POV: Networking at a $20 BILLION Ecom Event In NYC

An event comprised of founders doing over $20 billion in cumulative revenue across the e-commerce world. The Shopify president, brand founders, Platter customers, my tech partners, some of the brands that I've invested in. Over the next 2 days, I'm gonna bring you guys along for the whole thing where you can see how valuable these events can be. If you're building a brand, a tech company, an agency, or investing in the e-commerce world, pay attention to this video. Let's get into it. We're going to the Beanstalk event to meet all the people in e-commerce.

Welcome.

The other thing I think about is that the brands that are doing really well, they are not talking direct-to-consumer or wholesale. They're simply agnostic to channel.

They do not give a shit about the channel.

The cool part about building right now, we get to place a lot of different bets.

Slowest shoe in the world. Slowest? Yeah. What does that mean? It dissipates impact. So basically athletic shoes take energy and put it up into your body. These take it and dissipate it more like a recovery mitt. Can I try that on? Yeah. Are you guys mostly a retailer or D2C or just B2B? B2B. Have you heard of Endorphins?

Uh-uh.

So they have the largest running community in the US. Okay. So my friend is the founder of Endorphins. Yeah. They have thousands of runners that are part of it and they do like a lot of affiliate Elliott stuff, this might be a really interesting partnership for you because it's a bunch of marathon runners. I'll connect you to him. We are a tech-enabled agency. We build Shopify stores. We built our own theme and our own app. So the whole idea is that we built a lot of the most popular functionality into one product suite to make the experience of building a store a lot easier. Yeah. And we've done it for 200 brands in the last 3 years. We've worked with NeuroGum, Gainful. We built and power their storefront on top of Shopify. So it's like Shopify and then Platter and then NeuroGum. That's awesome. I'd love to connect on that too. Yeah, I'll send you a note. Sounds good. We'll be in touch. Awesome, man. Have a good one. Lead with value, right? I asked him what they do. I asked him who I can connect him with. And I feel like that breaks down a barrier of comfortability for him to then start talking. And naturally, without me even saying anything, you heard him. He's like, yeah, I would love to talk to you about what Platter does. We are a tech-enabled service business. We build Shopify storefronts.

I wish we were on Shopify, to be honest. If I were starting Whittlespoon in 2025, I think we would be on Shopify. It's a pretty, pretty clear choice. We've created a whole bespoke digital experience and ecosystem that would be very hard to replicate on Shopify.

We've done a lot of headless replatforms. When you're able to save potentially multiple 7 figures of operating expenses, I'm all ears. I think as a business of your size, it's P&L decision, because if you could save multi-seven figures, for example, in operating expenses, that's a number that gets multiplied at an exit. That becomes unavoidable amount of money, right? Just for being more efficient.

No, for sure, there's a good case.

I mean, be lying if I said I haven't thought about it.

Yeah, happy to have the conversation whenever it's helpful for you. What is your name?

What do you do?

My name is Ben Sharf and I am co-founder and co-CEO of a company called Platter. We build Shopify storefronts.

Awesome.

And what brings you to Beanstalk today?

I'm here to meet brands, shake hands with all my partners, and hopefully get our name out there a little bit more.

People that are not at Beanstalk right now, what do you tell them? What are the best reasons to be here and why should they come next year?

If you're in e-commerce, you should definitely be here because it's where you're going to meet all the people pushing the boundaries on what's possible in this industry. And also all the people that you need to know to build a successful e-commerce business are probably on this turf. So there's no reason not to be here.

Thank you so much, man. Appreciate it.

Thanks for having me. Good crushing. He's one of the very few brand founders in SF. Let's go! Great product, I'm gonna buy one. I just, I literally just texted him, I'll let you know on the discount. What's Form, Alan?

We basically correct your posture. The hero product is, uh, is a bra. We have shirts for men as well as bras for Airfatter, he's very, very particular about these handles need to pull at this specific muscle to do this exact thing.

Yeah, that's, uh, next level.

What are you guys?

Uh, the company called Flatter.

You guys design and develop? Okay, I might need to talk with you guys.

Yeah, let's do it.

What would you say are like some of your highest volume stores, if you know like approximately how much in sales?

We have brands doing high 8 figures.

Yeah.

And then we also have some that are new startups.

Would you say that you guys are better on the design front or the actual development front?

I think that we're very good at both because we're like a one-trick pony. You have agencies who are like, oh, we do email, we do paid ads, we do development. We do one thing and one thing only, which is design and build Shopify stores. Yeah, so we should talk.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, what's the best way to get in contact? Yeah, I think the problem we've noticed sometime in the past is people who are good at design. I'm just the best at the development part. We need someone who has the CRO, who knows every part of developing and what makes it a good, crisp website.

We only want to do the second iteration once, and that is why we exist. We've moved very large brands over to our infrastructure because they see it as the last website revamp that they're going to do. I think everything you're saying is the inputs that we typically get from brands that we work with.

I'll get in touch with you. Yeah, I'd love to like see some of the brands.

Let's do it. We can jump on a call. I can walk you through all the stuff we've done.

Okay, yeah, let's chat more.

Awesome. That conversation is a great example of why you go to these events. I was literally standing in line waiting to get a coffee and ask the guy standing next to me what does his business do, and he starts telling me how they're looking for someone to help build their website. So we're probably gonna get on the phone next week and hopefully pitch his business. He wasn't giving me much, but it was an organic conversation. I think they probably do mid to high 8 figures, so it's a pretty big opportunity, I have a feeling. I'm actually pretty drained.

Meet so many new people, a lot of good conversations, but I am ready to depart.

Ultra guy just texted me about doing lunch today. Jake is really the OG vlogger. He told me that he was doing this a while back and he said he wasn't sure, but I'm pretty sure you're sure now, no?

Really?

Yeah, right here. You can say it again for the camera. The camera will appreciate it. You hear what she said? She said, "I recognize you from LinkedIn." Do you recognize me? Nice to meet you. I'm Robin. Hi. Social proof. This is the guy I want you to meet. You should probably meet him too. This is JT.

Great to meet you.

What's up, brother?

I think it's going to be a big business, and Zach is a savage operator. The quality of people there was extremely high, actually.

Yeah, the whole thing is like, right now the tools are so easy to use. You have AI on your side. It's like, how hard do you want to work yourself? Once you validate the business, everything becomes a whole lot easier.

We just got back to the apartment after an extremely busy 48 hours. You guys saw how valuable it is to be in the rooms with all the best people in the industry, shaking hands with customers, partners, new potential customers, and ultimately just working to get the name of your business out there in the ecosystem. If you guys enjoyed this video, please like, comment, and subscribe below. See you next week. Peace!