 Hello, everyone It's a great event to a what camp Albuquerque organized our great We had a great time yesterday in speakers dinner party and after the speaker dinner party. It's a good networking place Today, I'll be sharing my story about building a theme business How I built it how I land up into the WordPress market and how the community helped me throughout the process So that's that's that's the thing that I'll be sharing with you today So my name is Sarkin stressors and I'm tech entrepreneur. I have I come all the way from Kathmandu, Nepal So I'm here for for about a month Just will be traveling around the states And I'm also with my family because it's a long distance travel So I thought like I could bring my family together. So we'll have a good time vacation out So it's a warm. It's a nice year and As I told you I've already been told I'm also the one of the founding member of WordPress Nepal community And we have been organizing what cam since 2012 It's been a good what camp and we had we are another what can be is coming in 2018 and March If anybody would like to join it would be great as for my company is There are more companies. These are the technical companies that I'm currently involved in I've also invested in companies outside the technicals initially, I started with the catch internet just like Normal outsourcing person like When when we are in the Nepal we try to get client from like the broad u.s. Australia and all those things bid bid in the marketplace like Odex, but now it's off work. So that is the time I Establish catch internet, but it changed over the time then after that I founded a catch themes, which is one of the leading themes and plug-in a Development company we have themes in various places or press comm theme forest and in our own site, too and and that's all because of the community and There's a good story about the theme review dot-co. I mean like I was not involved when it founded One of good friends like Emil and Justin Tatlok. They founded this company theme review dot-co This is a very special community based Company, which does review for the themes that you have developed for what best or Or if you want to double off it for what press comm or theme forest We check for the guidelines check for the quality of themes we reviewed it in details and give you The chances to make or improvement to your development process But because of while attending what can San Francisco? I had a good friend Emil and he asked me like would you like to join and then I bought over his shares to become the Co-owner of theme reviews as that's why again, I love what can because I get to get new businesses new partners and new New networking every time that's really interest me out and theme ballast In Nepal if you if you know or not we have a problem of payment getaway We don't have a payment getaway like pay ball is not there stripy is not there So how are we gonna sell our themes are plug-in if we build there's no other way than to sell in the marketplace and To enter the marketplace like theme forest or or what press comm it's really really difficult for the Starting up Developers, so I thought like why don't I create something which can Facilize them and which can which they can use it just developing and then I can just market and sell for them So I established theme palace last year only so it's in the beginning stage right now, but it's doing really good and we have I Love blogging and then we started with Nepal was and they both press quite in a blogging style But now we have a writer's writing for it So let me go back to my background Actually, I'm not the technical person from the start. I'm like Management student. I did my MBA from Singapore As soon as I did my MBA there was like my mind playing around. What should I do next? I like work in this fine country. It's so beautiful. It's so clean and nice Everything here is so systematic. I want to work I think and I even tried to like look for a job and that's I even interviewed many jobs And I was called but then in my mind. I thought of like what what what do I do if I just work here? Why what happens if I return back and Returning back choices was the very difficult because you are already used to with all those fine things all those Equipments and the double of men things you have to go back from the first country to the third world country So you have to go back to your own country, but it's beautiful country. So I had a hard decision and That for that decision it took me like three to six months just to decide do I want to go back? Really do I want to go back and then but then I think and think and think Then I just had to go back. I thought about like, okay, I want to do something good Then what next I? Was like I was like in my country. I don't know what to do because like I always love Technology I started learning computer from the grade 8 so I'm passionate about computer and after passing my grade and I even took like crash courses of web development like html CSS I know a little bit about PHP and JavaScript. So I am management background I know a little bit about technology, but then I thought like okay. What what if I do a new startup companies? but I Didn't have any investment or I didn't have a money to start my parents didn't allow me to invest money in Nepal So like I had nothing to do and and the bad thing again about the Nepal for the startup is like We don't get bank loan just by your credit history. You need to have a collateral for a bank loan Or you cannot just ask people for money. There's not no way So I have no money to start my own business then I had no other option to join a company So I joined one of the IT company as a human resource manager because I have the degree of MBA as a human resource So I joined that Then I saw lots of problem technical problem in that company is because that company was good in design But while in development part they tried to do all the things that client says Like if they want to do in Jumla, let's do it in cake PHP cake PHP normal PHP framework long php for more Okay, that was like they didn't have defined set like we are specialized in this segment So so I think that is the difficult part back in 2007 because we were not Considered as a main outsourcing hub as well. So whatever we get we try to snatch and they're okay. Well, let's do this program Let's learn so learning and coding learning and coding. It was really difficult So the finding so I I found it people not being productive Then I try to find for solutions and I search in internet I try different platform different platform like Jumla or what press to pause and all those things Then I finally found what press and then I found it's so easy to use at a time. I Suddenly fell in love with that and then wow, that's a great thing. Shall I use it then over the weekend? I just turned my company website into the word press So converted normal PHP website into the dynamic What the side so that opened the eyes of all the company's members and we start doing it good in what best But but soon after that even I always wanted to do a startup and then soon after that I Resigned from that company because they don't want to go on product sections. It is a great job in Odex We did we're we did ten thousand more than ten thousand hours in Odex But I was great achievement at the time so I went to establish my own company Catch internet and then I did a lot on a little quite bit of money and then I traveled to what came what came Melbourne Not exactly for what came Melbourne for a vacation, but then there was what came Melbourne. I said wow I'm gonna attend that I didn't know about what came at that time I thought every word what came is a bigger word camp as like whoa, that's gonna be big I'm gonna they go there and learn all the things and and when when I see people and I see the Them being very friendly. They take me everything like okay. You are from Nepal I'm gonna see what you have done and they asked me like questions. Do you have what press team in what press dollar? I said no, do you have what press plug-in in what press daughter? I said no I'm like oh shit. I haven't done anything in WordPress. I just build site for my clients and do you have like Any any enterprise at the time the team plug-in were like very booming in 2011 Everybody wants like themes blogging themes blogging. I said mind. What's that? I was like, what should I do? I should learn and dad and Jason was very good and they did they taught me a lot of things Then I thought like okay. Wow. I already own up quite a bit of money so I can go back Let's give back to the word press Because I saw so good community in Melbourne. I thought that what why can't we have those things in Nepal and start Creating start doing good thing So I talked with the word press community member all around I Chat with the people from different places and talk about it a network with the people in Nepal who has done at least PHP or at least on something and and then we we formed WordPress Nepal along with my friend Tondra and Ujo They're a very good friend of mine and we once used to work together as well So we formed a wordpress Nepal just thinking that we will also have what came Nepal we also want to do what came Nepal and We just had that dream for the first year. We had nothing in our mind We want to grow what press but that was really difficult because we were only three people and then when we call for meetup There were only five people like five people how we're gonna do what campus, but we didn't let it go We try try try and we did our first work and successfully with 150 people at least that was great thing and now we have more than 350 people in what came in Kathmandu itself and they're growing in all the cities So that that that was achievement for me. Then I said, okay, why don't I submit team? To the wordpress rock because that's also again contribution. So what happens is like again a community is so great I was just developing my own blog Missing around with the default team 2011 team. So I was just like messing around messing around and then I created my own side Which is still still the same side. I'm running right now in my talking stress the dot-co Because I don't I don't I don't want to change as I fell in love with that and I'm still continuing it that maybe I'll Change in the future Then I saw me didn't wordpress. Don't rock. What happens is like There was immense number of feedback There was like user liking it in the first day itself. It has crossed the 500 downloads. It went to the thousand downloads It was becoming the top 10 wordpress free themes in dot org. I was like, oh my god. What did I what did I do? I just mess around with the code. I did nothing, you know I just tweak around cash around change the CSS added sliders all those things color options and I Just did that and and everything changed then I thought okay Why don't I go a different approach this time? I will just build everything from scratch because I'm client brag on client asked me to do everything from scratch So I just designed an HTML CSS and converted that to the wordpress would take me a lot of time To build simple catch and then like somebody didn't wordpress. All right. I had to face lots of Complaint like this is not good. This is not right the way to do it. The team reviewers were really good They teach me like, okay, this is how you do it. This is how you do it. You have to use the core function You have to use the proper validation. You have to use it. Okay. Okay. Okay. I got it I got I'm there. I got rejected like almost two times I think at that time and then okay Wow, that's great and that let me to join team review team to learn more about team and then I became one of the Key reviewer admins in the wordpress.org team review team. That's like wow now. I'm the admins of the team review team Last year only I stepped down from the key review Because I got too busy with all the things So these are the approaches that you can use and after on I even use approaches like building from starter team like underscore, which is very great Development by automatic teams It's great So what happens free users demanded more features like they were saying and then I was giving it for free like okay Get it next part's an object get it and they were ready to pay And I said I don't have a payment system. Do you have donate button? I don't have a donate button. I don't have a PayPal How do I get donate butter and I and then I call my sister can can can you give me your PayPal account? I want to add a donate button, you know because my sister was starting here instead So she said okay sure I'll give you my PayPal and I just add my PayPal and then add a donate button and still now There's one person who sent me $1.10 every month as a donation from 2011 till that I was like wow That's that's a good donation. Like I'm getting a day donation for like some meeting of my first team And that's what like it made me so Fantastic, it made me so happy. That's the best time of my life I had it throughout my I think it's the best time of my throughout the life I have In development time, so it lifts to the foundation of what dress themes. So I this is the first site Because I just everybody want a site everyone don't remember I just created like SDM and CSS done and Then okay, then they demanded more then I come up with the next design which has E-commerce integrations We use who commerce at the time and and it was good software to use for selling I didn't know it had a problem of scaling at the time. So I just I just I just use it Because we just using a new commerce was also in initial stage We are also in an initial stage. So we try to sell we try to do it more and more Then we became a clean theme development company Selling lots of things. We have now more than 100 things And and what happened here also like well, I would like to tell you one story about again about the community and the WordPress Well, while developing this side, we are having a scaling issues. We're increasing the clients We're having a scaling issues with who commerce subscription because we're using who come a subscription. I was like Asking my host to fix it like they were not able to fix it. What's the issue is you always getting timeouts and all those things It's like oh shit. What should I do? I tried to search because I was using so many plugins I couldn't even fix that So in the word camp us I met Brent from WooCommerce subscription So he said I had this problem from your plug-in. She's like I had this error log my sense. Oh, I know this I know this I can fix it for you. This is my plug-in problem. Sorry for that I said like, okay, that's great He gonna fix it and he gonna he fix it within a minute We just writing one on another plug-in. He gave me like okay This you install that and I will fix it for the new version of this or like wow That's how you connect with the people and that's how you run the business is like wow, that's great And now going back to the main topic ways to start a theme business I think that's why I found two ways to start a theme business basically You can go on management way or you can go on what this totally a community way Right as you already know management way is more practical. It's more business plan. We have capital in it We have investment. We have we are well prepared more structures. We have growth plan. How are you gonna scale? How what are the yes? Hosting we're gonna use everything is there so we have less chances of failure But I didn't choose that because I didn't had all those facilities in my mind So I choose the word press community way Because it was easy to start simply because easy to start because everybody showed me how to do it So I just submitted them in dot-org. I got traffic from dot-org. I didn't do SEO I didn't do anything at all just plain coding submitting just coming back. Wow, that's great No marketing no Facebook no tweeters and anything So it was easy to start just coding joining because I love coding So I just go that way so that thing is like how we turn into business initiative Which is always great because you love what you are doing. That's always great to do it one way to learn, but there's always problem of growing I Have told you when I when our business Grow it was Difficult for us to scale difficult for us to hire more and more people and the problem goes again on and on and on You're getting success, but you're not Happy with it because like you're having everyday problem. You have to support you have to track your servers You have to do everything that again the solutions in the community way is again, you just Find out a way talking to slag nowadays. We have a slack. That's that's very good You can just slack the person you know it land Do you have the same issue like me? Did you face that and they will just share and what this community is great? So that I think I think you guys also should network with the People that you need instantly and also network with the people that you might need you don't know So just just get yourself reach out and then you can say like, okay, I met you at what came over Kerry? Can you help me with this? Yeah, I had this problem. So it's fun way and it's a great way to learn But in 2017 the market of the team market got really saturated There were lots of lots of theme companies growing in and we had to face lots of competitions and we thought of Davies fire ourself into different marketplace So what what we tried to do is we tried to go to the wordpress.com which we just self-hosted WordPress Run by automatic. So I thought like that would be great platform because if my if I have a theme there People would not have to go through the difficult of downloading theme installing thing They can just install it in their wordpress.com site easily but When I tried to apply I went to join our space and it was closed Okay, you cannot join I Cannot something to what press calm then I remember in 2012 and 13 Philip automo from automatic He already resigned. He came he was there. He asked me like would you like to submit him in what restored? He had sent me email About that and and I use that email But he's no longer, but I use the network that I had in what what came to us and There with David and I took like Philip Asked me to Summing theme in long time back, but now you are close. So can I get inside? So I just reply the same thread but with the new email address. So look, this is what happened previously But can I get inside it said like but it's close now So, okay, it's close. That's it's fine. Now. I went to where what came us in 2016 So what came us and then I talked with him personally we were both speaker at that time So we had a speaker dinners party and that was great So I went to talk with him so personally and all those things and he said like, okay You guys are doing really good You just need your design to be very cleaned up for what best outcome if you have really to good design cleanup I think you'll definitely Come into our marketplace and I said Can you recommend me the designer, please? He said, oh, I have one designer in my mind. I will teach you and okay, okay I said that and he let us send me a designer name and That happens to be one of my friend's friend and then I talked with him. He initially said no to me But then afterwards I convinced him to say yes, and that's how we land up in wordpress.com and it's one of the Top themes in wordpress.com right now the verity thing And that's how we can always use the power of community I think if you if I was just using the management style I think I would not have been landed in wordpress.com right now But I use the community and the community power even though it was closed. I was able to get inside So that's again the same with the theme forest thing. It was difficult for me because like they had own requirements and tricky, but then I had my friends ML and Stefan all those people So I told them what what do I need to submit a theme and these are the things you need to copy on it Your design has to be unique. You have all the coding standards, you know it So I I just did it and I submitted there But think for us I'm not that lucky enough because what I found is theme forest is more focused on like Multi-propose theme not on like niche thing that we focus we are niche team focus We are like centric like only for music or portfolio or like that But team forest more of a multi-purpose with visual composer and all we didn't have that so we didn't get quite success in theme forest And and again most of marketplace that happened like last year I went to what camp Europe and I met them in Sponsor boat I talked with them. What what do you do like and then? They said like we have a good marketplace We would like you to join if you want and I said yes one Could you give me like any anything special and they said yes here? I will send you the special email for that and I joined that as well. So in this year We joined three new marketplace But the success will one right now. We have his wordpress.com and our own team site So this is all we did just just following the community way so again That's why I always call this the community way the smartest way We can use right now if I had to start a WordPress theme business If I had all the money and if I had everything to invest on it I will use the mixed approach because like I faced so many difficulties doing just a community approach I was like constantly Intense more than but constantly in exploration mode But if you say me like which which strategy you will use right down then I was to use the mix stuff But I prefer more of a community and then again mixed of management way so that we are more prepared and more have Well the first scalable Marketplace so it's a theme palace is more scalable because we invested on that we we already Know what's going to be good with software to use it We use easy digital download for that because we are just selling digital products. So why do I need? Who come us for that? We are not selling it products. I'm like physical products So we just try to focus on niche plugins and then which we only added the plugins that were needed And also the server we were like very optimized. We already optimized and it's been really good and I'm paying the double the Theme palace is paying for the server. So that's how If you know if you are prepared beforehand, then you can actually save your time and save your money So this these are the both way that you can do it the key to success for all these Ways what just just just my passion is like I always love what I wanted to do it I always love plugins and themes. So I always do that and that's why It kept me success and I never give up when there was over down or like when there is When there's someone said no, we are closed. I never said, okay, shit I will not do it But whenever people say they are closed or their server cannot support or their themes Or the hosting server support sucks Then I always try to contact different other people or try to solve it myself So that's why I keep in persistence and I waited for the time to Capture the right movement. So this is how we achieved each milestone by milestones and I think this is the really really good way to start a business and And also if you are a theme developer, I think you can start with the start of themes like underscore Which is really great and and the Gutenberg is also coming. So They will have a more support in underscore as well. So thank you if you have any questions you can follow me on Sucking stress that Twitter handle if you have any questions, and they'll let me know. Thank you What was there like a critical moment in your business and growing your business when It could have gone really really bad Was Yeah, because like there was a time like 2017 we're having a good time till 2017 I'm like till 2016. I would say in the 2017. We started having a problem because WordPress daughter also changed their system of like getting a team like they made a queue really One team policies and all those things they make strict policies and our major Traffic was from the WordPress.org So that was challenge and I was lazy at that time like just building two or three things and then Getting all the monies from that. So was happy and lazy Lazy so we went down at that time so we ain't really really down. I was like, oh shit Now I need to think about it. So that's where I think about and getting more involved in the company That's why I think WordPress.com and all the marketplace rescued us in that terms and also like because of the WordPress.com We're so strict in design. We improved our design. We even hired a designer from California and Both the team the verity in WordPress.com went really well and the free theme that we submit in photography The photography team which we also have photograph both designed by the same guy also went really good And that's that rescued our business Yes Yeah, definitely We have to make a lot of changes But but Gutenberg is slowly adapting to it They said that it's not gonna break your theme But we will have to add Support for the CSS and all those things. So it will work in a way But I don't think if that works it will work nicely All the new new design that we have done and the new code we have done will definitely work nicer But I don't think that theme that we have done in 2012 and 30 So we are planning to slowly retire them or re code them So so older things will retire them for the newer one. We are working with that Yeah, because I cannot update hundred things. That's not possible at all for for a year. Yeah Or Yeah Yeah, I'm the people like what they what what usually happens is that people will try to submit them in wordpress.org Or team forest or dot com and they get rejected They get rejected. That's why and they came to us mostly and we both and Justin Tyler is very very good person He knows very detail and I also have lots of experience 10 years of experience in team development So we look at which marketplace you are submitting suppose You are looking at theme forest and we especially check as per the theme forest guidelines and theme forest requirements And we recommend all those things to make you changes. Okay, these are the things We we use bit bucket or or get up to post your issues Or if you want markdown will send the markdown of the issues that that have in your theme So even we even check the security issues and all those issues Yeah, you can feel free to go to what team leave it dot go and arrange a review No, no, no, no, it's just like one time payment. Any other questions close. Yes. Thank you