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WordCamp Israel. Lessons learned in growing a WordPress business: A world of opportunity and challenges

WordCamp Israel. Lessons learned in growing a WordPress business: A world of opportunity and challenges

A personal reflection on my journey to South Africa and decisions that led me to WooThemes. As well as the WooThemes / WooCommerce journey.

Joel Bronkowski

May 27, 2014
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  1. Lessons learned in growing a WordPress business: A world of

    opportunity and challenges Lessons learned in growing a WordPress business: A world of opportunity and challenges Lessons learned in growing a WordPress business: A world of opportunity and challenges Lessons learned in growing a WordPress business: A world of opportunity and challenges
  2. Thoughts on Israel 1 Warm and friendly people 2 Tel

    Aviv is Cool 3 Parking in Tel Aviv is not 4 Driving in Jerusalem is Crazy 5 Not use to Sabbath schedule 6 Was never a fan of the desert, this trip changed that 7 Tel Aviv Restaurants are nice but I could eat Falafel Pitas all day
  3. My personal journey with WordPress The WooThemes story as a

    pioneering in the WordPress business space. I want you to hear the potential for WordPress to impact business and society. (but by no means a road map) WooCommerce, using WordPress to Sell online and lessons I’ve learned in Business Development at WC What I’d like to Cover
  4. My Background -From the suburbs of Los Angeles, in a

    town called Moorpark -Entrepreneur -Gadget geek and former website hack -Passionate about social justice and helping others -Worked in sales and in the oil industry while studying in the US before heading off to South Africa at age 23 (7 years ago) -Basketball coach
  5. Enter a Free WordPress shopping cart + open-source - free

    to do anything with it + community developed 200+ contributors + backed by a respected company + support in every timezone + rapidly growing user base + hundreds of extensions
 ______________________ = DREAM COME TRUE for Many People
  6. W O O C O M M E R C

    E I N I S R A E L What can you do with WooCommerce?
  7. W O O C O M M E R C

    E I N I S R A E L Publish Your Products
  8. W O O C O M M E R C

    E I N I S R A E L Publish Your Products
  9. W O O C O M M E R C

    E I N I S R A E L Shopping Cart
  10. W O O C O M M E R C

    E I N I S R A E L Checkout
  11. W O O C O M M E R C

    E I N I S R A E L Manage Orders
  12. W O O C O M M E R C

    E I N I S R A E L Payments
  13. W O O C O M M E R C

    E I N I S R A E L Shipping
  14. W O O C O M M E R C

    E I N I S R A E L Reports
  15. WooCommerce 1.0 0 downloads 1 x free theme 6 x

    official themes 9 x official extensions Sept 2011 Oct 2011 14,000 downloads 10 x official themes 20 x official extensions WooCommerce 1.4 45,000 downloads 16 x official themes 52 x official extensions Jan 2012 310,000 downloads 24 x official themes 145 x official extensions 30+ 3rd party themes 30+ 3rd party extensions Major Revenue Increases Sept 2012 June 2013 WooCommerce 2.0 1,000,000 downloads Dec 2013 WooCommerce 2.0 2,000,000 downloads Today WooCommerce 2.1 3,300,000+ downloads
  16. Monitoring Product Growth and Market Growth Creating Relationships with Integration

    Partners Introduce Woo to companies we want to work with Co-Marketing The triple dip of partnerships My Role Grew organically
  17. Growth Monitoring Mechanisms builtwith.com allowed us to see how many

    actual sites are using WooCommerce & WooThemes for the first time ever.
  18. W O O C O M M E R C

    E I N I S R A E L Challenges with Growth Team Communication Company Culture Support Product Updates Working with 3rd Parties & 3rd Party Competitors Customer Education Sustainability and Change Band of Copy Cats
  19. W O O C O M M E R C

    E I N I S R A E L Community Driven Knowledge Base Forums WordPress.org Meetups Language Contributions Development of Free Products
  20. W O O C O M M E R C

    E I N I S R A E L WooCommerce in Israel?
  21. W O O C O M M E R C

    E I N I S R A E L 341 sites with.il using WooCommerce
  22. B U I L D E C O M M

    E R C E S I T E S
  23. B U I L D C O U N T

    RY S P E C I F I C E X T E N S I O N S / P L U G I N S B U I L D F E AT U R E A D D I N G E X T E N S I O N S
  24. G I V E B A C K : C

    O N T R I B U T E T O C O M M U N I T Y F O R U M S , P R O D U C T A N D L A N G U A G E H E L P T R A N S F O R M T H E E C O M M E R C E L A N D S C A P E O F I S R A E L . H E L P P E O P L E , H E L P B U S I N E S S E S A N D C R E AT E O P P O R T U N I T Y