Cocktails & Commerce Podcast

This week Bill and I are joined by our guest Adam Bujak, to mix up a Polish-inspired cocktail and have a conversation about the intersection of process intelligence, agentic workflows, and enterprise commerce transformation.Adam is the CEO and co-founder of KYP.ai - a company that helps large organizations understand how work actually gets done by blending operational telemetry, human work execution data, and AI to surface where automation creates real value. KYP.ai starts by capturing a real-time view across people, processes, and technology. Then it quantifies what that’s worth, telling you not just what could be automated with agentic AI, but what should be. Their clients include DHL, JPMorgan Chase, and Qatar Airways, among others.Adam is based in Berlin and brings a deeply analytical and remarkably human perspective to AI transformation. So please pour yourself something to sip along with us and enjoy our conversation with Adam.Cheers!There is room for others at the party! Subscribe now to make sure you don’t miss out on the next episode.This week’s cocktail: Proof of ValueA bespoke cocktail focused on the flavors of fall and inspired by Poland and the Baltics. It uses Kümmel, a caraway forward liqueur and combines that with the apple notes of the calvados and the bitterness of the Bonal and Braulio to form a terrific cocktail.Proof of Value2 oz. / ~60 ml. - Calvados.75 oz. / ~45 ml. - Bonal0.25 oz. / ~7.5 ml. - Braulio0.25 oz. / ~7.5 ml. - Kümmel1 dash Angostura bittersGarnish - Orange twistSteps:Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with plenty of ice. Stir for a good 15-20 seconds or more until well chilled. Strain into a chilled coupe or cocktail glass. Express the orange twist over the surface of the drink, wipe around the rim, and drop into the glass.Enjoy!As always, it’s great to have you here! If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share, rate (it helps!), and let us know your thoughts. We love to hear from our listeners.Be well, drink well, and here is to good business! Cheers! - Brian & BillCocktails & Commerce™ is a wholly owned subsidiary of StrategyēM, LLC. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cocktailsand.substack.com

This week Bill and I are joined by Bryan Mahoney to mix up a Negroni riff and talk about something we think is under appreciated in the agentic commerce conversation: the data foundation and context layer that are key to enabling agentic commerce operations.Bryan is the co-founder and CEO of Chord Commerce, a platform built for D2C and omnichannel brands that unifies first-party data to enable operational AI and agents. Prior to Chord, Bryan has spent nearly thirty years in commerce technology across a number of senior roles, including founding CTO of Glossier. Brian also hosts his own podcast, Brilliant Commerce. With that, please pour yourself something to sip along and enjoy our conversation with Bryan.Cheers!Thanks for reading Cocktails & Commerce! Please share, there is more room at the party!This week’s drink: A Negroni RiffThe Negroni is perhaps Italy’s most prominent contribution to mixology and the cocktail pantheon. The history of the Negroni is relatively clear in its general outlines, but like many cocktail origin stories, there are gaps and perhaps some - shall we say - creative license introduced along the way. The Negroni is also a cocktail that lends itself easily to playful adaptation given it’s dead simple spec - one part spirit, one part vermouth, one part bitter. The first account of the Negroni was contained in a letter written sometime between the end of World War I and October 1920 by Count Camillo Negroni, a Florentine aristocrat. He apparently was quite the character - having spent time as a professional gambler, a fencing instructor, and even in America as some sort of cowboy.As he recounted in the letter, once back in Florence after the war he took to having the bartender at Florence’s Caffè Casoni make him an Americano only boozier. The Americano is vermouth, bitters and soda water, and the bartender swapped in gin for the Americano’s water, and voilà! - the Negroni was born. But it was really in Paris that the drink took off during ‘The Roaring Twenties’. It became so popular that American humorist Nina Wilcox Putnam joked that, “All Gaul was divided into three parts; one part gin; one part vermouth, and one part Italian bitters.”Later, those bitters became somewhat standardized as Campari - but back then they were probably using all sorts of Italian-style orange bitters which are close cousins of Campari. The drink fell out of favor with the rise of Italian fascism and WWII, but then had a renaissance when it was adopted as the drink of dopoguerra (“postwar”) Italy and of la dolce vita (“the sweet life”). Italy was suddenly very glamorous, and the Negroni became the drink of the jet-set in America, Europe, and beyond.The classic Negroni has inspired countless riffs, since that equal-parts template is so easy to bend. For this episode, we made our own - swapping out the core spec for substitutions that echo the original while bringing something new.Cheers!Negroni Riff: Context Layer2 oz. Gin (London Dry recommended - Beefeater or Botanist)1 oz. Gran Classico1 oz. Amaro (Cardamaro recommended)1 dash orange bittersGarnish: orange twistSteps:Add all ingredients to a mixing glass with ice and stir until well chilled - approximately thirty seconds. Strain into a rocks glass over a large clear ice cube. Express the orange twist over the surface, swipe the rim, and drop it in.Enjoy!Thanks for reading Cocktails & Commerce! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.As always, it’s great to have you here! If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share, rate (it helps!), and let us know your thoughts. We love to hear from our listeners.Be well, drink well, and here is to good business! Cheers! - Brian & BillCocktails & Commerce™ is a wholly owned subsidiary of StrategyēM, LLC. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cocktailsand.substack.com

This week Bill and I are joined by our guest Peter Sheldon, to shake up a Vesper cocktail and talk about ShopVision, Market & Competitive Intelligence, his vision for how commerce become’s increasingly autonomous, and what it’s like leading Product for an AI-native company.Peter is co-founder and Chief Product Officer of ShopVision, a fast growing market and competitive intelligence solution focused on digital commerce and marketing. ShopVision’s customers include the likes of Achteryx, Herschel, Vistaprint, Kohl’s, and Signet Jewelers among many others.Many of you will know Peter from his time as an analyst at Forrester - covering the commerce technology market - as well as his time at Magento and then Adobe where he was in senior product and strategy roles.Bill and I have both known Peter for many years, including a time Peter and I worked together, and we’ve been looking forward to having Peter on show. It’s a great conversation, so pour yourself something to sip along with us and enjoy our conversation with Peter.Cheers!Episode Chapters:* The Vesper cocktail - Bond’s iconic cocktail born in fiction* “Hey Levi” - Explaining ShopVision to a 6-year-old* The story behind founding ShopVision* Breaking down ShopVision’s Market & Competitive Intelligence solution and data-set* What’s different about building an AI-native company and what its like leading Product strategy in the AI era* Peter’s view on how Commerce and marketing become increasingly autonomous* What AI agentic development means for platforms and the ecosystem* Does Build vs. buy decision making change with the advent of AI* Future of industry analyst firms* Final cocktail order and sign-offPlease share, there is plenty room at the party!This week’s drink: The VesperThe Vesper, also known as the Vesper Martini, was invented by author Ian Fleming for his iconic, fictional British secret agent, James Bond in his first Bond novel, Casino Royale. Fleming had Bond name the drink after his love-interest - and fictional double agent - Vesper Lynd. In the novel, the character explains that she was born ‘on a very stormy evening’, and that her parents named her ‘Vesper’ - Latin for evening.Bond then gives her name to the Martini variation he orders, leaving little ambiguity in how the bartender is to prepare the cocktail: “A dry martini. Three measures of Gordon’s, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it’s ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel.”Fleming was apparently inspired to name the cocktail and character by his close friend Ivar Bryce, who later shared the story in his memoir You Only Love Once. During WWII Fleming visited Bryce’s home in Jamaica. When the butler arrived with the drinks, he apparently said, “Vespers are served.” - an allusion to canonomical rights practiced in many orthodox Christian traditions. But the drink was not a Martini variation, but rather a rum-based drink. The attribution seems to be upheld by Fleming inscribing a copy of Casino Royale to Bryce with, “To Ian, who mixed the first Vesper.”The Vesper cocktail itself never appears in any of Fleming’s subsequent Bond novels after the character of Vesper is revealed as a double agent and ends up committing suicide at the end of Casino Royale. One very specific element though does carry forward as Bond goes on to order Martini’s throughout the series: that the drink be shaken, not stirred. As Bond became a massive cultural icon, this kicked off decades of debates among drinkers, bartenders and mixologists about the right way to prepare a martini, or any cocktail that is spirit-forward like the Martini. Most would claim that a Martini be stirred, but Bond wanted his shaken. Beyond a great one-liner, this has the effect of consistently rendering the finished product ice-cold and not dependent on the duration of a stir to reach dilution and the essential chill - so maybe Fleming was onto something after all.The Vesper is also by its nature a generous pour, closer to a double, and it is exactly as lethal as it sounds.Cheers!Cocktail Spec: The Vesper3 oz. / ~90 ml. - Gin (London Dry style recommended)1 oz. / ~30 ml. - Vodka0.5 oz. / ~15 ml. - Kina Lillet or Lillet Blanc (substitute Tempest Fugit Kina d’Or for a more bitter, quinine-forward result)Garnish - Large lemon twistSteps:Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with plenty of ice. Shake hard until very well chilled. Strain into a large chilled coupe or cocktail glass. Express the lemon twist over the surface of the drink, wipe around the rim, and drop into the glass.Enjoy!Thanks for reading Cocktails & Commerce! Subscribe for free to make sure you don't miss out next episode.As always, it’s great to have you here! If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share, rate (it helps!), and let us know your thoughts. We love to hear from our listeners.Be well, drink well, and here is to good business! Cheers! - Brian & BillCocktails & Commerce™ is a wholly owned subsidiary of StrategyēM, LLC. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cocktailsand.substack.com

This week Bill and I are joined by our guest Tomasz Pindel, co-founder and CEO of Voucherify. Voucherify is a Customer Incentive and Loyalty Engine that has built a reputation for enabling businesses to rapidly deploy and test promotions, discounts, and loyalty solutions through its API-first, composable platform. Based in Poland, Voucherify works with customers across Europe and now North America, counting the likes of Breville, Altitude Sports, McDonald’s, and Michelin among their many customers.Voucherify recently launched Vincent, an AI agent aimed at streamlining promotion and incentive workflows while connecting to other agents to bring forward market and customer insights. In the episode we get further into what Vincent does and why it matters.Our conversation covers a lot of ground: the incentive and promotion landscape, the pain points that drive enterprises to seek out a composable Incentive and Loyalty solution, and how brands are not ready for shopping agents yet. We also get Tom's view on how AI has impacted product development from someone who is living it firsthand.So please pour yourself something along with us and enjoy our conversation with Tom.Cheers!Please share! There is plenty of room for others at the cocktail party!This week’s drink: The Szarlotka RiffThe Szarlotka is a beautifully simple drink of Żubrówka bison grass vodka poured over apple juice with a pinch of cinnamon. ‘Szarlotka’ is Polish for “apple pie”, and indeed this drink tastes like warm slice of pie in a glass. Żubrówka is one of the more distinctive spirits in the world: a Polish rye vodka infused with bison grass from the Białowieża Forest, giving it faint notes of vanilla, fresh hay, and a kind of meadowy sweetness that slots perfectly alongside apple. Bill took that Szarlotka foundation and built on it for a C&C riff - adding pear brandy for depth, a house-made cinnamon-cardamom syrup for spice and warmth, a squeeze of lemon for balance, and a few drops of saline to pull everything together. The result keeps the apple-pie soul of the original but gives it more structure and nuance. An egg white is optional but adds a silky texture that rounds out the spice nicely.Cheers!Cocktail Spec: The Szarlotka Riff 1.5 oz. - Żubrówka Bison Grass Vodka0.75 oz. - Fresh unfiltered apple juice (fresh-pressed if you can get it)0.5 oz. - Pear brandy (St. George or similar)0.25 oz. - Cinnamon-cardamom syrup (see below)Scant 0.25 oz. - Fresh lemon juice2 drops - Saline solution (20% solution, pinch of sea salt as an alternative)0.5 oz. - Egg white (optional, for texture)Garnish - Cinnamon stick and fresh thyme sprigSteps: If using egg white, dry shake all ingredients without ice for 10–15 seconds to emulsify. Add ice and shake again until well chilled. Strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with a cinnamon stick and thyme sprig.How to make the Cinnamon-Cardamom Syrup1 cup sugar + 1 cup water2–3 Ceylon cinnamon sticks6–8 green cardamom pods, lightly crushedSteps: Stir sugar and water over low heat. Add cinnamon and cardamom. Steep until fragrant, tasting often - the cardamom will turn to a medicinal flavor if left too long. Strain and cool. Add a capful of high-proof vodka to preserve which helps keep it for a couple of months if refrigerated.Enjoy!Please subscribe! We want to be sure you make it to the next party! Cheers!As always, it’s great to have you here! If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share, rate (it helps!), and let us know your thoughts. We love to hear from our listeners.Be well, drink well, and here is to good business! Cheers! - Brian & BillCocktails & Commerce™ is a wholly owned subsidiary of StrategyēM, LLC. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cocktailsand.substack.com

Another episode with a true Commerce OG. This week Steve Papa joins us to explore the founding and growth-path of Endeca — the commerce search and guided navigation platform that became the de facto standard for retail eCommerce discovery in the 2000s. Endeca climbed to powering roughly half of the top 100 eCommerce sites before being acquired by Oracle in 2011. If you were building a serious retail site in that era, you almost certainly had Endeca under the hood - and many still do.Beyond Endeca, Steve was an early investor in Toast — writing the first check when every VC in the room said restaurant tech was a dead end — and he is now founder and CEO of Parallel Wireless, which is building trusted, scalable, secure cellular network infrastructure. It is a mission-driven effort operating at the intersection of national security, connectivity, and the physical infrastructure that communications, commerce, and digital experiences of all kinds will increasingly depend on. He is also an investor in Product Genius, an AI-native product enrichment and CX experience solution.It’s a great conversation, so pour yourself something to sip along with us and enjoy our wonderful conversation with Steve.Cheers!Episode Chapters:* Welcome and exploring the thousand year history of the shrub - a great NA drink that is easy to make, healthful, and can certainly be spiked.* Steve Papa, the latest inductee to the C&C Commerce OG’s.* The founding of Endeca in 1999 — the million-or-none problem, a bottle of Sinatra wine on eBay, and why guided navigation was the real insight.* How Endeca built arguably the first in-memory graph database and what made that such a significant innovation.* Endeca’s surprising first customer and it’s clever path to its big break: driving traffic to a potential customer before they ever called them.* Surviving the dot-com crash — closing $2M in Q4 2001 and why hiding that you were an eCommerce company was the only way to get funded.* The Endeca–hybris partnership: how Steve came across hybris in 2008, sent Carsten Thoma a cold email, and what may have been.* Endeca Latitude — the in-memory analytics pivot born from the financial crisis, and why it ultimately didn’t survive the Oracle acquisition. And how commerce was the real driver behind Oracle’s acquisition of Endeca in 2011.* The Toast origin story: the split-tab app that went nowhere, the conversation with restaurant owners that changed everything, and why Steve wrote the first check when every VC passed.* Toast’s unlock: how bundling payments doubled ARPU, enabled a direct salesforce, and became Toast’s real distribution innovation.* Parallel Wireless: what’s behind it, what happened when the US lost its ability to build wireless networks, what Salt Typhoon tells us about infrastructure vulnerability, and why this is mission-driven work.* AI at the edge: what the compute on your phone is already enabling, and why the walled gardens are the real limiter.* Product Genius: what today’s AI unlocks - driving conversion with real-time behavioral signals.* Final question: after a successful day somewhere in the world, what are we having at the party once the robots take over.Please share! These OG stories deserve to be heard — email it, Slack it, send it to the group chat. Just f*****g share it!This week’s drink: Orange Ginger ShrubA shrub — often called drinking vinegar — is fruit, sugar, and vinegar combined into a concentrated syrup that you mix into drinks and dilute. Shrubs and drinking vinegars go back in human civilization for over a thousand years - with the word itself from the Arabic sharaab, which is also the root of the words sherbet and syrup.During the colonial times in America, shrubs were everywhere — and essentially the first energy drink - potable, easy to make with available fruit, and extended with water. Shrubs essentially disappeared for about a century when prohibition, refrigeration, and commercial soft-drinks (especially Coca Cola) all arrived at once, and have been quietly hovering in the background ever since. The sobriety movement and growing interest in NA cocktails and mocktails have led shrubs to a resurgence as they can pack a lot of flavor, last a long time while refrigerated, and can be simply diluted in sparkling water or into more complex drinks. And of course, they are great modifier in cocktails as well. Today’s version, inspired by Steve, is orange and ginger — no alcohol required, though it welcomes a spirit if you’re so inclined. Bill made his with blood orange juice for a touch of extra sweetness and a quick hot-process ginger syrup finished with apple cider vinegar. Brian went a different direction, adding oleo-sacrum — a centuries-old technique of extracting citrus oils from peels using sugar — as part of the sweetener, which adds a clean bitterness and a layer of aromatic depth that the juice alone doesn’t have.It’s a genuinely refreshing drink, and the vinegar — which sounds odd if you’ve never had a shrub — doesn’t make it taste sour. It makes it taste more alive.Cheers!Orange-Ginger Shrub Mocktail1 oz. — Orange ginger shrub (recipe below)2–3 oz. — Sparkling water or club sodaOptional 1 oz. — Spirit of choice: gin, vodka, bourbon, or tequila all workGarnish — Rosemary sprig or cinnamon stick, with a dehydrated orange slice if you have oneSteps: Add all ingredients to a tall glass over ice. Stir gently to incorporate and garnish.Recipe: Orange-Ginger Shrub SyrupJuice of 3–4 medium oranges (blood oranges recommended for color and sweetness)3-inch knob of fresh ginger, peeled and sliced1 cup granulated sugar¾ cup apple cider vinegar or champagne vinegarOptional: 1 cinnamon stick and 5–6 whole clovesSteps: Combine 1 cup water, sugar, ginger, and any spices in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then simmer on low for 10–15 minutes until reduced by half. Let cool completely, then strain. Stir in the orange juice and vinegar. Adjust vinegar to taste. Once made, the shrub keeps for 18–24 months.Enjoy!Please subscribe! We want to be sure you make it to the next party! Cheers!As always, it’s great to have you here! If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share, rate (it helps!), and let us know your thoughts. We love to hear from our listeners.Be well, drink well, and here is to good business! Cheers! - Brian & BillCocktails & Commerce™ is a wholly owned subsidiary of StrategyēM, LLC. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cocktailsand.substack.com

Bill and I are both saddened and excited about this episode. This is the first of a series we are calling the “OG Series”, where C&C talks to a commerce OG about the early days, what they are up to now, and where the party is joining to be when the robots take over. First up: Remembering Jon PanellaBut before we get into the episode, we want to first acknowledge an OG our industry recently lost - Jon Panella. Jon was exactly the kind of person we had in mind when we first mapped out the OG Series — in fact, he was one of the very first names on the list. We deeply regret that we didn’t get the chance to sit down with him before we lost him. So we dedicate this episode - the first of the OG Series - to Jon. Godspeed, love, and peace, my friend. And let’s go Steelers!This weeks guest: Steve Kramer, Commerce OG & Workjam Founder & CEOWith that said, we have been looking forward to this one for a long time. Steve Kramer is a also a genuine Commerce OG. Steve was the founder of iCongo, one of the early enterprise commerce platforms, before then merging with hybris in what became one of the defining deals of the commerce platform era. Steve went on to lead North America for hybris during its extraordinary run of growth, pre- and post-SAP acquisition, before departing to co-found WorkJam, where he serves today as CEO.WorkJam is an interesting solution adjacent and intertwined with commerce tech, it is now the leading digital frontline workplace platform — used by major retailers and service businesses worldwide to empower, communicate with, and schedule the people who actually run the floor, the store, and the line. It is a category that has historically been one of the most underserved in enterprise software, and Steve has spent a decade making the case that it doesn’t have to be.This conversation covers a lot of ground. We go deep into the founding and growth of iCongo, the iCongo–hybris merger and the cultural magic that followed, and the WorkJam founding story. We also dig up some funny stories, then turn to how AI is changing the experience of the frontline worker — not just the manager, not just the HR team, but the person on the floor making things happen for customers and operations.For those of us who lived through the early commerce platform wars, this episode is a bit of an oral history. For those who didn’t, it’s a window into where so many of the assumptions and architecture patterns we work with today actually came from.So please pour yourself something to sip along with us and enjoy our wonderful conversation with Steve.Cheers!Episode Chapters:* Anointing the first official C&C Commerce OG — the induction ceremony and the swag.* The cocktail: what a freezer-cold Tequila Martini says about a person.* The iCongo founding story — starting a commerce company in Montreal with his father in 1999.* How iCongo built a real edge in order management and B2B commerce before most platforms were thinking about it.* Early omnichannel innovation: buy online, pick up in store and endless aisle before those were industry buzzwords.* The iCongo–hybris merger — the deal behind the deal, and the legendary Octoberfest integration trip.* Why culture made the integration work — and what made the combined hybris team a high-performing band of believers.* The Champagne QBR Story. (No names. You’ll understand.)* Bill’s monster quarter and the hybris sales kickoff callout — Steve’s version.* The SAP acquisition and what changed — and what didn’t.* Why Steve left to start WorkJam — the founding story and the problem he set out to solve.* The surprising overlap between frontline workforce operations and order management.* How AI is changing the daily experience of the frontline worker — not just the manager.* Final question: when the robots have taken over, where’s the party — and what are you ordering?Please share! These OG stories deserve to be heard! Email it, Slack it, send it to your group chat, whatever - Just f*****g share it!This week’s Cocktail: Blanco Tequila MartiniThe martini is the most argued-over drink in the canon — gin vs. vodka, wet vs. dry, stirred vs. shaken (don’t), olive vs. twist. Steve has added his own entry to the debate: do it with tequila.It works, and once you try it you’ll wonder why it isn’t more common. Blanco tequila has a clean, bright character that slots into the martini template surprisingly well — the agave brings an herbal lift that gin sometimes gets credit for, and the spirit-forward structure holds up. A few drops of saline open up the agave and add a dimension you can’t quite name but definitely notice. The lemon twist cuts through the richness at the end.Steve’s spec leans toward the freezer — no ice dilution, just a vermouth rinse and orange bitters, served ice cold from a frozen bottle. Brian riffed and went a different direction: blanco tequila, ancho liqueur, orange bitters, and chile-infused bitters for a spicier riff. Both approaches point at the same insight: tequila’s character is expressive enough to carry a spirit-forward drink. You just have to trust it.Cheers!Cocktail Spec: Blanco Tequila Martini2.5 oz. — Blanco tequila (Fortaleza, Siete Leguas, or Olmeca Altos recommended).5 oz. — Dry vermouth1 dash — Orange bitters2 drops — Saline solution (20% — a small pinch of fine sea salt works)Garnish — Lemon twist (express, swipe the rim, drop in — or a Castelvetrano olive for the savory crowd)Steps: Combine tequila and vermouth in a mixing glass with ice. Stir until very cold — approximately 30 rotations. Add saline if using. Strain into a chilled coupe or martini glass. Express the lemon twist over the top, swipe the rim, and use as garnish.Notes: The saline is the move. A small amount won’t make the drink taste salty — it will make it taste more like itself. Agave especially responds to it. Don’t skip it.Enjoy!Please subscribe! We want to be sure you make it to the next party! Cheers!As always, it’s great to have you here! If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share, rate (it helps!), and let us know your thoughts. We love to hear from our listeners.Be well, drink well, and here is to good business! Cheers! - Brian & BillCocktails & Commerce™ is a wholly owned subsidiary of StrategyēM, LLC. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cocktailsand.substack.com

Bill and I have been looking forward to this one. Rob Garf joins us to mix up a great riff on his beloved Espresso Martini and dig into the transformation happening at the intersection of marketing technology, agentic systems, and customer experience.Rob is Head of Strategy at Cordial, a cross-channel marketing platform that sits at the convergence of data, AI, and the activation layer. Cordial works with leading brands and retailers — Levi’s, Abercrombie, L.L.Bean, Boot Barn, and others — to orchestrate personalized customer experiences across marketing channels, and now sits squarely in the middle of what AI and agentic systems mean for the marketer’s day-to-day.Prior to Cordial, many of you will know Rob from his time at Salesforce and Demandware — including his role driving the Salesforce Shopping Index, one of the most-cited benchmarks in retail eCommerce. He has also done stints as an industry analyst, as an long-time advisor to NRF, and as a merchant in the early days of omnichannel at Lids, where he implemented one of the first buy-online-pickup-in-store programs. He has been at the center of this industry for a long time, and it shows. And yes — a good number of you have probably taken a “Garfie” with Rob at some point. We get behind that story as well.Once a rival, it’s been a tremendous joy to become friends with Rob over the years and now invite him on the show. So please pour yourself something to sip along with us and enjoy our interesting and delightful conversation with Rob.Cheers!Episode Chapters:* Welcome and a deep dive into the Night Moves cocktail — why Oloroso sherry is one of the most underused tools in cocktail building, and what it does to an espresso martini riff.* Hey Levi! Kai’s contract is up — Bill’s younger grandson Levi is stepping in! Rob explains what Cordial does and we’ll see how he does. Winner-Winner-Chicken-Dinner?* From warehouses to strategy: Rob’s journey through retail, omnichannel commerce, IBM, Demandware, Salesforce, and what brought him to Cordial.* What are marketers actually saying about generative AI — and why the consumer transformation happening underneath them is the real story.* From websites to marketplaces to answer engines: 25 years of commerce shifting off the retailer and onto someone else’s platform.* AI brain fry and what “process transformation” for marketers is up against.* Martech consolidation: cost, ease of use, and seamless activation, and simplification.* Answer engines as the new shopping mall: the platform charges the toll, not the consumer. What brands need to understand about “paying to play” in AI-mediated commerce.* How the Martech stack evolves in the agentic era — and why the convergence of data, intelligence, and activation is the real shift.* Agencies at an inflection point: an existential threat to billable hours, creative, and media buying.* The future of research and thought leadership: frameworks vs. answers, and why the six-month research report is already obsolete.* “The Garfie”: the backstory story.* Rob’s post-big-win cocktail order.Let’s not sweat subscribing… share! These stories and POV’s deserve to be heard!This week’s cocktail: Night MovesThe espresso martini has had quite a run. It became the drink of the moment a few years ago and has stubbornly refused to leave. Which makes sense — coffee and a little sweetness in a coupe is a hard formula to argue with. But Bill has come up with something interesting here: taking the soul of the Espresso Martini and riffing it, adding more structure and less sweetness, and the result is a considerably more grown-up drink.The name is a Bob Seger reference, which might age us a bit, but it fits. The Night Moves cocktail is dark and composed, yet as comfortable as an old pair of beat-up jeans. Coffee is still the lead, but it’s been given something to work with. The secret ingredient is a quarter ounce of Oloroso sherry — one of the most underused tools in mixology.Oloroso sherry is a fortified wine from Jerez in southern Spain, aged in contact with air, which gives it layers of dried fruit, walnut, and dark chocolate. It’s not sweet and it’s not sharp. In a coffee-forward drink it acts like seasoning — you don’t taste the sherry exactly, you just notice the drink has more dimension than the ingredients list might suggest. That’s the move. Brian used Palo Cartado which leans a bit more saline and minerality, but in a similar vein as Oloroso sherry.The rest of the build is well-considered: a good, clean vodka; Mr. Black coffee liqueur (drier and more coffee-forward than Kahlua, which matters); chocolate and orange bitters; and a few drops of saline solution to tie everything together. The orange peel expressed over the top lifts it at the end and keeps it from feeling heavy. An optional grating of dark chocolate on a microplane adds an aromatic, bitter finish.This is a nightcap that will keep you rolling as you make your Night Moves. Cheers!And in case you don’t quite remember the inspiration for this cocktail:Night Moves Cocktail SpecA sophisticated, low-sweetness riff on the espresso martini. Stirred, not shaken — served up in a small martini or Nick & Nora glass.2 oz. — Vodka (Ketel One or other high quality vodka recommended)0.5 oz.+ — Mr. Black coffee liqueur (a little over is encouraged)0.25 oz. — Oloroso sherry1 dash — Chocolate cocktail bitters1 dash — Orange cocktail bittersA couple of drops — Saline solution (20% solution; a pinch of sea salt stirred in works fine)Garnish — Orange peel, expressed over the topOptional (not really optional) — Light dusting of grated dark chocolate via microplaneSteps:Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice and stir until well chilled. Strain into a small martini or Nick & Nora glass. Express an orange peel over the top and use it as garnish. Add a light dusting of grated dark chocolate if you have a microplane. If you don’t, find one.Notes: The sherry is the key. Oloroso adds walnut, dried fruit, and dark chocolate depth without sweetness — you won’t taste it directly, but you’ll notice the drink has considerably more dimension than it would without it. Sherry is genuinely one of the most overlooked cocktail ingredients there is.Enjoy!Hey, if you like this kind of cocktail and commerce chat, subscribe! You don’t want to miss the next party! Cheers!As always, it’s great to have you here! If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share, rate (it helps!), and let us know your thoughts. We love to hear from our listeners.Be well, drink well, and here is to good business! Cheers! - Brian & BillCocktails & Commerce™ is a wholly owned subsidiary of StrategyēM, LLC. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cocktailsand.substack.com

This week Nitin Mangtani joins Bill and I to mix up a delicious C&C bespoke mocktail and give us an update on Salesforce Commerce Cloud, their recent acquisition of Cimulate, and share his point-of-view on agentic commerce, and what the rise of AI-driven agents means for the future of B2B and software as a whole.Nitin is Executive Vice President of Agentforce Commerce & Retail Cloud at Salesforce, one of the largest and most influential software companies on the planet. Nitin came to Salesforce by way of PredictSpring, a modern POS solution he founded and which Salesforce acquired in 2024. A long-time builder and leader in commerce, Nitin is in a unique position to talk about where agentic commerce and systems are heading - and the practical impacts that will have short-term as well.We’ve known Nitin for sometime and been looking forward to having him on the show. So pour yourself something to sip along with us and enjoy our great conversation with Nitin.Cheers!Episode Chapters:* Welcome and a deep dive into our bespoke mocktail with Dromme - what it is, what’s in it, and why it actually works.* Hey Kai! Nitin explains Salesforce in a way Bill’s nine-year-old grandson can understand.* From founder to EVP: Nitin’s path through commerce — PredictSpring, the Salesforce acquisition, and what drives his passion for commerce.* Salesforce’s acquisition of Cimulate : the thesis, the timing, and what a CommerceGPT brings into the Commerce Cloud fold.* Merchant control in the AI era: how brands use AI-driven discovery to tell their story, prioritize assortment, and drive campaigns.* The Salesforce Commerce Cloud strategic reset: what changed, what it means, and what to pay attention to.* Agentic commerce from the inside: what Salesforce customers are actually asking for, and where this sits on the priority list right now.* B2B on the verge. Is B2B about to leapfrog B2C in the agentic world? Procurement agents, selling agents, and the autonomous commerce thesis.* The SaaSpocalypse: if agents can orchestrate workflows, write software, and interact with systems directly — what happens to the traditional SaaS model?* Reading the platform market: Solutions coming up-market, slower replatforming cycles, and where Salesforce Commerce goes from here.* Looking to 2030: What does commerce look like, and what does that mean for the solutions market?* Nitin’s next mocktail order.Thanks for listening to C&C! Please subscribe so you don’t miss the next great conversation!This week’s mocktail: The Calm Before the StormThe no-and-low alcohol movement has been building for years, and at this point it’s no longer a trend - it’s a genuine shift in how a lot of mindful drinkers approach the glass. At C&C we love exploring NA, so when the opportunity came up to build an episode around a well-crafted mocktail, we wanted to do it right. Enter Dromme Calm.Dromme Calm is a functional Scandinavian-inspired zero-proof elixir built around a serious functional ingredient stack — adaptogens, nootropics, and anti-inflammatory botanicals. We are talking Ashwagandha for stress response, Lion’s Mane mushroom for anxiety and cognitive support, L-Theanine for calm focus without drowsiness, 5-HTP as a serotonin precursor, Lemon Balm and Valerian Root for nervous system support, and water-soluble Turmeric and Ginger for anti-inflammatory effect. There is also Magnesium Citrate and Hop Essence — which adds a slight bitterness reminiscent of a spirit’s edge, and which carries mild sedative properties of its own. This is not a glass of sparkling water with a lime wedge. This is a bottle of something that has been thought through.The name “The Calm Before the Storm” felt almost too perfect for a conversation about agentic commerce with someone sitting at the center of it. There is a kind of productive stillness in this moment — the feeling of standing just before something big arrives. The drink captures that. It’s grounding, clean, and surprisingly complex for something with no alcohol in it.The Dromme Calm carries the body, the coconut water softens and rounds it, the lime juice lifts it, and the agave balances the whole thing. The optional ginger adds a little bite if you want it — and if you swap in honey syrup instead of agave, you get a rounder, more floral sweetness that really opens up the botanical notes in the Dromme.If you are sober-curious, doing a dry stretch, or just want something interesting in your hand that is both delicious and brings on some relaxation — this is it.Cheers!The Calm Before the Storm Mocktail Spec2 oz. - Dromme Calm zero-proof elixir3 oz. - Coconut water (fresh or high-quality bottled)3/4 oz. - Fresh lime juice (freshly squeezed)1/2 oz. - Agave syrup (or honey syrup — see notes)Optional: 2–3 thin slices of fresh gingerGarnish: Lime wheel and a sprig of fresh mintSteps:If using ginger, muddle slices gently in the bottom of a shaker or glass. Add the Dromme Calm, coconut water, lime juice, and agave syrup to a shaker with ice. Shake well until chilled. Strain into a rocks glass over fresh ice. Garnish with lime wheel and fresh mint.Note: If using honey instead of agave: Make a honey syrup by combining honey and warm water at a 2:1 ratio (2 parts honey, 1 part water) and stirring until fully dissolved. Use the same volume as the agave syrup. The honey adds a rounder, floral sweetness that pairs beautifully with the herbal and botanical notes of the Dromme Calm.Enjoy!Please share! There is plenty of room for others at the cocktail party! Thank you!As always, it’s great to have you here! If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share, rate (it helps!), and let us know your thoughts. We love to hear from our listeners.Be well, drink well, and here is to good business! Cheers! - Brian & BillCocktails & Commerce™ is a wholly owned subsidiary of StrategyēM, LLC. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cocktailsand.substack.com

As we get the pod back up and rolling after a bit of a break, we are excited to bring you a great conversation. John Williams joins Bill & I to shake up a Dark & Stormy - which one is ‘dark’ and which one is stormy? - and dig into a topic we’ve been wanting to explore for a while: what AI is doing — and will do — to the commerce content supply chain.John is the Founder, Co-CEO & CTO of Amplience, a solution provider many of you will know well. Founded in 2008 and headquartered in London, Amplience started as a digital asset management solution (a DAM, DAM-it!) and evolved into a leading headless content management platform purpose-built for retail and eCommerce. Today, Amplience works with major retailers and brands across the UK, Europe, and North America — sitting squarely at the intersection of commerce content operations, merchandising, marketing, and AI-driven automation.Bill and I have known John for many years - John and I even worked together for a bit - and we’ve been wanting to get him on the show for some time. So please pour yourself something to sip along with us and enjoy our fascinating conversation with John.Cheers!Episode Chapters:* Welcome and a deep dive into the history and mythology of the Dark & Stormy.* Hey Kai! John explains what Amplience does in a way Bill’s nine-year-old grandson can understand.* From DAM to headless CMS and beyond: the Amplience founding story and evolution.* Defining the content supply chain, and why it’s become more critical than ever.* Amplience Workforce: the new product and how it reshapes how commerce teams work.* The future of the CMS: Does it survive the agentic era, or does it transform into something else entirely?* Marketing content in the age of AI: briefs, segmentation, channel distribution, and the push for personalized, consistent experiences.* Connecting Amplience to the broader agentic ecosystem — multi-agent collaboration and where Amplience fits.* Looking to 2030: AI companions are shopping, brand.com is no longer the center of the universe — what does the content supply chain look like, and who wins?* John’s next cocktail order.F**k subscribing, just share it so others can join the party! Cheers!This week’s cocktail: Dark & StormySome cocktails announce themselves. The Dark & Stormy is one of them — darkly layered in the glass, the deep amber float of rum sitting above a haze of ginger beer and lime, looking every bit like the Atlantic horizon before a squall rolls in. It is a drink that tells you something about where it came from before you even lift the glass - if you are listening.The Dark & Stormy harkens from Bermuda - specifically, the dockyards and mess halls of the Royal Navy in the years just after the First World War. Sailors stationed on the island had access to two things in generous supply: Gosling’s Black Seal rum produced by the island’s most storied distillery, and the ginger beer brewed in the Royal Naval Officer’s Club. The combination was inevitable, and reportedly it was a sailor who, looking into his glass at the dark rum floating above the lighter ginger beer, remarked it looked like “the color of a cloud only a fool or a dead man would sail under.” Whether or not that story is apocryphal, the name stuck.What makes the Dark & Stormy distinctive - and famously protected - is the insistence on Gosling’s Black Seal rum. It is one of the few cocktails in the world that is actually trademarked to a specific rum. Gosling’s has held the trademark on the Dark ‘n’ Stormy since 1991, meaning that technically, if it’s not Gosling’s it’s not a Dark & Stormy. It’s just rum and ginger beer. That’s a meaningful distinction and it says something about how seriously Bermudians take this drink.What makes Gosling’s the right rum here is the profile: rich, molasses-forward, with notes of vanilla and toffee that stand up to the sharp heat of a good ginger beer rather than being swallowed by it. The ginger beer matters too — a weak, sweet one will flatten the whole thing. You want something with a real ginger bite and some carbonation behind it. The lime isn’t optional either; it brightens the whole drink and gives it a clean finish.The Dark & Stormy is one of those drinks that rewards simplicity. If you’re going to experiment, but we love to riff. If you are up for it, try the Stormy Forecast variation below, which adds Angostura bitters and a pinch of flaky sea salt for some extra depth and complexity. Both are excellent — the question is just how much weather you want in your glass.Cheers!Dark & Stormy Cocktail Spec (Classic)A simple, refreshing cocktail built in a tall glass with ice. The key is the float — pour the rum slowly over the back of a spoon so it sits on top of the ginger beer, creating that signature dark-over-stormy look.2 oz. - Gosling’s Black Seal Dark Rum (and yes, technically matters, but only to Gosling’s lawyers)4–6 oz. - Ginger Beer (Spicy is best; Fever-Tree or equivalent)½ oz. - Fresh Lime JuiceLime wedge for garnishSteps:Fill a highball or tall glass with ice. Add the ginger beer, leaving a couple of inches at the top. Squeeze fresh lime juice into the glass and drop the wedge in. Slowly pour the dark rum over the back of a spoon to float it on top, creating the “stormy” look. Garnish with a lime wedge or wheel. Don’t stir — let the layers speak for themselves.Alternate Cocktail Spec: The Stormy ForecastA slightly more complex variation that adds Angostura bitters and a pinch of flaky sea salt for depth. Build the same way — the bitters and salt go in before the ginger beer.2 oz. - Dark Rum (f**k Gosling’s, this is not a Dark & Stormy!)0.75 oz. - Fresh Lime Juice3–4 oz. - High-Quality Ginger Beer2 Dashes - Angostura BittersSmall pinch Flaky Sea SaltSteps:Same as the classic. Add the bitters and salt with the lime juice before topping with ginger beer, then float the rum on top.Enjoy!OK, so maybe it would be good if you subsctibe. You don’t want to miss the next party! Thank you!As always, it’s great to have you here! If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share, rate (it helps!), and let us know your thoughts. We love to hear from our listeners.Be well, drink well, and here is to good business! Cheers! - Brian & BillCocktails & Commerce™ is a wholly owned subsidiary of StrategyēM, LLC. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cocktailsand.substack.com

For the last episode of 2025 - or the first of 2026, depending on when you listen - Bill and I have a great episode and the perfect cocktail for you. Bjarke Sejersen joins the pod to mix up some Bloody Mary riffs and talk about the transformation AI is bringing to B2B Commerce - and perhaps most importantly, we are not just talking about the B2B eCommerce website.Bjarke is the founder and CEO of Go Autonomous, an interesting early stage company focused on B2B, and - as the name implies - one leveraging AI to enable autonomous commerce, the next level of agentic commerce process automation. Based in Copenhagen, Go Auto has up to this point been primarily focused on large B2B distributors and manufacturers in Northern Europe - and is starting to make a name for themselves.Bill and I met Bjarke a little over a year ago now and have wanted to have him on the show ever since. So please pour yourself something savory to sip along with us and enjoy our fascinating conversation with Bjarke.Cheers!Episode Chapters:* Welcome and a dive into the history, myths, and our inspired riffs on the Bloody Mary cocktail.* Hey Kai, Explaining Go Autonomous with pizza.* From consultant to founder, how early B2B eCommerce realizations led to Go Autonomous.* Uncomfortable truths: email is still the dominant B2B channel and why B2B eCommerce has never really taken off and met expectations.* Founding Go Autonomous: digitizing the channel no one wants to talk about.* The state of B2B Commerce tech investment and why 2026 feels different.* Agentic Commerce vs Autonomous Commerce: channels vs execution.* AI’s impact in B2B: Accuracy, responsiveness, and eliminating rework.* Who buys Autonomous Commerce? Sales, CFOs, COOs, and the emerging VP of Commerce.* Building the business case for Autonomous Commerce: Efficiency, growth, and velocity.* Agents, humans, and governance: When to automate and when to not.* The future of agent-to-agent procurement and negotiation.* The perfect end-of-day drink: The Espresso Martini vs a Manhattan.Please subscribe to our Substack! We want to be sure you make it to the next party! Cheers!This week’s cocktail: The Bloody Mary - and a few riffs!Among the pantheon of classic cocktails, the Bloody Mary holds a peculiar distinction. It is both nearly infinitely adaptable and yet historically consistent - a drink as likely to be garnished with a celery stalk as with an entire fried chicken (Milwaukee, we’re looking at you); or amended and transformed with everything from a shot of clam juice (Bloody Caesar), or beef broth (Bloody Bull). But behind all the riffs and brunch flamboyance lies a tale as savory as the tomato juice it’s built upon - a story that leads us straight to the bar at the St. Regis Hotel in New York.The Bloody Mary is well known as a reviver - a hangover cure - and indeed that is reflected in its very origins. In roaring 1920’s America, hungover drinkers were already prying open cans of stewed tomatoes and drinking the liquid in them seeking relief. By the end of the decade, canned tomato juice had taken off and found itself into the speakeasies and bars of the era - most notably as a salty reviver. The next move was in some ways already inevitable.Many claimed to have first mixed vodka and tomato juice - including American actor and comedian George Jessel, a widely known entertainer in 1920’s Vaudeville America who originated the title role in the stage production of The Jazz Singer. It was the morning after one of his more enthusiastic turns as a master of ceremonies gigs in Palm Beach, Florida - he was often referred to by the moniker “Toastmaster General of the United States” - that Jessel later claimed to have first mixed the tomato juice and vodka. But most will trace the Bloody Mary’s creation to Paris and the seminal Harry’s New York Bar. It was there in 1921 that bartender Fernand “Pete” Petiot was experimenting behind the stick, mixing his own variation of a reviver by mixing equal parts vodka and tomato juice with the spices that hinted at the classic Bloody Mary. The drink’s name? A nod, perhaps, to England’s most infamous, ruthless queen, Mary I - and a spilled drink.The cocktail’s transformation from novelty to nobility came when Petiot crossed the Atlantic and took up his post at the St. Regis Hotel’s King Cole Bar in New York City in 1934. It was there that he adapted this simple Parisian mix to American palates—adding Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco, lemon juice, salt, and black pepper. It was this variation - and The St. Regis clientele’s enthusiasm for it’s packed flavor and complexity - that launched the enduring legacy of the Bloody Mary. Interestingly, to avoid ruffling genteel feathers with a name evoking blood and monarchy, Petiot renamed the drink the Red Snapper at the St. Regis bar - leading to much confusion of which name came first. Despite the polite rebrand, the original name endured, much like the cocktail itself.The as the St. Regis hotel chain grew, the drink traveled to the new cities and continents. In the many years since, the hotel chain has doubled down on its role as custodian of the classic. Today, each St. Regis hotel bar worldwide creates its own local interpretation - like the Canto Mary I tried to recreate from the Hong Kong St. Regis (and apologies for the long story on the pod!). What began as a riff on a hang-over cure and became a brunch-time institution.So now you have the story to add to the garnish of your batch of New Year’s Day revivers - and one that can easily be pivoted to a delicious NA Virgin Mary as well.Happy New Year! Cheers!Bloody Mary Cocktail Spec (Classic)6 dashes - Worcestershire sauce3 dashes - Tabasco saucePinch - Sea saltPinch - Ground black pepperJuice of 1/2 lemon5 oz. (~150 ml.) - Tomato juice2 oz. (~60 ml.) - VodkaSteps:Add all ingredients to a pint glass and add ice to fill. Gently transfer the mixture to another empty glass to combine and aerate, repeating the pouring a few times. Then keep all the contents in one of the glasses, garnish and serve. (You can also add the ingredients to a cocktail shaker and gently shake until combined and chilled, but don’t overdo it. And yes, you can build this in a glass with ice and stir in a pinch or rush - or batch in a pitcher!)Canto Mary Cocktail Spec (Or rather, Brian’s recreation)6 dashes - Cantonese light soy sauce2 dashes - Cantonese diluted black vinegar3 dashes - Chinese chili oil with garlic1 dash - Infuse Bitters Szechuan Asian Spice cocktail bittersPinch - Sea saltPinch - Ground black pepperPinch - Ground Chinese five-spiceJuice of 1/2 lemon5 oz. (~150 ml.) - Tomato juice1 1/2 oz. (~45 ml.) - Vodka1/2 oz. (~15 ml.) - 12 yr. Aged Scotch whiskySteps:See above.Notes:* This is not the official cocktail spec from the Hong Kong St. Regis, but rather Brian’s faithful, delicious attempt at a recreation! But one thing I can say for sure, it’s good!Enjoy!Please share! There is plenty of room for others at the commerce cocktail party! Thank you!As always, it’s great to have you here with us! If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share, rate (it helps!), and let us know your thoughts. We love to hear from our listeners.Be well, drink well, and here is to good business! Cheers! - Brian & BillCocktails & Commerce™ is a wholly owned subsidiary of StrategyēM, LLC. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cocktailsand.substack.com