June 1, 2022 was my last day at Automattic (A8C). The following day was a bit surreal; being disconnected from the internal communication tool (p2), the A8C slack channel, email, github, etc after 5.5 years. Though surreal, the day was filled with reflection on a lot positive memories during my time there.
I joined Automattic on January 4, 2017, and since then had the opportunity to improve experiences for over 40% of the web, and support people while doing so.
WooCommerce, a product that’s actively installed on over 5.1M live websites, and facilitated over $20B of sales in 2020, was the business unit I started on. I then had the incredible opportunity of working on WordPress.com as part of the leadership team, supporting people/teams, the product and business.
It was an absolute delight working with incredibly talented, smart, and outstanding people on very interesting problems for the web (CMS, commerce, security, social, etc).
Below are pictures capturing moments during my time at Automattic.
Some Highlights
Meetups
In 2017, remote working wasn’t as common as it is now. When joining the company, meetups were (and still is) a way to address the feeling of isolation when working remotely.
About 2-3 times a year, teams would select a place in the world to meetup in real life. We’d do some work, socialize, and build rapport (pretty much an offsite). Since Automattic hires globally, teams are composed of folks from all over; finding locations that allowed for close to equal travel distance for all typically ended with travel to some cool locations.
Some meetup locations that stand out to me from my time at A8C:
- Cape Town, South Africa.
- Rio, Brazil.
- Dublin, Ireland.
- Athens, Greece.
- Vancouver, Canada.
- Amsterdam, Netherlands.
- Playa del carmen, Mexico.
- Vienna, Austria.
- Utrecht, Netherlands.
- Honolulu, Hawaii.
People
What really makes company’s great are the people. I can genuinely say Automattic is made up of fantastic, friendly, collaborative, smart, and talented folks. Folks from all over the world who come to the table with fresh perspectives based on location, beliefs, backgrounds, and context.
Impact
It’s not often folks get an opportunity to work on things that could impact over 40% of the web. Being a holding company (“the Berkshire Hathaway of the internet”) Automattic is composed of companies like WordPress.com, WooCommerce, Tumblr, Jetpack, WordPress VIP, PocketCast, and others, which provides a lot of room for folks to lean into areas of interest, roll up sleeves, and get to work.
Looking back I’m proud of all the work done, and the positive outcomes it led to for the people I worked with, products, individual business units, and overall Automattic business.
Though my journey at Automattic’s at an end, I’m thankful for the great relationships built over the 5.5 years, the experiences I gained, the lessons learned, the trust and collaboration given by all I worked with, and opportunities presented.
It was a pleasure.