My name is Héctor de Prada, and I’m the co-founder of Modular DS, and I live in a small city in northern Spain called León. In case you don’t know it, you should, it’s beautiful.
I’ve always considered myself an entrepreneur, primarily in the digital world. I started creating websites when I was just 12 years old. But my entrepreneurial spirit kicked in even earlier. According to my mom, I was already trying to “create businesses” by washing cars or selling second-hand items to friends and family when I was a kid.
The Journey Began
When I was in high school, I started a blog—not on WordPress yet—about basketball, a sport I’ve always loved. Soon, it gained some popularity in my region, prompting me to invest more time into transforming it into a basketball news website.
We expanded into different areas like recruiting other writers, producing video content, and more. It was thrilling to see what could be achieved online and how accessible learning new skills was.
Hector de Prada’s first website
That’s how I started with HTML, CSS, SEO, web and graphics design, social media, email marketing, etc….
After high school, I was offered a scholarship to play basketball at an American university that also offered a degree in Web Design. The decision was a no-brainer for me.
I moved to Michigan, USA, where I could pursue both of my passions: playing basketball and building websites.
When I finished, I jump straight in to the freelancing world, so I could help other business thrive online with everything I had learned (not only in class). Then, a couple of years later, I started working with WordPress and I never went back.
That was thanks to David, who I know since we were 5. We started working together soon after and created our own web development agency that grew from us 2 to 10 people in barely a year because all the work we were getting.
But we had always wanted to create something more impactful. A product that could help many more people than the consulting work we were doing. And that is why we decided to leave our agency and Modular DS was born.
The Need for “Modular DS”
Modular DS logo
To be honest, creating Modular DS as a WordPress management tool wasn’t our initial idea.
As I mentioned earlier, my partner David and I have always been driven by the desire to build something impactful with our team—something that could truly help a lot of people.
So we started trying different things while we had our agency. We spent months and a lot of money developing solutions that we thought were a good idea, but actually weren’t interesting for web professionals.
So it wasn’t until we started talking with the people we wanted to help, WordPress freelancers and agencies like us, that we realized there was a problem not being solved.
Web maintenance is a crucial service for a web professional. It is recurring, profitable, and it can be scalable. However, still many are hesitant to offer it to their clients because it is a tedious task and clients don’t understand its value.
That’s why we started building Modular DS, a tool to help them centralize and automate all the maintenance task, in order to save time, and to show their clients the value of their work, to get more maintenance contracts and reduce churn.
We do this with features like centralized updates, automated backups, uptime and vulnerability monitoring or automated client reports.
There were other solutions in the market, yes. We ourselves used them before. But still most professionals didn’t know them, so there was a big market to target, and the ones that already used them were not very happy. Mostly in terms of user experience.
That is why we want to build the best WordPress management tool in the market. A tool that helps professionals with everything related to a web project (including client relationships) once it is live and that is easy to used and collaborate in.
Myself with my Brilliant Team
Hector de Prada with his team
We have a cosy office in León, our hometown, where our team is based. While we’re not always in the office, we spend a good amount of time there, mainly because we genuinely enjoy working together.
Undoubtedly, this is the biggest asset Modular has. Much like a basketball team, each team member plays a pivotal role in our collective success.
Advice for Business Owners
If you’re considering starting a digital agency, WordPress will probably be one of the pillars of your work, no matter what you do, and it will give you endless possibilities.
The crucial aspect of our field is delivering high-quality work. The market is so saturated with agencies doing not-so-good work when creating websites that you will find tons of clients who have had bad experiences. If you actually make sure your work is great, you will succeed.
As for other types of businesses like plugins, themes or any SaaS based like Modular, I would say one of the most important things is to always listen to your users. First, to identify the real problems you are going to solve, and afterwards, to make sure you are always moving in the right direction.
But as many other founders have said in this newsletter, you have to know that it won’t be easy and that it will require a lot of work. So you better do something you actually enjoy.
WordPress & Beyond
I believe WordPress will continue to be the leading solution for building websites for many years. Although, AI might change how we build or consume websites.
The open source, the community and all the plugin and theme developers behind WordPress are something I don’t see any other competitor ever achieving.
But I think one of the keys for WordPress to keep growing or even maintain such a big market quota is to get to the new generations. And probably improve the user experience for professionals working with WordPress every day.
At Modular, our mission is to become a tool that helps WordPress professionals all over the world with everything related to their web maintenance services.
We have only been in the market for 2 years, but we are constantly launching new features with the help of our users, guiding us with their votes and comments in our public roadmap.
So I hope to write back here again in 5-10 years saying we are achieving that.
Stay in Touch
My Love for the WordPress Community
In the last couple of years since I discovered the WordPress community, I have been to more than 15 WordCamps in Spain. I also had the privilege to attend WordCamp Europe, which was one of the most fascinating events I’ve ever been to and one we could sponsor in Modular.
I like the WordPress community and what it represents so much that last year I started to organize the meetup of my city (with other friends) and it’s one of my favorite activities of the month.
Of course, the best thing about Meetups or WordCamps is the people you meet there. I have made so many new friends it is crazy to think about it. From Jaime to Amadeu, Joan, Albert, David, Fernando, Maylen, Ivan to so many more.
Some of them, people I followed before for a long time, like Fernando Tellado of AyudaWP. Somebody who should definitely tell his story here.
Hector de Prada and his partner at WordCamp Europe 2024
How I Keep Myself Updated
I follow most of the WordPress newsletters around (like this one) and many of the people that talk WordPress on Twitter, since I am more of a reading guy when it comes to news and new trends.
I Have a Life Other Than the Work
I try to exercise 3-4 times a week. Because it is good for my health but also because I really like it. It helps me free my mind. Also, I read a lot of historical novels. I am big history fan, so I try to read for a bit every day.
During the winter, I love heading to the mountains near León for hiking or snowboarding, and in the summer, my favorite thing is to spend time at my family’s village house. Being with them is one of the highlights of my year.
Also, I like to travel a lot (who doesn’t), although I don’t have a preferred destination. I normally try to mix history with nature in my trips since those are two things I really like.
I Reward Myself by
I honestly don’t do it that much. Not because we are not doing great things but I feel like I am a privileged person and I am doing exactly what I want to be doing, so that’s more than enough reward for me.
We do celebrate a lot as a team, though. Any chance is good to organize some beers, a barbecue or a dinner out. Those moments are really special, and I hope we can keep doing them for a long time.
Special Discount
- Get 25% OFF on Modular PRO plans by using the code below.
WPFOUNDERS
Connect With Me
You can find me on Twitter and LinkedIn most of the time. Also, if you come to a Spanish WordCamp, there is a big chance we can meet there.
