We're Making a Bet - Kim Coleman  🔗 **Source:** [We're Making a Bet - Kim Coleman](https://therealkimcoleman.com/2026/04/21/making-a-bet-on-max/) We're not a WordPress plugin company anymore. We're in the business of helping you get paid. Matt Cromwell recently [published an article on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/stop-being-wordpress-plugin-matt-cromwell-koumf/). Rooted in his recent PressConf presention, the article opens with these powerful lines: “Stop being a WordPress plugin. Solve customer problems instead.” Justin Ferriman, who built and sold LearnDash, was even more direct. In [a recent LinkedIn post](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/justinferriman_ai-wordpress-activity-7449437313757102080-jx7B/), Justin writes: “The glory days of WordPress plugin businesses are behind us.” They’re both right. And it was timely to see two people I respect share things that are absolutely uncomfortable to say out loud, let alone believe so deeply it’s a tad frightening. Timely because we’ve had this exact conversation internally, because things are changing. I’ve wondered about what it would look like to just… coast. We have recurring revenue. We have loyal customers. We could probably ride that out for another decade, keep the lights on, keep most of the team employed, and slowly become irrelevant. The business I thought I’d operate forever slowly whittled down to a handful of customers, my kids off to college, Jason and I ending our day with beautiful sunsets, sleepy dogs, and stillness, for a change. We decided we don’t want that. It’s so tempting. Very, very tempting. But it feels dishonest to the people who chose us. It feels like giving up on something we still genuinely care about. So we’re making a (big?) bet instead. The bet is that our customers don’t actually want a plugin (I agree, Matt!). They want a membership site that works. They want to get paid. They want to spend their time on their business or their mission, not on troubleshooting hosting conflicts or figuring out which Add On they need or waiting on a developer to fix something that’s been broken for two weeks. We’ve spent the last few years quietly building toward this. Hosting designed specifically for membership sites. Caching, email, optimization handled at the server level so you don’t have to. And now we’re putting it all together under one name: PMPro Max. Max is our answer to the question of what PMPro looks like if we stop thinking of ourselves as a plugin company. It’s hosting, software, expert support, hands-on help (yes, custom dev included - ask me how this is going in a month), and AI tools, all from the same team that’s been building this thing for 15 years. One price. One vendor. Is it a hail mary? Kind of, yeah. The plugin market is eroding. AI is changing what customers expect and what they’re willing to pay for. Organic search has shifted dramatically. We’re not immune to any of that. But we’d rather swing than coast. If you’re building a membership site and you’re tired of stitching everything together yourself, I’d love for you to take a look. And if you’re another WordPress business trying to figure out what comes next, I don’t have all the answers, but I’m pretty sure Matt and Justin are pointing us in the right direction. If you’re curious, find me., We're Making a Bet - Kim Coleman, therealkimcoleman.com, 01kq2mgabwwegw8qjthg5w5brd.