Category: Random

  • What’s on your phone?

    I’d like to try something different for today’s post: What is the most recent photo on your phone? Please email it to me and I’ll add it to this post. I’ll start with mine: #30daychallenge

  • Team Tinker

    At the start of this year, I announced that I was stepping down as Automattic’s CEO. I also mentioned that I would be staying on at Automattic to work on new ideas and build new products. A number of people have since mentioned to me that it’s unusual for a CEO to stay around in…

  • College trips

    One of the best experiences I had this year was visiting colleges with my daughter Sophie. An exercise in bittersweetness, it made me sad with anticipation of her going off to college and excited for her after seeing so many cool places where she might end up. Across a couple of trips we spent time…

  • Diane’s art opening

    When I first met Diane over 20 years ago, she told me that one day she’ll switch from being a designer to being an artist. After many steps along the way – grad school, running her design business, getting married to me :), settling down in San Francisco, raising three awesome kids, overcoming serious illness…

  • Renovo launches

    The Renovo Coupe was unveiled today, the world’s fastest electric production vehicle. True is a proud investor in Renovo, and I’ve had the pleasure to sit on their board and witness the last 12 months of this project. The team at Renovo is world class and the car is spectacular – I’ve witnessed its acceleration…

  • Automattic continues its rise

    Recode has the official news of a big Automattic fundraise: The round values the nine-year-old company at $1.16 billion, after the investment, which is its first since it raised $12 million in 2008. And here’s the official post about it from Matt. Stay tuned for a lot of exciting news and products coming out of…

  • Antarctica

    We just got back from Christmas and New Year’s in Antarctica. To quote Diane: “It was spectacular and strange and very very far away.”

  • Work in progress

    I’m helping Diane move into her new studio.

  • Summer internships

    A mom recently asked my opinion about tech internships for her college aged daughter who is interested in Silicon Valley. I can think of three great options: 1. Go for an internship with a VC firm like True’s TEC program. You’ll work solo with an up and running startup and as a group of interns…

  • 100 year old electric car, a daily driver

    I was at dinner at Patrick Mueller’s, a Swiss friend, when he asked me if I wanted to see his new electric car. “Sure!”, I said, walking to his garage expecting a Tesla or a Prius. Instead he showed me a close to 100 year old Detroit Electric. He’s upgraded it with a new battery, the…

  • Back to work

    Tomorrow marks both the start of another hopefully amazing Automattic company meetup and my return to work after a three month sabbatical. I’ve spent this summer away from work, enjoying lots of free time with my family, reading about twenty books, hovering around inbox zero for weeks at a time, traveling home to Switzerland, and…

  • Giant Sweep poster

    SF Giant Sweep is a project between San Francisco’s Mayor and the Giants baseball team to help keep the city clean and beautiful. They had a contest for students to enter poster designs. Sophie entered a collage she made from recycled plastic and packaging and she won 1st place for the high school category –…

  • Tiger invests in Automattic

    Tiger Global has recently invested over $50M in Automattic secondary stock purchases. After many years of being backed by a great team of investors who have been with Automattic since the early days – Polaris Partners, True Ventures, Radar Partners, and the New York Times Company – Tiger has joined this illustrious group by purchasing…

  • Lotus

    Enjoying a ride with Ben in the Super 7 (near Stinson Beach):

  • Yoga

    I had my first ever yoga class today. It was great – outdoors in the sun, very stimulating and relaxing. Thank you Diane for dragging me along and Kate for teaching a great class (and taking it easy on me 🙂 )!