7 years of Woo

Seven years ago, the cost of a gallon of gas was $3.39, Apple released the first MacBook Air… and WooThemes was born.

Indeed, WooThemes is celebrating its 7th birthday! We were founded seven years ago this very week when our three distributed co-founders Mark Forrester, Magnus Jepson, and Adii Pienaar started a company together offering premium WordPress themes. And how far we’ve come since then!

Mark had this to say about the occasion:

7 years ago, from my bedroom office in London, I would have never predicted the journey the WordPress themes I was designing, with complete strangers as business partners, would take me on. To be sitting here today, back home in Cape Town thanks to our distributed freedoms, with a wonderfully creative and diverse international Woo family, and the fast growing ecommerce platform online is beyond imaginable. Although it feels like a lifetime of learnings, travels and emotions, we have so much still to prove, and the resources to dream even bigger, now part of the Automattic family.

To celebrate our birthday, we’ve put together an infographic with some special stats and informational tidbits you might find interesting. Keep on reading to get a look at what has transpired in seven years of Woo.

After seven years, we’ve grown our team from humble beginnings to a group of 54 dedicated Ninjas spread out across the globe. Collectively, the WooThemes team has attended over 170 WordCamps, which makes for quite a lot of speaking and learning!

We’re also proud of our support team for delivering a consistent 87% happiness rating last year. They answered nearly 100,000 tickets in 2014 — an enormous feat to be sure.

We introduced WooCommerce, our eCommerce plugin for WordPress, only four years ago. After just a short time, we’ve found ourselves powering nearly 30% of all online stores with more than 8 million downloads and over a million active installations.

There’s a thriving community around WooCommerce, and we’re thrilled with the participation of our community and customers. Since its creation, WooCommerce has seen 450 extensions, 21 worldwide meetups, and our first ever WooConf held in sunny San Francisco, California. Stay tuned for news about the second WooCommerce Conference coming soon!

Speaking of community, we’re beyond grateful for the developers, contributors, and WooThemes Ninjas who have helped shape WooCommerce, Sensei, and many of our other projects. In these seven years, we’ve seen a total of 84,000 lines of code written and 365 different contributors to WooCommerce core!

Perhaps one of the most impressive projects is Sensei, our home-brewed learning management system backed by only twelve contributors. With over 1,800 commits since its launch in 2013, we’re proud of how far Sensei has come, and are looking forward to seeing just how far it can go in the future.

Of course, we can’t forget Storefront, either, our favorite theme for selling with WooCommerce. Since its introduction just last year, we’ve seen 270,000 downloads, over 500 GitHub commits, and contributions by a lovely group of 15 developers.

We wanted to get a few more thoughts on our seventh birthday from some of the WooThemes Ninjas who have been with us since the beginning. Our superstar office manager, Dominique Jacobs, had this to say:

I was around at your birth, saw you grow through your infancy, tear through your years as a toddler and now you are officially a big kid. Happy 7th Birthday Woo! I am so grateful to of been a part of this incredible growth and things are just getting started. I can’t wait for the next 7.

Here are the thoughts of our Senior Developer, Jeffrey Pearce:

Woo turning 7 is an amazing thing for me, I joined when we were 6 people, and now we’re basically 60 and have just become a part of the Automattic family. I’ve been privileged to be part of a company that’s grown from 20 themes and no plugins, to become the e-commerce powerhouse that WooCommerce is today! 5 WooTrips later, so much fun, so many memories, here’s to the future!

Tiago Noronha, one of our Theme Developers, said this:

I find myself reading the email I sent to WooThemes, applying for a job, every year that passes. It still amazes me how just a few words led me to this amazing journey. The first 7 years have been more than I could have ever imagined, and I can’t wait to see what the next 7 will look like! Happy birthday, Woo!

And finally, some celebration from Cobus Bester, one of our highly talented designers:

Happy birthday to WOO! 7 years. What a trip. I was the first person Woo hired, and it was my first real ‘job’. And 7 years later I’m still excited about what we’re doing and where we’re going. Onwards and upwards. But first, birthday cake!

That’s seven years of Woo for you! We’ve told our story, now we want to hear yours. Has WooThemes or WooCommerce helped you start something? Do you have a favorite Woo moment, perhaps a slightly blurred and awkward selfie with one of our Ninjas at a WordCamp? Hit us with your best #7yearsofwoo shot on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We’d love to see ’em.

Those of us here at Woo would like to thank you, our customers and community, for flying with us for the last seven years. It’s been a fun trip, and we’re so grateful to all of you for supporting us through our journey. We’re excited to see what the next seven years hold!

About

Nicole Kohler

I'm a Pennsylvania native who loves video games, good books, and anything yellow. When I'm not acting as Woo's Content Creator, you can usually find me snuggling my pets, beating my husband at a tabletop game, or taking a nap.

Website|X