2015 has already been a big year for Nitro. We’ve reached our 500,000th customer and we’re quickly approaching our 10th anniversary (what!?). As our CEO, Sam Chandler, so eloquently puts it: 2015 is “Year 1 of Chapter 2.” So what does the second chapter entail? Well for starters, we’re scaling our team worldwide (#GrowNitro).
In the last month, we’ve welcomed our new VP of Marketing, Ralf VonSosen. Ralf joins us from LinkedIn, and part of his first chapter at Nitro has been building the Marketing team (read more about his journey here). He’s been tasked with leading a team that he predicts will “tackle the challenges and create the opportunities for the next chapter of Nitro’s life.” Well, Ralf, our Marketing team is already pretty incredible, and we’re really excited to help you grow our forces.
We sat down with two Nitronauts from our Marketing Department: Laine Riley—Project Manager and Alex Acker—Online Marketing Manager— and we asked them to reveal what working in Marketing at Nitro is really like.
Laine Riley| Project Manager
Laine, what does a typical day look like for you?
As a project manager, every day is a little different! But that’s why I love my role here. I start every day with a morning stand-up (that’s a 15 minute meeting for you folks outside of development!) with the Product and Development teams, to discuss everyone’s status updates from the previous day. Then I’m following up with people from across the company, answering emails and putting project requests into the respective team’s “project queue.” You can find me running back and forth from Marketing to Development to answer questions in person to move projects forward – you’ll usually see me riding around on one of our kick bikes!
Can you tell us a little bit about your most challenging project yet?
So far, the most challenging project has been the GoNitro website refresh back in October 2014. We took our two previous URLs (nitropdf.com and nitrocloud.com) and combined all the pages under one cohesive new domain: gonitro.com. And we did it all within 6 weeks! We’re going to be updating the website again in just a few weeks… that’s going to be another challenge in itself… keep an eye out for changes!
What advice would you give an aspiring project manager?
Be proactive. It’s a project manager’s role to ask questions and try to track down what is happening. We’re the ones to help push the business forward!
Where can we find you when we’re not at work?
Oakland! Going for a run around Lake Merritt, grabbing dinner with friends, hanging out at a beer garden, or just a home with my cat, Sparkles (he’s famous around the office now… ask anyone about him).
Alex Acker—Online Marketing Manager
Alex, tell us about your role.
I oversee performance marketing and web analytics, which essentially means I ensure that our dollar spent has some sort of dollar return. Or if it’s not dollar related, we expect optimal performance in other areas such as: traffic and engagement on specific campaigns and channels. We use data analysis to make a lot of different marketing decisions. For instance, we evaluate the GoNitro website performance from a traffic standpoint. I provide the data as well as the strategic insight of what the actually data means.
How would you describe the culture at Nitro?
I lived in Melbourne while I was in college and it was a special city for me. Nitro is Aussie-founded and it was a happy coincidence. I love the culture—it’s very fun yet performance driven—results are everything for us. I feel like I’m working with friends rather than just colleagues. It makes getting out of bed not too much of a struggle and being at work is a lot more enjoyable!
What has been your most memorable moment at Nitro so far?
I’ve been talking about how Nitronauts work hard and results are everything. Well, one of the best parts is when you are rewarded and recognized for your achievements. I received our Employee of the month award, and it was a great feeling. We were spending too much money in paid search, and I had our budget reduced by about 50%. My findings ultimately saved Nitro a lot of money while increasing our revenue month-by-month by 15 percent.
Where can we find you when you’re not at work?
I’m a huge soccer fan and I watch my team, Liverpool FC, at a pub near Golden Gate Park. If I’m not there then I’m either hiking around Marin or traveling to new places. Last year, I went to Iceland and this year, I’m going to the Caribbean. Travel is a big part of my life. I work to travel—kind of my life motto. The next place on my list? The Galapagos Islands.
Nitro has been making moves this year and you have a chance to be a part of it. Do you have what it takes—the passion and the desire to be the best? The work ethic to make it happen? The waggishness to make it fun? We’re ready to find out.
