How Scaling Turns Rare Occurrences Into Common Ones with Jason Cohen

Today Corey Quinn is joined by Founder and Chief Innovation Officer at WP Engine, Jason Cohen. Jason breaks down the biggest issues he has seen throughout his career hosting millions of websites including why seemingly rare problems should be expected at scale, how moving on after attaining a “good enough” metric can save time and money, and what it means to be proud of your work in the world of cybersecurity. Check it out!

Show Highlights

• (00:00) - WordPress popularity and outsourcing engineering tasks
• (07:28) - Web hosting and scalability
• (11:01) - Server reliability and quality control
• (14:18) - Scaling infrastructure and prioritizing customer value
• (26:20) - Website speed and optimization
• (28:17) - WordPress scalability and deployment in a cloud environment
• (36:14) - Customer profitability and service limitations
• (38:54) - Security measures for ethical decision-making
• (47:19) - Balancing free speech and decision-making in online content moderation

About Jason

Founder of unicorn WP Engine (200,000 customers, 1,200 employees). Previously founder of bootstrapped Smart Bear (sold 2008; re-sold in 2021 at ~$2B) and ITWatchDogs (sold 2004). Original mentor and angel investor with Austin-based Capital Factory since 2009.

Written about startups for seventeen years, most recently at https://longform.asmartbear.com; Twitter: @asmartbear.

Links Referenced:

• Personal Website: https://longform.asmartbear.com/
• WP Engine: https://wpengine.com/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncohen/