Jason Schuller

As the WordPress popularity grew, Jason Schuller and team had to find more creative ways to stay relevant. With more funding and more resources, his competition was moving beyond themes. They were expanding rapidly, and Jason could not catch up.

Today Jason realizes that instead of trying to catch up by himself, he should have either stuck to his original vision and customers, the ones who did not need new shiny features, or he should have followed suit and hire a lot more people to stay on par with the competition.

Within six months, Jason and his wife were making around $16,000 a months, and ten months in he was up to $30k per months. It was mostly profit, and mostly passive income.

Jason says that because the business was doing so well, he got very wrapped up in the day to day. If he were to do it again, he'd spend more time traveling, and living a life.

Jason has always had an interest in video and video-centric content. At one point,he had an idea to create a really cool Hulu-like WordPress theme. He put out an initial version for free, and got connected with a client who wanted to commission and extended edition.

When the advanced theme was done, the client did not pay. Partially angry, and partially curious, Jason put the theme for sale, for just $5. The theme took internet by the storm, and just hours later generated enough income that it was obvious, a theme business was brewing.

When Press75 started, nobody but Jason really got it first. Jason's wife was skeptical, even though revenue was already piling in, and it took her a few months to come around, and then to eventually join the business. Jason's parents, although very proud of his accomplishments, don't exactly understand it to this day.

The original community of WordPress makers was a tight group that built friendships around their passion. They had WP theme businesses, but they were never trying to compete with one another.

When WordPress got really popular, money was plentiful and new entrants were trying to get all of it. WordPress started to change, with more focus being not just on themes, but plugins, and page-builders. Anything that could create a new line of business and to differentiate the new players.

WordPress was an open source community and Jason quickly gained a following by sharing his progress, and by giving away ideas and tools for free. Even though WordPress itself was in its infancy, the community was very active and growing. Getting in during the early days was key.

For many organizations, early web meant a collection of static HTML pages that were individually uploaded and managed. It was very inefficient and hard to maintain. With WordPress, you could create a theme, and power all the websites with a single installation.

It boils down to what one is interested in. People should strive to work hard towards what they are interested in, to be conscious of opportunities that come from those interests, and understand the work/life balance that works best for them and their personalities.

Previous generations did not have opportunities with the internet like there are today. There are so many mediums and much more accessibility for one to make a living and still be actively engaged in the day-to-day lives of their children.

It is difficult to know. There are aspects of how one was parented that are implemented into their own parenting style. There are other aspects of one's childhood that they may choose to not implement with their own children.

It is hard to find a balance of career and parenthood. It is important to instill the idea of not giving up in children. They need the grit to handle the outside world.

It was a wakeup call. Things are put into perspective when you are looking through the eyes of a child and the responsibility of raising them.

Jason Schuller tells Kirill Zubovsky that he sold Press75 in 2014 to a custom WordPress theme agency. He never names the buyer. The opening he describes is customization. Customers bought a premium theme and immediately wanted changes, and none of the theme shops, including Press75, did that work in house. The agency took the referrals, did the custom jobs, and paid a share back. When it wanted its own themes, buying Press75 supplied a history and an audience instead of a start from zero. Schuller says he held on too long. The check was enough runway to keep going, and far from what a startup acquisition usually means.

Jason Schuller tells Kirill Zubovsky it depends, and that simply following the Press75 customer would not have made him happy. In hindsight he thinks he could have hired people to keep building those WordPress themes, stayed attached to the income, and used the time for other work. What he did instead was check out, release a theme once in a while, and chase ideas outside that community. He calls that the real mistake. A business like Press75 was harder to rebuild than he treated it. The early premium-theme group was small: Schuller, Brian Gardner, Adii of WooThemes, and Cory Miller of iThemes, friends from WordCamps more than rivals.

Don't become too wrapped up in the excitement. Utilize some of the freedom with starting a business to enjoy things that bring joy - travel, spend time with loved ones, etc. Don't always make the business the ultimate priority.

It strengthened Jason & his wife's relationship because they could both pursue things they wanted to - something that was not 9 to 5 office-related. It allowed them to live differently in a way they wanted to.

Jason Schuller says it started at Boeing, where internal sites were still static HTML. He saw that one WordPress install and one theme could run all of them, and that problem is what pulled him in. WordPress was open source, young, and growing a community. He blogged, tweeted, and gave work away, and the following became Press75. Getting in that early, he says, mattered more than any single trick. His wife did not believe the theme business at first. A few months of rising revenue changed her mind. Long after the sale, his dad still mentions Press75.

Jason is the founder of Press75, a WordPress theme company that he founded by a lucky accident. After working on his business for many years, Jason eventually sold it and focused entirely on his family.

Smash Notes for the first week of April 2019

- Justin Kan tells the story of how he nearly drowned in the Pacific Ocean while spearfishing with his wife. - Chamath Paliphapitiya tells Kara Swisher that he is not anyone's slave - Austen Allred of Y Combinator shares a story of how he turned a failed startup blog into a huge success - Naval Ravikant explains the difference between money, wealth and social status - DHH, the founder of Ruby on Rails, Basecamp, and the author of "Rework" and "It does not have to be crazy at work" explains why years after becoming a millionaire he still shows up for work every day - Tim Romero from Disrupting Japan explains to fellow podcasters what makes a grea