#3 - How to build a successful Shopify App šŸš€

This email is a continuation of the previous email. If you haven't read it yet. You can do it by clicking here

May 31, 2022

I was sitting with 2 people who made a million with a Shopify Store and they were telling me about an idea they had.

They wanted to build a Shopify App. We didn't have many Shopify Apps on the App Store and I didn't know how to create one.

And to be honest, the documentation from Shopify wasn't as good as today. And on top of that, I didn't even know how to use an API (Rest, Graphql, or stuff like that)! I never had to do it before.

But I wasn't even thinking about it. I listened to them:

"We want to build a Shopify App that will appear in the checkout. We detect if a customer wants to leave before paying and if he does we display a little popup. On this popup, you have a discount code that works only for some minutes. And they also have a button to apply the discount code directly."

If you started with Shopify recently, you don't know about it: We could add Javascript directly to the checkout. Even if you didn't have Shopify Plus!

That was insane. We could change the checkout design or add elements. So it was not that hard to add a popup.

I remember that moment they told me their idea. I was like:

"Guys, this is simple, just a popup? I think I only need a week to build that! Why would people pay for that?"

And that was my first mistake. People don't pay for an app based on the time you spend building it. They pay for the value.

So if your app helps your users earn more money. Let's say $5,000 a month. Then they will pay you! And a lot! Even if you built it in 1 week. Because they don't care!

But I didn't know that. Yet. I had nothing. I didn't know what to do, so I just said:

"Let's go! Ok!"

I probably spent 1 month learning how to build a Shopify App after. I won't lie. It was hard.

I was in this little room at school, during lunch, or even after school, learning how to build something.

And we built Exit-Counter, a small Shopify App, for $9.99 per month. We didn't have to go through Shopify Approval Process at that time. So it wasn't even on the app store.

My 2 co-founders just started to sell it through their Facebook Group. And I began to see paying users.

We were at $500/month, sharing 50/50.

And I think it broke my mind.

For years I thought that to make money with an app, you had to:

  • Spend time on it

  • Build something perfect

  • Build the next BIG idea

And yet I built this app in a week, and I made more money than all my other projects combined.

If you need 1 takeaway from that email it would be:

Don't build something for months thinking you have the next big idea. Because you don't.

Nothing. We were not growing anymore. And I didn't know why.

I was scared. What if the app lost the MRR that we had? What if I thought I had something but I didn't?

So many questions. The thing is, I didn't know what was wrong!

So I started to talk more about it on the Facebook group! We were getting installs. But we were not growing our MRR!

And on top of that. My co-founders didn't care as much as I did! They were making so much money with their stores. Why would they care?

The reason behind this ceil was simple: We were blind.

I was not tracking anything. That's why I didn't know what was wrong!

But the problem is that I didn't know I had to. So I didn't add anything like Mixpanel.

Fortunately, years later, building WideBundle, I remembered, so I installed Mixpanel only a few days after the launch!

I made a free course about how I use Mixpanel for my apps if you want to check it šŸ‘‡

And some months after launching Exit-Counter, Shopify decided to close the checkout. We were not able to add javascript to it.

So Exit-Counter slowly died.

I'll be quick. After Exit-Counter I built 2 Shopify Apps. But I did the same mistakes as before.

I was alone on these 2 projects. I didn't have the 2 marketers. That's probably why it failed.

Same mistake. I didn't start with a problem. I spent months working on it. Wanted to make it perfect and thought I had THE IDEA.

And I think it was enough.

"Shopify Apps aren't for me"

And of course, I was wrong. But I stopped making Shopify Apps and started freelancing.

People knew my coding skills on Shopify so I started to get some freelancing jobs where I helped people add stuff to their Shopify store.

I also created a normal SaaS. Where I didn't make the same mistakes. I started with a problem and created an MVP first.

But I'm not on this project anymore. At least I learned from my past failures. But not enough.

I will tell you about WideBundle and what I did right in the next email. My back story is over. You know everything (or at least you know a lot).

I'll actually change the email's structure to help you grow your own app. But also to share my journey!

See you in the next email,

Mat šŸ˜