Vikas Singhal has made a name for himself in the WordPress community with the rapid growth of InstaWP. He has a long history in the industry as the founder of ExpressTech – the makers of Quiz and Survey Master and more.
In 2021, Vikas and his team started working on what is now InstaWP. The company later went on to take seed funding from Automattic (WordPress.com parent company).
We’re very proud to announce our partnership and integration with InstaWP – joining forces to bring the speed that InstaWP offers to your collaborative workflows.
The History of InstaWP – How The Journey Began
Hello to everyone at Atarim Family. I am Vikas, founder of InstaWP & ExpressTech.
I have been in the WordPress ecosystem for the last 5 years now. I started by acquiring a popular security plugin on Envato and never looked back.
Tell Us More About You And Your Background
I am originally from a small town in India and now working out of Bangalore. I am happily married and a father of two. My pillar of strength is my wife, without whom I won’t be able to run the show.
My latest favorite TV show is Ted Lasso and I am obsessed with Filter Coffee (a popular beverage in South India).
What Is Your Professional Background?
I have an engineering background in Computer Science, and I spent the majority of my professional life securing highly complex server infrastructure at large companies. This helped me gain experience in servers, network devices, operating systems, web technologies, and security.
At InstaWP, I am trying to solve a dream problem – how to create a WordPress site in a single click and make it accessible to everyone.
Why Did You Start InstaWP?
Back in 2018, when I started working with WordPress, I was completely baffled by the fact that if you tell people how to come on board to WordPress, there is still a long process, like setting up a hosting or local installation is a LOT of work for newcomers.
I wanted to solve this for a very long time.
I tried a few times and failed as I didn’t have the tech figured out, yet. Finally, when I showed InstaWP to a closed group, it was an instant hit.
What Makes InstaWP Different From Other Hosting Providers Out There?
InstaWP is NOT a hosting company, I know a lot of people get confused by it. We are a complete “dev-tool” to make your WordPress workflow super easy and quick.
Our primary users, who are WordPress pros (agency, freelancers, etc) have switched their workflow from a local dev tool -> staging -> production to InstaWP -> production.
We have eliminated several manual steps along the way and given them a lot of freedom when it comes to showing a project to a client, pushing a site to production, creating a staging from production, and so on and so forth.
Have You Faced Any Challenges Along The Way?
Lots of them!
We have been targeted by Phishing farms which got our main domain instawp.xyz banned by the registry, browser, antivirus, etc.
We had to build our own security system from the ground up to solve this problem.
InstaWP’s And Wider WordPress Community
How Do You See The Future Of WordPress And InstaWP?
The WordPress industry is full of opportunities especially when your product actually solves a big problem for a certain set of users.
Currently, I find WordPress Block themes and plugins most promising.
It’s easy to innovate in this area because they really are endless possibilities yet unexplored. We’ve identified the top 4 challenges for the WordPress industry:
- Security
- Performance
- Onboarding
- Tooling
At InstaWP, we work on solving the last 2.
How Do You Approach Competition?
We just focus on customer success and keep innovating – providing the best possible experience is the way to go. I think it all revolves around the user base and the fulfillment of customer’s needs in the end.
What Are Your Thoughts On Growing Beyond WP?
I am very much focused on WordPress, and it’s the WP community that binds me to work toward building WordPress-specific solutions. We are 100% committed to making the WP ecosystem better with our tooling and innovation going forward.
It will remain my core focus (I don’t plan to go beyond WP) – at least for a few years.
Where Do You Get Your Fix of WordPress; Design, And Development News?
I usually find the answers and latest news on technology podcasts and news websites like:
- WP Tavern
- WordPress.org
- Gutenberg Time
I also utilize my various Slack channels/connections.
The Atarim X InstaWP Partnership
Atarim is very focused on customer success on the collaboration front and I really like what Vito’s team is doing. The product is a perfect fit for our audience as they also work with clients and collaboration is very important for them.
I see our partnership as a very natural collaboration that will benefit both products.
Our user base is very similar, and we both are trying to solve long-standing problems for the developers’ community. I believe this integration will help development agencies work smoothly and save a lot of their time.
Users, who look want to maximize productivity and automate tasks should give it a shot!
Setup & Life Outside of Work
I prefer to work from the comfort of my home in this lovely setup.
When it comes to my technical workflow, I use a variety of tools to run InstaWP, such as:
- Slack
- OpsGenie
- Atlassian
- ClickUp
- Figma
- Atarim
…and so many more.
I love how these workflow optimization tools can help a remote team work productively, so we’re always exploring in this regard.
The Work / Life Balance – How Do You Disconnect When Working From Home?
I have my priorities beyond the work hours straight – health and family. Most entrepreneurs often forget about these because they have tunnel vision on their hustle.
I like running and exercising on a regular basis to make sure I am fit enough to work productively. Tabla practically helps me refresh my mind.
Family time, especially on weekends, helps me take a step back from work on a regular basis.
What Are You Excited About Most Right Now?
I’m super-excited about Artificial Intelligence and its impact on tech in general. I am particularly interested in how AI automates complex tasks and lets us work more productively.
WordPress block themes/plugins also fascinate me a lot.
I believe WP will become a de facto standard for building any kind of website, quickly and easily.
How Can Our Readers Connect With You?
I am on all popular social media platforms where your readers can connect with me.
- LinkedIn: Vikas Singhal | InstaWP
- Twitter: Vikas Singhal | InstaWP
- Facebook: InstaWP
- Youtube: InstaWP
Well, there you have it!
InstaWP’s vision for the future is to become the go-to gateway to WordPress for service providers, freelancers/agencies, product authors, and hosting companies. They eliminate the need for tedious and complex setup and help you set up a WP site in seconds.
The power duo of InstaWP and Atarim makes it easier for agencies and web developers to work smoothly and save a lot of time. It’s the best combination for maximizing productivity and automating trivial tasks.
Thanks for tuning in and don’t forget to try the Atarim and InstaWP integration with your team and clients.
