Following top WordPress founders on X helps – it gives real-time insights from people shipping plugins, themes, and tools. These founders post roadmap updates, growth wins, and performance tweaks as they land.
This list favors founders who share numbers, practical frameworks, and what worked or didn’t in their own products. Less talk, more proof. It’s a clean feed of ideas worth testing next release.
Top 10 WP founders to follow
- Katie Keith – Co-founder of Barn2 Plugins – @KatieKeithBarn2
- Joost de Valk – Founder of Yoast – @jdevalk
- Brian Jackson – Co-founder of Forge Media, former CMO at Kinsta (Perfmatters, Novashare) – @brianleejackson
- Tom Zúbrik – Co-founder of Kinsta – @tomzur
- Syed Balkhi – Founder of WPBeginner, Awesome Motive (OptinMonster, WPForms, AIOSEO) – @syedbalkhi
- Sujay Pawar – Co-founder of Brainstorm Force (Astra theme, Spectra) – @SujayPawar
- Justin Ferriman – Founder of LearnDash – @JustinFerriman
- Simon Harper – Email Marketing Newsletter – @SRHDesign
- Pavel Ciorici – Founder of WPZOOM – @ciorici
- Tom Usborne – Founder and lead developer of Generatepress – @tomusborne
Why Katie Keith From Barns2 is the GOAT
Katie Keith, co-founder of Barn2 Plugins, is a trusted voice for WooCommerce plugin development. Her team built WooCommerce Product Table and Document Library Pro, tools that make stores faster to navigate and easier to run. She shares how they pick features that matter most, with a close eye on stores that serve both B2B and retail customers.
Katie shares pretty much everything like her Shopify journey, inspiration for what you can do to increase your SaaS sales and raw numbers from her business. She’s currently posting every day about her first release on Shopify, including what she spends on ads and much more.
If you had to follow one WP founder on X then it’d be a gruesome mistake not to follow Katie, she is by far the most authentic and knowledgeful you can follow on X (Yes I’m a giant fan of her content).
What you learn from Joost de Valk
Joost de Valk, founder of Yoast (now part of Newfold), has been a steady guide for WordPress publishers dealing with search changes. He tracks shifts in sitemaps, schema markup, and indexation rules, then shows how they affect real sites. His updates turn complex news into plain, useful advice.
When Core Web Vitals took center stage, Joost went straight to the setup details in themes and plugins that shape LCP, CLS, and INP. He shares fixes like setting image priority hints so hero images appear fast, and he also recommends preconnects to speed up resource fetching. These tips feel practical and testable for anyone running a WordPress site without a developer.
He backs open standards such as Schema.org and the WordPress SEO APIs, and points people to RFC threads and GitHub issues that influence future features. It’s a clear window into how plugins evolve and why certain capabilities matter.
He also calls out what brings real value in SEO plugins now. Keyword stuffing and rank-chasing fade in importance. Content quality, accurate structured data, and overall site health decide long-term visibility. He explains how those parts support each other and why they compound over time.
Brian Jackson and Tom Zúbrik
Brian Jackson, former CMO at Kinsta and now co-founder of Perfmatters and Novashare, shares practical speed fixes that work in real sites. He shows how to defer scripts, delaying non‑essential JavaScript so pages load faster, and how to cut unused CSS that slows things down. Posts come with real PageSpeed results, and before-and-after screenshots make the gains obvious. He also posts plugin changelogs with hard numbers like Time To First Byte (TTFB) and Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), so founders know what targets to hit. Safe default settings for common hosts and page builders lower the risk of breaking a site.
Tom Zúbrik, co-founder at Kinsta, brings a big-picture view from running WordPress at scale where every millisecond matters. He explains how containerization isolates environments so sites stay stable during traffic spikes or heavy jobs. He compares caching choices with clear tradeoffs. Redis or server-level caching makes sense based on query volume and complexity. These platform notes help founders see what the host is doing beyond plugins.
Put together, Brian’s plugin-level tweaks and Tom’s infrastructure know-how form a practical playbook for reliable speed wins. Smart choices at both layers add up to faster sites without guesswork.
Syed Balkhi, Sujay Pawar, and Justin Ferriman talks about growth, audiences and revenue
Syed Balkhi, the force behind WPBeginner and Awesome Motive, explains how WordPress companies grow an audience and lift monthly recurring revenue. He puts list-building at the center. Moments matter: intent-based popups that appear when visitors show interest, starter templates that speed onboarding, and small first-session “wow” touches that turn casual visits into loyal users. He goes past quick wins, too, and talks through acquisitions and thoughtful cross-promotion across plugins like AIOSEO, OptinMonster, and WPForms. Products should support each other without clutter or confusion.
Sujay Pawar of Astra and Spectra focuses on theme adoption loops. He prioritizes starter sites for fast launches and tight page builder integrations to keep things simple for users. He sets smart defaults aimed at strong Lighthouse scores, which reduces support by making themes perform well from the start. For updates across millions of installs, he favors staged feature flags and beta programs. New features ship safely without breaking workflows.
Justin Ferriman understands course creators through LearnDash. He clarifies how to price cohort-based courses versus evergreen models, since each affects revenue timing. He ties LMS features directly to what drives income so founders invest effort where it pays off. He currently advises other WordPress founders and help them succeed.
Simon Harper, Pavel Ciorici, and Tom Usborne
Simon Harper explains the messy world of email deliverability for WordPress in plain terms. He breaks down SPF, DKIM, and DMARC so teams know what to set up and why. He goes further with real steps, like cleaning mailing lists and warming up new sending domains to avoid spam traps. For anyone stuck with newsletters landing in junk, his guidance solves real problems fast.
Pavel Ciorici shares lessons from running WPZOOM over many years, with a focus on long-term theme care. He talks about his current projects, revenue, performance and other day-to-day issue. He’s transparent and overall a very authentic guy.
Tom Usborne sets a clear standard with GeneratePress by keeping themes lean while still powerful. He pairs simple patterns with accessibility-first design so sites load fast and work for everyone. He enforces performance budgets in continuous integration, so new code meets strict speed checks automatically. His examples explain the “why” behind each decision, which helps developers adopt stronger habits.
Following these founders gives teams practical checklists they can apply right away, from email configuration checks to thorough QA before theme releases and strict standards that preserve performance under load.
How to build a focused X list and turn X posts into wins
Following top WordPress founders and companies on X gives direct, real-world insight that improves a product or site. Their updates aren’t fluff. They share tested tactics, technical threads, and practical growth tips most blogs skip. A simple plan keeps it useful instead of noisy.
- Create a private X List named “WP Founders,” then add the ten accounts featured here. All their posts land in one clean feed, which makes it easier to spot the signal.
- Turn on notifications only for accounts that post release notes or detailed threads, like performance specialists or SEO pros. Fewer alerts, more important updates.
- Block out 30 minutes every Friday, or a time that fits, to review new posts.
- Bookmark key threads with code snippets or configuration tips. Save them in an internal doc with context and dates so the team can repeat the fix later.
This focused workflow turns following WordPress leaders from passive scrolling into steady progress. Pick one tip today. Share which tactic stood out and how you’ll put it to work next.
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