Abdullah S.

#Ramp boosts valuation increase to US$32 billion in a private financing round and secondary market. - Surpassed US$1B in ARR, up from US$500 a year ago. - Valuation at 32x ARR. - Reached sustainability, and starting to invest heavily in #AIAgents to automate tasks on behalf of clients, including determining employee expenses and automating invoice payments. https://lnkd.in/esQpsZT3

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Shopify is one of the biggest new wave tech companies. (here's exactly how they implement AI) Most platforms treat AI like a chatbot or assistant. Shopify is building it like an operator. While competitors add features, Shopify is removing decisions. Their AI doesn't suggest. It only executes. I just broke down Shopify's AI strategy into 5 core shifts that will define eCommerce by 2026: → Designing for fewer decisions, not more tools → Treating AI as an operator that moves work forward → Optimizing for outcomes instead of activity metrics → Making complexity invisible to merchants → Building for revenue growth without adding headcount This isn't about adding AI features. It's about embedding intelligence into workflows so merchants focus on selling. Not managing. Want the full doc? 1. Connect with me 2. Comment "SHOPIFY" And I'll send it over. P.S - Repost this to get it early!

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Canada just made the biggest change to SR&ED in over a decade, and most founders haven't adjusted their numbers yet. Bill C-15 passed in March. Here's what changed: The expenditure limit for the enhanced 35% refundable credit doubled from $3M to $6M. That's up to $2.1M in refundable credits per year. Capital expenditures are eligible again, reversing the 2012 cut. Equipment bought for R&D now counts. And the CRA introduced a pre-claim approval process that cuts review timelines from roughly 180 days to 90. The catch: none of this money shows up automatically. If your 2026 claim is built on your 2024 assumptions, you're likely leaving six figures on the table. The consultants charging 15-30% contingency fees already know this. Their pitch decks got updated faster than most CFOs' forecasts. Worth re-running your R&D numbers before year-end planning locks in. Curious how many teams have actually done that since March. #SRED #CanadianStartups #RDTaxCredits #StartupFunding #Innovation

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Crypto’s real risk isn’t hacks. It’s paperwork you didn’t file. Quick catch-up: a Canadian watchdog fined a crypto platform for failing to report suspicious and large transactions. It’s a record $126M penalty, a clear sign enforcement pressure is rising. Investigators tied the unreported flow to child sexual abuse material, fraud, ransomware, and sanctions evasion. That’s beyond sloppy. That’s dangerous. This isn’t about banning crypto. It’s about basic hygiene: when you see smoke, you log it and escalate. If you run payments, the message is simple: missing reports now look like intent, not error. Banks, vendors, and auditors will treat lag as risk you chose. Here’s the non-consensus part: reporting speed will beat on-chain security as the main trust signal in crypto. File fast, or partners will price you out. What changes next: vendors re-run due diligence, banks ask harder questions, and counterparties shorten patience. Controls that felt “fine” last week now look thin. Use this test today before you ship a flow: Could we file the right report in 24 hours, with 1 owner, in 3 clicks? If not, the flow isn’t ready. If you lead product, connect wallet, fiat, and support systems into one alert path. Remove friction for the people who must file. If you lead risk, tag red-flag merchants and sanction leaks, and rehearse your playbook until it’s muscle memory. Precision beats volume. If you lead ops, pre-fill forms, set clear handoffs, and log decisions with timestamps. Make the right action the easy action. Good actors should want this. Fast reporting pushes bad actors out and protects honest volume. if i’m wrong, it’s because this was a one-off show of force and regulators pivot back to quiet warnings. I want crypto to grow up. Filing on time is the floor, not the ceiling. Treat reporting like a product and you’ll earn trust you can measure.

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𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗺𝘆 𝗪𝗲𝗮𝗸 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝘀 Most affiliate programs fail for a reason no one wants to say out loud. The product does not look believable. Affiliates feel it. Users feel it. And no amount of testing can fix a product that does not feel safe at first glance. This is where Joseph Tannous and I collide. He spends his days fixing the gap between what brands claim and what users believe. I spend mine watching affiliates burn budget on offers that never stood a chance because the product looked suspicious. 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻. Yet the industry treats it like decoration. 𝗔𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗱𝗼 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀. 𝗔𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁. When a product looks real and solid, cold users convert faster, cheaper, and in bigger numbers. Every top affiliate understands this. Every advertiser forgets it. These are the credibility signals affiliates judge in seconds before they send you traffic: → The brand looks real If your product looks rushed, no serious affiliate will touch it. → The story makes sense Users buy the reason behind the product, not the feature list. → The page feels safe Trust marks. Clear copy. Clean layout. This is revenue, not design. → The company looks alive Press. Proof. Activity. If the brand looks abandoned, the user leaves. Joseph teaches brands how to look worth buying. I teach advertisers how to make affiliates trust that the offer will perform. Together the message is simple. Your product is not losing because of traffic. Your product is losing because no one believes you. If you look credible you convert. If you convert affiliates scale. If affiliates scale your entire program grows. Credibility is built by proof over time. The strongest programs focus on truth not noise. 𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗼𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗼𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿? 𝗔𝗻𝘀𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗵𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗹𝘆. 𝗜𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴. _____________________________ ✳️ I’m Jenny, sharing affiliate marketing lessons from the real-world work I do running my Partner Management software, Trackfinity and my Performance Marketing Network Rocahead

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⚔️ The battle for commerce isn't being fought on merchant websites anymore. It's being fought in the intent layer—before consumers ever click "buy." Richard Crone's breakdown of LLM-led Agentic Commerce monetization (capturing 11%-30% of GMV across six revenue streams and 5 ways to mitigate these risks) deserves amplification as is so that it can be mindfully reviewed and integrated into your thinking. What we're witnessing is a fundamental reshuffling of commerce infrastructure. As Jamie Burke frames it, we're entering the "Intent Economy"—where value capture shifts from the point of transaction to the point of intent formation. The critical insight: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦 𝐨𝐟 𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐝 (𝐒𝐨𝐑) 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐰𝐞𝐛𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐬. In Sangeet Paul Choudary's Reshuffling framework, this represents a value migration, away from merchant-owned touchpoints to the new places (all AI-powered) of enrollment. ‣ History Repeating: The PayFac Playbook As Richard notes in his analysis: "The one who enrolls is the one who controls." (Crone's Rule) #PayPal won early internet payments not through pricing, but by inventing the Payment Facilitator (#PayFac) model - enabling instant merchant onboarding at scale versus bank-by-bank approvals. They bore the risk to collapse enrollment friction to near zero. Now LLMs are following the same playbook. We're witnessing 𝐚 𝐦𝐢𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭—from merchant checkout pages to AI agent platforms that own the intent-to-payment infrastructure. We're not just watching incremental innovation - we're witnessing infrastructure-layer reshuffling that will determine which players capture value in the Intent Economy. Full credit to Richard Crone for this rigorous analysis. Take a deep dive into his 6 revenue buckets and 5 defensive strategies. What's your take: Are merchants moving fast enough to defend their territory, or has the point of enrollment already shifted? https://lnkd.in/eXHbPcDQ #AgenticCommerce #Agentic #Payments #FinTech

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Is Canada falling behind in entrepreneurship?   Two articles came out this week that spoke to this: 1/ "Y Combinator is no longer investing in Canadian startups" 2/ "This Gen Z pair built a $34M startup in Canada, only to move to U.S."   Take this week's most recent example, Internet Backyard co-founded by Mai Trinh and Gabriel Ravacci. They started out in Vancouver, BC. Even got their first customer in Canada.   So why did they move? 1/ Funding gap → Internet Backyard raised a $4.5M pre-seed in one week, more than the $3M total pre-seed VC funding deployed across all of B.C. in Q1 2025 (source: CVCA). 2/ Visa shortfalls → The Startup Visa Program in Canada has a 10 year wait time and is currently closed to new applications. 3/ Misaligned incentives → Early-stage founders are often forced to pause or abandon their own startups to work for established employers in order to qualify for permanent residency.   When success stories are no longer celebrated in Canada but exported instead, what does that say about Canada's trajectory as a hub for innovation?  

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Very insightful analysis from Mario Gavira on UCP, the Unified Commerce Protocol released by Google a week ago. Not not yet hitting the mark to be useful for the travel industry. What is missing in short - The product feed is built for physical goods and not for rooms or airlines - The payment plumbing does not allow the flexibility needed for hotel reservation - The price volatily of hospitality and travel business is not yet well handled

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Canada just introduced its most meaningful framework yet for digital assets through Budget 2025 (Bill C-15). For anyone building in Web3, fintech, or digital payments, this could set a new course of development. What this means for stablecoins and digital asset products in Canada: 1) Stablecoins finally get clear, supervised rules. We are moving from a grey zone to a world where issuers must hold real reserves, offer real redemption rights, and be transparent. For builders, this removes a huge layer of uncertainty around using stablecoins in consumer products. 2) A stronger foundation for digital payments. With trustworthy stablecoins, things like instant settlement, smoother remittances, and programmable money become safer to build. This is the first step toward digital cash that people can rely on rather than endlessly speculating. 3) Better building blocks for fintech and Web3 teams. Clear rules mean teams can integrate stablecoins and explore real use cases without hitting compliance walls every step of the way. Ambiguity has been one of the biggest blockers for web3 at large when trying to attract web2 user base. This should bring about a change. 4) A shift from speculation toward utility. The ecosystem has been dominated by tokens and incentives for years. A regulated stablecoin regime will push product thinking toward actual value: payment flows, treasury tools, merchant settlement, identity linked wallets, and real world financial experiences. 5) New expectations for PMs in Web3. Product roles will increasingly blend crypto literacy with regulated fintech thinking. Roadmaps will involve auditability, recovery flows, disclosures, open banking integration, and trust by design. Finally giving web3 product work a boost it needed for long in the region. Globally, countries like the UAE have already set a strong example of what practical, innovation-friendly digital asset policy looks like. This is not just another “regulation”, this is where trust, safety, and real world utility can finally coexist opening the door for better products, better partnerships, and better experiences for users. #ProductManagement #ProductThinking #DigitalAssets #Stablecoins #Web3Product #FintechInnovation #CanadaTech #VancouverTech #UAETech #DubaiTech #TechPolicy #FutureOfFinance

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Stripe's website violates every rule about API marketing. Their homepage links directly to curl commands. Test keys are public. The docs have better navigation than most marketing pages. Here's why their nerdy site converts everyone: 1. They built for developers, not consumers PayPal owned payments by focusing on consumers. Stripe went straight to developers. The entire site speaks in code. API references in main nav, Curl commands on the homepage, Technical docs as marketing material. They bet that developers would choose the payment infrastructure, not end users. PayPal never saw it coming. 2. You can use Stripe BEFORE you sign up Go to stripe.com/docs. Copy the test key. Run the curl command. See your request in their logs. You just processed a (sample) payment through Stripe without giving them your email. Compare this to every competitor: PayPal requires business verification. Adyen needs a sales call. Square makes you create an account. Stripe lets you experience success first, KYC friction second. Within hours, you could have already integrated their API. You've invested serious effort. The psychological commitment already happened. That's why their activation rates destroy everyone else's. 3. Test mode never expires and has zero limits Most API companies give you 14 days or 100 requests. Stripe gives you infinity. Public test keys. Unlimited requests. Full functionality. Forever. Startups can run in test mode for 6 months while building their product. By launch day, they’ll have written thousands of lines of Stripe-specific code. Trained their entire team on Stripe's patterns. Built their database schema around Stripe's objects. The cost to switch would be MONTHS of rewriting. Stripe turned their free tier into it’s stickiest feature. Once you build on test mode, production is inevitable. 4. The documentation IS the sales process Every Stripe page has two buttons: "Start now" and "Contact sales." Both lead to the same place: the API reference. No separate enterprise portal. No PowerPoint decks. No solution architects drawing diagrams. The Fortune 500 CFO validating compliance and the developer implementing payments read identical documentation. BMW evaluated Stripe using the same public docs you're using. When code becomes the sales material, two things happen: 1) Developers trust it (no marketing bullshit) and 2) executives can verify claims themselves (reducing sales cycles from months to weeks). KEY LESSON Stripe's site speaks exclusively to developers, not consumers. No "Pay with Stripe" badges. No consumer benefits. Just code. This let them bypass PayPal entirely. Every developer who chose Stripe became their distribution The site converts because it ignores 99% of people to obsess over the 1% who actually implement payments.

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👯‍♀️ When one promo drops… we stack referrals on top. At Wealthsimple, we recently gave AirPods away for free to encourage deposits. But instead of stopping there, we added a referral incentive: Refer 3+ friends, and get AirPods. Here’s why 👇 💡 Referral momentum is highest during promotions. When clients are already excited, they’re way more likely to tell friends. So we piggybacked off existing momentum to amplify results and drive some incentivized word of mouth. And here’s the part that feels like magic: ✨personalization✨ Using Liquid (the code language we use for dynamic content), I adapted the message based on where each client was in their journey. In the screens below, you can see an example of what two different clients might see: 📱 Left: 2 referrals → “You’re just 1 referral away from Airpods!” 📱 Right: 5 referrals → “Claim your AirPods, or nudge 2 friends to upgrade” And yes.... Same screen. Different content. All personalized with code. How cool is that?? It’s a simple idea, but its pretty game-changing. People are way more likely to act when it feels like the message was made for them. If you're in marketing and haven’t explored tools like Liquid, it’s worth it. Personalization isn’t just nice-to-have anymore; it’s the new standard. Did you see this campaign? Let me know what you thought! #Referrals #Fintech #DigitalMarketing #Multichannel #GrowthStrategy #LifecycleMarketing #Braze #Liquid #Personalization #GrowthMarketing #UXWriting #ReferralMarketing

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