Kingpin: Interview with Bart Dabek
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Q1: What's your experience and how did become involved with WordPress?
I was a student at Sheridan College and always wanted to become an animator using computers. However, when I graduated the market was filled with animators. I was offered an animation position at a start-up situated in Toronto, Canada. We created online video content for the hotel industry at the time of 2000. This was long before YouTube. The job I was working for eventually led me to JavaScript development.
My very first time using WordPress was the time I decided to launch my own blog, AboutMyPlanet.com. WordPress seemed to be the right choice, both from the content management side, and also for my developer needs.
Q2: You've had a number of conversations about your new project w/ Ben Fox, YT2FB. What was the reason for that?
YouTube on Facebook was a concept generated from one of our principal developer, Mario Dabek. Mario Dabek saw an opportunity to improve the YouTube viewing experience on Facebook. Facebook has made YouTube's video embedding experience not as great as native Facebook videos.
It's really doing extremely well. It's had over 5 million views in its first month, we're very proud of that.
Q3: How was your Product Hunt experience like?
It's a great way to showcase your products before the appropriate target market. Our experience has been very positive and we've received great feedback from being in the Product Hunt. The first time around we produced over 1,000 leads and some excitement about Sidekick.
Question 4: Which type of clients are a good fit for your agency FlowPress?
We are looking for enterprise-level clients who are using WordPress. We often joke that we love our nightmare projects. We love to be able to step in and make a big difference on a customer's WordPress infrastructure. We work on very tight schedules where our client requires us to help them optimize their WordPress constructions. The scope of work can range from full rebuilds up to WordPress review... all focusing on performance and WordPress standard.
Q5: Why should anyone choose FlowPress instead of another agency from WP?
Our focus is on three main areas: performance, standards and processes. The goal is always to operate extremely high-performance WordPress based websites. That means doing thorough reviews, which clearly show what any areas that need repair or reconstruction. This results in improvements to codes, either by education or change of the code. It also means a clean process to make things run smoother. Our team will arrive and establish clear procedures that enhance everyday technology tasks.
Q6: Will you be attending events or conferences throughout the rest in 2016?
The group is headed to PressNomics in the moment This is one of the most effective events for networking, and building and keeping relationships with the founders of many WordPress products. In addition I'm confident that I'll head out to WordCamp Toronto.. Also, you can follow me on Twitter to stay up-to-date with my schedule.
Q7: As a CTO, what is your toolkit?
My tools for day-to-day use are split between management and coding. From a managerial perspective the tools we utilize are Teamwork.com, StoriesOnBoard.com, Google Apps, & Slack. In the development side I am using Sublime but moving to Atom, Sequel Pro, SourceTree, Gulp, & WP-CLI.
Q8 Is there something most people don't are aware of about you, which would be a surprise to people?
In the summer, I commute by bike every day and I've been hit by a car three times recently... thankfully nothing broken :)
Q9 How is the startup culture in Toronto is like?
It's fantastic! It has been a lively community of tech startups from the moment I came to Toronto in 2000. There is plenty of tech meetups you can go to every week. There is a possibility of calling Toronto"the Silicon Valley of Canada.
Q10: If you could be a celebrity entrepreneur Who would you choose and what would it be?
Elon Musk hands down, is one of the best role models you could ask for. I admire his determination for hard work, and his willingness to risk it all, to help make the world a better place. There isn't too many people such as him on the planet. He could have retired a long time back, but he's also one of the few who's willful to lay everything into improving the human race.
Brian Jackson
Brian has a huge passion for WordPress and has been using it for over a decade, and even develops a couple of premium plugins. Brian is a fan of movies, blogging as well as hiking. Connect with Brian on Twitter.