The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 16 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
De Valk: Matt Mullenweg and Automattic cannot afford to acquire Yoast
“I don't think he can afford us, first of all.”
Chaudhry: BlogVault builds a better product than Automattic
“So Automatic is the company, yes. And we would love to, yeah, we think we have a better product than them.”
Mullenweg predicts 99% of crypto token issuances will go to zero
“One, I think there's a lot of, 99% of those are going to go to zero. There's a, but there's also some in there that'll be category changing and change the world.”
Commercial spin-outs usually damage their underlying open-source projects
“The history of most companies coming out of open source projects is that the open source project really suffers.”
Mullenweg models Automattic's WordPress strategy on Google's Android and Pixel ecosystem
“Think of it kind of like Google with Android. Like, they'll make their Pixel phones, so we'll make some versions of WordPress that we think are the best in the world. But very key to our strategy is also working with every other manufacturer out there and ever…”
Public market quarterly reporting prevents companies from making 10-year strategic bets
“And while they have access to, you know, the public capital markets, which is great.
Matt Mullenweg: there, I think lost, you lose a little bit of your ability except for very few companies to make really long-term strategic bets.
Matt Mullenweg: And we believ…”
Co-CEO arrangements create conflict; companies require a clear hierarchy
“I had seen co-CEO and other kind of arrangements and that seemed to create a lot of conflict. So I wanted everyone in the company to be clear. There was like, there was a clear hierarchy and Tony was at the very top. So he had the final say on everything. Whic…”
Jacobi: Joomla deliberately avoids the commercial model of Automattic and Acquia
“The, there's a fundamental Philosophy difference at Joomla to not go the automatic or Acquia route if we look at Drupal.”
Automattic raised at a $200M valuation to provide secondary liquidity
“So we were able to do a round at like a two hundred million valuation.
Matt Mullenweg: and that was New York Times actually joined that and it was largely our existing investors.
Matt Mullenweg: So all of our existing investors kind of re-upped and we did do a…”
Subscription revenue accounts for 98% to 99% of Automattic's business
“So we are, you know, vast, vast majority, 98, 99% subscription business.”
Automattic received a $200M buyout offer in 2008 with just 25 employees
“It was 2008, so it was about two years into automatic, two and a half years.
Nathan Latka: And it was a two hundred million dollar offer?
Matt Mullenweg: It was of that magnitude, yeah.
Matt Mullenweg: And the company at the time was also
Matt Mullenweg: Reall…”
WP Engine needs 450 employees for a vastly smaller customer base
“WP Engine at this point is 450 people. You know, that's, Automatic's only six 50. So just serving their customer base, which is much smaller than ours takes almost the same number of people.”
Automattic has surpassed $100M in annual recurring revenue
“I think the thing that we're saying publicly is that we're into the nine figures.”
Automattic has raised $200M in primary and $150M in secondary capital
“I think total at this point, I've raised around,
Matt Mullenweg: Let's say around 200 in primary and about another 150 in secondary.
Nathan Latka: Okay.
Matt Mullenweg: So somewhere around three 50 total.”
Automattic operates with zero internal email using a custom blogging tool
“So we use this thing we built called P two. You can look it up P two theme.com and it's basically like an internet blogging tool. So you can use it to share things with your colleagues. We use that instead of email. So there's basically no email inside of auto…”