Episode · 2026-05-06
Shopify Q1
Shopify Q1 | Parker Ceases Operations | Jack Kavanagh x James Borow
Rundown
Chris and Colin cover Shopify's Q1 earnings dip on an OpEx miss, the abrupt and awkwardly-timed shutdown of fintech Parker, and Amazon's new merchant supply-chain push, before bringing on guests Jack Kavanagh to talk about launching a new premium apparel brand (creator seeding, DHL logistics, DPA creative) and James Borow of Comcast to discuss building a self-service TV/CTV ads API and the hidden arbitrage in traditional TV ad buying.
Takes from this episode
The Shopify stock drop is an overreaction to a single missed OpEx marker and represents a buying opportunity for long-term bulls.
Stock's going down cuz they just missed on one of the markers, which was OpEx... if you are bullish on Shopify for the long term discount. It's on discount right now and it is it's a phenomenal team.
CPG protein brands like David are winning primarily through incredible branding and cultural top-of-mind status rather than product differentiation alone.
David incredible branding. Uh number two, they're they're they're top of mind... they have done an incredible job of carving out a niche for protein and making it sexy and cool and desirable.
As more brands ship via Amazon's supply chain, in-box branding and unboxing experience become essential since Amazon controls the outer packaging.
your unboxing experience is now more important than ever. Make sure what they open up inside of that box that's going to be already inside of the Amazon box is world-class.
For the new brand's launch, Jack is deliberately excluding small/micro creators from seeding and only gifting to bigger creators to protect premium positioning.
I'm not going to give them to like Karen the you know, TikTok shop creator with 50 followers, it's not happening. Not doing it.
Dynamic/personalized ad creative naturally outperforms generic AI-generated static ads, so leaning into a distinct anti-establishment brand voice is what will move creative performance.
should we be surprised that like our DPA crushes compared to like a bunch of shitty statics? No, maybe not, right?
Brands should demand transparency from TV ad vendors on real clearing prices, since markup and arbitrage in self-service TV buys obscure the true return on ad spend.
you you you may be buying $20 CPM ads, but what's actually happening behind the scenes is they're clearing at like 10... ask your vendor like how much really went through ads?