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The Agency Years: Co-founding and Leading Engineering, 2008 to 2017

From 2008 to early 2017 I co-founded a WordPress agency and served as its CTO, leading sales and engineering as the company grew.

Brian Messenlehner

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Brian Messenlehner

Title card: The Agency Years: Co-founding and Leading Engineering, 2008 to 2017

Key Results

  • Co-founder and CTO: 2008 to early 2017
  • Leadership: led sales and engineering as the company grew
  • Author: co-authored Building Web Apps with WordPress for O'Reilly

Summary

In 2008 I co-founded a WordPress agency and served as its CTO until early 2017. I led sales and engineering as the company grew, building WordPress sites, web applications and BuddyPress communities for clients.

The living room of a condo seen from the loft, with a laptop on the coffee table
The condo dining area and a spiral staircase leading up to the loft
My condo in Jackson, New Jersey, where my agency officially started in 2008.
A meeting around a conference table with the WebDevStudios WordPress agency website on the projector screen and on a laptop
Presenting the agency website in a meeting.
Brian Messenlehner taking a group selfie at a conference table with a WebDevStudios slide on the screen behind the group
A group selfie after an agency presentation.
Brian Messenlehner in a WebDevStudios hat, sunglasses and a NAB Show lanyard in front of a WebDevStudios WordPress and BuddyPress banner
At NAB Show in front of the agency banner.
Brian Messenlehner and three others at a WebDevStudios expo booth next to an AppPresser mobile apps for WordPress banner
At the agency booth, next to the AppPresser display.

Those years also turned into books. I co-authored O'Reilly's Building Web Apps with WordPress, first published in 2014 with a second edition in 2019, and worked on Packt's BuddyPress Theme Development.

Brian Messenlehner's WordPress speaker card listing his O'Reilly book, AppPresser and WebDevStudios, on a laptop with a WordPress sticker
My speaker card from a WordPress event.
Brian Messenlehner in a WebDevStudios hat taking a selfie with two attendees wearing WordPress lanyards
A selfie at a WordPress event.
A CaboPress collage with a group photo in CaboPress shirts, a pool, a sunset over the rocks, a WebDevStudios hat with WordPress stickers and Brian Messenlehner's badge, and group selfies
Scenes from CaboPress.

Projects from this period

Project leadership by Brian Messenlehner.

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Brian Messenlehner

Written by

Brian Messenlehner

Founder of AlphaWeb and owner of AppPresser. A former U.S. Marine Corps Sergeant and computer programmer, Brian has more than 25 years of experience leading software teams and co-wrote Building Web Apps with WordPress for O'Reilly.

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