Elliott Richmond brings together two decades of WordPress development, a surprise local pizza business, and a growing role as an educational creator for wordpress.com. His story connects real-world small business needs to practical developer tooling and clear, approachable video tutorials.
Background and WordPress history
Elliott has worked with WordPress since the b2 days, building a self-taught career across more than 20 years. He moved from early web projects and other CMS platforms into WordPress, contributed to community efforts (including a 2013 WordPress advent calendar), and built a freelance development practice. Today he still writes code, creates YouTube content, and even works part-time as a pizzaiolo.
From community project to pizza business
During COVID lockdowns, Elliott and his wife launched a local pizza delivery service to help their community. What began as a temporary effort expanded into an operating business with staff and a replicable model they now license to others. WordPress is at the core: the site runs on WordPress with WooCommerce, Jetpack, and custom integrations to manage ordering, time slots, delivery radius, payments, and more.
Pizza Pilot: a plugin built for local delivery needs
To support the pizza business and other similar operations, Elliott developed Pizza Pilot, a freemium plugin with a Pro bundle. Key features include:
– time-based ordering and slot management,
– geolocation-based delivery radius with postcode checks to distinguish delivery from collection,
– customization options for local workflows and rules.
Pizza Pilot isn’t just for pizza shops. Bakeries, restaurants, and other businesses that need restricted delivery windows or delivery zones can use it. Rather than a traditional franchise, licensees buy the business model and get the Pro plugin bundled so Elliott can support and refine the software while continuing his wider WordPress work.
Working with Automattic and wordpress.com
Automattic reached out to Elliott (via Michelle Frechette), which led to introductions with Stacey Carlson and Brit Solata and an invitation to create videos about wordpress.com products and workflows. Instead of tightly scripted directives, Elliott receives flexible briefs and early access to features, allowing him to craft educational content that matches wordpress.com’s goals while keeping his own voice and channel.
Influences and the community feedback loop
Jamie Marsland and the wordpress.com YouTube channel inspired Elliott’s move into video. He relies heavily on community feedback—especially YouTube comments—to shape future topics and surface real user questions. He believes content creators play a critical role filling documentation and education gaps as WordPress evolves, particularly around new features and developer tools.
Content approach and topics
Elliott’s videos are practical and approachable: explain a feature, show how to use it, and simplify complex concepts with visuals and analogies. He covers topics ranging from templating, template parts, and patterns to developer tools and approachable AI concepts. His plan includes both long-form tutorials and short-form spin-offs so material remains useful despite rapid platform changes.
Tools, process, and production
Elliott prioritizes substance over expensive gear and uses intentionally low-fi production tools: an iPhone for filming, a DIY diffuser for lighting, and audio gear borrowed from music production. He edits in DaVinci Resolve and uses a workflow that mixes loose scripting (flashcard-style prompts), Notes and voice-to-text brain dumps, AI-polished drafts, and iterative editing and motion graphics. He enjoys shaping structure through scripting and refining explanations based on audience feedback.
Developer-focused content
He’s also planning videos that dig into developer tooling details—things like Xdebug support in the Studio app and other valuable but sometimes obscure tools—aiming to make those topics accessible to the wider WordPress developer community.
Philosophy and future plans
Elliott loves learning and teaching. He compares problem-solving in code to experimenting with music and enjoys simplifying technical subjects with clear visuals and analogies. He intends to keep producing educational content under the current arrangement (running through December as arranged) while also making independent videos, including pizza-related content that intersects with WordPress (for example, dough calculators and operational workflows). He values the trust and flexibility provided by wordpress.com/Automattic: briefed objectives and early access paired with creator freedom to explain and present material.
Where to find Elliott
– YouTube: elliottrichmondwp
– Website/blog: elliottrichmond.co.uk
The episode highlights how WordPress can do more than host a website: it can glue together small business systems, support developer tooling practices, and underpin educational resources that help the community adapt as the platform changes.