Helping companies build, position, and grow inside the WordPress ecosystem.
Independent consultancy and long-term advisory for companies building serious things on, with, and in WordPress.
Remkus de Vries
WordPress is an ecosystem of products, companies, incentives, and long-term trade-offs.
It is not just a platform.
After more than 20 years working inside that ecosystem, I help companies make better decisions, avoid misalignment, and find the right counterparts to build with.
Over those years, I have built a trusted circle of experienced WordPress professionals, founders, and operators that we can involve when additional perspective or expertise adds real value for Northbound strategies.
Northbound
Northbound is a long-term advisory for companies that want to build, grow, and position themselves inside the WordPress ecosystem.
It exists for companies that already see WordPress as strategically important, but want deeper understanding of how products, partnerships, visibility, and decisions actually play out within the ecosystem over time.
Northbound is not about execution or deliverables. It is about proximity, perspective, and informed decision-making in an interconnected system.
What Northbound gives you access to
Perspective, proximity, and leverage inside WordPress.
Ecosystem-level perspective
Understanding WordPress as a market, not just a platform. How products succeed, where incentives align, and why certain approaches consistently fail, even when execution is strong.
Product and positioning judgment
Clarity on how your product fits the WordPress landscape, what to emphasize, what to avoid, and how to position without fighting the ecosystem you depend on.
Technical and commercial reality checks
Deep understanding of WordPress products, infrastructure, performance, and constraints, combined with market and go-to-market awareness. Decisions are grounded in how things actually work.
Partnerships and introductions that make sense
Access to the right companies and people when alignment exists. Introductions are made intentionally, with context, timing, and long-term value in mind.
Visibility and narrative leverage
Strategic use of content, presence, and conversation. Proximity to channels and discussions that shape how WordPress products are perceived.
Decision-making under real constraints
Helping founders and leadership teams make better decisions when trade-offs are unavoidable. This includes organizational dynamics, incentives, timing, and the human side of building products and companies inside an ecosystem.
Hi, I’m Remkus de Vries, founder of Truer than North, and I have been part of WordPress for over two decades.
I initiated WordCamp Europe and WordPress Netherlands, work closely with leadership across the ecosystem, and am actively involved in product, infrastructure, and community discussions that shape where WordPress is going.
That long-term involvement gives me a perspective most companies do not have: what strategies work, how products fit together, where leverage exists, and which collaborations actually make sense.
Long-term involvement gives me a perspective most companies only encounter once. Northbound applies that perspective continuously, while decisions are still cheap to change.
NAVIGATING THE WORDPRESS ECOSYSTEM
Turning WordPress ecosystem complexity into strategic advantage
WordPress is not just software. It is a dense ecosystem of products, companies, incentives, and long-term trade-offs. Navigating it well requires context that rarely exists inside a single team or roadmap.
Understanding where your product truly fits
Many products are built on WordPress without understanding how they fit within the ecosystem. Northbound helps clarify positioning, adjacency, and overlap, so products reinforce the ecosystem instead of fighting it.
Finding the right counterparts to build with
Not every partnership creates leverage. Timing, intent, and incentive alignment matter. Northbound focuses on understanding which companies should work together, and which relationships are worth pursuing at all.
Avoiding misalignment before it compounds
Small decisions can have long-term consequences in an interconnected ecosystem. Northbound exists to surface second-order effects early, before misalignment becomes expensive or irreversible.
Bringing long-term perspective to short-term decisions
After more than two decades inside WordPress, patterns become visible. Northbound applies that perspective to help companies make decisions with the full system in view, not just the next milestone.
Pricing
Pathfinder
$1500
Per Month
For companies finding their place in the WordPress ecosystem.
Pathfinder is the entry point into Northbound. It focuses on orientation, alignment, and early signal, helping you understand where your product fits, which relationships matter, and which paths are worth pursuing.
What this includes
Ongoing strategic sparring focused on direction and positioning
Ecosystem context around products, partnerships, and incentives
Introductions when clear mutual value exists
Guardrails to avoid misalignment and wasted effort
Quarterly planning and advisory call
Wayfinder
$3500-6500*
Per Month
For companies navigating complex ecosystems and active partnerships.
Wayfinder is for sustained, deeper involvement and involves It supports companies already moving, but needing continuous alignment as conditions, partnerships, and product decisions evolve.
What this includes
Ongoing strategic involvement with higher-frequency touchpoints
Long-term strategic involvement across product and ecosystem decisions
Ongoing alignment of partnerships, integrations, and positioning
Deeper context-aware introductions and collaboration facilitation
Early insight into ecosystem shifts and second-order effects
Monthy planning and advisory call
*Final pricing for Wayfinder is determined after an initial discovery phase and reflects the scope, complexity, and level of ongoing involvement required.
Northbound is not consultancy, execution, or access on demand. Availability is limited, and fit matters more than tier. Looking for consultancy pricing instead?
