Automattic

Tim Ferriss

@tferriss

To make the blog post ("Better Than Free") concrete and provide a dose of inspiration, here are a few friends and past guests who each embody at least one of Kevin's principles brilliantly. 1. @BrandSanderson. His “Four Secret Novels” Kickstarter raised $41.75 million, making it the most-funded campaign in Kickstarter history. Fans paid extra for backer-first releases, lavishly illustrated premium leather-bound hardcovers, swag boxes, and a yearlong experience. For a deep dive on Brandon’s business, check out my full interview with him. 2. @benthompson (@stratechery). The tech news is free everywhere; subscribers pay $15 per month for Ben's interpretation. Stratechery was an explicit inspiration for Substack and an early proof that a one-person publication could scale through paid subscriptions. 3. @themarginalian (The Marginalian). Since 2006, The Marginalian has remained free and advertising-free, supported by reader patronage. Its value is Maria’s trusted curation, synthesis, and ability to draw unexpected connections across literature, science, philosophy, and art. 4. @sivers. Derek says he replies to every personal email and sells his books directly from his own site, including every digital format with a purchase and pricing additional paper copies close to cost. The words are easy to share; the direct relationship with Derek is scarce. 5. @RyanHoliday (@dailystoic). The free Daily Stoic email reaches roughly one million subscribers. Its paid offerings include physical medallions, challenges, courses, memberships, signed and leather-bound books, and an actual bookstore, The Painted Porch. 6. Seth Godin. More than 10,000 free blog posts built the trust. Books, talks, courses, and the cohort-based workshops he pioneered turned those freely available ideas into deeper, participatory experiences. 7. @BoydVarty. His books and free podcast distribute his ideas inexpensively; the scarce offering is a five-day Track Your Life retreat at Londolozi, including wildlife-tracking expeditions, personal coaching with Boyd, and work with master trackers. You cannot download that. 8. @photomatt. WordPress is free and open-source. Automattic—the company behind the hosted https://t.co/GH0PcUJGkP service, WooCommerce, Jetpack, and other products—provides paid hosting, security, commerce, support, and other services around an open ecosystem. It is a modern version of “software, free; the software manual, $10,000.” *** Read the full @kevin2kelly blog post below.

Eric Ries

@ericries

Six months of salary. That's what Matt Mullenweg offered every Automattic employee to resign if they didn't believe in the company's direction. About 9% took the offer and left.

Sahil Lavingia

@shl

TIL Automattic is an investor in Gumroad

fatih kadir akın

@fkadev

🔥 BIG NEWS: I’m joining @Automattic 🚀 I’ll be joining the @WordPress DevRel team, at the heart of OSS, around a project that powers over 43% of the web. Very excited to work with the amazing minds behind @WordPress, @beeper, @tumblr, and more 🥹 ✨ Let’s build together!

James LePage

@jameswlepage

Today's my last day as Head of AI at Automattic, and Core AI lead for WordPress. Shocking to think it's been only 18 months since the WPAI acquisition. https://t.co/byriJVp0l3 So much has happened. We formed Core AI for @WordPress, built the AI Building Blocks (the last ships in 7.0), grew Automattic AI from from ~10 folks to 50+, and #core-ai went from 0 to 1,000+. @automattic shipped AI site builders, built-in agents, Telex, agentic commerce in Woo, Parsely Sage, MCPs… an incredible group to get to work with each day, async or in the NoHo space.

Chris Riley

@LCSlates

Well so much for that. Already lost. The system is utterly fucked and broken. @stripe 48-page evidence package. Easy to read, Table of contents, filled with visuals (a junior bank employee could easily understand everything). The customer used the product for 49 days, was logged in 13 hours before filing the chargeback, then canceled the subscription 5 hours after the dispute was already filed. *Technically they are still ACTIVE. Here's everything we submitted: PAYMENT INTEGRITY • AVS postal-code check: PASS • CVC check: PASS • Stripe Radar score: Normal (22 / low risk) • Auth success rate on customer email: 100% • Card brand, last-4, fingerprint, exp, billing ZIP all confirmed by issuer CUSTOMER USE POST-CHARGE • 35 distinct active days in 49 days • 393 authenticated session-refresh events • 17 long-form SEO articles generated • 18 AI images generated • 3 WordPress sites configured (admin credentials added) • 4 Google accounts authenticated via OAuth • Customer added their own paid OpenAI API key (BYOK) • 4 team members added TIMING • 49 days between charge and dispute • Logged into the dashboard 13 hours BEFORE filing the chargeback • Canceled the subscription 5 hours AFTER the dispute was filed INDEPENDENT IP CORROBORATION • Stripe captured IP at checkout: Manchester, UK • Microsoft Clarity captured 22 of 38 sessions over 60 days: also Manchester, UK • Two unrelated 3rd parties placing the same person in the same city across payment + 60 days of authenticated use THE KICKER - THE CUSTOMER'S OWN PUBLIC WEBSITE CURRENTLY DEPENDS ON OUR PRIVATE CDN • Articles generated on his account are LIVE on his own public WordPress sites • Page source contains img tags pointing INSIDE our private R2 bucket • Last-Modified headers on those CDN files match the EXACT minute his account generated them • Currently fetched by every visitor to his website CRYPTOGRAPHIC IDENTITY CHAIN (Automattic / Gravatar) • Every WordPress author avatar = SHA-256(author email) • 3 of his sites, 3 perfect SHA-256 matches against the gmail addresses in our DB • Automattic has no relationship with us, the customer, or the bank • Effectively unforgeable email-to-WP-admin binding DOMAIN OWNERSHIP (third-party attestation) • Google Search Console verified ownership on 4 separate domains • Public WHOIS: 2 of his domains registered 9 SECONDS APART through the same registrar account • Both registered 5 MONTHS BEFORE he bought our subscription • Pre-existing content business, not a stolen-card test VISA CE 3.0 ELIGIBLE • Same payment credential had a $0.00 trial-start invoice marked "paid" 7 days before the disputed charge • Same customer, email, payment method, subscription • Exactly the prior-undisputed-transaction proof Visa CE 3.0 requires The chargeback dispute system is broken.

Matt Mullenweg

Founder & CEO

Co-creator of WordPress and the founder and CEO of Automattic.