This director manages a billion-dollar company with no office or email

The art of managing a global company without the usual attributes of corporate life

^{Matt Mullenweg}



Even if you don’t know what a WordPress blogging platform is or don’t use it to post any content on the Internet, it’s still very likely that in the last 24 hours you’ve visited a website that works on this website. platform.

This is determined by the fact that WordPress - the open source content management system of the site - is now the basis of the staggering number of websites in the world - 25%!

I recently spoke with Matt Mullenweg, creator of the WordPress platform and CEO of Automattic, which offers a large number of products and services for WordPress users.

Automattic is currently valued at more than $ 1 billion.

Matt joined me for a detailed conversation on my Internet radio station, during which he shared his desire to involve 75% of the Internet in his sphere, which WordPress is not yet managing.

He also explained how his team of 400 employees works mainly at home or in shared offices in 43 countries and relies almost entirely on the internal blogging platform for communication and collaboration, without using email.

The following are excerpts from my conversation with Matt; You can listen to this conversation entirely on my Internet radio station.



The mission of Automattic is the democratization of publications. Where do you think you are currently in from the position to achieve this?

This is probably a lifelong mission, to be honest. The idea is to give everyone - no matter what language he speaks or how much money he has - the opportunity to have a voice in the network based on the best software in the world.

You or I should be able to download from the network and use the same software for publication that the weekly magazine The New Yorker uses for its website newyorker.com. And I think that this situation is almost unique in world history. We will not have access to the printing presses like The New York Times, but in the digital world we may have the same software as The New Yorker.



You were an ardent supporter of the open source software movement. What state is this movement now?

Currently, we are the basis for about 25% of all websites in the world - the largest part, if we compare all content management systems. The next system closest to us has approx. 3%. But we are not quite satisfied with these 25%, and we intend to work fairly to get the remaining 75%.

Of course, our immediate goal for WordPress is to try to get the most, because I feel that when the main part of the network works with open source software, this will make the network the best place. It will be more open, less discriminatory, with fewer closed “gardens” and “bunkers”, and this will also force people with property rights to become more open.

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You have a highly decentralized distributed team of employees covering the entire globe - people working at home and, for the most part, never in the office. How does this work?

Automattic is indeed a fully distributed company - everyone works where he is. It can be a cafe, a residential building or an apartment, a shared office. We attract people to work no matter where they are.

Our employees now live in more than 40 countries. It turned out to be great for our company in that we can attract and retain the best talents, regardless of whether they are in New York, San Francisco or any of the traditional places of information technology.

Until now, this model has worked exceptionally well, and we plan to develop it.



The “Automattic Codex” declares that communication is “oxygen” for a distributed company. For a long time, you used a blog platform called P2 for internal communication and collaboration. And you, for the most part, do not use email for communication within Automattic.

I think email definitely completes its journey with an alternative like P2 and Slack, which are a tool for communication in the workplace. Email has a lot of wrong with it. I have never heard anyone say that he likes e-mail, everyone wants more from her - isn’t he?

Imagine that in your company, all instead of email could send-receive letters and comment directly on the blog. Different groups or teams could have their own space on it, but in principle everything would be marked up, it would be traceable and transparent. This is kind of what P2 looks like.

P2 also has its own kind of internal Google calls, so you can keep in touch with everyone without having to read everything that goes through.

This program is free, so you can go to "p2theme.com" and check. I invite everyone to try it.



Why is the ability to write literally and competently so important for Automattic?

The ability to express my thoughts well in writing is one of the most important characteristics that I consider when taking someone to work, because I believe that a clear written language reflects clear thinking, regardless of the education of a potential employee or whether he is a developer or a programmer. or anyone else.

The ability to communicate effectively and clearly in writing is not only super important in a distributed company, but also, I believe, well reflects how an employee relates to life in general.

Part of the reason that I started blogging and working on WordPress was that I love literary work.

If I can become the best writer, then maybe I can become the best thinker.