Kintsugi

Strategy and Partnerships

ConvertFlow

Advisor

eCom Email Marketer

A b2b growth company driving 5M impressions a month to mid-market to enterprise DTC brands
Commerceroundtable.com

Lasso Technologies, Inc.

Sendlane

Sales, marketing, partnerships @ Sendlane

Vice President, GTM

- Zero to 2 Million in the first year of the department
- Q3 24 - 60% of sales. 
- Team of 6 by the end of 2024.

Vice President of Partnerships

- 300% YoY growth in 2023
- 0 to 10M in new business segment(ecommerce) in 2 years. 
- Managed a team of 25 on GTM.

Vice President of Sales

Senior Director, Business Development; Head of Sales

Building agency and technology partnerships to enable scale and create opportunities for Sendlane.

Series A - 20 Million

Director Of Strategic Partnerships

Viking Coders

General Manager

Consultant

Digital Marketing Consultant

vp, sales @Sendlane

Amir Torabi

Mike Rossi

As the Co-Founder and CEO of Smile.io, I've spent nearly a decade helping 100K+ eCommerce brands turn everyday shoppers into forever fans through customized loyalty programs, without the overhead and complexity of legacy systems.

Smile makes loyalty programs ridiculously easy to build and keeps customers coming back.

My background is in physics and software engineering, so I’ve always been passionate about solving complex problems with creative solutions

When I first entered the world of eCommerce, I started an agency. My advice to any founder now? If you want to learn fast, do consulting or start an agency. This helps you learn about real-world problems that your customers might face, but that they also want to pay you to solve.

Helping merchants 1:1 set the tone for Smile today. And since launching, over 100K+ brands have trusted our platform to run loyalty programs that turn first-time shoppers into forever customers.

I share insights on:

➝ Building customer loyalty 
➝ Discounting strategy within retail & CPG
➝ Growth strategies that focus on sustainable retention
➝ Key lessons from scaling Smile.io into a trusted platform for millions of users
➝ My journey as a founder and the challenges of scaling a startup

If these topics sound interesting to you, let’s connect!

Co-Founder & CEO

Before Robert Domagala came on board at the beginning of the last year as Smile.io's Head of Partnerships, our partnership engine had been quiet for a while.
 
We’d been focused on building a solid product, and that focus helped us become the #1 loyalty app in the Shopify ecosystem.
 
But a great product alone doesn’t guarantee adoption anymore. What does is having the right partners trust you at the right moment.
 
Merchants don’t make tech decisions in isolation anymore. They want their tech stack to work together seamlessly, and they rely on their existing partners to guide those choices with partners they can trust in the long-run.
 
That’s why Rob has been rebuilding relationships across the ecosystem with:
 
• Tech partners like Klaviyo, Intuit Mailchimp, and Rebuy Engine
• Top agency partners like ROSWELL and 1r Agency
 
When those partners recommend Smile.io to clients, it carries weight that no demo or case study ever could.
 
In just months, Rob has reignited our presence in the space and set the stage for some exciting announcements coming soon.
 
But this is only the beginning, and I’m excited to see where it takes us next.

Founder & CEO of Smile.io | World's Most Trusted Loyalty Platform

You don’t get 4.9 stars and ~4,000 reviews in the Shopify App Store by accident. But you also don’t get it by doing what most SaaS companies do. Here’s what we did to hit that number:
 
1/ Offering a generous free plan
 
Most SaaS companies either don’t offer a free plan or give you a stripped-down “freemium” version that constantly nudges you to upgrade.
 
We took the opposite route. From Day 1, Smile.io was designed to be accessible to any business. A merchant could sign up for a free plan and launch a loyalty program in minutes.
 
This approach paid off. Merchants who started on our free plan as small businesses now run major brands and have stayed with us throughout their journey. The program grew with them, and so did their trust in us.
 
2/ Training support team to be strategic advisors
 
The majority of apps juggle 2, 5, 10, even 20 different products. Their support teams are stretched thin, trained just enough to handle sign-ins or troubleshoot bugs.
 
So merchants end up with technical guidance, even though what they really want is a strategic partner who knows what works and what doesn’t.
 
That’s why we train our support team to be loyalty experts. They’ve seen hundreds of programs, know what “great” looks like, and help merchants build a 10/10 program.
 
They proactively guide merchants on strategy, point out gaps in their current programs, and suggest changes that drive repeat purchases.
 
—
 
That being said, you can’t hack your way to 4.9 stars. A generous free plan and world-class support amplify what already matters most: a product that delivers.
 
Get those fundamentals right, and you’ll have raving fans who leave 5-star reviews.

The Shopify App Store has 15,000+ apps, but merchants only trust about 100 of them. The question is: how do you break into that circle?
 
5 years ago, you could launch a spin-to-win wheel or an announcement banner and climb the charts.
 
Not anymore.
 
Today, merchants look for apps that solve real problems and integrate deeply into their workflows. So if you want to be one of those 100 apps, you need to do the following:
 
1. Move fast when Shopify releases new tools.
 
Every time Shopify launches new developer tools, like embeddable content, meta-field improvements, or checkout extensions, there’s a brief window to capture the opportunity. The one who does and builds fast enjoys a temporary monopoly.
 
I’ve seen apps go from zero to thousands of installs simply because they were first to build on a new Shopify feature that merchants desperately needed.
 
2. Build around macro shifts in the industry
 
When tariffs rise or shipping changes hit, merchants feel the pain instantly in their margins. They go straight to the App Store looking for solutions.
 
If your app is one of three addressing a critical new pain point (or better yet, the only one), you’ve got immediate adoption and first-mover advantage.
 
So monitor industry trends closely, and launch apps that directly solve the pain merchants feel from these shifts. Position yourself as the solution before the market gets crowded.
 
—
 
Every day, more apps hit the Shopify App Store, but so do new problems for merchants. Those problems are your opportunities, and speed is your leverage.
 
On a side note, what Shopify apps do you rely on the most?

When Kiyoko Beauty first set up Smile.io to launch a loyalty program, it was just a side experiment. Fast forward several months, and it has already generated more than $40K in revenue.
 
Back in 2022, Gillian and her two co-founders wanted to test whether customers would actually use a loyalty program. It wasn’t a priority, and they didn’t expect much.
 
But as the brand started acquiring more first-time customers, they quickly realized the bigger challenge wasn’t acquisition; it was getting those shoppers to come back for a second purchase.
 
That’s when their little experiment turned into a full-fledged retention engine. They started offering a sign-up bonus (200 free points just for joining), giving new customers an immediate reason to return and use those points.
 
From there, earning points became a natural part of the shopping journey. Customers could collect 2–4 points for every dollar spent, rack up rewards for writing reviews, engaging on social media, or even celebrating a birthday.
 
With points piling up in their accounts, customers kept coming back to redeem them. And when they returned, they often brought a friend along, so both could enjoy $10 off their purchase through the referral program.
 
In no time, the loyalty program was building a genuine sense of community around the brand.
 
That sense of belonging translated into results and has already driven nearly $40K in Smile-influenced revenue. Today, it’s a core part of Kiyoko’s growth engine.
 
If you also want to turn first-time buyers into loyal customers, please reach out. I’d be happy to help you build a solid loyalty program!

Your biggest customer's feature request is probably your worst product decision.
 
I see many founders within the Shopify ecosystem fall into this trap: a big customer comes knocking with a hefty contract and a specific feature request. Founders get starry-eyed about the revenue potential and immediately say yes.
 
Six months later, they've built something nobody else wants.
 
This pattern happens because big customers have complex, unique problems that don’t scale down to your broader market.
 
You end up building something that solves a problem for 1% of your customers while collecting dust for the other 99%.
 
So, we’ve learned to resist this temptation at Smile.io. Now, we ask one simple question before building any feature:
 
Will 80% of the merchants using Smile enable, interact, and pay for this?
 
If yes, it’s a candidate for the roadmap. If not, no matter how big the customer, it’s a pass. That’s our litmus test, and we don't override it.
 
Because building for one customer at the expense of thousands is never worth it.

taplio

The Battle

Amir Torabi

Mike Rossi

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreMike Rossi's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Amir Torabi

Mike Rossi

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Mike Rossi's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreMike Rossi's LinkedIn Performance