Matt Mullenweg Explained

Birth Name:Matthew Charles Mullenweg
Birth Date:January 11, 1984
Birth Place:Houston, Texas, U.S.
Education:University of Houston
Organization:Automattic
Known For:Developing WordPress.com
Occupation:Entrepreneur, Founder & CEO,[1] Automattic
Principal, Audrey Capital[2]
Lead Developer, WordPress Foundation

Matthew Charles Mullenweg (born January 11, 1984) is an American entrepreneur and web developer. He is known for developing WordPress and founding Automattic.

Early life and education

Mullenweg was born and raised in Houston, Texas. His father, Chuck, was a computer programmer. Mullenweg was raised Catholic.[3] He attended the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, although he was frequently absent due to chronic migraines. After graduating from high school, he studied philosophy and political science at the University of Houston, eventually dropping out in 2004.[4] [5]

Early career

In January 2003, Mullenweg and Mike Little started WordPress as a fork of b2.[6] They were soon joined by original b2 developer Michel Valdrighi. Mullenweg was 19 years old at the time.[7] In March 2003, he co-founded the Global Multimedia Protocols Group (GMPG) with Eric Meyer and Tantek Çelik. In April 2004, he helped launch Ping-O-Matic, a mechanism for notifying search engines about blog updates.[8]

In October 2004, he was hired by CNET who would allow him to develop WordPress part-time as part of his job. He dropped out of college and moved to San Francisco for the position.[9]

Automattic

Mullenweg left CNET in October 2005 to focus on WordPress full-time.[10] Soon after he announced Akismet, an initiative to reduce comment and trackback spam.[11] In December, he founded Automattic, with Akismet and managed web hosting service WordPress.com as its flagship products. In January 2006, Mullenweg recruited former Yahoo! executive Toni Schneider to join Automattic as CEO.

In January 2014, Mullenweg became CEO of Automattic. Schneider moved to work on new projects at Automattic.[1] From 2017 to 2019, Mullenweg also served as a board member for GitLab, Inc.[12]

Mullenweg, together with Naveen Selvadurai and Audrey Kim, runs the angel investment firm Audrey Capital, which has backed nearly 30 companies since 2008.[13]

Mullenweg began a three-month sabbatical from his role as CEO at the beginning of February 2024.[14] Later that month, Mullenweg engaged in a public feud with a transgender Tumblr user who, frustrated with the site's failure to address transphobic harassment, posted that she wished Mullenweg would die in a comedic way. The user was subsequently banned. Responding to user uproar, Mullenweg addressed the ban in posts on his personal Tumblr blog, in which he characterized the post as a death threat, and shared private account information about the user. Mullenweg also responded to individual commenters on Tumblr in posts and direct messages, and went to Twitter to respond to the banned user's tweets about the situation.[15] [16] A few days later, transgender employees of Tumblr and Automattic made a post on the official Tumblr staff blog characterizing his response as "unwarranted and harmful" and stating that he did not speak on their behalf. They also said that the user's post was not a realistic threat of violence and not the reason for her ban.[17]

Philanthropy

Mullenweg sat on the board of non-profit magazine Grist.org.[18] Mullenweg has supported the Apache Software Foundation,[19] [20] The Bay Lights,[21] and .[22] [23]

See also

Notes and References

  1. http://toni.org/2014/01/13/a-new-ceo-for-automattic/ A new CEO for Automattic
  2. Web site: Audrey Capital. September 17, 2014. September 17, 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140917182325/http://audrey.co/. live.
  3. Web site: 2006-10-03 . Cardinal Blogging . 2022-11-02 . Matt Mullenweg . en-US . 2022-11-02 . https://web.archive.org/web/20221102030341/https://ma.tt/2006/10/cardinal-blogging/ . live .
  4. Web site: Drell. Lauren. We Don't Need No Education: Meet the Millionaire Dropouts. AOL Small Business. 2012-03-13. 2014-05-05. https://web.archive.org/web/20140505183606/http://smallbusiness.aol.com/2011/02/09/we-dont-need-no-education-meet-the-millionaire-dropouts/. dead.
  5. Web site: Matusow . Cathy . The Blog Age . Houston Press . October 28, 2004 . May 18, 2009 . April 10, 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150410151942/http://houstonpress.com/2004-10-28/news/the-blog-age/full/ . dead .
  6. Web site: Evolution of b2, 180° from WordPress!. https://web.archive.org/web/20221219120125/https://b2evolution.net/about/b2evolution-vs-wordpress . 2022-12-19. b2evolution.net. 2022-12-19.
  7. Kaufmann . Zach . January 2009 . Do You Blog on WordPress? Thank Matt Mullenweg . Young Money . 7 . 6 . 2 . 1098-8300 . 2009-02-08 . 2008-12-16 . https://web.archive.org/web/20081216172342/http://www.youngmoney.com/ . dead .
  8. Web site: Spring Ping Thing. https://web.archive.org/web/20071127074639/http://photomatt.net/2004/04/19/spring-ping-thing/ . 2007-11-27 . Photo Matt . 2004-04-19.
  9. Web site: Matt . 2004-10-28 . Houston Press and CNET . 2023-09-27 . Matt Mullenweg . en-US . 2023-10-02 . https://web.archive.org/web/20231002204814/https://ma.tt/2004/10/press-and-cnet/ . live .
  10. Web site: Leaving CNET. October 21, 2005. Ma.tt. December 24, 2020. November 12, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20201112012915/https://ma.tt/2005/10/leaving-cnet/. live.
  11. Web site: Akismet Stops Spam. October 26, 2005. Ma.tt. December 24, 2020. November 25, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20201125164230/https://ma.tt/2005/10/akismet-stops-spam/. live.
  12. Web site: WordPress Founder Matt Mullenweg Joins the GitLab Board as Company Momentum Hits an All-Time High. GitLab, Inc.. August 29, 2019. 2019-08-30. https://web.archive.org/web/20190830041448/https://about.gitlab.com/press/releases/2017-10-09-gitlab-raises-c-round.html. live.
  13. Web site: Audrey Capital. Audrey.co. December 24, 2020. December 12, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20201212045821/https://audrey.co/. live.
  14. Web site: Matt. Mullenweg . 2024-02-02 . Samattical . 2024-02-29 . Matt Mullenweg . en-US.
  15. Web site: Silberling . Amanda . 2024-02-23 . Tumblr CEO publicly spars with trans user over account ban, revealing private account names in the process . 2024-02-29 . TechCrunch . en-US.
  16. Web site: de Luna . Elizabeth . 2024-02-24 . Tumblr CEO's public 'meltdown' is mocked, memed by users . 2024-02-29 . Mashable . en.
  17. Web site: 2024-02-24 . A message from a few of the trans staff at Tumblr & Automattic . 2024-02-29 . Tumblr . en-US.
  18. Web site: Annual Report 2020 . 2024-02-21 . Grist . 2024-02-24 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240224004929/https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ljdik7iM3Z0Gu1oDEzzqT4blFXxZnLYV/view?usp=embed_facebook . live .
  19. Web site: The Apache Software Foundation's "Apache Way" continues to gain momentum, recognition and influence on the future of open source technologies. . 2024-02-21 . Apache Software Foundation . 2008-06-17 . 2024-02-21 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240221042222/https://www.apache.org/foundation/press/pr_2008_06_17.html . live .
  20. Web site: ASF Milestones . 2024-02-21 . Apache Software Foundation . 2019 . 2024-02-21 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240221042203/https://www.apache.org/press/highlights.html . live .
  21. Web site: Fixes, funding brighten 'Bay Lights' day. San Francisco Chronicle. 2014-09-16. 2013-06-15. 2014-09-17. https://web.archive.org/web/20140917160746/http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Fixes-funding-brighten-Bay-Lights-day-4602033.php. live.
  22. Web site: My Charity:Water. Charity:Water. 2012-03-13. 2012. 2012-03-09. https://web.archive.org/web/20120309025305/http://mycharitywater.org/p/campaign?campaign_id=22471. live.
  23. Web site: My Charity:Water. Charity:Water. 2014-09-16. 2014. 2014-12-30. https://web.archive.org/web/20141230005033/https://my.charitywater.org/matt-30. live.

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