A Sort of Farewell
This is probably the toughest blog post I’ve ever written. After 11 years of pouring my heart and soul into Theme Hybrid, it’s time to say goodbye. Sort of.
Yesterday, I officially closed down the payment/checkout system. This was the first step in disabling the business aspect of the Web site.
Going forward, Theme Hybrid will no longer be a WordPress plugin and theme business.
But, wait! There’s more to this story. Give me a few minutes of your time, and I’ll try to answer some questions you might have.
A new adventure awaits
An incredible job opportunity opened up doing the sort of work that I’ve been wanting to do since I was in college. As much as I love the community that we’ve all built together over the last decade-plus, this opportunity was something that I couldn’t pass up.
I’ve spent nearly my entire adult life working on Theme Hybrid. Just a few weeks ago, I didn’t imagine that I’d be switching gears and doing something new.
Financially, Theme Hybrid has never been a powerhouse. I’ve almost always had to supplement my income with client work and other jobs. For the most part, that’s been OK for me. The site has been a labor of love, and it’s allowed me enough freedom to push some boundaries and build some downright awesome stuff. It’s allowed me the freedom to learn and grow. To fail and succeed.
I turned 35 earlier this year. My responsibilities in my personal life, particularly financially, are not the same as they were at 25. I have to be smarter about career decisions at this point in my life. That’s a harsh reality, but it’s something we all must deal with in adulthood.
Theme Hybrid could make more money with the right business mindset. I’ve left a lot of dollars on the table over the years because I’ve spent more time programming than learning how to be successful at running a business.
My decision is not based solely on money (I’ve turned down numerous employment opportunities with generous salary offers over the years). This decision is more about personal and professional growth. I have hopes, dreams, and goals that I want to accomplish in my life, and I believe this career change will keep me on the path that I want to be on.
Within the next week, I’ll formally announce who my new employer is. A few folks are already taking bets, so feel free to join the fray.
I want today to be about this community.
What does this mean for Theme Hybrid?
That’s the big question, right?
I will absolutely honor everyone’s memberships. If I have to wake an hour early every morning or hop onto our Slack chat in the evenings instead of watching TV, I will do whatever is in my power to make sure no questions go unanswered.
If you feel like you’re getting burned or if this news is a letdown in some way, do not hesitate to contact me or shoot me a private message on Slack. I’ll be happy to talk with you one on one and figure out a solution that works for you.
Don’t forget that there are many awesome people in our Slack chatroom who are far better developers than me and are often willing to lend a hand.
I have no plans to stop creating open source WordPress themes and plugins. I’ve been doing this as a hobby long before I started Theme Hybrid and hope that I can continue long after. I still have loads of awesome ideas that I want to see through. The big change is that my development time toward these projects will happen during my personal/free time.
At the moment, I plan to continue maintaining this Web site as a hobbyist WordPress site.
For the sake of transparency, I’m not 100% sure on what that’s going to look like over the next few weeks or months. There’s a lot of questions still up in the air that I don’t have the answers to yet. I do ask that you be patient with me and let me figure it out.
Will you sell Theme Hybrid?
Maybe.
Again, I’m shooting for complete transparency here. While there are no immediate plans to sell, I’m open to the possibility.
I’d only be willing to sell the site to someone who would continue growing its products and fostering the culture that we’ve built within this community for over a decade. If I did sell, it would be more about making sure the site and community are in good hands rather than a specific dollar amount.
Thanks for everything
Some of you have been with me since I first proposed the idea for this project on my personal blog back in 2008. For others, it’s been a shorter amount of time. I’ve learned a lot from all of you.
Thank you to everyone who put their faith in a smalltown Alabama kid for all these years. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined I’d be doing this for over a decade. What a ride.
I’m proud of the community we’ve built together.
53 Comments
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Thank you , Justin, for everything. You’ve been a beacon in this ecosystem and I’m wishing you nothing but happiness. See you around!
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You’ll definitely be seeing more of me within the WP community. 🙂
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Good luck with the next chapter, Justin!
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Thanks, Ian. I’m excited about it.
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Now you’ll have to work for a living Justin 😉
Congratulations! Hope you are joining the StudioPress team since I have a pro license with them 🙂
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Ha ha! I actually think that I should work less. There’s so many non-programming aspects to running the business that eat up time and am happy to be letting them go. I tend to be an “all in” sort of guy and become hyper-focused on whatever it is I’m doing. So, if I don’t have enough work, I’m sure I’ll create extra for myself.
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Justin, I want to thank you for building great products, awesome support and everything you have done for the community.
Years ago I had just started exploring WordPress (Kubrick days) and everything looked like a basic theme with some color changes, there were two themes that pulled me into using WordPress before I knew much about it or theming. One was Meebo by Darren Hoyt and other was your Structure theme (Options theme too). I can’t tell you how helpful your query post plugin had been in early days of me dabbling with customizing sites to show portfolio etc. There are lot of things I need to thank you for and I could keep adding to the list but I’m sure everyone who used any of your plugins, themes or your book would agree that you made a positive impact on their lives and their work or career.
I wish you a very good luck for your new beginnings and hope to see you in person someday and buy you lunch and thank you. If you are ever in Jersey or NYC please reach out.
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You went old school on me there. I miss those early days of just creating stuff for the sake of creating it. It brings back some good memories.
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thank you and congrats!
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David, you’ve been such a huge part of this community over the years. It’s always great to have fellow developers like you around to keep pushing me to be better.
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Thank you for building great products over the years, Justin. I remember when I first learned WordPress, your posts and code helped me a lot. I always respect your work and what you’ve done for the WordPress community.
Wish you all the luck in the next adventure! I’m exciting to see what you’ll create next! If you need any help from me, you know my Slack username 😉
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Thanks. I need to send you a message soon too. I want to talk over the project we’ve been discussing. I’ve just had a whirlwind going on in the last few weeks.
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I’m pretty sure you are hired by Automattic. Apart from the obvious relation of what you did on WP.org and how that would be useful for Automattic if you focus on that full time, you mentioned that you are closing the shop (extra income) BEFORE you are joining officially a new employer. And this is a hard requirement at Automattic and seems exists only there (I don’t know any other company that insists on that).
Good luck, Justin!
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My new employer didn’t insist that I close shop. Whether they would have, I’m not sure. I explained what my plans would be up front.
This was more about respecting my customers. I knew the quality of support that customers of Theme Hybrid have come to expect over the years wouldn’t be possible while working another fulltime job. I’ve actually tried that in the early days of TH. It didn’t leave me much time for sleep. 🙂
I’m also in the midst of another big plugin-related project that my team and I will announce at some point. It will be taking up much of my free time through December.
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Good luck Justin, I learned a lot from you, and wish you all the best in further career!
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Thanks. I hope that I can keep teaching and contributing as much as I can to the WP community.
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Can only echo the experiences of others – It was your many tutorials that largely taught me how WP works and convinced me WP was the way to go. I bought the ‘Pro WP Dev’ book and have been using WP ever since. So glad your technical and writing skills have been appreciated and rewarded. 🙂
Thanks for all your help over the years and best wishes for the future.
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I think it’s getting close to time for an update of Pro WP Plugin Dev. I’m glad it and the tutorials helped you on your way.
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Thank you for your work. I’ve learn many things from you, how to think WordPress is probably the one I treasure the most.
Congratulations and good luck <3
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I’m happy to have helped teach, at least in some small way. With any luck, I can continue sharing things that I’ve learned into the future.
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Thanks for this balanced and insightful post, and best of luck on your next adventure! Hopefully we’ll see you at WCUS 🙂
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Probably not in 2019. 2020? Who knows?
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Thank you for all you’ve given to WordPress. Great to know you’ll still be around, because I see you as a part of this right from my early start. Read a lot of your advice, seen a lot of your work. Congratulations, I hope you can achieve whatever goals you have.
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Thanks. I hope I’m around the WP and Theme Hybrid communities for a long time to come.
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Good Luck on your upcoming projects and work.
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Thanks. Look for a message from me in the next few days. I want to chat some.
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Thanks for all of your work, Justin. Your code has directly contributed to so many of my projects – personal and professional – for 10 years, and counting.
Godspeed on your journey next
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I’m happy I could contribute in some form or fashion.
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Thank you, for everything, Justin. I wish you a lot of success and happiness. As someone who’s right there with you on pursuing the dreams after a lot of WordPress only work, I can tell this is going to be a good or probably even an amazing feeling. This kind of reboot, change, or call it a new direction will bring new adventures that I hope will be well worth it all.
Do well my friend!
Peace! ✌
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You hit the nail on the head there. Sometimes we need to mix things up and make some changes. Otherwise, it’s easy to become complacent and not progress, whether that’s professionally or personally. I’m hoping this change will get me a bit outside my comfort zone and propel me toward other long-term goals.
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All the best Justin
We have had many an interesting discussion over at TRT over the years 🙂
I wish you all the success in the future !
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“Many” may be an understatement. Our talks have certainly been interesting. I’ll try to find some chat time in the next week or so. I’m probably going to be a little busy and need some time to adjust, but I’d like to catch up soon.
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Good luck Justin. While I’m no developer, I’ve learned a bunch from you. Best wishes in your new job!
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Thanks, Mike. It’s users like you who have made all of this worthwhile. Any time you’d post in the forum/Slack, I’d always take a few minutes to check out the photos on your site. It’s interesting to see how people are using my themes. In a way, it’s almost like we’re creating a piece of art together.
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Best wishes in your next adventure. You were my beacon of knowledge in the early days of WordPress. Thank you!
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Thanks, Gloria. I’m excited about the new path I’m on. I only hope that it’s as fun and rewarding as the past 11 years.
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I launched my first commercial site in 2008 using Prototype and some of my own terrible child theming. Reading your code led me along the path to far better coding practices and structure. Thanks and good luck, Justin 🙂
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I haven’t opened up the old Prototype theme in a long time. It’d be interesting to see how my coding practices have changed since then. I did have a lot of fun making that theme. I’m glad it helped you.
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Thank you Justin for all the help and support over the years. I can easily say that you’ve taught me almost everything I know about WordPress development. It allowed me to build a business and support a family. For that I can’t thank you enough.
Best of luck in the next chapter!
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Thanks, Bryan. I remember always being a little envious of your design skills. I’d see something plain and boring I made. Then, you’d turn it into something beautiful. I hope you continue doing awesome stuff too!
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Theme Hybrid a standard WordPress theme framework. I have used your themes through out my WordPress journey.
I did try many themes out there but yours were easy to use and visitor friendly. Good luck for your future.
One pic of Watermelon grown on your backyard was my fav
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I’m glad you enjoy the themes and have used them. While my contribution to theming will be somewhat diminished with the new job, I do hope I can continue building some useful things for theme authors in my free time.
As for the watermelons, I haven’t had much luck with them of late. So, I’ve mostly focused on calorie crops like potatoes. I did have to take a step back and do far less gardening this year though. Maybe I’ll have more time for it next year without all the responsibilities of running a business. We’ll see.
[…] Tadlock, of Themehybrid fame, announced a sort of farewell and has joined WP […]
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Best of Luck Justin!
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I just wanted to thank you for your work, which solved a major issue with some sites for me! Thanks for your work and your engagement in all of this. All the best for you and good luck for your future career!
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I am certain I could never have gotten to the happy place my site is today on my own… I appreciate your superb creations, your many tutorials, your patience and your thoughtful accurate advice.
The pigs and I say “thank you” for all your assistance and inspiration and for all you have given to WordPress. I am certain of your great success in this new adventure!
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I haven’t been here in ages, but just wanted to say thanks for all the help, and the great resource theme hybrid was to me when I started learning about WordPress development, good luck with your new job
[…] Justin Tadlock is saying goodbye to Theme Hybrid […]
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Hi Justin,
I’m really happy for you, fully understand your decision and wish you all the very best for the future.
I’m just opening a quity complex business over here in Germany and was trying to purchase the hierarchy module for members, which, of course, is no longer possible.
Do you know any plugin that offers a similar functionality create groups or roles, managed by a dedicated account that may not have access to all theother groups or roles?
All the best,
Caroline
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Can you shoot me an email via the contact form about the plugin you need?
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i have never switched to other theme/framework after using TH ( i find it something out of the box). i am not a developer but still able to make changes as required. Thank you Justin for everything.
Congratulations and best wishes for you on your next adventure.
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I just discovered your site and your theme and was interested in purchasing Exhale. Congratulations on your new journey! Can you recommend another independent or small shop developer who are selling themes?
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Good luck Justin, hope you have a lot of fun, less work and more money in your new adventure! Thanks for all the creativity and skill you have invested in Hybrid Core etc over the years. I have never regretted switching to basing all my client themes on Hybrid Core, or on now using my own version of Mythic. I look forward to learning more about your next adventures!