The Exchanges

Q Nice. Is there any like app store optimization that you can do? Can you, Focus a lot on reviews. Can you optimize the titles or the images or anything like that? Like any advice if someone is listening to this and maybe they have a Shopify app?

A For sure. So something that works really, really well is definitely reviews. Um, so the more reviews you have, the, the higher up in the listings you appear. Um, so it's kind of like the typical SEO in general. So wording on your listing is also very important, like the title, the description, How it works, what it, what it does. All that, um, information description is very, very important for you to appear in different searches, in different categories, and just on the, like, the level of, um, of how high up in the list you, you appear, and that has to do with, obviously, um, uh, your wording and, and, and your descriptions, but also the number of installs, number of reviews, so that all plays out. And it's really, really important to focus on that. Images are also very, very important, and, um, something that we've actually never done, but I know it's really, really good, um, for your listing, which is great advice, is, um, having a demo store. So having an actual store, um, that, that works, I mean, it's obviously a demo store, so you're not really selling anything, but, um, to see the app in action, um, that, that works really well for your, App in your listing in general. So what would have happened if we would have done it is, like, you go into the store, abandon a cart, and then maybe an hour later you would have gotten a WhatsApp message from that store saying, hey, yo…

AI assessment note: “wording on your listing is also very important, like the title, the description”

Q Nice. Nice. What was the hardest part to building something like this? Was it integration with WhatsApp or working with other e-commerce platform?

A Um, so we, we, we, we stuck with Shopify, so we didn't leave the Shopify space. That's one thing. Um, definitely WhatsApp. Was, was quite, um, new at the time, um, so I, I would probably say, yeah, definitely, um, the integration with WhatsApp, which was new, uh, we knew, like, all the Shopify APIs pretty well. I mean, we were still kind of learning about them, but, um, but we did have a lot of, like, experience with Shopify in general, and definitely WhatsApp was kind of, like, the, the new component. We actually did the integration through Twilio, not directly with Um, with Meta, and actually at that time when we started developing this, the, um, WhatsApp API had just been, like, released, or even maybe we started with Twilio because it wasn't released. I'm not sure, like, the time frame, but it was very, very early on at, at that point for, for the, um, WhatsApp API.

AI assessment note: “definitely, um, the integration with WhatsApp, which was new”

Q Nice. How'd you get the first customers? Were they maybe clients of yours? Did you code email ads? What did that look like?

A Yeah, so it was, it was a mix of two things. It was definitely first our customers from the Shopify agency, so that helped a lot, like, just kind of, I guess I could say for, for close customers that had been our customers for a long time to try the app, so that also gave us a lot of validation that was really good, but then to actually, like, acquire new customers, the agency was a good part of that. Um, obviously because it's an agency, and although we Did have, like, a lot of customers throughout the years. Um, it, it's an agency that has developed over 700 Shopify stores, so we did have a pretty good, uh, customer base, uh, of, like, emails and, and just their contact, but, um, I guess you could say we, we needed to grow and, and, and go out there a little bit more just to keep acquiring because, um, customers, because, I mean, in the initial launch, it was kind of easy, but then you get stuck when you don't Um, continued to, to look a different way. So we, we did develop throughout the years as well, a pretty good, um, um, email base. Like it's, it's kind of a contradiction because we were on WhatsApp, but we did have a really good, um, email, um, subscription list, which were not necessarily our customers, but they were like, you know, subscribed to get like, um, blog, like our, our, our weekly blog and just a lot of our content. As a Shopify agency. And so with that, tha…

AI assessment note: “It was definitely first our customers from the Shopify agency”

Q It makes a ton of sense, especially Not having to split focus. It's hard enough to build one startup, and if you had two, it, it's almost impossible. Um, how did the acquisition process go?

A Um, so, honestly, it was, it was, it was great. I mean, like, um, it's not the first time that we're, that we're, that we've been listed on Acquire. The, our first app, um, was Go Shipping, which is a, a shipping platform that connects with all Like, all these shipping labels, and, um, it just, it's for Shopify as well, and it's very Mexico-focused, so, um, it was, it, the difference between GoRecover and GoShipping is GoRecover is super simple, and it works great, you don't need, like, a big tech team, and GoShipping, there's just so many components, so we were listed on, on, on Acquire for that, and it, it just solves the problem, a very unique problem for Mexico, and I just feel like it's really hard to get Acquire for For something so specific in a certain country. And, um, so we already had, like, contact with the platform, um, in Acquire. And, and something that happened with GoRecover is that we, we started getting, um, a lot of, like, traction of, like, people interested in, in, in, in the app. And the funny thing was that, um, we were close to closing a deal with another, uh, another party. And, um, Um, they were interested, and then, um, our final buyer just came out of the blue, I guess, and he was really excited, and was like, please don't close anything, don't sign an LOI, don't, like, just give me a couple weeks. So, the funny thing is that we, we had already been…

AI assessment note: “honestly, it was, it was, it was great.”

Q multiple offers is just a testament to what you built and the process you ran, and that's the best situation to be in because that allows you to maximize the terms and the final valuation of the sale, so I'm happy to hear that. Uh, any hiccups? Any surprises? Any Moments where you're like, oh, is this deal gonna happen, or was it just smooth sailing the whole way through?

A Oh no, definitely. Um, I guess, and like, to be honest, until the money was in our account, I was like, not celebrating at all. Um, this because, um, I feel like we've, we've had, like, moments, not necessarily with GoRecover, but with, like, one of the other apps, or One of our other projects where things were gonna go some, like, this way, and then it ended up going the other way, and sometimes we were very, very close to closing a deal, so I feel like, um, I was just very skeptic, and like, I don't know, this is just too good to be true, because it was going so smooth, and I was like, I'm not even gonna get excited until the money is in our account, and when it happened, it was just, like, amazing, but yeah, I mean, I guess throughout the process, um, Like, if you don't, if you don't get, like, an email from your potential buyer, like, maybe they don't reply in two or three days, it's like, oh my god, is this gonna, is this, like, not gonna happen, or is, they're having second thoughts, and, you know, in, in our case, when this happened, it was like, oh, we were traveling, or whatever, you know, it was something super simple like that, it wasn't even, like, that they were hesitating, it was just something, like, you know, day-to-day, Stuff. But, yeah, for sure, I was, like, sometimes, like, pretty anxious and just trying not to get excited until literally, not even when we s…

AI assessment note: “it was just too good to be true, because it was going so smooth”

Q Okay. I like it. So you had product market bid. The business was growing. It sounds like tons of customers loved it. We're using it. Why did you ultimately decide to sell the business?

A Okay. So kind of going back to why we started, um, this app or why we created it was really testing WhatsApp in general and solving something that was real, like not just doing something with WhatsApp, but actually testing something Or solving something that was real, which were the abandoned carts. Um, so kind of a little bit, I wouldn't say at the same time, but a little bit later after, um, launching GoRecover, we were working on another app, which is called Ready, and it was, it was an app that all of our apps before Ready are, start with Go, like GoRecover, GoRescuePayments, GoTracking, um, So it was like the first app we decided to create completely, um, under a different name, a different brand. Um, all of the other apps had like the Reciclo, which is the agency logo at the bottom. So it was kind of like powered by the agency. And we wanted to create something completely, um, independent from the agency. And we, we had already tested WhatsApp. It worked really well. We speak, we're a little bit more familiar with, um, the integration and everything. And another big issue in, like, e-commerce in general are reviews, and something that is really big in Latin America is that definitely, like, the email is a really hard way, um, to connect with customers nowadays. I wouldn't say it's dead, it's just definitely a lot harder than it was, uh, maybe five, 10 years ago, um, which…

AI assessment note: “we were working on another app, which is called Ready”