Userfox

Userfox was a software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider established in 2011 by co-founders Peter Clark and Cesar Alaniz. Headquartered in San Francisco, the company focused on offering email marketing automation solutions designed to improve user retention. Its platform enabled businesses to engage customers through automated welcome series, re-engagement emails for inactive users, and custom-triggered campaigns. Key features of the service included A/B testing for emails and various templates to streamline campaign creation.

The company participated in the Y Combinator accelerator program, securing $125,000 in a seed funding round in 2011. This early investment supported Userfox's development as it built a service aimed at making sophisticated marketing technology accessible to companies of all sizes. The business model was centered on providing user-retention-as-a-service, simplifying the process for startups and other businesses to implement effective drip and trigger-based email strategies. By the beginning of 2014, the platform was sending over two million emails per month on behalf of thousands of customers.

In January 2014, Userfox was acquired by AdRoll (now known as NextRoll), a major retargeting and marketing platform. This event was an "acqui-hire," indicating AdRoll's interest in both the technology and the talent behind Userfox. Following the acquisition, co-founder Peter Clark was tasked with leading product efforts at AdRoll to integrate new data sources and partner with email providers. The expertise from the Userfox team was later leveraged in the development of AdRoll's SendRoll, an email retargeting product launched in 2016 that allowed marketers to send personalized emails based on user intent signals. The acquisition was a strategic move for AdRoll to enhance its platform by incorporating valuable customer data from sources like CRMs and email lists to better inform advertising campaigns.

Keywords: Userfox, AdRoll, NextRoll, Peter Clark, Cesar Alaniz, email marketing automation, user retention, SaaS, Y Combinator, acqui-hire, email retargeting, trigger-based emails, marketing technology, SendRoll, drip campaigns, customer engagement, inactivity emails, San Francisco startup