Saying goodbyes have always been hard for me. It takes a long time for me to build connections, and once they are built, it’s hard for me to let go. In early 2020, I Co-Founded BionicWP – A truly managed WordPress hosting platform and in June 2021, I left BionicWP. Leaving a company you Co-Founded is hard and emotional. Yet it was the right thing to do.
We set out to solve a problem many agency owners and WordPress website owners were facing. Getting reliable hosting with deep application-level support. From conceptualizing the idea to hiring our first employees and growing the team to 40 people, we went from 0 to $500,000 in ARR within 14 months of writing our first line of code. We had done some amazing work since we started; we were getting amazing client reviews, we hosted over 2000 websites, adding 150-200 websites every month, people loved it. It seemed like we had made it. We had created a success story.
Yet, I felt unfulfilled; I had this uneasy feeling deep down. It’s hard to describe the feeling, but I just felt out of place. I had been working 17 hour days regularly, not taking weekends off. Since we started BionicWP from March 2020 till June 2021, 17 hour days was a regular occurrence, I didn’t take any days off, and I could see my personal life suffering due to that. I think I had burned myself out, but I wasn’t ready to accept that. I wasn’t ready to accept that I couldn’t do it all. It’s hard to take time off when you’re building a business and have a team that relies on you to make things happen and ensure payroll runs every month. I felt guilty for taking time off. Initially, all of this was great, the energy was great, even working 17 hours felt normal because I was having fun and was building something I was passionate about. People close to me started warning me about my work routine and noticed changes in my behavior and health which I hadn’t noticed yet. All signs were clearly indicating that I was headed towards burnout, but I just brushed them off. I was having fun, so how can I get burned out. I was so naive. I wasn’t taking care of my health, and I wasn’t taking care of my relationships; I wasn’t thinking about anything other than work.
With pressure mounting and ever-increasing expectations, which became harder and harder to fulfill, I was reaching my breaking point. I loved working weekends and putting in the extra effort, but I did it of my own will. When that started becoming the “expected” routine, and during daily calls, questions were raised if I worked lesser on the weekend, it just created more and more frustrations on my part. Whatever was done, it was never enough, and I felt like chasing an ever-changing goal post. I was stuck in a race that I couldn’t win.
This blog post was much, much longer; I trimmed it down extensively. What’s the use of airing one’s dirty laundry. I had a good time; then I had a really stressful and bad time. I quit. That’s what matters. I should have quit earlier. I’ve learned a lot from this experience, those learnings will forever remain with me, and I’m thankful to everyone for those learnings. From my team at BionicWP to the clients that I had the honor to serve. I’m grateful to each one of you.
What am I doing now? I’ve joined Rocket.net as their Head of Growth. It’s an amazing company, run by a Founder who appreciates hard work and has a really strong work ethic. We are building a platform that’s focused on accelerating WordPress to the edge and delivering unparalleled performance globally.