Kingpin: Interview with Daniel David

Daniel David is the co-founder of Nextendweb as well as the designer behind their plugins, which are used to power more than 600,000 sites around the globe.

Daniel's accounts on social media however he's probably not as active there: LinkedIn and Twitter.

Q1: What is your history, and when did you first become involved in WordPress?

First, greetings from Hungary to all of you readers!

The company's story began the first semester when I met Roland who is also the co-founder of Nextendweb. He's an absolute master of coding and truly a full stack developer unicorn. We instantly knew that we had to create something incredible with him.

My first experience with WordPress was around 2009 when I created a couple of simple websites for local businesses during the summer holiday. A few years later, we started the company Nextendweb and began creating Joomla extensions. We also developed a more later WordPress plugins too. Today Nextendweb is 7 years old and undoubtedly WordPress is our main platform at present. In truth, back then I could not imagine the joy, success and the feelings of gratitude, anxiety as well as doubt I experience on this ride.

Q2: What are the most important things that readers should know about all the stuff you're working on in WordPress in the present?

It's still a small business that employs just six people, but our mission remains exactly the same as it was from the beginning: delivering outstanding software with world-class support. In our group I'm the graphic designer, but I'm also responsible for marketing, content strategy and I manage the administration tasks as well. My days are unique and is my reason for why I am so passionate about my work.

It's really hard to answer my day-to-day activities. day. Mostly, it's the design of products and user interfaces. Simply put, I create things look great and perform well at Nextend. Two plugins are available that the readers may know:

We offer an Slider Library featuring more than 100 pre-designed templates for everything from product carousels and hero blocks, to parallax pages and layer sliders. It's recommended to check out the templates so you have a sense of what you could build from it.

In addition, Smart Slider 3 has been awarded a 4.9-star score on WordPress.org with over 600 user reviews and more than the 400,000 installed users. This plugin's growth is faster than the other sliders that are free within the plugin repository.

The latest version of our version, Nextend Social Login is a really simple and lightweight plugin to let your customers sign in using their most popular social profiles. It's simple to setup and will look great right out of the box when you display your login page. It takes no time for you to integrate your website and, once up and running, your users will immediately enjoy the benefits. In the near future, our login plugin will reach the 200,000 active installs and we're very pleased by this outcome.

Want to know the ways we have increased traffic over 1000%?

Join 20,000+ others who get our weekly newsletter with insider WordPress tips!

Question 3: What difficulties did you face in getting there to get to where you are now professionally?

Our company was founded in a modest apartment, shared with Roland. During the morning we handled customer support issues and later during the afternoon, we attempted to add new features as well as fixes to bugs. We didn't sleep too much during that period. It was an extremely difficult but fun time of my life. 7 years later we are facing totally different challenges like marketing, project management, or bringing the best people in the group. I am really enjoying the new challenges since it pushes me from my comfortable zone.

Q4: What has surprised you while coming up within the WordPress world?

There are three aspects. First, the evolution and improvement of CMS. The main developers create new features and improvements each year. This can be truly impressive. Second, there is a huge array of choices for themes, plugins and other services. WordPress has undoubtedly the biggest third-party developer community and this is a major factor in WordPress its current condition. Not to mention that the beginner's experience with WordPress is distinctive. The whole website editing process is a breeze for the end clients.

Q5: What does the future look like for you and the WordPress world?

The WordPress industry is much more complex than ever. Many people earn their living through WordPress in different ways. Nowadays, a great product does not guarantee the success you want. It is essential to be good at support, marketing communications, the quality of your content.

If it's the case that we're releasing a new plugin or updating the existing ones or releasing new videos that we are always looking for ways to make it better. We're also cooking an epic project to launch for Smart Slider 3. Really big and I'm excited to share it.

Q6: What do you consider when choosing the best WordPress host?

My personal preference for the most crucial aspect is the website speed as well as the uptime for the servers. Furthermore, I am looking for a secure, well-maintained server that has good support for customers. In addition, I love checking the efficiency of our website and I want to know whether anything is off.

Q7: What are you most like doing while away from your computer?

Once I'm finished with my daily job, I head to the gym for a exercises. When my brain is brimming with ideas and projects there's nothing as satisfying as lifting weights. The sci-fi genre and books are among my top choices when I have a little time I attempt to watch or read anything from my collection. But mostly I am a video game player when I'm looking to switch off on weekdays. During the weekend I spend every moment with my partner and we strive to visit our friends, family and do some activities outdoors.

Q8: Whom do we want to be interviewing next and why?

I think you should interview Nick Roach, the founder of Elegant Themes. There is a big buzz about Divi for years, probably the visitors will be interested to read Nick's answers. In my opinion, their communication and design is truly outstanding within the realm of WordPress.

Save time, costs and improve site performance by:

• Instant help from WordPress Hosting experts 24/7.
• Cloudflare Enterprise integration.
• Global audience reach with 35 data centers across the globe.
• Optimization with our built-in Application for Performance Monitoring.