Episode 60 - Brendan Quigley of Three Acres
Liquid Weekly Podcast: Shopify Developers Talking Shopify DevelopmentShow Notes
In this episode of the Liquid Weekly Podcast, Karl Meisterheim and Taylor Page talk with Shopify partner Brendan Quigley (founder of Three Acres) about building a sustainable solo business. Brendan shares his path into Shopify development, lessons from freelancing, and practical financial strategies—including YNAB and Profit First—to create more control and stability.
They also discuss moving from one-off projects to retainer/membership models for predictable income, strengthening long-term client relationships, setting clear expectations, scaling thoughtfully, and managing time well. The episode wraps with Brendan’s perspective on selling expertise, improving productivity, and protecting work-life balance.
*Support Heroes*For more information about the sponsor of this episode, Support Heroes, check out: http://thesupportheroes.com/?utm_source=liquid_weekly&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=sponsorships
Timestamps 00:00 Exploring Money and Business 02:21 Brendan's Journey into Shopify Development 04:37 The Journey of Freelancing 06:40 Building a Business in E-commerce 09:09 The Power of Automation and Scripting 15:23 Understanding Finances as a Solopreneur 27:12 Implementing Profit First for Business Success 29:44 Membership Models and Client Relationships 36:05 Understanding Project Tiers and Workflows 38:47 The Importance of Time Management in Client Projects 39:48 Building Relationships with Clients 43:35 Scaling Your Business Effectively 47:22 Utilization Rates and Work-Life Balance 52:51 Transitioning to the Changelog and New Developments 01:07:06 LW podcast intro video.mp4
Dev Changelog All changelog updates are posts on the forum - https://community.shopify.dev/c/changelog/28
Shop Minis January 2026 update - https://shopify.dev/changelog/shop-minis-january-2026-update
Automatically copy cart metafields to orders at checkout completion - https://shopify.dev/changelog/automatically-copy-cart-metafields-to-orders-at-checkout-completion
New: Persist cart metafields to orders with `cartToOrderCopyable` - https://community.shopify.dev/t/new-persist-cart-metafields-to-orders-with-carttoordercopyable/29264
Increasing the app block limit to 30 for theme app extensions - https://shopify.dev/changelog/increasing-the-app-block-limit-to-30-for-theme-app-extensions
Picks of the Week Karl - Quest Protein Chips Taylor - Waste King L-8000 1HP Garbage disposal affiliate link https://amzn.to/45OnoIK Brendan - YNAB - https://www.ynab.com and Raspberry Pi + Pihole - http://pishop.us/ or https://pishop.ca/ AND https://pi-hole.net/
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More from Liquid Weekly Podcast: Shopify Developers Talking Shopify Development
Taylor is in India for Shop Quest, so Karl flies solo with Charles Swayne, owner and app developer at JadePuma Apps and the person behind Datify. Charles is 21, learned Python in sixth grade, and now runs a multi-agent development workflow that researches, plans, audits the plan, executes, and tests itself before he ever looks at the code.
Georgi Petrov, CEO and co-founder of Uxify, joins Karl and Taylor to talk about the half of web performance nobody optimizes for: the shopper's device. After building SMS Bump (acquired by Yotpo), ConsentMo, and NitroPack (acquired by WP Engine), Georgi is now tackling device-specific friction, the laggy buttons, layout shifts, and interaction delays that vary wildly from one phone to the next. We get into how Uxify profiles a visitor's capability without touching your code, the specialized agents that fix problems on the fly, the ClickHouse-powered data layer behind it all, and how to think about performance heading into BFCM. Plus the Dev Changelog and Picks of the Week. Sponsor The Support Heroes: https://www.thesupportheroes.com/ Subscribe to Liquid Weekly Don't miss out on expert insights and tips. Subscribe to Liquid Weekly for more content like this: https://liquidweekly.com/ Find Georgi Online Uxify: https://uxify.com/integrations/shopify/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgipetrov/ Timestamps (00:00) Open (00:29) Intros (02:11) Meet Georgi Petrov of Uxify (02:54) Origin story: hardware hacking to his first software (06:03) Finding Shopify: SMS Bump, ConsentMo, and NitroPack (12:23) Making fast decisions and failing cheaply (15:32) Why Uxify: performance is half website, half device (20:11) How it works: profiling devices and adapting on the fly (26:17) Sitting alongside your theme without touching your code (28:26) Real user monitoring and specialized agents (37:47) The tech stack: ClickHouse and heavy browser testing (41:57) Shopify cart variations and a clever checkout fallback (46:24) Prepping for BFCM and who Uxify is for (51:14) Dev Changelog (58:22) Picks of the Week Dev Changelog [action required] Variants now support multiple barcodes: https://shopify.dev/changelog/product-variant-barcode-is-being-replaced-by-barcodes Create and delete dev stores in Shopify CLI: https://shopify.dev/changelog/create-and-delete-dev-stores-in-shopify-cli [action required] Discounts Allocator Function API developer preview has ended: https://shopify.dev/changelog/discounts-allocator-function-api-developer-preview-has-ended Delivery options in Shopify Functions input now expose their metafields: https://shopify.dev/changelog/delivery-options-in-shopify-functions-input-now-expose-their-metafields Prepare your app for the Shopify admin's new look: https://shopify.dev/changelog/prepare-your-app-for-the-shopify-admins-new-look [action required] Updates to Events payloads and subscription configuration: https://shopify.dev/changelog/updates-to-events-payloads-and-subscription-configuration New Pricing audit trail for contextual product variant prices: https://shopify.dev/changelog/pricing-audit-trail-for-contextual-product-variant-prices [breaking api change] [action required] Removed session.currentSession.staffMemberId from POS UI Extensions (2026-10): https://shopify.dev/changelog/removed-session-currentsession-staffmemberid-from-pos-ui-extensions-2026-10 Request a bundle size exception for existing UI extensions: https://shopify.dev/changelog/request-a-bundle-size-exception-for-existing-ui-extensions Picks of the Week Karl: Keto Oreo-style sandwich cookies (about 50 calories each), part of his ongoing tour through packaged keto snacks: https://www.choczero.com/products/keto-sandwich-cookies Georgi: Calisthenics between AI prompts. Knocking out push-ups and squats while waiting on an agent, which he says burns the time well and sharpens his focus when he comes back. Taylor: Ted Lasso, season 4 on Apple TV+. Still, in his words, one of the most wholesome shows around: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10986410/
Prakhar Shrivastava of FoxSell joins Karl and Taylor to talk about Shop Quest, the Shopify community event he and his team run in Bengaluru, and to prep Taylor for his first trip to India.
In this episode of the Liquid Weekly Podcast, hosts Karl Meisterheim and Taylor Page are joined by Alexander Hupfer, founder of Fusion Metrics and a solo Shopify app developer.
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