3 Hard Lessons I learned From Launching a Shopify App

0:00This is a huge day for me and I just couldn't wait to share it with you. So, if you watch this channel, you might remember earlier this year back in January, I was talking about wanting to build a Shopify app. And I actually spent like all of 2025 [music] figuring out how to build a Shopify app. And literally the day before Thanksgiving [music] last month, I got the email from Shopify that my app submission has been approved. So, you are looking at the proud owner of a new Shopify app right here. Now, this is not just a win for me. It's also a win for you because in

0:29this video, I'm going to be sharing with you three of the biggest lessons I [music] learned in building and launching this app so you can go on and build your own Shopify app or build pretty much whatever app you're trying to build. Because regardless of what you're doing, if you're a developer [music] looking to build your own products, this is going to be a valuable video for you. All right, let's get into it. Okay, lesson number one, learn from other people's code. Now, I know we're living in the age of AI and everybody thinks it's cool to just vibe code everything. You just want to go ask

1:01ChatGBT and Gemini to build out your app for you. I get it. It works sometimes, [music] but I think you need to spend some time understanding what those before you have done to solve problems that you're going to have. [music] So in my case, I was building my app, my Shopify app using this package from Shopify called Shopify App Express, but it stopped working for me. And after doing some research, I found out that Shopify has officially stopped supporting that package. This is something they do sometimes. They'll put out a package for people to use and then they'll stop supporting. even their most recent app templates like the remix

1:40template, they no longer support it and tell [music] people to migrate over to their new thing. Shopify loves doing that. So, I decided instead of being taken for a ride by the Shopify app development team, I'm going to study what some of the other app developers in the [music] space are doing. So, after doing some research, I found this post from King, legendary Shopify developer, and he had an open-source express repo for Shopify apps. I actually took the time to read through it and understand how he's doing certain things. And after doing that, I got a much more solid understanding of how to do the building

2:18blocks of Shopify app development. [music] stuff like handling ooth and security, setting up databases, setting up Polaris, understanding how to use Shopify app bridge and how to connect to their GraphQL API. Pretty much all the basics behind Shopify app [music] development. So, if you're building a Shopify app, highly recommend studying Kings repo. Or if you're building an app for a different platform or outside of platforms like with your own idea, just spend some time studying what other app developers in that space have done so that you can get an understanding of what you should do. Now, if you want to make this whole process go even faster,

3:01you can actually set up the GitHub [music] MCP with whatever AI tools you're using. So, if you're using Cursor or Klein, it's easy to set up the MCP. And the GitHub MCP actually allows you to grab the content from a GitHub repo and study it and then have AI explain to you what's happening in that repo. So, it's a really good way to get a good understanding of what's happening in a repo quickly so that you can, you know, [music] spend the time understanding what goes before you have done in the most efficient way possible. Either that or you can just grab some code from the

3:38repo you're trying to understand, pass it [music] into chat GBT directly or whatever AI tool you're using and have it explain it to you. Definitely spend some time doing that. Promise [music] you it's a good use of your time. Lesson number two, stick to your MVP. Man, this was a hard one for me. For sure it was a hard one for me. So, when I was building out my app, my app is actually a bundle builder that allows people to set up their own mix and match bundles. When I was building it, I took a lot of inspiration from another Shopify app called [music] Boxy. So, Boxy is a

4:14bundle building Shopify app. And I actually installed Boxy on a development store. I was trying to get a better understanding of how they did certain things. And I was [music] amazed by the different things Boxy was doing. But the problem is Boxy has been around for a long time, [music] right? So I was sitting there trying to do things the way Boxy is doing it. So Boxy has a dynamic bundle builder like the one you see on the screen for my app, but then they also have like this guided gift box experience like you can see right here on the screen where it's like a stepwise

4:48thing. So you select all your products for one step, it takes you to the next step, right? That's something that I actually wanted to build into my app, too, because I thought it was really cool. But here's the problem. I needed to stick to my MVP. Now, this was really hard for me because I was comparing myself to Boxy and some of the other big apps in the space, thinking, I need to add more to make this a compelling offer for merchants to want to download. Like, no one's going to want to download my app that only does one thing if the other apps are doing more things at a

5:21comparable price [music] point. So, I felt this pressure to add as much as possible to my app. But when you're building something for the very first time, the more complicated things you add to it, the longer it takes you. It already took me nearly 6 months to build out this app by myself. If I added more complex features to [music] it, like advanced analytics, a guided building experience, and all these other things I could have added, it would [music] have taken me probably like over a year to build out the app. And to be honest, I might have spent a year building something that no one is going [music]

5:51to use anyway. So, I needed to stick to my core MVP. So, I recommend [music] that to you as well. Stick to your core MVP. Lesson number three, building your first app is a marathon, not a [music] sprint. A lot of the app developers that I follow, we're all talking about how you should build your app MVP in a weekend, and you should only take a month or two weeks to build it. And if you're taking more than a month, you're doing a [music] too complicated of an idea. Yeah, maybe. But I think that advice is for people that already

6:21[music] have experience building apps. If you're building something for the first time, you can't expect yourself [music] to build it out in just a month. I put so much pressure on myself to try to build my app in just a month. And guess what? It took 6 months because I needed to figure out how to do this thing. That five extra months of building wasn't me just being incompetent and [music] a failure. That was me paying the tuition of time it would take to learn how to build an app [music] because I had no idea what I was doing. So the people that say things like you should build your MVP in a

6:55weekend or in just a few days or in a month, those people already understand how to build the type of app they're building. So they can move fast. But for you, especially if you're not an experienced developer with back-end skills and front-end skills together, it might take a long time. And that's okay. It is a marathon, not a sprint, my friends. And with that in mind, this is something that I actually recommend to you. [music] So, on the screen right here, you'll notice there are a bunch of post-its I have on the wall. I actually ran a 75day challenge with the goal of building my app. Now, this 75day

7:30challenge was so effective for me, but I can't believe I've never done this before. It was the most effective thing that I've done in the last 3 years of trying things as a developer. [music] If I had stumbled upon this earlier, I could have made so many more advancements in my career faster because a 75day challenge forces consistency and it forces you to look at the progress you're actually making. So, if you've never run a challenge before for yourself, I recommend trying it out if you're building an app or whatever it is you're trying to do. You don't need to do a full 75 days like me. For you, it

8:05can be 15 days, 30 days, whatever. just 75 was the number that I wanted to commit to. And I actually have a video talking about how I ran the 75day [music] challenge that will be coming out very soon. So, make sure you're subscribed to the channel so you [music] don't miss that. But those are the three biggest lessons I learned. Now, of course, I learned other things during this process, too, [music] that I will be talking about on the channel. All

8:31right. Well, that's all I got for you. But if you're watching this video, you're probably interested in building Shopify apps. And if you are, check out this video to the left, right here, bottom left, where I talk about the ugly, dirty truth about building Shop by apps that no one wants to talk about. If you're interested in knowing what I mean by that, click the video. Can't wait to see you in there. If you're interested in knowing what I mean about that, go ahead, click the video. you definitely don't want to miss out