I don’t run companies by controlling execution.
I run them by making direction explicit.

My role is best described as a coach, an on-field striker with a free role, and the skipper of a competitive sailing team, all at once.

I set the course.
I create clarity when things get ambiguous.
I step into the game only when it matters.

At Nlockd, that translates into building a decision intelligence layer for digital commerce. Not another tool. Not another dashboard. But a system that forces choices to become explicit before automation, optimization or scaling even starts.

I surround myself with people who are better than me at their craft, engineering, data, product, operations. My job is not to out-execute them. My job is to make sure they are playing the same game, toward the same objective, with clear boundaries and ownership.

I’m optimistic by default, but not naive.
Opportunistic, but allergic to chaos.
Always solution-oriented, but only after the real problem is understood.

I believe most companies don’t fail because of lack of data or talent.
They fail because decisions stay implicit, political, or endlessly postponed.

That’s the gap I work in.
Making decisions visible, defensible, and durable.

Founder & CEO at Nlockd.
Decision intelligence for digital commerce.


Rob Gent

There’s a version of entrepreneurship people like to sell.
Either you work 24/7, 365 days a year.
Or you have total freedom.

Both are lies.

The first years are hard. Really hard.
But sacrificing everything does not make you serious.
It just makes you tired.

I’ve walked away from opportunities that looked good on paper.
Revenue. Growth. Momentum.

Not because they weren’t attractive.
But because they violated clarity, or cost more at home than they returned at work.

I want to build something big.
And still bring my kids to school.
Still have breakfast together.
Still be home for dinner most days.

That trade-off is not accidental.
It’s a decision I keep making, even when it’s uncomfortable.

You don’t “find” balance later.
You design for it early, or you never get it.

Rob van Gent

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Most of my important decisions don’t happen in meetings.
They happen when I walk.

Not because walking is magical.
But because it removes noise.

When I’m sitting, everything feels urgent.
Slack. Email. Opinions. Context switching.

After about 30 minutes of walking, something shifts.

What felt complex becomes binary.
What felt heavy becomes obvious.
What felt urgent usually isn’t.

By the end of an hour, I don’t have more ideas.
I have fewer.

And the decision is usually already made.

I’ve learned to trust that signal more than any deck or discussion.

Clarity doesn’t come from pushing harder.
It comes from creating space where thinking can finish.

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nlockdbv

Most digital commerce strategies are narratives, not commitments.

“We believe marketplaces are important.”
“We want to expand internationally.”
“AI should help us scale.”

None of these are decisions.

A decision has a cost.
A trade off.
Something you are willing not to do.

If your strategy does not force you to say no, it is not a strategy.
It is a story you tell yourself to keep moving.

The hardest part of my work isn’t AI, data, or technology.
It’s forcing decisions.

I deliberately stay out of execution.
Not because execution isn’t important.

But because execution without direction is expensive noise.

Most organizations don’t need better tools.
They need fewer unanswered questions.

Once decisions are explicit,
systems make sense,
AI has boundaries,
and scale becomes intentional.

Until then, every optimization is cosmetic.

Clarity is uncomfortable.
But indecision is far more expensive.

“We’ll figure it out later” is the most expensive sentence in digital commerce.

Later turns into:
Permanent workarounds.
Manual exceptions.
Shadow processes.
Custom logic no one understands.

Eventually, the organization adapts around the ambiguity.
And calls that maturity.

By the time scale arrives, it is too late.
The uncertainty is already embedded in systems.

You are no longer avoiding a decision.
You are maintaining it.

Digital commerce doesn’t fail on execution.
It fails on decisions that were never made.

Most brands don’t struggle because they lack tools, people, or ambition.

They struggle because they start executing while core questions remain unanswered:

Which markets actually deserve focus?
Which channels are strategic, and which are defensive?
Which products should scale, and which should be protected?

Execution starts anyway.
Because doing something feels better than deciding something.

Complexity grows.
Teams compensate.
Dashboards multiply.

And when AI is added, the problem doesn’t disappear.
It accelerates.

If this sounds familiar, you’re not early.
You’re already late.

Three reasons digital commerce decisions keep getting postponed.

No comparability across markets
Leaders can’t see trade-offs clearly, so they wait.

No ownership of consequences
If no one owns the downside, no one decides.

No boundaries defined
Without clear limits, every option feels risky.

Insight doesn’t unblock decisions by itself.
Structure does.

For years I asked companies which tools they used.

PIMs.
Marketplaces.
Dashboards.
Automation.
AI.

It never explained why things felt out of control.

The moment I started asking a different question, everything changed:

“What have you actually decided?”

That is where the real problems surfaced.
Not louder. Just clearer.

Most “strategy discussions” are actually decision avoidance.

I see leadership teams talk for months about:

Data gaps
Alignment
Market uncertainty
Tooling limitations

But very few conversations end with an explicit decision.

Why?

Because deciding means accepting downside.
And most organizations are optimized to avoid that.

So discussions continue.
Reports get refined.
Pilots are launched.

But nothing is formally stopped, started, or owned.

If nothing is explicitly decided,
everything is implicitly decided.

And implicit decisions scale faster than explicit ones.

I’ve yet to see a multi-market brand with a clear channel thesis.

What I usually see instead:

One country treating marketplaces as a growth engine
Another avoiding them to protect retail relationships
A third experimenting “locally” without central visibility

Not because this was strategically chosen.
But because it historically evolved that way.

When asked why, the answer is rarely commercial.
It’s organizational.

No one owns the trade-off.
So no one makes it explicit.

The result is not flexibility.
It’s inconsistency disguised as autonomy.

“We need more insight” is often code for
“we don’t want to choose.”

Lack of data is rarely the real blocker.

What I usually see is something else:
No one has defined what an acceptable downside looks like.

So decisions get postponed until:
More data is available
More alignment is reached
More certainty exists

But certainty never arrives in complex systems.

At some point, asking for more insight stops being rational.
It becomes a way to avoid responsibility.

Leadership teams rarely disagree on data.
They disagree on who gets to decide.

When decision rights are unclear:
Meetings get longer
Reports get heavier
Pilots replace commitments

Not because people are incompetent.
But because responsibility is diffuse.

Clear decision rights don’t slow organizations down.
They prevent silent paralysis.

Most “complexity” is just unowned choice.

Ten questions most eCommerce organizations cannot answer cleanly:

1. Which channels are we deliberately not pursuing, and why?
2. Who owns margin decisions across channels?
3. Where does automation stop and human judgment begin?
4. What trade offs are we knowingly accepting?
5. Which KPIs are descriptive, not decision driving?
6. Who can say no to a new channel launch?
7. What behavior are our tools silently enforcing?
8. Which decisions are reversible, and which are not?
9. What has never been decided, only inherited?
10. Who is accountable when everything goes wrong?

If these answers are fuzzy, your problem is not tooling.
It is decision ownership.

Alignment sessions fail for a simple reason.

They try to align people before aligning decisions.

You can get everyone in a room.
You can nod.
You can agree.

But if decision rights are unclear, alignment evaporates the moment pressure returns.

Clarity beats consensus.
Every time.

Most brands don’t suffer from a lack of data.
They suffer from a lack of decision rights.

Dashboards show performance.
They don’t say who gets to decide when trade-offs appear.

So decisions bounce between:
Local teams
Central leadership
External partners

Until urgency forces action.

By then, the cost of waiting is already baked in.

Digital commerce does not fail because of bad tools.

It fails because decisions are never made explicit.

Most organizations believe they have a strategy. What they actually have is a collection of assumptions that were never written down, never challenged, and never owned.

So decisions get made anyway.
By tools.
By defaults.
By agencies.
By whoever shouts loudest in the meeting.

That is not strategy.
That is drift.

Until decisions are explicit, scale does not create control.
It creates fragility.

A roadmap without decision ownership is just a calendar.

It creates the illusion of progress without resolving anything fundamental.

Features get planned.
Markets get added.
Integrations get built.

But no one can answer:
Who owns the outcome when this fails?

Roadmaps feel safe.
Decisions feel exposed.

That is why most organizations prefer the first.

Ambiguity feels harmless when things are small.

You can compensate.
You can fix it later.
You can rely on heroics.

Scale removes that luxury.

Growth does not create problems.
It reveals the ones you postponed.

Most businesses look digital, but they don’t actually grow from it.

They’ve got a nice-looking website, someone running their ads, maybe a social media guy… but nothing works together.

That’s where everything breaks.
Scattered systems, inconsistent branding, and zero clarity on what’s really driving results.

At Hashtag Media, we help businesses fix that by building complete digital growth systems, including websites, SEO, Web design, marketing, and video content that helps brands stand out online.
Instead of hiring 4 different vendors, you get one partner that builds, runs, and scales your entire digital presence… so your brand doesn’t just exist online, it performs.

We’ve helped brands turn slow websites into lead-generating machines, fix their SEO visibility, and align their marketing under one simple, performance-driven system.

If you’re tired of managing digital chaos and want a good digital presence that delivers results, let’s talk.

Arbaz Paracha

Your biggest SEO competitor doesn’t have a website

Sounds weird, isn't? but let me explain

You are thinking that SEO is a fair game. Like If you build a good site and stay consistent, results would come

That belief made sense back then

People searched, opened a few links, and made up their mind
Lately, conversations sound different

Someone will say they already checked a few options, but when I ask where, it’s not Google.
It’s an AI tool

Which explains why we’re not competing for clicks anymore
We’re competing to be understood

AI doesn’t care how clever your keywords are
It cares if your message makes sense.

It notices structure
It notices clarity
It notices whether a real human seems to be behind the words

Most websites are build to rank but very few are build to explain
And explanation is what matters now

COO @Ignishost | Building full-suite digital growth system for SMBs

I still remember what SEO felt like around 2015.

If you knew how to place keywords, build a bunch of links, and follow a few best practices, you were usually fine. 

You did the work, waited a bit, and rankings followed

That version of SEO doesn’t really exist anymore.

Today, SEO feels less like a system you can outsmart and more like a conversation you have to understand. 

Search engines don’t just look at pages now, they watch how people interact, what they stay for

What they ignore and what actually helps them move forward

A lot of things that once worked still exist, but they don’t carry the same weight
And AI has changed the pace of everything

SEO now is more about understanding better

What people are actually searching for
Why they’re searching

And whether your content genuinely answers that moment

Instead of chasing tactics the best way to go for things search and AI look for and then adjust quietly along the way

Because the moment you assume you’ve figured it out, things usually change.

P.S. what’s something in SEO you used to rely on that just doesn’t feel the same anymore?

Every smooth launch has a messy backstory

Client loves the design, then asks for just one small change 14 times. 
Suddenly they need features that weren't in the proposal. 

You're fixing bugs at 2 AM because a plugin decided to have a meltdown
And sleep? What's that?

But that chaos is part of the process. 
You push through, problem-solve on the fly, and somehow pull it together.

And when it launches perfectly? 

They think it was easy. You know better.

What if your SEO metrics are lying?

You see traffic going up and rankings look great
Reports feel… impressive.

But revenue? that's not moving

That’s usually a sign you’re measuring activity, not impact.

Here’s what actually tells the truth about your SEO

1️⃣ Organic Conversion Rate
Because visitors don’t matter if they don’t act

2️⃣ Organic Traffic Value
Shows how much your SEO is saving or earning compared to ads.

3️⃣ Keyword Positions
Top 3 rankings only matter if the keyword can convert

4️⃣ Click-Through Rate
Better headlines means more qualified traffic without chasing rankings

5️⃣ Revenue from Organic Traffic
The ultimate metric. Everything else should support this

6️⃣ Backlink Quality
One relevant, authoritative link can outperform dozens of weak ones

7️⃣ User Engagement
If users stay, scroll, and interact, trust and conversions follow

When you track the right numbers, SEO starts becoming predictable growth.

Save this for your next SEO review 

→ Follow Arbaz Paracha for more marketing insights

Your brand’s voice isn’t just what you say

It’s how your systems speak

I learned this in a pretty uncomfortable way

A client once messaged me and said,

“Hey, I tried submitting the form on your site… nothing happened.”

No confirmation
No email
No error

From branding to content... everything was fine

But the system didn’t work.
And in that moment, our brand wasn’t saying anything nice

That's when I realized that your brand isn’t just your logo or the words on your website

It’s how your site performs

– whether emails actually reach inboxes
– if forms and payments work without friction
– how issues are handled when something breaks

All of that is your brand talking, even when you’re not
You can say all the right things in your copy

But if your systems are clunky or unreliable, people feel it immediately
So do a quick analysis this week and see.

What do your systems say about your brand?

SEO isn't SEM... SEM isn't SMM.

Yet most marketers treat them like they're the same thing.

Here's what they actually do:

SEO → Organic rankings. Sustainable traffic. No cost per click. Takes 3-6 months.
SEM → Paid ads. Instant visibility. High-intent leads. Costs stop = traffic stops.
SMM → Brand building. Community engagement. Trust and loyalty. Ongoing effort.

The mistake? Choosing one and ignoring the others.
The smart move? Using the right one at the right time.

Need long-term growth? → SEO
Need leads now? → SEM
Need brand loyalty? → SMM

Your strategy isn't about picking sides. It's about knowing which lever to pull and when.

Stop mixing them up. Start using them strategically.

Which one are you focusing on right now?

Client: We need results like Big companies
Me: Great! What's the budget?
Client: About $500
Me: So... enterprise level results?
Client: Exactly
Me: Okayyy

You could be the best at what you do and still be completely invisible to 90% of potential customers.

No... you're doing something wrong

The way people find businesses has completely changed

They're not just Googling anymore, but they're asking ChatGPT
They're scrolling through AI recommendations
They're trusting what shows up first

And if your business signals aren't crystal clear everywhere online? You're simply not in the conversation.

I put together a 5 minute visibility check that'll show you exactly where you're losing customers before they even know you exist.

Check this out 

P.S: If this check revealed some gaps.. don't panic. Now you know what's actually holding you back.

How to tell if your business is invisible online?

I’ve been thinking a lot about Google’s new UCP feature lately.

And honestly?
I don’t think most businesses realize what direction this is pointing to.

Every major platform eventually tries to keep users inside its own ecosystem.

Facebook did it with Marketplace, and Instagram did it with in app shopping.
Google is doing the same, just more quietly.

With UCP, users can discover products, compare options, check reviews, and make decisions without leaving Google 

And that reduces the need to visit individual ecommerce websites
Which obviously doesn't kill platforms like Shopify or WooCommerce
But it does change their role

Instead of being the place where discovery happens, they become the place where fulfillment happens

Now add Gemini into this.

And soon, voice and AI assistants answering buying questions directly.

That means fewer clicks, but more influence happening before a click ever exists.

For businesses, this changes the game.

If your growth depends only on getting traffic to your site, you’re building for an older version of the internet.

Visibility and clarity across platforms matter more now
The question isn’t whether these features are good or bad

It’s whether businesses are building for
how customers decide today not how they used to browse 

P.S. Curious what others think about it?

taplio

The Battle

Rob Gent

Arbaz Paracha

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