Neo4j was initially developed as a graph layer on top of a relational database to address the cognitive gap between how developers thought about data and how it was stored and queried. This helped improve productivity, but also led to ambition in querying complex data. However, this approach eventually resulted in the JOIN bomb problem due to the underlying relational database's limitations. To overcome this, Neo4j's founders built a native graph database that addressed scalability and consistency issues, leading to the development of Cypher, a powerful query language. Neo4j has since continued to evolve with advancements in clustering architectures, including causal clustering, which provides a graph-native solution for storing and querying large datasets at scale. The company aims to continue pushing the boundaries of graph technology and is excited about the future of its engineering evolution.