How Glowtify Reached 150 Free Users After $200K Investment While Awaiting Shopify Launch (Interview with CEO Marc Allard)

Introduction and Walter Interactive Overview

Nathan Latka

00:00Guys, his ecommerce agency, Walter Interactive, hit a million dollars in revenue last year with 15 full time employees. He now has launched a SaaS company inside of that company. It's it's he spun it out. It's called glowtify.com. Think of it almost like the ClickFunnels for ecommerce and Shopify. He's waiting on Shopify's approval of the app. He spent about $200,000 on it so far. We've got a 150 free users getting ready to launch pricing publicly where he's

00:22gonna charge a $100 per month per store. I predict big things for him. We'll see what happens next. Hey, folks. My guest today is Marc Allard. He started an ecommerce agency called Walter Interactive in 2014. He's passionate about helping ecommerce merchants and managers succeed by using data to create clear plans and roadmaps for their marketing teams. He draws inspiration from athletes'data driven training plans and aims to bring that approach to the digital space, specifically AI

00:48driven growth for Shopify merchants. He's building this at glowtify.com. Marc, you ready to take us to the top?

Marc Allard

00:54>> Yeah. Thank you. Thanks for the introduction.

Building Walter Interactive Agency Since 2014

Nathan Latka

00:57You bet. Let's start with Walter Interactive, which you founded in 2014. Were you were you selling your own ecommerce goods or you were an agency helping ecommerce brands?

Marc Allard

01:06>> Like, classic service based agency. Yeah.

Nathan Latka

01:10Yeah. Very cool. Okay. So you launched that in 2014. I mean, give me a general sense of how how you built that. I mean, did it get to millions of dollars of revenue or did it stay relatively small?

Marc Allard

01:20>> So we reached the 1,000,000 revenue last year. Of course, with the COVID situation, ecommerce went crazy. So it's sad for many of the customers we had previously, but for many of them also, was really good years online. So the team in Walter is about between fifteen and twenty people, and it's mostly like developers and project managers and designers. Like what you said yeah.

Why Marc Decided to Build Glowtify

Nathan Latka

01:47So when did you decide that it was worth it to invest some of the agency's money to start building a software tool in glowtify?

Marc Allard

01:54>> Yes. So what drives me crazy is, like, I'm from a sports, like, background. And, like, a girlfriend is went to Olympic. And so I'm really I'm really I was really amazed like how how fantastic it is for some e commerce business that can do really, really good online with their e commerce business. But it's fascinating how, when you start working with them, like, they don't have a marketing plan, they don't have, like, a clear roadmap. And

Glowtify Product Vision: Strava for Ecommerce

Marc Allard

02:29>> it's crazy because, like, with Shopify, it gives you all the all the data and everything you you would want to draw like that clear, roadmap. It's basically like you can think of it as, like a Strava for ecommerce stores where, Shopify merchants can start planning, tracking, and adding actions on how and to improve their e commerce business.

02:57>> But yeah. So the

Nathan Latka

02:59You're also providing you're also providing them templates and ideas. Right? You know, use a scavenger hunt to sell more. Use a limited edition product. Use a scratch and win. Use the anti Black Friday deal. These kinds of templates.

Marc Allard

03:10>> Yes. So that's okay. So you went to the website. It's really at the beginning, but we we will publish around like 1,000 templates because like in my own business and

Nathan Latka

03:20Are you building all those templates or are users building them and contributing?

Marc Allard

03:24>> So we are asking other partner agencies to do it and in the future we'll reach to a let's say, Klaviyo to have their own templates. So it's really based like on Figma or Miro. Like, you can you could have like a business templates, ecommerce business template to help merchants. Yeah. Yeah.

Nathan Latka

03:43Now when did you write the first line of code for glowtify?

Marc Allard

03:45>> Oh, yeah. It was two two years ago.

Nathan Latka

03:49Okay. So about 2021?

Early Development and 150 Free Users

Marc Allard

03:51>> Yeah. We learned so much. It's crazy because, like, we are, like, a service based on billing all the hours and doing a product. We learned, like in the catastrophic way how to build the product. But, like right now we are like at around 150 free users and we're learning from them. We're like, it's crazy, but like, the learning from the past two years was really,

04:15>> really painful and crazy.

Nathan Latka

04:18Oh, what's going on there, YouTube? Good to see you guys. Now imagine this. You love watching these interviews with SaaS founders, but imagine if we all of the valuation data out from over 2,807 interviews I've done manually. Saves you a lot of time. Well, we've done this. We've built it into the beautiful interface inside of Founderpath. Check this out. I'll show you how you can access this in a second, but you log in, you connect your

04:41Stripe account, you see your valuation real time. You can see what it changed over the past eighty eight days and even set goals for valuation this year. Now the secret evaluation is there's many different ways to value a SaaS business. So the reason you're gonna see three or four different valuations inside of your Founderpath dashboard, this is all free by the way, is because depending on who's doing the buying of your SaaS company, you're gonna get

05:05a different valuation. A VC is gonna pay a different valuation. Private equity firm is different. If you're gonna do a minority sale, that's different. And if you sell the whole business, that's a different valuation. You can see all those when I hover over here. Right? So the teal is what a VC would pay. Yellow is what private equity And red is if you sold the whole thing outright. Now what's cool about this is this is not

05:27built off random data. Again, you guys hear these interviews on YouTube. All these datas are built from real time valuation data points founder share with us on the show. So traction 1,200,000 seed round 3.7 raise. They sold 22% of their business. Go in here and filter by the event. Maybe you only wanna see companies that have sold the whole business. Well, here are a bunch that have been acquired the valuation and the multiple. Maybe you're going

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Sponsor: Founderpath Valuation Tool

Nathan Latka

06:40Alright. Let's jump back into the interview. So just to be clear, the agency is making all your money right now. Glowtify is still free with a 150 free users.

Marc Allard

06:48>> Exactly. And the Shopify app is in in approval by Shopify. So we went through back and forth with all the GDPR compliance and

Nathan Latka

06:59Yeah. It's the main This is very surprising to me because if people go to glowtify.com, that's glow and then tify.com, the site looks like it could be doing a $100,000,000 a year in revenue. It's very well put together, very well organized. I mean, it looks it looks like you've invested a lot of money building this. Is that accurate?

Marc Allard

07:17>> No. No. No. No. I did like 12 ago. I did exactly what I'm telling all my, like, agency clients to do. Like, I took I took like, I invested a minimum money in the website. I took a WordPress template and I started to write content just to start driving some driving some visitors and

Nathan Latka

07:40So how much how much money did you invest in the site?

Marc Allard

07:44>> Oh, it's a template. I did it myself. So I did I it was like a site project during last Christmas.

Nathan Latka

07:53So no so no money. You used a WordPress template and your time?

Marc Allard

07:56>> WordPress template. Yeah. Can inspect the code. I don't remember the name of the template, but and I took some hours with the designers to we've put, like, $44,000 k on the the logo and tried to add a branding, like, to start because our app was missing some structure. So we invested in the branding.

Nathan Latka

08:18Yep. Okay. So how many folks today are focused full time on glowtify?

Marc Allard

08:23>> So in the glowtify business, there's two developers full time. Me, I'm the agency owner. So what I did is I opened up a pool of actions. I don't know if the proper word word in in in English to have some of the key members in Walter Interactive, the key employees, to help me still grow the agency while me, I can focus on developing the product with the developers on Glowtify.

Nathan Latka

08:49So there's two developers plus you, really three of you guys right now?

Marc Allard

08:52>> Yeah.

Nathan Latka

08:53And when do you launch pricing?

Marc Allard

08:55>> Oh, we hopefully, it's gonna be this month. We're winning the approval of the Shopify app. Like, because with the Shopify app connector, we're gonna build some we already have started the machine learning project. And yeah. So probably this month, if the Shopify app is approved, it's gonna be this month for sure.

Nathan Latka

09:14Very cool. How did you get I mean, how did you build a Shopify app and get approved? I assume that cost money. Right? To investing in engineers.

Marc Allard

09:22>> But it's the same developers. They they were the they were the developers in Walter Interactive, which we transferred them to the business glowtify.

Nathan Latka

09:31Yeah. So so how much are you I guess that's a good question. Right? It's like, you you how much money have you spent on engineering so far to build the Shopify app, the website, etcetera?

Marc Allard

09:41>> Oh, I don't know if it's if I should be proud, but it's about two full salaries, like maybe 200 k.

Nathan Latka

09:51Yep. Yep. Yeah. That's great.

Marc Allard

09:52>> But it supposed to be, like, to be honest, to attract good, high talent in Walter Interactive because it was like WordPress agency and Shopify agency. I think that cutting edge project in those frameworks, in these frameworks, it helped me hire people

10:14>> and onboard them in the Walter Interactive team because they can touch that kind of technology.

Nathan Latka

10:19Yeah. But this isn't just a WordPress template. I mean, you've like, when I go to glowtify.com forward slash roadmap view, right, or a bunch of the other product things you have, OKR framework, goal tracking and automation. These two engineers have built all this in an application. Right?

Agency Funds Glowtify, Shopify Approval Pending

Marc Allard

10:32>> Yes. And I've worked with right now, we are trying to hire a full time product designer because I've I've found, like by chance, someone I love his design on Dribbble. I contacted him and finally I didn't knew at the beginning, but he's in Sri Lanka, so it cost nothing. But like right now, we are at a point where we need to revamp more have more clarity, and we are we are looking for a real product designer

11:02>> with experience in dashboards and

Nathan Latka

11:04This thing already looks amazing though. I guess I don't understand. I mean, you the kind of founder that invests way too much because you wait till it's perfect to launch? I mean, why not start selling this thing now?

Marc Allard

11:14>> Oh, a good question. I know it's probably a mistake. Like, I know I know it. But right now, we are having, like, a lot of fun, and I don't feel comfortable charging for this right now because it's not a question that it's not perfect. It's just that I don't see the value. Maybe because I'm in the space since such a long time in e commerce. When there will be the Shopify connector and we will be able

Website Build and Branding Investment

Marc Allard

11:44>> to attach data to the solutions we provide, like the content, that's amazing. Like, that's a game changer for every month.

Nathan Latka

11:53So so We're waiting on that.

Marc Allard

11:56>> Yes. Yes.

Nathan Latka

11:57Okay. And what do you think your pricing? What are you gonna roll out with? What's the monthly price gonna be?

Marc Allard

12:01>> It's gonna be $100 per month.

Nathan Latka

12:04Okay.

Marc Allard

12:05>> Per store.

Nathan Latka

12:06Per month, per store.

12:07Okay. So you're gonna charge per store instead of per seat or per amount of GMV So or

Marc Allard

12:12>> it's gonna be per store. So there's always gonna be the freemium where, like, Shopify stores can self serve themselves and create their plan. But for the recommendation engine, it's gonna be the paid on the paid plan.

Nathan Latka

12:26Yep. And have you spun this out, Marc, of the agency? Does it have its own cap table?

Marc Allard

12:31>> For evaluation?

Nathan Latka

12:33No. For for glowtify. Does it have its own cap table?

Marc Allard

12:36>> Sorry. What does what what is it a cap table?

Nathan Latka

12:39Have you spun glowtify out of the agency, like, where they're separate companies?

Cap Table and Co-investor Yves-Gabriel Leboeuf

Marc Allard

12:43>> Yeah. It's two separate companies.

Nathan Latka

12:45So who owns glowtify?

Marc Allard

12:47>> So it's a 75% owned by Walter Interactive. And my last founder, who's is Yves-Gabriel Leboeuf, who was who found cofounded Walter Interactive with me. He he maybe you know it, but he he cofounded Flinks, which is like a fintech company. So he reinvested with me. So he's like co owner of the glowtify project.

Nathan Latka

13:14Okay. So so, like, you put in maybe $200,000 from glowtify, he put in 200 k, either you own via Walter Interactive 75% and he owns 25%?

Marc Allard

13:23>> Of the glowtify.

Nathan Latka

13:25Of glowtify. Yeah. Yeah.

Marc Allard

13:27>> But that's not the we can say it like that. Yeah. You can you can agree on that.

Nathan Latka

13:36Well, what's accurate?

Funding Structure and $200K Total Spend

Marc Allard

13:38>> Okay. So we he he he had put 100 k at the start. The project has been already ongoing since when he jump in with me. So at that point, we were at 100 k spend, and now we are we we reached the 200 k.

Nathan Latka

13:56Yep. So you put in money from the agency moving forward?

Marc Allard

13:59>> So right now, the agency is driving the money and investing in glowtify.

Nathan Latka

14:04Is he active? I mean, he actively helping build it every day or he's just a financial partner?

Marc Allard

14:09>> No. He's helping us a lot with his contact and he's he's put us in contact with the good advisors too. He's not on the product side because he's still the CEO of Flinks, but yeah. It's it's like, we didn't announce it yet. Yeah. You're you're maybe the only person in that I don't know that.

Nathan Latka

14:29I I we we like to we like to find everyone the the big winners before they even launch. Right? That's what we like to do.

Marc Allard

14:35>> Yeah. But the dream is really, like, become, like, as easy as it it is to to create a plan in Strava. I don't know if you do sports, but

Nathan Latka

14:46Yeah. No. I make the analogy makes complete sense. I mean, I always look for what I call founder market fit. The fact that you've got a girlfriend or spouse that is an Olympian, you know athletics, and the comparison is, you know, you should be able to plan your Shopify store like you plan your athletic training schedule. Makes tons of sense me.

Marc Allard

15:03>> Yeah. And we can use what is really nice is that we can use the feedback of our own customer in the agency to to make them try the the app. So, yeah, it's it's it's really nice.

Nathan Latka

15:14Really nice. Well, I think I think once you launch pricing on this, my prediction is you're gonna grow very, very fast. I think you guys have a chance of being sort of the ClickFunnels version for Shopify stores. And I hope you go to, you know, from 0 to $50,000,000 in revenue on glowtify very, very fast. That's my prediction.

Marc Allard

15:30>> You're nice. Thank you.

Nathan Latka

15:33Alright. Very good, Marc. We're out of time. Let's wrap up here with the famous five. Number one, what's your favorite book?

Marc Allard

15:39>> Oh, good one. Well, in the past, it was Lance Armstrong.

15:43>> Right now, it's funny.

15:45>> I'm reading a book for managing emotions, like dealing with employees and stuff like that. I don't know. I don't remember the name.

Planned Pricing and Freemium Model

Nathan Latka

15:54Number two, is there a CEO you're following or studying?

Marc Allard

15:59>> Yeah.

16:02>> Yeah. There's a couple of them. Like, I get really inspired by by by my partner with his a Flinks company. What he did is really amazing. The way he approaches the way he approaches all the challenges is amazing and all his feedback, like, it's really amazing.

Nathan Latka

16:23Number three, what's your favorite online tool for building glowtify?

Marc Allard

16:27>> Wow. Wow. Okay. In the past, it like, I've tried a lot Jasper, like Jasper.ai. Now with ChatGPT 3, I have a lot of fun because it's it's killing all the knowledge, like, really, really quick, and I'm even still learning stuff from ecommerce industry through that app. Like, in the past five days, I I got so much stuff with Chatty Liberty, like, it's it's crazy. It's a

Nathan Latka

16:54Number number four. How many hours of sleep do you get every night?

Marc Allard

16:59>> Seven to eight.

Nathan Latka

17:01Seven to eight.

17:02Okay. And what's your situation? Married? Single? Kids?

Marc Allard

17:05>> No kids yet. Soon. But and we're not married. We're happy couples since six years now.

Famous Five: Books, Tools, and Life Advice

Nathan Latka

17:12That's awesome. Okay. And how old are you?

Marc Allard

17:15>> I'm 33.

Nathan Latka

17:1633. Last question.

17:17What's something you wish you knew when you were 20?

Marc Allard

17:23>> Yeah. Good question. With it would be like like there's no good way to say hard stuff. Like and and I'm really trying to get the team, like, to to please everyone and make sure everyone is happy, but it requires a lot of courage to say hard stuff or, like, to help the business increase. So at the beginning, it took me a lot of years to to say the hard stuff. So don't be afraid to say the

17:54>> hard stuff because often it's something that is unsaid and that everyone knows and it it just not addressed.

Closing Thoughts and Wrap-Up

Nathan Latka

18:02Guys, his ecommerce agency, Walter Interactive, hit a million dollars in revenue last year with 15 full time employees. He now has launched a SaaS company inside of that company. It's it's he spun it out. It's called glowtify.com. Think of it almost like the ClickFunnels for ecommerce and Shopify. He's waiting on Shopify's approval of the app. He spent about $200,000 on it so far. We've got a 150 free users getting ready to launch pricing publicly where he's

18:25gonna charge a $100 per month per store. I predict big things for him. We'll see what happens next. Marc, thank you for taking us to the top.

Marc Allard

18:31>> Thanks, Nathan. Thanks a lot.

Nathan Latka

18:33One more thing before you go. We have a brand new show every Thursday at 1PM Central. It's called Shark Tank for SaaS. We call it deal or bust. One founder comes on, three hungry buyers, they try and do a deal live and the founder shares back end dashboards, their expenses, their revenue, ARPU, CAC, LTV, you name it, they share it and the buyers try and make a deal live. It is fun to watch every Thursday, 1PM

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