Thread by @DsMatie

I took my Shopify App WideBundle from $0 to $25,000 MRR in less than a year.

Never paid ads. 💸

Today I am sharing with you the whole process.

>>> THREAD <<<

I first want to say that what worked for me might not work for you.

Do not try to copy exactly what I did. You can use that as an inspiration.

Let's go!

1/ We need to start with the back story.

We're in 2020. Covid-19 just started.

Everyone is staying at home and people are making a lot of money in e-commerce.

We have more people on Shopify.

I was in my last year before graduation and I had to do an internship.

Instead of an internship, I created my own company. So I was directly full-time on my business.

I loved e-commerce. I was already following many different French Facebook Groups. I knew how to code. I knew marketing.

2/ Get the Shopify App Idea

The 1st thing I had to do was think about the app I was going to create.

I had no idea.

So I randomly scrolled the Facebook Groups I was in (something like 4-5 groups).

I searched for terms like "app" or "problem" etc.

And during this search I found 3 posts (from 2 different groups).

These posts asked: "Does anyone know an app that does this".

They showed a screenshot from stores that were using something similar to WideBundle

3/ Validating the idea

I found 3 people asking for this app that didn't exist.

It probably means more people wanted that app but didn't write posts.

So I created a fake photoshop mockup and said "Does anyone want this app?"

Got 100+ comments—enough validation.

4/ Understanding the problem

I contacted all the interested people in the comments and asked them what they wanted exactly.

What you understand is sometimes wrong. Validate the problem with the users.

I asked "Why?" many times to go deep into the problem.

It also allowed me to get the words they used to describe the pain (for the landing page).

Allowed me to think about the pricing I was going to use.

And also to think about the features for the MVP.

I then told them that I was building the app (I was not).

5/ Start the MVP

I thought about the features for the MVP. Didn't want to spend a month working on it.

The MVP took me less than 2 weeks. It wasn't working for everyone.

It was only working for 4 themes. Only for the people who had 1 option in the variants.

But that's enough

Don't ever create a free MVP. Ask for money from day 1.

I just added a 14-day free trial and a discount for early users.

How are you supposed to know if they really like your app if it's free?

6/ Ship the MVP

I built a simple landing page in HTML. I talked about the pain and told them I had the solution.

Back in the days you didn't have to go through the approval process of Shopify. I wasn't on the app store.

I sent a message to everyone saying "It's live!".

Had hundred of comments but only a few people actually installed the app.

But 15 people is enough!

The few users will help you grow. They are the users in category A that you want to have.

If you don't know about categories. It's a concept I "created" to grow a SaaS 🤫

7/ Offer top tier support

I started to build the app with the users I had.

They told me when they found bugs when they wanted features.

And I tried to add and fix this as fast as possible.

They loved it and started to talk about that.

Create a helpdesk.

8/ Use Facebook groups to grow again

I went back to the posts I found in the groups and commented with the name of the app I created.

People will see it and all the posts will be again at the top of the group.

9/ Use your user base to grow

I asked all the users to talk about the app. To show love to what I had created!

They did it because I asked them to (and because I offered top tier support, a great app and something they wanted for a while)

So we slowly grew to 25 merchants

10/ Aim for PMF (Product Market Fit)

At this point the only goal isn't to have more users.

It's to find the PMF. Stop focusing on acquisition.

I wanted to have users telling me the app was gold.

You need to talk to them to know what you have to build.

11/ Launch on the app store

Now that I have a few users I go to the app store.

I tell my users to put a review to have a good ranking fast.

I know the app is good and I'm not afraid of bad reviews.

I take all the keywords I can from "competitors"

12/ Improve conversion rate and activation

Now I have a bunch of users. I add the onboarding steps and make the use of the app easier.

I just compare paying users with users who left during the trial to see what they didn't do.

13/ Snowball with affiliates

Now I can focus on acquisition because I've improved the activation and conversion rate.

I know that the app will reach the PMF soon (because users are telling me that the app is so good).

So I contact influencers (already knew some of them)

14/ Iterate on everything

Improve support. Add features (only the ones asked by many different users).

Track with Mixpanel to improve all metrics.

Ask for reviews when you help users with support.

15/ Reach PMF and enjoy

Now you reached the PMF. It took me 2 months. Sometimes it will take you more.

But don't try to go fast. Do all the needed steps.

Don't focus on acquisition before retention.

Congrats, you are now +100% each month

16/ Get more affiliates. Get more reviews.

Now it's a number game. You optimized everything.

You just need to keep adding new features, fixing bugs and providing excellent support.

17/ Hire someone

Now you can't do everything alone. You spend too much time on support. You need someone to handle this for you.

If you didn't yet. Create documentation with all the problems that users face and how to fix them.

It will help you hire.

That's all! Just iterate after that.

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Follow me if you want more @DsMatie