Thomas Goletz is, perhaps, the most loved Magento individual in the world. He is also the man behind many successful projects in Asia and Europe. He also happens to be the (rather charming) face of Meet Magento, a popular Magento event that is hosted independently by merchants and developers.
In this interview, I have talked in detail about the Magento industry and its future. We also discussed Thomas’ journey in various technology oriented fields. I hope everyone will enjoy his honest feedback about the Magento industry.
Cloudways: Thomas, I am amazed to see that you have a vast experience in building technology companies. What was your motivation behind Interface, Lintec AG, iways, and Netsearch AG? Did you always love technology? Who was your biggest inspiration in the early days? Who do you think is the finest tech entrepreneur today?
Thomas: Technology has always been connected to the practical application of knowledge, so that something entirely new can be done—or at least in a completely new way. Under this meaning, many of the so-called technology companies are just companies without technology. There is no reason to call a company that optimizes an ordering process a technology company. But, this happens nowadays very often, especially in the internet business. Maybe, it makes such companies look a little bit more exciting.
My primary motivation behind all companies and ventures has not been technological. It is more about bringing something new and interesting to the customers. In Lintec or iways, we transferred existing concepts from one industry to another. It made our clients successful and it made us successful too.
And, this was the biggest inspiration for me in early days and it’s even there, today. I work with people to do my best to change the world and make it a better place. Whenever such a thing happens, it makes me happy.
There are no praiseworthy tech entrepreneurs today. They simply don’t exist. There are maybe some people who are making and using new tools for their business. I don’t know them all. As always, people make the difference. Sitting in Silicon Valley or managing VC money does not make you a tech entrepreneur.
Cloudways: Currently, you work as Co-founder of Netsearch App, the company that created Meet Magento, a flagship event for merchants, system integrators, developers, and service providers. What made you start this project? How do you see the growth of Magento community and ecosystem?
Thomas: Meet Magento started back in 2009 and was originally built up by my partner, Thomas Fleck and Netresearch GmbH & Co. KG. It was the first conference ever for Magento enthusiasts. At a time when the world had not even heard about Magento, this conference started to develop the community for Magento in Europe. Roy Rubin and Yoav Kutner, the founders from Magento, came to Germany and they expected to have an audience of 50 people. They were astonished to meet more than 270 professional developers and merchants at the conference. Meet Magento was driven by the community.
Community here means merchants and developers. This type of community differentiates Magento from all other platforms and systems. Magento is driven by a blended community. Merchants and developers are key to Magento’s success. Meet Magento is the catalyst for this industry. It enables conversations and activities around Magento development.
Since 2012, Meet Magento has gone global. In 2015, there will be events in 26 countries. This is really outstanding, because all the events are organized by local merchants and developers. It is not driven by Magento (eBay) itself. It is driven by the market. And, in most cases, the market is faster than a vendor. There is nothing comparable in the international market to Magento and Meet Magento.
Cloudways: Recently, Steve Wozniak (co-founder, Apple) said: “Computers are going to take over from humans.” Do you agree? How do you think technology will change the world in next 10 years?
Thomas: There is a lot of buzz about robot apocalypse and artificial intelligence’s detrimental impact on our future. I can remember in the 90s when we worked on concepts like CIM (Computer Integrated Manufacturing) or Autopilot systems for UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles). Those concepts were really technology-driven. They were about IT, manufacturing technologies, process management, and much more. People were concerned about losing their jobs and being replaced by robots. Fortunately, not any of those concerns became reality.What happened was that the entire manufacturing industry had access to a set of new tools and skills; helping them to stay competitive and produce better products in a better way. The daily life of people improved. But, how did this happen? Because, companies and people have used technologies and all related concepts in a responsible and ethical manner.
What happened was that the entire manufacturing industry had access to a set of new tools and skills, helping them to stay competitive and produce better products in a better way. The daily life of people improved. But, how did this happen? Because, companies and people have used technologies and all its related concepts in a responsible and ethical manner.
Computers and networks are made by people, they are controlled by people, and they are used by people. It depends on us if we use technology in the right way or not. As long as we accept that there are a few—in the worse case, not legitimated groups—in control of them, we have to deal with the consequences. When computer systems can control and influence our daily lives—and such things are possible today, then we should take steps to take care of such things.
So, technology will change the world. And, there is a need for this. There are many challenges for us to solve. The world needs energy for 10 billion people, so they can grow and develop their lives for the better. We have to save and rebuild our natural ecosystems and environment. The population density in mega cities and varied distances between cities are huge challenges. Plus, we have to take care of the billions of elderly people in our societies.
There are only two options to develop our lives into a positive future: Technology and Ethics.
So, I don’t care too much about “computer taking over humans”. We are humans. And, we have to take care about what will happen.
Cloudways: We all know that there exists a fierce competition within the ecommerce industry. With the emergence of Shopify, PrestaShop, WooCommerce, etc., how do you foresee the future of Magento? Do you have any predictions on its development for this year?
Thomas: As I said before, Magento is unique because of its strong community. Some people say that the situation is critical. Ever since eBay took over Magento, it seems the process of innovation has come to a screeching halt. Compared with platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, or Shopware, Magento seems to be outdated.
In 2008, there was a strong need for a new approach for ecommerce platforms. Magento was the answer the market was looking for. A market share of 25% worldwide is the perfect proof for that. If you look at all those new platforms, you will see that they don’t bring anything essential or new to the market. Of course, there are many smaller issues with Magento, but all other platforms have small issues, too.
Even the launch of Magento 2.0 is not so important as many people believe. We don’t expect that 200,000 Magento merchants will migrate from 1.x to 2.0 during the first few months. At the same time, they won’t switch to something else.
The main questions regarding Magento are related to eBay Enterprise itself as well as its community and partners. The community, merchants, and partners around Magento are playing their part in serving and advancing the ecosystem.
We are very positive about Magento. It is the only platform with a global approach and outreach driven by local business.
Cloudways: You are quite an adventurer. How was your experience in China while hiking in one of the biggest deserts of the world, The Gobi? What are some people who inspired you during the journey? What have you learned?
Thomas: Even before my first visit to Gobi, I had an understanding of the difference of doing business in China. I had many business contacts in China. I am lucky enough to have built a startup with my five partners in China and New Zealand.
One of those partners, Chao Yang took the initiative and started “The Journey of XuanZang”, a hiking event for the 10 best Executive MBA schools in China. Every year, 10 teams of 20 people hike for 4 days on the Silk Road following the route of a famous monk in the middle of the desert Gobi. When I joined this event for the first time in 2009, I was the only non-Chinese. Most of the attendees were business people, entrepreneurs, and technologists. And most of them couldn’t speak English very well.
Being together for 4 days in a challenging environment, only navigating via GPS, and having fun in the camp every night, the experience brought me a deep understanding about people and friendship.
Finally, I would say that no one out there is Chinese, Brazilian, German, Afghan, etc. There are only people. They want to live, to be successful, to be loved, and to be happy.
One of the best encounters I had was: On the second day of the event, I was hiking when I saw a man just ahead of me. I tried to catch up, but failed. When I finally got the opportunity to talk to him, we just could not understand each other’s words due to our different languages. He couldn’t speak English. I couldn’t speak Mandarin. But, we both had the feeling that we had an enjoyable conversation even without understanding one word. That evening, we met again in the camp with translators. He was a very successful entrepreneur in China. Today, we are very good friends. We discuss pretty much anything in English and Chinese to support our projects. It was a strong feeling that you don’t even need a common language to communicate. It is about people and their spirit.
Cloudways: You are a celebrated entrepreneur in Germany. You have had the opportunity to work in leading positions in different organizations. How will you define success? What it takes to be a successful entrepreneur? How important is it to motivate and engineer team dynamics during a project?
Thomas: Success is generally something personal. You can be celebrated by the media and public, but they forget you very quickly. You can only keep what you have for your own. Therefore, you have to define success for yourself. This makes you independent. For me, success is equivalent to achieving your objectives. Defining objectives is, therefore, essential if you want to be successful.
To be successful—no matter if you are an entrepreneur or not—you should have some skills and values. First you should trust yourself. I always try to figure out what makes me happy, no matter how crazy it seems to other people. Just ignore all your inhibitions. Trust yourself.
Don’t get afraid of failure. I can’t push myself when I’m concerned that I could fail. It doesn’t mean that I ignore risks. But, I accept that I can fail. Because, I know that I will start again. This makes it much easier for me to push myself forward.
Finally, success requires hard work. You will need much more time to take the right steps as you have expected. Sometimes, you will get unexpected feedback. It can be both positive and negative. It is a matter of time and work. Many things need their time. You can adapt, you can push, but you can’t force it. All these factors together show: Success is based on hard work. You can’t climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pocket.
Cloudways: There are always some individuals who stand out in the crowd. Name a few people that inspired and influenced you in the Magento world and helped you in creating Meet Magento?
Thomas: There are more than 220,000 merchants using Magento. They have decided to use it, configure it, and customize it. And, they work with thousands of system integrators and agencies. All those are my unnamed heroes of the Magento world.
Then, of course, there are Yoav Kutner and Roy Rubin, the founders of Magento. They decided to jump out of the comfort zone of their agency business to do something different. Their exit to eBay is a real success story.
At the same level, I see Thomas Fleck in good regards. He initiated the Meet Magento event and made it an epicenter of activities. Magento would have never achieved its success in Europe without Meet Magento.
Another appreciated individual especially in the German community is Rico Neitzel. He is the German Magento Community Manager. He has been there right from beginning and has helped us to establish the event in the country.
Then, there is a huge list of entrepreneurs who built their business around Magento. Some of them are Aheadworks, Amasty, Webshopapps, and SmartOSC.
For me, it’s our team of organizers—the most important group of people—who push Meet Magento beyond the limit. In 2014, we had 14 organizers. All of them are entrepreneurs in their countries. They took the risk to host a Meet Magento event for their local market—without any support from Magento (eBay). They did it because they understand that it is important to give something back in action, not in words. They are my heroes.
And, then there is my Meet Magento team, Annett Kretzschmar and Annemarie Hache. They are in charge of all stuff around Meet Magento, supporting our international events and helping me in establishing new events around the world.
Cloudways: How do you see ecommerce in Europe? Do you think it’s growing fast in comparison to other markets like North America or Asia? Do think Magento is the answer to all the ecommerce technological problems?
Thomas: The ecommerce market in Europe is still growing, but I think it is a little bit slower as compared to South America and Asia. What I see is that just setting up an online stop is not enough anymore. Competition is high, so it is important to come up and implement a new, unique idea or service (like Outfittery).
I think the success is not so much dependent on the software anymore, but the wrong software could be still a tripping stone. I don’t think that Magento is the best solution for everybody. You have to analyze the needs of the merchants to find the system that fits best. For example, for merchants who are selling offline already and are looking to sell online quickly and easily, I think Magento could be a good option.
The problem lies in the challenging setup process of a Magento-based web store. It requires someone with technical background to get it done. That’s why Magento Go was developed, but unfortunately it didn’t perform very well. We believe that an easy-to-use approach for Magento is a unique opportunity for 2015 and 2016. Getting offline merchants online holds big growth potential as long as they are selling great products.
Cloudways: Can you name some of the Magento web agencies in Europe which are not only providing amazing ecommerce solutions but also contribute regularly to the Magento community?
Thomas: Very tough question! We don’t exclusively believe in the official Magento partner program. There are much more high-skilled Magento talent out there. We meet a lot of such talented individuals when we work on Meet Magento events. I don’t want to highlight any of them, because too many of them contribute to the Magento community.
Cloudways: Thomas, let’s talk about other Magento events. I found that you participated in Mage Run, held in Milan, Italy. How was your experience? Share some of the best moments of the event with our readers.
Thomas: MageRun is one of the many events around Meet Magento. People share their business experiences, but at the same time they want to share their other interests. (Having a beer is one of them.) Running is today for many people part of their daily life. And, so we do a morning run at every Meet Magento event. A morning run is the perfect start for me, no matter how the weather is.
At a conference it is a good opportunity to get in touch with people on another level. It is a difference if you talk to somebody in the conference hotel or during a run through beautiful Milan. One of the most beautiful runs we had were at Meet Magento Kiev and Meet Magento Italy. In both cases we made something like a sightseeing run through Kiev and Milan, running to the most interesting places brought something special feelings to our hearts: The beauty of those cities, while running with local Meet Magento attendees, was really exciting.
Cloudways: Cloudways is always focused on contributing to the Magento community. We believe collaboration is the key to growth in today’s business. Do you believe that communities are the breeding ground of business opportunities?
Thomas: Yes, communities have good opportunities for a growing business. However, at first you need a good product. The reason, Magento community has developed so strong and quickly was that at the time Magento was launched, it was quite unique. There was no comparable software worldwide. This resulted in great community-based growth. And, the other great thing about Magento: It is Open Source. That’s why everybody got excited about it. Magento was lucky that it turned out that way. I know many companies yearn to have a strong community like Magento, But, the truth is: you cannot enforce it. You cannot perform miracles in building a community.
Cloudways: Last but not least, Cloudways offers 1-click Magento deployment on its cloud hosting platform. We have created a solution for developers, agencies, and SME’s. How do you think about the company in short time knowing us?
Thomas: Magento is a complex platform. You don’t have an “.exe” file to install and run your webshop. Magento offers the merchant anything he needs for a powerful and unique online shop. Any simplification in installation, configuration and deployment processes makes the lives for merchants, agencies, and SMEs easier. This is a strategic advantage. I believe this is one of the few ways to be successful in the Magento world.
Hosting companies are in a key position for providing cutting-edge Magento solutions. Cloudways’ 1-click Magento deployment platform enables agencies and SMEs to start with Magento in a very smooth way.
Abdur Rahman
Abdur Rahman is the Magento whizz at Cloudways. He is growth ambitious, and aims to learn & share information about Ecommerce & Magento Development through practice and experimentation. He loves to travel and explore new ideas whenever he finds time. Get in touch with him at [email protected]
