Please share a brief history of your company:
Garth says that Event Espresso began when he interviewed Seth for a job. Seth was using another CMS system and wasn’t aware of WordPress. Right in the interview process Garth evangelized WordPress, and from there on out, Seth began using WordPress for his client’s CMS.
Seth would tell the story that his wife needed a way to collect registrations and payment for her scrap booking classes, and the business grew out of that need.
Garth and Seth both worked at the same company doing marketing and web development respectively for 3 years before Garth left the company and Seth set off to work on Event Espresso full-time. Garth joined Seth in July 2010 to help with the marketing and support. In January 2011, Garth entered a business plan competition and formalized Event Espresso’s strategy, which took the grand prize of $40,000 for Event Espresso.
Now, thousands of customers from across the globe use Event Espresso for all their event registration needs. Event Espresso releases new versions nearly every month, and new products are released just about as often. We have plans to make Event Espresso accessible to more than just the WordPress community, but they will always be a core part of our history and business.
What is your favorite plugin?
Besides, Event Espresso? I think I’d have to say Gravity Forms. We use it and also aspire to their level of usability.
Tell us about your latest WP project:
Can’t say; top secret. Watch our website because we’ll have something revolutionary, hopefully by the end of the year.
Share one WP tip:
Even though WordPress is a great blogging platform, it can also be a great CMS. However, anytime you extend the use of a software into more uncharted territory, it will consume more resources than usually anticipated. Just be prepared for your mind to be inspired about the possibilities, and be prepared to put time and money into making things possible.
What inspires you?
Our customers inspire us. We’re constantly proud of how our users do great things with our plugin and we hope to facilitate opportunities for them to have autonomy and higher profitability.
Any tips for people just getting started with Blogging or using WP?
Take enough time to determine what your niche will be and how you can be successful in the long-run.
Who is the most interesting person you have met through social media?
At WordCamp Utah in 2010, we got to meet and watch a demonstration from the Will it Blend guy. We got to see whether a WP coffee mug and copy of WP on a flash drive would blend. I’ll let you speculate who won that battle.
What is your idea of success?
Our mission is to empower business and organization leaders with the event registration, ticketing and management tools that maximize the success of events. Our vision is to become the world’s leading event registration and ticketing provider, and model of profitability by offering autonomy and value. We take pride in our products, including the support we offer to our customers.
Our idea of success is achieving our mission and objectives.
Why did you choose to support WC Chicago?
We’re not sure why more WordCamps don’t contact us to discuss sponsorships. We enjoy being part of the WP community, and we often want to give back. We noticed a message from the organizers that they needed more support from sponsors and Garth recently moved to the Detroit area so it was more convenient to attend. We also hope to meet a whole new group of WP Lovers.
