Buttercup

created by Nobody. She started as an off-the-shelf Hasbro toy.

Nobody designed Buttercup. In 2006 Splunk co-founder Erik Swan was trying to convert contractor Mitch Blank into a full time employee and asked what it would take. Blank said he wanted a pony. In November 2007 Splunk engineer Amritpal Bath spotted a FurReal Friends animatronic pony in a Target, emailed Swan, and got back "Order it! Expense it!" It was assembled in the San Francisco office, wrapped in Spiderman paper and left on Blank's desk. Every drawing of her since is a drawing of that toy. Splunk then built two decades of company culture on top of it: Buttercup Games is the fictional store behind the tutorial dataset every Splunk user learns on, Buttercup GO! was a browser game where she flies through a cave dodging stalactites (spelunking, which is where the company name comes from), and #PONYUP is the volunteering tag. Splunk's own account of all this, told by Bath, is a blog post called The Story of Buttercup, the Splunk Pwny.

in the news

2007-11 An engineer saw an animatronic pony in a Target and expensed it as a gag gift for a colleague who had said he wanted a pony.

2018-10 International Mascot Corporation of Tucker, Georgia built the walkaround costume. The giant inflatable was built by Creative Inflatables of Los Angeles.

2024-03 Cisco closed its acquisition of Splunk and Buttercup survived it. She was on the .conf24 keynote stage, and the socks now sell in the Cisco store with a cisco company printed on the sole.

a Target pony with a two storey inflatable

the scorecard

Personality Bought off a shelf at Target in 2007, which I have no problem with. The problem is that I still cannot tell you how she behaves. Sweet? Salty? Nobody has decided, and it has been eighteen years.

Design The markings are distinctive enough that you would pick her out of a lineup of ponies. What is missing is the one detail that is only hers, the thing a Splunk employee could draw from memory.

Deployment A two storey inflatable, a walkaround suit, plush by the crate, a browser game, and the tutorial dataset every Splunk user learns on is named after her fictional company. No socials, no voice, so it stops short of the top tier.

Splunk will build you a two storey inflatable of a pony they have never once given a line to say.

Buttercup — Flickr, .conf18 album, Orlando

Buttercup — Splunk GovSummit, Washington DC

Buttercup — The game room, Splunk office, Plano

Buttercup — The Splunk Gallery, Buttercup GO! patch

Buttercup — The Splunk Gallery, Shanghai office

Buttercup — The Splunk Gallery, Ride the Docs

Buttercup — The Splunk Gallery, Splunk4Good

Buttercup — The Splunk Gallery, Buttercup GO! entry

+ add a photo

got a shot of Buttercup we don't have? send it in

next: Slackbot →

You made Buttercup?