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SOS campaign at work. A look behind the scenes at Amazon Accelerate. Today, a group of MDS members sat down for a closed-door conversation with Amazon executives and VPs across several departments, including Jenna Owens, Katie Scott, Mary Beth, Sunny, Claire and others. My biggest takeaway: Amazon wants to hear us out. There is a shared interest in helping sellers succeed and grow on the platform, and these conversations are an opportunity to help leadership understand what that looks like from the operator’s side. When we started SOS earlier this year, the goal was to bring more visibility to the challenges being discussed every day inside MDS. Rising fees, increasingly complicated policies, and the difficulty of continuing to grow profitably are influencing how sellers reinvest, launch products and diversify their businesses. We wanted those experiences to reach the people who could act on them. Since then, we’ve seen some tangible progress. Our collective push through the ads boycott helped secure an additional $10,000 in ad credits for affected accounts. At Accelerate, we also heard whispers that Amazon has paused bringing additional accounts into the program that prompted the boycott, a change from the original plan for a blanket rollout by the end of the year. More recently, we raised concerns about a new feature allowing customers to leave negative feedback alongside refund requests. After we brought it to Amazon leadership’s attention, we saw that feature removed within two weeks. Today’s meeting was a chance to build on those conversations. We discussed reviews, competitor attacks, the challenges of successfully launching products, and the impact of increased fees on sellers’ ability to invest and grow. We also talked about creating more effective channels for experienced sellers to flag problems and communicate directly with the right teams at Amazon. That last piece is especially important. Beyond addressing individual issues, we hope to establish an ongoing dialogue where seller feedback can help inform decisions, rather than only reaching leadership after something becomes a bigger problem. We also heard that a broader conversation about fees is coming. We don’t yet know what that will bring, but it is encouraging to have the opportunity to explain how those costs affect real businesses and what sellers need to keep growing. Thank you to the Amazon team for making time for a candid, constructive discussion. And thank you to everyone in MDS who has shared their experiences, supported SOS and helped us bring specific examples to the table. Your support is helping turn conversations inside this community into conversations with the people who can make a difference. There is more work ahead, and we’re going to keep building on this.

Back from our MDS Singapore Summit and finally shook off the jet lag. The key takeaway - Diversify or Die Our first ever Summit in Asia was exceptional. Members learned a ton, I got so many thank-yous afterward, and it’s always a great feeling coming home from one of these events knowing people got real value and that we helped their businesses grow. Dropping a quick video with my recap & takeaways from the summit. Also, let me know how you like this recap format. Give me some support and maybe I’ll start doing more event recaps like this. TLDR Build a meaningful second channel Choose the right channel Don’t do it alone

Was great to reconnect with MDS member #4

10 years in and we’re taking the MDS Summit to Asia. 150+ founders are heading to Singapore in a two weeks for our biggest member-only event of the year. Ecom is alive and well. The playbook is just changing. TikTok, DTC, retail, Amazon, IRL new traffic sources, new markets. There is an incredible amount of white space for operators willing to adapt. Really excited for this lineup and everything our members are going to share. Singapore is going to be a good one.

Saturday we hosted our first 9 figure oriented mastermind at the Aman in NYC, nearly 20 brand founders there, followed by a Michelin restaurant buy out. Over 3B in rev in the room. Built on 84 cumulative years of trust. Its called MDS 9. A curated private founder room inside MDS. One group. No Conflicts. Actively involved in ecom scaling to $100M+ We spent the day having very open conversations around AI, TikTok Shop, retail, brand strategy, team building, and what it takes to operate at the next level. The idea was simple: create the kind of room where people can say what they actually think, and can get answers from people at their level. Looking forward to the next one later this year in Miami. Thank you to some of the founders involved @MillPrue @davidghiyam @GouldKR @JeremyThurswell @ChrisKjeldsen1 & more And the partners that helped make it happen @Jaredorkin - Activate Talent @oliverbrocato - Bustem

Amazon Ads are dying August 1st is coming to finish them off. At least as a real growth engine. Amazon calls this a "voluntary fee", but there is truthfully nothing voluntary about it. On one side Ad placements on Amazon have consumed every element of search, now going deeper with AI suggestions & even frequently bought together. And on the other, Amazon has been sneaking one change after another designed to push more money into the ad auction: Automatically increasing budget flexibility from +25% to +100%. Defaulting campaigns into “increase reach.” Expanding what Amazon considers a “broad” keyword match. Automatically opting sellers into new ad placements, AI videos, prompt ads, and increased spending during Prime Day and other events. Most sellers never notice. Opting out is intentionally difficult. You have to find the setting and often its very difficult to opt out at scale. That is the point. When millions of campaigns are automatically opted in, more money enters the auction and the average bid gets pushed higher. Even sellers who opt out still pay the price because the entire auction floor has moved up. Do this over and over for years, and eventually everyone is paying more for worse returns. Meanwhile, Meta, TikTok and other platforms are getting better at helping brands actually create demand and build something they own. Amazon Ads mostly makes you pay to fight your competitors for demand that already exists, or tax you for branded search sales that you are bringing onto the platform. All of these changes are Amazon's way to fake growth on their P&L, but how long can that last? Amazon is still an incredible cash register. But relying on Amazon—and Amazon Ads—to drive your growth is a thing of the past. This clip from our Trend Report at our March Inspire event basically predicted where this was going. Diversify of Die was one of the main takeaways.

I avoid most “yacht networking events” in Miami. Most of the time it is a bait-and-switch. You get put on a crappy old boat, it's hot, its filled with sales people, and now you are stuck for hours with people you probably would have left after 10 minutes on land. That is not what happens when MDS does a yacht day. We have done plenty of fun yacht days before. One time, we had 4 boats tied up with 100 founders, water slides, jet skis, sushi chefs, an inflatable pool, and more. But last week, we tried something different. Our first ever educational mastermind on a yacht for the MDS Miami chapter. We rode through the Miami skyline, had prepared presentations from members, and spent the day learning from one another. Five of our members prepared structured decks to share what has been working in their business. How to prepare for an exit the right way How to sell through products when launching into retail How to scale ads with editorial-style content using AI How to test TV ads without breaking the bank And of course, the hottest topic in ecom right now: How to get to #1 in your category with affiliates on TikTok Shop It was not the easiest event to pull off, but it was absolutely worth it. But at the end of it all, this is what to expect from a typical #MDSONLY event. Strong founders, Stong content, Strong experience, and a room full of peers helping each other grow. Just happened to be on a yacht this time.

Commerce Roundtable Austin made one thing clear: if your brand only knows how to capture demand, you are playing an old game. That was the biggest theme presented to me all day. Steven from Cuts opened with the hilarious story of basically faking his own company’s death, but underneath that was a real lesson: attention, narrative, and positioning matter more than most founders realize. Then Brock from Frost Buddy really drove the point home. This is a brand that went from nothing to around $80M last year and is pacing roughly $190M this year. They have around 600K TikTok followers. TikTok Shop grew from roughly $50K/month to a best month of $3.5M+. And they are doing it with relentless content, creator systems, and repetition. A few of the best nuggets from the day: 5 TikToks a day can beat overthinking one perfect creative The front-end offer matters more than most brands think Bundles and smarter pricing can dramatically improve CAC and conversion Different channels need different entry offers TikTok is not just a sales channel, it is a demand creation engine that lifts Meta, Shopify, Amazon, and retail AI is starting to move from theory into real implementation inside brands One stat that stuck with me from the Cuts conversation: tariff changes reportedly took gross margins from around 79% to 59% overnight That kind of compression forces better operators. Tighter teams. Better pricing. Better bundles. Better offers. Better demand planning. That is why the brands pulling away today are not just better at harvesting intent. They are better at creating it. For a long time, ecom rewarded brands that sat at the bottom of search and captured existing demand. Now the winners are getting better at: content offers creator ecosystems storytelling community and making people want the product before they ever search for it. That shift is very real. If your brand only knows how to capture demand, you are playing an old game.

Wrapped at the second annual TikTok Shop Summit. Fun fact, in just 3 years TikTok Shop Rev beat eBay’s rev, not counting the halo. Definitely continuing to take significant marketshare. We hosted a wonderful dinner, founders at all scales showed up. As low as a couple mil in rev all the way up to 500m+ It was nice and intimate, everybody got to connect and learn from one another. How to improve on live shopping. How to optimize ad spend. How to live a better life. Covered it all. Next stop Austin, we are hosting a little after party at CommerceRoundtable on Monday. @jimmykim is a man I can trust to put on a hell of a show. @molson maybe can swing by!

Last Sunday 10 serious founders showed up in a room to help each other grow on TikTok. Here were some main takeaways. The room was stacked: Herbalife discussing its ecom push A top QVC brand Operators from Luna Bean, Alpha Grillers, TRTL, Coldest, and more A few takeaways: 1. Community is one of the strongest moats left in ecom The best brands are building real customer ecosystems: Facebook groups WhatsApp chats Affiliate groups VIP groups Not overnight. Low and slow. Done right, those groups help drive: better launches better feedback loops better reviews better retention better UGC more resilient brands 2. TikTok content volume is still one of the clearest drivers of revenue Not just TikTok revenue. Overall brand revenue. For true omnichannel brands, TikTok may only account for 10 to 15% of sales directly. But its halo effect is enormous. 3. The best brands are not just recruiting more creators They are nurturing the creators they already have better than everyone else. You can have 100 creators post once or 10 creators posting 10 times, and one is easier than the other. The top operators are building systems that generate thousands of shoppable videos per day. That was one of the loudest themes in the room. A lot more was covered, but that alone made the day worth it. If you want access to more rooms like this, ask me about MDS.

If you’ll be in LA for the TikTok Summit join us for dinner on April 15th Brand founders only. We bought out a nice Mediterranean spot 5pm-8pm

Recap 1 of 4 (A crazy holiday weekend in Miami) Operator Room Miami On the morning of our event, founders in our group started getting emails about Amazon’s latest policy change. Couldn’t have been better timing, because it reinforced the exact reason we built Operator Room in the first place: The future of ecom growth is omnichannel. At Inspire, our State of Commerce survey showed that brands selling across multiple channels had a much stronger outlook on growth, healthier margins, and more overall confidence in the future. Operator Room Miami brought together 60+ brands, and about half had already scaled past $10M. The room was full of founders building across Amazon, DTC, TikTok, and CPG, sharing what is actually working right now. Our signature Meet N Speed was a hit again. Founders helped each other with everything from where they turn when things break to what they are still happy to spend money on in a tougher market. Then the panel went deep for nearly two hours. We had: Chris, bringing the Amazon perspective after being the #1 bestselling bedsheet for years David from Coldest, sharing how an Amazon violation years ago pushed him to build beyond the platform Chris from Koia, giving the CPG perspective after building into a nine-figure retail business Hyla, who built a mid-8 figure fashion brand with almost no paid ads through strong brand, gifting, and real relationships A few themes kept coming up all day: If one thing can make or break your business, you are too exposed. The brands winning right now are building actual brands, not just selling products. The stronger your brand, customer list, community, and organic content engine, the easier it is to move across channels and survive platform shocks. One of my favorite examples came from Hyla: instead of doing another influencer event, she is bringing in top customers. That is the kind of thinking that builds real brand loyalty. Amazing room. Amazing energy. Exactly the kind of founder conversation we want more of. More recaps coming. See you at the next Operator Room on April 29 in London.

We brought together a small group of ecom founders doing $30M, $40M, $50M+ for a private dinner at Mother Wolf. Big Brands crushing it on all aspects, Molekule, Portland Leather Goods, 437, Legion, Beast Bites, & More These groups are rare. At that scale, it is hard to find true peers in your exact space. I always oversubscribe dinners because people usually drop last minute. This time, every single person showed up. 3-hours of conversation that lasted through dessert. Solving each others problems, talking through meta & amazon changes, tiktok creator structures, supply chain pain points, and plain old life! Real founders. Real scale. Real conversations you do not normally get to have. The best part of what we do is creating experiences like that. We plan to do more 20M+ brand dinners at every Operator Room event! Next stop London April 29th.

Back from Vegas and still processing how strong MDS Inspire was this year. This was our best-rated Inspire yet, which is not something I take lightly. Most annual events get stale over time. They lose energy, lose freshness, and start to feel repetitive. Inspire has been getting better. I think a big reason is that this event is not built on hype. It is built on a real community. MDS works because the room is filled with real operators, real brands, real relationships, and a level of trust that is hard to manufacture. Every year we get a mix of returning members, new blood, stronger conversations, and more honest sharing. That is what keeps the event alive. Huge thank you to everyone who came out, contributed, and especially to the speakers who helped make the event what it was. A lot of them are active on X and continue to show up for the community in a big way. Shoutout to @NotZainAgain , @theisaacmed (who keeps giving me grief), @Jaredorkin , @BoraMutluoglu, @Raider_AL88 , @ShinghiD , @Weiler, and many more not on X. Too many great people to name, but I’m grateful for all of you. One of the things I was most excited about this year was how well my State of Commerce was received. We’ve done versions of this before, but never this well. I got stopped a bunch after coming off stage by people saying it was one of the strongest starts we’ve ever had to an event. I think that is because the data was real, relevant, and actually reflected what is happening in ecom right now. Not theory. Not recycled trend reports. Not “future of commerce” fluff. This was real data from real brands, submitted by the kinds of operators who are actually in the trenches building. A few of my biggest takeaways from this year’s State of Commerce: 1. Amazon is still king, but the strongest brands are diversifying. The brands operating across 3+ channels were the most confident going into this year. Omnichannel is no longer a buzzword. 2. TikTok Shop is no longer a side bet. It was one of the clearest themes in the data. Adoption keeps climbing, especially as brands scale, and it was voted the top outperforming channel. The conversation has moved from “should we test it?” to “how do we actually win there?” 3. Health, supplements, and beauty continue to set the pace, & Pet is a sleeper. Those categories showed some of the highest optimism in the room and some of the strongest TikTok penetration as well. Those operators are moving aggressively. 4. The $5M to $10M range looks like one of the hardest stages in the game right now. That group stood out as having weaker confidence than both smaller and larger brands. It really feels like a tricky transition stage where complexity ramps fast. 5. AI is becoming a real leverage point for smaller brands. Smaller teams are much more willing to replace or avoid hires with AI, while larger brands are still leaning more toward selective senior talent. The gap was interesting and very real. A few more things that stood out: • 78% of brands are optimistic heading into 2026. • Median year over year growth was strong. • Team and talent was the biggest constraint, ahead of platform risk and CAC. • And one of the most undervalued hires in ecom continues to be strong operators and integrators. I’ll say this plainly: A lot of events market themselves as “where the industry is going.” MDS events are one of the closest things I’ve seen to a real snapshot of where the industry actually is. Because the room is made up of real founders, real brands, and real operators, the conversations are sharper, the data is better, and the signal is stronger. Very grateful to everyone who helped make Inspire 2026 special. Already excited to keep raising the bar, and see you guys at the next one!

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