Our Mission
To give small businesses powerful, owned websites that launch fast and keep growing. Whether starting fresh or optimizing an existing site, we deliver fast, secure, search-optimized websites designed to convert, then keep improving them every week with AI analysis and strategic refinement. Your website is yours forever, and it gets smarter every single week.
Why Starter WP Exists
Starter WP was founded in 2018 to solve the fundamental problems small businesses faced: expensive builds, locked platforms, abandoned agencies, and security gaps.
But as AI capabilities emerged, we realized there was a much bigger problem. Agencies and builders still disappear after launch. Small business owners are left on their own to figure out optimization, SEO, and conversion improvements, while their competitors quietly use AI to improve continuously. We evolved Starter WP to solve that: a service that doesn't disappear after launch, but gets smarter every week.
Our Approach
We combine AI intelligence with human judgment to build custom WordPress sites and optimize existing ones. Whether you're starting fresh or migrating from another platform, every site gets the same treatment: AI analysis, strategist refinement, then continuous weekly optimization based on real visitor behavior.
We’ve been recognized as a StudioPress and WP Engine agency partner, and our hosting is powered by modern infrastructure on DigitalOcean, giving clients enterprise-grade reliability without enterprise pricing.
Backed by Real Experience
The Starter WP team is led by Drate Berry, a developer and entrepreneur with 15+ years in the WordPress ecosystem. He's contributed to WordPress.org's Training team, organized WordCamps, and spoken at community meetups.
Drate has also worked in AI labs at Harvard University and is a member of the Harvard Innovation Labs, where he's studied large language model applications and AI-driven optimization at scale. That research directly informs Starter WP's AI engine — our weekly optimization recommendations aren't guesses; they're built on proven AI and conversion principles.
His work with startups, universities, nonprofits, and national brands has driven 800% growth in web traffic and 4x improvements in lead generation, results that have been systematized into Starter WP's AI optimization engine.
What We Stand For
- Ownership: Your website is yours, always.
- Impact: Helping “main street” businesses compete with corporate giants without corporate budgets.
- Reliability: Managed hosting, daily backups, and 99.99% uptime.
- Transparency: Clear pricing, clear timelines, no surprises.
- Community: Proud supporters of open-source software and the WordPress community.
The Starter WP Experience
We want every customer to think, “That was the best ROI I’ve ever had with a website.”
From onboarding to launch in days. Then week after week of optimization—at whatever level fits your business. Some clients implement recommendations themselves (Launch tier). Others have us handle everything (Growth and Performance tiers). Either way, you get a powerful, owned website that launches quickly and keeps improving based on real data.