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'I had reached out to them months ago when I first created the app, before I had this many users.' 'That would be nice, you know?' she said. 'I'm trying to not to be too stressed about the ad revenue, because I'm trying to focus on adding a subscription,' Dao said, adding that that would help limit ads for users and help them support the app directly.ĭao said she would also be willing to sell Squish Alert to Kelly Toys in the future and had brought her app to the company's attention. Dao said the app makes close to $1,500 a month from ad sales. She's focused on keeping it going by striking advertising deals to wipe out operating costs of about $1,000 a month, including $380 for a Google Cloud server and $320 for data storage from MongoDB.ĭao recently secured a three-month, $12,000 sponsorship from Toynk Toys, an online seller of collectible toys and novelty items, to further fund Squish Alert.

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In August, she left a small software company in Massachusetts to freelance, which she said is still her main source of income.ĭao said she's not necessarily looking to make her app a full-time job just yet. As with other in-demand resellable items, rarity and inaccessibility increase a Squishmallow's value.ĭao holding two of her frog Squishmallows often seen in her videos on TikTok and Instagram.ĭao created Squish Alert using her skills as a software engineer. For example, a strawberry cow Squishmallow that cost $20 at Hot Topic is listed on Mercari for upwards of $100.

Squishmallows often sell for several times the sticker price on resale marketplaces.

'I do buy from Mercari too when the price is OK, but the main goal of the app is for people to buy from retail, and they're certified retailers like Five Below or Walmart.' 'The main goal is to allow people to buy from retail, because the resale market is crazy,' Dao said. A Q&A section allows users to talk with other collectors. Squish Alert users who spot Squishmallows can post a photo, the location, the price, and the store name or link, while those seeking them can filter by location.

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So it was just breaking and was so slow, so I had to basically figure out how to serve these people.'ĭao says her app has over 100,000 users and is available for free on Apple and Android devices. 'When the app was first launched, I faced so many troubles with scaling,' Dao said, 'meaning that my server was not able to handle the amount of people that came to the app.

Dao said it is also the only app on the Apple Store and the Google Play store designed for the Squishmallow collecting community. The Squish Alert sends users alerts when major retailers like Walgreens restock Squishmallows in stores and online across 37 countries. Part of Dao's collection of frog Squishmallows. 'Then at the end of 2020, I randomly realized there were different sizes of the frog Squishmallow.' 'I had a few Squishmallows back in 2018, but that was probably two years before I started to collect,' Dao said. The 25-year-old has over 763,000 followers and 13.9 million likes on her posts. Her passion for Squishmallows, the widely popular plushies created by Kelly Toys, was becoming increasingly clear as her collection of frog Squishmallows grew into the hundreds.ĭao's popularity in the Squishmallow community exploded thanks to her TikTok account, where she creates short comedic videos using the plushies in her collection. When Jessica Dao launched Squish Alert in May 2021, she didn't expect her app to reach as many people as it did. Dao said she'd be willing to sell her app to the maker of Squishmallows, Kelly Toys.Squish Alert users can receive alerts when major retailers restock Squishmallows.Jessica Dao created the Squish Alert app to help Squishmallow collectors find them at retailers.

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