In 2015, Andrew Le and Tu Pham took a massive gamble. They bought Edit Order, a distressed Shopify app drowning in 1-star reviews and technical debt, for just $240K (2x revenue).
The kicker? Within the first week, they had a 6-hour outage that nearly killed the business.
Ten years later, they've transformed it into Cleverific, one of the most successful order editing apps in the Shopify ecosystem, processing thousands of transactions daily for merchants worldwide.
In This Episode:
- The exact acquisition strategy they used (including seller financing tactics)
- Why they bought at 2x revenue when today's apps sell for 5-10x
- The "strangler fig" approach to rebuilding legacy code without disrupting service
- How they turned 10% churn into industry-leading retention
- The critical first email that saved their reputation on day one
- Why their first hire was customer support (not a developer)
- The brutal reality of Shopify's API changes and platform risk
- How 75% of their original competitors disappeared from the app store
Key Timestamps:
00:00 - The 6-hour outage that almost ended everything
00:42 - Meet the founders who gambled on a distressed app
04:08 - Why Edit Order was "infamous" at Shopify HQ
05:44 - The MicroConf connection and FE International discovery
07:02 - "$240K for 10K MRR" - Breaking down the acquisition deal
09:16 - Day 1 disaster: The billing account nobody knew about
11:41 - The 100-day turnaround plan
12:46 - "Strangler fig" approach to rebuilding without downtime
14:26 - Surviving Shopify's shifting sands
17:35 - The #1 mistake new app developers make
Guest Links:
Cleverific - Smart order editing for Shopify
https://cleverific.com
Sponsors:
Swym - Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, & more
getswym.com/kurt
Zipify - Build high-converting sales funnels
zipify.com/KURT
Cleverific - Smart order editing for Shopify
https://cleverific.com
Work With Kurt:
Apply for Shopify Help
ethercycle.com/apply
See Our Results
ethercycle.com/work
Free Newsletter
kurtelster.com
*The Unofficial Shopify Podcast explores the real stories behind successful Shopify businesses. Get actionable insights from entrepreneurs who've built, bought, and scaled ecommerce empires.*
#shopify #saas #acquisition
