The WP Minute+ WordPress vs. The World: An Interview with Scalemath CEO Alex Panagis
I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Alex Panagis, CEO of digital growth agency Scalemath, on my podcast The WP Minute+. As a leader in the WordPress space with deep roots in the ecosystem, Alex had plenty of insightful perspectives to share.
A big topic we dug into was WordPress vs. closed platforms like Webflow. As you might expect, Alex is firmly in the open source WordPress camp. He sees the flexibility of WordPress as superior for most uses, allowing users to control more of their site without getting locked into a proprietary ecosystem.
That said, Alex doesn’t believe Webflow is necessarily bad if it enables someone to build a better site than they could with WordPress. The choice comes down to what works best for each user and their goals. The concern is more about avoiding vendor lock-in down the road.
We also discussed the impact of AI on digital marketing and content creation. While useful in certain applications, Alex believes AI raises the bar in terms of the quality and originality needed from human creators and strategists. Essentially, it forces everyone to up their game, which is ultimately a good thing.
Several other highlights that WordPress professionals may find interesting:
- How Scalemath builds deep, long-term partnerships vs. the typical agency/client relationship
- The importance of product development in scaling a services agency
- Why most smaller WordPress firms don’t make economic sense for an agency to work with
- Alex’s take on Basecamp’s upcoming Slack competitor and “pay once” software model
It was a wide-ranging and insightful chat with Alex!
Chapter Markers
- [00:00:00] Introduction
- [00:02:00] Alex’s background and Scalemath
- [00:05:00] Working with clients and pricing
- [00:10:00] Ideal client criteria
- [00:15:00] Building the Scalemath brand
- [00:19:00] Pricing and value
- [00:25:00] Open source vs closed source CMS
- [00:30:00] SaaS pricing models
- [00:35:00] Basecamp’s new “pay once” model
- [00:37:00] The impact of AI
- [00:42:00] Disclosing AI written content