Mena Trott

MENA TROTT

Birthplace: Woodland Hills, California, USA

Living Place : San Francisco

Mena Trott, 32, is a co-founder and President of Six Apart, creator of Movable Type and TypePad. The company name `originates from the fact that Trott and co-founder/husband Benjamin Trott were born six days apart. Trott is president of Six Apart.

She made her first efforts in weblogging at dollarshort.org in 2001.

While still a tiny startup, Six Apart is already in this group. Not only has the company carved out a leading position in the nascent niche of blogging tools, its founders, Ben and Mena Trott, have aquired personal reputations among their customers and critics alike. Some say there’s a mystique surrounding Six Apart.

Ben and Mena may be the classic examples of founders who succeed because they don’t know what they’re not supposed to be able to do. Prior to version 3.0, Movable Type was donation-ware and the average contribution was only US$0.38. That’s probably not too shabby compared to others, but it wasn’t going to support what the team has in mind for the future. Six Apart recently brought in outside funding and members of its board, and the company is changing rapidly.

In this deeply personal interview you’ll hear how Ben and Mena have struggled with the challenges of growth from a two-person shop to nearly 30 employees on three continents in just six months.

Time’s 2006 Person of the Year is “You,” which is to say, everybody: “The many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing.” The tools of this revolution have come in no small part from Six Apart, a 2002 startup that helped enable the blogging boom with its products. And co-founder Mena Trott, who rose to Internet fame with her own blog, DollarShort, has become a strong voice explaining the role of personal blogging in today’s culture.

In 2004, the company grew from seven employees to 50, with Mena Trott serving as chief executive, as well as an interface designer. Today, having acquired LiveJournal and introduced rich-media sharing platform Vox, Six Apart’s software gives online voice to millions of people and organizations worldwide.