My name is Oleksandr Matiienko. I’m a 40-year-old family man, happily married with two amazing kids.
Being based in Ukraine, I’ve got a couple of degrees under my belt in my home country – one in Computer Science and Information Technology and another in Economics. Such a nice mix is still very important and relevant to my business in WordPress, needless to say.
Well, my childhood was pretty normal, but I can safely say it’s when my lifelong love of learning and exploration began. I still remember the excitement of copying Pascal language examples and being amazed that I could make my own text appear on the computer screen. Later, I discovered I could copy an entire example program instead of typing it out myself – it was a funny and eye-opening moment for me.
Besides, sports and travel are my go-to hobbies, but my real passion has always been IT.
The Journey Began
My digital life before WordPress was quite interesting because it was the era of Flash technologies.
Back then, Flash allowed us to create cool animated websites and dynamic interfaces for web applications. Thinking of it now, I can only add that I am very thankful to Adobe for their investment in ActionScript and Flex, which made it possible to develop innovative and interactive solutions.
During that time, we built many wonderful applications and websites using Flash, ActionScript, Java, and PHP. A thrilling and creative era for web development.
More than that, let me tell you, we tried to build our own WordPress back then! We created one of the best CMS platforms – with Flash, of course. It was pretty much it, a full drag-and-drop functionality, inline editing, and support for external modules. When we first encountered WordPress, we noticed, probably like many other companies and developers, that it lacked user-friendly visual editing capabilities that customers love and enjoy in other proprietary site builders. That inspired us to develop our own website builder based on WordPress. This became our first page builder plugin, MotoPress Content Editor. It was met with great interest and enthusiasm from the community, I must say. I believe such a positive reception encouraged us to continue exploring business opportunities inside WordPress and contributing to the WordPress ecosystem.
The Need for “MotoPress”
MotoPress Logo
There were indeed a few big competitors at that time, but you never build a great thing if you are afraid of competitors! We particularly focused on simplicity and flexibility, as well as innovation. Another vision was to create tools that would work smoothly for users and developers alike yet with user-friendly experiences. Actually, that’s why our product lineup now includes plugins and extensions for developers too.
The main challenge we faced while starting MotoPress was trying to figure out how to get the best out of WordPress. This is now the challenge with the new FSE experiences, isn’t it? To create a great product, we had to thoroughly learn and understand each part of the platform. There were times when mistakes forced us to start over, but those experiences definitely helped us grow. I appreciate both the simplicity and power of WordPress, and I especially admire their bold decision to move forward from TinyMCE to the block editor aka Gutenberg – probably a bit delayed yet a significant step for the platform.
I think I won’t be mistaken saying that our worst experience was a temporary ban of our plugins on WordPress.org. It was a difficult time, but our team hustled hard to get things sorted and continue contributing both paid and free products to the WordPress ecosystem.
What makes us proud is seeing our users bring their websites to life and establish their online presence with our products. We are especially proud when their businesses thrive and they earn money using our solutions. Seeing all the great reviews and positive feedback on WordPress.org, especially the love for our support team, is just the best.
Our first product was the MotoPress Content Editor plugin, which, if I recall correctly, was the first visual page builder for WordPress. While it’s now a bit outdated and surpassed by competitors, it was a significant milestone for us at the time. And, well, people who probably still use the Classic Editor are still buying Content Editor from us!
Today, our primary focus is on booking solutions for WordPress. It’s important to have a clear direction in the oversaturated and growing WordPress. For example, we’ve developed several comprehensive tools for hotel booking, appointment booking, and event booking, and we continue to expand our product line and innovate in this area. Moreover, we’ve created several products for both the native block editor (Getwid blocks for Gutenberg) and Elementor (Stratum add-ons), because the demand for the latter is still high. We also have a fantastic range of WordPress designs, partially to complement our plugins.
Two years ago, we ventured into the SaaS space using our own WordPress Hotel Booking plugin on WordPress multisite, similar to how WordPress.com operates. This solution allows users to embed beautiful booking forms on any website/CMS while managing bookings through the WordPress backend. Well, most of those don’t even know they work with WordPress! For example, many sites on Wix and GoDaddy use our booking widget, which is built upon our Hotel Booking plugin. This has been an exciting new direction for us – turning a WordPress plugin into a full-scale SaaS. I think this is a great example of what WordPress is capable of and where fellow WordPress companies can expand.
Myself with my Brilliant Team
Oleksandr Matiienko with his team
Advice for Business Owners
My advice for those wanting to start their own business is first, have a vision, and, second, stay focused on your vision, yet stay always flexible and open to learning. Enjoy challenges, enjoy setbacks, stay persistent. Don’t try to do it all yourself, surround yourself with a supportive team. Over time, you will learn to prioritize customer feedback to implement it into the product development – because this is the only thing that gives you a very realistic guideline into customer demands.
I don’t know how many times that has been said but I can highlight it one more time – have no fear of mistakes – those are often the best to learn from. Learn to stay flexible among other things. Because you need to adapt and evolve as the market changes if you want to stay in the game and keep the face in it. And most importantly, love what you do; this is the only permanent source of energy.
WordPress is a big big machine now and which niche to choose pretty much depends on your current expertise and goals. May sound funny, but I think the ideal time to start was 5-10 years ago when everyone had a level playing field. However, today, to stand out, you really need to create something innovative and unique to catch the attention of users and truly deliver to their needs. You’ve always got big names to keep up with in WordPress. So, to sum up, it’s all about offering something new or improving existing solutions to perfectly serve very narrow interests of customers.
WordPress & Beyond
We’re focused on growing MotoPress by constantly improving our plugins and themes, as well as adding new products and features to keep up the market trends and user needs. As I said before, our booking plugins lineup is at the center of attention.
There is a lot of everyday work of improving them and bringing even more value to our customers. We’re also committed to further integrating our products with popular platforms like the native WordPress block editor and Elementor to deliver seamless customization experiences to as many people as possible.
Moreover, I’m also very much interested in new business models, such as expanding our SaaS offerings and developing tools that can help both individual website owners and agencies/studios/freelancers. As we keep growing, we want to build a great community, where we listen to our users and truly help them succeed.
I think WordPress will keep getting better and better over the next five years, and it’ll stay the top choice for everyone from newbies to experts. The block editor and FSE will pretty much contribute to this. FSE will likely change how websites are built, questioning the need for WordPress themes and making it easier to design and manage content with fewer extra tools and less technical knowledge. More than that, WordPress will likely become even more popular for e-commerce and booking sites, especially with tools like WooCommerce and our own solutions. We’ll probably see big improvements in speed, security, AI, and scalability to keep up with significant web trends.
I am 24/7 immersed in the WordPress ecosystem, so I don’t pay much attention to competitors from the outer world. We know Wix is popular because a lot of customers who use our SaaS-turned WordPress plugin have their sites running on Wix. But I’m curious, why do people pick Wix over WordPress? It could be due to Wix’s aggressive advertising or how they position themselves as an all-in-one solution for users who might prefer simplicity and an easier setup. However, I believe, for those who want more control and customisation, WordPress remains the platform of choice.
Stay in Touch
My Love for the WordPress Community
We’ve attended WordCamp Europe (WCEU) for the past several years, as well as sponsored one in Greece in 2023. And I’ve also had the opportunity to speak at local WordPress meetups. I won’t be much different from others saying I do enjoy these events! These are the priceless vibes of real-life connections among people in the community. Sharing ideas, experiences, and learning from each other is unforgettable. This is not just about business networking, but also staying updated on new trends and giving back to the community.
Oleksandr Matiienko at WordCamp
How I Keep Myself Updated
To keep myself updated with WordPress and the industry, I like to read make.wordpress.org and follow the comments there. Sometimes, the discussions in the comments section are even more insightful and informative than the original posts. It’s sad to see many great WordPress newsletters and podcasts fading away. However, I still regularly check WPTavern and WPMail.me, which remain excellent resources for the latest news and trends in the WordPress world.
I Have a Life Other Than the Work
When I’m not working, I love to get out on the water, travel to new places, and hang out with my family (I do enjoy ‘quality’ activities with my family). I also like to keep learning new things, so I’ll often listen to new content or enroll in new courses.
During holidays, I love spending time with my family. We enjoy going skiing or taking a walk in the forest. It’s a great way to relax, enjoy the outdoors, and bond.
My favorite travel destination is Italy, especially places like Cinque Terre and Sardinia. There are unique vibes in these places, rich history, and, of course, landscapes you instantly fall in love with!
I Reward Myself by
First of all, it’s probably not just my achievement when we do something cool but a success for the entire team, so I make sure to share the reward with everyone involved. The reward is more about the collective sense of pride and fulfilment we all feel, like a shared pleasure inside that comes from knowing we’ve achieved something great together.
Connect With Me
I don’t enjoy spending much time on social networks and prefer to get my news from other resources. The best way to connect with me is through our company website, where we can collaborate on creating great products or work together on exciting projects.
