Less Bits (lessbits.com) is the developer of ServerPilot, a modern hosting control panel for cloud servers. ServerPilot was launched in 2013 and has grown into the most popular cloud control panel. ServerPilot is now launching new products for WordPress security (heatshield.io) and for running cloud hosting businesses (hostlaunch.io).

Do you want to know more about our Virtual sponsor ServerPilot? We asked the people of ServerPilot a few questions!

How did the company get started?

Less Bits began in 2011 when the founder became broke in grad school. He had to suddenly repay two years of loans he shouldn’t have received since he had a fellowship. His interest in academic security research was replaced by an interest in financial freedom. He knew one business problem well: hosting control panel software didn’t meet the needs of the cloud server market. He left grad school and set off building ServerPilot.

ServerPilot grew, amazing people joined the team, and we began solving other problems for WordPress and hosting businesses.

What lessons were learned since the start of the company?

One of the hardest problems facing any growing company is hiring the right people.

One quality we look for in candidates is the demonstrated ability to learn quickly. This might sound obvious, but it isn’t. At least, it wasn’t to us initially.

At early-stage companies, there’s a lot to do but those needs are also changing quickly. When you hire someone, you have a pretty good idea of what their first year will look like in terms of what you need them to do. Looking more than a year out, you’re largely guessing, but you still need that hire to be the right person.

Isn’t “hire people who love to learn” obvious advice? Isn’t this something every company prioritizes? No. When hiring, there are a huge number of variables and you can’t optimize them all. Additionally, not everyone who loves to learn is a great learner.

Whether learning ability is a quality any given company should prioritize depends heavily on the company’s rate of change. If there is little change and job roles can be well defined, other qualities may be more important.

What’s your favorite thing you are working on right now inside your company?

We have two favorite things we’re working on: our two new products, HostLaunch (hostlaunch.io) and HeatShield (heatshield.io), both targetted for launch in October 2019.

HostLaunch allows any developer to easily start their own modern cloud hosting company on top of DigitalOcean and ServerPilot.

HeatShield’s WordPress Web Application Firewall (WAF) is a new security plugin that brings the power of ModSecurity to WordPress with an architecture built for speed.