Kingpin Interview with Mario Peshev
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Q1: What is your experience? How did you come to be involved in WordPress?
My fascination with computers started at the age of 16, when my parents gave me the first computer they owned (100MHz CPU, 16MB of RAM, and 421MB HDD). Great times!
In the following months, I built my first static web site in 1999 and continued tinkering with technology over the next years I was coding often as well as studying much more (despite of the limited quantity of information available online at the time).
Q2: What should readers know about all the stuff you're working on for WordPress in the present?
Over the past 6 years, I've actively participated in numerous WordPress projects that involve the community, including organizing the local meetup, and a number of WordCamps (including WordCamp Europe 2014 and 2015) as well as developing a number of themes and plugins for free as well as presenting at various WordCamps and gatherings, as well as participating in several Open Source projects.
Today, I am the chief executive officer of DevriX DevriX the world-renowned WordPress company for development that specialises in growth-driven partnerships for our regular customers. We have close collaboration with a limited number of accounts in order to comprehend the requirements of business of every client and providing the best result to their intended audience.
DevriX currently has a staff of 25, which employs five WordPress Core members (including myself) as well as creating new ideas in the WordPress market because of our extensive knowledge of creating Software as a Service applications on the base of WordPress and continually building capabilities to work with various digital platforms, which generate over 10 million sessions per month.
We're always on the go and that's why we have many internal projects of ours that we grow and explore :)
Question 3: What difficulties have you encountered in your path to getting to where you are now professionally?
Experience is certainly something that is impossible to be satisfied with. However many hours you've spent online, the learning never stops. There's always something new to discovering. Every year, I have a a look on what we've accomplished as a group, and see so much more than I've ever had an opportunity to study at the field.
Beyond that, marketing within the WordPress ecosystem seems like something out of a sci-fi novel. There are a myriad of service firms that offer "professional development" at a rate of between $15 and $10 per hour and an unending number of clients that believe that all services should be offered for free. My previous jobs prior to joining DevriX included the Java ecosystem, and more often than the average website of 20 pages could be priced from $80,000 to $120,000. I've seen all kinds of quotations for large-dollar web-based projects.
You can imagine my initial reaction in response to quotes of $200-$500 for WordPress websites!
Remote work (overseas) could lead to some restrictions for some time however I'm happy to see that remote working has grown in popularity and the idea of "outsourcing" doesn't have an unfavorable image. It's still a long way to go before the shift to globalization, but the trend seems to be moving in the right direction.
Q4: Have you encountered anything that has surprised you while coming up in the WordPress world?
In addition to being part of the "race for the most affordable" concerning prices, I was surprised to see the vast majority of companies that provided services in the WordPress sector were not software engineers (or individuals with a Bachelor's degrees from Computer Science). The work that was considered enterprise-level came with the less stringent requirement of the completion of engineering degrees, certifications and a proven track record in full-time programming before you are able to remove the "junior" label in the dust.
The alleged "LEGO-solutions" are a mystery to me. While browsing the forums, I noticed that the users had questions mostly from business owners who do not have the right to build websites anyway, or companies that couldn't go beyond changing a theme using the admin menu, or by installing plugins.
Over the past several years of working in the field, I'm happy to have had the privilege of meeting (and have worked in collaboration with) hundreds of highly skilled developers and agencies that are working on high-scale initiatives. There isn't any "black and white". But, the idea that bloggers are merely hobbyists and 5-page business websites is all I've seen from my colleagues within WordPress (and the ways of how WordPress is represented in Java, .NET, Python and even Drupal conferences I've been to).
Q5: What does the future hold for you, and the WordPress world?
WordPress may be described as sometimes the "front layer" or marketing platform which has to connect with an eRP from a third party or CRM in addition to connecting data with a variety of applications.
Additionally, we work with SaaS solutions on a regular basis. Integrations can be the main factor that differentiates a successful firm from one with endless possibilities. Therefore, the REST API built into Core is a good start for accepting WordPress as a legitimate actor in the online and mobile world rather than a shady third-party user.
Other than that I see WordPress being in a unique place at present - and not as simple, bulky or cumbersome as compared to websites built with hosted hosting, however it is not as robust or complex as the enterprise frameworks out there. I'd love to see what's to come from WordPress in 2017 and the coming years.
6. What is it that you look for in a WordPress hosting service?
Quite a lot of things!
Actually, we have more than 200 websites, which is the reason we've partnered with more than a dozen hosting companies. We've formed partnerships with a few of these. Although I'm in love with the others, I'm fully aware that different business scenarios may require different approaches and there's no single solution that's perfect to accomplish each job.
In my case, for instance I'm a fan of Lamborghini however, it's not the ideal vehicle to take a road trip off-road towards Everest...
The managed service being limited to WordPress is equally beneficial when it comes to the efficiency (no charges for changes that aren't applicable to WordPress and/or additional options for hackers) However, what is the best option if we want to establish forums or an advertising server in the same situation?
Caching layers can be utilized speedily on a single website or a non-SSL layer, however, what happens when you have multiple sites?
We're currently undergoing a transition from an established managed service as a business partner since:
- the original host's staging setup doesn't work for multisite installations with subdomains.
- The caching layer is employed on the main site
- There have been backup problems because of the size limit for one month (or more)
- SSH is routed through VPN (due to an IP white-listing policy)
- "vim" cannot be used to use because it is an application that was customized that adds weird special symbols every 5th keystroke or a Unicode backspace
- The support system does not permit the inclusion of any Cc user for replying to tickets which makes it impossible to follow up on tickets
While we've had the same organization that hosts us and enjoyed success, the issues at the time were not acceptable and they were slowing the company down.
Q7: What activities do you like doing while far from the PC?
I'm never away from my laptop, but I'm pretty hooked on hookah, and sometimes use hookah bars in the vicinity. Additionally, we've got hookah at home as well as in the office:)
In my spare time I love playing WoW or watching some shows with my pal as well as our Labrador retriever (who happens to be oddly attracted by raids and dungeons)!
Question 8: Who do be next interviewed and what is the reason?
It's an excellent listing of WordPress influencers of the moment You've eliminated the ones I've suggested!
I'd prefer to bring Lance Cleveland, Vishal Kothari and Nigel Bahadur on stage. As a former an avid programmer I've always loved "old school" engineers that have made significant contributions to the WordPress industry with its marketing issues. Furthermore, DevriX has never been actively involved in the design and development of the products we offer. I have the greatest regard for entrepreneurs who manage groups of developers working behind the scenes to develop incredible WordPress plugins that generate significant sales each month.
Though they've also been developing on their own, I think their experience in the business world, coupled with their success of their WordPress experience in the development of products could be very beneficial for all of their WordPress peers.
Brian Jackson
Brian is a huge fan of WordPress and has been using the platform for more than a decade and has even developed two top-quality WordPress plugins. Brian enjoys films, blogging, and hiking. You can follow Brian on Twitter.
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