From illegal immigrant working odd jobs to $11k/mo web hosting platform

Andrei Chira had no budget, so he grew his business to $11k/mo on the cheap, through content, networking, and stellar customer support.

I caught up with him to hear about his journey. Here's how he pulled himself up by his bootstraps. 👇

No option but to be his own boss

James: Where did your entrepreneurial journey start?

Andrei: I wasn't inclined to do business as some people are, hustling from a young age. But at some point in life, I decided there was no other path for me but to be my own boss.

James: Why?

Andrei: I grew up poor, so in my 20s, like many others from my generation, I left Romania for a better life. I went to Italy and stayed there as an illegal immigrant, working different jobs in construction, etc.

James: Not an easy path, I imagine.

Andrei: It was a tough time for me. I returned to Romania almost broken and swore I would never be poor again.

By "poor", I don't necessarily mean money. I mean being in a vulnerable position. I wanted to start something on my own, be my own boss, and take control of my life.

James: So what did you do?

Andrei: Together with my wife, I started something that I thought would be easy — an online store where we acted as a reseller of the company I worked for. That was in 2007.

It took us half a year to realize it wouldn’t work.

James: Why not?

Andrei: It was not very profitable. I also needed more passion. So we tried something creative that I was passionate about.

James: And?

Andrei: I was so passionate about it that I was blind to the fact that it was an even worse business than the one before.

James: How did these failures lead to success?

Andrei: We were using Magento, and it was a nightmare. After a year or so, I discovered WordPress and it was a breath of fresh air. The ease of use and customization fascinated me. I could launch so many different projects on WordPress.

So I started making websites for small companies in my city. And I also launched my own project built on WordPress, which eventually became a fashion magazine, monetized by affiliate marketing.

We had some traffic spikes around Black Friday, so I learned how to optimize WordPress to load faster and scale to more traffic, and then I started Simplenet in 2012.

James: Was it always a hosting company?

Andrei: At first, we sold ready-made websites, including domain names, web hosting, and maintenance. We didn't realize we were starting a hosting company.

But bloggers and publishers started using our web hosting services because of the specialized WordPress support, and then more and more website owners, until we realized we were a WordPress hosting company.

James: Where is Simplenet at today?

Andrei: Our monthly revenue is at $11,000, with shared hosting subscriptions accounting for about 75% of that. Managed WordPress hosting is another 20% and the rest come from other services, like security audits, malware cleanup, and performance optimization.

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Organic growth via support and content

James: How did you grow Simplenet to $11k/mo?

Andrei: Most of our growth was, and still is, organic.

James: How are you pulling that off?

Andrei: We started small, with almost no budget, so we focused on customer care. That led to some word of mouth, which provided good growth.

We were also the first company in Romania to offer specialized WordPress hosting, so we ranked number one on that keyword in Google for several years. That was good for growth until the big players caught on and pushed us down in the SERP.

James: Did anything other than first-mover advantage help with your ranking?

Andrei: We create as much content as possible, such as documentation, case studies, tutorials, reviews, and honest opinions based on our experience testing different tools and services.

This gives us decent growth, although slow. We’ve found that this works best for us.

James: What are your tips when it comes to content marketing?

Andrei: If you're from a small country, think globally and create in English.

Most of our content is in Romanian, but this year, we're writing in English. We should've gone global from the start.

And try creating videos. We recently started doing this.

James: Did you try any other channels?

Andrei: I also spread the word in my network. I had an audience for my blog and I went to blogger meetups — I would offer free performance and security audits, and a good number of customers came from that.

And as we grew, we tried paid channels.

James: Like what?

Andrei: We started creating ads on Google and Facebook. We also tried paid posts via Whitepress.

James: Did they help?

Andrei: Unfortunately, ads and paid posts didn't work well for us.

James: Why not?

Andrei: We have a small budget, and the web hosting space is very competitive — it's expensive

Becoming a jack of customer support

James: Customer support was a big factor in your growth. What are you doing right?

Andrei: I am a jack of all trades. I know a little bit of everything: CSS, HTML, PHP, DNS, CDN, Nginx, MySQL, email, and, evidently, WordPress.

Some people think this is bad — being a jack of all trades, you're a master of none. However, knowing all those things from different areas makes me a master of something: customer support.

James: How so?

Andrei: I can better help people; even if I don't know how to solve a problem myself, I can point them in the right direction and give them ideas, advice, and recommendations.

James: Aside from being a jack of all trades, how do you do it so well?

Andrei: We use WHMCS, a management platform created for web hosting companies. It has a ticketing system, a knowledge base, and predefined replies. We have covered the most popular questions, and we're pretty efficient.

James: Handy.

Andrei: But customer support goes beyond tools. It's about understanding what problem the client is trying to solve and providing the best solution.

James: And how do you do that?

Andrei: I try to empathize with the client. I try to really understand the situation and the problem.

It's actually not that hard for me to empathize because I am a website owner myself; I've had online stores, blogs, and affiliate marketing projects, and I've gone through most of the same issues. I've solved the same puzzles.

James: That's a benefit of founder-market fit.

Andrei: So I just tell people from my experience how I've solved stuff, what other solutions there are, and the advantages and disadvantages.

Some things I've documented, and I send links. I also bookmark stuff other people have documented, and I send those links.

I just genuinely try to help.

Consumer focus vs product focus

James: What else has helped your business?

Andrei: I try to understand what the customer actually wants.

A big “aha” moment for me was when I realized that people don't want web hosting. They don't care about web hosting. Most don't know how much space they need or even how websites work.

They want a website that "just works".

James: Makes sense.

Andrei: That's why I shifted from a product focus to a customer focus. And it's why we're shifting back to a more managed solution — away from the typical product-focused web hosting model where you have several plans with specs like storage space, number of websites you can host, bandwidth, etc.

This seems like a simple concept, but switching from product oriented to consumer oriented requires a lot of mental effort and experience to fully understand and implement it in a way that benefits everyone.

We're not there yet; we are still testing different versions of our services, testing plans, and trying to understand what people really need.

James: How can you get an understanding of what your customers really need?

Andrei: Ask them.

The Gutenberg opportunity

James: Are you seeing any opportunities in your space for indie hackers?

Andrei: The Gutenberg project.

James: What's that?

Andrei: It's a complex modernization process of the WordPress platform. The overall goal of Project Gutenberg is to simplify the experience of using WordPress by using "blocks" that can be added, removed, moved up or down, and modified in various ways.

James: Why is that an opportunity?

Andrei: I think WordPress is looking to become a platform for building platforms. It’s an opportunity for end-users, of course, and for people who build websites for others. But perhaps more importantly, it's an opportunity for developers who could build tools on top of Wordpress.

It's a huge opportunity, a wave that's forming now, and people who can create useful products on top of this new WordPress can ride this wave for the next 20 years.

A counterintuitive way to make life easier

James: To wrap up, tell me why you, as a person, are successful.

Andrei: I move toward hard work. And I don’t “move fast and break things.”

James: Why not?

Andrei: It just doesn't suit me. I can't do it. I'm a perfectionist. I need things to be as polished as possible before releasing them.

James: Is that hard on your business?

Andrei: I think it helps me feel better, personally, but the business would probably grow faster if I launched faster.

The business is built around my way of being, though. So even if it's not the best way to grow or the most efficient way to do business, I try to just be okay with who I am as a person and how I operate.

James: Seems wise. Tell me why you move toward hard work.

Andrei: Business is becoming more accessible. It’s easier to start a business, primarily online. And that’s a good thing. But it's also bad.

People should walk toward the hard work, problems, and difficulty; not run the other way and put in as little effort as possible. That mindset will eventually lead to failure because, sooner or later, things will get tough.

If your mind is accustomed to fleeing from any effort, you'll live inside that box, unaware, and unable to push through.

James: How has your "work hard" mentality helped you?

Andrei: By getting used to hard work, things become easier. It's no longer difficult because I'm used to doing difficult things.

James: Interesting.

Andrei: I saw this when I was employed and worked in a larger office with many colleagues before I opened my business. There were people who were doing the minimum possible, and because they were avoiding any work and responsibility, everything was hard for them.

When you're used to only doing the easy things, everything is difficult. That's why I think that people who want to grow need to run towards hard work.

James: So you’re not into the concept of a “lazy” developer?

Andrei: Well, you need to automate, have standardized processes, and find operational efficiency. I am not saying to just work for the sake of working when there are more efficient ways of doing things.

I'm just saying that training your mind not to shy away from hard work pays off.

At least it did for me.

James: Where can people find you?

Andrei: Check out Simplenet or head to Youtube.

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