James Dohm

COO @rivocommerce. Retention platform for Shopify brands like @hexclad, @kitsch, @ridgewallet & @aloha –

[Stuart Chaney @stuartchaney]

Rivo <> Chubbies

[James Dohm @jamesdohm]

@0x15f @uselayers_ Love this

[James Dohm @jamesdohm]

@MattParkin20 @varunkundra This is awesome

[Stuart Chaney @stuartchaney]

In the last 12 months, product velocity at Rivo has skyrocketed since moving engineering to a 100% agentic AI workflow.

To celebrate, here's 100+ meaningful product updates from the past 90 days.

Rivo Editions Spring 2026 Highlights:

[Stuart Chaney @stuartchaney]

▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░ 99.9%

[James Dohm @jamesdohm]

@iamshaanarora congrats man!

[James Dohm @jamesdohm]

@Moore Very good take.

[Universal Curiosity @UniverCurious]

Think about it.

[Oisin @OisinO]

Stuart has set the benchmark in the Shopify app space of AI driving code velocity. Feeling ashamed Recharge being only at 55% of code is AI generated lots to learn and improve.

[Aaron Orendorff @AaronOrendorff]

97.5% of all work + relationship problems can be solved by …

1️⃣ Who
2️⃣ Does what
3️⃣ By when

And then create a checklist to detail what “does what” actually means.

Clear expectations are magical 😍

[Stuart Chaney @stuartchaney]

Rivo ended the year just under $6M ARR (over 100% YoY growth). Here are my top 4 learnings as we scale our bootstrapped startup.

I'm afraid to report that most of the generic/boring business advice is usually the answer, if you can do it well and more importantly, consistently.

TL;DR
- Hire really good people
- Build a product people care about
- Ship product as fast as possible.
- Attempt to support these customers at a maniacal level.

1. Hiring

We were able to hire some of the best talent in the industry last year. We'll always look for people to grow into roles but hiring people who have completed our goals before, and are replicating their success here is invaluable.

2. Speed

For me, speed is by far the most important factor in business. Across everything.

Your business will eventually be disrupted by someone moving consistently faster than you, compounded over the course of many years. Don't let this happen.

Shopify are a great example of a company who don't slow down and open the door for anyone else.

3. Never be too lean in support/success

We grew really fast in Q2 and didn't have enough headcount to meet demand on the success side. We got spread thin and had a bumpy couple of months.

We completely restructured the org, hired an amazing, true head of success and doubled our team.

Your brand/reputation is determined by how well people are treated pre and post onboarding. Major focus for us this year.

4. Keep going

This shit is hard. Our market had a rocky year. At least once a month I want to quit (for the last 10 years).

Every CEO/Founder I know is in the same boat, just keep hammering on if you really believe in what you are building.

2026:

Next stop $10M ARR and beyond.

[Stuart Chaney @stuartchaney]

Rivo Fall Editions is now live.

28 meaningful updates across the platform

But best of all... WALLET PASSES ARE NOW 100% FREE

Let's dig in..

[Stuart Chaney @stuartchaney]

lol - major progress at Rivo today. We have earned a compare page powered by ad spend from a large legacy competitor.

All love of course, pretty neat that our tiny bootstrapped startup is causing this much disruption to a company that’s raised over $500M : -)

What a time to be relentlessly shipping software as a bootstrapped startup..

[PJ Celis @celispj]

Too many entrepreneurs are too focused on scaling profits and not enough on scaling value.

The irony is that scaling value is how you get truly wealthy in a sustainable and predictable way.

[James Dohm @jamesdohm]

@0x15f banger site - love the color palette

[James Dohm @jamesdohm]

@0x15f !!!

[Stuart Chaney @stuartchaney]

This is the plan to scale past $25M ARR at Rivo, fully bootstrapped.

1. Ship quality product 10x faster than our competition by using agentic workflows. (Emphasis on quality)

2. Charge fair prices and attempt to provide exceptional support.

3. Hire the best people from the industry.

4. Go as big and as fast as we possibly can.

Currently re-investing every penny to make this happen.

Joining the lads to chat soon..

[Stuart Chaney @stuartchaney]

we had the good fortune of finding a one-pager being used against us by a legacy competitor.

some were actually decent feature suggestions tbh, while one was:

4. Maturity:
Experience is valuable, because it means we
have a diverse network within the eCommerce
space, investments from Shopify, exposure to
thousands and thousands of brands (so we
know what works, and what doesnʼt).

😂😂

all of this to say:

Not only have we built all of the useful suggestions on the deck - we've added another 30+ new updates we are dropping in upcoming our Rivo SUMMER EDITIONS 2025.

never had this much fun in my life building a business before :-)

Notes:
I love competition in business, i have zero ill will towards anyone, I play business like a game I am obsessed with, and the open market ultimately decides who wins. No shade here.

[James Dohm @jamesdohm]

@stuartchaney 🎯

This summer editions is going to be fun

[Stuart Chaney @stuartchaney]

Store Credit at Rivo - now powered by @Shopify Store Credit.

No workarounds or hacks needed.