Interview with Sujay Pawar: The Mind Behind Astra & Brainstorm Force

Thank you for having me! I’m Sujay Pawar, an entrepreneur on a mission to help businesses and individuals succeed online. My journey began in a small town called Lonand in India. I grew up in a middle-class family where I was encouraged to become an engineer, but life took a different turn when I discovered the internet in a cybercafe back in 2009.

I was fascinated by web technologies, online marketing, and how the internet could help people reach broader audiences. That fascination led me to team up with my friend Abhijeet and co-found Brainstorm Force. We started by creating websites and doing SEO work for clients. Gradually, we began building WordPress plugins and themes—ultimately launching products like the Astra theme, which is now active on millions of websites.

Today, Brainstorm Force has a global team of over 100+ passionate individuals, and I’m proud to say our products are powering more than 7+ million websites around the world.

My co-founder Abhijeet and I were simply hungry to learn and build something meaningful. We initially picked up small web projects—some were for as little as a few thousand rupees—and reinvested those earnings into hardware and hosting. Our first big break came from a client in Denver, Colorado, who referred us to multiple other clients. That’s when we realized we needed to scale, form a real team, and formalize our approach under the name Brainstorm Force.

A few years later, through building countless WordPress sites for clients, we noticed a gap in the market for a lightweight, highly customizable theme that worked seamlessly with popular page builders. We created Astra to fill that gap.

Thanks to our focus on performance, ease of use, and compatibility, Astra quickly gained traction. It became the first non-default WordPress theme in the repository to cross the million active installations milestone. Today, it’s our flagship product and continues to grow, with thousands of new websites launching with Astra every day.

I’ve always believed WordPress empowers people from all walks of life to establish an online presence without needing to code from scratch. Looking ahead, I think Full Site Editing (FSE) and the block editor (Gutenberg) will continue to evolve, making site-building more intuitive and seamless. We’ll see more of a no-code or low-code approach, where even complete beginners can create sophisticated websites.

On top of that, AI and automation will play a huge role in WordPress’s future. We’ve already begun exploring this with our own ZipWP, an AI-driven website builder that dramatically speeds up the process of creating a new website. We’re also rolling out automation solutions like SureTrigger, which lets site owners connect and streamline different services, saving both time and resources.

Ultimately, as WordPress becomes more user-friendly and more powerful thanks to AI and automation, developers will continue to find new opportunities to extend its core functionalities, and entrepreneurs will benefit from an ever-expanding toolkit to grow their businesses online.

FSE and Gutenberg usher in a fundamental shift in how we design and develop themes. Instead of relying entirely on traditional PHP templates, we’re moving toward block-based structures where each part of a site can be customized visually. This means theme authors and plugin developers need to adapt their products to be block-ready and to work seamlessly within the new editing environment.

For example, at Brainstorm Force, we’ve developed Spectra (formerly Ultimate Addons for Gutenberg), which extends the block editor with creative blocks and features. As more users embrace block-based design, traditional products must evolve or risk obsolescence.

However, I believe there will always be room for specialized tools—page builders, advanced plugin functionalities—provided they integrate well with Gutenberg or help users achieve something unique.

One major challenge is keeping up with rapid technological changes—Gutenberg, FSE, new frameworks, and evolving design standards.

Another is performance: as WordPress sites become more complex and feature-rich, maintaining speed and scalability can be tough. Security is also an ongoing concern, and businesses must consistently update their sites and plugins to mitigate threats.

Finally, there’s the competition: WordPress is popular, which is fantastic for innovation, but it also means there are many products vying for attention. Differentiation, solid marketing, and genuinely helpful features are more important than ever.

When we built Astra, we focused on being lightweight, flexible, and user-friendly. It loads fast, integrates seamlessly with major page builders, and comes with robust design controls that don’t overwhelm users.

We also pay close attention to community feedback, rolling out frequent updates and improvements that align with what real users need.

Another key factor is our vast library of Starter Templates, which allows anyone even non-developers to launch a beautiful, fully functional site in just a few clicks. All of this combined has made Astra a go-to solution for freelancers, agencies, and even beginners.

Listening to our user community is central to everything we build. We gather feedback through active Facebook groups, support forums, and other channels, then prioritize updates and features based on their impact.

We also keep a close eye on evolving trends—like the rise of block-based editing and AI—and respond by creating solutions such as Spectra and our new AI website builder, ZipWP.

Our goal is to ensure each product, from Astra to Spectra, remains cutting-edge, solves real user problems, and helps people build powerful WordPress sites more efficiently.

We’re constantly refining our existing product lineup from Astra and Spectra to Starter Templates and Ultimate Addons and expanding into new territories where we see a real need.

Recently, we launched SureMail to help WordPress site owners improve their email deliverability, and we’re also working on SureRank, an upcoming SEO plugin aimed at making on-page optimization more accessible.

Beyond that, we continue to enhance our eCommerce, membership and automation solutions like SureCart, SureMembers, and SureTriggers, ensuring they stay at the forefront of innovation in the WordPress space.

Spectra
SureForms
SureTriggers
Schema Pro
LearnDash
SureMembers
Presto Player
SureCart
CartFlows
Stripe Gateway
MalCare
WP Rocket
LatePoint

I believe page builders revolutionized WordPress by making it more accessible to users without coding knowledge. Tools like Elementor took site design to the next level with drag-and-drop simplicity.

However, with Gutenberg maturing and block-based editing becoming the native standard, we’re definitely witnessing a broader shift. Our own Spectra plugin is a testament to that—it extends the core block editor with advanced functionality. While I see block-based design as the future, I also believe page builders will continue to thrive, especially for users who prefer their feature sets or workflow.

Yes, I am familiar with Dokan and its capabilities. It’s an excellent solution for building multi-vendor marketplaces on WordPress. With Dokan, you can create a platform where multiple vendors can list and sell their products, and the marketplace owner can easily manage them. The plugin comes with many features like product management, vendor-specific stores, order tracking, and payment handling, making it one of the best solutions for setting up an online marketplace.

I think multi-vendor marketplaces are a growing trend, especially with the rise of eCommerce. WordPress has become a powerful platform to build these types of sites, and plugins like Dokan make it incredibly accessible. As eCommerce continues to evolve, the ability to create a marketplace with multiple vendors is a great opportunity for entrepreneurs.

Performance and lightweight design are absolutely critical when it comes to eCommerce websites, especially multi-vendor marketplaces. As these platforms host a variety of vendors, each with their own products, images, and content, they can quickly become heavy and slow down. A slow website will lead to higher bounce rates, lower conversion rates, and ultimately, lost revenue.

That’s why having a theme that is optimized for speed and performance is essential. Astra, for example, was built with performance in mind—it’s lightweight, fast, and compatible with various page builders and eCommerce plugins, ensuring that your website remains quick, even with lots of content.

As multi-vendor marketplaces grow, maintaining fast loading speeds and performance will be essential not only for a better user experience but also for SEO, as search engines favor fast websites.

Starting a multi-vendor marketplace can be an exciting and profitable venture, but there are a few key things to keep in mind:

Choose the Right Plugins and Themes: Use lightweight, performance-optimized themes like Astra to ensure your website runs smoothly. For multi-vendor functionality, plugin like Dokan is great choice.

Focus on User Experience: Make the platform easy for both vendors and customers to navigate. Provide intuitive dashboards for vendors and ensure a seamless, frictionless shopping experience for customers.

Consider Scalability: As your marketplace grows, you’ll need to scale your infrastructure. Make sure you have hosting that can handle increased traffic and a plugin setup that can accommodate more vendors and products.

Build Trust: Trust is vital in any marketplace. Implement features like reviews, ratings, secure payment methods, and reliable customer support to encourage both vendors and buyers to engage with your platform.

Market Your Platform: Once your site is up and running, focus on marketing to attract both vendors and customers. Leverage SEO, social media, email marketing, and paid advertising to spread the word.

Community engagement is everything. It’s the heart of any WordPress business, and I believe it’s one of the primary reasons why Astra has been so successful. We’ve always made it a point to actively listen to our users, address their pain points, and incorporate their feedback into our products.

By building a strong community around our products, we can foster loyalty and support, which in turn drives growth. Our community helps us improve, innovate, and stay in touch with the needs of real users. Plus, it creates a sense of belonging and trust, which is invaluable when it comes to user retention.

For any WordPress business, having a dedicated and engaged community is essential. It’s not just about providing a great product, but also about offering support, education, and a platform for users to connect and learn from each other.

You can follow me and Brainstorm Force through several channels to stay updated on all the latest developments:
https://www.facebook.com/BrainstormForce/
https://www.instagram.com/brainstormforce/
https://x.com/WeBrainstorm/
https://www.youtube.com/user/TheBrainstormForce
https://www.linkedin.com/company/brainstorm-force/