From a professional blogger to Asia’s first WordPress VIP Partner, Rahul Bansal’s journey with WordPress spans almost twenty years.
As the founder and CEO of rtCamp, he has built a thriving, enterprise-focused WordPress agency that now employs over 200 WordPress engineers.
What started as a small freelancing operation is now one of the most respected names in the WordPress ecosystem.
In this interview with the WPBeginner team, Rahul shared his unique perspective on building a successful WordPress business and his advice on how to tap into the potential of WordPress.
“You have to ask yourself – if there’s only one WordPress engineer who is going to get hired tomorrow, why it can’t be me?”
Rahul Bansal – Founder & CEO of rtCamp
Keep reading to get valuable insights from Rahul and learn how he built his WordPress empire.
Video Interview with Rahul Bansal
If you’d like to check out the complete video interview with Rahul Bansal, then you can watch it here:
Or you can use the links below to see what we covered in this interview:
🙋 Meet Rahul Bansal: From Blogger to WordPress VIP Partner
In 2006, long before he founded rtCamp, Rahul Bansal was a university student with a political blog on Blogger.com.
When Rahul decided to shift from political blogging to tech writing, he quickly realized that he liked creating things more than writing about them.
That’s when he discovered his true passion for web development and for the WordPress community in particular.
When he sat with James Agar from WPBeginner for an interview, he fondly remembered how welcoming and considerate WordPress plugin moderators were when he created his first tool.
“With WordPress, I found that community… the kind of community that I want to be part of.”
Rahul Bansal
Today, as the founder of rtCamp and Asia’s first WordPress VIP Partner, Rahul leads a team of over 200 WordPress engineers.
Being a WordPress VIP Partner is no small achievement. It means that rtCamp has proven that it can handle enterprise-level WordPress projects that meet the strict security and performance standards set by WordPress.com’s parent company.
This certification puts rtCamp in an elite group of agencies that are trusted to work with some of the biggest names in business.
So how did Rahul get here?
His path wasn’t always planned, but he always maintained the same focus that got him started: creating helpful solutions and contributing to the WordPress community.
Here’s how it happened and what you can learn from Rahul’s incredible journey.
👨💻 The WordPress Journey: Building rtCamp From the Ground Up
Rahul’s path to building rtCamp started with a $10 project on scriptlance.com (now freelancer.com). The project was simple: creating a plugin to auto-tweet WordPress posts.
While the payment went entirely to platform fees (Rahul didn’t make a profit), the project’s true value came from elsewhere.
“He gave me a five-star review, and he hired me for a bigger project later on,” Rahul said.
After that, Rahul accepted projects with a specific goal in mind. He wanted to learn WordPress and get paid for it.
The key to this was setting a fixed price for his projects. That way, if it took him longer than expected, it was at no added cost to the client.
Rahul created a list of things he wanted to learn and pursued projects that way. Fortunately, this approach paid off. His portfolio grew, and so did his reputation on freelance platforms.
Then, another change came during the 2008 financial crisis. “I had more work than I can handle, had friends who were unemployed,” Rahul remembered.
Instead of saying no to new projects, he saw a chance to help his friends while growing his business.
At first, the plan was simple: his friends would help with the extra work, and they’d split the money. This natural team-up became the foundation for what would later become rtCamp.
At WPBeginner, we’ve seen many WordPress businesses start during tough times. rtCamp’s story shows how hard times can lead to new ideas when you have the right attitude.
Interestingly enough, rtCamp wasn’t always meant to be a WordPress agency.
“rtCamp was supposed to be the holding company for our media network,” Rahul explained. The company started in February 2008 to manage several blogs, including Devil’s Workshop and a few other sites about cricket, fashion, and other topics.
But Rahul had another realization. “With coding, you can scale a lot more… you have coding standards, coding guidelines,” he explained. Writing code was easier to grow than managing multiple blog writers.
This insight led to a clear decision: rtCamp would focus only on WordPress development. Within 4 years, they had closed all their media properties to put all their energy into building WordPress solutions.
This focus on WordPress development turned out to be exactly what rtCamp needed to grow from a small team into the powerhouse it is today.
🔍 Inside rtCamp: Leading a Global WordPress Agency
Today’s rtCamp looks very different from its early days. With 230 team members, including 200 WordPress engineers, it has grown into a powerful force in the WordPress world.
Rahul said honestly about their growth journey:
“Now it looks like we got something right, it wasn’t getting it all right all the time. Like there were a lot of misses before a few hits.”
Rahul Bansal
What makes rtCamp special isn’t fancy marketing or big promises. Instead, they let their work speak for itself.
This straightforward approach has helped rtCamp work with some of the biggest names in publishing and enterprise.
The company uses modern tools like Slack, GitHub, and Google Workspace to manage their global team. They’ve also built their own systems, showing their commitment to innovation.
“We started de-SaaSification two years back,” Rahul explained. This means they’re moving away from paid software services and building their own tools or using open-source options instead.
One example is their switch to ERPNext, an open-source platform that now handles everything from accounting to project management. This move shows how rtCamp stays true to their open-source roots even as they grow.
Every choice they make, from tools to team structure, supports their main goal: delivering top-quality WordPress solutions.
💡 Advice for Aspiring WordPress Agency Owners
When we asked Rahul for advice for people wanting to start their own WordPress agency, he focused on giving back to WordPress.
Rahul believes that sharing your work is the best way to prove what you can do. “If you cannot show your work, then that’s something wrong,” he said.
He suggested creating plugins and publishing them in the official WordPress directory.
Or if you’re not at that level yet, then you might try helping patch bugs for themes and plugins. Then, make sure everyone knows you or your team solved this problem.
This way, potential clients can see your coding skills, which is much more powerful than making big claims about your abilities.
Rahul also emphasized the importance of patience. Sometimes, people give up too soon, but success in WordPress (and in anything) takes time.
But if you’re not quite at that point in your WordPress journey, Rahul also had some advice for complete beginners.
For those just starting, he recommended learning computer science basics. He points to Harvard’s CS50 course on YouTube as a great free resource. This foundation helps you understand not just how to code but why things work the way they do.
When we asked Rahul if he’s ever used WPBeginner as a resource, too, we loved his answer.
“Yeah, I used it [WPBeginner] a lot in the early days and I still use it… even though it says beginner, I find it incredibly useful.”
Rahul Bansal
👋 Tip: Read all the way to the end to get some of these useful resources!
When it comes to programming languages, his advice was practical: “PHP and JavaScript are the only choices” for WordPress development, he said. But he added that once you understand the basics, learning new languages becomes much easier.
Most importantly, Rahul warned against chasing every new trend. “People in their 20s… find WordPress, they like WordPress, they join WordPress. Then after some time, they question their choice,” he said.
Instead of jumping from WordPress to AI to blockchain, he suggested picking one path and sticking with it.
🔮 Looking Ahead: Future of WordPress and rtCamp
After 16 years of growth, rtCamp isn’t slowing down. In fact, they’re planning their biggest expansion yet.
Rahul told us:
“We believe in WordPress and we still think we can scale multiple from here.”
Rahul Bansal
His team aims to more than double in size, growing from 230 to 500 people.
But rtCamp’s plans go beyond just growing their team. They’re also working on 5 new products that will launch this year. These tools will help WordPress sites do things that usually need outside services.
For example, they’re building tools to help WordPress handle video better. “WordPress sites cannot do video transporting at scale,” Rahul explained. Their new product will fix this problem.
Here at WPBeginner, we’re excited to see these innovations. rtCamp’s work could help tons of WordPress sites run better without needing lots of extra services.
While rtCamp is confident about growing their agency work, Rahul stays humble about their new product plans.
💭 Final Thoughts
Rahul Bansal’s journey from political blogger to WordPress VIP Partner shows what’s possible with focus and patience. His story reminds us that success in WordPress isn’t about chasing trends or making big promises.
“The WordPress ecosystem is big… we are our own universe,” Rahul said. And we know firsthand that he’s right – WordPress creates unique opportunities for those willing to stay focused and contribute to the community.
Instead of following every new trend, rtCamp’s success came from steady growth and meaningful contributions to WordPress.
At WPBeginner, we’ve watched many WordPress businesses come and go. The ones that last share a common theme: they stay true to their WordPress roots while constantly looking for ways to make the platform better.
We’re excited to watch rtCamp’s continued growth and their upcoming products. To learn more about Rahul and his work, you can visit rtCamp’s website.
💥 Bonus: Expert Guides for WordPress Agency Owners
Looking to follow in Rahul’s footsteps? Here are some helpful WPBeginner resources to help you get started:
You can also follow Rahul Bansal on X (Twitter) to stay updated with his latest insights about WordPress and agency growth.
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