CuriousCheck
Carlos Crameri came to CuriousCheck after two decades across criminal data, fintech, and enterprise HR—but the spark came from a simple observation: small business owners were struggling to find the right software. He'd interviewed 50-60 business founders asking how they achieved profitability, and noticed a consistent pain point. In 2019, he decided to build a platform that would make software discovery transparent, easy, and trustworthy by aggregating reviews from all major sites in one place.
Carlos started in May 2019 by partnering with developers from Zillow and Tesla who created a roadmap for his MVP. But disaster struck: the team closed mid-project due to vendor costs they couldn't afford. Carlos pivoted quickly, bringing on a new developer team who used WordPress instead—a critical decision born from necessity. The original React-based app had a fatal flaw: it wasn't SEO optimized. "React-apps are Single-Page Applicants," Carlos explains. "Google couldn't accurately fetch my content—my whole site looked like one page." Server-side rendering would have cost $15-25k and taken 2 months. Instead, he found a LinkedIn developer who rebuilt 99% of the app on WordPress with custom plugins, making it faster and fully functional.
CuriousCheck launched January 15, 2020, with a press release that generated traction and high-authority links. But Carlos's real engine was direct relationship-building. He partnered with over 80 businesses in the first 3 months by reaching out through LinkedIn and Instagram, offering free advice on software, chatbots, and payment processors. His pitch was simple: join a modern directory dedicated to helping you grow. For companies with poor reviews, he offered review management services—teaching them that happy customers *will* leave reviews if asked properly.
What worked: partnerships and direct outreach. Carlos became a trusted advisor first, salesman second—building relationships at founder level across 50+ interviews in 2019 before even launching. The free tier lowered friction, and the interactive advisor bot (which recommends software based on industry and company size) became a differentiator. What didn't work: the React architecture. "My worst mistake was not researching how to have a React-based APP optimized for SEO," he admits. This delayed domain reputation significantly and cost him months. He also faced personal obstacles—a second son was born during development, and then COVID-19 hit.
After migration to WordPress, CuriousCheck relaunched April 15, 2020. Carlos is pursuing two goals: become the #1 software finder for small businesses globally, and perfect the advisor bot so it learns autonomously with minimal human intervention. His next focus is expanding the advisor bot's machine learning capabilities and continuing to build domain authority through SEO and content—the very thing that nearly derailed him.
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