About Curio Web Design
Curio Web Design is a web development studio that builds and runs websites for small and medium businesses across the United States and Canada. We take care of every technical detail – design, build, hosting, security, the email when something needs changing – so the people who run the business can keep running it.
Curio was founded in 2024 by Ankush Shrirao, who brings 15 years of experience across cybersecurity, AI, and full-stack web development. The team takes the boring parts of running a website seriously: who has the keys, what happens when something breaks, where the data lives. AI is in every product pitch right now, and not all of it is signal – where it matters, we help our clients separate the parts that move their business from the parts that don't.
Why we started Curio
A website used to last five years. Now it lasts maybe two. AI is changing what search, content, and customers expect — and the bar moves every few months, not every few years. Template platforms try to serve everyone, so they end up carrying weight your business doesn't need – and that weight hurts your Google ranking. When the next shift comes – an AI chatbot, a new search behaviour, a Core Web Vitals rule change – a template often means a rebuild, and a rebuild often means starting your search ranking over from zero. With us you don't rebuild — you extend. AI chatbots, online booking, AI-powered site search, multilingual support — all things we can add to the existing codebase, with your Google ranking intact.
Some businesses want to be found in Google. Some want to be found in ChatGPT and Perplexity. Some want neither. Either way, it takes time to learn, relearn, and apply across design, code, content, and infrastructure – and most small and medium businesses don't have the in-house resources large companies do. Curio exists to close that gap. We work across many clients, learn what's actually working week to week, and roll those lessons into every site we run – so a small business can compete in a market that keeps moving.
Why we exist
Running a small or medium business is already enough work. You shouldn't also have to learn what a CMS is, why your site loads slowly, or who to call when it goes down – that's the part Curio handles.
We take care of every technical detail – design, build, hosting, security, updates, the email when something needs changing – so you can stay focused on the part of the business only you can do.
How we work
Remote, async by default
We work across Pacific and Eastern time zones. Most communication is by email and shared docs. Calls happen when they're needed and stay short – usually a weekly 30-minute check-in during a project.
Fixed-price proposals before any work starts
After the discovery call, you get a written proposal with a fixed price, timeline, deliverables, and what's explicitly out of scope. No hourly billing on the build itself, no surprise invoices.
We tell you when something's a bad idea
If you ask for a feature that won't move your business forward – or a tech choice that'll bite you in eighteen months – we'll say so. Yes-people are easier to hire and more expensive to keep.
You own the code
On a one-time package, the Git repository transfers to you at launch. On the monthly subscription, the same handover happens when the 24-month term completes – that's the trade-off that makes the lower upfront cost work. During the engagement, Curio holds the hosting and CMS credentials and runs the deployment. If you'd rather operate hosting yourself from day one, we offer a one-time deployment-setup add-on ($1,200) that puts everything on your own accounts. Either way, the next developer can pick the project up without us.
Where we're based
The studio is registered in Victoria, BC, on Vancouver Island. The team works on Pacific Time, with overlap into Eastern hours for clients on the East Coast.
Geography rarely matters for a website project. We've worked with clients we've never met in person, and the work landed exactly the same way as the ones we did.
Things we don't do
An honest list. If we say no, it's because we don't do the work well – or because we don't want our name on it.
- AI-spun content farms or low-quality link-building schemes
- MLM, dropshipping fronts, or get-rich-quick websites
- Sites we can't test, sites that can't pass WCAG AA, or sites that won't survive a slow 4G connection
- Pure template builds – if a Squarespace site is what you need, that's where we'll send you
- SEO or ad-spend outcome guarantees – we do real work and report honestly; we don't promise rankings or ROAS we can't control
- Any project we don't think we can do well
Start a conversation
Send a few sentences about what you're building. We reply within one business day.