Newsletter #5: Shopify Ventures, a $1.4M ARR Shopify app for sale and my handmade wooden stool

Hi there,

I hope you're feeling good.

In last week’s edition, I shared beautiful desk setups from all around the world.

Today I’d like to share my own setup.

My setup is composed of:

• A Flexispot standing desk, allowing me to work standing up most of the day

• An Acer Swift 14” laptop

• An HP Full HD 21.5” monitor (which I usually put on its own articulated arm so that I can move it easily)

• A Logitech MX Keys Mini keyboard

• A Logitech MX Master 3 Advanced mouse

• A lovely plant offered by my brother’s girlfriend

• A mosaïc bull bought whilst I was in holidays in Alicante, Spain

• Two little wood rectangles cut during my last wood workshop

• A dice for luck

Here is how I’m going to improve this setup in the upcoming months:

• Replace the laptop: unfortunately my Acer Swift is dying. Despite a brand new battery, it only works when on charge. I have no idea which laptop I’ll get next. If you have any recommendations, feel free to answer to this email.

• Replace the monitor: I’m going to buy a 34” monitor. This will make my workflow more practical as I’ll be able to have three windows next to each other (design, code, result) without moving my head too much. It’s improvements like this one that really reduce body pain in the long term.

In today’s edition, we're discussing Shopify Ventures, a $1.4M ARR Shopify app for sale and my handmade wooden stool.

Let's dive in.

Work

Shopify has been investing in companies in the commerce ecosystem for a while.

On June 28th, 2023, they released a website to present this activity and gather all those investments under one common banner: Shopify Ventures.

With Shopify Ventures, Shopify wishes to invest in the founders with visions that will define commerce for the next 100 years.

This announcement was very well received: the post I wrote about it on LinkedIn got 2,300+ likes and 390,000+ impressions.

Which companies did Shopify invest in? And how much?

Unfortunately, most of the time, the exact amount that Shopify invested is not public. So we shall content ourselves with only the names of the companies and the amounts of the investment rounds.

Let’s discover together some of the investments made by the Ventures team:

• Codat: Shopify participated in Codat’s $100 million Series C funding round. Codat works with fintech companies and financial institutions to help them connect to the systems their small business customers use.

• Gorgias: Shopify participated in the customer service platform’s $30 million Series C funding round.

• Klaviyo: Shopify invested $100 million in Klaviyo. I’m guessing that this amount was disclosed to show how much trust Shopify is putting in Klaviyo and how strong their partnership is. It’s worth noting that Klaviyo has a privileged early access to in-development Shopify features.

• Loop: Shopify participated in the return management app’s $65 million Series B funding round.

• Nomba: Shopify participated in the African payment service provider’s $30 million pre-Series B investment.

• Sanity: Shopify invested an undisclosed amount in Sanity. The two companies are very close: Sanity is the first CMS to integrate with Shopify’s headless framework Hydrogen.

• Triple Whale: Shopify participated in the data platform’s $25 million Series B funding round.

• Wati: Shopify participated in Wati’s $23 million Series B funding round. Wati is a WhatsApp API solution that helps businesses connect with their customers through WhatsApp. It allows merchants to manage and track their interactions with customers, automate communication and create custom workflows.

You think Shopify should invest in your company? Email the Ventures team at [email protected].

Learn more about Shopify Ventures on their website.

Inspire

To deepen my knowledge about Shopify apps, I always keep an eye on the startup acquisition marketplace acquire.com (ex Micro Acquire).

On June 15th, 2023, whilst I was scrolling the Shopify apps listed for sale, I discovered one of the most impressive apps I had ever seen.

This Shopify app was for sale for $9.9 million. Yes, you read that right!

Here are some key facts about this app:

• Founded in 2016

• Team of 2 people

• $128K net profit last month

• $1.4 million ARR

• Annual growth rate of 52%

• 7,500 paying customers

• 50% of their customers are Shopify Plus stores

By reading the app’s niche details on its listing page, it was very easy to guess which Shopify app it was.

What an impressive journey for those 2 founders! And it’s funny to think that I’m part of their customers, as I have used their app on one of my clients’ store.

I was so excited to see if/when it would sell!

Unfortunately, when I checked the app’s listing page again on July 2nd, 2023, the app had been unlisted. The page now says “This startup has been unlisted. Unfortunately, the founder has unlisted this startup from the marketplace.”

I’ll keep an eye open to see if there are any updates about this Shopify app in the future.

Explore

One of the things that brought me the most joy this year was building my own wooden stool.

When I was living in Lille in the north of France for 3 months, I participated in a one-day workshop in a fablab. It was just the teacher, two other students for the day and me.

I had such an amazing time!

It’s so exciting and incredibly rewarding to build something with my own hands.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for reading this edition until the end.

I'll talk to you soon.

Take good care of yourself.

Coralie