Picture it is an augmented reality app that runs exclusively on Shopify. The app allows Shopify art stores to automatically generate 3D models of artwork to let their customers preview in rooms.

In 2023, I acquired Picture It from a colleague. Within 2 years I grew revenue by 3.5x through a refreshed UI, improved previewing experience, and focused marketing efforts.

Everything starts with the customer. Who was the ICP that was already paying for my app?

Focusing on who was using the app, fine art and print shops, allowed me to reach out to the customers and uncover their problems with the app, as well as their struggles with running an online art store.

After talking to customers, analyzing previous bad reviews, and reasons for uninstalling (provided by Shopify), I was able to uncover three core problems:

As an acquisition, Picture It had to be a long-term investment. That means I had to plan for the next 1-2 years on how to allocate capital to grow the business.

(Plans were broken down into 3-6 months with biweekly releases)

First my developer had to migrate the code to React in order to enhance performance while also allowing us to scale with Shopify's Polaris UI components.

While that was working in the background, I set to redesign the setup process for customers to activate and display their products in a realistic AR preview.

With each feature release, I handled customer service and requests. The most important requests took priority if it:

1. Increased trial conversion rates (easier onboarding)
2. Increased retention (competitive & sticky features)
3. Reduced churn

These were all collected with constant communication through chat and email.

Over the next 24 months, I scaled the business even further - hiring another developer, increasing pricing plans while managing legacy customers, and simplifying our UI to be compliant with Shopify's "Built for Shopify" status.

Additionally, in 2025, I completely redesigned the onboarding and added a feature to allow custom framing to be added to products, a heavily requested feature from customers that helped increase our trials per month.

It's been a great experience scaling my own business and also a blessing that it's run pretty passively.
‍
The acquisition horizon was 5 years, so there's still plenty of time to grow.