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Getting Your First 10 Partners
A concrete, week-by-week plan to sign your first ten partners without a big budget or a team.
Growth Playbooks · ~6 min read
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The first ten partners are the hardest and the most valuable. They prove the model, generate your first attributed installs, and become the references that make the next fifty easier. You do not need a budget — you need focus and two weeks.
Week 1 — mine and prepare
- List every agency, consultant, and happy customer already connected to your app. Start with people who've already recommended you.
- Stand up the basics: a commission you can afford, a signup page, and working attribution. Don't recruit before you can credit an install.
- Prepare the assets a partner needs: a referral link, a one-paragraph description, and a demo link.
Week 2 — reach out
- Send 20–30 personalised messages — not a blast. Reference something specific to each recipient.
- Lead with merchant/client value; close with the commission.
- Make joining a one-click yes: send them straight to the signup page or enroll them yourself.
- Follow up once with anyone who didn't reply.
Then: activate, don't just collect
Signing ten partners is worthless if none refer. As each joins, run the welcome flow, give them a first action, and check back a week later. Your goal for the first ten isn't ten logos — it's the first handful of attributed installs.
Turn wins into fuel
The moment a partner drives a real install, you have a reference. Use it — in outreach, in your program page, in conversations with the next partner. The first ten partners are how you earn the right to the next fifty.
Practical checklist
- ✓Built a target list from your existing app connections first
- ✓Attribution and a signup page are live before outreach
- ✓Sent 20–30 personalised outreach messages, not a blast
- ✓Ran the welcome flow for every partner who joined
- ✓Captured your first attributed install as a reference
Common mistakes
- ✕Recruiting before attribution works
- ✕Blasting identical messages instead of personalising
- ✕Counting signups as the goal instead of first referrals
How this works in PartnerDock
PartnerDock gives you a branded partner signup page, working attribution out of the box (click tracking, direct App Store links, and last-click windows), and the ability to add or enroll partners yourself — so you can go from zero to a live, trackable program in an afternoon and spend your two weeks on outreach, not setup.
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Where to Find Shopify App Partners
The channels where Shopify app partners actually are — agencies, consultants, creators, and your own customers.
Recruiting Agencies
How to find, pitch, and sign Shopify agencies as partners — the highest-leverage partner type for most apps.
Partner Welcome Flow
The first email and first session that turn an approved partner into an active one.