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Interview: Q&A with ProlimeHost Founder and CEO Rounak Jain on 15 Years in the Hosting Industry

Today we’re sitting down ProlimeHost founder and CEO Rounak Jain about his long career in the industry and where he sees things going in the future. So let’s get started with the interview!

Tell me about your background and your company’s history?

I was a commerce student with no technical background, but always had an interest in technical things. I initially started out as a hacker but soon realized that was the wrong career path for me. I bought the domain name, prolimehosting.com, in 2002 from rented money and started to offer shared hosting. Two or three years later, ProlimeHosting had grown to 300 clients at which time I changed our domain to ProlimeHost.com.

At that time, I decided to transition to reselling dedicated servers. Unfortunately, the dedicated server market was very tough, so with zero money to invest, I struggled. A high school friend who had moved to the USA loaned me $150 to purchase a dedicated server, and I in turn resold it to an existing shared hosting client. Since then, I’ve never looked back.

Today, we service clients across the globe, offering VPS and dedicated servers from multiple data centers.

 

What would you tell someone looking to start a hosting company today? What advice would you offer?

I’d tell anyone who is looking to start a hosting company today to think big, but plan out your launch in achievable steps. Focus on your local community. Put yourself out there and network. Prospects connect with businesses and representatives that they know, like and trust. Building that business relationship means taking a sincere interest in their business. It boils down to helping each other.

Don’t try to compete with the big boys on price, rather strive to develop raving fans of your services. That’s accomplished by going that extra one percent in every interaction with your prospects and clients, from billing to sales. Bottom line though is that you have to be profitable.

 

Where do you think the future takes the hosting industry?

I remember back to the days of 300 baud acoustic modems and $1000/month T-1’s on three year contracts. Technology has evolved exponentially since then and will continue to do so. In terms of hardware, advances in processor, storage devices and RAM rule the day AND the future. Layer on advances in software development and global Internet availability, and the future continues to be promising. We haven’t begun to scratch the surface of possibilities.

Due to COVID-19 shutdowns, shortages in the industry’s supply chain will disrupt near future transactions, but I fully expect an economic recovery.

 

What makes your company unique in today’s evolving market landscape? How are you evolving with the times?

What makes ProlimeHost unique in today’s evolving market landscape is our approach to customer support and in our determination to evolve with the times, to the benefit of our clients.

This begins with hiring competent, professional support staff, coupled with incentives for them to pursue industry specific continuing education.

We believe that by offering a flexible and scalable infrastructure, we’re able to serve a variety of audiences with cost-effective solutions, within the reach of individuals and small businesses.

 

What do you enjoy most about your role? What do you find most difficult?

What I enjoy most about my role is the satisfaction that comes from providing a truly quality service for our clients, whether that be a simple bare bones server to more complex solutions.

What I find most difficult is balancing the line on price points, simply because we need to maintain a positive return on our infrastructure investments to adequately provide premium services to our clients.

 

Both personally and professionally, what guiding principles ground you?

The guiding principles that ground me, both personally and professionally, begin with always dreaming big, but balancing that against a healthy dose of reality. It’s been said that life has rules and structure, but imagination does not. Toward that end, I’m committed to the principles of tenacity and agility, always pushing past adversity with optimism. I firmly believe in the old saying, “nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

 

Give us some details on new and exciting things you are working on?

Right now, we are working on adding a new line of cloud services. We firmly believe once the world is free of Covid-19 restrictions, that more and more businesses will be looking to cloud services to remain lean and competitive. Our goal will be to offer small businesses more options than ever before to drive operational efficiency with computing power.

 

Why should customers trust you and your business?

We fully understand that trust is paramount in the hosting industry, so we routinely publish content that’s personal, meaningful and relevant, and share that across social media portals. Check out our blog. I think you’ll be impressed.

Bottom line – over the past two decades, we’ve grown exponentially because we focus on developing raving fans and not simply satisfied customers. Our goal has always been to ‘exceed’ our clients expectations.

 

Final thoughts and anything you would like to add?

I do want to thank you for this opportunity to highlight ProlimeHost. It’s been an amazing ride so far, and we’re all looking forward to bigger and better things this year.

Regarding Covid-19, we’d like to remind everyone to stay safe. We’re in this together. We are open and here to help, so if you need a great deal on VPS or dedicated servers, reach out to us on our website.

Jon Biloh

3 Comments

  1. Thanks for taking part in our interview series Rounak!

    July 28, 2020 @ 8:49 am | Reply
  2. Thanks for the article information of the author, it was very helpful to me. Thanks for this valuable information for all.

    July 30, 2020 @ 12:59 am | Reply
  3. Nihar Gupta:

    The article is extremely helpful, resourceful and inspiring at the same time. Thanks for providing esteemed information. The journey of Mr.Rounak Jain is inspiring in its own way. Hope to see more articles similar in the future.
    Thank You

    October 31, 2020 @ 12:57 pm | Reply

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