I began as a freelance developer in March 2019. A couple of years in, I became fascinated with app development. After discovering the concept from a podcast interview with Louis Marty of Merci Handy, I pitched an app idea to my friend Karim: a progress bar that would display cart value goals — like free shipping thresholds.
In November 2020, Karim, experienced JavaScript developer Yann, and I joined Shopify's Hack Friday Weekend hackathon. The trio launched Upsell Progress Bar on January 20, 2021. Karim handled backend development, Yann managed the frontend code, and I oversaw customer support, marketing, and communications.
When Karim departed in October 2021, Yann acquired his equity stake — holding 65% while I retained 35%. The team achieved $1,000 in monthly recurring revenue by August 2022 and received app store homepage features, though we faced two delistings and struggled with user churn.
After 2.5 years of dedicating evenings and weekends, my motivation diminished. Having previously discussed exit plans with Yann, I sold my share to him in May 2023. Yann continues developing the app independently with freelance support.
Reflecting on this experience, I can say that it's never been easier to build a Shopify app. The tooling, the documentation, the community — it's all there.
If you're thinking of building a Shopify app: just do it. The worst that can happen is that you learn a lot and decide to move on. That's exactly what I did — and I have zero regrets.
I'm already thinking about my next one.