Essays
Longer pieces on hosting and independence
Thought leadership, written slowly. Founder ownership, consolidation, managed WordPress, and the lessons of two decades spent close to the servers.
A working set of essays. Each one stands on its own, so start anywhere.
7 min read
Why founder owned hosting still matters
Consolidation swallowed most of the hosting industry. Independence is the counterweight, and customers can feel the difference in every support ticket.
6 min read
What an exit teaches you about building
Selling a company shows you exactly which decisions compounded and which ones just made noise. Notes from the other side of the table.
5 min read
Managed WordPress without the upsell
Most managed hosting is a pricing exercise wrapped around the same servers. What managing WordPress actually takes, and what it should cost.
4 min read
Support is the product
Uptime is table stakes. The hosts that last are the ones where a human answers, knows the stack, and fixes the thing.
6 min read
The case for staying small on purpose
Growth for its own sake broke a lot of good hosts. On choosing a scale where every customer is still known by name.
5 min read
Two decades in hosting, three lessons
The short list I would hand any founder entering infrastructure. Own the stack, answer the phone, price like you plan to stay.
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Hello,
New essays go out by email before they sit here for good. It is a quiet list. You get the piece, a line or two on why I wrote it, and nothing else.
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Thanks for reading,
Nickola