Today marks a significant day in my journey as a business owner. From New York, we can now announce that WooThemes has joined the Automattic family!
It’s the end of a chapter I’m hugely proud of, that began all the way back in 2007, and the start of an exciting new chapter aligned with our dream partner and the ultimate home for our open source platform, WooCommerce.
The past twelve months have been ones of immense hard work at WooThemes and much personal reflection for me as a co-founder. Our team has grown to 55 talented, fun and remote working individuals, our flagship product WooCommerce currently powers close to 25% of all online stores, we have monthly events being organised by our evangelical community in cities around the world, we have eCommerce service providers from all avenues knocking at our door, and our revenues and profit margins continue to grow.
We’ve watched and engaged with massive eCommerce, payment and tech companies – as well as venture capitalists – on an ever-changing backdrop of significant IPO and acquisition announcements, strategic partnerships and tech investments in competitors and allies. It’s an exciting jungle out there.
And we’ve been in a privileged position, in terms of being approached and woo-ed by potential partners.
What to do with such opportunities, and which ones to seize, has involved a weighty sense of responsibility and valuable lessons in negotiation, growth, change management, risk assessment, leadership, empathy and communication. All the while we’ve been surrounded by a strong and diverse advisory team that have helped ask all the important questions.
It’s been a year I’m thankful to have been able to share with a co-founder I appreciate greatly, as a friend and colleague. Magnus and myself have spent a bordering on disturbing amount of time together over the years, in many cities, sharing hotel rooms, surfboard meetings, Skype calls, Slack convos, Snapchats and thousands of email threads. Through and beyond Adii’s exit from WooThemes in late 2013, Magnus and I have remained aligned in our goals, objectives, and ambitions for our company.
Hard work doesn’t come without sacrifice. Late night cross-Atlantic phone calls and hangouts, constant entrepreneurial mind games, and the 24/7 responsibilities of a business owner make for a challenging work-life balance. I’d like to thank my supportive wife for being a steady source of perspective as well as for love that she and my three year old boy bring.
I look forward to sharing more of the valuable experiences and lessons learned as we’ve navigated this period of fantastic business and personal growth.
I’m excited about where we can now take WooThemes, with the expertise and resources Automattic can provide and with full peace of mind as to our alignment in values, culture and work ethic. Together, we’re going to be able to make huge inroads into proving the platform abilities of WordPress.
The future starts this week, as we discuss and celebrate what is possible with the Automattic leadership team here in New York.
Thank you to our team, and our extended community of partners, developers and customers.
Further reading:
- The public statement on WooThemes
- Matt Mullenweg’s (CEO of Automattic & co-founder of WordPress) announcement on his site
- Magnus’s thoughts on his blog
Press Coverage
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