Podcasts about adii

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Adii Pienaar is the founder and CEO of Cogsy, an inventory management software for eCommerce brands. He started Cogsy after seeing the need for a more user-friendly and powerful inventory management solution that could be used by both generalists and specialists. Cogsy is designed to be easy to use and can be integrated with a variety of eCommerce platforms, including Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento.In the interview, Adii discusses his background in eCommerce and how it led to the creation of Cogsy. He also talks about the challenges of building a startup and the importance of finding the right team. Adii is passionate about helping eCommerce brands succeed, and he believes that Cogsy can play a big role in helping them achieve their goals.Here are some of the key points from the interview: Adii Pienaar is the founder and CEO of Cogsy, an inventory management software for eCommerce brands. Cogsy is designed to be easy to use and can be integrated with a variety of eCommerce platforms. Adii started Cogsy after seeing the need for a more user-friendly and powerful inventory management solution. Cogsy is used by eCommerce brands of all sizes, from small businesses to large enterprises. Adii is passionate about helping eCommerce brands succeed. ----------- SPONSORS: This episode is brought to you by: Tidio This episode is sponsored by Tidio, the highest-rated live chat app on Shopify. Tidio is a versatile platform that offers personalized shopping experiences, boosts customer satisfaction, and manages all communication channels on one dashboard. It can automate up to 47% of recurring questions with its deep Shopify integration. With the budget-friendly Tidio Plus Plan, you get a dedicated customer success manager, personalized training sessions, and more. Tidio powers over 300,000 brand websites, including Shell, Wellbots, and Valyou Furniture. Head to Tidio.com/2X to take control of your customer relationships and supercharge your growth. TreydThe 2X eCommerce Podcast is sponsored by Treyd, a revolutionary financing service transforming product launches for eCommerce brands. As the ultimate inventory purchasing solution, Treyd lets you sell first, pay suppliers later. Treyd's unsecured funding and credit model improves cash flow, supports larger orders, and even helps negotiate supplier discounts.  With a transparent, pay-as-you-go model, Treyd offers unmatched flexibility and minimal onboarding, independent of eCommerce platforms. Experience the power of "Sell first, pay suppliers later" and snooze invoices for up to 120 days. Transform your business with Treyd today on Treyd.io.

Join Gareth as he sits down with Adii Pienaar, a successful 3x founder who is currently building Cogsy, a cutting-edge e-commerce inventory and demand planning tool. Adii opens up about his incredible journey, sharing valuable insights and experiences in various aspects of entrepreneurship, including hiring and screening for top talent, building a remote team, and cultivating a strong and healthy culture.TIMESTAMPS[00:00:58] Adii's background in e-commerce[00:05:53] Building a successful remote team pre-pandemic[00:09:53] Automatic's acquisition of WooCommerce[00:13:11] Get intentional about culture and values from day one[00:15:37] Why a hybrid work model is hard to pull off[00:20:27] Why you should over-index on soft skills when hiring[00:27:54] The Cogsy team background[00:29:13] How to compete for talent outside of salary[00:31:55] The desire to keep building companies - when ego can be channeled positively[00:36:27] Advice for founders currently building[00:40:11] What's harder than it needs to be when it comes to hiring?Listen on Apple | Listen on SpotifyLet us know what else you'd like to hear & see covered: contact@outscout.ioConnect with Adii - LinkedInConnect with Gareth - LinkedInConnect with Jake - LinkedInSee how OutScout can help you smash your hiring goals - https://www.outscout.io/

In this episode, we're continuing our chat with Adii Pienaar, who has established successful companies like WooThemes and WooCommerce, and is presently involved in a new enterprise called Cogsy. In addition to his business ventures, Adii is the author of Life Profitably and the host of the Life Profitably podcast, and his unique perspective on Shopify is undoubtedly unmatched. Listen in as we continue to dive into the world of eCommerce and discuss the benefits of using WooCommerce versus Shopify, as well as what it was like building a shopping cart from scratch. Adii also shares how Cogsy is helping merchants and solving a major pain point for eCommerce owners, and we wrap up the episode with a lightning round of questions. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://bit.ly/3zRAFQp 

How can you achieve a successful exit in your business without selling your soul or burning out until you're barely more than a burnt crisp? I'm excited to chat with Adii Pienaar, a successful entrepreneur who has founded multiple companies, including WooThemes and WooCommerce, and is currently working on a new venture called Cogsy. He's also the author of the Life Profitably book and hosts the Life Profitably podcast, and through the rollercoaster ride of his entrepreneurial journey, he has learned some valuable lessons that he shares today. Listen in as Adii shares his approach to balancing life and business, his experiences of burnout, and the ups and downs of his entrepreneurial journey, including leaving WooCommerce. We also discuss finding balance as a tightrope act—where you invest deeply in your business while also investing in other areas of your life—and Adii shares his motivation for continuing despite the fear of failure. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://bit.ly/40wCPAE Interested in our Private Community for 7-Figure Store Owners?  Learn more here.   Want to hear about new episodes and eCommerce news round-ups?  Subscribe via email.

In this episode, I wanted to share a recent conversation I had with author and 3x founder, Adii Pienar. After building Conversio & WooCommerce, Addi is leading a company called Cogsy, making inventory management and financial tools for Shopify and Amazon sellers. In this conversation we review how SellerSmile got it's start and some interesting ideas around customer experience, customer service, artificial intelligence. In particular, and related to Cogsy, we talk about the perils of stocking out. Cogsy helps sellers develop a system to to manage inventory levels by reading historical data and forecasted events. Try Cogsy with a free trial ~ 2 weeks. They'll help you clean and setup your SKUs and lead times to ensure your customers are left waiting for your products. Try Cogsy free for 14 days. This audio is from Cogsy's podcast, entitled, "The Checkout", a weekly audio experience covering DTC best practices, emerging retail trends, and first-hand insights from e-commerce experts. Find links to the resources discussed at sellersmile.com/035 or sellersmile.com/cogsy. Enjoy my conversation with Adii Pienar of Cogsy! :) 

In this episode of The Money Podcast we talk to Adii Pienaar, a trail blazer and massively successful tech entrepreneur about his biggest successes and failures with money. Adii – co-founder of WooThemes/WooCommerce and author of 'Life Profitability'- discloses his biggest regrets, the lessons he learned as a tech entrepreneur and how he built and sold two globally successful businesses from South Africa. He shares his wisdom and experience with money, and these lessons are both timeless and highly relevant. If you aspire to be an entrepreneur or just being better at money, the lessons shared by Adii are worth the listen and sure to leave you inspired. YouTube Channel · Website · YouTube Channel

On this episode of DTC Pod, Adii joins Blaine & Ramon to chat about getting your inventory and operations right from the get go, brands going multi-channel, optimizing across all your sales channels, the importance of data, how to match inventory to demand, automating manual processes away from spreadsheets, building the modern day ERP with ops in mind, major brands winning on Cogsy, the evolution of e-commerce tech, how WooCommerce took off during the WordPress era, founder experience from building several successful companies, thoughts about life, fatherhood, and fulfillment as an entrepreneur. This episode is brought to you by:OpenStore- Visit https://open.store to get a free, no-obligation offer for your e-commerce business from OpenStore in 24 hours.Recharge- Visit https://rechargepayments.com/dtcpod to see how over 15,000 commerce brands power their subscriptionsPeel Insights- Visit https://peelinsights.com/dtcpod to uncover actionable data insights to drive your brand's growth Have any questions about the show or topics you'd like us to explore further?Shoot us a DM; we'd love to hear from you. Want the weekly TL;DR of tips delivered to your mailbox?Check out our newsletter hereFollow us for content, clips, giveaways, & updates!DTCPod InstagramDTCPod TwitterDTCPod TikTokAdii Pienaar - Founder & CEO of CogsyRamon Berrios - CEO of Trend.ioBlaine Bolus - Co-Founder of Seated

Adii is Founder of COGSY - https://cogsy.com As an original Co-Founder of WooCommerce, Adii knows eCommerce from the inside out Adii recognised the challenges that eCommerce retailers have with inventory and demand planning and he built COGSY to address these challenges COGSY is a SaaS platform for eCommerce demand planning Stockouts cost retailers ~$1T every year - Cogsy, helps retailers prevent stock-outs, generate 40% more revenue, and save 20+ hours a week managing inventory. COGSY has out of the box integrations with Shopify and Amazon with more coming soon! In this episode, Jason and Adii discuss how eCommerce retailers can best handle their inventory management challenges at scale

Adii Pienaar is a third time founder with Cogsy his successful operations software business, and Jason invited him onto the show to talk both about his shifts in mindset through years of building companies as well as the nitty-gritty of supply chain and inventory wisdom he uses to ensure his clients make the most of their working capital whether they are placing their first PO or restocking after years of being in business. In this episode of Ecommerce Building Blocks, Jason and Adii talk about what Adii has learned through founding multiple successful companies - why empowering employees and crafting a value-based culture is truly what makes life worth living and work worth doing. Adii also shares the greatest lesson of his career so far, and it is not a hack, but rather a mindset aimed at challenging his earlier conceptions of growth and thirst for expertise. This leads him directly to the Cogsy founding story, and how a dynamic, responsive service is able to upend the static grip that spreadsheets have on operations and inventory management. With the contextualized data that Cogsy provides, DTC businesses are able to make more accurate predictions about what their inventory needs and lead times will be, and will also be able to craft messaging to their customers that contributes to higher conversion rates and more brand loyalty. Finally, listen to the end for Adii's rules for any brand placing their first PO. ➡️ Building Blocks website: https://www.bbclass.co/

Spreadsheets! Changing founder behavior is at the heart of Adii Pienaar's mission to improve business models across the globe. Find out how Cogsy is taking on Excel. Business marketing has gone through 3 phases. First, building the infrastructure and platforms to trade online, then focusing attention on email marketing, connecting to audiences, now it's all about back office features - making sure operations are fully optimized. Joe and Adii discuss the difficulties fast scaling brands face when it comes to creating consistent cash flow, how Cogsy is helping eCommerce founders save money and time with smart automation and purchase order flow and why a spreadsheet on steroids is still a spreadsheet. As a Co-Founder of Woo Commerce, Adii has decades of experience. He's obsessed with reimaging tools, like spreadsheets, and pushing scaling startups towards success. Follow Adii: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adiipienaar (linkedin.com/in/adiipienaar) Twitter: https://twitter.com/adii (twitter.com/adii) Check out the Just Raised newsletter: https://bit.ly/3Ghj2tY Stay up-to-date on all things Just Raised: https://workweek.com/brand/just-raised/ or follow Joe Sweeny on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JoeySweeny (https://twitter.com/JoeySweeny)

Learn about living an enriched life and building a successful business with Adii Pienaar’s life profitability perspective in this LMScast hosted by Chris Badgett from LifterLMS. Adii is the founder of WooThemes and author of the book Life Profitability: The New Measure of Entrepreneurial Success, and he now works on a startup called Cogsy. Adii attributes a large part of his entrepreneurial nature to his ambition, drive, and love of a challenge, along with a thirst for learning. Many failures in business happen when we get stuck in cliches around what an entrepreneur does or should be. We end up … Living an Enriched life and Building a Successful Business with Adii Pienaar’s Life Profitability Perspective Read More » The post Living an Enriched life and Building a Successful Business with Adii Pienaar’s Life Profitability Perspective appeared first on LMScast - LifterLMS Podcast.

What is the secret recipe to living a profitable life? A life that is about more than just the amount of money you make. In this episode, entrepreneur and author of the new book Life Profitability, Adii Pienaar, shares with you why you need to create what he calls a life portfolio. Adii's personal journey enabled him to discover a rich, fulfilling life that coincides with a sustainable strategy for success in all areas of life. In this special reboot episode, you'll discover ways to create a profitable life, what a life portfolio is and why you need one, and powerful ways to understand your impact int he world. LinksLife Profitability bookAdii's websiteThe Values Factor bookEpisode SponsorsA big thanks to our sponsors who make this podcast possible.Join the fastest growing venture capital investment community and invest in IntellAct at http://www.ourcrowd.com/mymoney .I want you to start living a happier life today. As a listener, you'll get 10% off your first month by visiting our sponsor at http://www.betterhelp.com/mymoney. Start investing with as little as $1 and get a free slice of stock up to $50 when you join Public.com today.Visit http://www.public.com/MMPOD to download the app and sign up using code MMPOD.FOLLOW & SHARELeave us a 5-star review. Head to this link and let us know why you love the show. Reviews help us continue to grow and bring on more amazing guests. Thank you in advance! http://bit.ly/millennial-money.Love this episode? Share it with a few friends so they can learn these valuable money concepts as well.Be sure to FOLLOW and SUBSCRIBE to never miss an episode!Sign up for my weekly Let's Talk Money email newsletter https://bit.ly/letstalkmoneyemailShannah Shares: Community Q&AHave a Shannah Shares question, submit it here https://www.mmoneypodcast.com Follow Me Here for More Money TipsShannah on Twitter https://twitter.com/shannahgame Shannah on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/shannahgame/See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Before building tools for ecommerce brands, Adii Peenar helped co-found the now popular WooCommerce platform for Wordpress. Since his WooCommmerce days, he's built, launched and successfully sold a Shopify app called Conversio; authored a book called Life Profitability; and now, has created a new product he refers to as "your extra head of operations."  Cogsy turns data into accurate forecasts for businesses so they can make better decisions about inventory and free up extra capital. It actually does more though, giving customers accurate re-stock dates right on product pages when out of inventory. Cogsy couldn't have come at a better time as the holidays approach amidst a looming inventory crisis.  In this episode we discuss: Adii Pienaar's fascinating career that started with co-founding WooCommerce. His approach to entrepreneurship and philosophy on what it means to lead a profitable life.  How Cogsy is solving inventory management issues for ecommerce brands.  Who is an ideal customer for Cogsy? When Cogsy works perfectly for a brand, what does it do?  How Cogsy can enable brands to achieve operational excellence.  Guest Bio:  Adii Pienaar is the founder of Conversio. Prior to Conversio, Adii was co-founder of WooThemes/WooCommerce, where he explored what it meant to be an entrepreneur while learning about building software for ecommerce stores. He is the author of Life Profitability, and recently founded Cogsy, an inventory tracking management tool for ecommerce stores. 

Today's guest, Adii Pienaar, is not a fan of labels, but he's a true life-first entrepreneur and avid writer. He also co-founded WooThemes in 2007, founded Conversio in 2014. His latest book, Life Profitability: The New Measure of Entrepreneurial Success distills a new perspective for becoming self-aware, recognising your values, and understanding your impact. I found it really impactful, so I couldn't wait to bring Adii on to the show.Listen to this conversation as we take a step back and review how to live an enriched life AND run a successful business. We discuss the power of language, journaling, what ‘harmony' means to Adii – and cultivating ‘breadcrumbs' of writing. Talking Points Being a seeker The pros and cons of ambition Why we shouldn't strive for ‘work-life balance Measuring qualitative goals How to maintain and sustain your life profitability How journaling has helped Adii Breaking old patterns Quote"Seek the newer versions of your truths."Helpful Links ‘Life Profitability' by Adii Pienaar  ‘Motion' by Adii Pienaar  The Toxicity of Relentless Ambition ‘When Breath Becomes Air' by Paul Kalanithi Episode 226: How to Build a Company of One with Paul Jarvis ‘Siddhartha' by Hermann Hesse ‘The Values Factor' by Dr. John DeMartini 13 Questions with Dr John Demartini Adii.me Want to discover some of the books mentioned on the podcast? Check out Scribd, my reading app of choice.If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a rating and/or review wherever you listened to the episode. Also don't forget to check out all of our podcast sponsors found on our podcast sponsors page.If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a rating and/or review wherever you listened to the episode. And if you want to have easy access to the archives of the show and ensure you don't miss the new episodes to come then subscribe to the podcast in the app you're using – or you can do so on a variety of podcast platforms by clicking here.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's guest, Adii Pienaar, is not a fan of labels, but he's a true life-first entrepreneur and avid writer. He also co-founded WooThemes in 2007, founded Conversio in 2014. His latest book, Life Profitability: The New Measure of Entrepreneurial Success distills a new perspective for becoming self-aware, recognising your values, and understanding your impact. I found it really impactful, so I couldn't wait to bring Adii on to the show. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. BetterHelp offers you access to your own licensed professional therapist – all from the comfort of wherever you are. You can arrange weekly video chats or phone calls, text with your carefully curated counsellor, and do so at an affordable price. And anything you share is confidential. I've been using BetterHelp for a while and I am highly impressed. It's been a huge help for me and I know it can be the same for you. Start living a happier life today with BetterHelp. As a listener, you'll get 10% off your first month by visiting betterhelp.com/timecrafting. Give BetterHelp a try today. This episode is sponsored by Sit Down, Startup, a new weekly podcast from Zendesk. Getting your business off the ground is hard. Find out why customer experience is at the heart of success. The startup's team chats with Zendesk leaders, founders, and CEOs in a coffee-shop style conversation about starting up when the world is upside down. Catch weekly fresh new episodes on Apple, Google, and Spotify. Head over to Sit Down, Startup here. Listen to this conversation as we take a step back and review how to live an enriched life AND run a successful business. We discuss the power of language, journaling, what ‘harmony' means to Adii – and cultivating ‘breadcrumbs' of writing.  Talking Points Being a seeker (01:28) The pros and cons of ambition (05:26) Why we shouldn't strive for ‘work-life balance' (08:35) Measuring qualitative goals (12:17) How to maintain and sustain your life profitability (16:50) How journaling has helped Adii (28:46) Breaking old patterns (33:38) Quote "Seek the newer versions of your truths." Helpful Links ‘Life Profitability' by Adii Pienaar  ‘Motion' by Adii Pienaar  The Toxicity of Relentless Ambition ‘When Breath Becomes Air' by Paul Kalanithi Episode 226: How to Build a Company of One with Paul Jarvis ‘Siddhartha' by Hermann Hesse ‘The Values Factor' by Dr. John DeMartini 13 Questions with Dr John Demartini Adii.me Want to discover some of the books mentioned on the podcast? Check out Scribd, my reading app of choice. If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a rating and/or review wherever you listened to the episode. And if you want to have easy access to the archives of the show and ensure you don't miss the new episodes to come then subscribe to the podcast in the app you're using – or you can do so on a variety of podcast platforms by clicking here.

Marie's Bio, thanks to the Life Profitability Podcast Marie Prokopets has had a “wild ride” of a career. She is the co-founder of tech start-up FYI, recent recipient of Product Hunt's Golden Kitty Maker of the Year award, former Diageo Director of Tequila, comedy screenplay writer, and avid meditator, crystal collector, and sage burner. In this episode Adii and Marie discuss making career changes, keeping a student mindset, taking risks, and the habits and attitudes necessary for success. —— Links Reddit SaaS: https://www.reddit.com/r/saas My Twitter: https://twitter.com/chddaniel My product: https://www.simple.ink/notion-website-builder

On this episode I chat with Adii about the companies he has founded, his Latest Book Life Profitability, and his latest business venture.   Adi shares the following with us: I'm not a great fan of labels. For as long as I can remember there has been three labels which I have strived to achieve and make my own: family man / dad, entrepreneur and writer. Looking back at my journey, I can find evidence where I accelerated my pursuit of these things, even when it wasn't the most prevalent path. Hindsight is an exact science, right? I have also valued learning and regard myself is a seeker. Today that mostly manifests itself in the way that I try craft my life and business with my highest value in mind: my family. Doing so has been a journey of self-discovery, making mistakes and re-connecting with the artist in me. Less science, more art. Writing I'm an impulsive writer and I always write for myself first: writing has been one of my best, therapeutic tools over the years. When I share my writing, it's because I am seeking connection and I hope that someone learns or realizes something that could contribute to their own journey. I also write as a way to leave a legacy and breadcrumbs for those that want to learn more about me. In the past, I have published two books: Rockstar Business and Brandiing (free download from the archives). In future, I'd love to be a "traditionally published" author too. It just feels like I have a couple of books in me.

What can we learn about starting new SaaS products from a multi-exit founder? Are there generalized lessons that apply for almost every product? Our guest today is Adii Pinaar, the founder of Cogsy and author of Life Profitability. You’ll learn what lessons Adii accumulated from his prior companies, how to evaluate advice before applying it, how to hire in the early stages, and more.Podcast feed: subscribe to https://feeds.simplecast.com/4MvgQ73R in your favorite podcast app, and follow us on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Podcasts.Show NotesWooCommerce — Adii’s prior company acquired by AutomatticConversio (now CM Commerce) — another one of Adii’s products, acquired by Campaign MonitorLife Profitability — Adii’s recent bookCogsy — Adii’s new product, an ecommerce inventory purchasing toolEpisode 157: Serving Your Customer’s Customers with Adii PienaarCarrots, Sticks & Measuring Success with Adii PienaarSKUs — stock keeping units, part of product catalog, used for inventory trackingMetered billing — pricing based on usage levelExpansion revenue — additional revenue generated by existing customersBehind the Scenes: How We Bought userlist.com & Rebranded as UserlistRosie Manning — brand and product designerUserlist — Jane’s SaaS productEpisode 172: Naming Your Product with Brad FlowersWho Not How — book Adii credits with transformative thinking, “Who do I need to accomplish X?” as opposed to “How do I accomplish X?”TinySeed — SaaS accelerator for bootstrappersAdii’s websiteFollow Adii on TwitterToday’s SponsorThis episode is brought to you by Hotjar. This tool lets you see how people truly experience your site or product and gives your users a voice. Let real users show and tell you which changes your team should make to improve user experience. Eliminate the guesswork: use Hotjar to understand how users experience your site. Try Hotjar Business free for 3 months at hotjar.com/uibreakfast.Interested in sponsoring an episode?  Learn more here.Leave a ReviewReviews are hugely important because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes. Here’s how.

Is your life profitable? Not just in money, but in everything else: family, friends, hobbies — the things that really matter and bring you the most happiness. That’s what Adii Pienaar is focused on. A published author and 3x company founder of Cogsy, Conversio, and WooCommerce, Adii has learned what it truly means to have a meaningful, fulfilling life as an entrepreneur, and he’s here to share just a few things he’s discovered along the way. Support the show (http://buildingabusinessthatlasts.com)

I was recently contacted by the author, Adii Pienaar, wanting to share his new book all about 'life profitability'. As someone who prioritises building a business that supports the lifestyle you want, this concept of 'life profitability' really got my attention! Adii mentioned that he'd been in contact with one of my online business heroes, Paul Jarvis. You might remember that I interviewed Paul on the podcast all about his book 'Company of One' and building a business that doesn't prioritise growth. This was all the convincing I needed so I decided to get Adii on the podcast to chat about his ideas! Adii is a family man, entrepreneur, writer, runner and wine-drinker from Cape Town, South Africa. He was the co-founder of WooCommerce which he sold to Automattic in 2013. He then co-founded the conversion rate optimisation agency, Conversio, which he later sold to Campaign Monitor in 2019. And now he's working on an email marketing platform, CM Commerce. Show notes (please leave me a comment with your questions and feedback) » https://paulminors.com/208 If you enjoyed this episode, I'd love it if you could leave me a review. Intro/Outro Music: "Synthia" by Scott & Brendo --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/paulminors/message

We Discuss Adii Pienaar New Book "Life Profitability: The New Measure of Entrepreneurial Success." We with discuss Adii the foundations of Woocommerce and why he sold his share of the company. What has he learned connected to starting and selling two tech companies? We also discuss his latest book "Life Profitability: The New Measure of Entrepreneurial Success." and what are the main things that Adii would like the reader to get from reading the book.

Episode 125 of the Business Bookshelf - Adii Pienaar - Author of “Life Profitability: The New Measure of Entrepreneurial Success" Today our guest is Adii Pienaar. Adii is an entrepreneur and founder of two global multimillion-dollar companies and prides himself on the commercial and life profitability of his businesses. Adii's personal journey enabled him to discover a rich, fulfilling life that coincides with a sustainable strategy for success in the workplace. His concept of life profitability is now gaining momentum in the business world. Adii is the author of “Life Profitability: The New Measure of Entrepreneurial Success”. The book will provide you with a new perspective for becoming self-aware, recognizing your values, and understanding your impact. An enriched life and a successful business are not mutually exclusive. In fact, the book will provide you with the first steps in building a business that is more sustainable, with increased options for you, your employees, and your community. Learn how to give yourself some space, measure meaningful output, and live with intention so that you can maximize profit that truly counts. The book can be purchased here. The website for his book can be found here. The host of the podcast is Lance Peppler. Email him at lance@ideastorm.co.za or visit www.ideastorm.co.za. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/businessbookshelf/support

What is the secret recipe to living a profitable life? A life that is about more than just the amount of money you make. In this episode, entrepreneur and author of the new book Life Profitability, Adii Pienaar, shares with you why you need to create what he calls a life portfolio.Meet AdiiAn entrepreneur and founder of two global multimillion-dollar companies, Adii Pienaar prides himself on the commercial and life profitability of his businesses. Adii’s personal journey enabled him to discover a rich, fulfilling life that coincides with a sustainable strategy for success in the workplace. His concept of life profitability is now gaining momentum in the business world. A native of South Africa, Adii lives in the Winelands of Cape Town with his wife, Jeanne, and their two children.What You'll LearnWays to create a profitable lifeWhat is a life portfolio and why do you need oneAdii's amazing story of entrepreneurship and burnoutWhat goes into your life portfolioHow to understand your impact in the worldLessons for any entrepreneurLinksLife Profitability bookAdii's websiteThe Values Factor bookEpisode SponsorsGet a new money mindset in just 10 minutes a day with the Money Mindset Journal. Shop now at http://www.helloitsme.world and use code MONEYMINDSET for 10% off your order.The average person saves $720 per year with Truebill. Take control of your finances and start saving at Truebill.com/MM.Literati Kids is a subscription book club for kids ages 0 - 12 that sends 5 beautiful children’s books to your door each hand-picked by experts. Go to http://www.literati.com/mymoney for TWENTY-FIVE PERCENT OFF your FIRST TWO ORDERS.SUBSCRIBE & SHAREWant to be the first to know when new episodes are released? Click here to follow in iTunes! IT’S FREE!

How we measure our success has a huge influence on our well being and happiness. Adii Pienaar is an author and entrepreneur who had to rethink how he defined his own entrepreneurial success before things fell apart. Take a listen to his story and find out how you can do the same and maximize your life profitability.Adii's book, Life Profitability: The New Measure of Entrepreneurial Success, is available right now on Amazon | https://geni.us/LifeProfitabilityVisit Adii Pienaar's website to find out more about his work | https://Adii.meListener TribeWe have our own private social network for listeners of the Unmistakable Creative podcast. You can meet other listeners, discuss episodes, and engage with the creative community! Just visit https://the-unmistakable-creative-podcast.mn.co/ to sign up. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode, Adii talks about his journey from WooCommerce to Cogsy and his process for writing a book along with running a startup.

On today’s episode we chat with Adii Pienaar who recently published a book titled Life Profitability: The New Measure of Entrepreneurial Success. As someone who’s very motivated by the lifestyle that freelancing and entrepreneurship can offer, I was intrigued when I first learned about Adii’s book. So today, Clay and I have a heart to heart chat with Adii all about the lies about "work/life balance" and how to build a business that doesn’t ultimately consume you. If you’ve ever felt burned out with the business you started in order to find more freedom in the first place or you've thought to yourself “this isn’t what I signed up for”, Adii’s advice will be the best thing you hear this week. Get your own on-air coaching call We'd love to feature your business and offer some free on-air advice for growing your business. To see if you're a good fit, click here. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts: If you enjoy the show, can you do us a favor and leave us an honest rating and review on Apple Podcasts? We'll love you forever. Click here to leave a review. Support our sponsors so we can keep airing new episodes: The Information — a premium tech and global business news publication for founders and business leaders in any stage of growing their business. LinkedIn Jobs — Find the right person with LinkedIn Jobs. Gusto - The all-in-one people platform for payroll, benefits, HR. Business Wars — The real story of what drives big companies to new heights — or to ruin. Dripify — Premium learning platform for entrepreneurs. SolidGigs — Get more freelance jobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

About Adii An entrepreneur and founder of two global multimillion-dollar companies, Adii Pienaar prides himself on the commercial and life profitability of his businesses. Adii's personal journey enabled him to discover a rich, fulfilling life that coincides with a sustainable strategy for success in the workplace. His concept of life profitability is now gaining momentum in the business world. A native of South Africa, Adii lives in the winelands of Cape Town with his wife, Jeanne, and their two children. About Adii's New Book What does “success” mean to you? If you're an entrepreneur, this probably feels like a straightforward question with a simple answer: you want your business to thrive. You want to make a profit, stand out, be noticed. But then what? Are you done? Are you fulfilled? Are you happy? For Adii Pienaar, selling two multimillion-dollar businesses wasn't enough. He was an entrepreneur because he wanted freedom; instead, he was stuck in a destructive cycle, almost losing everything in his constant search for more. That's when he changed his mindset, his expectations, and his life. In Life Profitability, Adii provides you with a new perspective for becoming self-aware, recognizing your values, and understanding your impact. An enriched life and a successful business are not mutually exclusive. In fact, this book will provide you with the first steps in building a business that is more sustainable, with increased options for you, your employees, and your community. Learn how to give yourself some space, measure meaningful output, and live with intention so that you can maximize profit that truly counts. Connect With Adii https://adii.me/ Grab A Copy Of Adii's New Book> https://adii.me/book/ Today's episode is brought to you by LinkedIn Talent Solutions. Find a qualified candidate and post your next job FREE when you visit> LinkedIn.com/dailygrind

In this episode of the Idea to Value podcast, we speak with South African serial entrepreneur Adii Pienaar about Life Profitability. See the full episode at https://wp.me/p6pllj-1y4  After starting and selling several successful businesses, including the company which went on to become WooCommerce, Adii asked himself why he wasn't feeling fulfilled. In his new book, he talks about his own experiences defining and finding Life Profitability. Topics covered in this episode: 00:01:30 - Adii's journey and realising his entrepreneurial spirit 00:03:30 - Why selling his businesses didn't fill him with a sense of fulfillment and finding his definition of success 00:06:30 - His breakdown which resulted in changing his mindset 00:10:30 - What is Life Profitability? 00:14:30 - People trade certain freedoms for other restrictions 00:16:30 - Setting expectations about when is enough, comparing yourselves to others and underestimating how much time you have left Links mentioned in this episode: Adii's website: https://adii.me/ Adii's Twitter: https://twitter.com/adii Life Profitability book: https://amzn.to/3kndSmC Bonus: This episode was made possible by our premium innovation and creativity training. Take your innovation and creativity capabilities to the next level by investing in yourself now, at https://www.ideatovalue.com/all-access-pass-insider-secrets/ * Subscribe on iTunes to the Idea to Value Podcast: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/idea-to-value-creativity-innovation/id1199964981?mt=2 * Subscribe on Spotify to the Idea to Value Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/4x1kANUSv7UJoCJ8GavUrN  * Subscribe on Stitcher to the Idea to Value Podcast: http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=129437&refid=stpr * Subscribe on Google Podcasts to the Idea to Value Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9pZGVhdG92YWx1ZS5saWJzeW4uY29tL3Jzcw  Want to rapidly validate new ideas and innovative products and GROW your online business? These are the tools I actually use to run my online businesses (and you can too): * The best email management and campaigns system: ActiveCampaign (Free Trial) http://www.activecampaign.com/?_r=M17NLG2X  * Best value web hosting: BlueHost WordPress http://www.activecampaign.com/?_r=M17NLG2X  * Landing pages, Sales Pages and Lead collection: LeadPages (Free Trial) http://leadpages.pxf.io/c/1385771/390538/5673  * Sharing & List building: Sumo (Free) https://sumo.com/?src=partner_ideatovalue  * Payments, Shopping Cart, affiliate management and Upsell generator: ThriveCart https://improvides--checkout.thrivecart.com/thrivecart-standard-account/  * Video Webinars for sales: WebinarJam and Everwebinar ($1 Trial) https://nickskillicorn.krtra.com/t/lwIBaKzMP1oQ  * Membership for protecting content: Membermouse (Free Trial) http://affiliates.membermouse.com/idevaffiliate.php?id=735  * eLearning System for students: WP Courseware https://flyplugins.com/?fly=293  * Video Editing: Techsmith Camtasia http://techsmith.z6rjha.net/vvGPv  I have used all of the above products myself to build IdeatoValue and Improvides, which is why I can confidently recommend them. I may also receive affiliate payments for any business I bring to them using the links above. Copyright https://www.ideatovalue.com

Adii Pienaar believes there's a new measure of entrepreneurial success. After more than 12 years of chasing success, Adii is reflecting on his journey as a 3x founder and CEO, and introduces his new perspective of "success" as a startup founder.Adii's entrepreneurial journey started with building custom Wordpress themes, eventually leading to founding WooThemes in 2008. After WooThemes was acquired by Woocommerce in 2015, Adii has parlayed his wins into multiple e-commerce technology ventures- mostly recently as the founder of Cogsy.In this episode, Bart and Adii host a conversation about the importance of founders separating themselves from the successes & failures of business. Adii dives deep into reflection on his experience launching products, growing teams and funding ventures- sharing what he would do differently as a first-time founder.Adii recently launched his book, Life Profitability: The New Measure of Entrepreneurial Success. In Life Profitability, Adii provides you with a new perspective for becoming self-aware, recognizing your values, and understanding your impact. An enriched life and a successful business are not mutually exclusive. In fact, this book will provide you with the first steps in building a business that is more sustainable, with increased options for you, your employees, and your community. Learn how to give yourself some space, measure meaningful output, and live with intention so that you can maximize profit that truly counts.Adii Pienaar, Founder of Cogsy :: Twitter + LinkedInBart Macdonald, Managing Partner of Bloom Venture Partners :: Twitter + LinkedIn

3x founder and now author – Adii lays out a new measure of entrepreneurial success. We discuss how to become aware of what your underlying goals and how to incorporate them into your life and career.

How to measure Life Profitability, practicing mindfulness, and how your personal values can connect to your brand's values with Adii Pienaar. ----- Welcome to episode 292 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Adii Pienaar about his new book, “Life Profitability.” Life Profitability  When starting and building your own business, it’s easy to get “tunnel vision” and put all of your time, effort, and thoughts into making it succeed. But will all of that brain-space spent on your business make your life more fulfilling? Adii is here today to talk about why that’s not necessarily the case, and instead, argue for the need of a healthy balance between life, business, and productivity. This interview will have you challenging your definition of success and inspire you to work towards creating a more mindful, value-driven life and brand. In this episode, you’ll learn: How to stay in the moment How Adii practices mindfulness How to have a healthy work/life balance Why it’s okay to have off days Why you should align your personal values with your brand values What Life Profitability is How your values are connected to your time investments Resources: Life Profitability: The New Measure of Entrepreneurial Success WooCommerce Conversio Calm The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life The Values Factor: The Secret to Creating an Inspired and Fulfilling Life The Social Dilemma Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life Check out Adii’s site Cogsy If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com. Learn more about joining the Food Blogger Pro community at foodbloggerpro.com/membership

in 2007 three guys, two from South Africa and one from Norway got together when an idea to start a theme shop called WooThemes. Well, one thing led to another.

Adii Pienaar (https://adii.me/) is the founder of three technology companies, two of which he's exited so far to create first generation wealth for his family. A prolific reader, writer and maker, Adii brings a refreshing perspective to the way he views family, business and wealth. I was fortunate enough to preview his new book which was released last month, titled Life Profitability (https://amzn.to/3rsCr3R). In Life Profitability, Adii provides you with a new perspective for becoming self-aware, recognising your values, and understanding your impact. An enriched life and successful business are not mutually exclusive. In fact, this book will provide you with the first steps in building a business that is more sustainable with increased options for you, your employees, and your family. Life Profitability by Addi Pienaar https://files.fireside.fm/file/fireside-uploads/images/0/07b96f5a-1bdc-4b5f-b51a-e29fa46426fb/HluXOmso.jpg (https://amzn.to/3rsCr3R) Standout Quotes: * "The biggest burden I felt was that transition from wealth generation to wealth maintenance" - [Adii] * "I think in any kind of business partner relationships, as long as everyone is aligned towards the same goal, then everything is hunky-dory, and as soon as someone is not aligned with your process then everything is not hunky-dory" - [Adii] * "Whatever I do, it should be that truest expression of self" - [Adii] * "There are multiple things that pull us into different directions on a daily basis but having an awareness of when that happens... that's Mindfulness" - [Adii] * "I truly believe in transparency for the kids" - [Adii] * "The family office should serve as a leg up for the trustees and that's the kids, right? it's not a handout" - [Adii] * "Neither the family office or any of our individual lives should be so rigid like we're constantly trying to fit into a single recipe" - [Adii] * "The cost of anything we do in life is just Life" - [Adii] * "I don't care if they miss 99% of it, even if they become 1% of the context of this conversation" - [Adii] * "The way I think about legacy is, if I were to die tomorrow, the goal would be to have left my kids or anyone who cares enough breadcrumbs about who I really was" - [Adii] Key Takeaways: * A major transition point for Adii was moving from wealth generation to wealth maintenance. * With little information on how to run a family office, he was able to get started by asking questions and got propelled into motion when the law firm got the right people around him to explain the process. * Adii describes his value system: How can I wake up every single morning and spend my time manifesting the truest expression and version of myself in anything that I do? * An ideal day for Adii is "being present". * Adii explains that the main reason he went back into entrepreneurship was he wanted to create again, he was enthusiastic about building a team, and those are his higher values for now. * While admitting that his kids have a great life especially from the financial perspective, he is concerned not to bring up spoilt kids who can't be individuals with their purpose. * Adii describes the strategies he uses to help build his kids to become individuals with a backbone: Transparency, which involves letting the kids be fully aware and involved with the ongoings in the family office, as well as the concept of Gratitude. * The family office should always prioritize business ideas from the trustees. * Expounding on the concept of 'Paying a Life Dividend': A business that's not just financially profitable but profits your whole life. Adi discusses the relevance of having assets that mean more than their financial value to the family, which is selected by stress testing, effective communication, and evolution. * It is important to sequence things, rather than doing two things at once and have none getting your full attention. * Every single minute of our day, we only have finite attention, time, and energy to do anything, so the decision to anything is costing us life. * Unfortunately, mainstream media has created a narrow definition of success that serves barely 0.1% of the world, but there is a much wider and diverse definition of success for the rest of us, and it is our responsibility to define it. * To Adii's Children: Do the work, continue learning towards discovering who you are, and figure out how to manifest that in most of the things you do in life. Episode Timeline: * [00:49] About today's guest, Adii Pienaar, describing his origin story and path to First-generation wealth. * [08:26] What does a family office mean to you, and how did you know what to do when you set out to do this for the first time? * [11:19] How have you and your understanding of value systems evolved? * [13:59] Adii describes his picture of an ideal day. * [16:13] His motivation for diving into entrepreneurship for the 3rd time. * [19:20] How have you explored this concept of multi-generational wealth or the family office? * [29:50] 'Paying a Life Dividend' * [37:34] Adii recounts a significant failure with the lessons learned. * [40:15] About Adii's book: "Life Profitability" * [49:12] What was the motivation for writing and publishing a book? * [53:00] How else do you document your history within your family for the next generation to discover? * [54:40] Adii's letter to his children. For more episodes go to BusinessOfFamily.net (https://www.businessoffamily.net/) Sign up for The Business of Family Newsletter (https://www.businessoffamily.net/newsletter) Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeBoyd (https://twitter.com/MikeBoyd) If you feel it's appropriate, I'd so appreciate you taking 30 seconds to Leave a Review on iTunes (http://getpodcast.reviews/id/1525326745), I receive a notification of each review. Thank you! Special Guest: Adii Pienaar.

What's the cost of making money? It's easy for entrepreneurs to be over-focused on their business. Take today's special guest teacher, for example. Adii Pienaar founded multiple, massively successful startups with huge payouts in the end. But along the way, he realized he was losing something: life, bit by bit. Today, Adii explains how to […] The post MBA1713 Guest Teacher – Adii Pienaar – How to Build a Business That Profits Your Life appeared first on The $100 MBA.

What’s the cost of making money? It’s easy for entrepreneurs to be over-focused on their business. Take today’s special guest teacher, for example. Adii Pienaar founded multiple, massively successful startups with huge payouts in the end. But along the way, he realized he was losing something: life, bit by bit. Today, Adii explains how to […] The post MBA1713 Guest Teacher – Adii Pienaar – How to Build a Business That Profits Your Life appeared first on The $100 MBA.

Today, Craig is talking with his coach Adii Pienaar about life profitability. Adii is a successful SaaS entrepreneur with three SaaS companies and two successful exits under his belt.  In this episode, Craig and Adii talk about what it’s like being and having a coach. What are the benefits of having a coach? What should […]

In this episode, Rob speaks with Adii Pienaar, a multi-time founder with multiple exits under his belt. They discuss life probability and the importance of measuring your entrepreneurial success by the things that matter the most to you and your life. The topics we cover [4:36] What motivated Adii to write the book [10:17] Life […]        

Silvia Mella is the founder of Los Angeles based tea company Sorate. In this episode, Adii and Silvia talk about designing personal alignments in life, finding true calm, and the trip to Japan that would set Silvia off on a quest to found her own green tea brand.

Leo Widrich is a CEO, leadership coach, and cofounder of Buffer. In this episode, Leo shares vulnerable stories as he and Adii discuss making human connections, Leo’s time living at a Buddhist monastery, and an anecdote about Burning Man.

Bunny Young is a former stunt woman and therapist, an entrepreneur, and army wife and mother. In this episode Adii and Bunny discuss becoming an entrepreneur against all odds, how being diagnosed with a heart condition and losing a dear friend transformed her journey, and ultimately her goal of making the world a better place.

Saray Khumalo is the first Black African woman to summit Everest. She is a motivational speaker, transformational coach, and successful corporate executive. In this episode, Adii and Saray discuss mountaineering, failing up, finding a unique purpose in life, imposter syndrome, and why the sky is not the limit.

Amira Alvarez is a mentor and teacher, and founder and CEO of The Unstoppable Woman, a global entrepreneurial coaching company. In this episode, Adii and Amira discuss reprogramming self perceptions, the power of getting dressed, mapping out your own path, getting off the “hamster wheel,” and building a unique, personal legacy.

For the past four years industrial designer Andrej Dukic has been working on a functional and sustainably-priced 3D printed prosthetic hand for amputees. It’s called Maker Hand. In this episode, Adii and Andrej talk about the need to find a meaning in life, even when you’re comfortable; the injury that inspired his project; the importance and dangers of competition; and a desire to create a meaningful impact.

Some entrepreneurs break into SaaS fairly early in life and make a real impact in the community. One of such inspiring founders is today's guest, Adii Pienaar, the founder of WooCommerce and CM Commerce (previously Conversio). In this episode, you'll hear about Adii's successes  and failures in user onboarding, as well as his views on email marketing, task simplification, concierge onboarding, success metrics, segmentation, and much more.Visit our website for the detailed episode recap with key learnings.Show notesCM Commerce, WooCommerce — Adii's previous productsDan Martell's SaaS AcademyLife Profitability — Adii's podcast & an upcoming bookFacebook's Aha Moment Is Simpler Than You Think — an article by Benn Stancil that analyzes the ‘7 friends in 10 days' methodUser Onboarding: The UX Behind Our Magically Extending Free Trial — an article by Janna Bastow on gamified trialsAmplitude, Kissmetrics, Mixpanel — tools for product analyticsadii.me — Adii's websiteFollow Adii on TwitterThanks for listening! If you found the episode useful, please spread the word on Twitter mentioning @userlist, or leave us a review on iTunes.SponsorThis show is brought to you by Userlist — the best tool for sending onboarding emails and segmenting your SaaS users. To follow the best practices, download our free printable email planning worksheets at userlist.com/worksheets.

Lora DiCarlo is the Founder and CEO of sex-tech start-up, Lora DiCarlo. Through tech, she has revolutionized the sex tool industry. In this episode, Adii and Lora talk about personal values that served as a foundation for her business and building the best team to create a sexually equitable world.

Paddy Donnelly is an Irish illustrator and author. Over his career he has made the transition from web and app designer to children’s book author and illustrator. In this episode, Adii and Paddy discuss the pursuit of diversity, openness to new opportunities, growing and making changes in work to avoid monotony, and creating a legacy through illustration.

Nora Wendel is a teacher, coach, and soon-to-be-published author. She teaches Feminine Magnetism, the art of being a confident, sexy woman. In this episode, Adii and Nora discuss seeking effortless pleasure in work and life, why self expression is so important, the difference between feminine and masculine energies, and the need for feminine energy in capitalism.

Andrew Wilkinson is the founder of MetaLab Design and a cofounder of Tiny Capital, a company that starts, buys, and invests in internet businesses. In this episode, Adii and Andrew discuss Andrew’s evolution from designer to investor, how design fits into the work he does now, starting MetaLab out of necessity, and optimizing his life and career to be able to say “no.”

Catharine Dockery is the founder of Vice Ventures, a venture capital fund that specializes in harm reduction in vice products and investing in “good” companies that operate in “bad” industries. In this episode Adii and Catharine discuss harm reduction; the mission, vision, and values of Vice Ventures; standing up for your beliefs; overcoming stigma through conversation; and where passion fits into creating something meaningful.

Megan Davies is a singer, songwriter, artist, and YouTuber known for videos of mashups, covers, collaborations with other artists, and her own original music. In this episode, Adii and Megan discuss turning music into a viable career, the importance of curiosity in refining a craft, artistic individuality, and being true to your own vision and holding yourself to a standard of growth and improvement in whatever you do.

Sidra Qasim and Waqas Ali are a wife and husband co-founding team behind two shoe companies, Markhor and Atoms. Together they have combined their Pakistani heritage and interest in social media and technology to create shoes that are both comfortable to wear and that stand the test of time. In this episode Adii, Sidra, and Waqas discuss their journey from rural Pakistan to the USA, combining craftsmanship and heritage, building a second company, how they define and are defined by labels, and what has ultimately kept them going through their business journey.

Tony Weaver, Jr. is the CEO of Weird Enough Productions, recent Forbes 30 under 30 nominee, and TEDx speaker. Weird Enough Productions combats misrepresentation of minority groups by creating unique and diverse heroes to help people of all backgrounds and circumstances recognize their own power. Adii and Tony discuss social entrepreneurship, interplay between business and art, the importance of honest conversations with oneself, the “why” of business, and the impact of influencers and idolizing the wrong people.

Brian Gardner is a minimalist designer and internet marketer, the founder of StudioPress, and the “OG” of the premium WordPress ecosystem. In this episode Adii and Brian discuss their similar paths in business, living as a minimalist in life and business, side projects, and committing to new journeys.

Tshepo Mohlala is the founder of Metacode, a search tool for coders and engineers, and Aspect, a website building platform. He aspires to create real change in the world—his ultimate goal: solve human aging. In this episode Adii and Tshepo discuss how growing up in South Africa and where you get an education can greatly affect your worldview; expanding Silicon Valley ambitions beyond San Francisco; and the concept of going big and going home.

Sara Mauskopf is CEO and Co-Founder of Winnie, a marketplace for childcare. She worked for Twitter in its startup days, and in several product creative roles for Google, YouTube, and Postmates. In this episode, Adii and Sara talk about raising millions of dollars and transforming the childcare market with Winnie, early ambitions and adjusting to change, and creating a work/family life balance.

Tim Van Damme is a digital designer who has worked with some of the best known tech companies in the business. Sometimes known as “the first ever designer,” Tim is the Principal Product Designer at Abstract and has worked with Instagram, Facebook, Gowalla, and Dropbox. In this episode, Adii and Tim discuss getting started in design, evolving into a team player, unfair moments of opportunity, leaving space for others, and setting an example for children through work/life decisions.

Eliot Peper is the author of nine novels and a practicing independent consultant for several Fortune 100 companies. In his writing, he bends and blends traditional genres to explore the intersection of technology and culture. In this episode, Adii and Eliot discuss the intersection of Eliot’s roles and storytelling, how forgetting can be a superpower, and the importance of labels.

Marie Prokopets has had a “wild ride” of a career. She is the co-founder of tech start-up FYI, recent recipient of Product Hunt’s Golden Kitty Maker of the Year award, former Diageo Director of Tequila, comedy screenplay writer, and avid meditator, crystal collector, and sage burner. In this episode Adii and Marie discuss making career changes, keeping a student mindset, taking risks, and the habits and attitudes necessary for success.

Exclusive Resource: Fundraising Like a Pro – Learn the 3 phases of fundraising and a 7 week process for starting & closing your next round of funding - http://bit.ly/2vxAuvJ -- Bzzzt. Bzzzt. “Hello?” “Hi Dan, I’m calling from Google. We’re interested in potentially buying your company…” Ok, it didn’t go quite like that, but it’s true – my first call with a potential acquirer was with Google. I was super excited! I mean… Google?! They’ve got money to burn, and I was ready to take it! …then I proceeded to make some big mistakes.  On that phone call, I did everything wrong. I gave them SO much information about my business that I sent them away with a step-by-step on how to do it all themselves. I even told them how our code worked! What was I thinking…? I was trying to sell them on my company but ended up with no offer, no callback, and nothing to show for all the answers I gave. I let my excitement get in the way of my strategy. So please don’t make the mistake I did. This week’s video is all about how to conduct your first call with a potential acquirer… without all the mistakes I made: As an investor, I now know a lot more about this than I used to. You’ve got to follow these 5 steps to CRUSH that phone call: 1. Fit, Price, Motivation 2. Get Them Talking 3. Prepare Talk Tracks 4. Role Play 5. Stick To The Time Imagine if that call goes wrong. What does that mean for you? It’s the difference between a multi-million dollar sale… or convincing an acquirer to become your direct competitor and drive you out of the market. All because of the words that came out of your mouth. When the stakes are THAT high, you can’t just wing it. One of my coaching clients, Adii from Conversio, had a call from a potential acquirer recently. I coached Adii on how to use this exact framework to make that call. And it worked. His company was acquired by Campaign Monitor for millions. That’s a massive exit that most SaaS founders could only DREAM of. In the past 12 months I’ve coached 7 of my clients to exit and they used this first conversion process to ensure they didn’t mess it up :). Even if you’re in the early stages of growing your SaaS, plant this seed in your mind now by watching the video here.  You never know when a casual chat with a new contact will turn into the business meeting that defines your future. -- Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome. + Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell + Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell + Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell Exclusive Resource: Fundraising Like a Pro – Learn the 3 phases of fundraising and a 7 week process for starting & closing your next round of funding - http://bit.ly/2vxAuvJ

Sherry sits down with Adii Pienaar, fresh off of his exit from Conversio. They talk about how entrepreneur’s identities often become intertwined with their businesses and the importance of finding something outside of that. For Adii this is a love for poetry. He shares his journey of finding poetry and also shares some of his work. Adii’s book “Motion” Want more content like this? Check out our book.

Today on Rogue Startups, Dave is talking with “one of the ten youngest billionaires in Africa” Adii Pienaar about his entrepreneurial history and Conversio’s acquisition by Campaign Monitor. Adii talks about why he took the exit fro Conversio, the difficulties in e-commerce and e-marketing, the move from customer campaign monitor to the acquisition, the difference […]

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Adii Pienaar is the founder of Conversio and lives in Cape Town, South Africa. Prior to Conversio, Adii was the co-founder of WooThemes / WooCommerce . Today Adii is a family man (which is why Conversio is a life- and family-first company) who enjoys running, reading and wine. In this episode, we talk about the philosophy of leading from first principles. We explore how to act in order to prevent your employees from burning out (more common than you think in highly motivated remote teams) and how a leader can be consistent while still striving to learn and being open (even eager!) to change his or her opinion. And for the people who want to up their hiring game, we discuss the questions and tests that enable Adii to hire for culture and value.

Is it possible to build a successful company while putting your life and family (and that of your employees) first? Adii Pienaar believed so, and that’s what he did with his second business, Conversio. Did it being a fully remote operation play a part? You bet! Welcome to the DistantJob Podcast, a show where we interview the most successful remote leaders, picking their brains on how to build and lead remote teams who win.Adii Pienaar is the founder of  Conversio  and lives in Cape Town, South Africa. Prior to Conversio, Adii was the co-founder of WooThemes /  WooCommerce . Today Adii is a family man (which is why Conversio is a life- and family-first company) who enjoys running, reading and wine.In this episode, we talk about the philosophy of leading from first principles. We explore how to act in order to prevent your employees from burning out (more common than you think in highly motivated remote teams) and how a leader can be consistent while still striving to learn and being open (even eager!) to change his or her opinion. And for the people who want to up their hiring game, we discuss the questions and tests that enable Adii to hire for culture and value.————————Want to continue the conversation with Adii? LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/adiipienaar/Twitter: @adii (https://twitter.com/adii )Blog: https://adii.meMeet Him At Running Remote: https://runningremote.com/?utm_source=distantjob (use code distantjob on checkout for a 20% discount) The Books We Discuss:Siddhartha: https://amzn.to/2MhholcThe Prophet: https://amzn.to/2MkXp54 Adii’s Recommended Tool:reMarkable: https://remarkable.com————————As always, if you enjoy the podcast, we humbly ask that you leave a review on iTunes or your podcast syndication service of choice – and if you could share it, that would be even better!Need that one incredible employee to bolster your team?  Get in touch at https://distantjob.com/contact/  and we’ll find you who you need.

Jason Schuller is a designer, maker and minimalist based in Seattle, Washington. His first success was with Press75, a WordPress theme shop that infamously sold $75 themes raking in millions of dollars over several years. However money is no driver for Jason, who sold the business to pursue stimulating side-projects like Leeflets, Droplets, Cinematico, RIVYT and even joined the team over at Plasso for while. Luckily for us Jason isn’t afraid to go deep. We talk about the moment everything changed, finding the right co-founder and the struggle of competing with previous monetary success.Links and transcription:https://onepagelove.com/podcast-004

A huge thank you to Adii Pienaar for being on the show!Want to hear more from Adii? You can find Adii on Instagram and at his website adii.me.Links mentioned throughout the show: WooThemes, Adii's first startup (and exit) Conversio, Adii's current startup My first conversation with Adii on the Process podcast Reality Is Broken by Jane McGonigal Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur If you enjoyed this episode, hop on over to iTunes to give me a ★★★★★ review, which will help others like you find and enjoy the show, as well.Special thanks to Mario Callejas for providing the music for the Kin show! Check out his music on Spotify.

In episode 5 of our podcast, Keith chats with Adii Pienaar founder of Conversio. Conversio is an all-in-one marketing dashboard that helps ecommerce store owners to sell more through gently reminding customers of abandoned carts and follow up emails. And Conversio doesn't stop there as it emails receipts, sends newsletters, gets customer feedback and really helps you boost your sales. Adii talks about the start of his journey in 2014 with Receiptful and it's progression to Conversio by finding the overlaps between different tools and data that resulted in Conversio's single dashboard. He chats about moving to the Shopify system and the value of the UX design to both Shopify and Conversio. Special Guest: Adii Pienaar.Sponsored By:Rare.ioLinks:Conversio.com — Email Marketing Automation. Make every email count.Shopify — The eCommerce platform made for youMilk Bottle Labs — Ireland's No.1 Shopify Experts

Approximately 70% of your customers will abandon their carts... if you're lucky. That's why the most profitable email marketing workflow you can possibly run is an abandoned cart sequence. In today's episode, we'll cover the best practice four email sequence guaranteed to help you re-engage customers and recover revenue. After that, we'll talk through three out of the box ideas that are proven to work. Adii Pienaar, founder of Conversio, joins us today to explain. Prior to Conversio, Adii was co-founder of WooThemes/WooCommerce, where he made his early entrepreneurial mistakes while learning about building software for ecommerce stores. You'll Learn The current state of abandoned carts in ecommerce The best practices for abandoned cart sequence you need to implement today Three out-of-the-box ideas to test in your sequences Tune in for more details! Resources https://conversio.com/ - Email marketing and reviews for your store. https://kickbox.com/ - Email list hygiene service [https://adii.me/](Adii's blog) Share your thoughts Ask a question in The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group Share this show on Twitter Never miss an episode Subscribe on iTunes Join Kurt's newsletter Help the show Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings & reviews help, and I read each one. Subscribe on iTunes What's Kurt up to? See our recent work at Ethercycle Take a ride with Kurt on YouTube Grow Your Store in 2018 Apply to work with Kurt to grow your store. Prefer to DIY? Read a free sample chapter of Kurt's book Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com Learn what's Shopify Plus got that regular Shopify doesn't?” Sponsors Try Bold Product Upsell free for 90 days Save 20% on Turbo, a blazing fast Shopify theme Improve your shop's search engine ranking with Venntov SEO Meta Manager

Adii Pienaar is a serial entrepreneur best known for founding the successful and multi-million dollar company WooThemes in 2008 which he also built from his home country South Africa. Since WooThemes, Adii has started a few new businesses, most recently Conversio (previously Receiptful), a SaaS business for all-in-one ecommerce marketing including features like email receipts, cart abandonment, follow ups, recommendations, product reviews, search, and feedback. Starting out  When Adii started out in business, he just wanted to be an entrepreneur and work for himself. He got into Wordpress out of necessity because he needed money for school. So he started doing some consulting for clients and he got to a point where he was building free Wordpress themes as a way to gain traction and find customers. That's how he started WooThemes.  That was before the ecosystem around Wordpress products even existed and there were only 2 to 3 other entrepreneurs who were selling premium Wordpress themes. Back then, one could only offer free opensource stuff or consulting services. Today, there is a vibrant community of different kinds of products, services and business models around Wordpress. Adii never thought Wordpress would become so big and that WooThemes would grow sustainably as far as it has.  On 2nd November 2007, he launched the first theme, The Original Premium News Theme, that eventually became WooThemes. The theme sold widely. He had started working on themes a year before that and he used to sell them through his blog.  Themes  Adii says that Wordpress has become a tougher place to build and sustain a business.   Tip: If there is a way to productize and some way extend some kind of service that you are doing, especially cost efficiently, then you will always have a market  Core revenue streams  He says with Conversio, they apply a Saas (Software as a Service) business model. That's unlike what he did with Woo Commerce/Woo Themes which only offered one-off downloadable content.  Conversio  In 2013, he was hoping to try his hand at building a new business. So, he stepped out of the Woo Themes operations and took a non-executive position. He then started working on a new product, Public Data, which was an online developments and learning community for entrepreneurs. While working on that, he was also negotiating his exit from WooThemes which concluded at the end of 2013.  He eventually shut down Public Data as a product. In early 2014, he came across a blog post about Email Receipts and when he read it, he became very interested in the idea. The first version of the idea before it became Conversio was called Receiptful, and it allowed people to include some form of marketing in their email receipts, this became very successful. From there, they slowly evolved into building complimentary tools including email marketing tools (now includes email newsletters and widgets).  Adii believes that anyone who read the blog post that inspired him could have just as easily started the same business he did. He says that what helped him was the fact that he had more understanding and experience in terms of building solutions specifically for people who were building ecommerce stores.  Building up on the idea  The first thing he did was Google to find out who else was doing something similar. His idea was slightly different from the existing ones. Addi identified Stripe (a payment platform) which was going through a massive growth phase as a potential business partner. People could build apps on top of the Stripe gateway exclusively and get a lot of success.   Adii outsourced the development of Receiptful's first version which was an app that would work with Stripe. It was geared towards other SaaS companies instead of ecommerce ones. He didn't want to target ecommerce customers because he wanted to initially build Receiptful as an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) as it would be easier. Once it was built, he had a few

Adii Pienaar is the Founder of Conversio, an all-in one marketing dashboard. Adii is based in Cape Town, South Africa and previously co-founded WooThemes - an e-commerce platform for Wordpress - which bootstrapped their way to over 150,000 customers. Today, Adii is continuing to help e-commerce entrepreneurs worldwide build stronger businesses through his latest startup Conversio, an all-in one marketing dashboard that helps you sell more. Adii joins us to share his story, how he started his career in entrepreneurship, what it was like transitioning wordpress templates into a full e-commerce platform, what it was like bootstrapping a company, how he’s approached building his latest company Conversio, and much more!

This week I talk with Adii Pienaar, founder of WooCommerce and Conversio. We discuss growing up in Cape Town, how Adii’s entrepreneurial father and teacher mother influenced his career path, how entrepreneurship gave him a sense of belonging and so much more. Enjoy!

My perception is that most people know me due to my two successes: WooThemes and now Conversio. I also suspect that most people don't know about all of my failures: Maiden League Records, Akkerliefies, The Cellar, Radiiate V1, Lunchbox, Radiiate V2, CFOh!, Radiiate V3 and PublicBeta. This list doesn't even include all of the ideas that were only ever ideas. Or the acquisitions I've explored in the past. The reason people don't know this, is because we don't know what's happening behind the scenes of others' lives and businesses. We have extreme survivorship bias, where we generally only see the good stuff and we aren't aware of all the other things that another individual or company is experiencing as part of their journeys. We don't know about all of the near-misses, challenges, threats. Yet we always compare ourselves to our perception of others' journeys. Read this article I referenced in this episode: "We’ve Made 10 Layoffs. How We Got Here, the Financial Details and How We’re Moving Forward" Cover artwork by Francis Taylor. Intro & outro music is "Warm Sunny Day" by sunchannelmusic.

This week, we have the very distinct pleasure of talking to a gentleman who is not only a talented member of the WordPress community … but the one responsible for it. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! Matt Mullenweg is the founding developer of WordPress, which currently powers over 26% of sites on the web. The WordPress website says it s “a state-of-the-art semantic personal publishing platform.” More importantly, WordPress is a part of who Matt is. In this episode Brian Gardner, Lauren Mancke, and Matt Mullenweg discuss: Matt s start with WordPress Founding Automattic in 2005 The difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org Analysis of the premium theme market Generating revenue in the WordPress Ecosystem The spirit of GPL in Open Source Adding paid themes to WordPress.com Making a profit with premium plugins The future of WordPress Listen to StudioPress FM below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes The Show Notes Follow Matt on Twitter Visit Matt’s Website Read Matt’s Blog WordPress.com WordPress.org Automattic The Transcript How (and Why It’s Ok) to Make Money with WordPress, with Matt Mullenweg Voiceover: Rainmaker FM. StudioPress FM is designed to help creative entrepreneurs build the foundation of a powerful digital business. Tune in weekly as StudioPress founder Brian Gardner and VP of StudioPress Lauren Mancke share their expertise on web design, strategy, and building an online platform. Lauren Mancke: On this week’s episode, Brian and I are joined by Matt Mullenweg, the founder of Automattic, to discuss how (and why it’s okay) to make money with WordPress. Brian Gardner: Hey, everyone. Welcome to StudioPress FM. I am your host, Brian Gardner, and I’m joined as usual by my co-host, the vice president of StudioPress, Lauren Mancke. Lauren Mancke: Hello, everyone. Thanks for joining us this week. We are continuing our series on talking to members of the WordPress community. Brian Gardner: Now, today we have the very distinct pleasure of talking not just to a member of the WordPress community, but one of the people responsible for it. Matt Mullenweg is the founding developer of WordPress, which, as it stands to date, powers over 26 percent of the web. Probably more even at that point. The WordPress website says it’s a “state of the art semantic personal publishing platform,” but more importantly to Matt, WordPress is a part of who he is. Matt, it’s a huge pleasure to have you on the show StudioPress FM, welcome. Matt Mullenweg: Awesome. I’m very excited to be here. Brian Gardner: There is a huge back story to all of this. For those of you who have been following StudioPress and me over the years, you know that I got started in WordPress in 2006, 2007. I can’t believe it’s been that long. We were just talking about that. I wanted to start at the beginning of your journey. I know in 2005 you founded Automattic and that is the secret force behind WordPress, Akismet, Gravatar, VaultPress, IntenseDebate, and a number of other smaller entities. This story for you goes further back though. Before Automattic formed, you and Mike Little forked this little blogging platform called b2. Run through us the early years of WordPress and what it was back then you were hoping to achieve. Matt’s Start with WordPress Matt Mullenweg: Oh, our goals were very modest. I would say that back then we were just looking to have some good software for ourselves. To have something that we could use and continue. B2 had a pretty good community around it. There were some forums we would participate in. It had a pretty cool active little thing going on, and it just seemed a shame that it was slowing down. Mike and I had already interacted on the forums a lot. We followed each other’s blogs. He was releasing code and I was releasing code. He’s also a super nice guy, so it just seemed very natural to work together. It’s funny though, that we didn’t actually get to meet in person until many years later. Brian Gardner: Yeah. I find that to be — Lauren and I are good examples of that. We met probably three or four years ago in person, but had known each other five or six years even before that. It’s funny how we can, in our Internet lives, finally get to that point where you get to do that ‘in real life’ thing with people who you’ve met, or known, or entrusted with a business, or even just become really good friends. To not really get to meet them in person for years down the road … Quick question though with Mike. You met on the forums. At what point did you think to yourselves, “We need to fork the software,” and then just take it and do your own thing with it? Matt Mullenweg: At the point when it was no longer being developed and it didn’t appear like there was a way forward. In some ways, for a period of time there, b2 was abandoned. When proprietary software gets abandoned you’re just out of luck. If open source gets abandoned, you can pick it up and run with it. So there was a fumble, we picked the ball, and we tried to take it to the end zone. And that is the extent of my sports metaphors I have the knowledge to make. Brian Gardner: Especially in San Francisco, right? We won’t talk about the 49ers right now. Matt Mullenweg: It’s funny you talked about meeting people though. We actually have a tool inside Automattic that tracks who you’ve met in person. So you have a percentage and everything. Right now, because we just had our grand meet up, I’m at 81%, which is pretty high. That means I’ve met 404 of the 501 total Automatticians. Brian Gardner: I just saw the picture of you guys. You guys were on Whistler, right? Matt Mullenweg: We were, Whistler, British Columbia. Brian Gardner: I just saw the picture and I was thinking to myself, “That is a lot of people.” Matt Mullenweg: Yeah, I agree. Brian Gardner: Did you think that back then when you and Mike forked this piece of software, that 10, 12 years later, however long it’s been, you would be in charge of a company with 400 or 500 people? Matt Mullenweg: Never in a million years. If I had had a big ambition at that time it was maybe to be a really good webmaster or have a little hosting company with 500 clients or something. It was very modest. I think the big business plan idea was I could get 500 people paying me $20 a month. That was it. I was like, “Then I can just retire.” Lauren Mancke: Some people get confused with WordPress initially because there’s WordPress.com and WordPress.org and they might not know the difference. For our listeners, can you give us a little explanation about which one is for who? The Difference Between WordPress.com and WordPress.org Matt Mullenweg: It’s all WordPress in that WordPress.com runs the WordPress software. I would say WordPress.com is a good place to go if you just want to dip your toes in. As you’re first getting started, it’s a great place to start. It’s got our great community features built in. It’s got built-in live chat support, so if you ever get stuck there’s someone there to help you. And it’s pretty difficult to break it, so there’s nothing you can do there that can’t be fixed pretty easily. It also showcases some of the latest interface work around what we call Calypso, which is essentially a next-generation interface for WordPress. So WordPress.com is a very good place to start. An advantage is that if you ever outgrow it — which many people never do — that it’s very easy to move to a web host where, if you wanted to run specific plug-ins or modify the code on your theme, you could do so. That’s what in the community we call WordPress.org. This idea that you went to website WordPress.org, downloaded the software and installed it yourself. The terminology is a little confusing, and I hope someday we come up with something that makes a little more sense. But you can think of it as, if you want to modify code you’ll want to run the software someplace other than WordPress.com. If you’re not planning to modify the code, WordPress.com’s probably the best place. Brian Gardner: Yeah. I’ve been on the outside looking in on WordPress.com stuff, primarily because when I first got started with blogging I was playing around with Blogger, which really was a competitor and still is — not so much anymore. Then I jumped right over WordPress.com and went right into the self-hosted version which is WordPress.org where you can download the software and install it. It’s been interesting to not really have that experience with WordPress.com but be able to watch you guys develop that over the years, knowing that it is the precursor to what’s coming into the .org side of things. This is maybe a bad diagnosis, but in my eyes I’ve always seen WordPress.com as the place where Automattic makes money and WordPress.org is where the community makes its money. I realize there are opportunities on both for us all to make money, but is that a fairly safe generalization to make, that WordPress.com is the focal point from a revenue standpoint for Automattic, whereas the community side is left to WordPress.org? Matt Mullenweg: Yeah. It’s not a perfect characterization, both because Automattic has a diversified business which makes money in several different places and several different ways — including WordPress.org — and that the community utilizing WordPress software and the freedoms of the GPL can make money from WordPress.com, and does quite a bit, but also can leverage it in many other ways, some of which don’t even look like WordPress on the surface. Lauren Mancke: Let’s jump back to 2007. As you know, Brian launched a commercial theme called Revolution. What were your initial thoughts on this, the fact that someone chose to commoditize something you created? At this time WordPress was seen as less of a CMS and more for blogging. A lot of the themes were free. Was this something you expected to see? The Spirit of GPL in Open Source Matt Mullenweg: The first freedom of the GPL is the freedom to use the software for any purpose. You can modify it, you can see how it works, and you can distribute those modifications. There’s absolutely nothing, and has never been anything wrong with selling things on top of WordPress. Yeah, I think it was a very natural conclusion, especially because themes value in scarcity. Versus plug-ins or core, which has value in abundance. Brian Gardner: For me though, I don’t know. It’s safe to say at the beginning with this whole Revolution thing it was unclear. To me it was unclear whether or not selling themes was legal, primarily because, if anything, that was an ignorance to what the GPL actually is and what it stands for. There was a lot of discussion going around back then. In my eyes all that confusion was rooted in that licensing issue. I know that it got to a point where I flew to San Francisco to talk to you and Tony about that. What it really means, what we’re allowed to do, and all of that. I take full blame for a lot of that initial confusion and some of the business models that may or may not have been in line with “the spirit of the GPL.” The question I have for you is this — it’s more a comment than anything, but I’m glad that we’re through that period, because that’s was kind of a roller coaster thing. I think that, more than anything, it’s just a community trying to figure out what it is and isn’t allowed to do. Would you agree that it’s nice to be out of that period and into a different period where things are on the table and everybody knows what’s good, what’s not good, that type of thing? Matt Mullenweg: Yeah, and I know there was some confusion around licensing at the time and what license was Revolution under versus the GPL. Was the GPL compatible? Did it violate WordPress’s license? Those sorts of things are pretty natural for this idea that WordPress had grown beyond just the early open source adopters, and folks coming in wanting to build businesses — including yourself — who might not have been as deeply rooted in the philosophy of open source naturally had a fear. I’m not saying this to you in particular, but we still see this today where people say, “Wait, if it’s free and open and users have these rights associated with it, how will I ever build a business? How will I ever make money?” That’s scary for folks, initially. Especially then because there were no examples. Now we have the better part of eight or nine years of not just some money being made, but tens or hundreds of millions of dollars being made on 100 percent GPL, completely free code. You can no longer say, “Can I build a business on open source?” That question’s been resolved for even the biggest skeptics. Brian Gardner: I would agree with that. Jerod Morris: Hey, Jerod Morris here. If you know anything about Rainmaker Digital and Copyblogger, you may know that we produce incredible live events. Well, some would say that we produce incredible live events as an excuse to throw great parties, but that’s another story. We’ve got another one coming up this October in Denver. It’s called Digital Commerce Summit, and it is entirely focused on giving you the smartest ways to create and sell digital products and services. To get all the details and the very best deal on tickets, head over to Rainmaker.FM/Summit. That’s Rainmaker.FM/Summit. Lauren Mancke: I think one of the biggest stamp of approvals the community has gotten over the years was when you guys decided to list commercial themes on the WordPress.org website. Can you tell us a little bit about that decision to incorporate those and the impact it’s made on both WordPress and those developing themes for it? Matt Mullenweg: Sure. Something I’ve always been a big proponent of through the years is sometimes, especially on the community side … You could look at the theme of your team or different areas around this today — we can be a little disciplinarian where we want to say, “This is wrong,” or punish people who do things wrong. I think it is even more powerful — this old southern idea that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar — to highlight good behavior versus trying to punish the bad behavior. The commercial themes list was just a way for us to highlight the good behavior, the people who were doing the right thing in the right way. It’s a carrot more than a stick that we could put out there for good people. Yet another reason to do the right thing besides it just being the right thing. Brian Gardner: I think I bit pretty hard on that carrot. One example of rewarding that good behavior — and to this day I wonder where my life would be if I actually never saw this comment from you. On a blog post from Ian Stewart on ThemeShaper way back in the day, this was after we had released some themes that were against the spirit of GPL and proprietary and all that, I saw a comment that said something to the effect of, “I will gladly promote any theme shop that goes completely GPL.” It was at that point when I saw that comment I almost immediately emailed you and that’s what instigated the trip to San Francisco, the idea that you would reward and put in front of the hundreds and thousands back then — not to know that in the future it would have turned into millions of people — using WordPress. That was an opportunity to — I wouldn’t say come to the light side, because I wasn’t necessarily on the dark side — I just realized that that was an opportunity to come alongside the bigger fish rather than swim against it. An example from you was exactly that, your willingness to promote and help people who were doing things that were in line with the licensing of WordPress. That is a decision I absolutely will never regret. Matt Mullenweg: Yeah, and that’s very much in line with … There’s WordPress the software that you download and run. There’s WordPress.org which is a website, a community hub for everyone working on WordPress and interested in WordPress. It’s an editorial product. The things that we choose to highlight and promote there are showing a point of view. Something I’ve always been big on since the site first started was being thoughtful and deliberate about what we choose to link to from there, highlight from there, promote from there. Because it is an endorsement, and you’re defined by what you endorse in many ways. Adding Paid Themes to WordPress.com Brian Gardner: As well as those who you do endorse are defined by who’s endorsing you. Aside from listing themes on WordPress.org that we had just talked about, you also opened up that same capability to a smaller degree on WordPress.com. You invited some premium theme developers back then and gave them a way to make money with a very big distribution pool, the user base of WordPress.com. That was a sign that I realized, as I alluded to earlier, that WordPress.com is what I would always in my head call “Matt’s baby.” I always felt that that was something that you govern and protected more than the .org site. Not that at any point did you — I don’t think it was favoritism. But I always knew that was the focal point, at least, for Automattic. So opening that door to allowing people to sell themes on WordPress.com was a huge declaration of that willingness to expose and open up the possibilities of making money with WordPress more on the .com side here. It’s also something I know you guys at Automattic have joined as well, because I know you have some themes there and are participating in that. I’m curious, how is that going? It’s been probably what, four, five years maybe, since WordPress.com has opened up the ability for folks to purchase premium themes and all that. Is that going well and continuing to go well for both the users and the developers? Matt Mullenweg: There’s a couple of things there. It’d be good to dive into history and then also talk about the present. On the history, my memory’s kind of fuzzy here, but part of what caused some of the premium theme stuff was we had actually announced that program and then didn’t follow through on it. And hadn’t you developed a theme and you’re like, “Okay, I’m just going to release this because it’s not going to be for sale on WordPress.com.” Or was that later? Brian Gardner: It may have been later. I do know we were one of the three initial groups, but that does sound vaguely familiar, that there was a little bit of that happening back then. Matt Mullenweg: Yeah, I think it was probably early 2007, or maybe even 2006. It seemed like a cool idea to have a marketplace. We reached out to folks, I don’t remember exactly what happened, but there was something where we didn’t launch it. But I had announced it in WordCamp Argentina, which was the first international WordCamp, and talked about it on stage. And then, I think because of the GPL issue, we put it off. We couldn’t decide how to make the code available while also preventing people from it being available. Then people just started to release them themselves — including the Revolution team — which we thought was really good. Yeah, of course. I think it was you, might have been Chris Pearson — Brian Gardner: You want to open that box? Matt Mullenweg: — that were the first ones that we reached out to because y’all had some of the best and coolest free themes. Today it’s been interesting. In the beginning, everyone was worried about GPL affecting their business. The reality is that business is just hard, full-stop. Even if you’re not open source, it’s really tough. Even if you’re not open source, people can copy your features. We have Wix and Squarespace. They don’t use any of WordPress’s code, but they’ve copied a lot of our features and are good competitors. Analysis of the Premium Theme Market Matt Mullenweg: The thing that’s happened with the success of premium themes more broadly is that a lot of people have gone into the market, so even though the pie has grown, it gets sliced thinner and thinner and thinner for each individual theme shop. I think overall, themes have grown. Sites like ThemeForest have really driven a commodification so that individual theme shops that maybe used to make six figures a month, they’re now making five figures a month or less. That has been a trend. But it’s also a natural thing that you can expect with a successful market. People, including yourself, Brian, who talked about how successful it was — that draws people in. On WordPress.com we’ve seen a little less of that, partially because we don’t allow everyone in, so there’s less commodification of the general size of it. Also, a lot of our theme authors — we’ve been trying to switch everyone towards subscriptions and away from one-time purchases. As you might be familiar, with our WordPress.com business plan you can have access to any premium theme, all of them, and you can switch them 10 times. You don’t have to buy them individually. What we do is we take a portion of that business subscription and we pay it back to the theme author. That recurs every year, versus being a one-time sale. You get that over and over and over as long as that person is a WordPress.com customer, which creates a much more stable and sustainable business. I think it’d be cool as well to have this in our premium plan, which has a lot more subscribers than our business plan, which is $300 a year. We can facilitate people to profit from a subscription model. I think that that helps create more stable businesses that are less boom and bust, particularly in the theme space. As you know, people can only run one theme at a time. Brian Gardner: Yeah. I wish I would’ve had that advice years ago when StudioPress started and I made the decision to do that as a transactional thing. There was never a point where I personally, up until the merger at Copyblogger, did I ever want to make the switch over to a recurring plan — even though there were other folks who were starting to move in that direction. For whatever reason I just thought to myself, “I don’t know if I can make that move.” And, of course, StudioPress merged into Copyblogger. We are still transactional at StudioPress, but we have the benefit of having other products and software and services around WordPress that are on a recurring basis so that we’ve never really had to make that change. That’s interesting. Matt Mullenweg: It’s the best. If you can do it, it works really well. Something that was really obvious to me early on is that you buy a theme and you get support forever. I was like, “Support costs money, so if I’m giving you money once and then I’m costing you money indefinitely, forever into the future, at some point that might actually cross over.” Brian Gardner: Yeah, WooThemes was an example. I think they were transactional at one point and then they transparently talked about why they made that decision, because of the fact that they just couldn’t scale the support and that “unlimited support” for them in the way that they were handling their business just wasn’t doable anymore. So they made a switch at one point then to go recurring. Matt Mullenweg: They did, and that I think was pretty controversial for them. Brian Gardner: Yeah, they got a lot of backlash. Matt Mullenweg: It was before the acquisition that we did, so I wasn’t 100 percent privy to it. But definitely saw some of that from afar and didn’t envy their position. They were essentially saying, “Hey, this thing that used to be included is now no longer included,” which is tough to do. Lauren Mancke: I think the recurring payments is something I brought up when I first came on board at StudioPress because I saw some other companies doing it. But it is definitely tricky with the backlash. We’ve talked about themes, and that’s an obvious way for members of the WordPress community to make money, but there’s so many other ways for an individual or company to generate a profit using WordPress. Can you share with us a little bit of the other ways you’ve seen the community generate revenue? Generating Revenue in the WordPress Ecosystem Matt Mullenweg: Oh, I was actually coming on this podcast to say you’re not allowed to make money with WordPress under any circumstances. Sorry. Was there a miscommunication beforehand? Brian Gardner: I guess we’ll scrap the episode. Matt Mullenweg: Cool. Yeah, I mean y’all have seen it. Where to start? Anything that creates value for someone who is getting from point A to point B. No one wakes up in the morning — well some of us do, but most people don’t wake up in the morning and say, “I want to use WordPress today.” They’re probably saying, “I want more customers in my restaurant,” or “I want to sell more of my widget,” or “I want an audience for my blog that someday I want to turn into a book or leverage into speaking opportunities or something.” They have some goals. WordPress is a means to an end. As WordPress reaches a larger and larger number of people — because it does a really good job doing most of what people want — even the very niche users like, “I want to use WordPress to sell houses,” become valuable niches. If you can help people do that and you generate a lot of value for them, they will be willing to pay you back some of that. Open their wallet in some regard, whether that’s buying something directly from you, whether that’s coming to your events, whether that’s reading your site and clicking on the ads — whatever it is. There are a lot of opportunities there. As many different ways as there are to be in business in general, there’s ways to make money with WordPress, because making money with WordPress is no different from making money in the world. It’s just that you’re getting the benefit of this huge open source platform and community as a distribution mechanism. And you’re part of a community that is a bit more conscious and awake about, “How do we keep this sustainable going forward? How do we give back and make sure that 10 years from now WordPress is just as vibrant?” But other than that it’s pretty much the same as any other business you do. Brian Gardner: Yeah, I would say over the 10 years I’ve been doing stuff with WordPress, I’ve covered a lot of the different ways to make money. Even before selling themes I was selling my services on customizing themes. So there would be money for hire on a freelance level. Then, of course, I started selling themes, so there was the commodity or transactional version of making money through WordPress. And then we took StudioPress and merged it into Copyblogger where we, like you say, sell some of the training or the assistance. Helping people who are either on it or trying to use it themselves. We obviously have a small hosting division. And then we have Rainmaker, so there’s a software as a service. I feel like I’ve had a really broad experience, and I’m sure there are even … Matt Mullenweg: You’ve done them all. Brian Gardner: Yeah, exactly. Well, I’m sure there are even other ways. Plug-ins became a big thing after the premium theme market. Folks like Gravity Forms and WooCommerce are two huge examples — Pippin with Easy Digital Downloads. So plug-ins — there’s a huge market for that. Where do you see holes though in the WordPress community in terms of that opportunity to make money? Is there anything or are there any areas that you think yourself, “Man, I wish somebody would go out and go do X?” Matt Mullenweg: You know, having a company in the space, when I think that, we usually do it. Brian Gardner: Yeah, I walked right into that one. But there’s got to be smaller stuff. Things that aren’t important enough for you guys to cover. You would think, “Hey, it’d be great if a little company just came alongside and did this.” Matt Mullenweg: I would say to follow my blog and follow my Twitter. Because I put out — it is true that I probably have 10 or 100 times more ideas than we’ll ever be able to get to. My philosophy is to always just put them out there, and if they happen that’s great. Brian Gardner: Yeah, I’ve been asked, probably on a number of different occasions on different podcasts, “Why doesn’t Genesis do X,” or “Why aren’t you guys going after this particular market?” Like you, I say, “You know what? We’ve only got so many developers and designers and people in-house. We’re just not going to spend our time going there.” But I always throw it up as a layup. I say, “Hey, this is a great opportunity for someone to come alongside, wink wink, and take over and take that opportunity.” I think I’ve seen it a few times where someone’s taken that bait and then gone and done it. We, like you, try to reward people and our community who do good work and try to expose them and help promote their stuff too. That’s a good idea though, to leave a breadcrumb trail of ideas and things that might be of interest or have value or potential for monetization that we can’t get to. At least you’re leaving that open for others to see. Matt Mullenweg: Totally, and also it’s just good to share. Making a Profit with Premium Plug-ins Lauren Mancke: Let’s jump back. You mentioned some premium plug-ins. Let’s jump back to those. Matt, can you give us an example of plug-ins that are being sold right now that you think are a great and solid solution for WordPress users? Matt Mullenweg: The obvious ones I don’t want to unfairly advantage, because there’s a lot of really good ones. I don’t want to mention one and not another, so I’m just going to mention ours. Brian Gardner: Safely. Matt Mullenweg: The things that Automattic sells — we have some service plug-ins available generally through Jetpack, but you can get VaultPress or Akismet, which are backup and security services and anti-spam services. These are essentially lightweight plug-ins. What they do is they connect you to an external service that, in the case of a Akismet, uses the intelligence of seeing hundreds of millions of things a day to help keep spam off your sites. VaultPress takes a copy of your blog and stores it literally in 12 places. So even if a meteor hits 11 of them, we would still have a copy of your blog that would be safe and available to restore. Those are the lightweight things. We also have plug-ins largely that came in through the WooThemes acquisition, including WooCommerce — there’s over 300 extensions for WooCommerce — and smaller things like WordPress Job Manager or Sensei that are essentially like little miniature applications that you can put on top of WordPress that transform it. In the case of Sensei, it turns it into a learning management system, something if you wanted to run classes online and help people it’s all there. Brian Gardner: Let’s talk about the acquisition of Woo for a little bit. I think in the big picture of the WordPress community that was the big, “Oh my gosh. Did you hear?” type of thing. I know when I read it there was … Adii and I, back in the day, started things out side-by-side and were really big competitors back when WooThemes got started and all of that. You run this race with people and when you see something like this, “Automattic acquires WooThemes and WooCommerce,” and you start hearing figures of seven and eight figures, my instinct was to instantly get jealous and think, “Oh, that sucks. Why can’t that happen to me?” But then you realize that … Matt Mullenweg: Well, you got to reach out. Brian Gardner: Is that how it works? Lauren Mancke: Yeah. We’ll talk after the podcast. Brian Gardner: We’ll have a follow-up phone call. No, in all honesty though, it made sense for WordPress as a platform to try to go after the e-commerce thing. So yes, you have to realize that there was a lot of wisdom in that acquisition. Is that the type of thing that you guys look for specifically? I know there’s a lot of people making money all over the place, but I’m sure there’s lots of things like that on your radar where you say, “We want to go after a certain type of market or a certain type of user. These folks or that business already has built a solid piece of that and it’s a good idea for us to then go pursue.” Is that what happened, just the movement towards e-commerce through WordPress and the acquisition of Woo and WooCommerce? Matt Mullenweg: Yeah. It was really driven, first and foremost, by e-commerce as a category. From Automattic’s point of view, we were hearing for a really long time the demand from our users on WordPress.com that they wanted e-commerce. The demand from our partners, places like Web hosts, that sometimes as many as half their customers signing up were saying they wanted to sell things online and the solutions there were not good. We really did look holistically at all the WordPress add-ons, including Woo, Easy Digital Downloads, WP commerce — there’s probably even more. All the services: Shopify, Ecwid, BigCommerce, PresstaShop — everything out there. And the big guys: eBay, Amazon, Etsy, the more centralized approaches. And began to really map it out and explore different options, including talking to folks like Shopify a lot. I think Shopify has a really great user experience and has built a pretty interesting business there. What they built at Woo was super impressive — the team that was putting it together and the breadth of its adoption and the ecosystem around it. I had been trying to signal for several years that Automattic was going to move into e-commerce. We’re a big elephant in the room, so I don’t like for there to be surprises for people. In fact, prior to the acquisition I reached out to the other folks and said, “Hey, just so you know, this is going to happen and be announced next week or next month,” or whenever it was. Just because I feel like that’s the polite thing to do. But probably what drove the decision there was that e-commerce for WordPress needs to be a platform, meaning that the core software that drives the commerce engine needs to be available as widely as possible, really robust. It needs to be something that scales from a small store selling just a handful of T-shirts to really huge stores with 60, 70,000 skews doing tens of millions or hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. We wanted that to be something that lots of other businesses could be built on, and Woo was the best fit that we identified at the time. That was just about a year ago, and a lot has happened over the past year. We joined these two different companies into one. Woo had a lot of similarities to Automattic, so that made it a bit easier both in how they were distributed and how they ran the company, everything. But we then started to look at, How can we grow this?” We’ve increased the size of the Woo team by over 40 percent and that’s still growing. The developers on the core software and the core areas have gone up by 5x, so a lot more people working on the software. We’re looking at it from a very long-term view. Automattic has a very strong business already. What can we subsidize or invest in or support to make Woo a platform that, just like WordPress, is one that’s a commerce engine for the next decade? Brian Gardner: Well, just like you, we’ve been asked by our users all the time also, “When are you going to have e-commerce themes?” and things like that. Back before the acquisition it was always like, “We can’t design for WooCommerce because they’re technically a competitor.” I got all weirded out about all of that. But when the acquisition took place I started thinking to myself, “Okay, there’s a bigger vision here for all of us here, and it goes beyond just trying to compete or not compete against other people.” I wouldn’t call this an announcement, because I have alluded to it a little bit here on social media in the same way you sometimes do, but we’re very excited that we are focusing our themes — I’m literally designing one as we speak that will be WooCommerce compatible. Matt Mullenweg: Oh, cool. That is news to me, so thank you. Brian Gardner: The writing, for sure, is on the wall, and we’re now at a point where we can focus and dedicate some of our time. This may take a little bit of time, but my hope is to take all of our existing themes on StudioPress and work in the WooCommerce component. At the very least to make WooCommerce out of the box look good. Our emphasis, then, will be on continuing to design and develop themes for the Genesis framework and all of that, but as a side note to that, all of them will be styled at a basic level for anyone who wants to use a theme and start selling stuff. So WooCommerce and e-commerce for us is definitely on the radar and the roadmap. That’s very fun for me to — I wouldn’t call it announce, because it’s not a big announcement yet. But it’s been on my mind for six months to a year for sure, as Lauren knows. We’ve had conversations. Matt Mullenweg: Cool. Lauren Mancke: Yes. It’s been on my mind for a couple years now. Brian Gardner: I’m like, “I’m going to do it. This makes sense to me.” That will be coming — the first theme — probably in the next couple weeks, so I’m excited about that. Matt Mullenweg: I think that’s something I’ve always tried to do with Automattic as well, is that we can compete and cooperate at the same time, especially if you think long-term. If we said there were 10 WordPress sites in the world and you and I were going to duke it out for getting them to use your theme or one of the themes that Automattic sells, sure, that’s zero sum. The reality is there are 10 sites today and I’m working on taking that to being 100 sites so we can both get a ton and work together. Automattic works with all the web hosts. We also compete with them with WordPress.com. I just try to think of it from the point of view of what is the best long-term thing for WordPress as a whole. Never let what our particular business might be there …. For example, I love working with other e-commerce platforms besides WooCommerce. There are reasons for people to use something instead of Woo. We could pretend they don’t exist, like Google or Facebook do, or we could just say “Hey, how can we help everyone here with what we’re learning and maybe services we can provide — whether that’s hosting or something else — to make this pretty awesome for whatever people want to choose?” Brian Gardner: That’s a good way to look at it. Lauren Mancke: Matt, you said earlier that you don’t like to have surprises from Automattic. Is there anything you want to hint at for the future? Matt Mullenweg: That’s a good question. Nothing I’m ready to say today. I appreciate the swing at the bat there. Lauren Mancke: It was a try. Brian Gardner: Nice try, Lauren. Lauren Mancke: Yeah. Brian Gardner: Back in the day, I know you weren’t a fan of how the whole licensing and theme things went down and we’ve moved well beyond that. Are there any areas right now within WordPress — within the community, that is — where you see things that you wish would be going a little bit differently? Not that you can control it or anything like that. But is there anything out there that we should just be aware of that maybe there’s room for improvement, or a better way to do a business model, or something like that? Matt Mullenweg: I think the area that — there’s a ton of stuff in core and some really great things that Helen’s working on for Four Seven. Thinking beyond that even, I’d say broader, the thing that I feel like we have the most room for improvement is probably in our directories, both the plug-in and theme directory. When you think of the directories as essentially an interface for users, I think they could be pretty frustrating in terms of how search works. How you discover things. How you get support for it after you’ve used it. And how you know whether things are compatible or not, including having a different approach. With plug-ins, we accept everything and then worry about quality through reviews and reports. With themes, we try to look at everything beforehand. For, honestly a few years, we’ve been pretty behind. You might submit a theme to WordPress and it could take — the WordPress Theme Directory, and it could take months before it goes up. And then we’re still not requiring things like it to be responsive, which is kind of wild in a day when cell phones are a big deal. Maybe even smart phones in the future. There’s good reasons for this, but I think sometimes you can get pretty far down a path by just putting one foot in front of another and not think, “Am I heading in the right direction?” One of the things I’m looking forward to — there’s some good conversations going on in the weekly meetings on Slack. I’ve been talking to a lot of folks and seeing how can we iterate there — both in the design and presentation of the directories, which we’ve done some work for, especially on the plug-in directory. But also in our processes and how we approach them. Lauren Mancke: Matt, is there anything you regret with WordPress? Have there been any decisions made, whether by you or others, that you wish hadn’t happened? Matt Mullenweg: I don’t live with a lot of regrets, so I don’t know if I’d resonate with that particular word. But there are certainly things that in hindsight, if I were doing them today, I would do differently. The theme licensing stuff, especially in 2007 through 2010, has come up a few times. I think part of why that was such trouble was I was less mature as a leader and I thought the best way to hash these issues out was to talk about it and correct everyone in blog comments and do blog posts. Lauren Mancke: And go on Mixergy. Matt Mullenweg: Go on Mixergy. Just prove everyone wrong. We got from point A to point B, but maybe I should’ve done more of what you did, Brian, which is get on a plane and talk to people. Perhaps we could’ve avoided a lot of the back-and-forth and drama that we had. Because we were on the same side of things. You wanted to build a business with WordPress and sell themes, and I wanted more people using WordPress. Those are highly complementary goals. I think now, as a leader — and this has also been something I’ve learned through many of the great people I have the good fortune to work with every day at Automattic — you can approach that differently and really look at talking things through. If one medium of communication — be it email, or Slack, or text, or twitter, or blog post comments hurled across the interwebs — isn’t working, switch to another one. Brian Gardner: I have a question that I’ve been wanting to ask you for a long time now. I hope that you don’t take this in a narcissistic way, because I’m not at all looking for the answer that some people might think. Do you think that the whole premium theme movement has had some degree of impact on the growth and the use of WordPress as we talk about it now, 25% of the Internet and all that kind of stuff? Do you think that without that — I guess that in a natural evolution would’ve always happened at some point, but do you think … ? I was thinking to myself like, “Wow, I was part of the big area of growth within WordPress.” Because I think premium themes proved that. Of course, there’s lots of people involved. This is not at all me trying to take credit for anything. But I always think in the back of my mind that at least I was a part of a movement that helped open WordPress up to a significant amount of users who may not have ever thought of it as anything more than just a little blog platform. Matt Mullenweg: That’s a interesting question. It’s actually one I’ve thought about a lot. Because, if the answer is yes, then what we should be doing is trying to have everything be premium, right? If the answer is no, then we should try to eliminate premium themes. Or maybe it’s someplace in the middle. Based on the data, it’s someplace in the middle. Here’s what I mean by that. In absolute terms, it’s undeniable. You can look at your numbers and say, “I have sold X tens of thousands,” or, for some folks, into the hundreds of thousands of copies of this theme. I’m sure everyone has heard from customers — especially because many premium theme sellers are really good at marketing. I would say better than WordPress.org and better than Automattic in some cases. They say, “I wasn’t going to use WordPress, but I found this theme and I decided to use it.” Have you heard that before? Yeah, so that’s undeniable on an absolute sense. The relative sense, meaning, “Does it change the growth curve of WordPress?” The numbers — because we’re able to track through the update system how many of every theme is run. If you added up all the premium themes, or let’s say all themes not in the directory, which is a good proxy for premium themes — although, as you know, there are some that have up-sells or pro versions of things — it comes to be cumulatively 10 percent, 12 percent. It’s had an impact, but still the vast majority of the overall growth is driven by some of the default themes and the many free ones out there. I think that if you think about this, it makes sense a little bit. Although some people start with WordPress from our premium theme, it might be more likely that when they’re comparing things they’re probably comparing WordPress … They’re either getting it from their web host, and I would say that web hosts have been a big driver of WordPress adoption and growth because it’s one click and they get started there — or they’re comparing it to other solutions like Squarespace, Weebly, etc. They start with WordPress. They’re probably going to start with a free theme because they’re not sure whether it’s going to work for them or not. Then, once they figure it out and they say “Hey, okay this is something I can use to solve my problems,” then they go to premium themes. That’s for everyday users. The other thing that drives this market a lot is developers. It’s folks who know WordPress and they’re being hired to build WordPress sites for people. They have a theme that they love because it enables them to make great-looking client sites really quickly. It’s got the functionality and they know it as a platform on top of WordPress. It’s their go-to. So they’ll buy a copy for every single one of their customers as they build it out. Do they have to? No. But do they want to support you so you’ll make more themes? Of course. Brian Gardner: Yeah, I think the definition of premium, back in the day — I think we at one point even had conversations of calling them paid themes versus premium, because premium’s kind of a subjective term. I’ve seen themes that are free that are probably better coded and better designed than some of the ones I’ve seen being sold. Matt Mullenweg: I think that’s what we call them on WordPress.org too. I think we call them paid themes. Brian Gardner: Paid themes, yeah. Okay, let’s talk about the future of WordPress. Matt Mullenweg: Wait, does that answer makes sense to you? Brian Gardner: It totally does. I realized that when I take myself out of the equation that WordPress is huge. There’s just — like you alluded to, even the hosting. That seems like within the last few years, especially with movements like Go Daddy doing one-click installs, and Bluehost and so on, that the hosting companies could say the very same thing. Saying, “Well, from 2010 on we really had a big role in the growth of WordPress,” and all of that. I’ve just always thought about that one back in the day. It was like, “What would’ve happened if … ?” type of thing. If it wasn’t me, it would’ve been someone else, so it certainly wasn’t my intuition. Matt Mullenweg: It’s also something to keep an eye on. Maybe that percentage of what’s driving changes over time. And also looking at new users, not just total users. I’ll keep an eye on it. I love data. The Future of WordPress Brian Gardner: All right. Let’s talk just about the future of WordPress. We alluded to it a little bit earlier with e-commerce and stuff like that. Not necessarily how folks can make money from it, but where do you see WordPress going and what are the things that maybe stand as the biggest hurdles in terms of growth for Automattic and WordPress and all of that? Matt Mullenweg: I think that what’s cool about WordPress as a platform is that it can do a lot at once, meaning that I believe that WordPress is going to grow hugely as a blogging platform. Some people might think that blogging is dead, but I see the next six billion people coming online and blogging being an interesting thing for a lot of them. It’s growing as an e-commerce platform. It’s growing as a site creator. It’s growing as a platform that people build things — maybe even just using the API, whether that’s a REST API or a PHP APIs, to make applications. Whether they’re using WordPress as a development platform to do things that don’t look like a blog at all. The challenges and threats is that, in every single one of those areas that we’re in, there are some purpose-built tools. And, in fact, an entire company is dedicated to that small area, which are in some cases doing a really good job. If I’m starting a store today, I’m going to compare how easy it is to get started with Woo to how easy it is to get started with Shopify. And today that comparison looks pretty good for Shopify because they’re quite good at providing the hosted service that really on-boards you in a slick way. The same thing in the CMS space and small business space. We’re getting some very good competition from Weebly, Squarespace, and Wix. Wix in particular, has really used marketing to leverage some breakout growth there. We have to keep in mind that they are spending $40 million dollars a quarter, so $160 million dollars this year, which is a big number, in advertising to drive people signing up for Wix. In certain markets now — you can go and the barista at the coffee shop might ask you about Wix. They might see your WordPress shirt and ask you about Wix. If they’re able to create a flywheel effect of that advertising driving brand awareness, driving people asking for Wix, that’s going to start to drive developers away as well, which could be very bad for WordPress. These are the things that we have to keep in mind and also do some coordination across the community. One thing that I’m sure about WordPress is that if we all run our own directions and just try to localize or maximize our own profit and everything, we’ll be outgunned by these other companies. The truth is that Wix’s $300 million dollars in revenue is bigger than any company I am aware of in the WordPress space individually, but it’s much smaller than we are collectively. The question becomes, “How can we work together? How can we team up? And how do we get the right philosophies and the right ways of doing business and everything out there? The best practices so that as we do our own things in our own places, we’re heading in the same direction in a way that, honestly, no company could ever compete with?” Just like the Encyclopedia Britannica could never compete with Wikipedia. Brian Gardner: Yeah, it’s that crowd-sourced approach, whether it be intentional or unintentional. I guess what you’re saying is that you guys at Automattic necessarily can’t, by yourselves, go out and compete against Squarespace or X. But through the enlistment of other, bigger, smaller companies that would themselves go after and cater to the types of people who would be using Squarespace — that is the bigger army. The WordPress as a whole army versus Automattic as the one company behind it. The more companies that are out there trying to build their own things off of WordPress, but to a user that might be interested in using Weebly or Wix or Squarespace, that that’s also a bigger win for you guys or just all of us as a whole. To think we are the ones that are out in the field trying to do the things, so the more we can do for ourselves, ultimately, goes up to the top. Matt Mullenweg: Yeah. It’s all about being long-term. If you think truly long-term about this, that’s how we can win. That’s how we’ve won in the past against competitors like Six Apart that had more people and were better funded, and it’s how we’re going to win against all the ones down the road. We kind of have to. You have a lot of business owners listening to this. Think about what makes this business relevant? What makes the WordPress ecosystem relevant in 10 years. Are you orienting your business to make that a reality? Are you going towards it or away from it? Brian Gardner: Well, I think those are great words for us to close by. I really do want to be sensitive to your time, because I know that you have a lot of things to do, a lot of responsibilities. First of all, before we go though, I do want to personally thank you for WordPress. Without a question, I’m not sitting in the house that I’m in if WordPress wasn’t around. I know that on behalf of all of our users and developers and designers — people who build off of Genesis, which was really built off of WordPress — you have created an ecosystem and an environment which, as you alluded to at the beginning of this call, you probably didn’t even forecast or even think of. It was just a matter of trying to build something for yourself that you could use to do something X. Little did you know, 10 years from now you will have companies making 8 figures a year in revenue and enabling — our company has 60 people. We have 60 people whose families are fed by way of, ultimately, what WordPress has enabled us to do. The stuff like that. I want to thank you. I should text you every once in a while or just shoot you an email and remind you, and say “thank you” and all that. I was a byproduct of your vision. You have put me on WordPress.org before to showcase some good work and stuff like that, so I just didn’t want that going unsaid. As much as I appreciate you being on the show, I also more importantly appreciate for what you’ve allowed me in my life and my family to experience because of the stuff that you did back in the day. Matt Mullenweg: Thank you. I wish I could take credit, but the reality is you’re part of that too. We all are. So let’s all give ourselves a round of applause there, because what we’ve created is pretty impressive and I hope that you can have 10 more houses in the future. Brian Gardner: My wife would like that too. No. Lauren Mancke: Matt, thank you for coming on the show. Everyone, if you like what you heard on today’s show you can find more episodes of StudioPress FM at StudioPress.FM. You can also help Brian and I hit the main stage by subscribing to the show in iTunes. It’s a great way to never ever miss an episode. Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next week.

The path I took to create this episode - and maybe the podcast as whole, but to a lesser extent - might have a bunch of different names: freestyling, intuitive and maybe slightly impulsive. The one thing that stands out to be though is the fact that this is authentic and represents me in this moment. In this episode, I introduce the start of a new chapter in my journey, where I'd like to explore and share a few other, non-obvious or unexpected perspectives through which we could consider life and business. I share a little bit about how I realised a couple of months ago that my experience of being an entrepreneur and building a business felt like I was constantly pushing a rock up a hill. And when I did realise that, I just felt tired. But in the moment of realising that, I also learnt a new experience, which is the sensation of the exhale and becoming aware of just how I felt in that moment. That experience has since made me very curious in how I can "get to the exhale" in other situations or experiences in my life or business. Cover artwork by Francis Taylor. Intro & outro music is "Warm Sunny Day" by sunchannelmusic.

This episode is a short, 3-minute prologue for the One Stop Shop podcast by Receiptful founder, Adii Pienaar. In this prologue, Adii shares some of the inspiration and motivation for why the Receiptful team has produced this podcast. He also shares their hopes and goals with the podcast (hint: it's about telling the stories of eCommerce businesses in a way that helps others learn and grow). Credits: Music featured in this episode was "Celery Man" by Birocratic and can be found at www.soundcloud.com/birocratic. This podcast was produced by comealivecreative.com.

Smart marketers know that the first sale is the only beginning of a relationship with a customer. If your marketing stops after the first sale, you are leaving money on the table. Moreover, while there're lots of ways to extend that the lifetime value of a customer, there's one thing you should be doing first. Upgrade your order confirmation emails! And today we're talking with Adii Pienaar of Receiptful. Adii is a serial entrepreneur "learning through making (new) mistakes." He previously co-founded WooThemes (exited 2013) and is currently working on Receiptful. He's also a husband, dad, complete wine snob, and occasionally suffers imposter syndrome. Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on iTunes! Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on Stitcher! Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via RSS! Learn: The stats on receipts Why we love receipts What specifically to do with receipts Which calls to action to include And how to tackle imposter syndrome Links: http://adii.me/ https://receiptful.com/ https://twitter.com/adii Free Guide! I want to send you a sample chapter of Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com

My guest on this episode is Adii Pienaar, founder of Receiptful and WooThemes. This conversation happened across the globe, from my desk in Nicaragua to Adii's in South Africa. The result is a raw, honest, and insightful talk about life, both personal and professional.

Adii, founder of WooThemes and Public Beta talked with us about launching a completely new venture from scratch and some of the controversial techniques he used when validating his idea. He also opened up with us about creating a more sustainable work/lif Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bringing the DUB back in DubStep with ADii on Episode 37!!!

ElectroFuzion bringing you high energy mixing by European Native DeeJay ADii with Episode 34!!!!