Matt’s fascination with blogging started in college, when he discovered the most exciting commentary on economics and politics in the blogosphere. “Some of the most interesting content on the web was on blogs,” Matt explains. “So I started subscribing to blogs, commenting on blogs and eventually thought to myself, ‘Hey, I can do this.’” Blogging inspired him to develop Wordpress.com, which has become so successful partly because of Mullenweg’s ambivalence towards monetary success and dedication to improving existing platforms. In the beginning, Mullenweg explains, “We were making software that we wanted, and it was mostly lucky that it mapped to what a larger audience wanted as well.” While Mullenweg and his team were busy innovating and redesigning new features, the world had caught wind of the ease and flexibility of wordpress.com and it had become a phenomenon with the power to tempt publishing giants like the New York Times to shake free from the corporate mold.
The impact that Wordpress.com has had on the blogging community is incomparable. With a strategy that Mullenweg describes as “just using our own products everyday and doing our best to watch and listen to what our community is asking for,” the success of Wordpress.com proves that sometimes simplicity of purpose can be the best strategy. However, the best advice that Matt received was not to do everything himself. When asked about the transition from working on wordpress.com in his dorm room to managing a team of employees, Mullenweg says, “the most important part is just finding people to work with that are better than you, creating an environment for them to thrive and getting out of the way. As a team, we can tackle a much broader set of challenges.”
Wordpress.com users can take full advantage of the innovative solutions to everyday problems that are being constantly generated by Mullenweg and his team through the “open source” nature of their software, which means that everyday bloggers can tailor-make their blog software to develop the perfect forum for their ideas.
With the success of Wordpress.com and the popularity of blogging crossing generational, cultural and social lines, it seems that there isn’t a way to progress from here, but Mullenweg disagrees; he sees communication continuing to evolve as bloggers press for more convenience and opportunities for creativity. “I think at its core blogging will remain to be about unique voices and great writing,” Mullenweg explains, “But richer media formats such as audio- and video-based blogs are becoming more accessible. It’s possible that blogs will start to supplant old-media audio and video channels just like they’ve supplanted news and writing channels today.”
At 23 years old, it’s definitely safe to say that Matt Mullenweg has made it — there’s nowhere to go but up. Businessweek recently named Mullenweg one of the “25 Most Influential People on the Internet,” dubbing him “The Publisher.” But Matt Mullenweg isn’t about to make any legal name changes. When asked about his new moniker, he humbly says, “I’m incredibly flattered by the title. It might be a misnomer since I’m more a toolmaker than a content creator, but to the extent I can help new voices reach their audience on the web, I’d consider my work worthwhile.”
When he’s not devoting his time to Wordpress.com and other ventures, Mullenweg likes to unwind just like the rest of us: snapping the thousands of photographs that he posts on his own blog, reading, listening to music, and spending time with the people he loves. His advice for young people trying to get their own “far-fetched” ideas off of the ground is to “believe in and love what you’re doing and listen to yourself.” Free speech has found one of its most effective forums in Wordpress.com. In a time when our faith in the nation’s leaders and the tenets of democracy have truly weakened, we can thank Matt Mullenweg for allowing us the opportunity to go home and blog about it.
By Alanna Peterson
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