Dad x4 | Story Brand Building @wholesomestory | Customer Analytics @ExpandFi | Ex- @Amazon Sr. PM | @Cal | Think freely
Joined July 2010
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Ok, decided to spend Sunday writing a 4 part piece on why I think Amazon Isn’t the Problem.
Longer read, but if you sell on Amazon and don't read it, good luck!
medium.com/@shinghi/amazon-i…
Two Claude Code engineers from Anthropic just left. Big ones, pre-IPO
Yesterday was my last day at Anthropic.
I created Claude Code on desktop because I believe everyone can be a builder. Every feature request and bug report we got from this community was a gift that impacted millions of lives. I’m eternally grateful for those gifts, the product wouldn’t be what it is without you.
Anthropic is doing some of the most important work of our time. Contributing to that mission will forever be a career highlight for me. I never imagined I’d get to contribute to something so special in my lifetime.
Walking away from my best friends, a product I poured my heart into, and the mission was the hardest thing I’ve done in my career. But now I have some free time for GTA VI.
I'm already itching to get back to addressing all your feedback. I'll share what's next soon!
Shinghi retweeted
So I’ve now grabbed an old Amazon Echo Dot 2nd generation and over 10 years old and rooted it like I did with the Fire tablet. Now my Grok Bot is building out a dedicated solution on it to make it the voice of my top level Chief of Staff Charlie over wireless. This will enable to get updates, issue team commands and more anywhere in my house without needing a computer or phone. Doing this on my Omarchy Linux laptop with the help of Grok Bot.
Hey @tobi @harleyf @Shopify we are seeing an influx of trademark infringing copycat sites.
I am reporting them but Shopify is SO SLOW to take action.
Here is an example: wholesomestory.sbs
They were reported on Oct 12 and they are still up!
Hey @promix here is a fake site of yours: promixnutrition.site/
This is a big problem for a lot of merchants.
Shinghi retweeted
As Thatcher said, the problem with socialism is that eventually they run out of other people’s money to take and they come for you
The reality of the world was that most companies are already 95% optimized. So the market value of AI caps at the optimization left.
Shinghi retweeted
What do Tesla and Coca-Cola have in common? The CCP has stolen critical intellectual property from both.
I asked David Shedd to explain how. He’s the former acting director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and co-author of “The Great Heist: China’s Epic Campaign to Steal America’s Secrets.”
In 2018, Elon Musk got a first-of-its-kind deal: Tesla could operate in China without a joint venture partner, something no other American automaker had.
There was much fanfare about it all. But what Musk and others at Tesla didn’t know was that an engineer inside the company was preparing to secretly hand Tesla’s golden goose, its autopilot technology, to the CCP.
That technology is “now currently found in…the BYD, EX Motors, and others.”
“That's a billion-dollar heist.”
Or again with Coca-Cola:
“Why would China be interested in Coca-Cola?”
“The Chinese weren't interested in the secret formula. They were interested in getting the chemistry behind the inside of the cans of Coca-Cola.”
“Why?”
“Because those cans have a formulation to prevent oxidation, while those cans sit on the grocery shelf or in your home, for the Coca-Cola acidity not to eat through the can.”
“It's the lining now that is inside their ballistic missile fuel containers in order to protect against that oxidation.”
Americans need to understand, says Shedd, that “every aspect of the Chinese economy
supports the state…it is intended to both aggregate power to the state, but also to maintain the power of the state.”
Amazon? Why?
If anything, you should be reporting these sellers directly to CBP for enforcement.
This kills American businesses.
Shinghi retweeted
Yes, this tracks...
My YTD contribution margin by channel:
→ Shopify: 34.4%
→ Amazon: 50.2%
→ TikTok Shop: 4.6% (not a typo)
→ Ulta Marketplace: 41.7%
That said, Shopify is still my biggest profit center in terms of total contribution dollars. 💸
TikTok Shop plays a much different role...
Selling on Amazon means paying almost double Shopify’s fees. Brands paying them make 3x the dollars.
@youderian and I were chatting about how many founders are second-guessing Amazon right now. So we pulled the H1 2026 books of 7 and 8 figure consumer brands to see if the fear holds up.
The fees first:
Amazon: ~30% of every sale (15% referral, 15% FBA)
Shopify: ~16% (3% processing, 13% shipping and fulfillment)
Now the contribution margins:
Brands on both Shopify and Amazon: 27.2%
Shopify-only brands: 28.9%
Almost the same rate, on a business about 3.3x bigger.
Even with fees that high.
Because the Amazon side barely pays for anything else.
Ads: ~13% of Amazon sales vs 22-33% on Shopify
Discounts: ~2% on Amazon vs 12% on Shopify
The extra 14 points in fees mostly come back as lower ad spend and fewer promo codes.
And it’s not because Amazon Ads are better. They do a different job.
Meta and Google → create demand
Amazon Ads → catch people already searching with a card in hand
Which means your Meta spend is quietly buying Amazon orders. That’s good news, as long as you judge the whole company and not your Shopify ROAS. Amazon can’t capture demand you never created.
And the cannibalization fear? For brands on both, Amazon sales grew 28%. Shopify still grew 10%, about the same as Shopify-only brands.
Before you cut Amazon to save on fees, look at the company-level margin, not the channel P&L.
Shinghi retweeted
Amazon banning agents is changing my shopping behavior already. Anyone else?
Let's see how long this lasts...
The way ballot measures are written is criminal.
Washington, I know this ballot is confusing as hell. And that is on purpose. Politicians in our state are trying to confuse you becuase they don't believe in democracy.
The only reason we get to vote on this is that enough brave people stood up and demanded it. Otherwise, the governor would have signed this into law like the King of England, treating us like serfs with no rights and no power.
Well, I won't stand for being tricked, lied to, and treated like a child.
Just to be crystal clear, if you vote "Yes," it will repeal the illegal income tax.
It will not reduce funding to schools or human services because the tax doesn't go into effect until 2029. So we aren't taking anything away.
Starbucks left because of this. Microsoft has threatened to move jobs out of state. Amazon now employs nearly 15,000 fewer people in Seattle than at its peak. Seattle is second to last in the number of VC deals that closed in Q3.
Holding a small number of companies and rich people hostage, when they have options, is a foolish strategy that is already backfiring spectacularly.
The solution?
Reduce taxes on businesses and income. Why even tax people under 25 at all? Give families with children a HUGE tax credit. Make this state an incredible place to do business and have a family. Encourage entrepreneurs to come here. Get startups, agencies, and smart, motivated people to build here.
We can increase overall state revenue if more people make stuff, employ people, and create more value for everyone here. Not by chasing them out of the state and creating a hostile environment for business.
Remember this: governments and taxes don't make jobs. Entrepreneurs do.
