in a candid blog on Tuesday that having to regularly travel between the company’s Palo Alto and New York headquarters on top of the regular CEO duties was too draining for him, both physically and mentally.

Schireson will continue to work at the company full-time as vice chairman, a position that will allow him to spend more time with his family. In his post, the outgoing CEO acknowledged that the decision  may be detrimental to his career prospects but called it a worthy sacrifice, writing that “at first, it seemed like a hard choice, but the more I have sat with the choice the more certain I am that it is the right choice.”

As for MongoDB, it seems to be falling into good hands, but Ittycheria will have big shoes to fill.  Under Schireson’s leadership, the startup took in hundreds of millions of dollars in funding and established itself as one of the front-runners in not just the NoSQL market but the database market as a whole.

Schireson was a frequent visitor to theCUBE, speaking with SiliconANGLE’s roving news desk on several occasions. Below is one of Schireson’s most recent appearances, at his own company’s event, MongoDB Days.