Why I Joined InfluxData - Caitlin Croft

By Caitlin Croft / Company
Oct 16, 2019

Hi! My name is Caitlin Croft and I’m the Customer Marketing Manager at InfluxData. I can’t believe I joined the team nearly three months ago!

I’ve previously worked at small and large tech companies in the Bay Area. When looking for a new job, I ideally wanted to join a smaller company with the energy of a small startup. I also like a good new challenge — the database industry was completely new to me. I knew joining a time series database company would present interesting challenges for me.

I love customer marketing as it’s fun to meet customers and hear how they’re using different technologies to solve their business challenges. I love telling their stories to excite others about the product. While I enjoy learning more about technologies and how they work, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the most technical person around. I like customer stories where they are able to share technical information and business metrics. Who doesn’t like hearing about how a product has saved a company money or improved their revenue?

I’ve previously worked at a company with a similar model as InfluxData — where there is an open source and a proprietary software offering. I think it’s great that InfluxData embraces the open source community; the community pushes the InfluxDB platform further. After joining, I found it incredible that the majority of the 200+ Telegraf plugins available were created and shared by the community.

Another advantage of considering an open source company is that you’re able to play with the product during your interviewing process. Prior to coming into the office, Chris Churilo, Director Product Marketing, asked me to sign up for InfluxDB Cloud. Even before getting the job, I was playing with the open source product! She asked me about my experience with the product. She wanted to see if I was comfortable playing around with it and wanted my initial feedback. Getting to see the UI and to start to see how things work was interesting; as I was new to the product, I was able to provide a unique perspective on the platform. By immediately using the product, I was able to jumpstart my onboarding and started to understand InfluxDB’s users. As I started telling people about my new job, it was amazing how many people in my personal and professional circles knew about InfluxDB. Everyone spoke very highly of the product. All of these comments helped solidify that I made the right decision.

In my short time at InfluxData, I already feel like I’ve jumped right in and started to make an impact. I’ve learned more about InfluxDB than other products I’ve worked on in such a short span of time. I’ve already worked on webinars, blogs, customer stories and other projects. Shortly after joining, I wrote about our customer Aquicore. I was so excited to write customer content so quickly. We recently hosted InfluxDays San Francisco 2019. It was amazing getting to meet so many customers in one space so soon after joining. I love getting to meet customers in person and help them connect with other users who are able to network and learn from each other. I even got to meet Bastian, who is a customer that I’ve already worked with on this customer story.

Selfish plug: If you’re currently using InfluxDB, stumbled across this page, and are interested in sharing your story to get a hoodie, click here. You can also email me: [email protected]. I will be at the Boston and Minneapolis Time Series meetups. Come say hi. RSVP for Boston or Minneapolis today.