Fresh faces, fresh ideas, the future
January 23, 2008
This is Matt Mullenweg, the face of the future. If you’ve never heard of him then consider this:
- Founder of Wordpress and the company behind it Automattic which makes great anti-spam software
- Wordpress has had 5,880,790 downloads
- In 2007, Wordpress.com had 1.8 million signups
- The company had seed funding of $1.1 million
- Last year it is rumoured to have turned down an offer of $200 million
- Yesterday Automattic announced having raised $29.5 million for a minority stake
- New stakeholders include the New York Times
Born in 1984
Yesterday Chris Dalby moved my Wordpress instance. I ain’t going nowhere without Matt’s software.
When I look around at an aging profession where partner age is creeping up to around the 50 mark and when I’m told that you can’t do a great job unless you’ve got experience and then reflect on folk like Matt, or that Google which, according to Stephanie Olsen at News.com:
What’s unique about Google is the vastness of the wealth it has created in such a short time and the impact that money could have in coming years. Have the Xooglers had a big hit yet? No. But Google expatriates are likely to play a greater role in the Valley’s business and culture than any other group, bringing their company’s brainy and shoot-for-the-stars sensibilities to new tech companies, philanthropic causes, and even a wine bar or two.
I have to ask - when are professionals going to wake up?
As I’ve said on many an occasion, the best performing firms are those that recognise the value innovative technology brings. I don’t care that people like Matt are younger than my oldest daughter - and by some years. I care that they have the talent to go do great things. And in a lot of cases, they give it away.
Ask yourself this. Where is your business model for open source accounting? Does that term make any sense? It should because it describes the commodity that represents 60% of current fee income that I guarantee will disappear in a few years’ time.
Pic courtesy of Flickr via DFOF
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One Response to “Fresh faces, fresh ideas, the future”
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Very informative post. Thanks for that. How would you like to discuss business related topics on the all new business forum. So many members could gain knowledge from your business experiences and advice.
Please think it over.
Thanks,
Col
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