Show Notes
Guest: Mike Demo, Partnerships Lead, North America at hosting.com
Recorded at: WordCamp US 2025 (Portland, Oregon)
In this episode: Steve Persch sits down with Mike Demo, partnerships lead at hosting.com to discuss what makes the web work and how agencies can thrive in an AI-driven landscape. Demo shares his journey through open source communities - from Joomla to WordPress - and emphasizes that passion still drives innovation on the web.
The conversation explores how AI is reshaping the industry while reinforcing that quality professionals will always have value. Mike offers practical advice for agencies feeling threatened by AI tools.
Key Topics:
- What makes the web work (spoiler: passion drives innovation)
- Why AI is a tool, not a replacement for human creativity
- How agencies can evolve beyond the three-year website relaunch cycle
- Growth Driven Design: iterating based on client goals instead of massive rebuilds
- The Canadian province that wanted to increase bounce rate (and why that made perfect sense)
- Moving from project-based work to monthly retainers that demonstrate ongoing value
- The power of niching down: why specializing in community banks and credit unions changed everything
- Escaping the launch-and-decay pattern by preserving budget for continuous improvement
- Why quality professionals will always have value, despite AI disruption
Mentioned in the episode:
- HubSpot Academy's Growth Driven Design course
- WordPress origins and the passion that built it
- Historical parallels: FrontPage, Wix, Weebly, and why people always fear new tools
- Indie game developers creating award-winning content
- hosting.com