Automattic Grows Up: The Company Behind WordPress.com Shares Revenue Numbers and Hires Execs

Automattic is profitable and expects to bring in $45 million in revenue this year, according to CEO Toni Schneider and founder Matt Mullenweg.
mullenweg_schneider

The Company Behind WordPress Invests in Newspaper Toolmaker OwnLocal

The open source blogging start-up Automattic has made its first investment with OwnLocal, which offers tools for newspapers to help local businesses with their Web presence.
OwnLocalscreenshot

NPR's Honchos Talk Digital at "Think In" in San Francisco (Also, Scoble!)

Last Friday, National Public Radio top execs came to San Francisco for a “Digital Think In” to pick the brains of some Silicon Valley types about where the public radio icon should go, digitally speaking. While NPR actually has been pretty fast-forward with podcasts and a robust Web site, it still has to think about what social networking means to it and whether a day is coming when broadcasting online will be bigger than offline. Also, what’s up with Twitter?
npr_generic_image_300

They Will Survive–Silicon Valley Entrepreneurs Talk Downturn!

Earlier today, BoomTown posted a video of star venture capitalist John Doerr’s 10 tips to start-ups for surviving the econalypse that he ticked off at a roundtable in Silicon Valley on Wednesday. Beside the words of wisdom from the Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner, I also trolled for advice from the panel of well-known entrepreneurs I moderated at VentureBeat’s “How to manage your start-up in the downturn” event. The message: They will survive! (Cue the disco ball.)

The Entire Video of John Doerr Giving 10 Tips for Start-ups to Avoid the Econalypse

Here’s a video of star VC John Doerr reciting his 10 tips for start-ups to follow in the economic downturn, dispensed at a VentureBeat roundtable event on the downturn yesterday. And the Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers VC didn’t need a massive, noisy PowerPoint like Sequoia Capital to make his quick and clear points, which he delivered in four minutes flat.

"How To Manage Your Start-Up in the Downturn"? Well, Come to This Event and Find Out!

Tomorrow, BoomTown is trying to find a silver lining from a group of entrepreneurs at VentureBeat’s “How to manage your start-up in the downturn” roundtable event. Toni Schneider, chief executive of Automattic will join Max Levchin of Slide, Jason Calacanis of Mahalo, O’Melveny & Myers’ Sam Zucker, and Nirav Tolia of Web 1.0′s Epinions. Along with my group, for whom I am planning all sorts of verbal tortures (“Exactly how much do you make?”), there is also a star-studded investors panel.

It's True: A VC's Life Is Like a Day at the Beach

I motored on out to Stinson Beach, the lovely coastal community about an hour’s drive north of San Francisco, yesterday for the annual get-together thrown by True Ventures, a venture firm. I missed the clambake part of the event–my kids need tending, so I can’t be all Elvis-acting!–but had a nice time chatting with its [...]