The Tim Ferriss Show #190: Matt Mullenweg on the Characteristics and Practices of Successful Entrepreneurs
Align Distributed Teams With Prototypes
- Use low-fidelity prototypes or a written announcement to align distributed teams around the same vision.
- Shared mockups and a 'blog post/press release' for a feature prevent drift in understanding.
In-Person Meets Repair Distributed Loneliness
- Distributed work eases one-on-one communication but weakens group belonging and in-person senses.
- Annual full-company meetups rebuild social connection that remote tools cannot fully replace.
Travel Hacks That Preserve Productivity
- Get TSA PreCheck and Global Entry to save time and stress while traveling.
- Use a global mobile plan like Google Fi or a local SIM to avoid unreliable Wi‑Fi.
Matt Mullenweg (@photomatt) is most associated with a tool that powers more than 25% of the entire Web: WordPress. He's also the CEO of Automattic, which is a multi-billion dollar, fully distributed startup. Matt loves tea, tequila, and Chicken McNuggets. His first time on the show went over so well that you've all been asking for a round two. So in this episode, he answers your most popular questions. Please enjoy! Show notes and links for this episode can be found at www.fourhourworkweek.com/podcast. This podcast is brought to you by Vimeo Business. Vimeo Business has all of the prior benefits of Vimeo Pro, including VIP support. Whether you make videos for a living, run your own company, or simply want to amp up your video marketing, Vimeo Business is here to help. It has more than 280 million creators and viewers worldwide and makes it easier to share your videos with a global audience and connect with professional video makers to bring your stories to life. Vimeo Business allows you to upload up to five terabytes and store your videos in one secure place, add up to 10 team members to your account for easy collaboration, and gather feedback with seamless review tools. You can even add clickable calls to action and capture email addresses directly in the player, which can help you generate leads and drive conversion for whatever you're trying to optimize, such as a newsletter or a sales page. Check out vimeo.com/tim10 to save 10 percent on Vimeo Business. This podcast is also brought to you by Wealthfront. Wealthfront is a massively disruptive (in a good way) set-it-and-forget-it investing service led by technologists from places like Apple. It has exploded in popularity in the last two years and now has more than $2.5B under management. Why? Because you can get services previously limited to the ultra-wealthy and only pay pennies on the dollar for them, and it's all through smarter software instead of retail locations and bloated sales teams. Check out wealthfront.com/tim, take their risk assessment quiz, which only takes 2-5 minutes, and they'll show you for free the exactly the portfolio they'd put you in. If you want to just take their advice and do it yourself, you can. Well worth a few minutes to explore: wealthfront.com/tim.
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