Matt Mullenweg

Visualwebz
5 min readMar 26, 2023

Matt Mullenweg is among many software developers recognized in the web and software field.

“I am lucky enough to be able to code and only have a limited time on this earth, so I want as much of my work as possible to benefit humanity. Having my output freely available under the GPL is one of the best ways to make the world a little bit better and more open with every line I write.

Also, as an anecdote, every good thing that has happened in my life was because I gave something away first, be it time, money, or code. I see no reason to change that now. It’s just good karma.”

~ Matt Mullenweg

Why is Matt Mullenweg famous?

Matt Mullenweg is a co-founder of WordPress, an open-source blogging platform on the web. He is also the founder of Automattic (https://automattic.com), the company behind WordPress.com and Jetpack, and Audrey Capital, an investment and research company.

Where is Matt Mullenweg from?

Matt Mullenweg is originally from Houston. He attended the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, where he studied jazz saxophone. In his spare time, Matt is an avid photographer.

He studied at the University of Houston, majoring in Political Science, before dropping out in 2004 to pursue a job at CNET Networks. In 2004, Eric Mayer and Tantec Celick founded the Global Multimedia Protocols Group, creating one of the first microformats of the XHTML Friends Network, reflecting the connection between people.

In April 2004, Dougal Campbell developed the Ping-O-Matic tool to notify bloggers about changes. Next month, the leading competitor at that time, Movable Type, announced a radical price change. After that, he dropped out of school, joined CNET, and moved to San Francisco, focusing on developing a platform for blogging. Mullenweg announced bbPress in December 2004. After several months of work, in February 2005, WordPress 1.5 “Strayhorn” was introduced, which collected over 900,000 downloads.

How did his career begin?

Matt Mullenweg started in technology, working as a senior product manager at CNET Networks. He founded Global Multimedia Protocols Group, an experimental metamemetics company, to develop open data formats. Forbes, BusinessWeek, INC., PC World, and Vanity Fair have recognized him for his leadership and success.

More reasons to know Matt Mullenweg

He is the Founder of Akismet. He is an Advisor of Typekit, Inc; and Treehouse Island, Inc. Mr. Mullenweg is an Advisor at Sphere and WeGame.com, Inc. and Dropbox, Inc. Also, he serves as an Advisor at PumpkinHead, Inc. He served as an Advisor at Surphace Inc. He is a Member of the Industry Advisory Board at Resolute Ventures, Inc.

Some Awards and recognition

  • March 2007, Mullenweg was named #16 of the 50 most influential people on the web by PC World, reportedly the youngest on the list.
  • October, Mullenweg acquired the Gravatar service and was rumored to have turned down a US$200 million offer to buy his company Automattic.
  • In September 2008, Mullenweg was named the Top 30 Entrepreneurs Under 30 by Inc. Magazine [and one of BusinessWeek's 25 Most Influential People on the Web.
  • February 2009, Power Magazine named Mullenweg “the “prince of Blogs.”
  • December 2010, Mullenweg was awarded the Winner of the TechFellow Award in “Prod”ct Design and Marketing”.
  • January 2011, Business Insider listed Mullenweg as #3 of their 30 Founders under 30 lists for creating WordPress, the power behind many new startups
  • December 2012, Mullenweg was listed in 2012 FoForbes’s0 Under 30 in Media.

What is WordPress?

Due to the nature of the open-source, WordPress is a community software. It is maintained by a large group of volunteers, primarily WordPress consultants with an active interest in growing and maintaining WordPress. Anyone can contribute to WordPress by writing patches, answering support questions, writing plugins, creating themes, translating WordPress, and updating documentation.

By using WordPress, you become part of that incredible community. You get free support from other community members, download free plugins and themes, and once you have little experience with WordPress, you can even contribute back to the community.

Is WordPress indeed so popular?

WordPress has grown so much in popularity — WordPress powers over 43% of all websites.

Due to its robust features, many top brands use WordPress to power their websites, including but not limited to: Time Magazine, Google, Facebook, Sony, Disney, LinkedIn, The New York Times, CNN, eBay, and more.

What makes WordPress so attractive?

WordPress is free software, which means you can download, install, use, and modify it. You can use it to create any website. It is also open-source, meaning the software’s source code is available for anyone to study, modify, and play with.

There are currently thousands of themes and plugins available for free. You can download, install, and use them on any website.

That’s why you can create any website using WordPress. Such as:

The theme companies offer several eCommerce themes. This allows any developer or web designer to build websites quickly.

  • A Membership Website

Besides basic WordPress website designs, it is also quite good for supporting membership websites.

One can sell subscriptions to any premium service or digital product that he has.

Google and all search engines show and rank websites in search results based on various predefined parameters. The more parameters you fulfill, the better your website ranks in search results. The good news is that WordPress takes all the SEO responsibilities that a CMS is supposed to satisfy.

Some Crucial CMS Validity Requirements:

  • Fast Loading Speed: The loading speed of a website is also influenced by your CMS. That’s why WordPress is already optimized for good speed.
  • Good Coding Standard: You can imagine how advanced it will be as its new versions have been introduced every few months since 2003 when it came. Expert developers are there to take care of it.
  • XML Sitemap: Easily generate and submit a sitemap to search engines. It helps them recognize the structure of your site content.
  • Navigation: In WordPress, navigation becomes very robust with menus, drop-down menu functionality, tags, categories, and tons of widgets provided in WordPress.

To run WordPress, all you need is a domain and web hosting. We recommend using either Bluehost because both offer our users a free domain and 50% off their hosting prices. All hosting companies generally provide a one-click installation facility for WordPress. If you’re unsure which WordPress developer to hire, it’s always best to check out local developers and agencies.

WordPress Foundation

Supporting the WordPress community since 2010.

The WordPress Foundation is a charitable organization founded by Matt Mullenweg to further the mission of the WordPress open-source project: to democratize publishing through Open Source, GPL software.

As a non-profit organization, the WordPress Foundation pursues a charter to educate the public about WordPress and related open-source software. The point of the Foundation is to ensure free access, in perpetuity, to the software projects we support. People and businesses may come and go, so it is essential to ensure that the source code for these projects will survive beyond the current contributor base and that we may create a stable platform for web publishing for generations to come. The Foundation will protect WordPress, WordCamp, and related trademarks as part of this mission.

Originally appeared on https://visualwebz.com/

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Visualwebz

A Seattle web design and online marketing agency that delivers high-end websites. A passion for web development and SEO.