About Asteris Commerce

A small team, two plugins, an Australian Pty Ltd. Here's the actual story — who, why, how it's funded, and what it isn't.

Who

Asteris Commerce is the trading name of My Cosmic Message Pty Ltd — an Australian proprietary limited company (ACN 652 358 159, ABN 30 652 358 159), incorporated in New South Wales. Sole director: Nick Lord. Based in Sydney, Australia.

I built WooCommerce stores for years before becoming a plugin vendor. Asteris exists because I was tired of the stitched stack: 15–20 paid plugins from 12+ vendors, each with its own admin page, update cadence, support inbox, and conflict surface. The plugin I wished existed didn't, so I built it. Then I realised the same logic applied to the non-WC side of WordPress (security, SEO, backups, email) — so that became the second product.

Why two plugins, not one

Most WordPress sites don't run WooCommerce. Most WooCommerce stores have plugin needs that go well beyond what a generic WP plugin covers. Bundling everything into one mega-plugin would dilute both products and force non-WC users to install WC code they'll never use.

So: Asteris for WordPress covers what any WP site needs (Security + Login + 2FA, SEO + AI, Backups + Migration, SMTP + Email Logs, and more — 11 modules at v1.0). Asteris for WooCommerce covers what a WC store specifically needs (SEO, AI Suite, PDF Invoices, Variation Swatches, Wishlist, Side Cart, Coupons, and 13 more — 20 modules at v1.0).

Some modules genuinely overlap (SEO + AI, Analytics, Links, AI library). Those are built once and vendored into both plugins, so the same code ships in both, neither plugin depends on the other, and customers never have to install both.

Funding model

No VC. No angels. No outside capital at all. Asteris Commerce is funded by:

Launch-locked Founder subscriptions — customers who subscribe during the launch window keep their launch price for as long as their subscription stays continuously active. No 500-cap, no lifetime-deal trap.
Standing subscriptions at regular post-launch pricing for new customers after the launch window closes.
Lemon Squeezy as merchant of record — handles payments, tax, and refunds globally. We don't touch credit card data.

Recurring revenue funds support. There is no growth-hacker incentive, no quarterly pressure, no exit narrative. The business succeeds or fails on whether the plugins are good enough to keep customers subscribed.

How we ship

Both plugins ship under a documented Module Quality Protocol: every module must close its Tier 1 (must-have) + Tier 2 (best-of-breed) gap analysis against the dominant commercial competitor BEFORE the next module starts. Tier 3 features get deferred to later releases; the Tier 1+2 floor is non-negotiable. The point of this rule is to prevent shipping thin modules that look complete but fail in real use — the failure mode that turns "all-in-one" bundles into cluttered support-heavy junk drawers.

Both plugins target PHP 8.1+ minimum, are HPOS-verified, Block Cart / Block Checkout compatible, regression-tested across six themes per release. WordPress Multisite support is planned for v1.1 in both products.

What Asteris Commerce isn't

Not a VC-funded startup
Not a marketplace or plugin aggregator — we build all the modules ourselves
Not affiliated with Automattic, WordPress Foundation, or any other vendor
Not a SaaS — both products are plugins you install on your own site, with your own data, on your own host
Not promising features we haven't built — both products' roadmaps are public
Not enterprise — we serve solo store owners, freelancers, and small agencies. If you need a dedicated account manager and 24/7 phone support, this isn't the right vendor for you

Contact

[email protected] — goes directly to Nick. For product support, use the support address on the relevant product site.

Legal entity: My Cosmic Message Pty Ltd, ACN 652 358 159, ABN 30 652 358 159. Registered address: Sydney, NSW, Australia.