Communities Are Not Silos

Building an Influencer Marketing Platform with Elijah Khasabo

Author

Brent Peterson
January 15, 2026

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The Talk Commerce Podcast Newsletter

Who have we been talking to lately? Focusing on conversations about eCommerce, AI, Entrepreneurship, and Marketing.

This Week's Featured Article: Communities Are Not Silos

By Brent W Peterson

Six years ago, the CEOs of Shopware walked into a room full of their competitors’ biggest advocates at a Magento event in Germany.

They didn't show up to poach developers or pitch their product. They showed up just to participate.

That moment crystalized a vital lesson for me: Real communities are not silos.

The early Magento community thrived on this principle, prioritizing individual developers over corporate interests. Today, I see Shopware building upon that same open foundation.

Unfortunately, too many modern e-commerce "communities" have morphed into transactional marketing channels defined by tribalism. When we stay trapped in our platform silos, we limit our learning, our networks, and our growth.

In this article, I reflect on 15 years in the space, contrasting the vibrant, open cultures that build giants against the closed ecosystems that isolate developers.

The strongest communities welcome competition because they understand a simple truth: rising tides lift all boats.

Our Latest Episodes:

Building an Influencer Marketing Platform While Bootstrapping Through College with Elijah Khasabo

Elijah Khasabo co-founded Vidovo while in college, bootstrapping an influencer marketplace that now connects 15,000 creators with 200+ brands.

Elijah's insights cut through the hype: engagement metrics matter more than follower counts, AI-generated video gets views but doesn't drive sales, and real people creating authentic content still win.

October became their biggest month ever, beating September's numbers in just 13 days. The lesson for e-commerce brands: start testing creator content months before you need it, not weeks.

AI Agents Are Transforming E-commerce Customer Support and Operations with Luca Borreani

Luca Borreani, Co-founder of ZipChat AI, discusses moving beyond basic chatbots to autonomous AI agents in e-commerce.

Luca explains how today's AI agents go beyond simple Q&A to handle operational tasks like editing orders, recovering carts, and proactive upselling with built-in guardrails. Just in time for Black Friday, they discuss how agents can analyze thousands of past customer conversations to identify winning marketing angles and predict trends before the rush.

A key takeaway? Luca notes that AI technology "compounds over time," learning your brand identity and customers more deeply the longer it runs, making consistency crucial for long-term success.

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This isn't about replacing strategic content work. It's about scaling your production while maintaining quality. 

We're accepting 20 founding members for alpha testing. 

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