Brent
Shepherd
Born to build.
In the good old days of eCommerce, I built WooCommerce Subscriptions. That code is now installed on over 100,000+ active online stores, collectively processing billions of dollars in recurring revenue.
To support that product's growth, I founded Prospress, which was acquired by Automattic in 2019. More details on TechCrunch or in this interview.
While at Automattic, I led the formation of a new WooCommerce Payments product group where I oversaw the launch of the WooPayments service. I placed the order to transact its first real dollar, buying AI generated post cards from the online store of the team's lead designer. Not that long after, I proudly watched with the team as it processed its billionth dollar, although it was likely in a different currency at that point.
In these roles, I'm proud to have contributed to open source products that 100,000s of businesses use to move tens of billions of dollars through the global economy each year.
Now
These days my title is simpler, and job is more complex: parent to 3 young, amazing, and strong-willed children.
I still love to see people prosper through new technology. Especially technologies that provide the freedoms of open source.
I regularly tinker with some of the wonderful new AI toys being built. I'm increasingly attached to Horza, my kooky OpenClaw (the agent that created this page) and my growing family of Hermes agents (currently two dozen or so profiles that do everything from my family's grocery shopping to sending me a contextualised synopsis whenever there is a material change to a court case I'm following).