Jeff Lawrence

Some more thoughts on why we think SecondShop.com is one of the more ambitious investments we've made.

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Custom stacks can lead to two very real problems: depending on custom development and increased tech debt. Combined, your pace slows and ultimately, your trade-off is innovation and growth. That’s why Mejuri went from a fully custom stack to Shopify. Before Shopify, Mejuri was on an entirely custom stack: custom ecommerce, payments service, and middleware that was built to connect their custom ecommerce site to their point of sale system [POS]. This led to a ton of challenges. They were spending too much time building and maintaining 3rd party integrations to coordinate channels, data, and functionality between systems. With limited resources and team members, the trade-off of building custom features was they were not able to address their mounting technical debt. Addressing those issues in-house, slowed down their pace of innovation making them unable to deploy features as fast as they needed to. That’s the ‘invisible’ cost component with a custom stack. You spend an inordinate amount of time building custom features at the cost of innovation. Brands can avoid that with Shopify. Shopify is a natively unified ecommerce and POS system so everything just works together really really well. It doesn’t require middleware or integrations. Your customer, order, and product data flows to both channels from a single source of truth. It’s simpler and allows you to move faster. Hear about from Mejuri yourself. Rohit Nathany, the Chief Digital Officer sat down with us to talk about the pain points they faced on a custom stack. As Rohit says, what better way to simplify than to have a unified ecommerce and POS solution? See the full interview here: https://lnkd.in/eyCSdVgf

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Shopify isn't just for DTC Brands anymore.... ⬇ ​​At Varfaj, we have a front-row seat to the shifting trends of brands evaluating Shopify... Spoiler alert: It has changed dramatically. Over the past few years, we’ve seen mainstream brands—across industries from beauty to fashion—make the move to Shopify, recognizing the platform’s power and scalability. This was no-brainer for traditional DTC brands. BUT - most brands are not traditional nor simple. Many companies have evaluated Shopify in the past but decided that it wasn't a fit. The biggest blocker was the brands' complex functionality or unique business cases that the platform struggled to support. A perfect example of this is complex payment plans such as buy now and pay over 3 month installments like JLo Beauty & Lifestyle does. Now, the only brands not on Shopify are those with the hairy business problems. But as Shopify continues to evolve, we’re noticing these brands are re-evaluating, discovering that Shopify’s latest advancements can indeed meet their needs, with the right customizations. The next wave of Shopify adopters will look totally different. These brands are not your traditional ecommerce brands - they are coaching brands, digital products, and OEM companies. To operate on Shopify, these brands will require: Complex middlewares to connect systems. Sophisticated international market architecture to accommodate multinational operations. Multi-brand setups that unify operations for holding companies under one umbrella. To make this vision a reality, these companies need a development-first partner with the expertise to architect and implement at an advanced level. If past limitations held back your Shopify move, let’s discuss how we can overcome them together.

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I had a great conversation with Evan M. about my career and entrepreneurial journey, including getting into the venture capital industry and why I founded Staircase Ventures with a unique philosophy and approach. Some quotes: "We benefit in Canada from terrific technical talent. In addition, we are seeing more repeat entrepreneurs and more experienced start-up leaders than we did 5 to 10 years ago... The other thing is that US investors want to invest in Canada. Ten years ago, US investors were reluctant to invest in Canadian companies and if they did, it would be on the condition that they move to the Valley. That is no longer the case." "I started my own fund not for the sake of starting my own fund, but because I wanted to devote my time to working with entrepreneurs and to serving them, helping them to build impactful companies. I had some ideas about how venture could be done differently and I wanted to put those ideas into action. That is what led me to start Staircase Ventures... There's three unique aspects of Staircase Ventures. The first is our founder development platform which is designed to help accelerate founders' development and help them perform their best every day." "Life is long and how you treat people and how you perform really, really matters in the long run. Life is not a short-term game; it is what you do and how you show up, day-after-day, over a period of many years that will determine your future." Listen here: https://lnkd.in/gpHprCt8

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Shopify is popping 18% in pre-market trading on another great earnings report, but the most interesting part is the relentless push of their new vision - Unified Commerce. Unified Commerce means B2B, international, and DTC - anywhere someone sells, Shopify wants to be the backbone of it. Based on the data, they're making progress! Shopify's pop is a breath of fresh air after a tough week in the market. High-level Numbers 🔢 Gross Merchandise Value: $67.2B ( ⬆ 22%) Revenue: $2B (⬆ 21%) Gross Payments Volume: $41.4B (⬆ 30%) - notably Shopify Paymentws Volume GPV grew to 61% of GMV up from 58%. ShopPay processed $16B (⬆ 40%) Subscription Solutions Revenue: $563M (⬆ 27%) MRR: $169M (⬆ 25%) - Shopify Plus up 31%, so increasing share of MRR (82% GM) Gross Profit: $1B with GM at 51.4% Free Cashflow: $333M (16% FCF margin and almost tripling YoY) - with a revenue beat and expenses down QoQ, no surprise this is becoming a cash machine. Last quarter, I broke down Attach Rate—it's effectively the percentage of GMV Shopify captures as revenue and is a strong indicator of their pricing and monetization power. In Q2, Attach rate exceeded 3% for the first quarter at 3.04% (up from 2.99%) The Strategy Stuff 🗺 Acquisitions 💰 Jeff Hoffmeister spent a fair amount of time on their 3 acquisitions last quarter, which is always interesting! None were significant cash, and he called out the power of bringing those visionary founders in-house. I'm a huge fan of this strategy. The three acquisitions were Checkout Blocks (🗽 Gil Greenberg), Threads, and ChannelApe. B2B 🤝 On the unified commerce front, B2B GMV is growing much faster than overall business and they called out 140% growth in one month - Pura and Dermalogica with the shoutout here! Retail/POS 🏢 On the retail/POS side, Shopify passed $100M brick-and-mortar GMV, which shows that they are starting to move serious volume via their in-store offerings. On the surface, this is great, but it gets more interesting when you consider how this aligns with moving upmarket. International 🌍 International GMV is up 27% and international merchant acquisition is up 30% Caden Lane with a call out here with 600%+ international growth after launching markets. Enterprise 📈 Harley Finkelstein got asked about this directly - Surprisingly, he didn't answer with an empathic "we're crushing it" but did call out some wins like Barnes & Noble, Inc., Toys"R"Us, and Camuto Group. Shopify also signed a global agreement with Luxottica to start to bring their brands over which is a huge win! He also mentioned their deepening partnerships with large agencies and system integrators which will be critical in winning that market. While I think Shopify's penetration of the enterprise might be slower than investors might like, when you look at their pace of innovation relative to competition, I have fairly high conviction that they'll be a huge player in the enterprise on a three-year horizon.

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❗❗ New investment alert ❗❗Want to learn why we led a $10M Series A into Pear Commerce 🍐 ? Read on! 🎯 - A spot-on product. Everyone who used or was familiar with Pear made it clear that their product solved a need, and did it better than the other options available to them. It is a better approach to a problem they all had. 😤 - A great team. Eric Martell and Alex Wyler are great leaders, repeat founders, and building Pear with real purpose. And they have attracted a great team around them to scale their impact! 📈 - Exciting results. Pear had a great 2023, and 2024 is more of the same. Their growth, and the underlying metrics behind it, speaks for itself! https://lnkd.in/gP_FceJC

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🚀 𝐌𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐀𝐈 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐭 – 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐍𝐞𝐰 M𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫 🚀 Exciting news! We’ve launched MutualMarkets AI Chat at mutualmarkets.ai/ai-chat to revolutionize the way brands explore marketing partnerships and campaign possibilities. 💡 With MutualMarkets AI Chat, you can: - Learn more about MutualMarkets and how our platform empowers brands to grow. Simply ask our AI any questions you have. - Create product-specific creative briefs with ease, using the latest in AI. - Discover potential co-marketing partners who align with your brand’s vision and goals. This tool leverages cutting-edge AI models on a proprietary framework to provide personalized insights and recommendations, helping brands of all sizes make the most out of every marketing opportunity. Curious about how AI can fuel your next big campaign? Start the conversation today with MutualMarkets AI Chat! Visit: https:// mutualmarkets.ai/ai-chat #AI #Marketing #BrandPartnerships #MutualMarkets #CoMarketing

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What Does Shopify's Peel Analytics Acquisition Mean? If you missed it, Shopify made another acquisition in the last few months that is just starting to get some light shed on it. The company is called Peel Analytics, and it fits the mold of many of Shopify's smaller acquisition - it is a capability that it wishes to see in its platform. In short, the capabilities reflect a larger shift in DTC. From customer file growth to customer file optimization and activation. Here are some of the capabilities I expect to come to Shopify as a result of this acquisition (based on analysis of Peel's case studies): * Filtering out any messy or junk data in-platform rather than off-platform * Creating segmented audiences group (repeat purchasers, SKU and region filters), which then interface with Klaviyo and Attentive. * Cohort reporting out of the box, in particular with regards to behavior of customers acquired via influencer discounts. * Customizable reports including LTV calculations, CAC, LTV to CAC, returning orders and customers * "Frequently purchased together" and other types of product reporting based on market basket analysis. * Some subscriber reporting that previously you may have only been able to get in subscription platforms themselves. While Klaviyo is building a CDP, I expect that Shopify feels these Audience features will be a standard part of DTC going forward, and so should not erode much from where Klaviyo is headed. First, Shopify's Shop Cash offers have recently become "Shop Campaigns" and no doubt this acquisition is part of the reason for that. Also the elevation of Customers as a key concept within Shopify seems like one of their plans. Similar to the way Shopify has wanted to be the home of all checkouts and orders, I expect Shopify has started to feel that customer segmentation and analysis should happen on-platform rather off. Who is to worry? I don't think many companies have too much to worry about generally. On the other hand, some reporting-centric companies like Daasity and Triplewhale will likely have to move further up-market to continue to compete. The "Shopify reporting" space has gotten over-crowded in the last few years which is likely one of Shopify's signals that the base platform needed upgrades. I do think some of the lower-end subscription platforms could end up in the crosshairs also. How might this shape Shopify's Platform? I don't expect this solution to do so much for mid and upper-level Shopify Plus customers, but it could give Shopify a few more reporting capabilities to add to base tiers, and it's possible that more customizable reporting could become a Plus or even an full Enterprise feature. It's also not hard to imagine a Shopify where future Enterprise users may separately for a Data or Reporting module.

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The Access Group has acquired Paytronix, a leading customer engagement platform for convenience stores and restaurants. The deal, announced on Nov. 1, 2024, aims to expand Paytronix’s platform offerings and accelerate its growth. The acquisition will also double The Access Group’s North American team and integrate its business management solutions, such as CRM, inventory, and accounting, with Paytronix’s loyalty programs, mobile apps, and online ordering tools. Paytronix will retain its name and continue serving major brands like Panera Bread and QuickChek Corporation. Both companies expect the partnership to enhance their value and growth in the U.S. market. Read More: https://lnkd.in/ezdJwzYm C-Store Dive Jessica Loder Branded Hospitality Ventures Hospitality Hangout Podcast #Hospitality #Growth #Technology #Innovation Andy Crofts Jo Fontaine John Coldicutt James Swaine Rachael Moss Charles Gray Dan Murphy Chris Lanno Matt d'Arbeloff Stefan Kochi

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🚀 How Crowdlinker Helped Honeybee Benefits Get Acquired by Green Shield Canada 🚀 In just two years, Honeybee Benefits transformed from a startup with only a dozen customers to a thriving platform managing thousands of lives. With the help of Crowdlinker, they refined their messaging, revamped their web presence, and streamlined their go-to-market strategy, which led to rapid growth and, ultimately, an acquisition by Green Shield Canada. Jason Dea, Senior Director of Product and Marketing at Honeybee Benefits, shares the impact of working with Crowdlinker and how strategic partnerships can drive incredible results. Curious how your startup could achieve the same? Watch the full story and see how Crowdlinker helped pave the way for success. #businessgrowth #digitalstrategy #startuplife #acquisition #growthstrategy https://lnkd.in/d6t82ghF

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Some Shopify brands are customer-centric, and then there's DOLAN. When you meet a customer-centric Founder, it's unmistakable. Jodie Dolan built an impressive scrubs brand that emerged in a competitive market with a best-in-class product and an organizational framing that truly puts the customer at the center of *everything* they do. As a size-inclusive brand, that obsession over the customer experience led her to provide her web visitors with the confidence to convert with The Dolan Difference. If you can't find your size, they'll straight up make you a custom pair. Now that's an unwavering commitment to the customer. Keep up the impressive growth, Jodie Dolan and Philip Atkins!

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On Tuesday I caught up with Brandon Kuipers, one of the founders of Zox.    They have sold almost 10,000,000 products on Shopify since starting the business in 2011.   But they have been running into a problem: Like many stores, they offer hundreds of products and customers get overwhelmed and can't figure out how to find the products that are right for them.   They have solved their problem using an Octane AI smart quiz.   Here's what really stood out to me: ✅ Their quiz has solved decision paralysis for over 50,000 people so far. ❤️ Customers are loving the AI quiz, even sharing their results with each other. 🤖 The AI quiz asks shoppers a few questions, most of them free form where the shopper can type anything, and then it uses AI to write a personalized message to every single shopper and helps find them exactly the right handful of products that they will love out of the hundreds of products on the store. 🚀 They hadn't been able to make a quiz previously because they are constantly adding new products to their store. The AI quiz automatically updates itself with any new products without the Zox team needing to do anything special. ⚡ They made this quiz on vacation in just a few hours, most of which was just them thinking about what questions they wanted to ask in the quiz. I'm really excited about our AI quiz option on Octane AI. It's not our most popular quiz type just yet, but for some brands it is making previously impossible experiences possible.   We have a lot of plans for improving our AI quiz technology, we're overflowing with inspiration. I can definitely imagine a world where your quiz is creating itself (we already do this actually), automatically improving itself, and forming more and more personalized bonds with each customer.   What do you think of AI powered quizzes?

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Update on the 7-Eleven Takeover Bid: Couche-Tard Uplifts Its Offer Amidst Persistent Hurdles 🔄 The saga continues! Following the swift rejection of Couche-Tard’s initial bid for 7-Eleven, we’ve seen a notable escalation in the bid, with reports indicating a 20% increase in Couche-Tard’s offer. 📈 If successful, this acquisition would mark the largest-ever Japanese acquisition in history—an intriguing prospect that could redefine the retail landscape. 🌍 However, the challenges remain formidable. As I discussed previously, Japanese owned Seven & i Holdings has a well-documented history of resisting foreign takeovers, especially when it involves a cherished brand like 7-Eleven. 🇯🇵 My prediction is that this renewed bid will also face rejection, much like the first attempt. Even if it manages to clear that hurdle, the path to FTC approval would likely be lengthy and complicated. 🏛️ Given Couche-Tard's successful track record with acquisitions, one has to wonder: when will they pivot away from pursuing 7-Eleven and consider targeting other regional players like Wawa, Inc., Buc-ee's, Ltd., or Sheetz? 🤔 These brands also boast strong market presence and loyalty, and could present less contentious opportunities for growth. As the conversation around the future of convenience retail evolves, I’m curious to hear your thoughts. How do you see this unfolding? Will Couche-Tard's strategy shift in response to these challenges? Let’s discuss! 💬 Stay tuned for further insights as this story develops!

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Have you ever looked for theory that can answer - how to approach investors - what kind of product to build first - how you’ll defend the company against competitors This new article from CDA partner, Kevin Maney extends Steven Johnson's writing from the book Emergence to #CategoryDesign. All #Startups and #VentureCapital teams should dig in. (link to article in comments)

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Shopify is not for small brands. Not anymore. Enterprise, B2B brands are leveraging the best of Shopify platform. Bobby Morrison has a point here.

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We’re excited to announce the official launch of our new Sales Agent on the Shopify App Store—a game-changer for your store's growth. This isn't just another AI solution. It’s built to drive real conversions with precision. Our Sales Agent tracks customer behavior in real time, working intelligently to deliver exactly what your customers need to complete their purchase. It’s more than just a chatbot; it knows when to upsell, recover abandoned carts, and guide customers through the buying process—like having an expert sales team working 24/7 for you. If you're focused on scaling your Shopify business and boosting your conversion rates, this is the tool for you. Head over to the Shopify App Store, integrate it, and watch your sales soar.

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Before you launch a CPG brand with any sort of DTC strategy, make sure you do this… I promise it will take you 15 minutes or less. I see brands going straight into product development and selling without checking a crucial detail: Will the economics actually work if launched as a DTC brand? So many founders dive in because they’re excited about their product. But if they don’t understand the full payback period, they risk serious financial setbacks down the road. We created a simple 15-minute tool to help founders calculate if their DTC model is sustainable. Here’s why it’s worth it: - It considers real margins - It factors in customer acquisition costs - It gives you clarity before you commit Instead of risking time, money, and sanity, get a quick gut check. Spend those 15 minutes and see if your numbers add up. Starting strong is better than starting over. Download the free template below (link in the comments👇).

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The ecomm platforms as I see the market (Gartner style) Leaders - Shopify - Salesforce - Adobe - commercetools Challengers - BigCommerce - WooCommerce Visionaries - Centra - Fabric - Spryker - Swell Niche Players - Elastic Path - Commerce Layer

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A few thoughts from the Ironbird Studio team on how to do right by founders & downstream capital. This one is in the weeds unless you spend a lot of time thinking about venture studio economics, but critical if you're a founder or investor thinking about partnering with a studio. https://lnkd.in/eaej7XtM

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