When Auckland, New Zealand-based Eugene Yao shared a restaurant experience with some friends on social media, he had no idea that he was also about to start a company. “I took a photo of my brunch just like any other day and posted it on my Instagram. A few moments later a friend walked right into the cafe I was sitting at after seeing my photo,” he recalls. “That was my eureka moment. Everyone knows word of mouth is the best, but with social media we actually have the opportunity to scale that word of mouth.”
eVouch first started by helping local restaurants gain business through word of mouth from diners sharing on social media. Things were going quite well until COVID-19 ravaged the hospitality industry. COVID-19 restrictions had a profound impact on many companies, eVouch included. Once lockdowns were in place, the pandemic effectively halted business for the new startup.
However, Eugene used this as an benin telegram screening opportunity to pivot to a much larger audience and take eVouch to the next level. “I knew word of mouth works and I knew that every business in every industry could use it too,” he says. “eVouch combines the trust inherent in word of mouth with the scale of social media. It has great synergy with ecommerce and I was jumping to get at it.”
Then, fate intervened: Eugene saw the Shopify 2021 App Challenge, an opportunity that would give him the chance to take his app to millions of merchants around the world. By participating in the App Challenge, Eugene would also be able to build on Shopify, gaining access to merchants around the world, as well as garner promotion on the Shopify App Store.
As he explains: “I was doing research and the App Challenge sounded interesting, plus if we finished on time, then we also get a boost from promotion. As I did more research, I realized Shopify is growing and the opportunity in the app ecosystem is insane, so I thought let’s give this a go.”
Eugene has more experience on the business side of app development, and not as much on the technical side, which posed some challenges as he tried to build for the Shopify platform. But, he knew he was in the right place because of all the resources available at Shopify.dev and the help that Shopify was able to provide.