Hello everyone!

The Wide Event is almost sold out. More than 90% of the tickets have been booked.

If you’re one of the people waiting until the last minute to purchase, don’t wait too long!

And if you’re still wondering if it’s for you:

• 200 attendees you can network with

• Almost 30% of the attendees are Shopify agencies/merchants

• Network with many different profiles: merchants, agencies, devs, app founders, entrepreneurs

• Shopify will be there, so it’s a good opportunity to get insights and direct contact

• Paris is cool

Get your ticket by clicking here

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

• Mantle Event in Toronto

• Romàn sold his Shopify App

• Shopify App Growth Blueprint: Outsourcing to scale

Let’s go! 🔥

Mantle Event in Toronto

Mantle is a solution to help you track your metrics, and is dedicated to Shopify Apps

Last year, before Shopify Dev Editions event in Toronto, they hosted “Pre/ditions”

And this year they’re doing it again with their event “Techtonic”. You can get your ticket by clicking here

Last year it was really good and more focused on marketing than Dev Editions so I highly suggest you attend this one!

I’ll be there, if you want to meet me (it may be easier than meeting me at Dev Editions the day after)

Romàn sold his Shopify App

Romàn is a good friend. We met back in 2017.

A few months ago, he started his own Shopify App with co-founders.

In 2 months, he reached $10,000 MRR. Yes. That’s faaaaast!

A few months after growing it even more, he sold it.

He sold a Shopify App in less than a year.

So, for all the people asking if it’s still possible to make money with Shopify Apps, the answer is yes!

Here was his strategy:

1. An app that scales easily (he didn’t have a single and fixed plan, which means that one user can bring a lot of revenue)

2. With this strategy he could spend time to acquire 1 customer

3. He spent most of his time doing Linkedin Outreach and Linkedin Content (you know the things I say are working when starting an app 👀)

4. The strategy is simple: Contact merchants, contact agencies, write content about what you do, how you solve problems

5. He then added email outreach

But here is the secret: he did something really simple but many times. The first outreach probably didn’t work, but he mastered his process as he kept doing it.

He became better and was able to scale faster.

Remember that your actions scale. There is a compounding effect. The same action can have incredible results.

For example, writing 1 blog post won’t bring anything. The 2nd probably won’t either. But after you’ve written your 50 blog posts, guess what? You get results! And big ones!

Shopify App Growth Blueprint: Outsourcing to scale

The Solopreneur's Dilemma: When to Start Delegating

When building a Shopify app, most of us start solo. As a developer, you manage everything yourself, or as a marketer, you partner with a developer. Either way, you're wearing multiple hats: CEO, support agent, developer, and marketer.

This works fine up to about $5K MRR. You can handle a few support tickets weekly, develop at your own pace, and manage basic marketing. But what happens when growth accelerates?

Suddenly, you're drowning in support tickets, development falls behind competitors, and marketing gets neglected because you're too busy putting out fires. Your promising app starts to falter just as it's gaining traction.

Key Insight: Don't delegate because you have money - delegate because you need time. Even if you're making $100K/month, if you're managing everything comfortably, there's no reason to hire. But when you start falling behind, that's when delegation becomes crucial.

What to Delegate First (And Why)

The smart delegation sequence follows a specific order based on what quickly becomes unmanageable:

1. Customer Support - Usually the first to overwhelm you and the face of your business

2. Development - When feature demands outpace your coding capacity

3. Technical Support - To bridge the gap between support and development

4. Marketing - Specific time-consuming tasks, not the strategy

5. Product Management - Carefully delegating execution while keeping strategy control

For each role, you're not just looking for any candidate - you need someone who saves you time rather than costs you more of it.

Finding the Right Support Team

When recruiting for customer support, I source candidates from:

• LinkedIn job postings

• Personal network recommendations (how I found Ogi, my first support hire)

• Twitter followers

• Upwork (despite mixed opinions, it works with proper filtering)

My screening hack: Ask for a 2-minute video introduction. This immediately filters out mass applicants and shows who's genuinely interested.

The interview process should test both Shopify knowledge and problem-solving skills. I ask specific Shopify questions like "What are color swatches?" or "What is a cart drawer?" - terms that only experienced people know.

For the technical assessment, I give candidates three real support conversations:

• A basic app question

• An angry customer message

• A confusing request

I provide no documentation - just access to our help center. This reveals how they handle situations with limited information, which is critical for autonomous work.

The 4-Week Training System

For any role, follow this proven training timeline:

Week 1: Application training - They learn your product inside out
Week 2: Job shadowing - They watch you work and take notes
Week 3: Reverse shadowing - They work while you observe and guide
Week 4: Independence - They handle 95% of tasks autonomously

This system works for every position, with role-specific adjustments. Before starting, create detailed documentation - record yourself explaining processes, list all features, document common issues and solutions.

Delegating Development Without Losing Control

For developers, my technical test is intentionally impossible to complete in the allotted time. I ask them to build a small Shopify app in 8 hours that actually requires more time. This reveals how they prioritize and manage constraints.

After the test (which I pay them for), we review:

1. How their application works

2. How they structured the code and why

Don't settle for "good enough" developers. Wait for someone whose work impresses you - the cost of a bad technical hire is enormous.

The Marketing Delegation Trap

With marketing, many founders make a critical mistake: they delegate strategy when they should only delegate execution.

Your marketing person should implement your proven strategies - not create new ones initially. Have them handle time-consuming tasks like:

• Finding partnership opportunities

• Contacting potential partners

• Executing established marketing processes

Document every step of your marketing processes. Record yourself performing tasks while narrating your thought process, then have your marketer create written procedures from these recordings.

Real-World Results: WideBundle's Scaling Journey

When WideBundle started growing rapidly, I was drowning in support tickets with no time for product development or marketing. By delegating support first, I freed up time to focus on growth.

Next came development delegation when feature demands outpaced my coding capacity. By systematically removing myself from tasks that didn't scale beyond my time investment, I could focus on strategic decisions that truly moved the needle.

Your Action Plan

1. Identify your bottleneck - What's consuming most of your time?

2. Document your processes - Before hiring, create detailed guides

3. Hire for experience - Find people who know Shopify and require minimal training

4. Use the 4-week training system - From shadowing to independence

5. Maintain strategic control - Delegate execution, not decision-making

Remember: The goal isn't to build a big team - it's to reclaim your time so you can focus on what truly scales your business.

By delegating in the right order and following these systems, you'll transform from a solopreneur struggling to keep up into a CEO driving strategic growth.

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See you in the next email!

Mat 😁