Elliott Richmond: WordPress, Education, and Pizza Plugins

Nathan Wrigley interviews Elliott Richmond on the Jukebox Podcast for WP Tavern about two decades of WordPress work, a hands-on approach to teaching, and an unexpected pizza business built on WordPress.

From b2 to modern WordPress

Elliott is a self-taught developer who began building websites in the early 1990s. He was active in the b2 days before the WordPress fork and has worked with Joomla and Drupal, freelanced, and collaborated in community projects. One notable side project was compiling code snippets from around 30 developers into a 2013 WordPress advent calendar. Today he creates developer-focused video tutorials and runs a part-time pizza operation powered by WordPress tools.

A pizza business born in lockdown

During the COVID lockdown Elliott and his wife Rachael launched a local pizza delivery service as a community response. What started as temporary quickly grew: the business now employs several staff and offers a licensing model so others can run the same concept locally. The system is built on WordPress, with WooCommerce, Jetpack, and custom plugins as the backbone. WordPress handles payments, order flow, geolocation, delivery-radius rules, and time-slot management — essentially acting as the glue that holds the whole operation together.

Pizza Pilot: a WordPress plugin for pizzerias

Elliott developed a freemium plugin called Pizza Pilot. Its key features include:

• Time-based slot booking for orders.
• Delivery radius restrictions by postcode.
• Options to choose collection versus delivery.

A Pro version will be bundled with the licensing deals. The model is not a franchise; buyers get the system and training via a one-time purchase. Rachael manages marketing and filmed the pizza-making course while Elliott builds and maintains the plugin and technical stack.

Working with Automattic and wordpress.com

Connections through community contacts led Elliott to collaborate with Automattic on sponsored video content. He’s been given early access to wordpress.com features and is producing a slate of videos through 2026 that explain workflows, developer tools, and feature usage. These will appear on his own YouTube channel and include both long-form educational pieces and short-form spin-offs. Topics mentioned include templating, patterns and template parts, debugging with Xdebug, and AI-related features and workflows.

Creative freedom and feedback

Elliott says Automattic provides flexible briefs and trusts creators’ judgment, allowing him to highlight the features he cares about. YouTube’s comment feedback loop is valuable: viewer reactions help shape future content and even critical comments are treated as useful input. In-person meetups and community conversations further reveal the many ways people use WordPress — from gardeners running invoicing systems to small businesses automating niche workflows.

How Elliott creates content

His process is deliberately practical and iterative. He scripts loosely using structured outlines and flashcard-style prompts rather than word-for-word scripts, records, edits, and then polishes explanations — often testing them on Rachael before finalizing. For editing and motion graphics he uses DaVinci Resolve (praising both the paid and free versions). Recording is low-tech: an iPhone for video, simple DIY diffused lighting, studio monitors for audio, and a quiet room. He relies on voice-to-text for initial brain dumps, refines drafts with AI, then finalizes scripts and visuals.

Themes and motivations

Elliott’s work is driven by curiosity and the joy of simplifying technical topics for others. He values creative freedom and has structured his life to avoid traditional office constraints, splitting time between developer-focused tutorials and practical business projects like the pizza system. The result demonstrates WordPress’s versatility: it can be a platform for education, developer tooling, and also the backbone of a physical product business.

What’s next and where to find him

Elliott will continue making WordPress videos covering developer tools (like Xdebug in the Studio app), AI-related changes, and practical guidance for building and maintaining sites and systems. His arrangement with Automattic runs at least through December 2026, but he remains active with his own projects and the pizza business.

Find Elliott online:

YouTube: elliottrichmondwp

Website: elliottrichmond.co.uk (double L, double T in Elliott)

Full show notes and links are available at wptavern.com/podcast. The episode highlights how community, simple tech, and creative thinking let WordPress serve as the backbone for diverse ventures — from deep technical education to running and licensing a local pizza business.