✍️The $7.5B open web company

PLUS: MacKenzie Scott’s philanthropy, visualized. August 20, 2021 [The Hustle] [The Hustle]( On Tuesday, we asked if any of you secretly work a 2nd job. Thank you so much to all who answered. You shared some crazy stories, and we dropped a bunch of them down below. Today’s rundown: - Automattic: How WordPress’s $7.5B parent company is building beyond WordPress. - Visualized: MacKenzie Scott’s billions in philanthropy. - You answered: Readers open up about their secret side hustles. Let’s do it. The big idea [Automattic HQ]( Automattic, the parent to WordPress, is a private company you should know about A long list of tech companies [entered]( the public market in 2021, but Automattic, the parent company behind WordPress, is private and thriving. Earlier this week, CEO Matt Mullenweg [announced]( the company’s latest move -- a $250m share buyback valuing the firm at $7.5B. The buyback offers current and former employees a chance to cash out some of their equity holdings and increases the value of the company’s shares. Just because they haven’t joined the IPO blitz... … doesn’t mean they haven’t been busy. The firm has been [growing]( on all axes in 2021: - Fundraising: In February, the company raised $288m in a new round - Hiring: The company has had 371 accepted offers through August - Acquisitions: The firm scooped Parse.ly, Day One, and Pocket Casts These moves are helping Automattic build beyond WordPress Automattic, founded in 2005, was ahead of the curve on trends like remote work, open-source, and freemium pricing strategies. Counting WordPress, the company has a dozen [products]( under its umbrella, including: - WooCommerce: Flexible, open-source ecommerce platform - Longreads: Online publisher curating the best long-form stories on the web - Simplenote: Synchronized digital note-taking app - Gravatar: Free service offering digital avatars to use across the web Along with the 3 they’ve made so far, the firm expects to add more acquisitions in the coming months. Automattic offers a strong rebuttal to the argument that blogging is dead. But with an ever-expanding portfolio, they’ll be prepared if and when that day comes. [Share on Facebook]( [Share on Twitter]( [Send as email to a friend](mailto:?subject=The%20Hustle%20wrote%20something%20I%20think%20you%27ll%20like...%0A&body=Automattic%2C+the+parent+to+WordPress%2C+is+a+private+company+you+should+know+about%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fthehustle.co%2F08202021-Automattic%3Futm_campaign%3DFriday%2BCampaign%26utm_content%3D08202021-Automattic%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_source%3Ddaily%0A%0AYou%20can%20subscribe%20with%20my%20link%20here%20to%20get%20the%20latest%20in%20tech%20and%20business%20daily:%0A [View on our website]( SNIPPETS NEW! Introducing our new and improved [Snippets](. You can now get extra snippets on your favorite topics. Follow the button below to get started. (It takes less than 30 seconds!) Gone electric: In March, Petaluma, a small town in Sonoma County, California, [became]( the 1st US city to ban future gas station construction. Now, the county’s 9 other towns may follow suit. Back to school: A recent study from Deloitte [pinned]( dorm decor as a $3.1B industry. SoftBank’s sellout: The company [sold]( $14B worth of tech stocks last quarter, getting out of Facebook, Google, and Microsoft, and selling stakes in Uber and DoorDash. Roller coaster rebound: Theme park revenue [started]( rebounding to normal levels last quarter. Disney pulled in $4.3B, Universal did $1.1B, and SeaWorld came closest to its pre-COVID levels at $440m. Join the 91,601 others who are now enjoying extra, personalized snippets. Click the button👇 to choose your favorite topics and see your list grow in tomorrow’s email. [Personalize Your Snippets]( Visualized [MacKenzie Scott philanthropy]( MacKenzie Scott has given out billions to charity. Recipients think it’s a joke. In a mere 12 months, MacKenzie Scott has [dished]( out $8.6B in philanthropic grants. A recent Bloomberg investigation tracked down 375 of those grants, worth $4.3B. For ~90% of the recipient organizations, Scott’s donations were the largest they’ve ever received -- ranging from $750k-$60m. Some recipients thought emails from Scott’s team notifying them of the gifts were phishing scams -- which, to us, sounds like a completely reasonable thought. [Share on Facebook]( [Share on Twitter]( [Send as email to a friend](mailto:?subject=The%20Hustle%20wrote%20something%20I%20think%20you%27ll%20like...%0A&body=MacKenzie+Scott+has+given+out+billions+to+charity.+Recipients+think+it%E2%80%99s+a+joke.%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fthehustle.co%2F08202021-MacKenzie-Scott-philanthropy%3Futm_campaign%3DAutomattic%26utm_content%3D08202021-MacKenzie-Scott-philanthropy%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_source%3Ddaily%0A%0AYou%20can%20subscribe%20with%20my%20link%20here%20to%20get%20the%20latest%20in%20tech%20and%20business%20daily:%0A [View on our website]( You Answered [moonlighting]( We asked readers if they secretly work 2nd jobs. Their answers are incredible. Earlier this week, we asked if any of you secretly work a 2nd job -- and you shared some crazy stuff. We dropped some of your stories here, lightly edited for clarity. - “I’m a full-time health care business analyst moonlighting as a restaurant chef. I’m doing video conferences with colleagues around the world (camera off) while taking lunch orders.” - “I’m a director of sales for a software company. I’m the only employee in my state and most of our business is inbound… This has given me the flexibility to build up my side gig: a bartending company for bachelorette parties.” - “I work as a youth pastor full time. I’m not fully remote, but I can be and am most of the week. I also spend Thursday-Saturday running a swimming pool repair and maintenance business.” - “I’m a software dev, working 3 W-2’s at around $120k base each. Thursday at 9am I have 2 stand-ups going at the same time. I usually have 1 meeting on my phone with a single AirPod in 1 ear and another meeting on my laptop.” - “I work a part-time position at the local post office for insurance benefits. I also have my own company for website design & social media management, plus I edit books for 1st-time authors.” - “I’m the COO of a cannabis company in California. I also own a saltwater aquarium business in South Florida, so I’m now a remote COO that balances Google meetings with water changes for 20-25 aquarium clients.” - “It’s really easy for me to keep my 3D printer going while I’m doing my full-time remote job, so I started a side hustle making 3D-printed parts for 1996-2002 Toyota 4Runners. Over my first 6 months I did about $10k in sales.” Thanks to all who answered, and keep an eye out for more upcoming community polls. [Share on Facebook]( [Share on Twitter]( [Send as email to a friend](mailto:?subject=The%20Hustle%20wrote%20something%20I%20think%20you%27ll%20like...%0A&body=We+asked+readers+if+they+secretly+work+2nd+jobs.+Their+answers+are+incredible.%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fthehustle.co%2F08202021-Moonlighting%3Futm_campaign%3DAutomattic%26utm_content%3D08202021-Moonlighting%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_source%3Ddaily%0A%0AYou%20can%20subscribe%20with%20my%20link%20here%20to%20get%20the%20latest%20in%20tech%20and%20business%20daily:%0A [View on our website]( AROUND THE WEB 🎺 On this day: Long before its use in dozens of TV shows, films, and fireworks extravaganzas, Tchaikovsky’s bombastic “[1812 Overture](” [debuted]( at the 1882 Moscow Exhibition. The piece commemorates Russia’s defeat over Napoleon. 💡 How to: Trying to think of a unique name for your business? Check out this step-by-step [TED talk]( from branding expert Jonathan Bell. 🥁 Cure boredom: [Incredibox]( lets you design your own music loops. Just choose your musicians, then drag and drop different beats and effects. 🐍 Wild story: The colorful San Francisco garter snake is endangered. But the city’s airport maintains a parcel of land where [1.3k]( of them thrive. 🌳 That’s cool: Matt Gordon’s [This Song Plants Trees]( is a 31-second track you can add to your Spotify playlists. For every ~100 streams, Gordon earns enough to plant 1 tree. So far, 400 trees have been donated to the Eden Reforestation Projects. Meme of the day [web developer meme] Trung says “this def me.” (Source: Semicolon World) Shower Thoughts - [“If you fart for long enough it goes from being mundane to funny to impressive, and finally to medically concerning all in 7-10 seconds.”]( - [“Your pet might have also named you.”]( - [“You can never put the numbers 6 and 7 next to each other on a digital clock.”]( - [“If you enter a traffic circle, drive all the way around it, and exit in the direction you came from, then you have simultaneously done a 180 and a 360.”]( - [“Somewhere in the galaxy a photon from a flashlight you pointed at the night sky when you were a kid is still traveling through space.”]( - [“Ice skating is walking in cursive.”]( [via Reddit]( SHARE THE HUSTLE [Hustle Cons Greatest Hits ebook]( Over the years, we’ve learned… secrets. The business secrets, tips, and tricks that have helped founders go from zero to millions -- and even billions -- of dollars. Want to see ‘em? 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