John Surdakowski

Founder & CEO, Avex – NYC-based Ecommerce Agency for High-Growth and Enterprise Brands

With two decades of experience in digital, I’ve worked through every major evolution of the web—from the early days of Web 1.0 and Flash to the rise of mobile commerce and now, Artificial Intelligence. I’ve led through constant change, staying ahead of the curve while helping brands do the same—with clarity, speed, and results.

I’m the Founder and CEO of Avex, a digital commerce agency based in New York City. We partner with high-growth and enterprise brands to scale their Shopify commerce experiences through conversion-optimized UX, custom development, and lifecycle retention strategy. What began as a solo consultancy in 2015 has grown into a 40+ person agency serving both category leaders and market disruptors.

Earlier in my career, I consulted for some of the world’s most respected agencies and brands—including JWT, Havas, Estée Lauder, BBDO, MRM Worldwide, NBC, MTV Networks, and Nickelodeon. That foundation shaped my approach: combining creative thinking with operational discipline and commercial outcomes.

Avex has since partnered with globally recognized brands such as Hugo Boss, Calvin Klein, KITH, O’Neill, Quip, AriZona Beverages, Equinox, and more. In 2025, we were selected for the Shopify Premier Partner program—one of only a handful of agencies in the world to earn that designation.

I remain hands-on as a leader. I take pride in building high-performing teams, navigating complexity, and driving growth for our clients. My approach is grounded in experience, focused on execution, and always driven by outcomes that matter.


Founder & CEO

Rachel J.

#1 Trusted Advisor for Ecommerce Agencies | Simplifying the Process of Scaling Ecommerce Agencies | Founder of Ecommerce Partnerships & Ecommerce Agency Growth | Grade A Shenanigator ☘️

Leading trusted advisor for ecommerce agencies. Dedicated to enabling agency owners to get out of the day-to-day of running their agency so they can focus on taking it to the next level. As former COO of a leading ecommerce agency, I've support 100+ ecommerce agencies across the globe as fractional-COO, non-executive director, and board advisor.  

Number 1 authority in implementing best practice operations, systems, and processes to scale ecommerce agencies profitably and efficiently. From building scalable retainer models to coaching high-performing leadership teams, I work with ecommerce agencies to simplify the next steps in scaling their ecommerce agency.

Feel free to contact me directly: rachel@ecommercepartnerships.com

Fractional Chief Operations Officer

At Smart Solutions, our goal is to build great websites that increase overall revenue for your business and provide an easy way for customers to connect with you online. 

We are dependable, certified eCommerce experts who will help you strategize, execute, and grow. We are a privately held, boutique agency founded in 2004 and exclusively focused on eCommerce. We have an excellent team of employees and a great group of partners who take your business success personally. We do what is right for our customers, not what is easy.

This might be the 9-month pregnancy hormones talking, but seeing my private Ecommerce Agency Growth community grow to 500+ active members makes me so proud 🥹 🥹 🥹 

Huge shoutout to the girls on my team who work hard every day to wrangle not just them, but mostly me: Mireille, Cristina, Claudia, and Salohy. 

#kudos #proud #community

Rachel Jacobs

#1 Authority in Scaling Ecommerce Agencies

Much like Valentines Day or days meant to 'celebrate' people for a day, I'm not a fan of Women's Day as it feels like a half baked attempt at supporting women in public for 1 day at the expense of supporting in private throughout the year...

However, it's important to give a shoutout to the many amazing women around me who genuinely go out of their way to lift one another up behind the scenes:

Here's to my team of girls who support the Ecommerce Agency Growth, Ecommerce Partnerships and Ecommerce Agency Summit rocketship and the chaos tornado that is Rachel Jacobs: Mireille, Cristina, Salohy and Claudia 💃🏻

To someone I could write endlessly about, a true friend and soul sister in every sense of the word who's crushing it both professionally and spiritually - Tiara 😘

Founder of 2 businesses, while juggling a very boisterous wee boy who loves throwing rocks in the sea (specifically Gran Canarian rocks with me) - Rebecca 😍

Someone who somehow always finds time to bring joy to my life in the simplest ways, the sweetest soul despite being half British - Mya 🥹

Between bouncing across the world, working a full time job and running one of the largest industry community, at least a couple times a month I hear from people she's mentioned me to in rooms I'm not in - Sara 👑

And to my Ukrainian powerhouse who is one of the strongest, but equally one of the kindest and most thoughtful people - Tanya 💖

To the ladies supporting Ecommerce Agency Growth as Community Champions - Catherine, Amira, and Alexandra 🚀

Here's to some of the amazing women in partnerships that I get to work with on a regular basis who champion me with their agencies and their team:
Gina, Priya, Céline, Kari, Fiona, Mairaid, Ashley, Lynn, Michelle, Elaine, Kate, Shannon, Sarah, Rehab, Amandine... ✨️

And it wouldn't be fair to not give a shoutout to some of the amazing men who continue to champion women around them all year round: 
Darin, Adrian, Jason, Nihar, Will, Brenden, Nathan, Dylan, Scott, Joan...

I'm at my limit of people I can mention so definitely missing many more men who truly care about women being represented and supported 🫶


#iwd2026 #internationalwomensday

This year's Ecommerce Agency Summit (powered by Klaviyo) theme is all about AI & Automation for Ecommerce Agencies. If you're running or working in an agency and investing in AI practices, we have a few open speaker slots available.

Join us on April 1–2, where agency founders, operators, and partners are coming together in Austin for two days of practical insight, connections, and strategic partnership opportunities with one focus: AI & Automation.

We’re talking AI in marketing, AI in operations, agency masterclasses, roundtables, and speed networking. All designed to help you build a stronger, more efficient, and more profitable agency. And of course, networking that actually leads to opportunities.

Thanks to  Klaviyo, Tapcart, Hiro Analytics, Channable, Shopware, Athos Commerce, Gorgias, Kimonix, Shopify, Dataships, clearer.io, PostPilot, Swap, Rokt, Patchworks, Polar Analytics 🐻‍❄️, Orita, Alia, Brij, Grantbot, Tragas Consulting LLC, and waye.

If you run an ecommerce agency and you’re serious about how AI and automation shape your next phase of growth, this is the room: https://lnkd.in/ec5kfCii

#EcommerceAgencySummit #ecommerceagency #agencygrowth #AIforAgencies #automation

I firmly believe 2026 will be a turning point for ecommerce agencies. It will determine who survives, who thrives, and who quietly disappears. And I believe how agencies adopt and adapt to AI is at the centre of that. 

That is why all four Ecommerce Agency Summits in 2026 are focused on one theme: AI & Automation. Across the US, AU, UK, and EU editions, we are focused on practical implementation, not hype: 

1) How to productise AI into client facing services: if you are not packaging AI driven audits, automation builds, creative workflows, or data analysis into clear offers, someone else will. 

2) Rebuilding internal delivery around automation: map your delivery process. Identify repeatable tasks. Systemise them. Protect margin before clients force pricing pressure. 

3) Redefine positioning: generalist agencies will struggle. Agencies known for a specific AI led capability will win. 

4) Agency wide AI adoption: AI adoption dies when it sits at leadership level only. It needs to live inside account management, media buying, creative, and operations. 

Not only is this a core theme across all summits, it's also been a major focus in the Ecommerce Agency Growth community, where agencies are sharing scripts, prompts, templates, workflows, and real world experiments. Not theory. Execution. 

The next 18 to 24 months will move quickly.The question is simple: Are you experimenting deliberately, or will you reacte defensively? 

Explore the 2026 schedule here:
https://lnkd.in/ePQFH9JT

#ecommerceagency #agencyleadership #agencygrowth #automation

[JOIN US: AI & AUTOMATION FOR ECOMMERCE AGENCIES SUMMIT] 
One of the most important sessions inside the Ecommerce Agency Summit, powered by Klaviyo, are the agency masterclasses where we move beyond theory and into implementation.

Inside these sessions, industry experts break down how they’re applying AI across three critical areas:

• AI & CRM: hear from our headline sponsor on how enterprise brands are leveraging AI powered K:Services with Gina Potenza
• AI & Marketing: enhancing strategy, creative output, and campaign performance with Will Lynch
• AI & Operations: improving internal workflows and delivery systems with Tiara Tragas
• AI & Automations: embedding smarter processes that increase efficiency without increasing headcount with Grant Hushek

If you’re exploring how AI fits into your existing agency service model, what AI focused services agencies are including as part their offering or how to improve internal efficiency without adding complexity, this is the place to be!

It puts you in the room with agency leaders and partners who are actively building and refining systems in real time. Not abstract predictions. Just real-world examples of what’s actually working inside agencies today.

Thanks to our partners supporting the Summit, these conversations are grounded in actual experience, not surface-level demos.  Klaviyo, Tapcart, Hiro Analytics, Channable, Shopware, Athos Commerce, Gorgias, Kimonix, Shopify, Dataships, clearer.io, PostPilot, Swap, Rokt, Patchworks, Polar Analytics 🐻‍❄️, Orita, Alia, Brij, Grantbot, Tragas Consulting LLC, and waye.

Seats are filling quickly. Secure your spot here: https://lnkd.in/ec5kfCii

#ecommerceagencysummit #AI #EASUS2026 #agencygrowth #automation

I can't believe I'm still having this conversation with agencies in 2026, but if you're still NOT charging for paid discovery, you're leaving money on the table. 

Top agencies don’t treat paid discovery as a dressed-up proposal or a lightweight kickoff. They treat it as a standalone commercial phase with a clear structure and outcome. 

There’s a difference between charging for discovery and running it properly. When structure is missing, discovery becomes vague. Assumptions creep in. 

And the same problems agencies were trying to avoid show up later in delivery. A strong paid discovery process follows a repeatable flow:

• A clear discovery close: No proposal. No scope. Discovery is sold as its own engagement.

• Stakeholder workshops: Strategy, marketing, design, development. Whoever influences the outcome needs to be in the room.

• Constraint mapping: Budget limits, timelines, internal capability, risk tolerance. Reality first.

• Option modelling: More than one way forward, with clear trade-offs.

• Budget and timeline ranges: Based on real inputs, not guesswork.

• Recommendation walk through: Guiding the client toward the best option based on priorities, not preferences.

If any of these steps are skipped, discovery stops being discovery; it becomes a proposal in disguise.

Review your current discovery process and ask one question honestly: Which of these steps are we skipping or rushing today?

That gap is usually where margin leaks later. If you want my best practice paid discovery templates, get in touch: rachel@ecommercepartnerships.com

#agencygrowth #ecommerceagency #salesprocess

Last month we invited Ecommerce Agency Growth members to our Annual Planning Workshop in Colombia 🇨🇴

These off-sites are intentionally designed for EAG founders and operators who want space to improve how they operate and grow. 

As per the 2026 EAG there, we focused on three core areas: AI and automation, tightening financial operations, and intentional marketing for the year ahead. 

Laptops open. Models built in real time. Decisions made with clarity. Deep sessions during the day. Honest conversations about wins and mistakes. 

Shared meals, rooftop dinners, exploring the walled city, and yes…a few late-night moments that bonded the room in a way Zoom never could.

Founders left with a clearer strategy, stronger relationships, and alignment that will shape the next 12 months of their agencies.


#agencygrowth #ecommerceagency #leadership #strategicplanning

Paid discovery is one of the most powerful levers in agency sales. Most agencies don’t struggle with paid discovery because the idea is wrong. It's not knowing when and how they introduce it.

Paid discovery usually shows up too late: after free proposals, after assumptions are already baked in, and after the client has anchored expectations around scope, budget, and timelines. 

At that point, it feels optional, and anything that feels optional gets pushed back on.

Paid discovery only works when it replaces the proposal entirely. Its role isn’t to upsell or lock a client in. It has one job: remove assumptions before delivery begins.

When agencies skip that step, they pay for it later, under-scoped projects, inevitable scope creep, and misaligned expectations that surface mid-delivery when it’s already too late to reset them.

Strong agencies treat this differently. They introduce a structured, paid planning phase immediately after qualification, not as an add-on, but as the next step. 

The language matters. It’s not framed as “extra work”, but as the only responsible way to scope timelines, budgets, and delivery properly.

A useful gut-check for your current process:
• Does discovery come before any proposal is shared?
• Is it positioned as non-negotiable, or does it feel like an exception?
• Is it delivered by senior people who can actually shape the work?

If the answer to any of those is no, paid discovery will always feel hard to sell.

This isn’t about saying no to clients, it’s about saying yes with clarity. Paid discovery protects margin before it’s under pressure. 

It protects teams from unrealistic commitments. And it sets expectations while there’s still room to walk away.

This is the focus of this week’s work inside 90 Days to Fix Agency Sales, and it’s one of the most effective shifts agencies make once qualification is in place.

If you want more thinking like this as we work through the next 90 days, let me know, and I’ll add you to the newsletter.

#agencygrowth #ecommerceagency #salesstrategy #paiddiscovery

Online communities or mastermind groups are often misunderstood, probably because there is so much trash out there providing little to no value, bringing down the reputation for those of us who genuinely care about building something that matters. 

From the outside, it can look like pointless calls, workshops, and Slack threads that don’t translate into obvious wins. But in reality, any community is a sum of the people who are part of it - those who show up and bring value.

That's why in Ecommerce Agency Growth the focus isn’t on adding more to an already busy founder’s plate. It’s about creating tangible value for agency owners and operators empowering them to step out of the day-to-day in exchange of tangible insights.

That shows up in different ways: workshops, implementation sessions, curate mastermind groups, category specific quarterly sessions, and industry expert sessions according to what agencies need help with right now.  

And best of all, none of this is done in isolation, but with peers who are navigating similar stages and constraints. Some agencies choose to go deeper, finally focusing on the things that really matter vs reacting to all of the daily chaos that comes with agency life.

What tends to stand out isn’t the format. It’s the shift in mindset that changes how agencies operate for the better. When the right people are empowered internally, growth feels less fragile. 

Decisions get clearer. Trade-offs become easier. And founders regain the headspace to focus on where the business is going, not just keeping it running.

This kind of progress rarely shows up in a single moment. It compounds quietly through consistency, shared context, and accountability.

That’s the part of community building that doesn’t always get talked about, but ends up shaping the year far more than most people realise.

And that's why we don't just accept anyone. We're only looking for the best. You don't have to be the biggest, but without ambition, you won't add value. 

Here's to the 100's of members that make this community so special 🫶

#agencygrowth #ecommerceagency #community #leadership #agencyoperations

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John Surdakowski

Rachel J.

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The Battle

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Rachel J.

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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);}Rachel J.'s LinkedIn Performance

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