That’s good, that’s really good. But how does your process look starting from realizing the demand to go-live? Can you maybe brief us a little bit?

Yeah, we realized especially in the last couple of years how important it is to have this discovery phase — where you don’t just start working on a project based on requirements, but you start investigating your client, their market, their audience, and their stakeholders.

Really getting to know the client is what we’re after. We want commitment. We want to work closely together with our clients — it’s a bit like dating. You need to get to know each other before you step into the relationship. Discovery is one of the most important phases in a project for us.

Depending on the project, typically there’s a team consisting of designers, front-end and back-end developers — probably 6–7 people — and then our client. Sometimes we work in sprints, sometimes more waterfall. We adjust to what works for the client because if we dictate methods and they don’t fit with the project owner, it will be a struggle. So we adapt and work in a hybrid way so it fits with the client’s way of working.

At some point, you have a project ready to go live. So we go into testing, pre-launch, workshops. We have a big focus on accessibility — web accessibility is extremely important to us.

Having that other platform I mentioned — the Eli Collective — is something we onboard clients into so they have basic knowledge of accessibility. All our projects are fully accessible and can be tested by third parties, but it’s important that the client creating content knows accessibility principles too. Otherwise, they could break an accessible build by adding inaccessible content.

Somewhere in the process hosting tags along — creating test, acceptance, production environments. Then we move to launch, which is basically the beginning of a project, because that’s when it really starts. We can start measuring results and doing what we aimed to do together.

From there we stay involved in hosting, maintenance, support, and more importantly improving the project month after month or year after year.

That’s perfect. And how did you come up with the name Level Level?

This is a catchy name — you get a rhythm to it. All right. So, what is the one thing you love about WordPress?

I think it boils down to the community — that’s what I enjoy personally.

Back in the days when we selected WordPress as our weapon of choice, of course there were more arguments. We once built a project in three or four other open-source CMSs available back then. We liked the ease of use of WordPress. It was flexible, felt modular. And clients understood it — if they could use a word processor, they could use WordPress.

Back then we just went full in and never looked back. We never tried to select another CMS. As WordPress grew, we grew — in professionalism, scale, revenue. For us, there was never a moment to reflect and say maybe it’s time to move on.

For me personally, the community is what keeps it all together and brings joy to work within the WordPress ecosystem.

All right. So, let’s talk about your talk — about acquisitions in WordPress. Can you tell us a bit about what it is about and what people can expect?

I think you and many others noticed the number of acquisitions in the last couple of years. They’ve always been happening, but not always visibly. Often, it’s just a decision between two companies and maybe you see a press release — that’s it. But in the last 2 or 3 years, there was this sudden increase.

That sparked interest — like hey, what’s going on? What does it mean? So we’re targeting business owners, people working for companies that might be acquired or thinking about acquiring.

It’s more like a panel discussion — like the talk we’re having right now. We’ll get on stage with a couple of business owners, CEOs who sold their companies in the last couple of years and we’re going to try to find out what drives them, what motivates them, what helped in the decision-making, and how they feel about it now.

That’s interesting. I mean, yeah, we see a lot of acquisitions now. I’m sure people may be interested in selling their company or getting funding or stuff like that. Yeah. All right. So let’s move to another question. What is the one thing you would suggest to someone who has just entered the world of WordPress?

I would advise — coming back again to the community — to try to interact. There are so many things organized around the world, so it doesn’t matter where you are.

There’s lots happening online. We slowly see WordCamps and WordPress meetups starting again in person. I would really suggest that even if you’ve never visited something like this, just join for a day or a couple of hours.

What I tell new team members who’ve never joined something like this: it’s a friendly crowd. There’s nobody there to harm you or talk bad about you. There’s nothing to lose. So why not give it a try? Talk to people.

For me personally, it resulted in plenty of friends — through WordCamps, meetups, everything. So yeah, both personally and professionally, interacting with the community works. Give it a try.

All right. Yeah, that’s fair. So guys, I can suggest that you should try meetups and events in the WordPress community. People are welcoming — definitely go for it. So, one of the second-to-last questions I would say is… we heard that you are a drone pilot.

I’m not sure how it is in the Netherlands, but in Germany, I think you need a license or stuff like that.

You need to — I think in the whole EU — you need basically a sort of license, like a driver’s license. You can easily get it by answering some questions.

Flying here in Portugal, I made a super cool flight over a river close to a castle and I had to go through four or five warnings: “Are you sure you want to fly here? Are you allowed to fly here? Can you please provide your phone number while flying here?”

It’s something I kind of enjoy. It’s a bit of a game for me.

That’s interesting. I was also exploring the other day and I’m like — I need to get it.

Yeah, I love it. It’s a great toy.

So, okay — I would say it’s probably the last question of this talk. We had fun so far. It’s an unusual one. People normally don’t expect this, so I’m sure you’ll be surprised. What is your favorite song?

My favorite song — and I think it fits this WordCamp 2022, knowing what we’re organizing and what the after-party will look like — I would say “We Will Rock You” from Queen.

Oh, I love that song. Perfect. So Taeke, it’s really nice meeting you. Thank you guys — we will wrap this up now.

Thanks for having me.

It was a pleasure. All right then. All right guys, I’ll see you next time. Till then, bye-bye.