Joost de Valk and Marieke van de Rakt of Emilia Capital have announced that they have acquired Post Status from Cory and Lindsey Miller. The acquisition includes the brand, the Slack community, the website, and all related assets, which have now been transferred to a foundation in the Netherlands, aptly named Post Status Foundation, transforming the platform into a non-profit.
The Journey of Post Status
Founded in 2013 by Brian Krogsgard, Post Status began as a personal blog to share insights and updates about the WordPress ecosystem. Over the years, it evolved into a thriving membership-driven community for WordPress professionals, including developers, designers, and business owners.
In 2020, WordPress entrepreneur and former iThemes founder Cory Miller joined as an equal partner. By early 2021, Cory and Lindsey Miller became the sole owners and publishers of Post Status, continuing to grow their presence in the WordPress community.
In August 2023, Joost de Valk and Marieke van de Rakt joined Post Status as equity partners through Emilia Capital, laying the groundwork for this recent acquisition.
Joost de Valk recently made headlines amidst the ongoing WordPress drama when he expressed his willingness to head the WordPress project. He described Mullenweg as a BDFL (Benevolent Dictator For Life) and called for Breaking the Status Quo of the WordPress world. In retaliation, Mullenweg removed him from WordPress.org and challenged him to fork WordPress.
The Acquisition
Following the acquisition, de Valk shared on X: “We’ve acquired Post Status and then immediately handed it off to a new, non-profit foundation (I’m in that foundation too, of course, but not alone)… Making sure @post_status keeps on being available for the community.”
The Post Status Foundation board includes Juliette Reinders Folmer (Business consultant) and Karim Marucchi (CEO of Crowd Favorite), alongside de Valk. The board members will serve without compensation.
de Valk elaborated on the reasons behind the acquisition in the official Post Status announcement:
“Over the past few months, it’s become very clear that Post Status is an enormously important place for the community to come together and discuss all things WordPress. A place with light moderation, but also with true freedom of speech (within the boundaries of treating everyone with respect) and the freedom to have different opinions. We want to enshrine those freedoms even more.”
Last month, Mullenweg quit the Post Status channel after WP Engine won the injunction saying, “It’s hard to imagine wanting to continue to working on WordPress after this,”
What’s Next
Looking ahead, plans are in place to lower membership prices, making the community more accessible while securing sponsorships to sustain its operations. Plans are also underway to explore offline conferences, which may be organized by a separate entity and funded through sponsorships and ticket sales.
A “no politics” rule will guide discussions within the community. De Valk clarified: “While we individually have opinions and will share those, the Post Status Foundation has no plans to take any political stance in these discussions. We want Post Status to be a safe place for all.”
Michelle Frechette will continue as Post Status’s Executive Director and most of the current team will remain in their roles.
The community is excited that Post Status is in safe hands.