My name is Mark Weisbrod. I am the CEO of Greyd, a German-based WordPress software company. I live in Munich, Bavaria, am married to a wonderful wife, and have a great team at Greyd that I really enjoy working with every day.
The Journey Began
I have been in the digital business for several years, first as a member of the marketing team and then as a manager and CEO.
I have worked in a variety of industries, from dentistry to augmented and mixed reality, solar energy, and now WordPress. Of course, websites and landing pages have always played a major role as an important part of any marketing strategy.
While other CMSs have been considered from time to time, all of the companies I have worked for have primarily used WordPress. Which from my point of view, makes perfect sense because WordPress is the most used CMS in the world for a reason.
The Need for “GREYD”
Greyd Logo
As CEO of the online marketing company of a solar corporation, I found that we had a lot of landing pages that needed to be constantly optimized for PPC campaigns. It bothered me that we had a lot of repetitive tasks that we had to do over and over again. We also had to call in developers for even the smallest adjustments.
The standard solutions on the market – page builders, ready-made themes, etc. – did not convince me at that time – they could only solve part of the problem and created new problems in the process. That’s when I started thinking about how to simplify the whole thing and make it more efficient.
At the time, I was in the process of starting a digital agency with my business partner Thomas. The first version of Greyd.Suite was built for us to solve these problems in our client projects. We then turned it into a product and developed the suite on a large scale.
Today, Greyd.Suite is a comprehensive platform aimed at agencies and companies with many, large and/or complex websites that want to streamline the entire process of creating and managing any number of web projects. The tool that was originally intended to replace page builders and plugins has now become a powerful software for building digital experience platforms that competes with giant headless solutions.
The hardest part, and the one I am most proud of, has been building the entire company bootstrapped. We still do not have an investor on board and plan to continue to grow on our own. This gives us a lot more flexibility to do things our way.
Myself with my Brilliant Team
While many managers will tell you that their team is the best, I am truly honoured to work with great, like-minded people, each inspiring and passionate in their own way. Our team is extremely diverse – not only demographically but also in character. I am very proud of the fact that instead of talking about diversity and new work on social media, we just live it every day.
Half of our team are women, which is not a given in a tech company. But we also have a part-time working mother on our management team. We have people working abroad, young people working alongside seasoned veterans, and very different characters working together.
Mark Weisbrod with management team
Our management team in our office from left to right: Thomas Koschwitz, Sandra Kurze, Jakob Trost & Mark Weisbrod
Mark Weisbrod with his team
Part of the Greyd team in our office in Munich
Advice for Business Owners
Focus on building effective sales processes from the start. There are so many promising products that unfortunately, never really take off because the company behind them fails to sell the product in sufficient quantities and at a reasonable cost. This is especially important in the WordPress industry, where low prices, freemiums, and lifetime licenses are prevalent.
Many entrepreneurs in the WordPress ecosystem are developers or designers who may be exceptional at what they do but who may not have the necessary business experience. My advice, if you are one of them, is to find a partner who is an expert in sales, marketing, and business management sooner rather than later. Do not underestimate what it takes to finance a business for the long term and create a stable environment for your employees and customers.
When it comes to specific niches to focus on, I don’t think there is any one niche that guarantees success. However, you should keep an eye on the evolution of the WordPress ecosystem in general. There are a lot of changes going on right now in how people use WordPress and what tools they need and what tools they don’t need or won’t need in the near future.
WordPress & Beyond
Greyd is in the midst of an international expansion. We already have customers all over the world. At the moment, all business is done from Germany, but we are thinking about opening additional offices in the US, for example.
Our product is developing more and more with deep headless functionality. It’s no longer just about building great websites; it’s about building entire DXPs with Greyd. This makes our product very attractive for enterprises, large franchise systems and the like, a shift we will focus on.
When it comes to WordPress, I expect a lot of changes in the next few years. We are at a tipping point, the era of themes and page builders is coming to an end. Many established product providers will have to adapt in order to remain attractive in the future. New players will enter the market. I’d like to see more initiatives that make WordPress a “sellable product”.
The flexibility that the ecosystem offers with all its plugins also makes it difficult for certain target groups to buy it. Right now, for example, enterprises often have a hard time choosing WordPress because they are not looking at one product to evaluate, test and compare, but a bunch of independent solutions. Also, while they are looking for a product to buy, they are often only offered projects (e.g. a website relaunch).
Stay in Touch
My Love for the WordPress Community
To be honest, the WP community was not always at the forefront of our minds at Greyd. In our early stages, it did not really play a role as we did not have many points of contact with the community. However, when we started selling Greyd.Suite on a large scale, we started attending WordCamps and Meetups to make our product known to the community. In the beginning, it was a really difficult journey for us. A lot of things worked differently than we knew from other industries. We had our foot in many paws. But thanks to great community members like Anne-Mieke Bovelett, we grew into the community. Today we are regulars at all the major WordPress events, we give talks, we sponsor events, and we have made some great contacts and found friends and partners within the community. We are even listed in the .org theme library, something we never planned on when we started.
Mark Weisbrod at WordCamp Germany 2023
Greyd booth at WordCamp Germany 2023
How I Keep Myself Updated
I listen to a lot of podcasts and read a lot of news platforms and newsletters. I really like Within WordPress News by Remkus de Vries when it comes to WordPress related updates. But I do not only focus on WordPress. In fact, I read a lot about business-related topics as well as general news, both local and international. In my opinion, this is essential when running a business, as anything going on in the world and the markets can affect your business. One of the reasons our company has not been affected by the recent economic crisis like others is that we plan and prepare thoroughly and rarely have to react out of the blue.
I Have a Life Other Than the Work
I spend a lot of my free time with my friends and family outdoors. We have a small hut by a lake where we often spend whole weekends. We have made it really nice with playgrounds for the kids and stuff like that. If you don’t find me there, you will probably find me in a good restaurant enjoying good food and wine.
I Reward Myself by
Being successful with Greyd is the greatest reward I can give myself. There is nothing more rewarding than seeing my team grow and develop. Especially when we face difficult situations, and the team works together to find a solution, it makes me really proud and happy.
This is also why I find it very important to give the team the opportunity to have a good time together, not only in the office but also when traveling to WordCamps for example. At least once a year, we take one of these events (usually WCEU) and make it a team event. We travel to the location a few days before the event, stay in a big house, and have a great time together.
