It is very fitting when talking about young entrepreneurs to talk about Matthew Mullenweg. In 2004, when Mullenweg was not even twenty years old, he created a site named WordPress, which I am currently using. WordPress has become one of the world’s premier content management sites and is the most used blogging website in the world. Mullenweg, a Houston, Texas native, created the company while he was a freshman at the University of Houston, before he dropped out to continue running his company. Soon after he moved to San Francisco the company took off. They recruited top businesspeople from various companies such as Yahoo! and others to try and bring WordPress to the forefront of internet communication. On top of WordPress, Mullenweg is the CEO of another company called Automattic, a play on words of the founder’s first name. This company is a distributed company so all of the employees get sent to different places to do remote work. Most of these jobs are tech and blogging related, with many jobs specifically set up to try and help their sister company WordPress. Mullenweg can be seen as an inspiration that even though you could be a freshman at some University you can still make a big global impact. Am I saying everyone should drop out of college and make a company? Not exactly, but innovation at a young age is definitely a desirable trait I wish I could utilize in a similar way Mullenweg has.
Archive for Blogging – Page 2
Matthew Mullenweg is the founder of WordPress, a popular blogging and website platform used by one-third of the internet. Although WordPress is a free product, Mullenweg has still been able to create a thriving business. Mullenweg, being a blogger himself, saw a lack of free blogging platforms. He previously used b2/cafelog, which was free but outdated. Upon seeing this problem, the idea of WordPress was born. Mullenweg, alongside Mike Little, took the codebase of b2/cafelog and began the first version of WordPress in 2003. As other blogging platforms increased their pricing, consumers began looking for alternatives. Many flocked to WordPress because it was free and highly customizable. Once WordPress started to grow, Mullenweg added new features that would attract even more users. Examples include forums, moderation, spam prevention, and themes.
Although WordPress gained massive adoption, Mullenweg did not have a way to gain revenue. Eventually, he created Automattic: a for-profit company that now oversees WordPress. Automattic is a collection of different subsidiaries; however, their most prominent is a premium version of WordPress. They will host your blog, ensure it is secured, maintained, and fast. Automattic also owns various paid extensions for WordPress. A big one is WooCommerce, which allows WordPress sites to have e-commerce capabilities. It is used by a variety of companies that wish to have an online storefront that is feature-rich and customizable. By introducing these innovations, Mullenweg began to attract companies from all industries to move their sites to WordPress.
Mullenweg has also been innovative in how he runs his business. For many years, he has chosen to operate remotely. Even with 1,747 employees, Automattic continues to be remote first. Mullenweg believes this strategy allows for better productivity and cultivation of talent. He has previously stated:
“It’s one of my life missions to have more companies be distributed. It’s good for the environment. It’s good for opportunity. It’s good for the economy.”
Clearly, Mullenweg has proven himself to be a capable entrepreneur that is able to adapt and innovate. His practice of running a remote business has inspired others to do the same, especially amid the recent pandemic.
Sources:
https://www.yourtechstory.com/2018/08/24/matt-mullenweg-founder-ceo-wordpress/
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/12/business/matt-mullenweg-automattic-corner-office.html