Frequently asked questions

Starvo is a review management platform for local businesses. Customers scan a QR code, rate the business 1 to 5 stars, and Starvo encourages 4–5 star ratings to be posted on Google while routing 1–3 star feedback privately to the owner for follow-up.

Starvo is built for owner-operated local businesses — restaurants, cafés, hotels, salons, gyms, and clinics — who want a simple way to collect more public reviews and catch unhappy customers before they post a one-star review online.

You print a QR code and place it on tables, receipts, or at checkout. A customer scans it, rates you 1–5 stars, and leaves a comment. Happy customers see a one-click link to your Google review page. Unhappy customers send private feedback to your dashboard so you can fix the issue first.

Yes. Google’s review policy requires that you must not selectively solicit positive reviews. Starvo shows the Google review link to every customer regardless of their rating — we just make it more inviting for the ones who had a great experience. This is fully compliant.

No. Review gating means hiding the option to leave a public review from unhappy customers. Starvo never hides the Google review link — every customer at every rating sees it. We simply collect private feedback in parallel so owners can address issues directly.

Shiva Kumar Esakki Pandiyan is the solo founder and operator of Starvo. He designed the product, makes every product and operational decision, and runs the live service. Learn more on the founder page (https://starvo.app/founder).

Yes. Every QR card and review nudge includes a "Share via WhatsApp" button that opens WhatsApp pre-filled with your review link — works on any device. For businesses on a WhatsApp Cloud API number, Starvo can also send follow-up review-request and apology messages through the official channel; if the channel isn’t configured, the same flows fall back to wa.me deep links so nothing breaks.

Create each branch as its own location. The Pro plan allows up to 3 locations, Pro Max up to 10, Enterprise is custom. Name each one with the city or neighbourhood so reviews stay distinguishable — for example "Spice Garden — Bengaluru" and "Spice Garden — Hyderabad". Each location gets its own QR code, dashboard, review stream, and Google Business Profile connection, but they share a single owner account and a single subscription.

In Starvo there is one row per location — every branch is its own "business" record. They share the same owner login, the same plan, and the same team, but each one has its own permanent slug, QR code, analytics, and reviews. Switching between them is one click in the dashboard header.

Yes. The Free plan includes 1 location, up to 50 customer scans per month, and 20 review replies per month. The 20 is a shared pool — AI-drafted, manually-typed, template, and Google replies all draw from it. No credit card required. Use it indefinitely if it fits your needs.

Free ($0): 1 location, 50 scans/month, 20 replies/month. Starter ($9/month): 1 location, unlimited scans, 50 replies, Google review sync. Pro ($29/month): 3 locations, unlimited scans, 500 replies, team roles. Pro Max ($99/month): 10 locations, 2,000 replies, public API access. Enterprise: custom. The monthly reply limit is one shared pool — AI, manual, template, and Google replies all count toward it.

All paid plans are billed monthly today. Cancel anytime and your plan continues until the end of the current period. We may add annual billing in the future — email us if you’d like it now.

Every outbound reply counts: AI-generated replies, manually written replies, and template-based replies. Replies to Google reviews share the same pool. The limit is per location and resets every month on your billing anniversary — the same day of the month your business started. For example, a business created on the 16th resets its quota on the 16th of each month.

A customer scan is a single submission of the review form by a customer. Loading the page does not count; submitting a rating does. On the Free plan you get 50 scan submissions per month — counted on the same monthly cycle as your reply quota, resetting on your billing anniversary day. Paid plans are unlimited.

Yes — upgrade or downgrade anytime from your dashboard. Upgrades take effect immediately. Downgrades take effect at the next billing cycle so you keep what you paid for.

Payments are processed by Dodo Payments, a Merchant of Record. Starvo never stores your card details. Dodo handles taxes, refunds, and compliance globally.

Cancel from your dashboard under Billing. Your plan stays active until the end of the current billing period — no immediate cut-off — and then drops to Free. Your data is preserved.

Subscriptions are billed monthly and all sales are final — we do not refund partial months, unused time, or accidental purchases. Because of this, there is a real free plan: use it for as long as you like to decide whether Starvo fits before you ever pay. You can cancel any time, and your plan stays active until the end of the period you already paid for. If something is genuinely broken on our side, email support and we will make it right.

Yes. Every successful payment generates a receipt from Dodo Payments. You can also request a formal invoice with your business details — email support and we will send it.

Open your dashboard and find the "Share & grow" section — it holds your referral code and share link. When a referred business subscribes to a paid plan, you earn a free plan for 14 days, one tier below what they bought: a Pro referral earns you Starter free, a Pro Max referral earns you Pro free. Starter referrals earn no reward, and the reward is capped at Pro. If you already pay for an equal or higher plan the reward is skipped. One reward per referred account; self-referrals are rejected.

You need one to receive public Google reviews from customers — that is how Google works, not specific to Starvo. If you don’t have one yet, create it for free at business.google.com. Starvo works without it but you won’t be able to direct customers anywhere to leave a public review.

On Starter, Pro, and Pro Max plans, open your dashboard and find the "Google reviews" section, then click Connect Google Business Profile. You sign in with the Google account that owns your business listing and grant Starvo access to read reviews and post replies. Disconnect anytime. The Free plan does not include the Google integration.

Yes, on Starter and above. Once your Google Business Profile is connected, Starvo syncs your Google reviews every day and lets you reply (with or without AI assistance) directly from the dashboard. Replies post to Google in real time.

Yes. On Starter and above, once your Google Business Profile is connected, Starvo syncs your Google reviews into the dashboard every day so new public reviews appear alongside your private feedback — and you can reply to them from the same screen.

Starvo uses Llama models via Groq for fast, low-cost generation. Replies are produced server-side using the review text, the customer’s rating, and your business type — never your private data outside that prompt.

Yes. The AI draft appears in a text box and you can edit any line before sending it to the customer or posting it as a Google reply. Most owners send drafts after a 10-second review.

No — the reply goes out as your business, the same as if you typed it. The AI is a drafting assistant, not a public-facing bot. You stay in control and edit anything before it’s sent.

High-touch, end-of-experience spots: bottom of receipts, on the bill folder, near the exit, on table tents, or on the back of menus. The customer should encounter it right when they are forming an opinion.

Yes. Every location has a permanent unique slug and QR code. Scans are attributed to the right location so multi-location accounts can see per-location dashboards.

No. Slugs are permanent so printed materials never break. If you rebrand a location, the slug stays — only the display name changes.

Owner, Manager, and Staff. Owners control billing and locations. Managers can reply to reviews and manage settings for the locations they’re assigned to. Staff can only view feedback. Roles are enforced server-side, not just hidden in the UI.

Open Dashboard → Locations → click the location you want them to access → open the Team Members panel → click Invite. Enter their email address and pick a role (Manager or Staff). They receive a secure invite link by email valid for 7 days. They sign up with that email and are added to the location automatically — they do NOT need to create their own business. Inviting team members requires the Pro plan or above. If the invite expires, an owner can resend it from the same panel.

Three causes. (1) The 7-day invite window passed before they signed up — ask an owner to click Resend in the Team Members panel. (2) They were removed from the location — the owner must re-invite. (3) They signed up with a different email than the one the invite was sent to — case is normalised, but typos and aliases are not. Have them sign in with the exact invited email.

No. Pro and Pro Max include unlimited staff seats for every location you own. We bill on plan tier and locations, not per user.

About two minutes. Sign up, paste your Google review URL, download your QR code as PDF, and print. The first scan can happen the same day.

Not for the basics. The customer-facing flow has no learning curve — they scan and tap stars. For the owner dashboard, the AI replies and Google sync are one-click operations.

Yes. Private reviews live in your dashboard and you can delete them. Public Google reviews can only be removed by Google — Starvo cannot delete them on your behalf, but you can flag them through your Google Business Profile.

Each location is rate-limited per IP to prevent flooding. Submissions are also screened for length and obvious spam patterns. You can mark any review as resolved or delete it.

You do. Private feedback collected through your QR code belongs to your business. You can export it any time as CSV from your dashboard. Starvo does not sell your data and does not share it with third parties beyond what is required to run the service (e.g., Supabase, Groq, Resend).

Yes. We store the minimum data needed to run the service. Customers submitting reviews can do so anonymously — email is optional. On account deletion, your data enters a 48-hour soft-delete window then is hard-deleted by a scheduled job.

From Settings → Danger zone, request deletion. Your account enters a 48-hour grace period during which you can cancel the deletion. After 48 hours, your business, reviews, and any private data are permanently removed.

All API routes verify ownership server-side, all admin and cron routes are secret-gated, and all webhook events are signature-verified and deduplicated. Database access uses row-level security. Card details are handled by Dodo Payments (a Merchant of Record) — Starvo never sees them.

Your data lives in a managed Postgres database via Supabase, with row-level security enforced on every table. Background services (email, AI, payments) only see the minimum payload needed for the task.

Yes, on the Pro Max plan. The public API exposes endpoints like /api/public/reviews and /api/public/stats for integrating Starvo with your POS, BI tool, or custom dashboard. Authentication is by SHA-256 keyed access tokens.

The public API is rate-limited per key. For high-volume use cases, get in touch — we tune limits for Pro Max customers individually rather than publish a hard cap.