When Jason Cohen started a blog called “A Smart Bear,” he probably did it years later. WP engine, One of the largest digital experience platforms for WordPress today.
From 2003 to 2009, Cohen wrote a blog for the Smart Bear (founded by him) company, hoping that everyone else in the company would also contribute. Over time, he noticed that he was the only one posting, but more importantly, perhaps more annoyingly, the website continued to crash because the WordPress installation wasn’t extended. It was.
Cohen says TechRadar Pro His main focus was to make sure his website didn’t go down, so this frustration led him to find a hosting solution by the means he needed.
“What do I call my blogger friend and say? WordPress hosting Should I use it? I don’t care if it costs $ 50 a month. I just want to keep my blog from going down. I don’t always know their answer, but if you find it, let me know because I need it too, “he explains.
Cohen uses the basic value of a user paying $ 50 a month and receiving four things called four S’s of speed, scale, security and service, following the light bulb moment, over 50 people. Scrutinized the idea of the WP engine.
“It started in early 2010, but officially started in May with about 30 customers. We started as a bootstrapped company. In about 18 months, the market is very very It was clear that it was big. In 10 years, we finally raised a total of about $ 300 million, “he says.
Building a WP engine
Over the last 11 years, WP Engine has served billions of requests per day to 150,000 customers worldwide. Cohen’s belief in building a team with WP Engine was that every startup needed to determine the culture it wanted.
“Every startup has a culture, but it’s up to the leader to decide what it is. It needs to be clearly defined in writing so that it can be used in areas such as interviews and performance management. Not only that, there is a set of characteristics to look for, “he says.
“Also, I wasn’t looking for skills, I was looking for aptitude to grow and be great. For example, I’m not a mediocre developer who already knows the stack, but a talent who doesn’t know the stack. I hired a developer. “
Cohen’s method has led WP Engine to employ 1,000 people company-wide, including the core infrastructure of its scalable and secure WordPress-powered website.
When asked if the WP engine grew according to the original plans Cohen had in mind for the company, he revealed that it actually grew much faster than expected.
“”For the first 18 months, it grew steadily for boot-strapped companies, but at the beginning of 2012, the growth rate suddenly rose dramatically and did not take off and look back, “he said. I added.
“New startups don’t grow as planned. It’s faster, slower, or rugged. Some are due to inherent uncertainty, some are due to a few laws. That’s why startups most often need more operating cash than their plans expect-revenues are growing slower than costs (and therefore need more cash) or revenues are As we grow faster, we need to turn around and increase costs even faster (more cash is needed.”
Next level
As one of the world’s largest public website platforms, WP Engine’s key technologies are Internet-scale software and infrastructure. With tens of billions of requests being made daily through the platform, even things that are easy to do with other methods, such as collecting and reading logs, can be difficult.
Cohen said he plans to take WordPress to new heights in functionality and performance in the future.
“We still offer world-class managed WordPress hosting, but recently launched Atlas, a headless WordPress solution, which is broadly the future of the Web, especially WordPress. I believe, “he explained.
“Atlas is a complete headless WordPress platform, with the flexibility and security that comes with headless solutions to enable exponentially fast dynamic sites that allow developers to front and back their sites. The detachable end allows you to build a personalized omni-channel experience integrated with your backend at the speed normally reserved for static pamphlet sites.
“We also launched a custom e-commerce solution, with the launch of Premier, an enterprise WordPress platform that provides industry-leading levels of security, performance and scalability for the world’s most popular and most visited sites. We’re doubling enterprise WordPress. “
With four technology startups and annual revenues in excess of $ 1 million, it was correct for Cohen to share the largest learning curve. His answer is two simple words: HR management.
“As an engineer, it’s always more comfortable to talk about algorithms than to look at resumes. As an entrepreneur, it’s always more comfortable to talk about strategies and products than to build a world-class global sales, service, and financial organization. “He says. ..
“Fortunately for me on the WP engine, we hired Heather Bruner as CEO early in the orbit and have had many years of success under her leadership. Probably the best learning for me. Aside from the ego and title, instead, I personally enjoy and pursue the ideal of working on what I specialize in and what the company needs to do. “
“Of course you can’t really live in the center of the Venn diagram every hour, day, or month, but looking for it as much as possible is a great solution and probably my most important learning. is.”
Look at the awards
WP Engine has launched several products and initiatives in recent months, and from an external perspective, the brand has earned the trust of a huge number of managed WordPress customers in different regions. But from an internal point of view, Cohen once again says that his company’s strength is its culture.
“We’ve been focusing on it for years, so even if we grow up, we’re very good at it. It’s impossible to perfect it again, but as we say,” the workplace of choice. Our relentless pursuit of creating “means that we are constantly improving, constantly listening and reacting,” he added.
“The value is self-evident, and I hope that beyond finance and indicators, we can do what is really important: create good jobs that people like, work their real self, and work on important projects. “
The market is evolving, and with the establishment of a company in the managed WordPress community, Cohen said he is now looking closely at headless.
WP Engine recently launched a new headless product that Cohen has completely shifted its focus to and has taken over the lead of that product.
“Headless solutions are the future of enterprise WordPress, but there is no end-to-end solution that combines a dynamic Node.js layer, a static CDN layer, and a headless content management system (CMS) layer. A package,” he said. Says.
“That’s why we created Atlas. This eliminates the need for developers to choose between incredible site performance and a dynamic experience. It also drives 42% of the web. It has been upgraded to maintain an open source CMS platform and support the latest architectures of developers. It’s the best of all in the world. “
