Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress and CEO of Automattic

About this episode

My guest this week is Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress and CEO of Automattic. In this episode, you are going to hear from the creator of the platform that powers over one-third of the entire internet. Yes, you read that correctly! Wordpress powers one out of every three websites that is accessible online.

There are many unique elements to Matt's story and we cover many of them within this episode. Two main topics that we unpack is the broader discussion around open-sourced software and the economy behind it, as well as his thoughts on the distributed workforce. Both of which, Matt is (without argument) the defacto expert on.

As brands all over the world are scrambling to adjust to a remote workforce, Matt has built his business on this model from day one. As of today, Automattic has a distributed workforce of around 1,300 employees. We discuss why he built it this way, how he has done so successfully, and what other people need to consider if they want to move in this direction.

There is a tremendous amount of value in this episode and I cannot wait for you to hear Matt Mullenweg’s startup story.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• How he grew up in Houston in a household that was on the lower end of the middle class, watching his hard-working parents constantly pushing themselves to do more and picking up any extra work they could find.
• From a young age he always had an entrepreneurial flair, starting his first company as a window cleaner, then went onto build computers at high school.
• How he originally wanted to be a Jazz musician coming out of high school, but through competing in a high school challenge called ‘Federal Reserve Challenge’ Matt found his love for microeconomics. With competing he was able to travel to Washington DC and experience his first taste of the intellectual business world.
• How the first 25 years of his life was very modelled after his dad, until he broke away and started to create his own path.
• Matt shares his love of Rap music, due to it being the most popular among the Jazz students growing up and he would trade CD’s on and get excited by it.
  
• His views on the Qwerty keyboard layout and how thinks it more functional to use the Dvorak keyboard instead.
• Matt explains how he come up with Wordpress and the problem he was solving.
• He unpacks the back end of open-source platforms and how to monetize them.
• Why he created his other company Automattic
• Matt’s advice on remote working
• The importance of communication and always communicating with intention and honesty.
• How Matt defines success, working alongside people who he love and respects doing the best work of their

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Matt’s podcast - Distributed: https://distributed.blog
Matt’s interview with Jack Dorsey - https://distributed.blog/podcast/

Matt’s about page: https://ma.tt/about/

Nonviolent communication Book: https://amzn.to/3kB1gIN
Search Inside Yourself book: https://amzn.to/380jxKr
Black Swan Book: https://amzn.to/3b5QfME
Predictably Irrational: https://amzn.to/3kHRAfO

Waking up app - https://wakingup.com
Calm app - https://www.calm.com

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