The PublishPress Podcast

Bending Spoons is perhaps the most disliked company in tech right now. They lay off staff, raise prices, and try to extract every last dollar from the products they take over.In this episode of the PublishPress Podcast, Steve Burge talks with Nick Taylor, co-founder of Livid.com. Nick and his teammates loved working for a podcasting platform called StreamYard, which had a loyal user base and a great product. But Bending Spoons took over StreamYard’s parent company, and soon they were all laid off. Nick and his colleagues got the band back together to build Livid, which is an alternative to Vimeo—another victim of a Bending Spoons acquisition.If you’ve ever felt frustrated by sudden price hikes, disappearing support, and automated customer service from software giants, this conversation dives deep into the state of online business, the power of human-first customer service, and how to successfully bootstrap a startup in a crowded market.Key Topics Covered in This Episode:- The Bending Spoons Phenomenon: How companies like StreamYard and Vimeo are acquired, restructured, and systematically hit with price hikes.- The Origin of Livid: How the team turned frustration and anger over the StreamYard acquisition into a memorable brand and a fresh alternative to Vimeo.- Overcoming Migration Friction: Tackling the massive technical challenge of helping users migrate thousands of videos and effortlessly replacing WordPress embeds.- Bootstrapping & Go-To-Market Strategy: Why having a clear, hyper-focused target and an aggressive wedge is essential for breaking into a competitive market.- The Power of Human Support: Rejecting AI bots in favor of real, responsive human customer service to build a fiercely loyal user base.- What’s Next: Upcoming features (including live streaming) and the mission to keep fighting for small businesses and creators.Timestamps00:00 – Introduction: Meeting Nick Taylor and the story behind the name Livid05:32 – The StreamYard Story: How the team experienced the fallout of the Hoppin and Bending Spoons acquisitions07:52 – The Inciting Incident: Watching Vimeo get acquired and deciding to build Livid10:41 – The Vimeo Pricing Strategy: How gradual price increases and A/B testing trap users13:50 – The Video Hosting Landscape: YouTube vs. Wistia, Brightcove, and targeting the small business/WordPress market18:07 – Solving Migration Friction: Building a WordPress plugin to automate swapping thousands of embedded videos20:00 – Going-to-Market in a Red Ocean: Utilizing sharp branding and targeting a specific competitor24:53 – The Competitive Advantage of Real Human Support vs. AI Bots29:00 – Diverse Use Cases: From online fitness schools to massive video libraries and vertical vs. horizontal formats32:26 – What's Next for Livid: Upcoming features like live streaming and staying focused on creators34:47 – Reflections on Private Equity Models: Comparing tech acquisitions to the newspaper industry and staying motivated

In this episode of the PublishPress Podcast, host Steve Burge sits down with long-time WordPress community veterans Nathan Wrigley (WP Builds, WP Tavern Podcast) and Dan Maby (WordPress London).Instead of taking the traditional Minimum Viable Product (MVP) route, Dan and Nathan went all-in to build Show.fm. The podcast market is crowded and they wanted a fully-polished product that was ready to compete.Show.fm is a podcast operations ("PodOps") platform designed to handle the entire podcast lifecycle.

Jason Cohen is a four-time entrepreneur across 25 years. He's sold two companies, and built two unicorns, including WP Engine.He joins Steve to talk about his new book, "Hidden Multipliers" and the ideas behind it.Jason's book has a heavy focus on pricing, customer research, profitability, and how companies can make better decisions with the team and budget they already have.Our chat centers on WordPress businesses, but the underlying lessons apply much more broadly: strategy has to fit the market, the product, and the customer.We discuss why raising prices is not always the right move, how to think about customer segments in terms of profitability, and why talking directly to customers is still the best way to understand what is really happening.Key topicsJason explains the pricing framework from the book: more for more, less for less, and more for less.He argues that WordPress is structurally pushed toward cheap pricing, but that is often a bad fit for small bootstrap companies.The WP Engine pricing story shows why the lowest tier matters as an entry point, even when the company is positioning as premium. Erica Douglas suggested lowering the entry price, and customer interviews confirmed that freelancers needed a smaller price jump to sell hosting to their clients.Jason emphasizes that customer research is not optional—it is how you validate or invalidate business assumptions before and after building.He describes strategy as a set of theories that must be self-consistent, from pricing to product positioning to target market.The profit whale idea is used to show how a small number of highly profitable customers can outweigh a long tail of unprofitable ones. He walks through how to analyze the tail carefully before firing customers, starting with whether the problem is actually your fault.Jason stresses that customers who seem unprofitable may be revealing missing product features or hidden usage patterns.The book is framed as a practical guide for founders who want to improve a business with existing resources rather than pursue venture-scale growth.Timestamps[00:00] - Introduction to Jason Cohen and his new book, Hidden Multipliers[01:24] - Counterintuitive pricing strategies: "More for More", "Less for Less", and "More for Less"[05:04] - Pricing dynamics in the WordPress market[09:44] - How WP Engine adjusted its pricing model based on customer feedback[13:40] - The importance of conducting deep customer interviews and validating theories[20:05] - Balancing product simplicity, power, and pricing trade-offs[22:21] - Defining the ideal customer vs. the most profitable customer[27:55] - What is the "Profit Whale"? Analyzing customer profitability curves[32:14] - Addressing unprofitable customers: when to fix your product vs. firing clients[37:30] - Strategies for understanding and reducing customer churn[43:40] - Motivation behind writing the book and stepping back from WP Engine[46:07] - Growing a business using existing team and budget without taking outside capital[50:15] - Overview of Jason Cohen's podcast format and tackling real-life founder struggles

Yes, vibe-coding is useful.But the most powerful way to use AI may be deep research.Ross Morsali is the developer of the Search and Filter plugin. He uses deep research to find entirely new solutions to complex WordPress problems.For example, WordPress search is normally slow for large sites. If you have over 10,000 WordPress posts, it can take a while for your visitors to see search results.Ross used deep research to find entirely new solutions to this problem. With deep research, AI can investigate complex questions, crawl many sources, cross-reference claims, and synthesize the findings.This is a great conversation with a developer who takes his work seriously and loves to break new ground. In the second half of the podcast, Ross talks about taking his deep research to build innovate answers in a new area: speech-to-text.0:00 — Steve introduces Ross and the deep-research topic.2:07 — Ross explains the search/filter performance problem.4:11 — Ross describes indexing and the technical foundation behind fast search.5:12 — Ross explains how deep research with AI helped him explore new approaches.6:29 — He breaks down how he uses research mode in Claude.8:22 — Ross describes how long the research phase took.9:21 — He explains the bitmap approach that improved performance.11:23 — Ross talks about using AI coding tools alongside research.12:30 — The rewritten indexing system shipped in January.15:42 — Ross shifts to a new rabbit hole: speech-to-text.17:40 — He explains why low latency is critical for voice input.19:30 — The voice tool concept expands into a much broader system.22:17 — Ross says they’re in the polishing stage and still refining details.27:25 — He talks about training a new model and applying for a grant.29:57 — Ross explains his privacy-first mindset and why data ownership matters

February 2026 was absolutely revolutionary for WordPress security. Austin Ginder runs a hosting company and he was suddenly overwhelmed by new hacking attempts. Austin's response was creative, constructive, and inspiring.In this episode of the PublishPress Podcast, I talk with Austin about how AI is transforming WordPress security. Austin started as a skeptic but has come to embrace AI tools like Claude Code, which have revolutionized his approach to coding and security. We discuss the increasing sophistication of hackers and their supply chain attacks. But we also discuss the potential for these tools to make WordPress a safer platform.Check out Austin's work at https://anchor.host and https://wpbeacon.io.

Robbie Adair has run her agency for over 20 years and has navigated many technology shifts. In this episode, Robbie says that we're in the middle of a major shift in the WordPress business. AI means that products are less valuable, but services are more valuable than ever. Customers need experts to help them navigate all the choices and challenges presented by AI. Robbie is incredibly positive about the opportunities in front of us. There are endless opportunities for people in the WordPress community to thrive in this new area.Find more about Robbie's work at https://mediaateam.com.Timestamps:02:00 - Robbie's experience at PressConf and the Arizona heat03:45 - The vibe of small industry-focused conferences and community building07:41 - Industry anxiety around AI and the importance of embracing change09:08 - How agencies are balancing AI adoption with trusted human expertise11:01 - Decline and resurgence in product versus service models12:25 - The power of long-term relationships in a changing ecosystem14:34 - Evolving client needs: from websites to integrated solutions including podcasts17:28 - How agencies are adjusting to AI-driven content creation20:10 - Using podcasts and video for better customer engagement and brand storytelling22:35 - The importance of personal voice and authenticity in AI-generated content25:17 - The limitations of current AI tools in editing and content refinement28:58 - Practical AI tools for internal use: Notebook LM, Claude, and privacy considerations32:22 - Agency experiments with AI tools for website design and content generation35:23 - The ongoing evolution of AI tools and their impact on agency workflows38:32 - Robbie’s enthusiasm for the future of AI and agency growth39:16 - Connecting with Robbie and her new agency-focused podcast

Amber Hines from Equalize Digital has spent years helping publishers to make their websites more accessible and user-friendly for everyone, including those with disabilities. I ask Amber questions I've heard from publishers. For example, is it helpful to have an audio version of my articles? Should we offer a text-only version of the site? Can we trust automated tests for accessibility?More about Amber: https://equalizedigital.com/Check our Amber's plugin: https://wordpress.org/plugins/accessibility-checker/

We have a lot of guests on the PublishPress podcast who are building paywalls for publishers.Chris Ward from the Publisher Desk believes we should take a different direction. He argues that paywalls only make sense when you combine them with a strong commitment to advertising. Some users will just never pay for content, but you can still provide value for them and earn revenue from them.Chris has a long and deep history in the advertising world. He worked in advertising at News Corp and then Undertone, a big ad network. Chris is now the co-founder of The Publisher Desk, a publishing and advertising agency. He also takes his own advice and runs a network of sports content websites.Find out more about Chris' work: https://www.publisherdesk.com

Brian Coords is a Developer Advocate for WooCommerce. I invited Brian on the podcast after seeing that AI is now listed as an official contributor to WooCommerce. We talk about what comes next for WooCommerce and other open source projects? Is AI going to be building new plugin features? Writing the documentation? Fixing long-standing bugs in our backlogs?We also discuss how AI will change the shopping experience for WooCommerce customers. Will most of them find our stores via chatbots? Maybe they never even visit our stores and just allow their AI agents to make the purchase?https://www.briancoords.com/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCqvxKqiwxupjn9t0Ztvu-A https://www.youtube.com/@WooCommerce/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianallencoords/ https://webmasters.fm

Malcolm Peralty has been writing with WordPress since before version 1.0!In this episode we discuss how writing has powered his career, even now in the AI area. Malcolm thinks that storytelling is an essential skill, even for people in technical roles.We talk about how AI can be an excellent writing companion. Malcolm has just published a book with a ton of help from AI! How do you find the right balance between human creativity and AI to produce better work than you could before?Links from the show/:https://peralty.comhttps://peralty.com/blog/ https://www.amazon.ca/Second-Class-Supers-David-Peralty/dp/0994940610/ https://pressable.com/https://acquia.comhttps://www.presstitan.com/ https://www.bloggingpro.com/