When I think of professional service providers that have a core focus in WordPress I don’t need to look far. The landscape of providers is expansive. However, there are giants among them. Yep! Giants!!
One giant that stands far above the rest is Crowd Favorite (not to be confused with their Canadian arch-nemesis Crowd Favourite) and they’re a remarkable company. Don’t believe me? Let me tell you why!
Did you guys ever see that movie ‘Pacific Rim?’ I did and it was epic! Crowd Favorite is like the “Jaeger” of WordPress shops. Big, bad-@$$ and, well, BIG! But it’s not because of their size, you see. It’s what’s inside that makes Crowd Favorite special!
Surveillance footage of Crowd Favorite’s latest add-on to their RAMP product offering.
Punching content deployment into submission since forever!
They’re not special because of the many dozens of free plugins you can find on the repo. Although, that’s pretty dang cool. They’re not special because of all the talks their people give throughout WordPress land, although that’s pretty amazing. They’re not just special because of the work that they do, although their track record and client sheet is more impressive than my hair. So what makes them so dang awesome?
It really is the people. They’ve assembled not just great minds, but truly talented and wonderful people. And, if you’re asking me, it starts with one person understanding that it takes the right mixture of folks with talent, integrity and that something-special that allows them to thrive when living “outside of the box.”
Crowd Fave takes assembling a team to a whole new and exciting level!
Talent is a great, great thing. But, one thing I think that trumps talent is that feeling of personal responsibility to put back into the community. Many of the people who work at Crowd Favorite are people who are admired and respected in the community. Not just because they’re smart; but because they buy-in to this open source culture and work tirelessly to put back into it knowing that they’re making a difference. That might not be the intention, but it’s certainly the end result.
When I came into the World of WordPress (W.o.W, totally just did that!) Alex King was a name that was all over the place. Known for his love of building cool sh*t and doing good work, without even trying, he became a leader in the community and he assembled something greater than himself: Crowd Favorite. That alone is amazing. I think that’s something a large number of us aspire to.
Footage of Alex King just before he creates something awesome…
One time at WordCamp…
Then a funny thing happened on the way to WordCamp Denver. This fiery Italian kid, Karim Marucchi of VeloMedia, a Multi-Disciplined agency with enterprise expertise, made a connection with this Alex King bloke. It turns out they had more in common than just a unified vision and complimentary skillsets. Do you wanna know what happens when something like that happens?
I dunno, but whatever it’s called, it’s pretty awesome!
And then they were like… “We’re in this together.”
So please join me in thanking Crowd Favorite for sponsoring our event this year. They’re truly pillars in our community who give and give and give until it’s like “cut it out you guys, we have all the stuff already.” Know what I mean? But seriously, we can’t do this thing for everyone without great sponsors and organizations like Crowd Favorite. A big extra thanks for all the heavy lifting you’re doing this year! You guys rock!