WordPress software powers 70 million websites. Just about half of the biggest blogs in the world run on WordPress. Automattic – owner of WordPress – is not your typical Silicon Valley Web start-up.
“We march a little to our own beat, and sometimes it’s out of sync with Silicon Valley — and that’s been to our advantage and disadvantage,” co-head Toni Schneider said.
“We don’t get sucked into the latest thing, while some of our competitors are distracted by the latest shiny object. The disadvantage is sometimes we’re against the grain of what everyone else is excited about, and people ask ‘Why don’t you have x yet?’ — but we go at our own pace.”
Another way that Automattic is unusual is its extraordinarily low rate of staff changeover. It currently has 106 employees — and it has only ever hired 118 people.
Automattic was founded by Matt Mullenweg. From Houston. An American with a German background.
