Before WP Engine, he spent months validating a marketing-campaign-measurement analytics tool (ported from a system he'd built at Smart Bear) via roughly 30 founder meetings in Austin.

“The first startup idea came from a pain I solved at Smart Bear.”

The demo landed with everyone he met, but the idea fell apart once he pushed into the pricing conversation and the price expectations across prospects never converged into one coherent business.

“I didn't figure out that this wasn't a proper business idea until we got to the question of price, because that's where the agreement ended.”

Announced WP Engine's launch to his 18,000-subscriber A Smart Bear blog audience (plus comparable Twitter/Hacker News reach), expecting the built-in audience to drive a strong signup bump.

“WPEngine got two new signups. Only two.”

He had expected at least 10 to 20 new customers from the announcement and dreamed of 50, but an established blog readership converted to product signups far less directly than assumed.

“I figured on 10-20 new customers at minimum and dreamed of 50. I was wrong by an order of magnitude.”