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WP Engine: How A Startup Reached $1M In Sales In Less Than A Year

69 points by tswicegood 15y ago

redguava 15y ago
I stopped watching very early on. It really bugs me in interviews when the host does too much talking. I hope it balanced out as the video goes on, but if you have a guest on that has valuable information... let them speak.
- AndrewWarner 15y ago
  I don't want to do too much talking. Do you have any specific examples of where I did that?
  - mgallivan 15y ago
    I think the two points that seemed different than your previous interviews: 1. The story about your wife's WP hosting was a bit long. It seemed like you were trying to sell the purpose of Mr. Cohen's service but the story was a bit long-winded. 2. I liked that you summarized the video at the start of the interview - but you should do the summary before your interviewee is on-screen. As soon as his face hits the screen I want to hear him talk... Other than that, I enjoyed it!
    - AndrewWarner 15y ago
      Good point about my story of Olivia's experience. I think I was excited because it happened recently, and I might have been trying to win him over -- which is odd because I don't need to do that. Glad you said that about the summary. I've been thinking about the comments and assuming the summary is what everyone was talking about.
      - mgallivan 15y ago
        I wouldn't worry too much about the length of the story - it's probably just an outlier that comes with your style of interviewing.
  - steveplace 15y ago
    It seems the criticism goes away once they realize you're a real person.
  - redguava 15y ago
    Great to see you respond here. The time that lost me was when you were telling the story about your wife's issues. I understand your intent with that story, but it was quite long winded and it looked like a few times your guest went to speak and was effectively cut off. I didn't watch the whole video, I was put off by the signal to noise ratio in the first few minutes.
- taylort 15y ago
  I could not agree more. I kept fast-forwarding the interview to find where the guest started talking.
- jyap 15y ago
  Or just read the transcript on that page.
- citricsquid 15y ago
  I don't mind an interviewer talking if they're providing value to the interview, but when they interrupt the guest when the guest is providing information to give their opinion or ask a question it's incredibly annoying. I also quit watching after about 10 minutes for the same reason.
- jgmmo 15y ago
  I remember in the Rob Walling interview the Mixergy host stops Rob mid-sentence in order to talk about his hair and to play with his hair. Good content, but yes -- more guest less host.
  - AndrewWarner 15y ago
    Damn. Have I gone that far? I have to pull it back. I used to get criticism for not saying anything about myself. Maybe I'm going too far again. Thanks. The specific example was especially helpful.
    - dools 15y ago
      Actually I've noticed you rambling a little as well recently. I kinda like it because I'm a huge fan of the site and its sometimes funny or insightful (I couldn't believe how high spirited you were in Adeo's interview) but I can see how it would be off-putting to a first timer
    - jgmmo 15y ago
      Andrew, it's a great show. You do a great job. But it did crack me up because I came to Mixergy to watch Rob and it was my first Mixergy episode so I thought it was a bit humorous. Didn't mean anything person by it, youre doing a great job.
  - Ecio78 15y ago
    as a side note: afaik Rob Walling moved his blog to WPEngine some months ago and he's also a (small) investor
    - smartbear 15y ago
      Both true.
- pabloIMO 15y ago
  Here's an example: > Andrew: What about this, is it an advantage that you have over a newer entrepreneur or one that is not as well known is, that if you would have called me up at 1:00 AM, I would have taken your call. I would have woken up and made myself a cup of coffee so that I could be fully aware and give you ever ounce of attention that I could, because we’re friends, but also because you have a reputation in this space, and I know that at some point I’m going to want to work with you, and so the guy who has that has the advantage over the no-name entrepreneur who’s building his first company who then has to talk to 50 people and just getting 50 conversations would take forever because no one knows him and no one has any reason to be there for him. All this could be shortened to: > You have been a tech entrepreneur for quite a few years now and you have a massively successful blog which is read by thousands of people. How much of an advantage is the fact that you already have a reputation and a following? How would a newer entrepreneur go about finding 50 people to have these conversations with? There are many similar examples throughout the transcript.
- IanDrake 15y ago
  I'm guessing people here aren't that familiar with Andrew's work. I've been listening for a long time now and can tell you that few people have done for start-ups everywhere what Andrew has done. He's interviewing people just about every day, people who are making money, people with stories that can help others looking to do the same. Not every moment is gold, but Andrew is contributing in a major way and it cost you nothing but your time. It's just upsetting to me to hear these comments on HN. While criticism is good, I'm afraid some of these just sound too unappreciative for me to take. Andrew - Keep up the good work.
  - redguava 15y ago
    I am not familiar with his work, but I also don't think I should need to know his reputation in order to watch the video. To me it seemed disrespectful to the person he was interviewing, and honestly a bit egotistical to be talking so much. Hopefully this feedback reaches him and it's something that can be considered.
    - mgallivan 15y ago
      He replied to you in this thread.
  - zedadex 15y ago
    To me, the phrase "While criticism is good, I'm afraid some of these just sound too unappreciative for me to take" is far more upsetting than anything redguava said. Redguava - I watched the whole interview. While I was not previously familiar with "Andrew's" history I'm reading about him now, as I somewhat agreed with your take on him and became curious over the course of the interview about his qualifications/accomplishments. However, do watch the whole interview. Jason Cohen had some great things to say. By the end I felt it had strayed off topic but that it was definitely worth hearing, especially when he got to speak on how he'd have changed the interview.
    - IanDrake 15y ago
      >is far more upsetting than anything redguava said. Why? I think criticism is good. I also think being a troll that contributes nothing and blindly criticizes people who do contribute is bad.
whalesalad 15y ago
Holy cow. $1M for SUCH a simple concept. Offering reliable WP hosting is about as easy as changing batteries in a smoke detector. Not bitter about this, rather, nicely done capitalizing on such a simple thing.
- mhp 15y ago
  Do they say anywhere whether they mean $1MM in total sales or that they are now doing $1MM per month in sales? Those are two totally different concepts and I'm not sure which hurdle WPEngine has crossed.
  - dotBen 15y ago
    It's $1MM year (although we're now way past that milestone)
- jacques_chester 15y ago
  > Offering reliable WP hosting is about as easy as changing batteries in a smoke detector. Please excuse me while I laugh bitterly and slightly hysterically.
  - sedev 15y ago
    I was just thinking something similar. Did we all learn nothing from the recent spate of PHP critiques? Wordpress has several delightful qualities, but "runs easily and smoothly with minimal maintenance required" is not among them unless you are among the least demanding possible users of it.
- ezequiel-garzon 15y ago
  And they are rather pricey: $29/mo. for 1 domain and up to 25000 visits... I would expect personalized design in addition to hosting for that kind of money. Of course, all the power to them if they make their customers happy.
  - bigiain 15y ago
pchristensen 15y ago
This article from his blog a while ago is also useful: http://blog.asmartbear.com/vetting-startup-ideas.html http://blog.asmartbear.com/vetting-startup-ideas.html
theblogdoctor 15y ago
I love WP Engine, but like @ezequiel-garzon has stated, the hosting does get pricey, especially when you hit 100K Pageviews per month, which isn't too hard to acommplish for a content site if you are posting consistently. My site gets around 100K views per month, and I barely make 100$ from ads. The WP Engine fees for a 100K Pageviews site = $249. So I would lose more than twice my revenue every month.
jacques_chester 15y ago
I'm currently working on a startup in an only tangentially related field. One line item of my capital plan is to relocate a small blog network I run (http://ozblogistan.com.au http://ozblogistan.com.au) to WPEngine. There's enough traffic that I'd need the $249/mth plan. That's how badly I want not to be a WP administrator. And how much better I think full time professionals could do it.
- tedunangst 15y ago
  Can you explain why you wouldn't go with wordpress.com? As someone who's not running WP, I'm curious how you differentiated the services.
  - jacques_chester 15y ago
    My users want custom plugins and themes. Wordpress.com doesn't offer that for less than $500/mth, last I checked. WPEngine will, within reason. I don't charge for my services, though the various bloggers have made donations out of niceness. It just sort of ... grew.
tobyjsullivan 15y ago
I just spent about $2000 worth of my time watching this video and it was totally worth it! P.S. If you don't get that reference, you didn't watch the whole video. ;)

69 points by tswicegood 15y ago

I stopped watching very early on. It really bugs me in interviews when the host does too much talking. I hope it balanced out as the video goes on, but if you have a guest on that has valuable information... let them speak.

AndrewWarner 15y ago
I don't want to do too much talking. Do you have any specific examples of where I did that?
- mgallivan 15y ago
  I think the two points that seemed different than your previous interviews: 1. The story about your wife's WP hosting was a bit long. It seemed like you were trying to sell the purpose of Mr. Cohen's service but the story was a bit long-winded. 2. I liked that you summarized the video at the start of the interview - but you should do the summary before your interviewee is on-screen. As soon as his face hits the screen I want to hear him talk... Other than that, I enjoyed it!
  - AndrewWarner 15y ago
    Good point about my story of Olivia's experience. I think I was excited because it happened recently, and I might have been trying to win him over -- which is odd because I don't need to do that. Glad you said that about the summary. I've been thinking about the comments and assuming the summary is what everyone was talking about.
    - mgallivan 15y ago
      I wouldn't worry too much about the length of the story - it's probably just an outlier that comes with your style of interviewing.
- steveplace 15y ago
  It seems the criticism goes away once they realize you're a real person.
- redguava 15y ago
  Great to see you respond here. The time that lost me was when you were telling the story about your wife's issues. I understand your intent with that story, but it was quite long winded and it looked like a few times your guest went to speak and was effectively cut off. I didn't watch the whole video, I was put off by the signal to noise ratio in the first few minutes.
taylort 15y ago
I could not agree more. I kept fast-forwarding the interview to find where the guest started talking.
jyap 15y ago
Or just read the transcript on that page.
citricsquid 15y ago
I don't mind an interviewer talking if they're providing value to the interview, but when they interrupt the guest when the guest is providing information to give their opinion or ask a question it's incredibly annoying. I also quit watching after about 10 minutes for the same reason.
jgmmo 15y ago
I remember in the Rob Walling interview the Mixergy host stops Rob mid-sentence in order to talk about his hair and to play with his hair. Good content, but yes -- more guest less host.
- AndrewWarner 15y ago
  Damn. Have I gone that far? I have to pull it back. I used to get criticism for not saying anything about myself. Maybe I'm going too far again. Thanks. The specific example was especially helpful.
  - dools 15y ago
    Actually I've noticed you rambling a little as well recently. I kinda like it because I'm a huge fan of the site and its sometimes funny or insightful (I couldn't believe how high spirited you were in Adeo's interview) but I can see how it would be off-putting to a first timer
  - jgmmo 15y ago
    Andrew, it's a great show. You do a great job. But it did crack me up because I came to Mixergy to watch Rob and it was my first Mixergy episode so I thought it was a bit humorous. Didn't mean anything person by it, youre doing a great job.
- Ecio78 15y ago
  as a side note: afaik Rob Walling moved his blog to WPEngine some months ago and he's also a (small) investor
  - smartbear 15y ago
    Both true.
pabloIMO 15y ago
Here's an example: > Andrew: What about this, is it an advantage that you have over a newer entrepreneur or one that is not as well known is, that if you would have called me up at 1:00 AM, I would have taken your call. I would have woken up and made myself a cup of coffee so that I could be fully aware and give you ever ounce of attention that I could, because we’re friends, but also because you have a reputation in this space, and I know that at some point I’m going to want to work with you, and so the guy who has that has the advantage over the no-name entrepreneur who’s building his first company who then has to talk to 50 people and just getting 50 conversations would take forever because no one knows him and no one has any reason to be there for him. All this could be shortened to: > You have been a tech entrepreneur for quite a few years now and you have a massively successful blog which is read by thousands of people. How much of an advantage is the fact that you already have a reputation and a following? How would a newer entrepreneur go about finding 50 people to have these conversations with? There are many similar examples throughout the transcript.
IanDrake 15y ago
I'm guessing people here aren't that familiar with Andrew's work. I've been listening for a long time now and can tell you that few people have done for start-ups everywhere what Andrew has done. He's interviewing people just about every day, people who are making money, people with stories that can help others looking to do the same. Not every moment is gold, but Andrew is contributing in a major way and it cost you nothing but your time. It's just upsetting to me to hear these comments on HN. While criticism is good, I'm afraid some of these just sound too unappreciative for me to take. Andrew - Keep up the good work.
- redguava 15y ago
  I am not familiar with his work, but I also don't think I should need to know his reputation in order to watch the video. To me it seemed disrespectful to the person he was interviewing, and honestly a bit egotistical to be talking so much. Hopefully this feedback reaches him and it's something that can be considered.
  - mgallivan 15y ago
    He replied to you in this thread.
- zedadex 15y ago
  To me, the phrase "While criticism is good, I'm afraid some of these just sound too unappreciative for me to take" is far more upsetting than anything redguava said. Redguava - I watched the whole interview. While I was not previously familiar with "Andrew's" history I'm reading about him now, as I somewhat agreed with your take on him and became curious over the course of the interview about his qualifications/accomplishments. However, do watch the whole interview. Jason Cohen had some great things to say. By the end I felt it had strayed off topic but that it was definitely worth hearing, especially when he got to speak on how he'd have changed the interview.
  - IanDrake 15y ago
    >is far more upsetting than anything redguava said. Why? I think criticism is good. I also think being a troll that contributes nothing and blindly criticizes people who do contribute is bad.

whalesalad 15y ago

Holy cow. $1M for SUCH a simple concept. Offering reliable WP hosting is about as easy as changing batteries in a smoke detector. Not bitter about this, rather, nicely done capitalizing on such a simple thing.

mhp 15y ago
Do they say anywhere whether they mean $1MM in total sales or that they are now doing $1MM per month in sales? Those are two totally different concepts and I'm not sure which hurdle WPEngine has crossed.
- dotBen 15y ago
  It's $1MM year (although we're now way past that milestone)
jacques_chester 15y ago
> Offering reliable WP hosting is about as easy as changing batteries in a smoke detector. Please excuse me while I laugh bitterly and slightly hysterically.
- sedev 15y ago
  I was just thinking something similar. Did we all learn nothing from the recent spate of PHP critiques? Wordpress has several delightful qualities, but "runs easily and smoothly with minimal maintenance required" is not among them unless you are among the least demanding possible users of it.
ezequiel-garzon 15y ago
And they are rather pricey: $29/mo. for 1 domain and up to 25000 visits... I would expect personalized design in addition to hosting for that kind of money. Of course, all the power to them if they make their customers happy.
- bigiain 15y ago

pchristensen 15y ago

This article from his blog a while ago is also useful: http://blog.asmartbear.com/vetting-startup-ideas.html http://blog.asmartbear.com/vetting-startup-ideas.html

theblogdoctor 15y ago

I love WP Engine, but like @ezequiel-garzon has stated, the hosting does get pricey, especially when you hit 100K Pageviews per month, which isn't too hard to acommplish for a content site if you are posting consistently. My site gets around 100K views per month, and I barely make 100$ from ads. The WP Engine fees for a 100K Pageviews site = $249. So I would lose more than twice my revenue every month.

jacques_chester 15y ago

I'm currently working on a startup in an only tangentially related field. One line item of my capital plan is to relocate a small blog network I run (http://ozblogistan.com.au http://ozblogistan.com.au) to WPEngine. There's enough traffic that I'd need the $249/mth plan. That's how badly I want not to be a WP administrator. And how much better I think full time professionals could do it.

tedunangst 15y ago
Can you explain why you wouldn't go with wordpress.com? As someone who's not running WP, I'm curious how you differentiated the services.
- jacques_chester 15y ago
  My users want custom plugins and themes. Wordpress.com doesn't offer that for less than $500/mth, last I checked. WPEngine will, within reason. I don't charge for my services, though the various bloggers have made donations out of niceness. It just sort of ... grew.

tobyjsullivan 15y ago

I just spent about $2000 worth of my time watching this video and it was totally worth it! P.S. If you don't get that reference, you didn't watch the whole video. ;)