Heyo IH! I'm a designer/turned engineer/turned product manager who enjoys running product and making beautiful software, specifically in the WordPress ecosystem.
Like a lot of folks, I started off making WordPress themes, but eventually jumped into Gutenberg with CoBlocks, sold my products to GoDaddy, joined their amazing team as a PM for a few years running WordPress Experience, left, and now I run product at a much smaller startup called Extendify — where we're building next generation experiences for WordPress.
Have any questions for me? Ask away!
Hi Rich, I am using CoBlocks and when I try to make certain edits, I am now getting a JSON error - and am unable to edit. PLEASE HELP! Using Gutenberg - thank you so much :-)
How Extendify is different than EasyWP and WPEngine?
Congrats on the sale! Could i get your view on whats the future of building website in Wordpress ? I mean, with so many page builders and themes are there, what is your bet on the skill level that a new web developer should focus on it.
Hi Rich, I was an early user of CoBlocks, I loved your job.
What do you think of the future of Headless WordPress? We are creating something here and we are very excited to contribute to the ecosystem: https://gorillacms.com
Greetings from South America.
Hey thanks! I'm very curious about headless WP and I see a case for it big time. I still think it's very much a developer-oriented direction, but in time I foresee perhaps headless could become the norm.
How did the sale to GoDaddy go down? I know you might not want to share all the details, but were you actively looking to sell at the time?
(I was a super-early CoBlocks user, btw!)
Cool man! Do you still use it by chance? Curious. Honestly, it started with getting attention via video shorts and writing profusely about CoBlocks, then when I happened to be at the right place, at the right time, I was introduced to the right person from GoDaddy who helped broker the relationship. We met a good bit and talked through the future of WordPress, blocks and Gutenberg, then decided it would be mutually awesome to join forces - so we did.
It was as smooth as I’d imagine an acquisition going. Still stressful for sure, but I couldn’t have asked for a better team to jump in with.
Awesome.
No, I don't use it much anymore, but it's still an active plugin on a few of my sites. I now use a similar plugin that had a few extra blocks I was looking for, so I'm using only that one to keep things looking consistent.
Which wordpress theme would you recommend for someone starting to create a content/creative agency?
really like Extendify as its been great for someone who isn't a WP master and just wants to have something up fast.
Awesome! I'm leaning into the next era of Block Themes, focusing on how those play with the new Full Site Editing feature-set. So I'd recommend Tove, TT1 Blocks, and the upcoming Twenty Twenty Two theme.
And we may be working on something big... ;)
How did you find your first customers with Extendify?
How did you build Extendify and did you do it yourself or with a co-founder/contractors/ect.
I've only been here a month heading product, but the two co-founders started Extendify out of seeing how complex/fragmented/difficult the average WordPress experience is. Right now we're iterating towards the next era of WordPress; positioning ourselves to be the #1 solution for folks who want the best of WordPress (Full Site Editing).