WordPress now powers 70 million sites, up from 35 million sites a year ago. Almost half of the biggest blogs in the world are hosted by WordPress.com or run on their own versions of the open-source WordPress platform.

Matt Mullenweg and Toni Schneider

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

The majority of Automattic revenue comes from premium subscription services, and that’s supplemented by a “VIP” enterprise publisher business — in total, there are half a million paying customers — as well as a recently launched advertising revenue-sharing network.

(Disclosure: AllThingsD is an Automattic customer. I wrote this post using WordPress.)

Now Automattic, which has long been a distributed, flat company run by the two-man team of Schneider and Mullenweg, is bringing some outside executives into the ranks.

New CFO Stuart West, who was most recently an executive-in-residence at Andreessen Horowitz, had also been at Wikimedia, Kno, Tivo and InfoSpace.

West will be in charge of all things financial and operational. “When you see this much usage, you know there’s an extraordinary revenue opportunity,” he told me.

Meanwhile, Paul Sieminski, previously of Gunderson Dettmer, will become Automattic’s first general counsel.

Automattic is not your normal Silicon Valley Web start-up, between its commitment to and grounding in open source, its workforce distributed around the world (the company currently has no office, though it’s planning to open a new San Francisco headquarters soon), and its relative lack of interest in tech trends.

For instance, way after the rise of Tumblr and the rest of the social Web, WordPress.com last year added its first social features, to tie its blogs, bloggers and readers together into a network.

The company was slow to get social because it was more focused on expanding its blogging tools into a more general publishing platform, and also because of its general commitment to openness over walled gardens, Mullenweg said.

Meanwhile, Schneider said mobile usage has grown dramatically in the past year (is there any site or app for which that’s not true?), with a 500 percent increase in the number of mobile views and amount of content created from mobile devices.

What’s next for Automattic is tighter integration into social networks and a more seamless set of tools across different devices, the two said.

“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,” 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.”

One other way Automattic is unusual is its incredibly low rate of staff attrition. Mullenweg said that the company currently has 106 employees — and it has only ever hired 118 people.

OwnLocal is also one of the first for-profit investments by the Knight Enterprise Fund for media innovation; additional funding comes from 500 Startups and investors found through AngelList.

The total amount of funding OwnLocal has raised is still pretty small: Just $2 million. That’s because the company is already supporting its 20 employees based on revenue, said OwnLocal founder and CEO Lloyd Armbrust.

OwnLocal serves local media outlets in 35 states, with white-label tools for directories, search engine optimization, daily deals and other services to help local businesses.

Automattic CEO Toni Schneider said he expects to make more investments in the WordPress ecosystem. “Their approach is highly complementary to our own goals of making it easy for anyone in the world to have a beautiful Web site,” added Automattic founder Matt Mullenweg.

Last Friday, National Public Radio CEO Vivian Schiller and Digital Media SVP and GM Kinsey WiIson 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?

These and other questions were discussed at frog design Friday with a passel of Web types like investor Roger McNamee of Elevation Partners, Toni Schneider of Automattic, craigslist founder Craig Newmark and LinkedIn founder and Chairman Reid Hoffman.

Also, ubiquitous blogger Robert Scoble, who wants NPR to open itself up like a can of beans.

The Think In participants were charged with making suggestions related to five main topics: Social media and connection to the audience, NPR’s national network of more than 800 stations, the potential of its open API, expansion of platforms and how to diversify its revenue model.

BoomTown always likes crowdsourcing innovation, even among the digital elite.

While at the event in the morning, I talked to Schiller, who came to NPR last year after a stint as general manager of the New York Times online unit, and also to Wilson, who previously worked as executive editor for USA Today and ran its digital efforts before that.

Along with my video interview with them, below, you can check out some more detailed information from the event here.

Here’s my video:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20091012/nprs-honchos-talk-digital-at-think-in-in-san-francisco-also-scoble/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20081030/they-will-survive-silicon-valley-entrepreneurs-talk-downturn/ http://allthingsd.com/20081030/they-will-survive-silicon-valley-entrepreneurs-talk-downturn/#comments Thu, 30 Oct 2008 21:32:57 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=5850

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.

Thus, here is the i-will-survive take from Jason Calacanis of Mahalo, Toni Schneider, chief executive of Automattic, the company that makes the WordPress blogging software, Nirav Tolia of Web 1.0′s Epinions and Max Levchin of Slide.

As an added bonus, Ram Shriram, one of Google’s first investors, also weighs in. And, of course, the inevitable blogger Robert Scoble gives his two cents (and also freaks me out once again!).

Here’s the video of the entrepreneurs, and below it, for your viewing pleasure, two versions of “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor (the classic) and Cake (the weirdly good one):

[ See post to watch video ]

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20081030/they-will-survive-silicon-valley-entrepreneurs-talk-downturn/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20081030/the-entire-video-of-john-doerr-giving-10-tips-for-start-ups-to-avoid-the-econalypse/ http://allthingsd.com/20081030/the-entire-video-of-john-doerr-giving-10-tips-for-start-ups-to-avoid-the-econalypse/#comments Thu, 30 Oct 2008 09:29:59 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=5821

Here’s a video of star VC John Doerr reciting his 10 tips for start-ups to follow in the economic downturn.

Doerr gave out the advice at VentureBeat’s “How to manage your start-up in the downturn” roundtable event, which took place at the Stanford Park Hotel in Palo Alto yesterday morning.

The Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers VC got a lot of attention for his list, which he culled from a survey of 18 of the companies his firm has invested in.

Doerr didn’t need a massive, noisy PowerPoint like Sequoia Capital to make his quick and clear points, which he delivered in four minutes flat.

Doerr was on an investors panel with Ram Shriram, one of Google’s first investors, Ron Conway, Kittu Kolluri of New Enterprise Associates and Matt Cohler of Benchmark Capital.

I moderated the second panel of entrepreneurs, including: Toni Schneider, chief executive of Automattic, the company that makes the WordPress blogging software; Max Levchin of Slide, Jason Calacanis of Mahalo; and Nirav Tolia of Web 1.0′s Epinions. Video of interviews with them and also Shriram to come later today!

But here’s Doerr reciting his 10 tips:

[ See post to watch video ]

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20081030/the-entire-video-of-john-doerr-giving-10-tips-for-start-ups-to-avoid-the-econalypse/feed/ 7 http://allthingsd.com/20081028/how-to-manage-your-start-up-in-the-downturn-well-come-to-this-event-and-find-out/ http://allthingsd.com/20081028/how-to-manage-your-start-up-in-the-downturn-well-come-to-this-event-and-find-out/#comments Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:05:44 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=5764 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.

It will take place at the Stanford Park Hotel in Palo Alto from 8 a.m. to noon.

Toni Schneider, chief executive of Automattic (the company that makes the WordPress blogging software) 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 panel of investors, moderated by VentureBeat’s Matt Marshall, which features: John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; Ram Shriram, one of Google’s first investors, Ron Conway, Kittu Kolluri of New Enterprise Associates and Matt Cohler of Benchmark Capital.

Oh, it is sure to be a festival of Web 2.0 pondering.

Said Marshall in a post about the gathering:

One goal of this event is to provide context and advice for start-up CEOs and founders facing the recession. We’ve handpicked the speakers for their remarkable records and experiences in the previous downturn. …

While the Sequoia [Capital] ‘RIP Good Times’ presentation gave a broad overview of the economic problems facing the tech world, it provided mostly a macro analysis, and a general prescription for companies.

Now is the time to take the analysis one step further, and discuss the variety of situations we see among valley investors and their start-ups: How cleantech companies are different from Internet start-ups, and how under certain conditions, a profitable company may actually be poised for aggressive growth, hiring and M&A–and not necessarily ideal for cost cutting. We intend to explore all of this and more.

Given the fairly predictable ‘Silicon Valley is in circle-the-wagons mode’ story line we’ve been seeing so far in the media, this event is also the Valley’s opportunity to help dispel this myth and explain how the area’s start-ups are actually quite diverse and that there are a mix of strategies at play.”

The event is sold out, but it will be streamed live.

And, as usual, look for a shaky video report of the roundtable from me later!

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20081028/how-to-manage-your-start-up-in-the-downturn-well-come-to-this-event-and-find-out/feed/ 2 http://allthingsd.com/20070720/its-true-a-vcs-life-is-like-a-day-at-the-beach/ http://allthingsd.com/20070720/its-true-a-vcs-life-is-like-a-day-at-the-beach/#comments Fri, 20 Jul 2007 14:47:57 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/20070720/its-true-a-vcs-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 partners on the sand.

True is an interesting and highly eclectic fund, and much less formal than other more stodgy outfits. Hence, a beach party rather than a gathering at some pricey resort.

Some of its better known companies are Automattic (CEO Toni Schneider is also a True partner and its main product is the WordPress open-source blogging software, used here, btw); GigaOm, Om Malik’s blogging empire; IM apps maker Meebo; blog search apps maker Sphere (also used on this site); and scanR, a start-up that allows digital cameras and cellphones to scan, copy and fax.

I chatted with some partners in this video, as well as an interesting new entrepreneur that True is backing from Chesspark. It’s a little long, and there are some unfortunate wind problems caused by the Pacific Ocean, but you also get an exclusive BoomTown tour guide of the scenic trip.

[ See post to watch video ]

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