If you’ve ever launched a WordPress website and felt compelled to buy a premium hosting package just in case you have huge traffic days, Vishal Deshpande feels your pain.
Deshpande’s solution came as a result of online hobby projects that really took off and they had to scale up their hosting service.
“I struggled to find a proper host, which can be scalable as per my needs and scaled down as per my needs,” said Deshpande, founder of Nestify.
Most people get locked into a premium package paid annually. Deshpande didn’t want that for his business, and he thought others might be in the same boat.
“That’s not economical for everyone,” he said.
“Everyone can’t spend the high dollar value to get into that market. So, we built the solution for ourselves.”
In 2016, they formed Nestify and they have offices in the US and India.
They provide a scaled WordPress hosting service that a person – or company – can tailor to meet their changing needs.
Deshpande had the chance to meet with Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi during his trip to India in March, where the mayor suggested he bring his operation to the city.
Now, they have a new office in Calgary, and they plan to base their North American operations here.
Adjustable to peak times
With Nestify, companies can plan around when they expect to see a surge in online traffic and only pay more when that additional capacity is needed.
“So, basically, you’re running a Black Friday deal for your consumers, so you will need a high traffic, but you cannot commit that kind of (cash) resources for a whole year,” said Deshpande.
“You just need to tell Nestify that you need to have higher plan, and you switch to higher plan without any downtime.”
Deshpande said there are a couple other hosting providers out there who do the same thing, but they cater to higher end, bigger spending companies. This is geared towards that small and medium-sized market.
Though, they do have bigger customers who use their service. Have you heard of Walmart? Maybe PetSmart?
Deshpande said it’s easy to migrate your site. He said it’s essentially worry free; no SSL worries, no security worries, database access – all you need is an email address to begin.
Building business expertise
Deshpande said they have a proven model, but what they lacked was business acumen.
“We built this business out of a hobby, right?” Deshpande said.
“It’s not the right way to do a business. Until a certain period, it’s fine.”
He said you can’t cut corners in business and working with Platform Calgary’s Junction program is putting them through the wringer to fine tune their operations.
As they look ahead, Deshpande said they expect to base their operations to be located in Calgary. That means their technical support, but research and development, too. More employees will be needed.
The plan is to continue expanding the service across North America and Asia.
“There’s no short way in business. You have to take the process in your own hands and learn it by yourself,” said Deshpande.
