Meet Anh Cao, Crown’s Director of Marketing
Meet our Director of Marketing, Anh Cao. She boasts an impressive marketing career with experience at companies, like Ring (acquired by Amazon), Hautelook (acquired by Nordstrom), and Openpath Security (acquired by Motorola). She is a start-up veteran and has experienced growth at all stages of a company’s journey. We sat down with her to learn about her career in tech, why she got involved with Crown Electrokinetics, and what advice she has for people looking to work in marketing at early-stage tech companies.
What led you to choose marketing as a profession, and what makes it rewarding?
The truth is that marketing was never really on my radar. Coming out of college, I was pre-med and on track to taking my MCATs but soon realized that the gore of becoming a doctor was insurmountable for me. Moving back to LA and unsure about what to do with my life, I got an internship at RPA, an advertising agency in Santa Monica, and found it to be fascinating. I fell in love with the process of creating a marketing campaign and finding the best messaging that resonated with customers. I am grateful that I was able to convince them to take a chance on hiring a recent grad with a human biology degree because that internship was really the genesis of my marketing career. At its core, marketing is about uniting customers with products and services that improve their lives. The best marketers are trying to help people, which is what drew me to medicine in the first place.
Why was Crown so intriguing to you?
When the world shut down in March 2020, I found myself spending more time exploring the outdoors and saw how clear the sky was when there was no smog in the air due to congested freeways. I was presented with an opportunity to work with Crown, and once I saw their DynamicTint™ in action, it was a no-brainer for me. I wanted the next company that I work for to be one that was making a positive impact in the world. I admired companies like AllBirds, whose mission was based on sustainability, and I believed in the mission that Crown was trying to achieve. We’ve all experienced the effects of climate change, and if I could use my experience to help get Smart Window Inserts on every office building in the US to combat climate change, I will gladly take that opportunity any day.
What have your past experiences been like at other companies?
I’ve had really great experiences at my previous companies, but without question, Ring was a significant experience in my career. At the beginning of my time there, I wore many different hats in addition to my marketing hat, which I believe made me a better marketer because I had a holistic view of what it took to create a successful product from ideation to completion. I was fortunate to work with extremely talented people on the Marketing team as well as other departments, and we achieved great harmony between the product and our customers. But that doesn’t just happen on its own. Sometimes people see an innovative product that leads to a billion-dollar exit and think that customers simply found and fell in love with Ring all on their own. The reality is that it takes hard work and inter-department collaboration to create an authentic brand and deliver on that brand’s promise in every facet of the customer’s journey.
How have you navigated working in tech as a woman?
I’ve been working in tech for over a decade and it is still a male dominated industry, especially at early stage startups, so it has not been particularly easy to navigate. I transitioned into tech from working in fashion and it was a very jarring experience to go from working with a team that was 80% women to a team that was 80% men. I have sat in many meetings throughout my career where I was the only female sitting at the table, and while that can feel frustrating at times, change doesn’t happen without a catalyst in the room. Even at this stage in my career, I still have days where I experience imposter syndrome, but I remind myself that I belong in those meetings and that my skills and expertise are valuable. I would not have made it this far on my own, and I am fortunate to have mentors, managers and friends that supported my growth and helped me excel in my career.
What do you find most challenging about working in marketing?
Everybody has an opinion about marketing, but not everybody is a marketer. There is a lot of strategy and creative problem solving required in order to have a successful marketing program. In marketing, you’re trying to build relationships between customers and the company through the utility of its product offerings. Along the way, there are inevitably many pitfalls for customers to get confused, frustrated, or even angry. The biggest challenge is establishing a foundation that’s authentic and consistent, including products, employees, partners, and everything else that encompasses the brand. With the best brands, perhaps the greatest achievement of marketers is to make it all look seamless.
What advice would you offer others looking to follow a similar career path?
First off, my career path was not linear at all, so I would not recommend that anyone follow that specific path. However I’ve learned a lot and here are two pieces of advice I’d offer:
Try all sorts of things because you never know what you’re going to like. Long before I thought about becoming a doctor, I went down several different paths. In fact, I pursued four different majors at Stanford. At first, I thought that I wanted to go into investment banking and began my studies as an Economics major. But I HATED it. Then, I tried Civil Engineering and then switched to Mechanical Engineering. Ultimately, I graduated with a degree in Human Biology, thinking I’d go to medical school. The medical field did not pan out, now I’m a marketer and love the industry. Even with my career, I’ve changed industries several times from advertising, to fashion, to B2C tech, and now with B2B tech. I’m constantly learning and experiencing new things.
Be nice to everyone!! It sounds simple but can easily be forgotten, especially at startups where people are under incredible pressure. The pandemic has made this even more important, because we don’t always know what people are going through outside of work. I’m not always perfect in this regard, but I try to be as empathetic toward others and embody the “golden rule,” particularly in my managerial style. It goes a long way and makes life more enjoyable for everyone.