We are building @gooddaysoftware as close to Shopify as possible. Is this the right call? What do you think? Some people have asked us if we are worried Shopify might build their own ERP and crush us. To that, I say:

@AaronandML Your harshest critic

Growth—whether in business or life—is rarely linear by nature. When you zoom out and look at the picture of 10+ years, you might see a clear trajectory that looks like progress. But, when you break it down into daily or weekly snapshots, your life as an entrepreneur is volatile, unpredictable, and full of swings. That’s my entrepreneurial experience, at least. At Chubbies, we learned over time that progress was unpredictable, and we had to be comfortable preparing for massive swings to our operating plan. Most first-time entrepreneurs picture business progress as a steady climb—hit a milestone, move up and to the right, repeat. In reality, some months are great—some are less than ideal, and some force you to rethink everything. This is why I think having a calm hand and training your team to expect setbacks—sometimes meaningful ones- is so important. The team needs to know how to move through good and bad times, control the variables they can control, and keep moving forward. If they expect a smooth ride, they’ll freeze when they need to be most decisive. Looking at the start of 2025, I see a chaotic and unpredictable backdrop. My world consists mostly of DTC brands and ecommerce infrastructure SaaS players. Both are dealing with major unknowns, and I expect more to come. If you don’t give your team the space and time to absorb the new information, rethink what success might look like this year, and adjust their plans, they’ll work in the wrong direction. Long-term success isn’t about perfection. It’s about steady progress, continuously learning how to move through the rough patches without losing sight of where you’re headed in the end.

Managing Pre-sales in Ecommerce is shockingly unresolved. Rewinding 2-3 months, our early design partners at @gooddaysoftware were starting to clamor for us to come up with a solution. The team went all in, breaking down the problem, eliminating unnecessary complexity, and building a working prototype overnight. One day later, the first version was live. One month later, it was fully integrated into GoodDay and @Shopify’s inventory flows. Book a demo with me here if you’d like to see GoodDay Presales. I mention this specific example because, at GoodDay, we operate under one rule: Speed to Merchant Value is everything. If merchants need something now, we don’t wait for the roadmap to catch up. We move. We build. However, not every request fits the long-term roadmap. That’s why we don’t rely on our roadmap—we have multiple ways to deliver value fast daily. Here are a few: - If it fits the long-term vision, we pull it forward. Nothing is static about our roadmap—if the right move is to accelerate a feature, we do it without hesitation. - If it’s an urgent need and not part of the core product, we help merchants integrate their systems with ours. We also allow them to build on our APIs, or we offer solutions engineering to solve the immediate need. - If urgent but not scalable, we hack together a solution. Our team, full of ex-brand operators, is built to move fast and solve near-term pain, sometimes in unscalable ways, while keeping an eye on the long term. Right now, we spend half our time adjusting the roadmap and hacking through near-term solutions. That’s the balance. That’s GoodDay.

Top 3 mistakes that keep brands from streamlining operations (and how to fix them). 1/ Mistake: Thinking more SKUs = More Revenue “If we offer five things and make $1M, imagine if we offer ten—we could make $2M!” That logic works early on, but it creates operational drag at scale at scale. More SKUs mean complex forecasting, higher storage costs, and harder-to-manage marketing. At Chubbies, the number of SKUs ballooned into the thousands as the company pursued expansion instead of focusing on what customers actually wanted. >> Fix: Refine before expanding. - Identify your core best-sellers and trim the excess. Chubbies cut 20-30% of SKUs, improved quality, and strengthened its core offering. - Scaling isn’t just about selling more—it’s about making what you sell best even better. 2/ Mistake: Hiring for growth without hiring for scale Brands often hire the wrong mix of people. Some bring in visionaries who thrive in chaos but forget to hire operators who build systems. Others overcorrect—bringing in rigid process-builders too early, slowing momentum. >> Fix: Balance innovation and execution. - Innovators push boundaries, test, and disrupt. Operators refine, optimize, and scale what works. - The right mix ensures growth without operational breakdowns. 3/ Mistake: Letting short-term urgency kill long-term planning Fast-growing brands often live in reaction mode—solving today’s fires without a clear roadmap. >> Fix: Keep a rolling 3-year vision + 1-year tactical plan. - A 12-month cycle keeps teams focused in the near term and oriented on accountability to deliver. - A 3-year vision ensures leadership can dream a bit and inspire the team around what’s possible. Planning doesn’t slow growth—it ensures speed takes the business in the right direction.

@Aaronschwartz35 @debgotwired Ummmm me and all the founders @debgotwired has worked with are now coalescing… I’ll take it as a compliment?!?

@diptidesaisf @debgotwired someone has to do it

@pomajp 14K you animal

@gooddaysoftware I loved chatting with @chaseclymer on the @honestecommerce pod!

RT @mattahertz: For those seeking guidance (all of us!) on WTF is happening with tariffs, de minimis, China, Canada, register and tune into…

@itstonyyu @RomanEcom now the real innovation begins

Friendly reminder: As a brand operator, control what you can control. Focus your energy on the elements of your business that you CAN impact today. With all of this Tariff news, it's easy to fall into the trap of trying to predict everything and over-optimizing something you can't possibly understand. You likely don't yet have enough information to make long-term, definitive business decisions with the level of accuracy you need.

@AaronandML waiting with my popcorn, let’s go

I guess I just assume most brands will try a bit of everything & they can transparently share some of the costs of these tariffs with consumers, they’ll definitely sell less as a result, especially if they all do it at the same time. I’m less experienced in CPG, so maybe this is the worst idea ever in that world.

At @gooddaysoftware, we’re simply trying to simplify complex operating tools. There is no need to switch between multiple systems of record and pay engineers thousands of dollars to build custom software for you. Go ahead and build your brand, and let GoodDay do the heavy lifting for you.

@dtcjacob and most of the actual products being shown to users are ~the same. keep going!

As we entered the New Year, the conversation about 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 321 𝐚𝐧𝐝 all the 𝐓𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐟𝐟 uncertainty reached a fever pitch, and brands began to react quickly and decisively to the new policies. At @gooddaysoftware, we returned to the drawing board on some HS Code and Automated Duties lookup technology we have discussed for some time. We pulled this together over the last 4 weeks, and it’s now native to GoodDayOS. It’s a pretty simple system that we’re excited to bring to our merchants: - HS code lookup in GoodDay Item Management leveraging item name and description - Partner with 3rd party data providers Zonos and Importal - Leverage this info and the Country of Origin and Qty of units purchased that already live in GoodDay’s POs - Fully automate the lookup of HTS codes and duties rates, then apply them to the line items flowing through GoodDay’s operating system This is one small step to making our merchants’ lives easier. We’re working on 20+ of these types of opportunities, and together, they’ll add up to a system that’s simple & works. To learn more about the evolving discussion on Section 321 & tariff policy, I’m hosting a webinar this 𝐓𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲, 01/30/25, 𝐚𝐭 11 𝐚𝐦 𝐂𝐓 ( with some of the best and brightest service providers working to support brands on this topic. Given the new unknowns that have emerged, our goal is to shed some light on what the best brands are doing. Have a GoodDay!

@SeanEcom vertical progress ftw