I am Thomas Koschwitz, designer and Co-Founder of GREYD. I live in Nuremberg, Germany with my wife and son. When I started my career, it had nothing to do with what I do now. I was trained as a mechanic but discovered that I was allergic to natural rubber.
The Journey Began
During this time I painted a lot and did some private design work. Then I studied design & visual communication and got my first job in an agency. One thing led to another; In 2009 I started my first agency.
Before WordPress, I mainly built mobile apps and websites using TYPO3 and Joomla. About 15 years ago my clients started asking for WordPress more and more. I also found that it was much easier for the end user to use, so I’ve stuck with it.
The Need for GREYD.
GREYD. Logo
When working with the products on the WP market page builders, themes & plugins. we were faced with the same problems over and over again.
Firstly, you always had to work with multiple tools to get the basic things you needed for professional websites. For example, there was no form builder with native double opt-in (which is required in the EU to be GDPR compliant).
Then there were the typical page builder issues like poor page speed performance, SEO issues, lack of accessibility, etc. And most importantly, all these great tools out there almost always reached their limits when it came to more complex and/or large WordPress projects. That’s when we started building a solution for ourselves that:
- Includes all the features you need to build professional websites right out of the box.
- Can save us up to 75% in time, making our processes much more efficient and less reliant on custom development.
- Suitable for large and complex web projects (e.g. we currently have a multisite project with up to 3,500 linked websites, with content that needs to be managed both locally and globally).
With GREYD.SUITE has developed a block-based, all-in-one WordPress suite aimed at agencies, freelancers & businesses who want to create and manage many, large and/or complex web projects. Features include:
- An enhanced block & site editing experience with many additional features.
- GREYD.Hub: A central platform to manage all your web projects including 1-click migration, backups, and much more.
- Global Content: Headless features for WP to synchronize elements across sites.
- Multisite Connector: Connect any number of websites, even if they are on different installations.
- Dynamic Templates: Dynamic layout templates that can be used with different content in different locations.
- Dynamic Post Types: Custom post types & taxonomies.
- User Management: Custom user roles.
- GREYD.Forms: A very powerful form generator.
- Dynamic content: Display different content depending on certain parameters.
- GREYD.Popups: A block-based popup builder.
There are a few things that make GREYD different from other WP solutions:
We are natively integrated into the core functions, which allows maximum compatibility with other block-based tools.
Our dynamic architecture separates content from design, which allows you to e.g. use layout templates in multiple places with different content, which automatically adapt to the design of any website.
We offer some very powerful infrastructure features for creating and managing large website systems, including headless features for synchronizing elements between any number of websites.
Since there was no comparable solution to GREYD on the market, people always compared us to page builders in the beginning.
While we do offer many page-building features, this is only a small part of what the tool can actually do. Also, there are many page builders out there with huge marketing budgets, which made it quite difficult for us.
Also, the community-based WP ecosystem works very differently from what we were used to. As a result, we put our foot in our mouth a lot but I am very proud that we are finally being recognized as members of the WP community.
My personal highlight so far has definitely been WCEU, where we`ve been first-time sponsors.
Myself with my Brilliant Team
Thomas Koschwitz With Team at WCEU23
Advice for Business Owners
My advice for anyone who wants to start their own WP business:
What you really need to focus on is how to make your WP software a sellable product. So focus not only on developing great features but also think about your target audience, marketing & sales processes early on.
Then it might make sense to start with the easy wins. For example, GREYD.SUITE is suitable for freelancers as well as large companies, but we started selling to freelancers and smaller agencies because they were the easiest sales for us at the time.
Stay in Touch
WordPress & Beyond
There are a lot of changes going on in the WP ecosystem right now with the switch to the Block & Site Editor and also developments like AI.
While a few months ago themes & page builders were the center of attention, there are already discussions about whether themes will even be necessary for the future, and whether page builders will be made redundant by native WP features and AI.
I think that in 5 years the core will provide all the basics to create stunning websites and tools like GREYD will focus on everything beyond that.
WP has the challenge of having to meet the needs of very different user groups. While the CMS gets easier to use for non-coders every day, it also creates new hurdles for other target groups.
Web service providers, for example, have to deal with the fact that their customers can do almost everything in the site editor without necessarily having the knowledge required to make certain changes.
This is where tools like GREYD come in. Because we focus on a clear target group and do not have to be suitable for everyone, we can offer special features to solve these problems.
GREYD is growing and gaining more and more subscribers every day. We have already started to sell internationally, but this is something we want to grow much more in the near future. We also want to target larger companies.
My Love for the WordPress Community
I attended my first WP meetups in 2020/2021, when they started again after Corona, followed by my first WordCamps (Vienna and WCEU in Porto). Since then I have been a regular attendee at international WordCamps, and GREYD is a regular sponsor.
I really love these events because they are so special and different from any business-related event I have been to before. WordCamps have helped me to finally understand what “WP community” really means.
One of my best friends in the community is Anne-Mieke Bovelett! She was the one who introduced us to the WP community. She constantly pushed us to become part of the WP community and to attend WP events in person.
She has also connected us with many other community members. Last but not least, we work very closely with her when it comes to accessibility features for our product. Anne is like the big sister I never had.
I love reading the inspiring stories on WPfounders. Here is just one example: Vito Peleg, founder of Atarim. As well as very good software, they have this great web summit for WP agencies.
They had their booth right next to us at WCEU and I thought it was hilarious that they were offering stickers of his face as swag. I got some for my son and now Vito looks at me all over the house.
How I Keep Myself Updated
There are a couple of podcasts and newsletters like WP Tavern or WP Sofa. I also use Instagram and platforms like awwwards.com to keep up with the latest design trends.
And then of course there is the WP community, which is always a great way to exchange and be inspired.
I Have a Life Other Than the Work
I try to spend as much of my free time as I can with my son and family. This also includes holidays of course. And we like traveling together. One of my favorite trips was to South Africa.
I Reward Myself by
Good food 🙂
