S4E08: Maier Bianchi

Welcome to Commerce Famous, a podcast that celebrates the celebrities of our industry. Join us for a conversation with the taste makers in ecommerce. In their daily lives, these are just normal everyday people like you and me. But to us, they are commerce fantasy. Alright.

Welcome back to another episode of Commerce Famous. This is episode eight of season four. I can't believe it's taken us this long to get mister popular. May you Hey, Jason. Thank you for having me.

Yeah. It's a it was like an, you know, almost happened a few times, but here we are. Here we are. Well, you know, obviously, we know each other for years now. I think three and a half, almost four years.

You are one of the very first partners we've ever had at Shopware. So what what drew you to the partnership? I think you were a partner before I even got it. So maybe let's start there. A open source ecommerce platform out of Germany, and we had been working with other open source ecommerce platforms for a while, and I was like, hey.

This is a PHP based ecommerce platform. I need to know more about this. And so I started looking around 2019, 2020. I've been hearing good things about it. And so, just reached out and, you know, it was basically early in the game where Shopware was maybe first establishing a road to America at that time, and was also the transition period between Shopware five and Shopware six was going on as well.

And so, it was just an interesting time, and, like, I just I just I feel grateful that it was the right time. And now it's been awesome to see how Shopware has blossomed in The United States and has built so many great partnerships, and it just makes me feel validated in my acumen to pay attention to it before and after the big push. You are always one of the things I love about you is you're always early with almost every idea. And, you know, you and I brainstorm quite a bit over the years, and most of the things we've talked about over the years have come in true That is cool. Five, six, eight months down the road.

It's very cool. But let's before we before we go too deep on on Shopware, that's not what this pa conversation's about. It's commerce famous. This is for people in their daily lives or just moms or dads, but inside of ecommerce, they're famous. They walk the show.

They know all the people at the events. You know, they're celebrated in our industry. You're certainly that. Can you introduce people a little bit to your agency, to who they are, what they do, why you found don't know. When you started.

I'm May Mayer Bianchi, founder of BeMyer. BeMyer is an ecommerce web development agency. I'm still trying to get a better elevator pitch down. But, basically, I founded it in 2014 simply because I liked making websites, and I liked helping people. And, I had been working with a platform called Magento for the previous four years, three to four years, and was really keen on that and the freedom it allowed merchants at the time.

And then also just really, just had that entrepreneurial spirit where I had worked on the merchant side, worked on the brand side, come from a family of retailers. Actually, when I think back, multiple generations of entrepreneurs, so, I didn't even really consider that. But, basically, so I guess I was stepping into my destiny, if you will. But, you know, so had some early foundational experience around retail and ecommerce, and so I brought that perspective of actually what it's like to be an operator or having that operator's mindset from the start. And so the whole notion of service and helping people just came naturally.

Actually, didn't have some of the agency principles when I started because I didn't know about them because I didn't work at an agency. Commerce famous is proudly presented by Shopware, Find out more about Shopware and the best value in e commerce at shopware. Find out more about Shopware and the best value in ecommerce at shopware.com. Yeah. Where'd the name come from?

So the name of B. Meyer is really interesting. It's actually a funny story. Originally, the company was called Mage NYC because I was thinking too small. I was thinking about just New York City where I was from and Magento.

I was like, okay, Mage NYC. Great. I'll own this vertical in this wonderful place where there's a lot, you know, simple. Right? And then I went to trademark it because when you googled it, something I didn't like came up.

And and so it was a Twitter profile that was totally unrelated, and it was not something I wanted to identify with. And so, I went to say, hey. I'm gonna trademark this name. And then simultaneously, I'd also made a logo made by someone who put a hexagon in the logo, which the hexagon is one of the logomarks of Magento in the past. And so when I went to trademark it, at the last day, eBay filed a motion to oppose because of a similarity of the logo.

Like, because I didn't just try to do the name, like, you know, logo mark versus word mark. And, it was, like, the most sinister thing ever, like, literally the last day they filed it. And then and then I was like, okay. And then I had a friend who worked at Magento. His name was Benjamin Marks.

Many of you may know Ben Marks. He's also formerly of Shopware. Ben Marks was working for a guy named Mark Leonard. And, you know, so I went through this whole process where I was like, okay. They they were like, oh, we'll give you a license to use the name.

It was some whole thing like that. And I waited, like, nine months for this licensing thing. And then the license agreement came, and it was the most restrictive, like, we have to control what's on your website, do this, this, this. And I was like, maybe I should just change the name. And then my friend, Eric Heilman, who was the founder of a company called Mage Mojo, was like, oh, why don't you name it after yourself?

Why don't you name it b B'Mear, b'Mear. And I was like, And so my name means bringing light or one who enlightens. The name, Mear, is a Hebrew name. And so whatever happened, I had a little bit of I had I didn't have a lot of time, and it was just I said, okay. I'm changing the name to this, and I amended the article's incorporation, changed the name to be Meyer.

And then I realized it has more of a global meaning, like, be one who enlightens. And so we kinda translate that to how we help people as we empower them to know the decisions they're making for their commerce platforms, for their business, not just do it, but why are you doing this and how does this help you? And I think now it's become like a global ideology. I don't really, like, hearken that with the brand as much, but it does have a meaning. So be one who enlightens is what it really means.

Phenomenal. So take us through take us through what's going on with BeMyer today. Obviously, Agencia Commerce is a really big deal. People are looking for, you know, outcomes as a service as opposed to paying time and material for projects. Has this changed the landscape of of how you're doing business, given that, you know, you started twelve years ago with your own agency.

Fast forward to today, how's the world look? The world is an exciting place to be an entrepreneur and to be a global citizen because there is one thing for sure is that your cost of living and your cost of doing business is tremendously more expensive than it was five years ago. And so I think we're living in a landscape where all businesses are being squeezed from the top and the bottom. So, you know, your daily life costs have gone up, and then our partners, like Google and Slack and all our friendly tech companies, have also astronomically raised their prices, so the services we depend on as tech companies. And so I would say the way that services has delivered is it's a really interesting topic.

I'm happy you brought it up because I feel like we're a commodity to some people, and I feel like we're a partner to others. And It's a very controversial topic, but, basically, it's always felt that way. And I think the fact of the matter is is the value proposition you bring has to do with your own self belief and your own worth. And so I would say when I started the business, I was charging too little or didn't believe in the worth we brought or I, you know, I didn't have that reflective in the pricing. And then vice versa now, I would say we've proven our worth to the tune of billions for many companies over the years, but it's still how do you quantify that or how do you say it.

And if I'm not comfortable being one of the people just talking about how good we are, then it like, you're leaving a lot on the table. And so let's say in this age of AI, what I noticed is I'm just gonna make time stamps. Right? In 2024 is when everybody started talking about chat GBT or the end of twenty three into '24. So I'm like, okay.

We were on that wave. K. '25. Now everyone's using it to do stuff, and it's revolutionizing. Now in '26, it's everywhere.

It's dominated every industry. It's the it's a segment driver for every vertical. It doesn't matter what you're in. Health care. Like, it doesn't matter.

It's everywhere. Right? And so I would say in commerce, specifically, there is a gold rush right now or a landscape a landscape shift because SaaS companies have had to stay relevant. So every company that was just a SaaS company added an AI layer, and then now they're all AI first. Every agency is saying they're AI first.

It's just another evolution, but the hype is real. The benefits that AI can bring to companies and people in their everyday lives is real. It's it's like anything else. It can be used for good. It can be used for bad.

And so I would say, specifically, when it comes to commerce, this agentic commerce layer, if we think about it, is, like, there's a layer of your site for bots, like LLMs. There's, you know, there's a there's a layer of your site that is made to talk to them and be discovered by them. We've actually launched an AEO service, and so we're in part of an initiative to do that. And for, you know, how SEO has now become GEO and AEO as well. And I would say that, like, there's that layer.

But then on the human side, how do you do your job has also changed with AI. Right? How we develop, what tools you're using, AI you call it AI native software development or AI assisted software development has revolutionized what you can do. So even, like, pet projects that I had in mind, such as building a three d store, like, a three d shoppable video game store, I did over a sequence of weeks myself. Whereas in the past, I got out of being a software developer because I was like, this is not the career trajectory I wanna be on.

I don't have the bandwidth to to be a software developer. That's why I moved more into being a solutions person or the or, you know, someone who's at the top of the pyramid helping drive the solutions. And so I'd say, a, it's created a lot more freedom for people, and, b, it's kinda changed the the notion of how people deliver experiences. And so I like to think of ecommerce websites as experiences, and now you can deliver more experiences to a more diverse set of consumers than ever before. And so I think when I hear agent to commerce, my mind goes there, and then there's a lot of people defining it in different ways within that, such as Shopware.

And I I would love to get more into that. But I think that's my, like, blanket high level down to specific answer. I love it. What are you most excited about? You obviously are like I said on the earlier, like, everything that that that kind of eventually comes into play as a big idea, you and I talk about it three to six months prior.

So you're kinda always got your finger on the pulse. So, like, what are you most excited about now? It can be about agentic and about being just about anything. What's, what's top priority? Okay.

So 2026 for me is the year of humanizing things. And so I'm excited to see that people value human connections more, that people value getting together in person more. We had a disturbance in the force six years ago that made it harder to do that. And so I think people appreciate the value of human connection as we all become more isolated in our homes, in our lines of work, in our segmented audiences. People are seeing the need to come together as people.

And so I'm big on that, and the thing I'm most excited about is having a space that I control where I can host my own gatherings. And so that is a personal project for the business that I'm working on right now, and I'm excited to bring that to fruition. And I could get into more details about that. But then separately on the work front, what I'm excited is for the evolution of our practice. I mean, that is the work front too, but I'm excited for the evolution of our practice and how we're able to leverage our long term commerce knowledge, our ability to be on top of what's going on with this AI assisted development, and also how the nature of how you deliver sites is changing.

And so I'm most excited about coming to fruition. Like, this this company has taken me twelve years to build, and I've seen a lot of people accelerate a lot faster and have what you would you know, we all define success differently. So I'm a spiritual billionaire, spiritual trillionaire, but we may not be a physical monetary billionaire or mill or or multimillionaire. And so the point I see is that, like, a lot of cornerstones are coming to fruition for something that could be a better vehicle for delivering service, meaning anything a business wants to do, you can kinda help them do it now. And then because we're all senior technologists at my company, everyone has the same like, I'm see I've seen everyone take the same perspective shift in the last year from friends or inside or outside.

So it's nice to see this awakening to where we can do more ambitious things because we're less limited. We have less limitations. It's more about your imagination and also your determination to get through these transitionary periods. So I'm excited for just the totality of what's coming together because I feel like I might actually have sales and marketing one day, you know, like, actually kicking. But then it's more about the product you're selling and how you're selling it.

So I think that's just as important, like, creating tangible assets to deliver to people as conversation starters or be able to, you know, just continue to reliably deliver in this world, like, feeling a position that I feel some sense of security that our utility is proven and valuable and will continue to be valuable as when you make a product like we make, which is a service, it can work for any business. And I I I I feel, like, happy that I did not isolate into one vertical or one thing because I feel like we're a a multi tool that's really handy for any business, just different strokes for different folks. Yep. Well, a few of the merchants we worked on together couldn't be less similar. One is a deeply regulated industry, that's largely b to c.

One is incredibly b to b, which differentiates on kind of unique catalog, unique pricing, etcetera, etcetera. So I do agree with your point around, you know, you guys are a utility player that can really apply your skills to different use cases. But let's let's do talk about the ICP. Let's talk about what type of customers are a good fit for your agency versus a fit for another agency. Like, how do you decide where your right to win in as and where you're the best fit compared to, say, some of your peer peers?

So that's a really interesting question. I would say that I feel like we're a good fit for the people that value what we do. Right? And I was going back to that conversation before is that you are either valued at the beginning of the engagement, you're valued in the middle, you're valued at the end. And so I think what I'm most excited to to work on are engagements that have a lot of upside for both parties.

And so for me, I just have observed this pattern that senior technology executives at, you know, what people would call medium sized businesses up to enterprise businesses depending on what segment of it they're in. Meaning, like, I wouldn't say we're primed to be, like, with those super big, like, Deloitte's and those, you know, Tata, like, the big consultancies that throw a 100 people on a project. I would say that it's when there's a company that has an objective they wanna achieve to have their software help the aims of the company. So, for example, we talked about sales portals, or we talked about b to b websites, or we talked about, hey, your direct to consumer platform fulfilling the needs it's supposed to fulfill. Because at the end of the day, we're not just building platforms for the sake of platforms.

We're building it for users, and those are both business end users and consumer end users. It doesn't matter if it's, b to c or b to b. It's still somebody's using this platform. And so I would say, it's like, if you're like, we we work best when there's someone that needs a trusted, trust is a big thing in this industry, like, a trusted group of people that'll be responsive and, actually, like, invest in what they're trying to deliver and not just deliver what they want. You know, like, what the what what we wanna deliver, but hearing hearing out both sides and finding that middle ground and, like, staying focused on an objective.

Got it. Let's shift gears a little bit and talk about the power of community. One of the things that struck me in our first meeting is how community driven and committed you are. I don't know if you remember it. We had an event in New York City.

It was probably within my first month or two in the business. Wow. Do you remember it? Yeah. It was January 2023.

Yeah. Okay. So I've been there through four months. But it was one of the first kinda community events that I did, and it really stuck with me. And I met a handful of people that are still in the ecosystem today, at that event that you hosted.

Can you talk a little bit about the why you're drawn to these communities like Shopware, like Magento? What is it about the community that that you like? I would say if I think back to the how I got started in those communities, I would say what's really nice is when you go into a place and there's people who have similar backgrounds or different backgrounds, but you're all there for a common purpose, And then you would be surprised at how many people wanna pay it forward or pay it backward or, you know, like, actually just share knowledge and insights and and connect on a human level. And so I would just say that's been really foundational to my career and feeling like I have a place. So, for example, I went to the first Magento Imagine in, I don't know, January it was, like, 2011.

I wanna say the beginning of two thousand eleven. And so imagine we're at this company's headquarters. My colleague, Alex, and I were there meeting all these interesting people. Right? Like, people from all different companies' backgrounds that then you it just kinda, like, there's no substitute for that.

And so I would say I see this in a lot of industries. Like, when you have people that are regenerative farmers and they band together, they share techniques, because they're not all farming the same piece of land. Right? They're farming a piece of land in their local community or so their shared ideals and shared strategies actually make the world a better place. And I would say it's the same thing in the Shopware community.

What I've loved to see blossom is that just from that Shopware United meetup we did in January 2023, that was around NRF, which is, like, the biggest ecommerce trade show in The United States or the biggest retail trade show in The United States besides, like, your Shop Talks and your other ones. But it's a huge it's called the Big Show for Reason. It's the entire Javits Center in New York. And so there's a lot of people in town for a lot of different reasons. And what was nice about that is I got to meet someone named Victor, who is one of the top solutions architects at Shopware.

Victor don't know how to pronounce his last name, so I don't wanna butcher it. How do you pronounce Victor's last name properly? Calico. Okay. Not even gonna try because I would say something different.

The t is not sure. Right, but, also, I might not. But he but for me, he was the fire bear. Right? He was the legend.

Like, I had known about his software company for years before. I admired his blog. I admired his marketing strategies. And then I got to meet him in the flesh, and it was, like, you know, meeting your hero. I went to heroes, but it was someone I I really had affinity for.

And when you get to put that face to the name, there's nothing like it. Right? Because then you humanize people. And in an age where we're all digital, there's a lack of humanization going on, or you just see people as this in, like, a one dimensional way. And so community events are a great chance for that.

And then I'll just take it back to Shopware. Shopware throws two events, which are very important to me as a Shopware partner. Shopware community day sorry. That's the one I didn't go to. I meant Shopware partner day and Shoptoberfest.

And there's a Shopware Community Day in Germany that I've never been to, but, hopefully, one day. But Shoptoberfest is this great gathering that was in Brooklyn that, of course, that's our my original hometown and, where the company is founded. So I would say that was also really cool to have something in our backyard. But then too, it was, like, the way it's a gathering, the way it's talks, the way it's people hanging out. And then Shopware Partner Day where it's a it's more just people in similar boats to myself, other agency partners or tech partners.

I was just surprised. There was a man named, Ben Lawrence, r I p. He was the founder of a company called Human Element. We lost him this year. He was a great man.

But, basically, he came out to me and was like, hey. I'd love to talk. And it was just, like, so cool for someone that maybe I looked up to or didn't really know about him. I knew about his employees. He's like, hey.

I wanna share insights and information. And and, unfortunately, there wasn't enough time for us to really connect on a much deeper level, but the fact that he came out to me or another guy named Matt Harris, who I'm actually talking to later this afternoon for a different podcast, Matt Harris, came up and was really open. And it's like so you just see people as these monoliths in the web. Like, oh, that's a competitor. That's this guy.

It's this. But then when you meet people in person, everyone's humble. Everyone comes from the same background. And then there's also a guy named Brent Peterson who's been someone I've known since I started my career in this business, like, you know, back since 2010. And so he's also been an entrepreneur that I know and looked up to.

So it's nice when you see a familiar face, but in a different context each time because we all grow as people from time to time. So I just say these events really make me, feel like, again, the human side, and that's why I think the more types of it's not just for networking. Right? I'm not there like, naturally, yes. I'm gonna try to talk to different people, but it's like you have real human connection.

And so there's something to say when it's grounded in some kind of purpose. I don't like going to things when it's just a mixer because it's a lot of noise and it's a lot just it it never ends. But I like when there's, like, a grounded purpose to be there, and there's some kind of talking portion, and then that gives you something to react to, or there's a shared activity which gives people something to react to. So I I've been to other things that maybe was, like, a private event, but it was around a purpose. You inevitably talk to people anyway, or you make friends that way.

Yep. Like, around the table. I gotta say, when I first got to Shopware, again, you were one of the first people I met. Some of the other people you mentioned, Matt Harris, Brent Peterson, These guys are these are all people who, even even Ben Lorenz, great great guy, rest in peace. These are all people that really coveted the Magento community.

And, if you think about the meet Magentos that happen all over the world, you think about, the power of the community that was driven. When I first got to Shopware, one of the goals I had is figure out how to harness the power of that community, because they're some of the smartest people in ecommerce that really know how to deliver for their clients. And, universally, what I found is that the the magenta the classic Magento community of which I consider you one of those people as well as shop work community, is that you always have the merchant's best interest at mind in heart in their heart. And that means that not every platform serves every merchant. And the goal of, you know, you at the Meijer is to be the truth speaker as to which platform's gonna solve your business problem or not.

You agree with my assessment? Because I feel like that is you know, you're not just pushing a tech. You're pushing how to solve business problems, and tech is an enabler of that. So how do you react to that mouthful? No.

I would say it's very true. I would say that I've I ran into a situation recently, actually, where a company was like, yeah. We rebuilt our platform. We were on Magento open source, and we rebuilt on Adobe Commerce with less features. And now we're on the cloud, and we're more restricted.

I was like, so what you're telling me is that somebody convinced but then there was a you know, convinced you to do something that wasn't good for you, but there was more to the story. There was a sale and an acquisition in the middle, and it was part of that dance. And so I would say, whatever serves the master that you are trying to please is the right platform for you, whether that master is the almighty dollar, whether that master is an investor, whether that master is a business owner who is sure they want something. I would say there's the truth, and then there's what's true in the situation. And I know that could be a controversial statement, but I firmly believe that you can succeed with any of these platforms.

It's just how much pain are you willing to go through, or what are you willing to compromise on and flexibility in different ways. Right? Like, meaning, for a given platform, there could be easier on ramps in some ways and more difficult on ramps in others. Like, if you just look at b to b, for example, shop where Shopify made a big b to b push, but then there's a lot of people dissatisfied with the product, and it hasn't gone far enough, and you need additional layers. And then BigCommerce, same thing.

They made an investment in that avenue. And I don't wanna get into, like, specifics of each thing, but then Shopware, same thing. They have a b to b suite. Adobe has a b to b suite. There's different ways to get to the outcome, but I think not everyone researches what are the other stepping stones.

And so my philosophy on that is if tasked with a set of guardrails, like, hey. It has to be between these two things or it has to be this. It's like, I feel like that's one of the reasons why I feel confident in us as a company, like, BeMyers as a delivery agency, is because given the set of circumstances, we can make it happen. But then it's when you get into those nittier, grittier things where there's, like you can call them landmines, you can call it gotchas, you can call it unexpected challenges that you may not face in the beginning that can really hamstring you in later hamstring you later. Like, for example, there was the merchant we were talking about that went from, Adobe Commerce or Magento Adobe Commerce to Shopware, where their cart would blow up when it had they were b to b.

They had too many line items in the cart, and it would crash. And so what's the point of having an ecommerce platform if your best customers who need to build a 600 line item order can't shop? That's game over. But you didn't think about that when you built it, but now you're forced to be in that situation. And so Shopware was the answer because it could handle these really complex scenarios without platform architectural limitations getting in the way.

Now were there other things that the other platform might have done out of the box that then had to be adapted? Yes. So that's where I'm saying, like, if it's more about the people making the decisions, because an another if we're talking about other scenarios, the other, person I'm thinking of, him and I gave a talk, this guy, Tim Perry. He, he and I spoke about he's like, you only get one chance to do the thing. You don't get a do over in the two year window when you're trying to make some big change happen in your company.

So you gotta own it, and you gotta work extra hard to make it be successful. And I think that was one of the most poignant things he said in this talk we gave because there's real lives at stake. There's real money at stake. There's real, you know, there's real things at stake when you do a project. And so I think considering those decisions and and what it does to peep like, say you lock into something, Well, who the people delivering that, that's years of their lives delivering it.

So you want it to be a good experience through and through at all different stages if you can. Well, let's let's talk through about the platform selection process. When merchants come to you and say, hey. I I've heard of Shopify. They're the greatest marketing machine in the in in our industry.

I've I'm on x y z. Maybe it's Adobe or or Magento. How do you give them a list of three or four age excuse me, not agencies, of commerce platforms, and how do you help them make decisions based on what's best for their business? Is there a discovery process? Is there an assessment?

How do you how do you make recommendations as to what technology they should use? So it's interesting because sometimes when people are coming at it from the if they're an existing if they're doing a, you know, greenfield or brownfield migration, you know, where it's like you're coming from an existing platform or you're building something from scratch, those are two very different propositions. And so I would say cost is a factor that businesses always consider. What is it gonna cost us to build? What is it gonna cost us to maintain?

So that's usually total cost of ownership. Right? Year one, year two, year three, and beyond. I would say that's one of the main factors. And, yeah, there's a discovery process in terms of what are your primary core business functions and needs and getting there.

Right? And I would say that's the other, big thing. And so we went through an exercise recently where a customer we work with was considering a move to Shopify. They obviously thought it'd be easier to do certain things that are on Magento now. And we really went through the exercise, and they were a multi store, and they had a lot of complex requirements.

And we illustrated that it's actually more expensive to move to Shopify. Right? And, like and then once they saw that, the the complexity, and they also just it raised their total cost of ownership, which, again, there's a lot of debate and things around that. It's like it was really interesting to me because then they, like, they kinda, like, realized that that wasn't the move for them. But for example, if they were like, hey.

We're willing to stomach x, y, and z, it might have been the move for them. Right? Because there's other limitations. And so I would say we try to be unbiased because, for example, in that case, we would have benefited in some ways from them going to Shopify because it's a net new referral, which is how agencies grow their status in a partner program a lot of the time is the meritocracy. Right?

The more you sell, the better the better friend you are. But then so, like, we had an we had a reason to push it, but we had to do our fiduciary duty to the merchant to give them a clean and transparent look. And be because either way, we're the expensive extra cost. We're the development agency. We're an additional line item on their budget that if you move to one platform, you're gonna need us in this way.

If you move to another platform, you're gonna need us in that way. And so we, of course, have to have not self preservation in mind, but, like, separate that cost from the rest of the discussion. And I would say the other thing that was big in that process was the actual operators of the brand, the people that are pushing the buttons day in, day out. How do you make their life easier? What is catalog management gonna look like?

What is, inventory updates gonna look like? What are all these other elements of the, you know, situation gonna look like? That's what I think are, like, the most important, to really consider. And I said sometimes those really drive a decision. Because if if if you're if, for example, if it's gonna make the business owner's life easier, that might be worth the extra headache to get there.

Or if it's gonna make the person that manages the site who's really a long term employee, well, a lot of the time, not a short term employee, they might be like, hey. My life is miserable. I have to do four hours of work every time I wanna do this. If you can get that down to half an hour, you're now making the company more efficient, which means more things can happen with that time. And so I would say, like, there's different factors that we look at in the process.

And then also it comes down to integrations and technology and what you rely on and how it integrates. Are these normally paid assessments or paid discoveries, or are these, just part of your agency work because you're gonna get the build? I mean, that's a controversial topic again. Like, I think, you know, work should be compensated if it's work. Right?

If you're paying someone to do it, it costs you money. But at the same time, there's this little process called the RFP process, and we were supposed to make there was a whole RFP campaign with Shopware in the past that we were supposed to work on. But, like, basically, I got an RFP. I wanted to win it. It was the dream project.

You put all this time into estimating it. Couldn't get the guy to even pick up the phone to ask a follow-up question. So it was like then you then I just saw the other day that that project went live, and I'm like, damn. Like, a lot of effort went into nothing. Right?

And a lot of the time, you have to if it's an RFP kinda thing, you have to kind of put an effort to it's not paid. Right? But then when it's a a a let this paid discovery, which we've done for people where you do a feasibility assessment, you go through a process, those can be a small paid engagement to get a result. And the whole goal of that result is it's not attached to you delivering it. And so there's some pro things where people say, hey.

If you go with us, we'll credit x back or we'll do this. Like, there's a lot of mechanisms that companies use to make those engagements more palatable. But, again, when I went back earlier in the call when I said a lot of people treat companies like mine as a commodity, I would say that that is what I mean by that. The value you pay for something like that could save you millions in the long run if you make a bad decision or a good decision. And so I think it's just insane how, in the capriciousness of decision making, people forego that process when it's actually the most important process because questions are being asked in the beginning that you would not normally address until later, and it can really make or break a project.

And so I think just from it, you, like, you wouldn't build a house without an architect. Right? You wouldn't, like and so I I you know, don't take this from me, but I have a whole construction industry, web industry analogy that I wanna put out. But, basically, that, that is to me the most, like, parallel, because people cut corners in the digital realm that they would not cut in the physical realm. Because in the physical realm, the nightclub you built is gonna collapse and kill 200 people, and you're gonna go to jail.

In the digital realm, nothing's gonna happen. You know? People are gonna lose their jobs. This is gonna happen. That's gonna happen, but nobody's lie life is gonna end.

You know? So I just think the severity level of which is treated it's treated more as a commodity, like I said. So I just have some strong feelings there about how you you have to convince people of the value of it. It makes you feel like, hey. I'm not the one you're the one that wants to build something.

I didn't tell you to do this. You came to me. But so it's just kinda like that that's where there's a weird posture, and, like, some people say that it's BS, and some people say it's essential. And I think the truth's always somewhere in between, but I think it's really important to measure twice, cut once before you'd build a whole ecommerce platform. Right on.

Well, let's end this in a positive light. So let's talk a little bit about some of the things you're most excited about. It could be merchant related. It could be community related. It could be AI.

You tell me, what is what is the thing that gets you out of bed that you're incredibly excited and enthusiastic about in our world? I'll give you the last word. Okay. Like, do you wanna frame that around something? Because you asked me earlier about what am I excited about.

So I wanna That was around AI. Okay. I Yeah. Okay. So it was around AI.

No. I thought it was, like, what are you most excited about for your business and everything too? But okay. I'll say, for me, I'm excited about, just the entrepreneurial journey and who I get to work with. Right?

Like, I'm excited about what I do and who I get to do it with. I feel grateful that I am able to work with people all over the world from all walks of life and speak a common language. And, you know, it's, like, really fun when you develop these relationships and friendships with people you may not have even ever met in real life. And then when you finally do meet them, it's like you've known them the whole time. I so I'm most excited about where this journey is taking me.

I've learned in the last year to really enjoy the ride more or to the the value of your time and being happy. I've you know, I had open heart surgery voluntarily a few years ago, so that gave me a lot of long term perspective. I would say that and so just I would just say being excited about every day and and not treating every day as if it's promised because it's not. And so I would just say, like, spending less time worrying, spending less time stressing, spending less time complaining are the areas that I'm excited to improve in myself because then the reward of that is a more enjoyable life. And when you're excited about something, it's effortless.

Even if you didn't get a lot of sleep, you're gonna get out of bed with an extra step in your step, and that's when you know you're having fun. And so I would just say I'm excited for that. And then the projects I'm doing in my company, like I said, we're giving birth to a physical manifestation of the company. I'm excited to share that with the world because, like you said, we're early and we take a lot of risks. And with with with with, you know, with great risk comes great reward.

And so that's the you know, what I'm excited about is to see how this goes. Now you did talk about your heart open heart elective open heart surgery. And for those who follow you or connected to you on LinkedIn, you've you've done a fairly good job of being public with your journey and your challenges, and you you raise money. You wanna give a plug a little bit about, the cause you support? Yeah.

So, I created an initiative called hearts of commerce to raise global awareness about genetic heart disease in the ecommerce world. I have hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. That's HCM for short. One in every two hundred fifty people has it, and only fifteen percent of those people even know they have it. But it can all it could be fatal, and, people can die of sudden cardiac arrest.

So what I've noticed is that since it's a numbers driven cause, the more that people know about these things or the more that people check with their family heart history or check with their doc you know, if they have a family member that goes through something, and then they're like, oh, I need to connect the dots here. You can literally save a life or save your own life or spare some pain to your family by taking care of yourself. And so the initiative, Hearts of Commerce, is about getting companies like Shopware or like other technology companies to really realize that there's so much money in this world of ecommerce, and there's so much impact these companies have because they employ millions of people and they touch all facets of life that if we create an initiative to raise awareness on that level, I think it can just have a great societal impact. And I know there's a lot of causes that matter, but that you know, that's that's why I'm doing it is because I feel blessed to be in the position I'm in versus those of us that cannot be here or have lost loved ones.

Fantastic. Well, Mayor, thank you for being a partner. Thank you for being a friend. If people wanna get in touch with you, how do they how do you recommend they do that? Okay.

So you can get in touch with me through LinkedIn, me or Bianchi on LinkedIn. You can visit our website, bemeir,.com. You know, we're very approachable. Happy to talk. And, yeah, Jason, I would like to see you on my podcast next.

We have well, I gotta I gotta put you in the hot seat. Let's go. Ask me some tough questions. Alright. I think we'll leave it here.

Thanks, buddy. And, thanks for being Commerce famous. Well, thank you for having me.