{"id":1334399,"date":"2019-07-08T14:00:56","date_gmt":"2019-07-08T12:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-rocket.me\/?p=1334399"},"modified":"2019-11-26T10:19:53","modified_gmt":"2019-11-26T09:19:53","slug":"6-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-rocket.me\/blog\/6-years\/","title":{"rendered":"WP Rocket Turns 6: Look Back at The Most Important Moments in the Life of Our Plugin"},"content":{"rendered":"

For a curious coincidence, WP Rocket was born in France on 14 July, which is also Bastille Day, the most important French national holiday.<\/p>

It’s been six years since that 14 July 2013<\/strong>, and today we\u2019re going to celebrate WP Rocket\u2019s 6th Anniversary!<\/p>

We\u2019re doing it by sharing some of the most precious moments of the life of our beloved cache plugin.<\/p>

How It All Started<\/h2>

It was a dark and stormy night\u2026
Nah, not really! <\/p>

It all started with a friendship. Jonathan and Jean-Baptiste were working together for a web agency, and they were both interested in web performance techniques. <\/p>

The key moment that kicked off the adventure was a successful web performance tutorial published on Jonathan\u2019s blog.<\/p>

The success raised around that tutorial made Jonathan and Jean-Baptiste realize there was the opportunity to work together on something bigger.<\/p>

That\u2019s when they began to develop a WordPress plugin that could embrace web performance best practices, with a specific focus on page caching<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>

The name WP Rocket <\/strong>came up a few months after the launch of the product: one of the first users wrote a comment to point out how the new software was making their website faster than a rocket. ?<\/p>

And that’s how WP Rocket has been called ever since!<\/p>

Six Key Moments in the Life of WP Rocket<\/h2>

Six years is a significant milestone. We feel like WP Rocket has grown up a lot during this time, and so have the company and the team. <\/p>

\"Group<\/figure>

If we were to outline six key moments in the life of WP Rocket<\/strong>, we\u2019d choose the following ones:<\/p>

1. The First Mention during a Public Event<\/h3>

A few months after WP Rocket first release, in January 2014, \u00c9milie Lebrun, founder of the WordPress agency Whodunit<\/a> mentioned WP Rocket during her talk at WordCamp Paris<\/strong>.<\/p>

WordCamp Paris is the biggest event for the WordPress community in France, and it was incredible to receive such mention only a few months after the launch: WP Rocket was still a small plugin, but professionals of the WordPress environment were getting to use it and be very happy about it!<\/p>

For us, it was a sign that we were heading in the right direction. ?<\/p>

2. Going International<\/h3>

After its launch, WP Rocket became pretty famous in the French community. <\/p>

The decision to step the boundaries and go international was one of the first big decisions for the company. In May 2014, we translated the website and the plugin in English<\/strong>, and we launched WP Rocket outside the French border.<\/p>

\"WordPress<\/figure><\/div>

That was the beginning of an international career for our plugin, which was later translated (along with the website) also in Spanish, Italian, and German! ?<\/p>

3. A Team Was Born: Our First Team Member<\/h3>

Together with the expansion of the business to the international market, another critical moment marks the first years of WP Rocket\u2019s life: the decision to hire the first member of the team<\/strong>!<\/p>

It was December 2014 when the first Rocketeer, Lucy, joined the company to provide technical support in English. Thanks to her expertise, customers all over the world started to appreciate WP Rocket not only for its outstanding performance but also for its friendly and professional support service.<\/p>

Since then, the Support Team went very far: it now counts 11 people that do their best to answer customers\u2019 questions and solve their issues with the plugin.<\/p>

(Stats speak for themselves: nowadays, the quality of WP Rocket Support is rated as Great by 95% of our customers<\/a>!)<\/p>

4. Our First Startup Retreat<\/h3>

Since the beginning, we decided that WP Media<\/a> (the startup behind WP Rocket) was meant to be a remote company. <\/p>

This is why hiring Lucy, who lives in Los Angeles, California, was the first stone for creating a remote team scattered all around the world.<\/p>

Today, WP Rocket team lives in eleven different countries: Argentina, Canada, Colombia, France, Greece, India, Serbia, Spain, UK, US, and Venezuela. And we\u2019d love to add more to our world map!<\/p>

Working remotely doesn\u2019t mean we never get the chance to share moments in person. Indeed, as soon as the team started growing, we looked for ways to spend time together, put aside our computer screens, and reunite somewhere in the world for a week of work and fun<\/strong>.<\/p>

\"Group<\/figure>

Our first company retreat was in Seville, Spain, in June 2015<\/strong>. We participated in WordCamp Europe 2015 and decided to rent a big house together: it was a fantastic experience of shared quality time, brainstorming, work, and lots of pool swimming (how hot can Seville be in June?!).<\/p>

Since then, we met once per year for our official startup retreats in Mallorca, Ibiza and Praia da Luz, Portugal.<\/p>

5. Launching the Affiliate Program<\/h3>

At the beginning of our adventure, we\u2019ve had some doubts about the idea of starting an affiliate program.<\/p>

We didn\u2019t want people to recommend our product only to make money; we would like people to stand by the product first and foremost if they are going to recommend it.<\/p>

But, as the saying goes, only fools and dead people don’t change their minds<\/em>.<\/p>

Following the evolution of our business and the high demands from our customers, at the end of 2017, we decided to give the affiliate program a try<\/a>.<\/p>

And it\u2019s working great! At the moment we have more than 1,780 affiliates<\/strong>, and we\u2019re proud of the relationship we\u2019re establishing with them.<\/p>

6. The Makeover: WP Rocket 3.0 and the First Redesign<\/h3>

WP Rocket was developed under the lemma of simplicity first<\/strong>. Over the years, we tried to keep the balance between adding new features to make the plugin more powerful and keeping it easy to use. <\/p>

At the end of 2017, we decided it was time for a change, and we started working on the first redesign of the plugin\u2019s interface. Our goal was to offer a more streamlined and intuitive experience for all our Rocketeers.<\/p>

\"\"<\/figure>

Our teammates and many customers provided their invaluable feedback, contributing to new points of view and insights about their experience with WP Rocket. <\/p>

The final result was a more user-friendly plugin<\/a>; we also included more intuitive settings tabs and easier access to educational resources and help.<\/p>

Bonus Point: Sponsoring WordCamp US <\/h3>

The bonus point of this list is something that hasn’t happened yet because we\u2019re going to carry it out in a few months: we\u2019re going to sponsor WordCamp US 2019<\/strong>!<\/p>

This will be a new \u201cfirst time\u201d for our company since, so far, we only sponsored European WordCamps: can\u2019t wait to live this unique experience!<\/p>

Leaving the Word to the Founders<\/h2>

This year we decided to play a little anniversary game and we recorded a double interview with WP Rocket\u2019s founders: Jonathan and Jean-Baptiste.<\/p>

Listen from their own words the story of WP Rocket, and some fun facts about the company!
Tip: we interviewed them separately, they were not aware of the questions and each others\u2019 answers: do you notice anything?<\/em> ?<\/p>

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