How Sujay Pawar Built a 500Cr+ Company (Brainstorm Force CEO on AI & Scaling)

What does it take to build one of the biggest product companies in the WordPress world? 🌍

In this episode of Inside A Hustler’s Brain, I sat down with Sujay Pawar, CEO and co-founder of Brainstorm Force (BSF), the team behind products like Astra, Spectra and ZipWP. 💡

Sujay shared how AI is changing hiring at BSF, the two lessons behind Astra’s success, and what founders must unlearn when moving from agency to products. 🔥

📊 In this episode, we unpacked:

• 🤖 How fast AI is moving
• 👥 Why BSF hasn’t laid people off due to AI
• 🧠 Why curiosity matters more than AI courses
• 🎨 How Astra won by doing the opposite
• 🧩 BSF’s “Apple ecosystem” vision for WordPress
• 🔄 Agency vs. product: the mindset shift
• 🔍 What AI search means for traffic
• 💰 Black Friday, $10K months and long-term thinking

🎥 Watch the full episode:

🤖 How Fast AI Is Moving

“AI is moving at an unprecedented pace,” Sujay says. It started with GPT-3.5, when people wrote taglines and Facebook ad copy, then articles, then images. Now it’s agentic AI, doing multiple things for you. 🚀

Updates used to come every few weeks. Now, he says, “every few hours.” Nobody knows exactly where it’s going. ⏩

👥 Why BSF Hasn’t Laid People Off Due to AI

“AI is basically empowering really good people.” If you ask good questions, AI gives good outcomes; if you don’t, AI is limited by your questions. 🎯

BSF hasn’t laid anyone off because of AI. They’ve always been careful to hire good people, and now they need them more than ever: “AI makes 10x engineers like 100x engineers.” Some people may leave for not being good enough, as at any company, but that label might get blamed on AI. 💪

The people at risk are those who don’t take ownership, who only do the minimum task they were given without caring about the business or the user. “If you don’t own the outcome, those people probably will be in danger due to AI.” ⚠️

For a similar view, read Siddharth Ajmera on AI and jobs. 🔗

🧠 Why Curiosity Matters More Than AI Courses

I often see job applicants without basic AI skills, so I asked Sujay how BSF handles people who aren’t comfortable with AI. His answer: you don’t need to “learn AI.” It’s about curiosity. 🔍

Generative AI works through natural language: ask a question, get an answer. “Just stay curious, ask questions, try to implement it in your work.” Formal courses aren’t really needed at BSF. 📚

“If people are just not curious by nature, they don’t belong at BSF. It’s not about AI at all.” If you lose a job, it’s because you weren’t curious. 💡

🎨 How Astra Won by Doing the Opposite

Astra became the first non-default WordPress theme to cross 1 million active installs. The lesson? When competitors built “mega” themes with four sliders, three sidebars and 10 header options, users were frustrated. They just wanted to build a website. 😩

So BSF did the opposite: a bare-bones theme focused on performance and responsiveness, which mattered for SEO and Core Web Vitals. Lesson one: stay in touch with users and their real problems. ⚡

Lesson two was distribution. Competitors wrote “best WordPress themes” and “X vs. Y theme” articles. BSF went further down the funnel and taught people how to build a website with WordPress, using Astra. That became one of their biggest distribution channels. 📈

For more WordPress insights, read Ronnie Burt on AI at WordPress.com. 💻

🧩 BSF’s “Apple Ecosystem” Vision for WordPress

How does BSF decide which ideas become products? User feedback, guided by a vision to help users build anything they want with WordPress. 🛠️

People like WordPress, but they deal with 10 different vendors: a theme here, a page builder there, a contact form somewhere else, and they don’t always work together. BSF wants an ecosystem where you deal with one vendor and everything works seamlessly, “like the Apple ecosystem.” 🍏

🔄 Agency vs. Product: The Mindset Shift

BSF grew from an agency into a product company, and Sujay says these are two totally different mindsets. ⚖️

• 💼 Agency: like a P&L statement. You work, the client pays, and income is predictable but short-term
• 🏗️ Product: like a balance sheet. You invest heavily to build assets, and returns come long-term
• 🚫 Don’t try to do both: “you suck at both things”
• 🎯 Perfection is a myth: find the balance between what the market accepts and what’s perfect

They struggled with launch timing: sometimes they waited too long, and sometimes they launched too early and people didn’t take it seriously. Finding that balance is crucial. ⏱️

🔍 What AI Search Means for Traffic

Has AI search hurt BSF’s sites? “Traffic definitely is affected.” With AI Mode and AI Overviews, people don’t always need to visit websites. 📉

But for users, it’s better: no more opening 10 sites full of pop-ups, cookie banners and ads to find an answer. Bad for bloggers, but users get answers faster. ⚡

Sujay’s bigger point: people search because they want to buy something or solve a problem. If you’re only a middleman relying on traffic or ads, you may feel short-term pain until you pivot. “As long as you’re solving that problem,” people will still spend. For more, read Anil Agarwal on AI and SEO. 🛒

💰 Black Friday, $10K Months and Long-Term Thinking

Sujay’s fondest money memory isn’t the first million. It’s cracking $10,000 a month, about three years into the business. Website projects meant constantly finding new clients, so the breakthrough came from recurring income through long-term, “sticky” SEO contracts. 🔁

Today, “every Black Friday, we make more than a million dollars,” seven figures every year, though he wouldn’t share the exact number. 🛍️

His best advice: focus on the fundamentals and think long term. The worst: chasing short-term tricks. Having done SEO since around 2008–09 through Panda, Penguin and spun content, he says money comes and goes, “but your assets will stay with you, so build the assets.” 🏗️

What’s next for BSF? Making WordPress agentic. Website generation is largely solved; ZipWP has generated more than 3 million websites with AI. The next step is a chat experience where you talk to WordPress and things happen, and interfaces matter less. 💬

📝 Key Takeaways From the Sujay Pawar Interview

• 🤖 AI turns great people into 100x performers
• 🎯 People who don’t own outcomes are most at risk from AI
• 🧠 Curiosity matters more than formal AI training
• 🎨 Astra won with a lean, fast theme when others went bloated
• 📈 “How to build a website” content became a huge distribution channel
• 🔄 Agencies run on P&L thinking; products build balance-sheet assets
• 🏗️ Think long term and build assets that last

❓ FAQs About Sujay Pawar

Who is Sujay Pawar?

Sujay Pawar is the CEO and co-founder of Brainstorm Force (BSF), the WordPress company behind Astra, Spectra and ZipWP.

Has Brainstorm Force laid off staff because of AI?

No. Sujay says BSF hasn’t laid anyone off due to AI and needs strong, curious people more than ever.

Why did the Astra theme succeed?

It was a lightweight, performance-focused theme when competitors offered bloated themes, and BSF taught people how to build websites with it.

What is Brainstorm Force building next?

An agentic WordPress experience where you chat with WordPress and things happen. ZipWP has already generated more than 3 million websites with AI.

🎙️ More Inside A Hustler’s Brain Interviews You’ll Love

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• The Google AI Tools That Will CHANGE Everything 🌍 ft. Matt Ludwig Product Marketer at Google.com
• 20 Best Digital Marketing Podcasts to Follow in 2026

If you’re building products or a WordPress business, share Sujay’s lessons with your team. 💬

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