Carl Hancock knows a thing or two about the power of WordPress and how different plugins can extend the powerful CMS to accomplish just about anything. He’s the co-founder of Rocketgenius and creator of one of the most successful commercial plugins in the marketplace: Gravity Forms.

One of the great things about Carl is his ability to give and receive advice, even when it’s not the easiest thing to say or hear. He understands that there’s often a learning experience to take away from negative criticism; one that can help you identify issues to create solutions that can take your business to a whole new level.

Carl was part of our Expert Business Panel at the 2014 Prestige Conference in Minneapolis. We’re very excited to welcome him back as a speaker to Prestige Las Vegas, discussing the business background of his commercial plugin success.

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

I get to build WordPress products for a living. How great is that?!

Why this career and not something else?

I’ve been working with computers since I was in Elementary School and began doing internet development when dial up was king so there has never really been “something else” as far as career goes.

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

I’ve always been involved in technology but I wanted to get involved in creating a startup when I got fed up with dealing with poorly made decisions by people running the companies I worked for before I co-founded Rocketgenius.

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

I went all in from the beginning. I withdrew from college on the first day of classes and accepted a job with a startup halfway across the country when I was 18.

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

From a startup perspective, the 37Signals blog and books that they published inspired me to quit my job and start my own company.

What’s coming up next for you?

Expanding the Gravity Forms ecosystem and taking it places that people within the WordPress community may not expect.

Any industry predictions for 2015?

The WordPress API will be huge.

What book(s) are you reading right now?

Killing Pablo by Mark Bowden and The Startup Playbook by David Kidder and Reid Hoffman.

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

Rodrigo y Gabriela.

Name one thing you’re looking forward to for Prestige Conference Las Vegas:

The people.