Hello there! How are you doing?

Today, another part of our series “Growing a Shopify App From Scratch”!

I can’t wait to finish it and have a complete course!

I just returned from Portugal, where I spent time with my family and met a few people.

Let’s dive into this email!

Before starting, let me share the dev company I’m working with.

Grodas

A few of you started working with Grodas, the developer agency currently working on my apps WideBundle and WideReview.

I even received a message on Linkedin to tell me how grateful he was because he didn’t know where to start to get a developer!

That’s probably the last time I’m talking about Grodas in this newsletter (I mean, that much, because I’ll definitely talk about it later)

But don’t worry as I'‘ll share with you some other great guys/tools that you can use for your Shopify App!

If you want to work with them 👇

 Send an email to Grodas

In today’s email we’re going to talk about:

• I found my co-founder

• From 0 to success: Talking to your customers

• Dealing with copycats

Let’s go! 🔥

I found my co-founder

Quick reminder: I’m building a platform to help Shopify App Founders find partners faster.

And right now I needed to find a co-founder before continuing it. It’s the first time I’ll actually have a co-founder.

The reason is simple: If you want to work with someone, you need to ensure they’re like you, with the same vision. Even if they can have strengths that are your weaknesses.

And I think it’s hard to find a co-founder if you never built a business. How would you know how you work? What you like? What you value?

But I know all of those now! In my community, I was able to get 43 applications.

I will work with someone who worked at Shopify! What else can I ask for?

Stay tuned for the next steps! I’ll have to talk with most of you! And I’ll probably give a calendly with many slots available.

It will be the best way for me to get feedback on how you handle partnerships

It will be the best way for you to ask me questions!

From 0 to success: Talking to your customers

If you didn’t read the previous email of the series “From 0 to success” you can do it by clicking here

Today we’re going to talk about a big part of the success of your Shopify App.

Let’s be clear: You are nothing without talking to your customers.

1. You can find your app idea by talking to potential customers (we already talked about it)

2. You can find your app features by talking to potential and actual customers

3. You can find your app listing copy by talking to potential and actual customers

4. You can improve your dashboard by talking to your customers

5. You can improve your whole app by talking to your customers

6. You can get reviews and get more users by talking to your customers

Everything is about talking to people!

You know I talk a lot about data, Mixpanel, etc…

Well, there are 2 type of data you can collect: quantitative and qualitative

Mixpanel tracks the quantitative.

But decisions are made with both. Qualitative is done by talking to people, sending surveys, etc.

In conclusion, it helps you grow your app!

So the question now is…

When and how do you talk to your customers?

a) When do you talk to your customers?

You should talk to them at every stage of their journey! But remember to put them in groups.

→ The people who contacted you before installing your app

→ The people who just installed your app less than an hour ago

→ The people who started using your app

→ The people who started to pay for your app

→ The people who installed your app months ago and are still using it

→ The people who get the most value from your app

→ The people who uninstalled

The value of each type will be different.

For example, talking to the people who contacted you before installing your app will help you understand what people are looking for, why they contacted you (did something attract them in your listing?). It helps you get leads.

But talking to your old users will help you understand which features to focus on and which direction to keep taking.

All right I think I can explain what value you get from all of them…

People who contacted before installing: What problem they have? What did they try? Why they think your app can solve the problem? What features they expect from you? How do they decide which app to install?

People who just installed: Why did they decide to install your app? Did they hesitate? If yes, why? What feature are they the most interested in? Was something complicated to understand when installing?

People who started using your app: What challenge did they face? What part of the onboarding was hard to understand? How do they like the dashboard? What’s their first impression? Is the app easy to use? Is there something they would have loved to use but isn’t available?

People who start paying: What value do they get? Why they decided to become a paid user? What features do they want next? (don’t get feature requests from free users) What features do they use the most? If they had a magic wand, what would they change in the dashboard?

People who installed months ago: Did they try other solutions? Why they’re staying on your app? What do they love about it? What features they use the most? What features they want to see in the future? (these feature requests are the most important, if all of these users ask for the same feature, build it quickly)

People who get the most value from your app: They’re not necessarily the oldest users or the users using your app every day. But the people who will actually make more money from your app. If you have an upsell app, they are the ones making crazy money. Ask the same questions as people who installed months ago. They are valuable because they will probably be willing to pay for more. What missing features would make you pay more for our app?

People who uninstalled: They’re not that relevant, build for the people staying, not the ones leaving. Except if they all leave for the exact same reason. Why did you leave? What can we add to make you come back?

b) How do you talk to your customers?

Use any technique you can to get a conversation! That’s an easy answer.

If you can, meet them, if you can’t, do a video call, if you can’t, do a simple call, if you can’t, live chat, if you can’t, email.

Most of the time you’ll have them on a live chat if you have one on your dashboard (and I recommend you do)

But on the live chat, try to “convert” them to a higher solution like a video call or meeting them. Because it makes it more human.

It’s while you’re helping them that you should ask the questions and many after they’re satisfied (if you can’t get them in call).

Usually the people contacting you before installing you’ll have them by email.

If you don’t get people in a live chat, reach out by email, the more calls you can get the better.

Here is a quick strategy at the beginning of your app:

1. Add a live chat

2. Trigger a notification to Slack when someone opens your dashboard

3. Go to crisp and engage the conversation with the person

4. Ask a simple question but add personalization so they know you’re not a robot

This method will help you create more conversations in the beginning (that’s what you need)

After you help someone, ask them to jump on a call and tell them they’ll be able to give you the features they want so you can build it (they’ll get value, so they won’t do it for nothing)

Dealing with copycats

Nobody loves it. But they’re part of the game.

Sooner or later, if you’re doing well, you’ll see apps building the same products. Sometimes a complete copycat and sometimes copying you and changing a few things.

Most of the time you’ll get the latest.

First of all, congrats! You made something worth copying! Not everyone has that privilege. So it’s kind of a “rich problem”.

Like yea I want my app to be so good everyone wants to build it!

But the first thing you’ll have in mind is: Fuck

And I get it, I’ve been there before!

Because your first though will be: they’ll steal my customers.

But that’s not how business works. Your users won’t suddenly leave for your competitor. I don’t know how to explain it, but it won’t happen.

→ They’re not constantly looking for solution for a problem they solved

→ They’re satisfied and don’t want to lose time

→ They already trust you

→ Your app was recommended by a friend

etc. There are so many reasons!

There are 2 types of copycats.

a) The cheap one. They create a product similar to yours, don’t add anything, put it cheaper.

This one don’t worry, they’ll kill it soon. Because it means they’re just there because you’re successful and think it’s easy. But the app’s idea means nothing without the execution.

And no! Copying your app and making it cheaper won’t attract all your customers suddenly!

b) The actual competitor. That one understood there is something to do. They’ll build your app but change a few things. They might even fix some of your problems. They can do it because they’re smaller, so faster.

When you grow, there are things you can’t do anymore like pushing a feature in a day, or building something for just 1 person.

But they can!

These guys are hungry and if you don’t do anything, they can take your customers on the long term (again, even if the app is 2x better than yours, you won’t suddenly lose everything, you’ll have time to act!)

But this competition, even though it’s painful and stressful, will actually help your business.

You see, when you build something that makes something, you’re slowly growing without doing much, you don’t have competitors, you kind of stop building because you’re satisfied.

But when a competitor comes into town, your brain reacts, and something happens: suddenly, you want to do more!

This competitor will force you to go faster! To react! To give you ideas!

Your users might even try the other app and tell you why theirs is better.

I mean, it’s actually amazing!

Between us, if you don’t have competitors and you go on easy mode, sooner or later you’ll die. Because business is hard.

So the sooner you react, the better.

Thanks for reading this email. Feel free to share it with a friend, a partner, or a customer.

So see you in the next email!

Mat 😁