I started by doing my own thing. My own company — bureaucracy, administration, the whole nine yards. Thus, I grasp business better than your average manager/director/developer/CTO.

When it comes to software development and web apps, I tried everything. Horizontal development was the name of the game. I adapt fast, I don’t fight change, I catch on pretty quickly, no matter the task. 

Nowadays, I’m a fractional CTO with product responsibilities. Or VP of Engineering. Or a technical consultant. The technical-debt-exterminator. Up to you and your needs. These are my skills: 

⇒ Analytical, by nature — great with data driven decision-making
⇒ Organized — more than average
⇒ (Relatively) empathetic — great for managing a team
⇒ And the entire software delivery lifecycle: architecture and product management

I consider myself to be language-agnostic, but I have spent time with: PHP, MySQL, Clickhouse, Mongo, NodeJS, Docker, JavaScript, Serverless, Redis, AWS, GCP, Cloudflare, Digital Ocean, Supabase, Superset, Go, GTM and many others.

If you check out my recommendations ↓ the keyword is: MENTORSHIP. I help, support, and empower the people I work with. 

My ideal client exists at the intersection of companies who want to do good, understand sustainability, and are customer-centric. They want to break the standards, have a well-defined mission and an eye for quality. 

Most other professionals work in standard frameworks. Not this guy. Standard input can’t have an exceptional output. My flow state happens when I whip out quality using the available resources. 

My mission is pulling people out of the mud of complacency. Too many teams are not aware that there is a much better way of working! When you open your eyes, you get: 

=> Happy customers
=> Profitable company

Being a customer-centric professional, I can help you with both. You could call me the “Gordon Ramsay of Technical Debt”, in that I push people to do better. I’m not an a*shole, but I challenge the norms. 

If your company needs a push in the right direction, you know where to find me. DM me or book an appointment (up on my profile) and let's talk.

Vladi Iancu

eCommerce Strategist & Consultant | RETHINK Retail 2024 Top Expert | Producer for RWM Commerce Watson Weekend Podcast | Head of SponsorShip RMW Commerce | CSM Agency Director

With over 15 years of experience in online retail, digital marketing, and ecommerce consulting, I help companies design and execute their global ecommerce omnichannel strategies. As the Group Strategy Director at TRC Solutions, a leading provider of enterprise software solutions, and the Chief Technology Officer at Tranquillity, a startup that offers personalized wellness products, I oversee the technical architecture and marketing technology stack development for both businesses, ensuring scalability, sustainability, and customer satisfaction.

I also leverage my extensive network and industry knowledge to provide strategic advice and guidance to various ecommerce and digital businesses, ranging from automotive, fashion, hard goods, and home verticals. As a mentor, trainer, and board director, I empower and enable entrepreneurs, startups, and established brands to optimize their online presence, performance, and profitability. I am passionate about ecommerce, retail, marketplace, and omnichannel trends and best practices, and I enjoy sharing my insights and learnings through speaking engagements and online platforms.

Vinny O'Brien

The challenge facing Agentic platforms: a customer will happily ask for medical advice for a rash they picked up in Amsterdam last week but won’t trust your fashion advice. 

#vspotPSA

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An NYC story without the #NRF overtone. Maybe. In the 1780's, NYC had a population of approx 33,000. In the first census in 1790 it was said to be 33,131. 2025 was the year of Agentic and it was also a celebration of the 200th birthday of the completion of the Erie Canal. Much like the transatlantic cable to Ireland, wihtout it, the world might be very, very different. Agentic presents a challenge to us all. It is not going anywhere, but we are pacing a path to adoption that will frustrate and burst bubbles and dams along the way. History has a great habit of looking backwards to move forwards. In this research for Agentic, I met a guy along the way, introducing Canvass White. 

Everyone in ecommerce wants to build “the next big thing with AI.”

Almost no one wants to be Canvass White. 

White was the 19th‑century canal engineer who walked 2,000 miles of British towpaths, invented a better hydraulic cement, and quietly changed the economic destiny of New York and arguably America by fixing leaky canals. He died broke and forgotten, while everyone else got rich.​ He also turned a 100 year project with lots of uncertainty into an 8 year delivery, speeding up trade, growth and the development of the City that never sleeps. Must be something he put in the water. 

Right now, agentic commerce is at that same “leaky canal” stage. The demos look magical. The infrastructure is not ready.

The real opportunity is not another AI widget. It’s: 

New protocols so agents can actually transact on our behalf.
New guardrails so we can trust them.
New arbitrage in complexity: letting systems handle what humans avoid.​

In this piece, I argue that we need a Cluetrain Manifesto (thanks Chris Byrne ) for the agentic era:

Markets are becoming conversations between systems on behalf of humans and protocols are our new policy.

If you work in ecommerce, SaaS, or retail, your job over the next few years is simple and hard:

Walk your own canal.

Find the leaks.

Build the cement.

Let’s all be Canvass White in the world of commerce.

If you’d stood on a muddy New York street in 1783 and confidently predicted that this scruffy, post‑war port would become the greatest city in the wor

Open article: Clinton's Folly - The birth of Modern NYC.  by Vinny O'Brien • 13 min read

Clinton's Folly - The birth of Modern NYC.

Calling all SaaS Cos, Agencies and platforms producing useful reports. I am working on a new show to distribute reports, thoughts and have a little fun a long the way. This new show will be co hosted with a big big voice with a global reach, along with some friends... If you are in these groups please share your reports, DM me, email etc. Tag companies you think might want to know about this and we will be running this from mid February till June. In the last 18 months I have worked with 

BigCommerce eDesk Avalara SCAYLE Commerce Engine Elastic Path Omnisend Sumoblue Shopware Glass Atlas eComm Live™ & eComm Awards | eCommerce Events Rithum ParcelPlanet Eurobase ShipStation and many many more... This will be a unique way to share insights, debate and more.

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The Battle

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Vinny O'Brien

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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);}Vinny O'Brien's LinkedIn Performance

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