Whitney Hill
Caktus turned ten this year and we recently celebrated with a party at our office in Durham, NC. We wouldn’t be where we are today without our employees, clients, family, and friends, so this wasn’t just a celebration of Caktus. It was a celebration of the relationships the company is built on.
The last five years
Since our last milestone birthday celebration five years ago, Caktus has more than doubled in size, growing from 15 employees to 30-plus. Co-founder and CTO Colin Copeland was honored with the Triangle Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 award. The company itself moved from Carrboro to the historic building we now own in downtown Durham, where we’re pleased to be able to host local tech meetups when we’re not using it for our own special events.
In our work, we’ve continued our mission to use technology for good, building the world’s first SMS-based voter registration system, beginning the Epic Allies project to improve outcomes for young men with HIV/AIDS, and launching the Open Data Policing website for tracking police stop data.
Celebrations
Co-founder and CEO Tobias McNulty gave a speech to mark the occasion, sharing a view of how far the company has come. There was also enthusiasm for what we can achieve at Caktus in the next ten years - and those to come after.
As part of the celebrations we had food and birthday cupcakes, as well as prize giveaways for our team. Family and friends of Caktus employees joined in on the fun and games.
We welcomed several clients as well, and we thank them along with all of those who have worked with us for giving us the opportunity to create meaningful tools that help people. A number of our clients have been with us for years, and we’re proud to have such a good relationship with those who trust us to build solutions for them.
Looking forward
The communities we’re a part of and the individuals in those communities have always been central to our focus. Growing sharp web apps is what we do, but it’s the people who build them and those we build them for that matter. With that in mind, we look forward to continuing to develop our internal initiatives around diverse representation, transparency and fair pay. We are also dedicated to continuing support of the various communities we are a part of, whether technical or geographic, through our charitable giving initiatives, conference and meetup sponsorships, open source contributions, and requiring a code of conduct to be in place and enforced at events we sponsor or attend.
Supportive, inclusive, and welcoming communities helped Caktus grow to where we are today, and we’re honored to be in a position to give back as we celebrate our tenth anniversary.
Credit for all photos: Madeline Gray.
