Matt Mullenweg

Founder & CEO, Automattic · 1 appearance on the record.

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Matt Mullenweg is the co-founder of WordPress, the open-source content management system. He is also the founder and CEO of Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, WooCommerce, and Tumblr.

8statements → 3claims → 1claims resolved → 4.25/5average certainty → 1.75/5average debate potential → 2said about them ↓

1 supported 0 partly supported 0 contradicted 2 not checkable as stated how the 3 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

3 assertions · 1 opinion · 2 insights · 2 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 3 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 1 is resolved, and 2 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Matt argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported

Mullenweg: WordPress co-founders had never met in person when starting project

“Myself and the co-founder had never met in person. He was in the UK. I was in Houston, Texas, where I am today.”

Matt Mullenweg Mar 24, 2022 ▶ 34:17 How to Engineer Serendipity | Matt Mullenweg, Automattic

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Matt Mullenweg on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

What they said8 What others said2 Episodes1

Everything Matt Mullenweg said on the Startup Ideas Podcast that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Insight

Mullenweg: Competing for SF Talent Was Fishing in a Small Pond

“Like I'm a big believer in in-person and physical space. A big part of automatic culture is actually meetups where we would bring either the whole company or teams together a few times a year. But it just felt like the best, most talent in the world was not in…”

Matt Mullenweg Mar 24, 2022 ▶ 36:45 How to Engineer Serendipity | Matt Mullenweg, Automattic

Disclosure

Mullenweg: Automattic pays identical salaries regardless of employee geography

“So something we didn't do when we started, but we switched in like, was paying the same salaries regardless of geography, right? It's the same work. It's the same job. You're creating the same value for the company and the and the customers. So you should make…”

Matt Mullenweg Mar 24, 2022 ▶ 49:57 How to Engineer Serendipity | Matt Mullenweg, Automattic

Opinion

Mullenweg: Marc and Ben's public writing disrupted the VC model for a16z

“What would Andreessen Horowitz be without Mark's seminal essays and Ben's amazing books and essays, you know, like Their writing is part of how they disrupted the VC model and became Andres and Horowitz, which now we take for granted.”

Matt Mullenweg Mar 24, 2022 ▶ 45:46 How to Engineer Serendipity | Matt Mullenweg, Automattic

Insight

Mullenweg: Team time zone differences should not exceed seven to eight hours

“I think for teams, it's good to be in a range. I'm actually okay with a range of up to seven or eight hours, so like Europe and US is okay, because you can still overlap for an hour to a day, and that's usually plenty. If you need a lot more, you're probably h…”

Matt Mullenweg Mar 24, 2022 ▶ 54:23 How to Engineer Serendipity | Matt Mullenweg, Automattic

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Mullenweg: 55% of Tumblr users are under 24 and 85% on mobile

“It is majority. So 55% under 24 and under. So it's a young blogging network, which is neat. It's different than WordPress's demographics. It's primarily mobile. 85% of mobile. It's still doing tens of thousands of signups per day.”

Matt Mullenweg Mar 24, 2022 ▶ 56:16 How to Engineer Serendipity | Matt Mullenweg, Automattic

Disclosure

Mullenweg: I Personally Took Over as Tumblr CEO in February 2022

“And actually, you know, some news as of February first, I'm running it personally. So I'm day to day running Tumblr as CEO working on the product, working on the design, working on the tech, working on everything.”

Matt Mullenweg Mar 24, 2022 ▶ 56:45 How to Engineer Serendipity | Matt Mullenweg, Automattic

Assertion Supported

Mullenweg: WordPress co-founders had never met in person when starting project

“Myself and the co-founder had never met in person. He was in the UK. I was in Houston, Texas, where I am today.”

Matt Mullenweg Mar 24, 2022 ▶ 34:17 How to Engineer Serendipity | Matt Mullenweg, Automattic

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Mullenweg: Automattic is at 2,000 employees and hired 700 last year

“You know, we're 2000 people now. We hired 700 last year, by the way, so you can scale this quite a bit.”

Matt Mullenweg Mar 24, 2022 ▶ 53:24 How to Engineer Serendipity | Matt Mullenweg, Automattic

The other half of the tape: Matt Mullenweg's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 2 times in 2 episodes on the Startup Ideas Podcast. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Sahil Bloom 1 Kevin Rose 1

Every mention by year

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2024 1 mention in 1 episode

Watch this if you want free $1m-$100m business ideas (with Kevin Rose) Apr 12, 2024 · 1 mention · from 17:43
every mention in 2024, scene by scene →

2022 1 mention in 1 episode

Common Traits of Legends with Ndamukong Suh Apr 7, 2022 · 1 mention · from 31:30
every mention in 2022, scene by scene →

Appearances (1)

Episode	Date	Speaking time
How to Engineer Serendipity \| Matt Mullenweg, Automattic	Mar 24, 2022	10m