Enjoy watching Top Chef, Project Runway, or The Apprentice? Love WordPress? We’ve got just the show for you.
Episode 1
On November 8, 2013, “hopeful motivator” Matt Medeiros—of Matt Report and Slocum Design Studio—produced the first episode of Matt Report: WordPress Startup Challenge. Matt invited a cast of early-stage WordPress startups to pitch their new product or service to a panel of WordPress entrepreneurs.
Judges
It was an exciting first episode, featuring the wise words of 3 seasoned WordPress judges—Syed Balkhi, the founder of WPBeginner, Eric Hamm of CobaltApps, and Bill Erickson, a WordPress Engineer.
Contestants
The 4 contestants for the first episode were:
- Ben Sibley, the co-founder of Support Dash—a tool aimed at simplifying and saving time on support.
- Angie Meeker of Your Crime Site, a site for solving crime at the community level.
- Dan Norris of WP Curve, which offers 24/7 live access to a WordPress developer.
- Jonathan Kay of WP Stagecoach, a plugin for staging sites for WordPress.
Format Breakdown
Contestants had an opportunity to make a three minute pitch, followed directly by initial advice and questions from the judges. The startups were then given a minute to rebut the judges’ initial concerns.
Once all the startups had made their pitches, Syed, Eric, and Bill were given time to chose their top 2 startups. WP Curve came out on top as the judges’ favorite startup, with WP Stagecoach coming in second.
The judges dished out great advice on revenue, market, scaling, pitching, and business goals. All of the contestants (and viewers/listeners) were able to take away some valuable advice from the panel.
Want to get involved?
Matt is looking for donations and sponsors for the next episode of Matt Report: Startup Challenge (scroll down).
If you are an early stage WordPress startup looking for an opportunity to perfect your pitch and receive great startup advice from people who’ve been through it all already, applications are now open for Episode 2.
What are you waiting for? Get your application in now!
Kirby Prickett is Torque’s Editorial Assistant. She hails from the Land Down Under, where she worked in economic consulting and government. You can find more of Kirby’s writing on her blog, where she writes about books, film, San Francisco, yoga and other topics that take her fancy.
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