8 | MATT MULLENWEG - Founder of Wordpress.com

First Text with Cory Levy

This week, Cory speaks to entrepreneur, founder and CEO Matt Mullenweg, who is best known for have founded Automattic, which is behind brands WordPress.com, WooCommerce, Jetpack, Simplenote and more; reaching more than a billion people a month. In this weeks episode, Matt talks about how he got into technology, what his high school and college days were like, being young and in a position within a big company to leaving and risking it all to become a founder, what’s his trick to meet great people to work with or invest in and the great story of how he misplaced a half million check!

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At the age of 20, Matt Mullenweg (@photomatt), launched Automattic–the company behind WordPress.com, WooCommerce, Jetpack, and others. Now 33-years-old, Matt is still working at the company he built, helping it change the landscape of websites and blogs throughout the world and give nearly anyone the ability to create and manage their web presence.

In the interview with Cory Levy on OFF RCRD, Matt discusses founding the company and some of its growing pains before he hired now former Automattic CEO Toni Schneider, including losing a $500,000 check from an investor. “Toni had been part of startups for 20 years. He had a ton of experience,” Matt says. “I think something I still learn from him…he can approach things and really connect with people in a way that makes everyone feel really included, and I think it’s one of his superpowers.”

Asked what his superpower is, Matt says “Probably hiring and the non-hiring parts of hiring, which are finding great people to work with. I’ve been very lucky or good at finding great partners within the investment side and other folks I worked work with like Toni.”

Outside of the business, Matt is a musician, and is currently learning a new language (French). For more from Matt Mullenweg, listen to the full OFF RCRD episode here!