When was your company founded & where is it located?

The Squirrly Company was founded in September 2012, in London, United Kingdom.

Currently located in: also London, United Kingdom, with team members working remotely from all over Europe.

What are past projects, failures, or successes you’ve had in your career?

We had cif2.net back in 2010, and it was one of the biggest competitors to WordPress and Wix back then: https://www.squirrly.co/marketingtools/invest-in-your-success-get-customers-from-the-internet/

We had a full wysiwyg editor, in real-time, working in html5, so we beat Wix and WordPress pretty badly. Also, we had tons of great SEO on the platform and we began teaching people they need to start doing small steps in order to bridge the gap of desolation: https://gapofdesolation.com/

After a while, we decided to start a new company and take everything we know about SEO, Social Media Marketing, and Email Marketing and help WordPress clients bridge the gap of desolation.

We began developing:

- Squirrly SEO

- Starbox

- ContentLook

- Agency Services - productized service where we made SEO-optimized content for clients

- Hide My WP Ghost

- Education Cloud PLUS

- Squirrly Social

- Squirrly SPY

- Squirrly Digital

- Rank Jumps

- Ultimate Website Analysis Plugin

- Email Hero

- Next Level Marketing by Squirrly

And we're still leading and still doing big things for clients across the globe.

What is your team size?

We have multiple teams at the Squirrly Company. However, for the Starbox PRO Deal, we will have:

- 3x team members, including the CEO and the Marketing Lead, handling support

- 2x team members doing dev works.

Are you funded or bootstrapped?

We were funded back in 2012.

Bootstrapped since then and profitable every year.

What 3rd party tools is your product critically dependent on?

None

Where is your customer data stored?

Germany

What is your current monthly recurring revenue (MRR)?

$80,000 USD

How many customers do you have today?

23,000

What’s the origin of the idea for your product?

We created Starbox in 2013 and we've loved seeing the good vibes from many bloggers at first, and then from business owners who began using the product.

It was a nice way to help all of them compete with the likes of Mashable and TechCrunch in terms of how cool they could present their authors.

In time, we've ended up developing two new revolutionary kinds of themes: the highly visual themes and the modern themes, which change the game completely. They help authors and site owners dare for more and dare to dream bigger.

I love the fact that this is such an important branding helper. Users can now choose what they want to be associated with and they can even use it for conversion-based marketing in many different ways.

It's incredible to explore what such an overlooked element of a website can start doing.

What problem is your product solving and how?

Personal branding and reader engagement are crucial for content creators, business professionals, entrepreneurs, and anyone else who has something to say on the web.

The tough part? Standing out in a crowded digital market where author bios often blend into the background.

Many WordPress plugins for author bios offer generic designs and limited customization options, leading to bland, forgettable bio boxes that fail to capture the attention of readers or convey the unique personality of the author.

Those plugins reduce your rich background to a few lines of text that hardly anyone notices—undermining your efforts to connect with visitors, establish authority in your niche, and build a loyal audience.

How Starbox PRO by Squirrly Solves This Problem:

1️⃣ Enhanced Customization and Visual Appeal:

Highly Visual Themes: Starbox PRO offers a variety of designer-quality, visually stunning themes that transform standard author bios into captivating elements of a website page.

Customizable Designs: You can extensively personalize your bio boxes with options for backgrounds, borders, panels, and more, ensuring the design aligns perfectly with your personal or brand identity.

2️⃣ Simplified User Experience:

Ease of Setup: Starbox PRO is designed for simplicity, allowing you to set up and customize your bio box in minutes without needing to code or navigate complex menus. This ease of use is a significant improvement over competitors’ offerings, which often involve crowded menus and cumbersome setup processes.

Real-Time Preview: As changes are made, they are immediately visible in a preview box, ensuring you can fine-tune your bio boxes on the fly without switching between settings and preview modes.

3️⃣ Powerful Marketing Tool & Engagement Booster:

With Starbox PRO, the bio box isn't just about displaying author information; it's also a captivating billboard that actively works for your personal brand or business.

You can integrate social media links, promote products/services, and highlight upcoming events directly within your bios, effectively utilizing this space for brand promotion and audience engagement. This can be done by taking advantage of the many customization options that Starbox PRO offers.

By turning what are often overlooked author bios into striking, customizable, and functional elements of a website, Starbox PRO will not only enhance personal branding but also significantly boost reader interaction.

This makes it an indispensable tool for anyone looking to build a lasting, successful digital presence.

What’s the #1 thing you’re looking to gain from the AppSumo campaign?

Virality and word-of-mouth.

If we can get some popular bloggers or even magazines to start using Starbox PRO on their sites, that's going to become the best marketing for us.

Especially if they choose one of the Highly Visual themes that Starbox provides.

What are your plans with the customers, cash, and learnings from the AppSumo campaign?

Our goal is to introduce a wider audience to the benefits of our software and significantly broaden our user base. We plan to actively engage with these new customers, gathering feedback, and understanding their needs to ensure they become long-term users.

The influx of capital will be strategically reinvested into the business to fuel further growth and product development. Specifically, we plan to enhance our product features and increase our support capabilities to handle the expanded user base effectively. Additionally, funds will be allocated towards marketing initiatives to increase market penetration post-campaign.

Finally, every AppSumo campaign is a huge learning opportunity for us. We hope to gain valuable insights into customer behavior, pricing strategies, and product feedback to help us further refine our marketing strategies and product offerings. The feedback gathered will directly influence future updates and iterations of Starbox PRO v2, ensuring that our product not only meets but exceeds market expectations.

Any details to clarify about the deal?

Features -- 

Social media integrations (Facebook, Twitter, GitHub, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, Gmail, and TikTok). This feature enables users to add social media icons within their author bio boxes. Each icon is interactive and functions as a clickable link. When visitors click on these icons, they are directed to the user’s corresponding social media profiles.

Real-time preview box: This feature offers an immediate visual preview as users customize their author bios. Users can see every change in real time, so they can be 100% sure everything looks exactly as intended before saving the changes.

Job Title Slug: a customizable prefix that introduces the author's job title, allowing authors to personalize how their professional role is presented.

1. Default Setting: "I am a" is the default prefix.

2. Customization: Authors can change this to phrases like "Expert in."

Plans

For the Single Plan (1 Code) and Double Plan (2 Codes), the limitation on the number of websites where you can use Starbox PRO applies only to currently active installations.

This means if you have Starbox PRO installed on the maximum number of permitted websites and you decide to uninstall it from one of these sites, the license will then be available to activate on a different website. Essentially, you regain a free slot for another installation once you deactivate the plugin from any site.

Starbox PRO is a WordPress plugin.

The Starbox PRO plugin is exclusively compatible with WordPress and cannot be installed or used on non-WordPress websites.

What’s up, Sumo-lings? 👋 I’m Florin Muresan, CEO of Squirrly.

If you’re familiar with Squirrly SEO or Hide My WP Ghost, you already know we love creating tools that make a difference.

And today, I'm excited to show you a brand-new product that's going to change the way you view and use your author bio—forever.

🚀 Meet Starbox PRO by Squirrly: Our solution for turning overlooked author bios into captivating showcases that make readers stop and say, "Wow, who’s that?"

Back in 2013, we launched the 1st version of Starbox with a clear goal: to give every author the spotlight they deserve. Initially, it was a hit among bloggers. But it didn’t take long for business owners to catch on too.

They quickly realized that Starbox could give their sites that same cool vibe that places like Mashable & TechCrunch had when showcasing their authors.

But we knew there was more magic to create. Today, Starbox PRO is packed with more power, next-level visuals, and more customization options that let your true self shine through.

So, what’s the big problem we’re here to solve?

Most author bios on WP look the same. They're generic, forgettable, and fail to convey the unique personality behind the content. They reduce vibrant stories to mere lines of text, which hardly anyone notices. 😕

That’s a HUGE missed opportunity—a chance lost to connect with readers, earn their trust, and build a loyal audience.

🚀 But it doesn’t have to be this way. With Starbox PRO, your bio can become a superstar magnet that attracts engagement, followers, and conversions.

Features you’ll love:

💛 Highly Visual Themes: Choose one of the new ‘Highly Visual’ themes and stand out with visually captivating designs that demand attention.

💛 Customizable to Perfection: Forget settling for templates that scream 'generic' instead of 'authentic.' Starbox offers extensive customization options, allowing you to craft a bio that fits your brand’s aesthetic to a tee.

And we didn’t stop at looks.

💛 With Starbox, you can transform your bio into an engaging billboard that actively promotes your brand/business.

- Showcase achievements

- Promote products/services

- Drum up excitement for upcoming events

- & more

🎁 Bonus:

Your author bio can do more than just introduce you. And to get you inspired, we’re offering FREE, lifetime access to "The Silent Seller: Turn Your Author Bio into a Marketing Force".

Get free access to this course here: squirrly.co/marketingforce

From embedding a QR code that allows readers to instantly connect with you or access your offering to increasing newsletter signups, we'll show you 12 innovative ways to use your bio as a marketing tool.

Each strategy comes with detailed instructions, so you can easily implement your favorite use cases.

🔮 Future Plans:

Check out our roadmap to see the exciting features we’re working on.

squirrly.feedbear.com/boards/starbox-pro

💬 Got questions? Curious about a feature? Just ask, we're happy to chat with you!