Matt: Board Agent

Automattic is always 5–15 years ahead of other companies, but things happen faster now. I predict other companies will start scrambling to add great writers to their boards, because, well, look at the headlines in AI. United’s board already has Walter Isaacson. Authors are awesome, akin to founders in the startup/tech ecosystem.

Public offer to all the great sci-fi/etc writers out there who I’m a huge fan of (Ken Liu, Neal Stephenson, Ted Chiang, Andy Weir, Ramez Naam, Kim Stanley Robinson…) but not as close to as Hugh (I was part of him meeting his wife, officiated one of their weddings), I offer my services as your Board Agent to negotiate compensation and contracts for you! 1% fee, donated to the WordPress Foundation or Locus Magazine. I’ve become a bit of an expert in board protections, dynamics, compensation, and such.

Aside: If you haven’t seen the Robert Caro / Robert Gottlieb documentary Turn Every Page, run, don’t walk to your nearest streaming service!