Elliott Richmond joined the Jukebox Podcast to talk about three overlapping things he cares about: WordPress development, making educational content, and a surprising pizza micro-business he built using WordPress.
Roots and background
Elliott has worked with WordPress (and its predecessor b2) for over 20 years. Self-taught, he moved from building band sites and small projects into freelancing and multi-CMS work before settling on WordPress. Early community contributions — like a 2013 WordPress “advent calendar” of code snippets — led into a steady career as a developer, teacher, and content creator.
A pizza business powered by WordPress
During the COVID lockdown Elliott and his wife launched a local pizza delivery service to keep a community resource alive. What started as a temporary response is now a small business: five staff, steady weekend trade, and a license model they sell to others. Crucially, the whole operation runs on WordPress: WooCommerce, Jetpack, and custom plugins handle ordering, time slots, delivery radius, and other business rules.
To productise the model, Elliott built a freemium plugin (with a Pro tier) nicknamed Pizza Pilot. Key capabilities include:
– WooCommerce ordering integration.
– Time-slot and time-based ordering controls.
– Radius-based delivery restrictions by postcode, with collection as an alternative for out-of-range customers.
– Flexibility to serve other businesses with limited delivery windows (bakeries, takeaways, pop-ups).
The offering is a licensed business model rather than a strict franchise: buyers receive training, the plugin bundle, and the operational model. Elliott frames WordPress as the practical glue that allowed a real-world food business to scale and be turned into a product.
Partnership with wordpress.com / Automattic
Through introductions from Michelle Frechette and Stacey Carlson, Elliott now produces videos about wordpress.com features and workflows. The partnership gives him early access to features and a broad brief: make educational content showing how he uses WordPress, including tools and workflows. That access has opened doors to other teams inside Automattic and set him up to produce videos through the year.
Editorial approach and output
Elliott creates content on his own YouTube channel (elliottrichmondwp) rather than the official wordpress.com channel, although his topics align with wordpress.com priorities. He plans a mix of long-form tutorials and shorter clips for social platforms, focusing on practical, implementable guidance rather than promotion.
Planned topics include:
– New and evolving WordPress features, especially block editor and template changes.
– Developer tools and workflows (Studio app, Xdebug, and other debugging tools).
– Practical tutorials on templating, template parts, patterns, and early AI-related capabilities.
Content creation process
Elliott shared a pragmatic workflow: capture ideas quickly (Notes app, voice-to-text), shape them into loose scripts or flashcards (sometimes cleaned up with AI), and film with straightforward gear. He records primarily on an iPhone, uses simple DIY lighting, and relies on experience from music production for good audio. Editing happens in DaVinci Resolve (paid for advanced features), and he enjoys using motion graphics and analogies to simplify technical concepts.
He emphasises that the most valuable part of his work is clarity: structuring explanations so technical ideas become actionable steps. Good delivery and editing help, but the educational framing is the core value.
Community, feedback, and creator roles
Elliott points to local meetups and user stories to show WordPress’s versatility — small businesses running invoicing, bookings, and sales entirely through the platform. As WordPress evolves, creators fill documentation and education gaps by translating new features into approachable tutorials for different audiences.
He also welcomed the trust Automattic is showing independent creators: creators receive guidance on audiences and themes but keep wide creative freedom. The feedback loop from YouTube comments often drives follow-up videos and improvements.
Where to find Elliott
– YouTube: elliottrichmondwp
– Personal site: elliottrichmond.co.uk (double L, double T in Elliott)
Closing
Elliott balances development, content creation, and his pizza business, using solutions he builds for the business as product ideas (like the WooCommerce plugin). His ongoing work with wordpress.com in 2026 aims to make new WordPress features and developer tools more accessible and practical, while demonstrating how WordPress can power unexpected, real-world businesses.