On the podcast today we have Jonathan Wold.

Jonathan joined the WordPress community seventeen years ago, and he’s been here ever since.

He likes to think about WordPress as an operating system for creating on the open web, and invests his time and energy into growing the WordPress ecosystem.

With that in mind he gave a talk at the recent WordCamp Europe called "Growing in WordPress through partnerships", in which he laid out his thoughts on how WordPress companies can enable greater growth by joining with other, like minded companies.

There’s a lot of WordPress products out there, and whilst building a product can be a challenge, getting that product into the market, gaining growth and recognition can be another hurdle altogether.

Jonathan talks today about how strategic partnerships can, in some cases, make the job of selling a product easier and more rewarding.

We talk about how the WordPress ecosystem has grown over time, and how discoverability of your product is harder now that it used to be.

We discuss the fact that WordPress has a heritage of solopreneurs who might not be as good at marketing as they are at coding, and how joining forces with partners can make it easier to succeed in the marketplace.

Are partnerships for everyone, or are they only for a subset of companies? How do you go about finding a partner and what are the ways that you can ensure that you’re working with the companies which offer the most benefit to you and your customers?

Typically, when we record the podcast, there’s not a lot of background noise, but that’s not always the case with these WordCamp Europe interviews. We were competing against crowds and the air-conditioning. Whilst the podcasts are more than listenable, I hope that you understand that the vagaries of the real world were at play.