2018 has been an incredible year for the team at Aspen Grove Studios. Our team has grown, we’ve purchased another company and our product portfolio has almost doubled in size.

What began as a small two-person company, fueled by dreams, purpose and plenty cups of coffee, has since – three years later – grown into a multinational, almost 20-person team of dedicated, driven Divi and WordPress dreamers and doers.

Join us as we take a stroll down memory lane and recap some of the highlights, victories and best moments of 2018.

Aspen Grove Studios Acquires Potent Plugins

In May of 2018, Aspen Grove Studios acquired the successful WordPress plugin development agency, Potent Plugins.

Founded by Jonathan Hall, Potent Plugins has produced some of the highest performing WooCommerce and WordPress plugins to date. With Potent Plugins in the portfolio, the Aspen Grove Studios brand was able to grow exponentially, expanding our product collection into the world of WordPress, WooCommerce and bbPress.

Aspen Grove Studios first came to work with Jonathan Hall roughly three years prior to the merger, where, after completing a project together, Hall remained in a positive business space with the Aspen Grove Studios founders David Blackmon and Cory Jenkins. In the three years that followed the initial project, Hall would continue to work with the Aspen Grove Studios family, lending his exceptional development skills and talents to various products and development projects.

Potent Plugins has built some of the best-rated WordPress plugins to date, helping WooCommerce and bbPress users better run their websites and businesses. Now, with both Potent Plugins and Divi Space under the Aspen Grove Studios brand, we’re able to offer our customers better products, bigger deals and the highest level of value to date.

Have a look at some of our incredible WooCommerce plugins in the Aspen Grove Studios shop.

After the acquisition of Potent Plugins, Jonathan Hall became an official member of the Aspen Grove Studios family. Having joined the team as the Head Developer, Jonathan has and will continue to lend his incredible skill set, knowledge and wild imagination to all of our current and future product releases.

Aspen Grove Studios Sponsors and Organizes WordCamp Phoenix

This year, Aspen Grove Studios solidified their space in the WordPress community by getting more involved with WordCamp.

Longtime attendees of WordCamp Phoenix, this year, Aspen Grove Studios both sponsored and helped organized the event.

As well as getting involved with the behind-the-scenes organization, Aspen Grove Studio’s co-founder David Blackmon also spoke at the event! Joined by long-term collaborator, Tim Strifler, David discussed the concept of “coopetition” and explained how ditching the competitor mindset and working in collaboration can help businesses grow.

Watch the recording of David and Tim’s talk on WordPressTV! You can also download the slides used in the presentation here.

WordCamp Phoenix 2019 is just around the corner. Taking place February 15th – 17th, check out the speakers list, get event details and buy your tickets all via the official website.

Aspen Grove Studios and Divi Life Speak at WordCamp Orange County

Each year, key figures in the Divi community flock to WordCamp Orange County and WordCamp USA. This year, at WordCamp Orange County, David and Cory joined their friends for a weekend of learning, networking and fun!

Another great speaking opportunity for the dynamic duo, David Blackmon and Tim Strifler joined forces for a second time at WordPress Orange County.

Here, David and Tim discussed the process of building WordPress products and shared tips, tricks and processes for new players looking to build and sell WordPress products.

Aspen Grove Studios Launches Online Courses

One of the biggest highlights of 2018 was launching our online courses. On behalf of Aspen Grove Studios, our sister company, Divi Space, and our learning zone Divi Learning began the year with the first ever intake of brand new online courses aimed at Divi users.

• Our first online course, Transforming Divi with CSS and jQuery, empowered Divi users by teaching them how to enhance Divi in new and exciting ways using CSS and jQuery. The course gave learners the opportunity to refine their development skill sets so that they could go on to land bigger and better web builds and work with higher paying clients.
• After Transforming Divi with CSS and jQuery, we released a second online course specifically for Divi developers. The Divi Module Creators Course taught students how to expand the Divi framework by utilizing the ‘Divi Create Extension’ utility. By the end of the course, students were able to build their own modules for the Divi builder, and as a result, could offer truly unique, custom development solutions for their clients.
• Aspen Grove Studios’ co-founder David Blackmon teamed up with WP Gears peer, Tim Strifler of Divi Life, to deliver the Divi Business Expert Course. Designed to help WordPress and Divi users build a successful, 6-figure online business, the course has helped hundreds of students kickstart or scale their dream business.

Interested in enrolling in one of our WordPress or Divi courses? Click here to find out more!

Aspen Grove Studios Launched the 42 Theme

With the news of Gutenberg sweeping through the WordPress community, Aspen Grove Studios jumped ahead of the pack and created the 42 Theme.

Compatible with both Gutenberg and the WordPress Classic editor, the 42 Theme shipped with several custom Gutenberg blocks, including an icon block, a call-to-action block, a carousel post block and many more!

If you’re wondering why we named it the 42 Theme, read this post!

Aspen Grove Studios Has a Company Retreat in Sedona

Earlier this year, co-founders David Blackmon and Cory Jenkins held a company retreat in Sedona, Arizona. Joined by content writer Lisa-Robyn Keown and head developer Jonathan Hall, the four enjoyed meeting, bonding and coworking in one of Arizona’s most beautiful locations.

During the retreat, the group were able to have video calls with the rest of the remote team, including the designers, Anna Kurowska and Dominika Rauk in Poland.

Aspen Grove Studios Turns Three

Finally, one of the biggest highlights of the year was celebrating Aspen Grove Studios’ birthday. After three years in business, what once was a small two-man team has since:

• Purchased two additional WordPress and Divi product businesses
• Run three successful online courses
• Released 20+ child themes, 40+ plugins, 30+ layouts
• Grown a remote team of over 15 full-time employees

Read more about our third birthday celebrations

What’s In Store for 2019

With the new year just around the corner, we can’t wait to get started with our exciting new projects and developments!

In 2019, we’ll be:

• Developing the 42 Theme for Gutenberg and expanding the block framework
• Crafting more incredible Divi child themes for niche industries
• Building new and exciting products for the Divi, WordPress and WooCommerce communities (some of these will be launched soon so stay tuned!)
• Pursuing more partnerships with peer companies in the greater WordPress space
• Continuing to support and attend WordCamps and engaging with the WordPress community

We hope that you’ve enjoyed this recap of our year! Looking back at 2018, we are filled with so much gratitude for everything that we’ve been able to achieve. Thank you for your continued support, we can’t wait to see you in 2019!