In case you’re new here— I run WP Fusion, a WordPress plugin that connects membership sites to CRMs. About 34,658 websites use it, and it generates around $800k/year in revenue.
But here’s the thing: running a WordPress plugin business is lonely as hell.
You’re dealing with support tickets, refund requests, feature demands, compatibility nightmares across thousands of hosting environments, and the constant existential dread that Automattic will roll your entire business model into Core.
Which is why, nearly 5 years ago, I joined what would become one of the most valuable parts of my professional life: the WP Business Mastermind.
The Group
Seven plugin founders. Fortnightly Zoom calls. Daily Slack communication. And a shared understanding that nobody outside this world gets what we’re dealing with.
The roster:
- Me (WP Fusion)
- James Kemp (IconicWP, now WooCommerce Core at Automattic)
- Zack Katz (GravityKit, TrustedLogin)
- Katie Keith (Barn2)
- Jason Coleman (Paid Memberships Pro)
- Chris Badgett (LifterLMS)
- Daniel Iser (Content Control, Popup Maker)
We even travel to WordCamp Asia together. Yeah, we’re those nerds.
Daniel Iser — The Technical Purist
Daniel’s that developer who actually reads the WordPress Coding Standards and then argues about whether they go far enough.
Content Control and Popup Maker are his babies. Content Control does exactly what it says—controls what content users can see based on conditions. Popup Maker… also does exactly what it says. No bullshit naming conventions.
What I respect about Daniel: He ships clean code. Not “clean enough” code. Actually clean. The kind of code where you open a file and immediately understand the architecture.
When someone in the group asks “How would you structure X?” Daniel’s answer is always technically sound, well-reasoned, and usually involves a design pattern you forgot existed.
Is he sometimes pedantic? Yes.
Is he usually right? Also yes.
Chris Badgett — The LMS Guy Who Gets It
Chris runs LifterLMS—one of the big three learning management systems for WordPress (alongside LearnDash and LifterLMS). If you’re selling courses on WordPress, you’ve probably evaluated his plugin.
What makes Chris different: He understands that LMS is just the infrastructure. The real business is helping people build course businesses.
So he doesn’t just maintain a plugin—he runs coaching programs, builds community, creates content about online education. He’s playing the long game.
When the group discusses business strategy, Chris is the one asking the human questions:
- “What do your customers actually want?”
- “How do you retain them long-term?”
- “What’s your vision for this in 5 years?”
Not “How do we optimize conversion rates?” or “What’s your CAC?” Those matter, but Chris starts with why people buy and works backward.
Why This Group Matters
Here’s what happens when you’re in a mastermind with people who actually understand your business:
1. Someone’s already solved your problem
Me in Slack: “Anyone dealt with Stripe webhook failures causing duplicate subscriptions?”
Jason: “Yeah, PMPro had that exact issue in 2022. Here’s how we fixed it: [link]”
Saved: 40 hours of debugging
2. Reality checks from people who’ve been there
Me: “Thinking about raising prices 50% and migrating everyone to annual billing.”
Group: “Have you modeled the churn impact? Here’s what happened when we tried that…”
Saved: potentially catastrophic business decision
3. Emotional support from the only people who get it
Me: “Customer left a 1-star review because our plugin ‘doesn’t work’ (translation: they didn’t read the setup docs).”
Everyone: “We’ve all been there. It sucks. Here’s the professional response template.”
Saved: my sanity
The Boring Stuff That Matters
We don’t just talk about code and marketing. We talk about:
- Hiring and firing (how do you fire a remote contractor who’s been with you for 5 years?)
- Licensing models (annual vs lifetime, when to grandfather, how to migrate)
- Refund policies (30 days? 60? Lifetime for features that don’t exist yet?)
- Support scalability (when do you hire your first support person?)
- Acquisition offers (should you sell? To whom? For how much?)
- Mental health (because this job can absolutely wreck you)
This is the stuff nobody teaches you when you’re learning to code.
What I’ve Learned
From Daniel: Code quality is a long-term investment, not a luxury. Technical debt compounds faster than you think.
From Chris: Your product is infrastructure. Your business is the transformation you provide. Don’t confuse the two.
From the group: You’re not crazy. This industry is genuinely hard. The problems you’re facing are real, not a sign you’re doing it wrong.
Is WP Fusion in Decline?
(This is the question I asked the group in 2024.)
New revenue was down. Active installs plateaued. Marketing efforts weren’t converting like they used to.
The group helped me see:
- It’s not just me—everyone’s seeing shifts in the WordPress ecosystem
- Legacy CRMs (ActiveCampaign, Infusionsoft) are losing market share to newer tools (HighLevel, HubSpot)
- The market isn’t dying—it’s evolving
What we’re doing about it:
- Better onboarding (reduce time-to-value)
- More integrations with modern CRMs
- Exploring AI-powered features (because why not)
- Focusing on retention over acquisition
Is it working? Too early to say definitively, but October 2025 was our best month since March 2024.
The Un-Sexy Truth
Five years in a mastermind group sounds romantic. Like we’re all sipping whiskey and discussing philosophy.
The reality: It’s mostly Zoom calls where someone shares their screen to debug a refund flow. It’s Slack messages at 2am when you’re panicking about a server outage. It’s Daniel sending a 15-paragraph technical breakdown of why your database schema is wrong.
And it’s invaluable.
If you’re running a WordPress plugin business (or any SaaS, really), find your people. Not customers. Not mentors. Not masterminds-for-hire.
Find the people dealing with your exact problems and talk to them fortnightly for 5 years.
That’s it.
Thanks
To Daniel, Chris, James, Zack, Katie, and Jason: Thanks for being the people I can complain to when Stripe changes their API for the 47th time. 🧡
To everyone reading this: If you’re building something in public and feeling alone—you’re not. Find your group.
– Jack