Shopify just dropped Q1 earnings and the operator class is reacting in real time — Harley Finkelstein, Dennis Hegstad, Mike Bertulli, Matt Epstein, and Sean Frank all weighed in. We break down what the numbers actually mean for merchants and where Shopify is heading next. Plus two stacked guest interviews on creative testing at scale and the future of TV advertising.

ON TODAY'S EPISODE OF ECOMM COWBOY

Jack Kavanagh (Happiest Guy in Ecommerce) — founder of 3 brands with another about to launch!

James Borow (General Manager, Universal Ads) — Comcast's self-service TV ad platform that lets any brand create, buy, and measure ads across premium streaming and (as of last week) linear TV inventory. Two-time exited founder (Market AI and SHIFT). At Snap Inc. he played a foundational role scaling Snap's ad business from zero to $1B+ in revenue. We dig into the actual minimum spend for a DTC brand to get on Comcast linear today, how to structure a TV creative test if you're used to launching 50 Meta variants a week, what smaller performance-first brands learned running on the Milan Cortina Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, how Universal Ads competes against an Amazon-Roku closed loop, where YouTube fits on the CTV vs. linear map, and whether we're 12 months away from a brand running substantially AI-generated creative on a Super Bowl-level moment.

ALSO ON THE SHOW

- Parker ceases operations — what happened and what it means for the category

- David Protein named to Time's 100 Most Influential Companies of 2026

- Amazon Supply Chain Services opens its logistics network to every business

- Audience retention for purchase events: 180 to 730 days?

- Cold calling abandoned carts — yes, really

- Gary Vee reps DadGang

- Meta will use AI to analyze height and bone structure to identify underage users

- Create Autoship complaint — Dan responds

- McDonald's ends self-service soda

- Meta Glasses: the day-in-the-life content machine

- New baby tech unlock

_____________________________________

Welcome to DTC's daily — what's now and next in ecommerce so founders, marketers, and operators can survive and thrive.

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