Episode · 2026-04-11
Shopify AI Toolkit
Shopify AI Toolkit | HOT JOBS | Chris Lang x Brandon Blum
Rundown
Chris Hall and Colin cover the newly released Shopify AI toolkit and a batch of DTC 'hot jobs,' then run two guest segments: Chris Lang (Fresh Chile Co.) on building a cooking-community brand and getting a cease-and-desist from Kraft Heinz, and Brandon Blum on turning a monthly founders' pickup basketball game into a monetizing community. The back half hits sponsor reads, OpenAI's ad-business economics, a mysterious granular ad-attribution dashboard, and the Pop-Tarts x Liquid Death flavor collab.
Takes from this episode
OpenAI's ad business needs to succeed and pull in massive advertiser spend or the company can't stay solvent long-term.Prediction
they need this thing to take off and work... they need us to all be funneling our ad dollars in there for this thing to become profitable at some point
A granular, cross-funnel identity/attribution view outside of Meta Ads Manager (UTMs, exit behavior, inferred demographics, LTV, discount usage) is genuinely valuable even though its origin is unclear.
It's outside of Meta Ads Manager... I'm a huge fan of this.
Building a branded community (a cooking group turned cookbook) around repeat customers drives purchase rate and doubles as a lead magnet.
we try to think of every touchpoint in the customer journey, point them to the cooking group... I would say we use it as a lead magnet
A niche, founder-led in-person community (a recurring pickup basketball game for founders and investors) is an effective relationship-building channel that can eventually monetize via sponsorship.
We have over 1,000 people, founders mostly, on our email list... it's starting to monetize a little bit
An all-in-one marketing suite that lives natively inside Shopify (email, banners, reviews) is more valuable than stitching together separate tools because it stays where merchants already work.
Seguno is the only marketing suite that lives entirely inside of Shopify... your email, your banners, your reviews, it already lives where you work and play every day
Despite comparisons to over-sequeled movie franchises, novelty flavor collabs like Pop-Tarts x Liquid Death still work and he'd buy one.
I'm totally here for this. I'm very happy to drink the Pop-Tarts flavored Liquid Death.