Matt Mullenweg's Success Story

Developer and Founder of WordPress

“You think your business is different, that you’re only going to have one shot at press and everything needs to be perfect. But if you only have one shot at getting an audience, you’re doing it wrong.”

Have you ever thought about starting your own blog, where you could share all that pops up in your mind every day? Do you know which is the most advisable and widespread blogging software today? Already heard about Wordpress? Up to this date it has been downloaded more than 35 million times and has been used by some of the most visited sites worldwide – TechCrunch and Mashable.com are among the best examples. But who is the main Developer and Founder of the open source system, how did he come with such an idea and what was his inspiration on the road to success? Let us familiarize you with Matt Mullenweg – the man considered to be one of the most influential people online, the man, who changed the face of the Internet.

Matt is born on January 11, 1984 in Houston, Texas, but is currently living in San Francisco, California. During his high school years he used to study jazz saxophone. Listening to music is one of his greatest ways of getting motivated even today. But when and where is his success story actually rooted?

In June 2002, almost ten years ago, he went to a vacation to Washington D.C., where he as a tourist took a lot of photos, after participating in the National Fed Challenge competition. When back home, he wanted to share online the pictures he had made. Matt started using the b2/cafelog blogging software, but he wasn’t very pleased with what it offered as functionality and opportunities, so he reached the decision of developing his own blogging platform, today known as WordPress.

After quitting his job at CNET Networks in 2005 he founded his own company, called Automattic - the secret weapon behind the open source projects, he developed in the majority of his time. Due to his hard work and persistence, he turned WordPress into the most used blogging software online.

Though Automattic is his main focus Matt Mullenweg also makes investments in startups through his company Audrey Capital. He recently invested in Foodzie - an online marketplace where consumers can discover and buy food directly from small artisan producers.

Matt is also running his own Wordpress blog, called ma.tt