This Simple App Sparked a Buyer Competition

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I'm here with Renata Rea, the co founder of gorecover. Renata, how you doing today?

I'm doing good, thank you.

Thanks so much for coming on the podcast and congrats again on the recent acquisition. Before we dive into that, do you want to just give a brief introduction for those that may not know you?

Sure. So I co founded about maybe a little bit over 10 years ago a Shopify agency called Tricyclo here, based in Mexico City. And, and that was kind of the start of moving into the app space in Shopify, was working on different Shopify store developments and then noticing certain opportunities that might be covered in other countries, but not necessarily for Mexico or Latin America specifically. So that's when my co founder and I started exploring maybe like six or seven years ago, the app space. And we've been creating apps ever since.

Nice. Tell me about gorecover. What problem did it solve? What's the brief background on that?

Yeah, so gorecover actually solved a very specific problem which is recovering abandoned cards or any anyone that abandons the checkout. So that was really the only. That was the main problem that we were solving and it was really a very functionality based app which solved specifically that. But what, what made it interesting because I know there's a lot of ways to recover a Shopify cart and the main one used worldwide would be through email. But what was different, and especially at that time, which I think we started it like maybe three and a half years ago, if I'm not mistaken, was the WhatsApp component. So while other apps were doing it through email, we were doing it by WhatsApp. And it really started because of two things. One, it's just a problem for any E commerce that we see. It's about like, it's a very high percentage of carts that are abandoned and that are never recovered. So we just wanted to see if with WhatsApp, which is the main way of communicating here in Mexico, in Latin America in general. So if we were to use that component instead of email, would that be a better way of communicating with the customer? And it was two things. So we were solving that specific problem, but at the same time we were testing WhatsApp in general. So that's kind of how we came about Gorecover testing WhatsApp and solving a big issue in E commerce, which is abandoned carts. And it worked really, really well. It was a super simple app. We didn't really do any major fixes throughout each years. I mean there were a few obviously, but it was just very standard, very straightforward, simple to use. And our customers were recovering about 20% of their abandoned carts. So that worked great for our customers as well.

Wow, that's incredible. What was the business model for the business?

So it was a subscription model, but it also had a variable component which is each message. So what talk. The cost of each message. Meta has cost for the type of message, which for, if I'm not mistaken for go recover. It was a marketing message, but it also depends on the country that you're in. So what we did is we have a. We had a, like a markup for every message that we. That we sent to recover a. A cart or abandoned cart, we had a markup. So that was like the variable income that we had. But it was basically a subscription model.

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

So we stuck with Shopify. So we didn't leave the Shopify space. That's one thing. Definitely WhatsApp was, was quite new at the time. So I would probably say, yeah, definitely the integration with WhatsApp, which was new. We knew like all the Shopify APIs pretty well. I mean, we were still kind of learning about them, but. 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. With Meta. And actually at that time when we started developing this, the 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 that point for the WhatsApp API.

Nice. How'd you get the first customers? Were they maybe clients of yours? Did you cold email ads? What does that.

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 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, obviously, because it's an agency. And although we did have like a lot of customers throughout the years, it's an agency that has developed over 700 Shopify stores. So we did have a pretty good customer base of like, emails and just their contact. But I Guess you could say we needed to grow and go out there a little bit more just to keep acquiring because customers. Because, I mean, in the initial launch it was kind of easy, but then you get stuck when you don't continue to look a different way. So we did develop throughout the years as well, a pretty good email base. Like, it's kind of a contradiction because we were on WhatsApp, but we did have a really good email subscription list, which were not necessarily our customers, but they were like, you know, subscribe to get like blog, like our weekly blog, and just a lot of our content as a Shopify agency. And so with that, that led us, that allowed us to grow as well. And then we tried a little bit of meta ads, like Instagram ads, Facebook ads. We didn't do that well with that. It was. It was. I think it was pretty complicated, but I mean, everything kind of like just adds up. And we did a little bit of Google Ads, but I would definitely say our email list was a big part of it. The agency was a big part in. In the beginning, like, just moving forward. It wasn't. It was in our way of acquiring customers. And what we. What did work pretty well as well is the Shopify ads. Like app ads within the App Store. That, that. I mean, they're. They're not. They're not cheap at all, but they're pretty effective. So that also helped us grow.

Yeah, building in another company's App Store can be awesome because you get the distribution built in. So if you're serving Shopify customers, would you see a lot of Shopify users coming over because they find you in the App Store?

Yeah, definitely. So you do get organic app installs. But also something that was great, which I completely forgot right now, is we were featured as, like, I don't remember, like, the exact name, but featured as one of the most installed apps or most relevant apps within the region. So it wouldn't go out worldwide. But if you were like, navigating through the Shopify App Store in Mexico, in Colombia, in maybe Chile, you would find us as a featured app, which that was because of all the installs in a certain region that allowed us to kind of like, move forward and be featured. That also helped a lot as well.

Nice. Is there any, like, App Store optimization that you can do? Can you focus. 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? Maybe they have a Shopify app for sure.

So something that works really, really well, is definitely reviews. So the more reviews you have, the higher up in the listings you appear. 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 does, all that information. Description is very, very important for you to appear in different searches and different categories and just on the level of how high up in the list you appear. And that has to do with obviously your wording 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 in images are also very, very important and something that we've actually never done, but I know it's really, really good for your listing, which is great advice, is having a demo store. So having an actual store that works. I mean, it's obviously a demo store, so you're not really selling anything. But to see the app in action, 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, your cart is waiting for you, or your shopping cart is waiting for you. Something like that. And that allows you to test and see how the app works. So that's some great advice we've got. We didn't actually do it for this app, but I guess, like, just some extra tip that works really well as well.

Got it. So Avid Demo Store.

That's Avid Demo Store, definitely. Yeah.

Okay, I like it. So you had product market fit. The business was growing. It sounds like tons of customers loved it, were using it. Why did you ultimately decide to sell the business?

Okay, so kind of going back to why we started 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 launching gorecover, we were working on another app, which is called Revy. And it was. It was an app that all of our apps before Revy are start with go, like, go recover, go rescue payments, go tracking. So it was like the first app we decided to create completely under a different name, a different brand. All of the other apps had, like, the Tresico, 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 independent from the agency. And we, we had already tested WhatsApp. It worked really well. We were a little bit more familiar with the integration and everything. And another big issue in like e commerce in general are reviews. And something that is really big in, in Latin America is that definitely, like the email is really hard way to connect with customers nowadays. I wouldn't say it's dead. It's just definitely a lot harder than it was maybe five, 10 years ago, which was the best way to communicate with your customers. And so SMS in Mexico, Latin America is not very strong. WhatsApp is definitely big go to. So we created again a pretty simple but. But a lot more robust app around reviews, which is called Ready. And when we saw like the opportunity and just within the WhatsApp space, what you could deal with with WhatsApp and communicate with your customer, we just started creating more functions, some that we had already tested on a very like, I would call, like, small function app, which is Go Recover. So the go, the recover, the cart recovery worked great. It was super simple. So we added that component to Revi. We created a whole marketing feature where you have like flows, which is kind of like, I would say like an email marketing app or platform like any of the big ones like mailchimp or Klaviyo. We're definitely not that size. But all those flows, automatic flows and campaigns that you can send is kind of like what we created in Revy within Revy. And then we created all the like, different features that we had created for a simple app, which is great. And let me also clarify that having an app that solves just one small issue in the Shopify app Store is amazing because you might not be able to charge like a big amount like a monthly subscription, but you can get a lot of customers charging, I don't know, like $19 subscription each month or $9 or $5 and just solve a small issue. But what we wanted to create was something a lot bigger. And that's what we did with, with Revy. And we, we just wanted to keep growing that. And that's the idea of selling Gorecover just to be able to completely focus on Revy. And yeah, I guess that was the main reason why because in the end it's. It's such a simple app and our buyer was like, really excited once he got like his actual hands on it and like kind of exploring. He was like, I love the app. It's super simple. It's well done, it works great, the customers are happy. So just kind of clarifying that again, like you don't have to build something very big. It just has to solve an actual problem and work pretty good. I mean, I don't even think like tech wise, it's amazing, you know what I mean? Like, it just worked well.

Yeah, I love that. It sounds like you had bigger ambitions for another project and you wanted to see someone take over this one and give it the love and care that it deserves for sure.

And something that happened or that we decided was we took it to a certain level pretty organically. I mean, we did do all these actions, I'm saying, but a lot of it was very organic. So we were like, what if someone takes this and they actually put in the time, the money to grow it? I'm sure they can do so much more. Which we just didn't have like the time to grow something that kind of was already inside our new project. But, but at the end it's not the same thing. So we definitely needed to like just focus on one thing and knew that someone, that someone could do so much more with the app than what we could do at this time.

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. How did the acquisition process go?

So honestly, it was, it was, it was great. I mean like, it's not the first time that we're, that we're, that we've been listed on Acquire. Our first app was Go Shipping, which is a, a shipping platform that connects with like all these shipping labels and it just, it's for Shopify as well and it's very Mexico Focus. So it was. The difference between gorecover and Go Shipping is. Gorecover is super simple and it works great. You don't need like a big tech team and Go Shipping, there's just so many components. So we were listed on, on, on Acquire for that. And it just solves the problem, a very unique problem for Mexico. And I just feel like it's really hard to get acquired for something so specific in certain country. And so we already had like contact with the platform in Acquire. And something that happened with Gorecover is that we started getting a lot of traction of people interested in the app. And the funny thing was that we were close to closing a deal with another party and they were interested and then 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 working a couple of months, I would say, with like, the acquisition process with the other party. And. And this was super fast. Like, it was just like everything kind of. Yeah, I guess everything was, like, flowing. Everything was just super smooth. And we got an amazing offer. Like, I feel it was someone that understood perfectly, like, the market and the space. And really that was kind of like why we decided to go with this, which is, I mean, like, not showing off, but having two great offers.

On.

An app like this is just super rewarding. And both parties were amazing. We just got a better offer and things went really, really smooth in the second offer, and that's how we closed the deal. But in general, I feel like everything was super smooth, super fast. The process is really straightforward. And something also that was great is our buyers their second time buying through acquiring. Through acquire. So he also knew the process pretty well. And that just made things also 10 times easier, I guess, 100%.

I love to hear that too. And I think you having 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 evaluation of the sale. So I'm happy to hear that. Any hiccups, any surprises, any moments where you're like, oh, is this deal going to happen? Or was it just smooth sailing the whole way through?

Oh, no, definitely. I guess, to be honest, until the money was in our account, I was like, not celebrating at all this because I feel like we've had moments, not necessarily with Gorecover, but with one of the other apps or one of our other projects where things were going to go some like this way and then ended up going the other way. And sometimes we were very, very close to closing a deal. So I feel like 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 going to 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, 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 going to. Is this, like, not going to happen or is they're having second thoughts. And you know, 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, it's sometimes like pretty anxious and just trying not to get excited until literally not even when we signed, like over the deal or anything. Like literally when the money was in our account, I was like, okay, so this actually happened.

That's smart. Acquisitions are hard. They're. They're a full circle of emotions. There's ups and there's downs. And we say the same thing. Don't celebrate until the money's in your bank.

So for sure. And something else that's real that happened to us was when you're transferring all your assets and everything, it's like, what if they look into, I mean, there was obviously a technical due diligence, but when they actually see everything, it's like, oh, this is way too simple. Because it is a very simple app. You know what I mean? So it's like, what if they look at the tech stack a little bit deeper and it's like, okay, so this is just too simple and more than what I imagined. Or I don't know, like, you just start like creating these ideas in your head. But actually they were super excited with what they received and, and what they purchased, I guess, or what they acquired and none of that happened. But yeah, I guess we had these ideas that the deal could fall.

It's a valid concern. I hear from founders all the time that say that. But it's important to remember what you're selling and what the buyer is acquiring. And it's really the brand and the customer and the profitability and the distribution. You can't copy those things overnight for sure. What did you do to celebrate? You out to dinner? Did you go back to work or did. What did you do to celebrate?

So our, I mean, my, my co founder, he doesn't live in Mexico City at this time, so we haven't actually celebrated together. He sent me an amazing bottle of tequila and later on I sent him a bottle of champagne. So I guess we kind of just celebrated on our own, but we definitely owe each other, like a good proper celebration. And yeah, I guess it's just a lot of years, a lot of work, and we definitely need like a proper celebration and the next time we see each other.

I completely agree. You both Accomplish what pretty much every entrepreneur dreams of doing. So I hope you guys absolutely celebrate the founder. Go ahead.

Oh yeah. And I guess like another part of the celebration for me it was kind of sharing it with obviously, I mean with the team as well. Like we had like a certain compromise with the development team as well. And just sharing it with like family and stuff. And being able to share that acquisition was also pretty cool.

Makes all the long nights and just tough moments completely worth it.

Yeah, for sure.

If a founder came to you and they were looking to sell their business, what's a piece of advice or two you think you'd give them?

Um, I guess I would say like, I mean they already have a product. That might not be the best, best advice, but just keeping it simple. I think that that's really good. And if you're deciding or thinking about selling something for the due diligence process, the more structured and kind of just having everything in place makes it so much easier. I've been in different due diligence process. I mean for the agency, for example, we. I mean that's a completely different story. But it was so many years. It's just so much work into a due diligence that we, that I worked on, I think it was last year. So I guess just keeping everything simple, super organized and structured, that makes the due diligence a lot easier. And I feel like if it's your kind of like only focus at the time, it makes it a lot easier. I mean a lot harder to sell. But just kind of like do the math. Like how many years are you, are you receiving up front, I guess your MRI or your ar and just check if it makes sense. I mean, I feel like it depends for everyone if it's two years, three years, five years, it just depends on the stage that you're at. But for us it just when we did that those numbers, it just completely made sense that it was time.

Makes a ton of sense. It's great advice. That's all the questions I got. What does the next year look like for you? What's next?

So we're completely focused on Revy, which is our other platform that we're working on. And it's also something that's different with Revi. It's not only for Shopify. It works with other e commerce platforms. So really really focused on that. We grew 220% last year, so kind of going for a similar strong goal this year. And so really just focused on that and acquisition of like new customers for that platform. And hopefully we'll see each other again with another acquisition in a couple of years.

I love it. Renata, Congrats again on the acquisition. Excited to see you. Keep building and if people want to reach out to you and maybe follow your story online, where can they find you?

I guess the best ways. I mean on LinkedIn it's Renatare is my last name. Or on Instagram at R E R a Y A. Awesome.

I'll put that in the show notes. Thanks again for coming on Renata. And congrats again on the acquisition.

Thank you so much. Hope to see you soon.