An all-in-one managed hosting for WordPress websites can make the task easier for many users.
While working with customers on WordPress performance, Ben found that there is a big opportunity to combine CDN, WAF, and Origin (hosting) into a single turnkey solution.
After realizing the fact, Ben Gabler founded Rocket, an all in one Managed WordPress Hosting platform built for WordPress websites of all sizes.
We are very glad that today we have Ben Gabler with us for today’s interview session.
Ben Gabler is a multi-talented entrepreneur who builds technologies to simplify daily tasks, improving quality of life.
With a proven record growing technology businesses, Gabler has expanded market share for major global Web hosting brands and brought technology startups from initial idea to success.
Ben launched his first business venture in 2006. Host Nine, EasyRent.com, and Help.com are some of his brainchildren. Before starting Rocket, he was Chief Product Officer at StackPath.
Today, from Ben, we will know more about the Rocket and its features that makes Rocket different from other managed WordPress hosting providers. As always, we will try to fetch out Ben’s special tips to be a successful entrepreneur.
You can know more of Ben from the Rocket Blog or catch him on twitter, @ben_gabler
Hello Ben, It is a Great Pleasure That You Give Us Some Time From Your Busy Schedule. Would You Please Share Your Journey With WordPress (Your Start, Present Status, and Future Plan)? And How Did You Make Your Debut as an Entrepreneur?
I’d love to! I became familiar with WordPress back around it’s original release in 2003. I had my first hosting company and WordPress was one of the CMS options in an old installer we supported called “Fantastico”.
I’d say it really started picking up around 2005/2006 when I was at HostGator and then went on to launch HostNine.
Both being shared hosting companies that powered thousands of websites, WordPress was always a very popular option.
Funny enough, we built a platform at HostNine known as “Reseller Central” (circa 2007) and customers were constantly installing WordPress after creating new accounts.
So one of the big features we built was auto-installing WordPress when new sites were created.
Fast forward to 2018 and I started seeing WordPress usage in a whole new light. I was Chief Product Officer at a company called StackPath and a huge portion of our client base were WordPress users seeking a CDN and WAF solution.
While we saw a lot of WordPress users adopt the platform, a large portion of them were not using the CDN and WAF to the fullest potential.
There are a lot of plugins out there that guide users through setting up static asset delivery via CDN but this creates a big problem most don’t notice and that is every single request to the website still has to go to the hosting server.
While we would try to steer customers towards full site delivery (pointing their entire website through our CDN and WAF), it was a very difficult task when it came to DNS, Origins, and all kinds of configurable options that were overwhelming.
How Did You Get the Idea of Rocket? And Why Do You Feel the Need for Managed WordPress Hosting Though There Were Other Hosting Providers Out There?
The idea for Rocket was curated over my tenure at StackPath. Working with customers daily on WordPress performance, I knew there was a big opportunity to marry the Edge (CDN/WAF) and Origin (hosting) into a single turnkey solution.
While we’re not the only Managed WordPress Hosting provider on the market, we are definitely the most unique.
Our Platform leverages Cloudflare Enterprise in front of every WordPress installation, pre-configured, and optimized for WordPress out of the box.
The only configuration our customers have to manage is their DNS. Once DNS is pointed to Rocket, their WordPress site(s) instantly benefit from the following features:
Full Page Caching
- We cache the entire WordPress site’s in over 200 locations with our Cloudflare partnership. One of the ways we can offer this is by utilizing the “Bypass Cache on Cookie” feature at Cloudflare so we’re fully compatible with dynamic WordPress sites (WooCommerce, Blog Comments, etc).
Image Optimization
- We provide lossless image optimization for all image requests automatically.
Third Party Asset Proxying
- We will proxy things like google fonts through the WordPress websites’ custom domain to reduce DNS lookups and improve cache efficiency.
Web Application Firewall
- We provide a pre-configured and WordPress optimized Website Firewall powered by Cloudflare at the Edge and a local WAF on every WordPress server.
DDoS Protection
- We leverage Cloudflare’s Enterprise DDoS protection on each and every install automatically.
Malware Scanning & Patching
- Our servers scan every file written in real-time before it is saved on the filesystem to ensure no malware makes it to the server. Typically our patching is used when customers migrate to our platform as they most likely did not have this on their previous host.
Those are just some of the major benefits a WordPress website receives upon pointing to Rocket. No configuration, upsells, or third-party plugins required.
Could You Please Explain to Us How Rocket is Different From Other Managed WordPress Hosting Providers?
I’d say our biggest differentiator is that we’re an all-in-one Platform built with a combined 30+ years of experience.
We wanted to make it as easy as possible for customers to not only push their WordPress performance to its maximum potential, but we wanted to do it with a security-first approach.
And by all in one, we mean our service equips WordPress with everything they need to be blazing fast and shielded from the bad guys, no additional plugins required!
Who Are the Main Users of Rocket? What Do They Love Most About Rocket?
We built our platform to serve users of all sizes. We have customers that manage a small business website, and customers that manage hundreds of websites.
Our goal was to make it as easy as possible to use, that way it meets the needs of beginners and advanced users.
Based on the feedback we receive, our customers love how easy and fast the platform is. We’ve migrated customers from virtually every major hosting company out there and they instantly tell us how amazed they are by the speed.
What Challenges Do You Face While Starting a Managed WordPress Hosting Business?
The biggest challenge was probably building the turnkey platform and keeping it easy at the same time. In order to do this, we had to come up with configurations for the CDN and WAF that would work for all WordPress sites.
Thankfully, having two years of experience managing a CDN and WAF at StackPath took a lot of the guesswork out.
Rocket Provides Various Types of Hosting Plans. So Can You Talk More About the Plans? And for a Small Business, Which Plan Do You Suggest and Why?
Sure. We provide a range of plans, including the ability to create custom plans based on usage for larger partners. For a Small Business we highly recommend our Business plan as it provides an ample amount of usage for a busy business.
However, upgrading a plan takes just a few seconds in our portal so customers can easily start out on the Starter plan as they ramp up.
Could You Share What the Common Mistakes People Make While Selecting a Hosting for Their Website Are?
Price, price, and price. I think the biggest mistake people make is settling for a cheap price. I like to think of our hosting platform as beachfront property, but without the beachfront price.
Yes, our prices may appear to be a bit higher than some of the shared hosting companies, but once you start to price everything we include it’s a great bargain.
Especially as customers scale up the amount of WordPress sites they host on our Platform.
What Plans Do You Have With Rocket in the Future?
We’re a very customer centric company. We like our customers to drive a big part of our roadmap as we strive to solve real world problems. With that said, we also reserve a chunk of the roadmap for internal innovation.
One of the biggest upcoming features will be our public API. We have a very easy to use API that we use behind the scenes and will be exposing it to our customers very soon.
This unlocks the ability to integrate with modern tools like Terraform, WHMCS, WooCommerce, and others. Stay tuned!
You Are a Successful Entrepreneur. Can Our Audience Know What is the Key to Your Success? What Skills Do You Think Are Most Needed to Be Successful as an Entrepreneur?
Thank you! I’d say a big key to success is surrounding yourself with people smarter than you. When I had the idea for Rocket, I made a few calls to some very key people that play a critical role in our success.
Another big part of it. Know your Product. Spend time really studying and knowing the Product you’re representing.
It’s easy as the CEO/Product/Engineering guy to understand it, but it’s my responsibility to make sure my team understands it as well.
It may sound trivial but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen sales teams that have never logged in trying to sell.
What Are the Advice and Success Tips You Have for New WordPress Entrepreneurs?
Never give up and stop procrastinating. While we all want to be an overnight success, we know that’s not how it goes.
With continued hard work, dedication, and passion – you will always win one way or another even if winning is defined by learning from failure, always level up and learn.
Winding Up
For an entrepreneur, his product is the most valuable asset. And it becomes easy to be successful if he knows his product and knows how to start marketing of that certain product.
When we asked Ben for his success tips, he also told us to know the product. Also, he said, “Spend time really studying and knowing the product you’re representing.”
When doing business, managing a WordPress website can be very time-consuming. It will be easy if you can find a good hosting provider, which will help you to do the task simply and quickly.
But before selecting a managed hosting provider, you should always start with the beginner level plan. And gradually, with time, you can change your hosting plan as your business grows.
Have a look at the Rocket, follow Ben on Twitter, and read the Rocket Blog to learn more from the experts.
Read Other Interviews:
- Interview WIth Ryan Sullivan
- Interview With Steven Watts
- Interview With Chris Badgett
- Interview With Kimberly Lipari
- Interview With Jean-Baptiste
- Interview With Jan Koch
- Interview With Maddy Osman
- Interview With Alex Panagis
- Interview With Brad Williams
- Interview With Dave Macdonald
- Interview With Ashan Jay
- Interview With Mikko Saari
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