From Mountain Guide to Tech CEO: How InfluxData's Evan Kaplan Learned to Scale Open Source

The typical Silicon Valley founder story often starts with a CS degree and a dorm room revelation. But in a recent episode of Category Visionaries, InfluxData CEO Evan Kaplan reveals a different path: one that began in the mountains, not behind a computer screen.

"I have a very different background than most entrepreneurs and most other folks. I don't have a computer science degree. I have an environmental science degree. I spent most of my formative years, my late 20s, climbing and skiing around the world, guiding, working for different organizations," Evan shares.

This unconventional background shaped his approach to building and scaling companies. After transitioning through aerospace program management and business school, Evan found himself at the helm of InfluxData, facing the complex challenge of monetizing open source software.

The stark reality? "You're a phenomenal open source company if you could monetize 1% of your community," Evan reveals. This single metric illuminates the fundamental challenge facing open source businesses - converting passionate users into paying customers.

But rather than viewing this as a limitation, InfluxData turned it into a strategic advantage. The company adopted what's known as an "open core" model, where the base product remains free while advanced features command a premium. This wasn't without controversy. In 2016, the company faced a crucial decision about their clustering feature.

"We had planned on keeping the clustering and the high availability in the open source... But we were faced with kind of an existential threat as we couldn't keep funding the company and building the database if we didn't find a way to monetize," Evan recalls. The ensuing backlash on Hacker News tested their resolve, but the decision proved crucial for sustainability.

The key to navigating such decisions, according to Evan, lies in the enrollment process: "If I have to tell somebody to do something, I've already lost. So my view is I have to enroll people in whatever we're doing, whatever big change, whatever pivot, whatever dynamic we're doing."

This philosophy extends beyond internal decisions to their broader go-to-market strategy. InfluxData's approach mirrors Evan's climbing experience - methodical, strategic, and focused on the long game. "I'm not particularly smart, I don't think I'm particularly gifted, but maybe it's my climbing background, but I'm pretty relentless. I know how to get off and work every day. I know how to do the hard things."

Today, with 1,900 customers and handling billions of data points per second, InfluxData has proven the viability of their model. But perhaps more telling is Evan's pragmatic view of success: "My philosophy after my three long stints as a CEO is if you can get 60-65% of the stuff you're doing right, you're going to have an amazing company."

This refreshing perspective cuts through the typical Silicon Valley narrative of perfectionism. Instead of chasing flawless execution, Evan advocates for resilience and adaptability - traits he honed not in business school, but on mountain faces.

For founders navigating their own growth challenges, Evan offers a crucial insight about the nature of leadership: "97% of your job is, I like to say, enrolling, but it's selling. Selling customers, selling employees, and selling investors. 3% is some sort of brilliance about strategy."

The lessons from InfluxData's journey challenge conventional wisdom about both open source business models and tech leadership. In a world obsessed with technical credentials and perfect execution, their story suggests that success might depend more on resilience, adaptability, and the ability to bring others along on the journey.