CloudFest USA Q&A with Sachin Puri

This week’s insider convo is with Sachin Puri, the new CEO of Bluehost. While new to Bluehost, Sachin is by no means new to the cloud and web hosting space, with previous leadership roles at Liquid Web, WP Engine and HP. 

In our back-and-forth, you can hear from Sachin on both his short and long-term goals for Bluehost, why he’s excited about attending and speaking at his first CloudFest USA and which rather contentious current founder and CEO he’d invite for a fireside chat!

Please briefly introduce yourself to any of our readers who may not know you yet!

Hello! I am Sachin, the Chief Executive Officer of Bluehost, with over 20 years of experience spanning SaaS, eCommerce, cybersecurity, and digital infrastructure. Before Bluehost, I’ve held senior leadership roles at globally recognized companies such as WP Engine, McAfee, eBay, StubHub, HP, and Liquid Web, and have led initiatives that accelerated growth, transformed customer experience, drove product innovation, and elevated brand impact.

It’s been just over 2 months since you were officially named as new Bluehost CEO and I’ve no doubt you’ve been extremely busy. What have been the biggest priorities for both you and Bluehost thus far?

At Bluehost, our number one priority is always our customers—they are at the center of all our goals. Upon stepping into this role, my top priorities have been to drive AI-native innovation, platform scalability, and customer-centric digital experiences.

Looking beyond the immediate term, what are your overarching goals for continuing to build Bluehost into a seamless ecommerce platform?

Our mission at Bluehost is to reimagine the web for the AI era by empowering small businesses, entrepreneurs, and creators to easily build, manage, and grow their online presence—whether through content creation, commerce, or discovery. From flexibility to frictionless, we are committed to helping millions of people get online and succeed.

This will be your first time attending CloudFest! What are you most looking forward to about the event this year in Miami?

I’m excited to join CloudFest for the first time and share how we’re reimagining the web experience. In our fireside chat, we’ll dive into how AI-native platforms are transforming what’s possible for entrepreneurs—reducing complexity, unlocking creativity, and enabling growth that’s faster, smarter, and more joyful. It’s an exciting moment for the ecosystem, and I’m looking forward to the conversations and cultivating connections in Miami.

You will be on stage as part of a fireside chat at this year’s event, but taking off your CEO hat and putting on your moderator hat for a moment. If you could program your own fireside chat with one person currently working in the industry, who would it be and why?

I would be interested in a fireside chat with Matt Mullenweg, the co-founder of WordPress and CEO of Automattic. Personal views and opinions aside, Matt’s long-term vision for open-source and his impact on the future of publishing and the open web is undeniable. I’d be keen to explore how WordPress and WooCommerce are evolving in the AI era, and how we, as platform leaders, can balance innovation with trust, security, and accessibility to shape what’s next for the internet.

Now let’s dream big. If you could program a fireside chat with any person, dead or alive, who is not currently working in this industry, who would it be and why?

It would have to be Steve Jobs. His ability to blend product design, user empathy, and storytelling into powerful, transformative technology is still a masterclass in innovation. I’d want to talk to him about how he might approach web presence today—especially for creators and SMBs—and what simplicity in the age of AI really means.