A lot has been changing for me and I wanted to let you in on it
Well... here we are
The past few months pulled me away from writing. The biggest reason, of course, was my exit from StellarWP.
So what happened?
The short version: existential dread isn’t great fuel for good emails or blog posts. Teh day to day experience of what was happening inside StellarWP drained me in ways I didn’t expect. I won’t unpack the details publicly too much, but I'll just say that torching a team that was actually winning year over year isn’t a strategy I can stand behind. When the second round of layoffs hit us on October 29, I saw the full list, saw the damage it would do to the products and the people, and I turned in my two-week notice.
Truth is, I’d been planning a graceful exit for a while. The new Cloud One Digital leadership simply gave me the reason to make it sooner, and a lot less graceful.
So what's next?
My heart has always been with the freemium product creator. The scrappy builder. The person shaping a business with creativity and whatever tools they can reach. I want to pour what I’ve learned into those people and help them grow something real.
But first: my family. I’m in conversations with a handful of companies about roles that might fit. I’m open. I’m curious. I’m listening.
At the same time, I’m doubling down on WP Product Talk. I recently announced a partnership with Freemius to help us grow to 10,000 YouTube subscribers and make the show more sustainable. I’ve got more ideas to expand it—not with hollow sponsorships, but with services and experiments that actually help product creators. It feels good to build something that gives more than it takes.
I'd love to chat with you!
If any of this sparks something for you, I’d love to talk. Just reply to this email and I’ll send over my calendar. Whether you want to chat about your own product journey or explore a way we might work together, I’m here and listening.
~ Matt Cromwelll
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