Tricking my mind into thinking that this has value for others helps me commit to writing and reflecting. Last year I wrote about vertigo – the 45% revenue drop, feeling scared but brave, sad but happy. This year felt different. Less emotional, less dramatic, less on defense.
Work
We run a portfolio of digital products and businesses – mostly in the WordPress space, but also online learning, media, and a few experiments. After a difficult 2024, this year we managed to do more to be ahead vs catching up. I am particularly happy with our AI adoption levels.
While still not 100% comfortable in my role, I felt much more productive than in 2024. I neglected a bit the people and leadership aspects, but I am proud of what I managed to do on the product side. The work also made me more confident – helped me join 2 podcasts (WP Product Talk, SeaHawk, WPBeginner), share insights, and organise a small WordCamp EU getaway with other founders, while bringing my daughter along.
Masteriyo joint venture. We stepped into the unknown here—no experience with the legal structure, way of working, or the LMS space. Paid a bit of a premium for 51% of the product. While I didn’t know a lot of things, I knew Sanjip from ThemeGrill since a long time and felt we were aligned, which made it possible. I trusted that our processes and groundwork around cross-promotion could help turn the product around in a market that is big and growing.
There are ways this could have gone wrong. I thought we were making a good bet.
Thanks to everyone involved, we managed to double the MRR in 8 months while maintaining very good NPS and reviews. Looking forward to doubling or ideally 3x this again next year.
As a learning, this reinforced what I believe about gut feeling—being who you are and communicating around that eventually attracts the right people who share the same values.
Acquisitions. We also acquired 12 plugins in a single deal in September – image optimization, security, code snippets, and others. Less about transformation, more about expanding the catalog and getting new growth directions without starting from zero. If you’re building something in WordPress and thinking about what’s next, we’re always open to conversations.
AI experiments. I felt comfortable in an approach I enjoy a lot: trying to lead by example, being the one trying and doing things myself, then sharing, instead of delegating or planning.
I tried and didn’t succeed in productizing a support agent. I had more success with FreshRank, an AI tool that audits content for freshness – outdated facts, broken links, old screenshots. I probably dropped it too fast initially, expecting too much, but got back on it later. Still working on a plan.
Another experiment, OneShot, was interesting. Most people struggled to see a production use-case, which made me appreciate more the initial traction we got for FreshRank.
Product releases. I led 3 major product refreshes this year. I felt proud of the research I did on Optimole to make difficult decisions around our offerings. It was also the area where I struggled the most. Structure and consistency help, but drain me. At the same time, staying on the sidelines and sharing just advice is not productive either – it’s often shallow. Still finding the right balance.
Personal development
Continued with my EO Forum sessions monthly. Started coaching an EO Accelerator group monthly in bad French in an attempt to challenge myself.
Continued to learn and experiment with personal finance, investments, and AI, and while I made some good calls, overall, for the past couple of years I was not signifiantly outperforming the broader market.
Personal
It was a busy year. Not great, not terrible. I probably slept more, struggled a bit less, and had space for work in between all the things going on.
We had our 2nd child in March. Moved to a new place, which messed up my schedule, my usual working spot, and routines. All this made it difficult to maintain a routine, do enough planning – despite knowing how impactful it is when I do it.
I also spent an unreasonable amount of time and money working two very small vegetable gardens—40m² combined. But I ate my first tomatoes, cucumbers, and zucchini from them, so maybe it was worth it.
Children were sick during Christmas, which made me cancel a trip we were looking forward to. I still saw this positively and tried to make the most out of it. Managed to disconnect from work, care for the children, and spend time together.
Less vertigo than last year. More ordinary. I think that’s good.
