I am David Smith, and I live in Virginia Beach, VA, where I was born and raised by two of the most loving and dedicated parents a child could ever hope for. I attribute much of my success to the foundation they provided me.

Ironically, I veered away from their guidance after graduating high school. They pushed college as my best next step, but after making a half-hearted attempt at a degree, I decided a formal education wasn’t for me and dropped out to pursue a passion I had started as a hobby in high school: web design!

The Journey Began

I was still early in my digital life when I was introduced to WordPress. I had played around with it a bit, but it wasn’t until I began contracting for Rocketgenius (the company behind Gravity Forms) that I got serious about it.

Kevin, one of Rocketgenius’ three founders, was helping to fund the development of Gravity Forms by building WordPress websites. I came on board eager to help out! In the process, I became quite familiar with the inner workings of WordPress and, later, Gravity Forms itself.

Eventually, I became employee #1 at Rocketgenius, and my mentorship under Alex (the CTO founder) began in earnest. I was learning so much so quickly, and I was hungry to put that knowledge to work.

I began helping out quite a bit, supporting Gravity Forms customers. I loved it! Customers would come asking the toughest questions. It was so satisfying to help them find solutions to their needs.

The Need for Gravity Wiz

Gravity Wiz logo

Some customer requests fell outside the scope of what we could cover via support. This turned into a consistent stream of freelance projects for me. When you eat, sleep, and breathe Gravity Forms, the natural next step is to start blogging about it too.

Thus, Gravity Wiz was born.

Having a blog packed with free Gravity Forms resources generated even more freelance work. With all of these projects coming in, I started seeing patterns in the functionality people most wanted to add to Gravity Forms. That inspired me to take some of the most common requests and turn them into simple, single-purpose plugins. This led to Gravity Wiz’s first product: Gravity Perks! A suite of feature enhancements for Gravity Forms.

As for competitors, I can’t say I gave much thought to them at the time. There were certainly other players in the space, but the ecosystem as a whole was still in its infancy.

Challenges and Milestones

While I’m incredibly happy with where Gravity Wiz is now, I undoubtedly did things the hard way. For many, many years, I was both the engine of Gravity Wiz’s growth and a major hurdle to greater success.

I simply wasn’t able to let go of responsibility. This stemmed from my frustrating perfectionism as well as an obstructive empathy for my early employees. I really struggled to let them tackle challenges on their own. Instead of waiting for them to ask for help when needed, I’d step in preemptively, trying to solve the problem before they even had a chance to face it themselves.

Learning to let go and let my team shine has been a monumental milestone in my own journey as a founder. One of the greatest leaps I made was when my good friend, Clay Griffiths (of Local fame), joined the team as our CTO back in 2017. Having such a technical powerhouse on the team really enabled me to step back and focus on other responsibilities. We’ve been tearing it up together ever since!

David Smith with his friend

There’s no single moment that stands out as my proudest, but I take immense pride in our consistent commitment to providing the most legendary support experience in the WordPress realm.

Me and My Magical Team

My team is amazing! 

David Smith with his team

Fit is absolutely critical to our ability to stay small and do big things. We’re determined to find the right wizard for every role. Unfortunately, that means we’ve had to part ways with some otherwise wonderful wizards. The process of forging a legendary team is not for the faint of heart, but the reward is incredible. I feel that difference every day.

We’re a fully remote company, and we like to move fast. Our wizards are self-starters who aren’t afraid of soloing a boss battle or two but are always prepared to form a party to tackle those epic quest lines. If you can’t tell, I played a lot of World of Warcraft before I started questing in the real world.

Even though we’re fully remote (with no two employees in the same city), we deeply value human-to-human connection. Each year, we gather for a retreat to strengthen our bond and experience that magic in person. Our last retreat took us to Chicago—what an unforgettable experience!

Stay in Touch

Get the latest stories directly into your inbox every two weeks!

By clicking the subscribe button, you agree to our privacy policy.

Subscribe

Advice for Business Owners

If you’re looking for ideas for a new business, I’ve always been partial to solving my own problems. If you don’t have any problems, client work is a great way to discover interesting problems in the world. Many of the most successful businesses in the WordPress space originated from these starting points.

As for operating a business, the advice is simple but incredibly hard: get out of the way! Hire people who are better than you at their job, then let them do their job. It sounds obvious, yet it takes real personal growth to follow through. If you’re on a budget, hire people who have the soft skills required to develop the hard skills to replace you.

WordPress & Beyond

I don’t spend a great deal of time worrying about the future of WordPress. I think it still has legs, and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon. There will always be competitors. Competition is healthy for all sides. We keep an eye out for existential threats (looking at you AI), but mostly, we keep our attention on our customers and their evolving needs.

One of our core values is: “We are inspired by our customers.” It is through our customers that we make all decisions about the future. We now have three suites, Gravity Perks, Gravity Connect, and Gravity Shop, all based on customer demand. We’ll be busy for the next few years, packing each of them with as much value as we can.

Beyond the Wizards’ Tower

For a long time, I really didn’t have a life outside of work. I was running Gravity Wiz as a side hustle for years while working at Rocketgenius (aka Gravity Forms), burning the candle at both ends. I knew something had to give but I felt incapable of making a decision.

…then my wife told me she was pregnant.

I instinctively knew it was time for me to say goodbye to my friends at Gravity Forms and finally pursue Gravity Wiz in earnest.

When I’m off the clock hourglass, fatherhood is my favorite quest. My children give my life (and my work) so much purpose, and the adventures we have together are hard to beat.

David Smith with his kid

My children—and the fact that I’m approaching forty—have really pushed me to prioritize my health and fitness. Oh, how I wish I had done so all along. Probably some good advice for business owners too.

To stay fit, I like to exercise daily and make a point to get out for some mountain biking, pickleball, and on the rare occasion, tennis.

Summon Me in the Digital Realm

I love meeting new people and exploring new opportunities. If you’d like to connect with me personally, hit me up on

• X | Post Status Slack

You really owe it to yourself to meet the rest of the Gravity Wiz team, too!

Thanks for taking the time to read the abbreviated story of my wizard’s journey.