Today is the day the newly formed OnPoint Plugins corporation becomes a reality. While we have been in “soft launch” status for a few months, the official grand opening is today!
Brief history
This all started back in 2008 when I (Mat Lipe) founded the company called “Lipe Imagination.” While web development was an offered service, the company’s main focus was computer support.
Fast forward to 2011 when I joined the WordPress community. The focus of the company quickly shifted to WordPress development and hosting. As my presence in the community grew, my team noticed that users were searching more for “Mat Lipe” than “Lipe Imagination.” In 2013 we re-branded and launched Mat Lipe Dot Com.
I wish I had a screenshot of our original website. 🙁 If I come across one I will add it to this post.
In 2014 we added a new products division of the company and launched our new line of PRO plugins. This gave us a whole new perspective on the community as well as funding for our open source initiatives.
In October 2018 we hit one million downloads of our plugins and knew we had grown out of Mat Lipe Dot Com. We spent a couple of months developing a plan for the next phase of the company and by late 2018, OnPoint Plugins was imagined.
The transition
We knew from the first meeting, OnPoint Plugins was going to be a whole lot more than a re-brand. To make this dream real we were going to have to redesign everything; new website, systems, processes, project management flow, team hierarchy, tools, corporation filings, bank accounts, social media, etc.
It was a big process with more than 150 logged tasks to complete. We fully embrace an Agile DevOps Workflow, so the tasks were put on a year-long schedule and we went to work. For many months we started rolling out changes and features under the existing Mat Lipe Dot Com brand.
In September 2019, we did a soft launch of OnPoint Plugins to test our new brand live and complete final preparation. Everything went as scheduled and we are now fully transitioned to OnPoint Plugins.
What this means for you
You have been using the majority of the new systems for a while now. Some as long as 9 months already. If you haven’t logged into My Account in the past 6 months you may want to just to check out what is available.
Our new processes allow for more rapid development of plugin features so you can expect (if you haven’t already noticed) new features and improvements to ship faster than before. You will also see shorter support response times.
All of our branding is now OnPoint Plugins but we kept all orders and accounts intact, so don’t worry, you are still in the system. 🙂
We have a new Twitter account for you to follow for all the latest updates if you prefer Twitter over subscribing to our blog.
I will continue to be the public face of the company (answering emails, support requests, tweeting, etc.) so you can rest assured you will continue to receive the same level of attention and accountability as always.