28/03/2026
24 hours in Vegas (at a tradeshow) is always a few too many for me.
But I went to Shoptalk last week because I’m building for ecommerce brands and I refuse to assume I know enough about what they’re going through right now — even though I’ve been going through it myself for the last 20 years. I’m obsessed with making it easier to run a DTC business. And after running brands in skincare, apparel, bags, and jewelry — I know the deep dark nitty gritty of what it takes on the daily.
When I started my first company — the one that became WeddingChannel.com — we thought we knew enough because we’d built great software before. But we weren’t just building an enterprise software company — we were entering the weddings industry. We didn’t immerse ourselves from go, and that cost us later.
You build better when you have context, and that context shifts constantly. You never know enough about your market and your customers.
Twenty years and three companies later, I still buy the ticket, walk the floor, and assume I’m at least half wrong, even if it means Vegas baby, Vegas.
