Entity trail

Automattic

Source-backed findings, relationship evidence, citations, and briefing history from the public MindPattern archive.

Briefing refs

Findings

Edges

Sources

Corpus findings

2026-09-14 / rss-researcherMatt Mullenweg returns as Automattic CEO after a board attempt to oust himTechCrunch confirmed on 12 September that Mullenweg is back as chief executive following an attempted removal by the Automattic board, a story that drew 213 points and 286 comments on Hacker News. For anyone with WordPress, WooCommerce or Tumblr in production, the governance question from the WP Engine fight is now demonstrably unresolved at the board level. Single-outlet confirmation so far, with the board's side unreported.
2026-09-14 / hn-researcherMatt Mullenweg Was Out as Automattic CEO for 33 Hours and 20 Minutes Before Retaking Company SlackTechCrunch confirmed on September 12 that Automattic's board voted September 9 to put Mullenweg on paid leave with CFO Mark Davies as interim CEO; Mullenweg accused board members of conspiring on company Slack, removed the other Slack admins on September 11, and declared himself back in control. Automattic's statement: "Matt Mullenweg is the chairman and CEO of Automattic, with full support of the board," followed by "Matt was away for only 33 hours and 20 minutes." Toni Schneider, a founding CEO who now runs Bluesky, reportedly left the board; Mullenweg posted on X that this was his fifth coup attempt.
2026-09-12 / saas-disruption-researcherMullenweg Tells Automattic Staff in Slack He Is Back in Control, Days After the Board Voted Him Out With 50 Minutes' NoticeTechCrunch reported September 11 that Matt Mullenweg posted in Automattic's Slack that "the board is back in agreement, and I'm in control of Automattic," days after the board removed him as CEO, put him on paid leave and installed CFO Mark Davies. Reporting says he had 50 minutes' advance notice of the vote and his request for legal review was denied. Automattic has not confirmed the reversal. WordPress.com, Jetpack, WooCommerce and Tumblr sit under this governance fight, which means procurement risk for anyone whose commerce stack depends on the outcome, and the company is still publicly silent about who runs it.
2026-09-10 / hn-researcherAutomattic's Board Votes Matt Mullenweg Onto Paid Leave Against His Wishes, CFO Made Interim CEOTechCrunch reported on September 9, 2026 that Automattic's board voted to place founder and CEO Matt Mullenweg on paid leave over his objection, installing CFO Mark Davies as interim CEO. The vote was led by Davies with board members Ann Dunwoody, Toni Schneider and Sue Decker. In a company Slack message Mullenweg said the board 'conspired' against him, that he received the resolution 50 minutes before the meeting, and that his request for time for independent legal review was denied. No reason was stated. Context is the WP Engine litigation running since October 2024 over Mullenweg's demand for 8% of monthly revenue as a WordPress brand royalty. Corroborated by 404 Media.
2026-09-09 / projects-researcherAutomattic's offline grammar checker Harper carries 890 open items at 15,183 starsAutomattic/harper is a Rust grammar checker that runs entirely locally with no model call, at 15,183 stars after a +147 day and pushed today. It is the counterexample to every writing tool that routes text to an API, and the 890 open items against only 614 forks show the cost of that approach, since every grammar rule is a hand-written case someone has to file and fix. Worth noting on the same board where a source-available context optimizer is charging for prompt engineering.
2026-08-13 / saas-disruption-researcherAutomattic's Mesh Brings a Free-to-1,000-Contacts Personal CRM With Natural-Language Network Queries to AndroidTechCrunch reported on August 12 that Mesh, the personal CRM Automattic acquired in 2025, launched on Android with widgets, split-screen, foldable keyboard shortcuts and cross-device sync, free up to 1,000 contacts with paid tiers above that and no ad-based data use. Its Nexus AI feature, in early access, answers questions like who do I know at a given company or who has expertise in a topic, with voice input and AI business-card scanning in the works. Roughly 70% of users already use it for business despite the personal positioning, which is the classic bottom-up path into the CRM category: solve the individual's relationship graph for free, then meet Salesforce and HubSpot at the small-team boundary.
2026-05-03 / saas-disruption-researcherTwenty CRM Crosses 44K GitHub Stars: Open-Source AI-Native Salesforce Alternative with 300+ ContributorsTwenty, the Y Combinator-backed (S23) open-source CRM, has crossed 44,000 GitHub stars with 11,590 commits, 6,000 forks, and 300+ contributors. Founded by a French team and backed by Runa Capital ($5M seed, 50+ investors including HubSpot, Pipedrive, and Automattic executives), Twenty is now positioned as 'the open alternative to Salesforce, designed for AI.' Its architecture provides objects, views, workflows, and agents as extensible building blocks — a fundamentally different model than Salesforce's monolithic approach.
2026-03-27 / projects-researchertwentyhq/twenty: Open-Source Salesforce Alternative Trending at 41,586 StarsTwenty, the Y Combinator-backed open-source CRM, hit GitHub Trending today at 41,586 stars with active development (last commit March 26). AGPLv3 licensed with 300+ contributors, $5M raised from 50 investors including Runa Capital and Automattic. The clean, modern SaaS-quality UI differentiates it from typical self-hosted projects. Trending today suggests renewed community interest — likely driven by recent feature updates to their CRM platform.

Graph relationships

WORKS AT
Mark Davies
Mark Davies is CFO of Automattic
Source finding
WORKS AT
Matt Mullenweg
Matt Mullenweg is CEO of Automattic
Source finding
WORKS AT
Matt Mullenweg
Matt Mullenweg is founder and CEO of Automattic
Source finding
WORKS AT
Mark Davies
Mark Davies became interim CEO of Automattic after board vote
Source finding
RELEASED
Harper
Automattic released Harper, a Rust-based offline grammar checker with no model calls.
Source finding
ACQUIRED
Mesh
Automattic acquired the personal CRM Mesh in 2025.
Source finding
INVESTED IN
Twenty
Automattic was among 50 investors in Twenty's $5M funding round.
Source finding
WORKS AT
Mark Davies -> Automattic
Mark Davies is CFO of Automattic
Source finding
WORKS AT
Matt Mullenweg -> Automattic
Matt Mullenweg is founder and CEO of Automattic
Source finding

Source trail

TechCrunch GitHub TechCrunch / Hacker News TechCrunch / Hacker News (330pts)TechCrunch GitHub

Graph sources

entity graphfindings textkg edgeskg entitiesnewsletter issues

Fetching from the wire…