Jay El-Kaake

3x eCommerce tech founder: @osello, @feracommerce, @smileio; @uwaterloo Soft. Eng., @IveyBusiness MBA, ♥ #Ruby, ♥ #eCommerceTech, 🇨🇦 🇺🇸

[Jaclyn Konzelmann @jacalulu]

The fastest path to knowing if you've built something good is to try to get others to use it.

[Martin Cox @martincox100]

...just two guys talking about product data and building Shopify apps, live at DotDev in Toronto.

When I was at DotDev, Shopify offered me a second slot to record a bonus podcast episode (because the OG of Shopify podcasts, @kurtinc ) wasn't able to make it.

I wasn't sure who I'd have as a guest, but then I met a guy at a talk about AI Product Discovery, and he turned out to be @jayelkaake, a three-time founder who was an original founder of https://t.co/wybaeS7ADJ and is now building Osello, a platform that helps stores upload their products to mega marketplaces like Macy's, Nordstrom, Bloomingdale's.

We share our learnings about AI Product discovery ("90% of it is stuff you should have already been doing") and founding an app in 2026 ("find your lane").

(Watch full episode in comments)

[Jay El-Kaake @jayelkaake]

Best article about setting up Open Claw I've read so far! Must read if you've been thinking of setting up Open Claw yourself.

[Jaclyn Konzelmann @jacalulu]

https://t.co/GGqB2ekVSE

[Jay El-Kaake @jayelkaake]

Ran into UW kids @ airport recently. When they asked what program I said Software Engineering they said "woah must be so smart!"

Program req incr a lot since ~17y ago. I wouldn't have gotten in today.

"Work hard to get lucky" my 1st co-op employer said. Word to live by!

[tobi lutke @tobi]

Pretty much

[Jay El-Kaake @jayelkaake]

I've been posting mostly to LinkedIn recently (https://t.co/NmgA9TTsrA) mostly but I guess I shouldn't neglect my tweeps... (do we still call them that now that it is 'X'?)

[Jay El-Kaake @jayelkaake]

TIL the difference in #ruby between forwarding args with `(*)` and `(...)`

The `...` syntax (introduced in #Ruby 2.7) is called "argument forwarding" and forwards all arguments exactly as they were passed - including positional arguments, keyword arguments, and blocks.

[Jay El-Kaake @jayelkaake]

Noticing a lot of vibe-coded PR slop on a OS repo...

Code works but SE is awful and contributer doesn't know how to respond to comments... Huge time waste.

How should we solve this?

[Jay El-Kaake @jayelkaake]

@kirplatonov This sounds incredibly frustrating!

[Jay El-Kaake @jayelkaake]

@jimmykim @philkyprianou everyone loses

[Jay El-Kaake @jayelkaake]

@HunnaFresh @RubyCademy Sometimes you want to turn off some behavior, so you add `attr_accessor do_side_effect` bool to the class def and `without_doing_side_effect(&block)` method.

`object.with(dont_do_side_effect: true) {...}` replaces need to add that method (just add attr)

[Paul Graham @paulg]

Steph Curry makes 858 times the median US salary. Are we really supposed to believe he does that much better than the average person would in his place?

[Ali Asaria @aliasaria]

It turned out that the customer dropped his BlackBerry in the toilet and tried to "dry it out" by putting it in the microwave.

He was so ashamed, that he made up a story and dug himself too deep. He admitted it all in the end.

The company was saved.

😓

Use a bowl of rice.

[Ali Asaria @aliasaria]

A long time ago, there was a secret meeting of the top minds at BlackBerry. Their job was to save the company over a single weekend.

I don't think this story has ever been told.

It's been long enough that I think it's ok to share...

[Jay El-Kaake @jayelkaake]

@fractaledmind @joeldrapper This should be a rails rubocop check!

[Jay El-Kaake @jayelkaake]

@ErikHuberman Congrats!

[Jay El-Kaake @jayelkaake]

@kalenjordan Pretty sure this is against Shopify's terms. Can't have "placeholder" apps.

[Jay El-Kaake @jayelkaake]

Inspo behind new brand:

Customers trust the things they love & connect with.

We help merchants get more trust through quality reviews.

[Fera Reviews @feracommerce]

We’re so excited to unveil our new logo; one that better represents our brand’s values&essence!

Our product has evolved&changed over the years&we decided it was time to have our logo reflect that growth &change.

#announcement #ecommerce #shopifypartner

[Ali Asaria @aliasaria]

A key to being an entrepreneur is to never be satisfied with what you have. Be hungry.

But a key to being *happy* is to be content what you already have. Be accepting.

How do you balance the two?

[Jay El-Kaake @jayelkaake]

@smilerewards More cons of All-in-One:
- Single point of failure (1 goes down = all goes down)
- WAY less cost effective down the line (IE: Salesforce, AWS, etc). Think they're going to choose a fair price for add-on if you have no other way to add it? Think again...
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