June Shopify Tech Partners Event: 'Build, Analyze, Iterate' for Shopify and 'How to Lose $200k in One Day'

How better to kick-off the summer season than with a Shopify Tech Partners Meetup – and June’s event had our biggest turnout to date.

Judge.me HQ was packed to the brim and buzzing last Tuesday, as members of the tech scene from across the UK and further afield descended on Old Street for an evening of fantastic talks, knowledge-sharing, networking, chit-chat, and (of course) the traditional visit to the pub.

The magic formula

Mat de Sousa, founder and CEO of The Wide Company, was first up with his talk on using the ‘Build, Analyze, Iterate’ method for Shopify apps.

He explained how to look at Shopify app creation and development as a cycle. You need to start by building an MVP and setting qualitative and quantitative data metrics. (You can use ChatGPT to help.) Then, Mat said, move on to analyze your performance and look for improvements.

The key is growing a SaaS business is to make sure ‘it sucks a bit less every day’, Mat says. That’s great advice.

Money troubles

And how do you lose $200,000 in a day? Let’s be honest: it’s probably not a question you’ve ever asked yourself. (The very thought might make you feel a bit faint.) But Kyle Dutka managed to do just that, organising a concert with a Canadian band that made a crashing financial loss.

But Kyle’s story has a happy ending. In fact, it was a modern-day fable about resilience and growth. Because he bounced back from the experience smarter and wiser, and believes it made him the successful agency founder he is today.

And during a lively Q&A, he also shared his three Ps – the aspects of his agency he's focusing on most. They are Positioning, Partnerships and Profit.

Some news

And we shared a few bits of news. We’ve now released slick new designs for the Verified Reviews Counter and All Reviews Text, and we’re now on Square App Marketplace!

We’ve also got a new review keywords feature incoming. Our merchants will be be able to show a searchable list of the top words used in their reviews, so that shoppers can see what others are saying at a glance.

Thank you to everyone who came to the event and engaged with our speakers. We hope you learned a ton and enjoyed yourselves. You can find the presentation shared by the speakers here.

Register here for our next event.  We’ll be hosting the amazing Emili Horncastle of Zapiet at the end of this month. Don’t miss out.

And get in touch with us if you'd like to be one of our guest speakers or featured on our Spotlight blog series (or if you just feel like having a chat).

Until next time.

The Judge.me Team