Marco De Paulis

Director of eCommerce & Optimization

Loop

Director of Partnerships

Various SaaS Companies

Advising, consultant, and/or investor for:

PartnerPage.io, Swapt, Fermat, Cart Stars, Pandium, and other SaaS providers and digital agencies.

Advisor/Consultant/Investor

Partnership Leaders

As a Chapter Host at Partnership Leaders, I spearheaded member-led events for our regional chapter. In this role, I played a pivotal part in fostering community engagement and facilitating meaningful connections among members. By organizing and coordinating a series of dynamic events, I provided a platform for members to share insights, collaborate on industry challenges, and network with like-minded professionals. Through effective communication and strategic planning, I contributed to the growth and success of our chapter, creating valuable opportunities for learning, collaboration, and professional development.

Executive Member & Philadelphia Chapter Host

Pavilion

Member

Ryder System, Inc.

Ryder acquired Whiplash in December, 2021.

• Designed the strategy and built the first-ever partnerships ecosystem to a team of 4 with 50+ partners onboarded
• Worked with the team to build high 8-figures in net new pipeline, 7-figures in net new revenue, and 7-figures in expansion revenue through net new and existing customers, respectively
• Lead partner marketing initiatives including e-books, case studies, blog swaps, and partner co-marketing campaigns to drive qualified leads
• Developed various commercial agreements with a wide range of partners to expand services and revenue streams
• Created cross-functional collaborative motions with Sales, Customer Success, and Operations to expand offerings and value to customers and prospects alike
• Elevated product team and feature set by building integration proposals to prioritize integration development that would open maximum commercial opportunities

Director, Ecommerce Partnerships (through Whiplash acquisition)

Whiplash

Whiplash was acquired by Ryder in December, 2021 to become the face of the new eCommerce fulfillment division.

Brought in to develop and launch the first ever Partnerships department at Whiplash from scratch for technology and referral partners. Program structure design through launch. Cross-departmental process creation with Sales, CS, Marketing, and Venture. Driving leads and revenue realization in under 6 months.

Partnerships range from integration, referral, agency, operations, and services.

Privy (Acquired by Attentive)

Privy is the #1 reviewed sales app in the Shopify App Store. Used by 500,000+ eCommerce brands around the world.

• Led Agency partner program, grew from 20 to 750+ partners
• Promoted from Agency Partner Manager to Director to lead Partnerships team, consisting of Partner Managers, Channel Sales, and Customer Success Managers dedicated to Partnerships
• Drove 1,027% increase in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) in two years
• Restructured and launched updated partner program to reflect new product offerings and new customer personas and market positioning
• Coordinated all co-marketing initiatives
• Collaborate with Sales, Marketing, Support, and Customer Success teams to create cross-functional motions to support mutual goals

Director of Agency Partnerships

Agency Partnerships Manager

Noticed

• Head of business development, account management, marketing, and strategic partnerships
Promoted after a year and a half to grow Marketing team and build out new retainer services
• Built first ever partner program with SaaS technology and service providers, leading to 1/3 of new clients in first year of program
• Maintained partner relations to strategically plan co-marketing initiatives, share leads, identify joint sales opportunities, and improve joint value
• Developed and implemented a consultative sales and pipeline management process across three services to exceed revenue goals and quotas, growing department revenue 34% in first year
• Launched a new service model and go-to-market strategy, growing recurring annual retainers by 300% through new and existing business
• New clients include: Anheuser-Busch InBev, Dan Bilzerian’s Ignite.co, Decathlon International, Watsco Inc., Vintage Frames Company, Fink’s Jewelers, and more

Director of eCommerce Solutions

Zivtech

• Promoted from Director of Sales after first year to lead the Marketing team, in addition to Sales
• Developed and implemented first ever consultative sales and pipeline management process
• Led all new business development efforts through full sales lifecycle selling end-to-end custom software engagements and Developer staff augmentations
• Owned and managed partner relationships to drive new business
• Collaborated with Project Managers to create Client Engagement team to consistently foster and grow projects and accounts, growing initial contract value as much as 400%
• Improved revenue stability by growing  recurring revenue retainers by 200% through new business and converting existing contracts

Director of Sales and Marketing

My clients include Princeton University, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), City of Philadelphia, Healthcare Without Harm, Law School Admission Council, Carleton College, Greatist, and many more.

Director of Sales

Capgemini

Electronic Ink (acquired by LiquidHub and Capgemini) is an international business system Design Consultancy dedicated to improving the way people interact with technology, environments and one another.

• Supported Client Strategy/Sales team in identifying new business opportunities
• Created, refactored, and implemented a consultative sales process
• Innovated and executed new form of pipeline management and revenue forecasting
• Planned and led complete company website re-design from concept to launch by working cross-functionally with internal and external resources and actively managed execution
• Developed and implemented new content strategy for Marketing efforts including Social Media plan
• Managed all social media accounts and managed editorial calendar for all content development and collateral
• Worked with cross-functional teams and outside vendors to coordinate Marketing events including client roundtables, conference presentations and booths, webinars, and community events
• Salesforce administrator; managed sales operations and reporting to objectively measure performance, pipelines, weighted probabilities, revenue, and key accounts

Sales & Marketing Operations

Partnerships @ Loop | Strategic Advisor & Consultant

Built & scaled ecommerce agency, tech, and fulfillment Partnerships functions to multiple exits. 

Currently, the Director of Partnerships at Loop leading an incredible team.

Conference speaker at Crossbeam's Supernode and Partnership Leader's Catalyst.

In my last role I built the first-ever partnerships program and ecosystem at Whiplash (acquired by Ryder) to improve customer value, new pipeline and revenue, and product connectivity and features.

Previously I was the Director of Agency Partnerships at Privy (acquired by Attentive) and grew the program 10X in partner size and revenue in two years to a program of over 700 agencies.

Director, Ecommerce Partnerships

Buying a $10-$100m Brand 🛒 or $1m- $10m SaaS biz this year.

I'm on the hunt for great Ecommerce brands and Apps. In the next year I'm going to Buy A Biz! 

After a decade of scaling the fastest-growing Shopify Plus Brands and Apps, it's time for me to run one. I'm acquiring Brands @ $10m - $100m and SaaS apps @ $1m - $10m Topline.


When I'm not living the Ecom lifestyle I'm learning Mandarin, and exploring the flavors of my kitchen.


I write a weekly Public Brand Teardown newsletter and share my journey 👉: 
https://letsbuyabiz.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Jeremy Horowitz'

7k+ Shopify stores that do $10m+/yr. The Breakdown:
1) US: 82%
2) UK: 5%
3) India: 3%
4) Canada: 2%
5) Australia: 2%

Germany, France, Italy, Hong Kong + the Netherlands all trail with 1%.


The US is still the only real Shopify market. 

With a meaningful scale of big brands.

Acquired: CocoAI - Increase Rev +15% w/ WhatsApp. Still looking for a $10-$100m Brand 🛒 .

Yotpo will IPO in the next 24 months.

How do I know this? Because you don’t:
- Shut down an 8-fig product line.
- Layoff 40% of the team.
- Completely Rebrand

Unless you are preparing for a major exit.

After raising $400m+
Doing north of $150m in ARR (I’m speculating).
Leading 2 of the biggest categories in Retail (Reviews + Loyalty)

The only exit you can afford: IPO.

I don’t have any insider info. 
Just reading the tea leaves.

It’ll be amazing to see # 4 from the Shopify IPO class public.

What do you think they’ll IPO for?

New Year. Finally a new Profile photo.

For 3 years everyone meeting me must have been so confused.

Seeing a prof pic of me with hair.

To meet me in person.

Literally balder than the day I was born.

So finally I have an updated profile picture.

Thanks to my incredible sister for the headshot.
+ ChatGPT for the post effects.

For everyone in NYC today...

I'm going to be hanging around NRF meeting people.

Let's meet up!

Five $100m brands that need to be on your 2026 radar.
1) YoungLA (Gen Z Gymshark)
2) Bogg Bag (Crocs for Bags)
3) Little Sleepies (Family PJ sets)
4) Comft (True Classic for Athleisure)
5) FORTÉ (JRB for men)


Everyone is going to Grüns themselves over these brands next year.

My bet: Bogg Bag is the first to go public.

After talking about a Youtube channel for 3 yrs.
Now you can finally see + hear me break down my crazy takes.

We’ll cover:
- Stocks + Turnaround stories of major brands.
- Special tactics of what the best brands are doing.
- Deep dives into WhatsApp and AI.

It’s time to finally get back on camera.

Big goal for the year 0 -> 1k subscribers 

Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/euxx2e5G

5 Insights from reading 25 pgs of Loop’s 2026 Benchmark report:
1) 65% of brands charge a return fee (~$9)
2) Accessories Return Fraud = ~$341 (3x the avg)
3) 55% of Cosmetic/skincare brands offer Exchanges?
4) Lowest hanging fruit: Variant exchanges.
5) You want to add friction to your Returns program.


5 is my favorite.

There’s some great game theory you can work through.

Have fees + strategically remove them 

To incentivize certain actions. Like 
- VIPs
- Pushing to Exchanges
- Buying more in the exchange.

*The data is across 23m Returns from 4k Shopify brands using Loop returns.

Apple ($3.8T) needs to raid its $125B of cash + acquire Perplexity. 

To stop the Siri bleeding 
Make it not suck 
+ stop paying Google $1B/yr.

Meta/Open AI should have 0 chance at creating the next AI device.

Apple already has it: Airpods + iPhone

- Airpods: Speaking/Listening device to 
- iPhone: Interactive screen to visualize outputs

To really crush it, they should take $20m and clone Whspr flow too.

They already have all the users/data/devices.

They just need Siri to be usable.

In 2020, Tupperware was a $1.5B biz. 

Now it's worth $930k (-99.9%).

1 of America’s most iconic brands.

Is worth less than the Public biz compliance fees.

This should have never happened.

The signs were there for years to adjust course.

Poor management and refusing the adapt with the times.
Lead an American legend into irrelevance.

My 5 goals for 2026
1) 2x CoCo AI again this year.
2) Get back to monthly Therapy Sessions by March
3) Build up a 6 mo cash reserve again
4) Start taking a short vacation 1x/quarter
5) Do a 3-day fast 1x/quarter.

The hardest goal not to have this year

Is blank in the Philanthropy bucket.

I need to be real with myself.

And admit that I need to go all in on Coco AI.

Before I can meaningful commit to helping others.

This is a season of focus in my life.

And that focus will require me to be more selfish that I'd hoped.

“DTC has better margins” is a lie.

Omni-brands are 8x more profitable than Pure DTC.

Real Omnichannel brands have much higher margins than DTC.

The chart below is Drivepoint’s DTC index.



The takeaway.

Your only job:

Sell your product in every channel customers buy.


Stop letting Meta suck your biz dry.

Find the right times to expand into the right channels.

This Tech stack 2x’d Coco in only 10 months (20 tools):
1) ChatGPT
2) Lovable
3) Lindy
4) JIRA
5) GitHub
6) Meow
7) Google Cloud 
8) Google Workspace
9) LinkedIn
10) Crisp
11) Vercel
12) Sentry
13) Twilio
14) Notion
15) Zapier *
16) Deel*
17) Hubspot*
18) Docusign*
19) Inngest
20) Webflow

Even though we use tools 15–20.
I would not recommend.

I'm actively looking for alternatives.

What is your favorite tool that you’ve been using?

What are some good alternatives to my list?

Laird Superfood ($35m) is making the worst acquisition of 2026.

Raising $50m in debt to acquire Navitas Organics for $38.5m.

Today in the newsletter I’m breaking down the full shenanigans.

Of how this is the worst M&A of the year.

IN THE FIRST MONTH.

🧠 Takeaways: Today, I’m breaking down Laird Superfood’s comically awful acquisition of Navitas + why Laird is the worst run biz of 2025. Laird Superf

Open article: The Stupidest Deal of All Time (by Laird) by Jeremy Horowitz' • 6 min read

The Stupidest Deal of All Time (by Laird)

If you're still only using email + Meta ads to grow your eCom brand...

You're leaving $100k+ in Rev on the table.

At CoCo AI, we've helped 665+ Shopify brands implement WhatsApp.

Here's what we're seeing:
→ 80–90% open rates (vs email's 20–30%)
→ 15–20% conversion rates from WhatsApp chats
→ 90x ROI on ab cart recovery
→ European brands recovering 45–60% of abandoned carts

Meanwhile, most eCom brands are still:
- Fighting rising Meta ad costs.
- Watching email deliverability tank.
- Seeing messages buried in overcrowded inboxes.

So I just recorded a video breaking down exactly how to use WhatsApp.

To add 15–20% in extra revenue to your store.

I cover:
1) Why WhatsApp is outperforming email + SMS right now
2) How to set up WhatsApp marketing for your Shopify store
3) The 3 methods to build your WhatsApp list fast
4) The abandoned cart automation driving 90x ROI
5) How AI agents handle customer conversations 24/7 (no support team needed)

Watch the full video here: https://lnkd.in/ej697eEx

Who wants to make $100k for <10 hrs/wk?

Sell my Media sponsorships (6m Views/yr) to Top .01% bizs and you will.

This isn’t some 2-bit operation. We have:
- Fully built out sales process w/ playbooks (HubSpot)
- List of Potential partners
- Aggressive Compensation

What you’ll do:
- Talk with the leading Shopify apps in the space.
- Find the right media package fits.
- Close Sponsorship deals.

I’m looking for an experienced BD person.

Week 1 you’re working the pipeline.
Week 2 work with me to deliver great ads.
Week 4 collecting those sweet commissions.

+ we’re adding new channels (AKA new sponsorship opps) this year.

I’m looking to bring someone on by EOM.

If this sounds like a good fit for you, send me a DM.

Let’s talk.

How OpenAI will own Paramount by EOY 2027:
1) OpenAI rug pulls on their Oracle commit.
2) Oracle’s stock plummets, triggering margins loans.
3) Cascade of defaults forces Paramount into bankruptcy.


The Ellison empire is pretty fragile:
- OpenAI promised to pay Oracle Cloud $60B/yr for 5 yrs
- Oracle borrowed $35B to fund data center build-outs.
- Paramount had $14B in debt post-exit.


OpenAI is 78% of ORACLE’s est rev.

FOR THE NEXT 5 yrs!

Oracle has $125B in total outstanding debt.
The family's other assets are funded by Margin loans/debt.

If Oracle’s Rev doesn’t grow fast enough, the debt collapses.
Forcing the Ellisons to abandon Media to protect the core.

Then...

OpenAI swoops in to buy Paramount out of bankruptcy.
And if things get really ugly for Oracle.
OpenAI buys them as well.

I have 5 major goals for 2026:
1) 2x Coco’s ARR. Again.
2) Start taking small vacations 1x/quarter.
3) Get back to monthly therapy sessions.
4) Build up a 6 month Nest egg.
5) 4 Fasts of at least 3-days.


Every year I have to trim down my goals.

I only hit 3/7 last year.

It hurts.

But that’s the cost of success.

🧠 Takeaways: How did I do against my 2025 + 2026 goals: Hits and misses. Major focuses for this year. Greatest lesson from missing most of my 2025 go

Open article: My #1 Career/Life Unlock: Thoughtful Goals by Jeremy Horowitz' • 3 min read

My #1 Career/Life Unlock: Thoughtful Goals

I 2x'd CoCo AI ARR in 2025. I acquired it today here's what I'd do differently
Sales: +318% (YoY) 🤤
Gross Profits: +225% 👍
OPEX: +210% 👍
Net Income: +2,159% 😍
ARR Run Rate: +118% 💪


Key P&L Takeaways:
1) Rev growth was exactly where it needed to be.
2) COGS is growing too fast, dragging down Margins.
3) OPEX was really tight leading to good Operating profits.


My 3 step Growth strategy to 50x the value in 5 years:
1) Be more AI native.
2) Invest more in Success.
3) Triple down on what’s already growing the pipeline.


If you want the full LBAB! Style breakdown.


Check out the full newsletter below.

🧠 Takeaways: Today, we’re running through the gameplan of what we’d do with my biz Coco AI if I acquired it today. Be more AI native. Invest more in 

Open article: 50xing value of MY company: Coco AI by Jeremy Horowitz' • 6 min read

If you're running an ecom brand + you're not using WhatsApp marketing…

You're leaving a MILLIONS on the table.

This is what WhatsApp can bring:
→ 80% ORs (vs email's 20%)
→ 30x higher ROI on abandoned cart flows
→ Millions in extra revenue this year

But if you don't have a list of numbers.

You can't actually start WhatsApp marketing yet. 

So I just recorded a video breaking down the 7 best strategies to grow your list.

These are the most effective ways to get customers’ phone numbers.

Based on helping 100s of brands crush it with Whatsapp.

Check out the full video here: https://lnkd.in/epjfGCd3

Twilio ($19B) isn’t profitable or growing.

It’s time we step in and course correct the internet’s messaging infra.

It scores a 5 on the Rule of 40.

Bumbling around trying to AI themselves.

Vs. focusing on what actually matters.

Sending more messages.

🧠 Takeaways: Today, we’re acquiring Twilio (a tool we use at Coco) to turn this lost biz around, get it back to growth, and finally make it profitabl

Open article: 17+ yrs later: Making Twilio Profitable by Jeremy Horowitz' • 6 min read

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The Battle

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Jeremy Horowitz'

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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);}Jeremy Horowitz''s LinkedIn Performance

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