CartStars

CartStars is the most exclusive friendwork for eCommerce’s top 5%—a curated space where leaders build, learn, and scale together.

What Makes CartStars Different
- Invitation-only—membership is earned through participation, not fees.
- Peer-driven—no sales pitches, just trusted advice from industry leaders.
- Curated vendor ecosystem—only partners recommended by members.
- Beyond digital—private platform, local meetups, and executive retreats.

Why It Matters
Great businesses aren’t built alone. CartStars brings together the brightest minds in retail and eCommerce—leaders who are shaping the future and willing to share what they know.

Know a CartStars member? Ask them for an invite.

Founder & CEO

Diversity Plug

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Founder

Inveterate, Inc

 Director Of Partnerships

Gladly

Trusted by hundreds of companies including Crate & Barrel, Ralph Lauren, and Warby Parker, Gladly is the people-centric CX platform that puts customers and agents at the center of every conversation to kickstart and nurture more natural relationships, driving long-term brand loyalty, revenue, and support efficiency.

Based in San Francisco, Gladly was founded in 2014 and is privately backed by industry leaders including Greylock, GGV Capital, NEA, Glynn Capital, FutureFund, and JetBlue Ventures.

Manager, Strategic Partner Program

dotdigital

The dotdigital platform is an omnichannel marketing solution for B2C, B2B, and NFP marketers in the Americas. Import data, build segments and triggers and create relevant marketing campaigns that engage your customers on their favorite channels. Don’t limit yourself to email marketing; personalize your marketing messages across SMS, push notifications, live chat, and social ads.

Speed and ease of use are at the core of what we do, so our omnichannel marketing features can help you reach your goals faster. If you want to increase marketing ROI, boost sales revenue, drive more qualified leads, or boost donor growth – dotdigital is the single-sign-on platform you need.

Sr. Enterprise Account Executive

SAG-AFTRA

Actress

Demandforce

The Demandforce software-as-a-service application is used by thousands of customers to grow revenue, keep clients coming back, and manage operations more effectively. Demandforce connects Demandforce clients to over 100 million consumers via email communications, text messaging, and online services. Demandforce has achieved 26 quarters of over 80% year-over-year quarterly growth and is led by a management team with over a decade of experience developing and delivering web-based applications that drive real, tangible business value. As of February 2016, Demandforce is proud to now be a part of the Internet Brands family.

Senior Account Executive

Yelp

Account Executive

Lion Management Group, Inc.

CEO at CartStars | Cultivating an Empathetic & Resilient Community for eCommerce Leaders

Two years ago, I had a lightbulb moment.

As a newly minted Director of Partnerships, I gathered seven experienced colleagues to get their honest feedback on a tech solution I was evaluating. No agendas. No sales pitches. Just real advice from people who understood my KPIs.

Their insights saved me $40,000 and a year of frustration.

That’s when it hit me:
 In an industry with 8,000+ tech tools and 4x as many agencies, leaders don’t need more noise. They need trusted, agenda-free connections.

That’s why I built CartStars.

CartStars is the exclusive friendwork for eCommerce’s top 5%—a curated, high-trust space where senior brand, retail, and eCommerce leaders ($10M+ revenue) connect with peers to share insights, solve challenges, and build real relationships.

What makes CartStars different?
✅ Invitation-only—membership is earned through contribution.
✅ No sales pitches—just real, peer-driven conversations.
✅ A curated partner ecosystem—only solutions recommended by members.
✅ Digital + in-person—our platform and executive events create real impact.
✅ Your friendwork in your pocket—get answers instantly from trusted peers.

We believe the best executives don’t scale alone. They grow by building relationships with other smart, kind, and engaged leaders—without wasted time, bad deals, or endless sales cycles.

CartStars is invite-only. If you know a member, ask them to invite you.

🔗 Learn more at CartStars.com

Debbie Kemunto Pearce

We’re finally out.


For almost three years, CartStars felt like one long sprint inside a burning building.
 
Build the thing.
Fix the thing.
Hope it holds long enough to build the next thing.

Chaotic. Ridiculous…Beautiful.
The kind of pace only founders understand.

But somewhere along the way, the rhythm changed.

For the first time, we’re ahead.
Preparing with intention.
Planning next year… in the year before it. (Who am I? 🤣)

I used to watch our members plan Black Friday in February and think,
What is this life? Teach me your peaceful ways!

But the truth is, this feels right.

Because when the fires quiet down, you finally see the things that matter.

The people you want to build with.
The standards you refuse to lower.
The future you can shape on purpose, not by accident.

And that’s where this next decision came from.
Depth over breadth.
Two partners per category.
Chosen by the CartStars, not by us.
Chosen because the humans behind the work are good to work with.

That’s our North Star for 2026.
 
What’s yours?

#CartStars #retail #ecommerce #partnerships #growth #thoughtleadership

Founder, CartStars | Building the room where top retail and eCommerce minds grow together.

No one owes you anything.


Not their time.
Not their trust.
Not their belief in what you’re building.

I learned that early.

Maybe that’s why the last three years have meant so much to me.

Because the only reason CartStars works,
is that the best service providers in this industry decided to give us something they didn’t have to:
Their partnership.
Their excellence.
And their reputation… long before we had one of our own.

Every partner who has ever worked with us was recommended by our members.
Which means before they ever worked with CartStars, they worked with you.
They earned your trust first.
We simply inherited it.
And I don’t take that lightly.

So today I just want to say thank you.

To every team that showed up for our members, solved real problems, and made this ecosystem better.

So here’s to the partners who have been part of this journey,
past, present, and now officially, 2026.

85SIXTY, AB Tasty, Absolute Web, adMixt, AthenaHQ, Bark-Ai, BTR Media, CommerceNext, Flexport, Friendbuy, Instant, Intelligems, Keynes Digital, Kimonix, Klaviyo, KODIF, LettrLabs, Loop, Loop Subscriptions, ShipHero, Nishe, Nostra, Oceans Talent, Opensend, OrderProtection.com, Passport, Poplar/ Share Local Media, Power Digital Marketing, Redo, Retention.com, Rise.ai, Rivo, SARAL - The Influencer OS, SiteVibes, Skio, Stay AI, Stord, & the rest in the comments!

We see you.
We appreciate you.
And CartStars is better because of you.

If you’re reading this and you’ve worked with any of them,
tag them below.
They deserve it.

#CartStars #retail #ecommerce #trust #partnerships

You can’t buy this.


“So what’s the difference between a sponsorship and a partnership at CartStars?”

I get why they ask.

From the outside, the difference looks cosmetic.
A nicer word.
A softer label.

But I’ve never liked soft labels.

A sponsorship is transactional.
You pay. You get visibility. Your logo shows up somewhere it wasn’t yesterday.
Fair enough.

But a partnership is different.
A partnership is work.
An agreement to grow together.

Our partners show up for our members.
We show up for their teams.
Both sides bring something the other can’t.

That is why we are so strict about who becomes a partner here.
You are not buying a list.
You are entering an ecosystem.

If you are here only to take, you will hate it.
If you are here to give, you will feel at home.

Because you don’t get anywhere good by taking without giving.
Not in this industry. Not in this community.

And for CartStars, “partner” is not a nicer word for sponsor.
It’s a promise.

You bring your best work.
We bring our best people.

And when both sides grow from that,
It doesn’t need to be defined. It's felt.

#CartStars #retail #ecommerce #partnership #thoughtleadership #growth

Speed over space. 


If something didn’t click quickly,
I assumed it was wrong.
Or I was.

So I’d look at people who welcomed a slow start and feel almost envious.
They got time.
Time to build processes.
Time to make mistakes without an audience.
Time to breathe before they had to prove anything.

But CartStars never gave me that.
It felt like a long, quiet hallway.
No hockey stick.
No “we blew up overnight” story to tell on a podcast.

At first, I thought that meant we were behind.
But now, the view from the climb feels different. 

Like The Pillars of the Earth.
Ken Follett spent ten years on that book.
ten years tracing every stone,
every choice,
every consequence.

A world built slowly enough that the foundation actually holds.

It’s the kind of story you can’t speed through,
because it wasn’t written that way.

CartStars unfolded the same way.
Carved into place, not rushed into existence.

That’s why I’m grateful we did not get everything we wanted quickly.

You can engineer speed.
But you can’t fake depth.
And depth is what we’re here for.
So I plan to take my time.

Because overnight success is a fallacy.

#CartStars #retail #ecommerce #growth #journey #thoughtleadership

We've heard the whispers. 


"CartStars has too many rules." 
"Other platforms get 6X the sponsorship."

But here's what we keep hearing: "Other rooms don't feel the same."

Because vendors can't pay to be in the room. 
They have to be recommended by members who've used them. 

And they don't make astronomical investments, which means there's air.

Not pressure and pitches.

This year, Allison Gagnon from Tibi sat next to the Videowise team at Torrisi.
No topic. Just dinner.

Twenty-seven live shopping episodes later: $2 million in sales.

Everyone wins. 
Leaders discover what works from peers. 
Vendors doing great work grow. 

And we get to keep building the room.

Receipts in comments :)

#CartStars #retail #ecommerce

Can we fight about it?


When Justin texts you with:
“Hey… what about a boxing match for charity?”

You know something that sounds unhinged,
is about to make perfect sense.

Raising $1,000,000 for charity, 
across clean water, emergency medical care, and cancer research.
That kind of purpose has a way of settling everything into place.

So here we are.
Eight exhibition matches.
Sixteen brave (or slightly unhinged) eCommerce leaders.
Five hundred people in the audience.

All of us trying to do something that looks a little impossible.
And therefore all the more worth it.

I’m part of the donations and boxers team alongside
Anas Hoque at Klaviyo and Bradley Johnston at Opensend.

And yes…
I may or may not be stepping into the ring myself.
You’ll have to show up to find out.

Huge thanks to the incredible group making this real:
Justin Silver (our fearless Chair),
Ben Walter, Emmanuel Kamau, Alexander Lazoff,
Jess Cervellon, Bryce Alsten, Lauren Sawyer ☀️,
Ian Korer, Grace Nicklas,
Bill Murphy, and Josh Garellek!

See you in Vegas on March 24th at The Space.
Let’s make this count. 🥊


#retail #ecommerce #charity #fightforcharity #shoptalk #shoptalk2026

I said yes.


To new ideas.
New experiments.
A few questionable decisions I’m still pretending were strategic.

Eventually, the team started saying I was “subscribing” to everything.
And honestly… fair.
My credit card has been through character development this year. 😬

But when our members started nominating their picks for the 2026 CartStars partnerships in the subscription category,
something unusual happened.
No noise.
No debate.
No fourteen-way tie.
(If you’ve been in eCom long enough, you know that alone is a miracle.)

So if you lean in closely,
I’ll tell you what I’m subscribing to next year:
Skio and Loop Subscriptions!

Chosen by members who don’t just plug into a stack.
They stay in it. 
With skin in the game.
And receipts in their dashboards.

So…yes, I’ve said yes to a lot this year.
But this is the subscription I’d sign twice!
Everything else can stay on free trial 😏


#CartStars #retail #ecommerce #partnerships #subscription

Rivo

Rivo powers loyalty, referral and retention programs for the fastest-growing brands on Shopify Plus

Chief Revenue Officer

Brand Concierge

Partnership & GTM Advisory Services for proven SaaS companies looking for accelerated growth in the Shopify ecosystem.

Booster SEO

Booster SEO is the #1 rated, longest standing on-page SEO tool on the Shopify App Store serving over 300,000 brands.

Chief Executive Officer

Retention.com

Harness the power of identity with Retention.com.

VP, Partnerships

Yotpo

Yotpo is the reviews and marketing platform that is disrupting how commerce companies acquire traffic and shoppers. This starts with helping companies generate a critical mass of customer reviews.

The next step is Yotpo’s automated marketing engine which provides the industry’s strongest tools for proactive customer engagement, up-selling and better branding & ads.

Yotpo's network of 200,000 stores is growing rapidly with over 4,000 stores joining and 85 million shoppers visiting each month.

Director of Partnerships, North America

Senior Manager, Partnerships & Alliances

Director of Retention

Head of Customer Lifecycle

SinglePlatform

SinglePlatform, the world's largest online provider of restaurant menus and local business storefronts, enables local businesses to publish information including their products, services, menus, photos, and prices, across thousands of the most popular media companies, search engines, mobile applications, travel guides, and local review sites. Founded in 2010 by Wiley Cerilli, a former founding partner and EVP of SeamlessWeb, SinglePlatform was named by Bloomberg BusinessWeek as one of "America's Most Promising Startups of 2011." (Acquired by Constant Contact in June 2012)

Retention Team Lead, Customer Success

Senior Account Manager

Account Manager

UBS Wealth Management

Generated pitch books featuring charts and graphs showcasing UBS' strategies towards mutual funds and alternative investments.
Conducted research on client and prospect asset allocation to locate opportunities in various markets.
Worked with various departments to facilitate client services and manage projects towards the improvement of current procedure.

Intern

Founder of Brand Concierge | CEO of Booster SEO | Advisor at Zowie | Advisor at TolsToy

Alexander Lazoff 🇮🇱

📣 Big News: eCommerce Meets Charity for a Knockout at Shoptalk 2026!

I’m thrilled to announce that I have joined the eCommerce Fight for Charity board representing Rivo in what will easily be the most memorable event Shoptalk has ever seen.

We’re launching what we know will be the marquee event of Shoptalk 2026. Bringing top eCommerce leaders into the ring to raise $1,000,000 for charity. Join us on March 24th at The Space in Las Vegas, just minutes from Mandalay Bay.

Here’s what we’re building:

🥊 Eight exhibition boxing matches featuring 16 industry leaders stepping into the ring
💥 500+ attendees from brands, founders, investors, and media
⭐ A powerful charitable goal: funds raised will support three world-class charities focused on clean water, emergency medical care, and cancer research

Whether you’re in the crowd or brave enough to lace up the gloves, this is a rare opportunity to be part of something meaningful and genuinely fun.

👉 If you’re interested in getting involved, please DM me here or reach out to Justin Silver at justin.a.silver@gmail.com

Don’t miss your chance to combine purpose, networking, and an unforgettable night at Shoptalk 2026. See you there! 😉

Alexander Lazoff

CRO of Rivo | Founder of Brand Concierge | Builder of Stealth Project

Rivo 2025 Wrapped

As we round up this crazy year - I wanted to share a few thoughts on what worked, and well, didn't, from our GTM strategy...

Rivo is a bootstrapped, Shopify SaaS company, and we doubled our revenue this year.

2025 Investments:

- Operators Podcast: 
Working with Sean Frank, Aaron Orendorff and the rest of this magical team was truly one of the biggest levers of the year. Fascinating what happens when you put a crew of proven and hyper successful brand leaders under one roof, who also happen to be happy customers of Rivo, to talk about you.

- Agency Partnerships: 
When done well, this channel can become one of your most powerful moats. What can you get out of a well run program? The list is endless: lead gen, influence in the market, case studies, intel, events, churn prevention, and so much more. We love our partners - and thank you for all your support!

- In-Person VIP Events: 
Meeting f2f with a brand operator continues to be one of the best methods to gain trust quickly and move the needle for top of funnel. Conferences bring everyone under one roof, but the real magic occurs in the VIP experiences you host around them. 

- A+++ Talent: 
This goes without saying, but having an extremely strong team truly does make all the difference. Rivo has a flat hierarchy, with little to no management, because those we hire, management virtually reports into. Shoutout to the All Star GTM team making all this magic happen. Sara Pereda / Alana Niznik / Jamie Smith / James Dohm / Travis Brault

- Conference Season: 
As mentioned, they bring everyone under one roof. Although the VIP events are where the true pipeline gets generated, some events simply standout. Our top pipeline generating conferences this year were: Beanstalk, The Lead, GROW, Shoptalk, Rachel Jacobs EAS, and Camp Commerce.

2025 was the year to double down on brand awareness and talent. 2026 is when we add jet fuel across the board. 

A few 2026 changes coming your way:

- SEO & SEM Efforts: 
We barely spent on these two channels. 2026 will be different.

- Megaphones: 
We'll be putting more into channels that help expand the reach of all the incredible products, development, events, case studies, etc... we're working so hard on producing. More newsletters, more podcasts, more case studies, more noise. Everywhere you look you will find Rivo.

- Tech Partners: 
We built over 50 integrations in 2025. Now it's time to double down on those creating the most impact for our customers. 

- Smart Outbounding: 
As mentioned, cold outbound is no longer a strong channel. Smart outbound though, works. What does this mean? You reach out at the right time, to the right person, with an absurdly personal, human written, value creating outreach. Use tech to capture the moments, and then take your shot human to human.

- International: 
See you soon, UK & AUZ. 

Huge shoutout to our fearless leader Stuart Chaney for making this dream company a reality. 2026 here we come. 💙

taplio

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Debbie Kemunto Pearce

Alexander Lazoff 🇮🇱

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The Battle

Debbie Kemunto Pearce

Alexander Lazoff 🇮🇱

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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);}Debbie Kemunto Pearce's LinkedIn Performance

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