How Two Owls started

Impact-Site-Verification: f09d3305-c136-410c-a729-5d955beafe32

It was one cold day in December in Hanoi late in the evening. There and then, it went through. I didn't think much about the submit button which turned out to have such a powerful force to change me. Thinking back, I did my best and the button did its best.

That's how I launched my first solo app on the Shopify App store. I wish I could describe vividly what it looked like outside and around, I just can't. At that time, I wasn't even expecting much that someone would welcome the app. Yet, it flourishes, even though crippling at times, into the most beautiful things I've ever had. Users, friends, and money of course.

If you're expecting a hero, a milestone, a crisis, and moral of the story, and all the things of the sort, this is not it. It's just a story of an ordinary guy who trusts the process. Today, the app has welcomed 50k+ installs, and many stories to tell.

1. The one-page app

An app, or a skeleton?

We started very small, to say the least. To give you a better understanding, I did the mockup, I coded the app myself. There was no Conversion API whatsoever.

The holy purpose of the app was to help merchants install a pixel to their entire store or specific pages.

The app setting was so simple that it didn't take a second tab. One pixel dashboard, that's it. You input the pixel ID, select the page and it's done.

That was too fast. 😄

What did I do? I added the pixel title. Not that I wanted to bug users with more redundant steps, I just wanted an onboarding experience where it takes long enough to feel that this is an app.

I was a pure dev back then. The app is my very first baby.

Yet, my first review was 1 star.

The review read something like this: for such a super duper ssssssimple app, you're not allowed to slow down my site.

Bam. Hurt.

It's still there. I didn't have a chance to fix it.

I thought I didn't care, but sad was an understatement to describe the feeling.

Before I knew it, I was competent at google translate. I talked to a Russian guy who gave us 1* for bad performance. I fixed it. He upgraded to 4*.

2. Helping hands

A helping hand

Even though the app gradually grew beyond my expectation, something wasn't right, I just didn't know what. At times, I even questioned if sending enough events was what advertisers really needed. Am I fixing real or imagined pain points?

I didn't have to ask "so what" for long. Things took a turning point when my boss took me to a dropshipping guy who's a veteran Facebook Ads guy.

He told me to send events this way, that way. Eventually, more valuable events.

I changed right away. The app got its first 5 stars. That tiny first win was just a start that brought me on a roller coaster of emotion.

Things gradually changed

In the evenings, I started hanging out with dropshipping merchants within my circle.

My computer screen changed from a color palette full of code to a home to every merchant community I could find.

It was a summer day. I was on the train to a province some 200 km away from Hanoi, not knowing that I was about to step into something different, yet very real, hot, and a lot.

3. The warehouse

The warehouse of dreams

My friend led me into the warehouse. I've never seen a clothing warehouse this big. He has a Shopify clothing brand, an end-to-end supply chain and he's the biggest distributor in town.

"There are some small guys whose orders won't make a big difference to my revenue, but I chose not to leave them. They're me some years ago. People helped me. I have to pay it forward".

As I watched the packages going in and out, people were sweating but so focused on what they were doing, I found myself in awe.

I started to think like a merchant, bit by bit. For a long time, "pay it forward" lingered within me.

4. Conversion API and more

Conversion API came along

Things were going well until IOS 14 slapped us in the face. I added CAPI in 5 weeks. Paid extra attention to event quality. We're one of those leading guys at the time. I was welcoming more customers than ever. We now had a bigger CS team. Reviews were popping up faster than ever.

Before long, we got copycats.

Ramping up

If copycats were pushing us to do something new and better, users were the ones pulling us to build a better ad performance report.

We can't just stop at Pixel and Conversion API. After you have accurate tracking, you seek accurate attribution. That’s how the nice little Ads Report is now sitting in the app, beside pixels.

5. Reflection

Get unstuck

Now that almost 3 years have passed since that button moment, I'm now reading our customer tickets daily.

If you were to ask what makes me happy, it's not the reviews, it's seeing merchants deliberately tell their friends just because the app does a good job.

Today, standing here, our product is still not perfect. If you need key takeaways, I have only this to tell you:

This app is for everyone, the starter, the dreamer, and the one who trusts the process, and who takes one step forward despite all. Just like you, we started from scratch. All I did was hit one button. It's okay not to know how to get your tracking right from the outset when you're wearing all the hats. But doing it right will make all the difference.

One.button.at.a.time.

You need just a bit of help.

Welcome onboard 🙂