We wrapped up an incredible gathering of ~120 founders and builders, diving deep into scaling B2C businesses and how AI is reshaping e-commerce. Seeing so many B2C technologists with diverse backgrounds thriving in the Bay Area is so exciting!
🔥 Keynote from Palmstreet 0 to 1 with Chen Li (Founder & CEO)
✅ Reality–What’s in the press isn’t always the full story. The real journey is scrappy, iterative, and constantly evolving with pivots.
✅ Test the Market Before Building–Test on Instagram and other tools first to see if there's a real need/problem, without building the product,
✅ The Hardest Work is the Founder’s Work–Fundraising, sales, hiring top talent, P&L, and culture can’t be outsourced.
✅ Managing Multiple Fires–Scaling means constantly choosing which problems to solve now and which to let burn for a while.
✅ From Traction to Scale–Organic traction helps, but scale requires investment in paid ads, partnerships, and automation to sustain momentum.
✅ Move Fast or Get Left Behind–The moment you gain traction, competition will follow. Speed of execution makes the difference between leading and lagging.
🤖 Fireside Chat with Yuchen Wu (ex-VP Instacart) and Cordelia Xiao (ex-European Regional Head AliExpress)
🛍 E-commerce success=making buying & selling frictionless. The most successful businesses remove pain points for both consumers and merchants.
📊 AI is changing how businesses use data. Small businesses can now leverage AI for personalization, demand forecasting, and automated customer acquisition—once only available to large tech firms.
🚀 AI-powered shopping agents are the next paradigm shift. They will change how consumers discover, evaluate, and purchase products, making e-commerce more interactive and personalized.
🏢 Big players focus on optimizing backend assets like logistics, product listings, and search, while smaller companies have more room for AI-driven consumer apps, B2B tools, and automation-first marketplaces.
📈 Social commerce is reshaping global expansion. Platforms like TikTok are accelerating cross-border commerce, creating massive opportunities but also new challenges for scaling.
⚖️ Tariffs and policy shifts are making DTC harder, pushing more brands toward B2B and localized strategies.
--
📢 Stay Connected! & Upcoming Events
⚡ Feb 25 | Ultra-efficient AI & On-device AI (Palo Alto)
⚡ Feb 26 | GenAI Video & World Models for Robotics (San Francisco)
🗓️ Feb 28 | Scaling with AI: Driving Sales, Product Growth & Retention, Expert panel with leaders from Zara, Salesforce, GoFundMe, Tofu, 500 Global & more
🗓️ Mar 18 | GTC Week Exclusive: Scaling LLMs, AI Infra & Deep Tech, join with C-suite from Turing, Nebius, Gen, Zyphra, TetraMem, Nvidia & more
