Joe Karlsson speaking at a conference

Joe Karlsson

Software Engineer & Developer Advocate (He/They)

I lead developer relations at CloudQuery, where I help developers build data pipelines through demos, tutorials, and content. I've been a professional software engineer for over 15 years, and I've spent most of that time at data companies - MongoDB, SingleStore, Tinybird, and now CloudQuery - making complex data topics click for developers through whatever medium works best.

Before DevRel, I was a Technical Lead at Best Buy, where I helped architect and scale one of the top 10 eCommerce sites in North America - production apps handling thousands of requests per second. That experience building real systems at scale is what I bring to everything I do now. I've also given a TEDx talk and spoken at 100+ conferences, studied CS at Gustavus Adolphus College, and I run a homelab with way too many containers.

Previously at

Best Buy logo Best Buy
MongoDB logo MongoDB
SingleStore logo SingleStore
Tinybird logo Tinybird
CloudQuery logo CloudQuery
DevLeague logo DevLeague

100+

Conference Talks

15+

Years in Tech

25K+

TikTok Followers

14+

Podcast Appearances

cat specializations.md

Data Systems

I've worked at four data companies (MongoDB, SingleStore, Tinybird, CloudQuery) and scaled Best Buy's eCommerce platform. I know databases.

Teaching Complex Topics

From coding bootcamp instructor to TEDx speaker. I make technical concepts click through talks, demos, and content that people actually want to watch.

Building Weird Stuff

IoT cat litter boxes, crop art from millet kernels, hackathons for terrible ideas. The side projects are what make the talks interesting.

cat recognition.md

TEDx Speaker & Conference Keynote

"The Art of Computer Science" - delivered as a TEDx talk and keynote at multiple conferences

#1 on "10 Must-Follow Developers on TikTok"

25K+ followers, 844K+ likes

Published Author

The New Stack, MongoDB Developer Hub, Tinybird blog, Medium, DEV Community

Hackathon Organizer

Co-organized "Stupid Shit No One In Hawaii Needs" hackathon (2016). Sponsored by GitHub & Front End Masters.

Arctic Code Vault Contributor

Code preserved in GitHub's Arctic Code Vault for future generations

Coding Bootcamp Instructor

Taught full-stack JavaScript at DevLeague, one of the top 10 coding bootcamps worldwide (Honolulu, 2015-2017)

cat as-seen-on.md

Hanselminutes podcast artwork

Hanselminutes

with Scott Hanselman

Document Databases and Mongo

 Screaming in the Cloud podcast artwork

Screaming in the Cloud

with Corey Quinn (Last Week in AWS)

When Data is Your Brand and Your Job

 JavaScript Jabber podcast artwork

JavaScript Jabber

Two episodes - MongoDB & IoT

JSJ 432 & JSJ 436

 CodeNewbie podcast artwork

CodeNewbie

Making databases fun and approachable

Season 19, Episode 6

+ More Appearances

8 Bits

with Chloe Condon & Brandon Minnick

Community Pulse

DevRel Content Channels (w/ Cassidy Williams)

Data on Kubernetes

Building Data Intensive Applications

Coding Over Cocktails

Diving deep into databases

REACT Podcast

Serverless Apps With React (Ep. 126)

ls videos/

TEDx The Art of Computer Science

MongoDB Schema Design Best Practices

Bringing JavaScript to the IoT Edge

Mapping SQL Terms and Concepts to MongoDB

Mapping SQL to MongoDB

Getting Started with SingleStore

Getting Started with SingleStore

8-Bits with Joe Karlsson

8-Bits with Joe Karlsson

See all talks on YouTube →

ls tiktok/

@joekarlsson

Working remotely is so cool

@joekarlsson

The joys of WFH

@joekarlsson

It never gets old

cat interests.md

Vaporwave style homelab server illustration

Homelabber

Running a Proxmox cluster with 40+ containers, self-hosted services, and Home Assistant automating the whole house.

Joe Karlsson on the TEDx stage

Speaker

100+ conferences worldwide. TEDx speaker and keynote. I talk about databases, IoT, and the weird stuff I build at home.

IoT litter box project with Raspberry Pi and sensors

Cat Person / IoT Tinkerer

Built an IoT litter box with a Raspberry Pi to monitor my cat's health. Gave a conference talk about it. Yes, really.

Crop art of Riot Dog made from seeds and grains

Crop Artist

I make art by gluing seeds to cardboard. Exhibited at the Minnesota State Fair and the Seeds of Justice show.

ls crop-art/

I got into crop art in 2025 - making pictures by gluing seeds and grains to cardboard. I had two pieces in the Seeds of Justice exhibit, then entered the Minnesota State Fair Crop Art competition for the first time. Here are some of my pieces:

Crop art mosaic reading Cave Canem Tumultum depicting the famous Greek riot dog Loukanikos running with a red bandana, made from white and dark seeds

Beware of Riot Dog

2025

 Crop art of a cat lounging against an orange sunset sky with a golden sun, made from lentils and various seeds

Seeds of Remembrance

2025

 Crop art depicting a scene from The Sound of Music with a figure holding a wide skirt, made from dark seeds on a black background

60th Anniversary of The Sound of Music

2025
See all crop art →

cat now.md

working on

Leading DevRel at CloudQuery

tinkering with

A 40+ container homelab running Proxmox, Home Assistant, and way too many arr apps

writing about

Self-hosting, databases, and things that probably shouldn't be connected to the internet

using

M3 Pro MacBook Pro, VS Code, too many monitors. See my full setup →

git log --oneline --graph career/

* 90e3919 (HEAD -> main) Developer Advocate - CloudQuery (2025-present) 
commit 90e3919
Author: Joe Karlsson <[email protected]>
Date:   2025

    Developer Advocate - CloudQuery

    Developer relations and content for the open-source ELT framework.
    Creating demos, tutorials, and developer resources for data pipelines.
|   Developer relations and content for the open-source ELT framework.
|
* a5c7813 Developer Advocate - Tinybird (2023-2025) 
commit a5c7813
Author: Joe Karlsson <[email protected]>
Date:   2023

    Developer Advocate - Tinybird

    Helped developers building real-time analytics applications.
    Created documentation, demos, blog posts, webinars, and workshops.
|   Helped developers building real-time analytics applications.
|
* 6c649ed Senior Developer Advocate - SingleStore (2021-2023) 
commit 6c649ed
Author: Joe Karlsson <[email protected]>
Date:   2021

    Senior Developer Advocate - SingleStore

    Led community conversations around scaling SQL workloads.
    Built demos and content for the distributed SQL database.
|   Led community conversations around scaling SQL workloads.
|
* ee030f8 Senior Developer Advocate - MongoDB (2019-2021) 
commit ee030f8
Author: Joe Karlsson <[email protected]>
Date:   2019

    Senior Developer Advocate - MongoDB

    Built developer community, created tutorials, demos, and educational content.
    Subject matter expert for developer experience.
|   Built developer community, created tutorials and demos.
|
* 61eff00 Front-end Technical Lead - Best Buy (2017-2019) 
commit 61eff00
Author: Joe Karlsson <[email protected]>
Date:   2017

    Front-end Technical Lead - Best Buy

    Engineered high-performance solutions for one of the top 10 eCommerce sites
    in North America. Scaled production apps handling thousands of requests per second.
|   Engineered solutions for top 10 eCommerce site in North America.
|
* 3f2a1b0 Full-Stack JavaScript Instructor - DevLeague (2015-2017) 
commit 3f2a1b0
Author: Joe Karlsson <[email protected]>
Date:   2015

    Full-Stack JavaScript Instructor - DevLeague

    Taught full-stack JavaScript at one of the top 10 coding bootcamps worldwide.
    Created curriculum and prepared students for software engineering careers in Honolulu.
    Taught full-stack JS at top 10 coding bootcamp worldwide.

Projects

IoT, open source, demos, and more.

Newsletter

Databases, self-hosting, and whatever I'm building.

Uses

My gear, software, and daily tools.

Want to work together, book me for a talk, or just say hi?

Get in touch →