Doing an AMA on @zakaria_airak 's server this friday 2 PM EST.
Will drop sauce on retention & profitability at a scale understanding financial metrics and maximizing $$ value per customer.
https://t.co/F4wGvSPBtb
🐐 Interview coming soon.
I’ve rarely seen someone move this fast on an idea.
He’s part of the community, and we actually met randomly while heading out for jet skiing of all places.
Then he said, “Zakaria, I’m the guy we’ve been talking to in the DMs the one who shared the testimonial.”
We ended up having dinner and talking business, scaling opportunities, and how he could introduce a stronger SKU into his brand
The impressive part? He didn’t just listen he took action immediately.
He’s already implementing the ideas, and the results are looking promising.
This interview is going to deliver a ton of value.
https://t.co/Abim2Lp8Vo
2022 vs 2025
What got us here?
- being obsessed with the product.
- being obsessed with every touchpoint of the customer journey (support, shipping, packaging).
- staying focused on one acquisition channel instead of trying to win on Meta, TikTok, Pinterest, Snapchat and 10 other things at the same time.
- hiring people who are better than me.
- building systems that work without me.
- and reinvesting aggressively every year.
In 2006, I made $10k/month on eBay. Then I got banned overnight.
In 2023, I built a payments system to $1 billion in GMV on Shopify. Then Shopify shut me down.
Most AI builders are making the same mistake right now:
In 2016, I was 31, single and broke, in a tiny apartment in Singapore with $0 left.
I borrowed $30k from my mom and lost that too.
3 months later I hit my first 7-figure month.
Here's what nobody tells you about rock bottom:
In 2026, this gap matters more than ever, as ad costs keep rising and customers switch brands more quickly. But do you know that a 5% bump in retention can increase your profits by 25% to 95%? Yet most businesses still treat it as an afterthought
Customer acquisition costs have jumped 222% over the past eight years,with a 40% increase between 2023 and 2025 alone. Meanwhile, 44% of businesses still spend more on acquisition than retention. That's a lot of money chasing strangers while your existing buyers quietly walk away
Every purchase decision starts with a problem
Customers don’t buy products. They buy solutions to pain
If you understand your customer’s pain points better than your competitors do, you win
If you misunderstand them, you waste budget, lose retention, and struggle with churn
Every customer who leaves your store without buying had a reason
Maybe the checkout took too long
Maybe they couldn’t find what they needed
Maybe your prices felt unclear
These are customer pain points that quietly cost businesses more than most people realize