Meet the Speaker: Andrew Norcross

Jen Jamar • February 12, 2026

Yes, he has a tattoo of WordPress. And yes, it’s best to make sure he’s had his coffee before talking to him. Don’t worry - we always have plenty of coffee at Prestige Conference.

Andrew Norcross is the founder and lead developer at Reaktiv Studios, a full-service WordPress development studio. Prior to figuring out how to make all things Internets, he had careers in the financial sector and in marketing.

Norcross has a natural ability break down problems and build amazing solutions with WordPress. He’s a very down-to-earth guy and a great asset to the WordPress community.

In 3 sentences or less, please describe what you do for a living:

I am a founding partner and lead developer of Reaktiv Studios, a VIP designated WordPress development agency. We focus on custom plugins and complex builds, in addition to our flagship product Design Palette Pro for the Genesis framework.

Why this career and not something else?

Because this is so much fun In all seriousness, I had a previous career in finance and I was bored to death. There’s something about making a tangible thing (even if it’s digital) that can’t be beat. That, and it affords me the lifestyle and personality I want.

When did you figure out what you wanted to be when you grew up?

Who said I ever grew up? I was a computer nerd from a young age, but after the age of 9 or so I didn’t do much because being a “nerd” meant getting beat up and having no friends. So I focused on sports and music and other stuff. I got back into it in my early 20’s while working for a large financial firm, writing calculator macros in Excel to handle corporate reorganizations and other stock accounting things. It just took off from there.

Once you figured out what you wanted to do with your career, how did you start making things happen?

I just jumped in. I quit my job in finance and gave myself a short runway to see if this “coding stuff” would take off. I busted my ass and worked really hard, and was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time in terms of the growth in the WP community.

Who were your most valuable mentors and how did you connect with them?

There have been a few. First off, my Dad was (and is) my biggest mentor. He’s a minister, but never let the label define who he was. He did his job well, but had a sense of justice and social welfare and never looked down on people with less than he did. He also was able to raise a family on a minister’s salary.

In the WP community, folks like Mark Jaquith and Andrew Nacin have been mentors (even if they don’t know it) with how they handle the community and the size & scope of the WP project, while always being approachable and willing to admit they’re wrong (not that they are very often).

Chris Lema has been a big mentor in the business space, with his seemingly endless amount of time and patience with folks like me who stumbled into the business side of WP and is always willing to share his knowledge and experience.

What’s coming up next for you?

Looking at some more commercial plugin releases in the next 6-12 months, along with improving Design Palette.

Any industry predictions for 2015?

More growth and some consolidation. I think smaller teams are going to look at larger companies and decide it’s worth joining up and getting some of the benefits of scale, while others will carve out a niche for themselves and prosper.

What book(s) are you reading right now?

None at the moment. Reading time is hard to come by, but I keep up on shorter reading from blogs and writers I trust.

Favorite “guilty pleasure” song or band that you can’t help but rock out to?

I don’t feel guilty about any of the music I listen to I usually swing between the punk rock I grew up on, old outlaw country, newer alt country like Lucero, bands like Murder By Death, and some newer indie stuff like The National.