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Just 2 more days left to register for MDS Inspire 2026. Reserve your spot now! Visit MDSInspire.com for more info.

⏱️ We’re just one week away from MDS Inspire 2026 🚀 Don’t miss your chance to be in the room with Ecommerce founders who are actively building and scaling real brands. Secure your spot now at MDSinspire.com

Here’s 20% off for anybody wanting to experience MDS IRL luma.com/MDSInspire2026…

🗓️ Just 2 weeks away! Don’t miss your chance to secure these exclusive deals with our special MDS only codes. Register now at ProsperShow.com

Fourth year of MDS Inspire and honestly… I’m feeling a bit nostalgic. Every year we raise the bar, but this lineup genuinely has me excited and it’s rare for me to feel that way. When a new hot topic explodes right before an event like what has happened with OpenClaw, suddenly the conversations inside MDS get sharper. That’s where MDS tends to shine, because the people in the room aren’t theorizing, they’re implementing. This isn’t a bunch of people on YouTube trying to get you to buy some nonsense with an affiliate code. It’s founders rolling up their sleeves and pulling all nighters. So of course we will have some serious sessions on AI implementation in the ecom biz and then continue to cover advances in new channels like TikTok, it’s founders actively testing what’s working in their business and prepping presentations on it just to give back to the group! We’re hosting at the Wynn this year, which I’m also excited about. Anyone who has planned events in Vegas knows that this venue is king of the holy grail of the strip. The team has visited multiple times and the experience is going to match the caliber of attendees. I also know a lot of events sound the same right now. Polished pages, similar AI-written copy, big promises. On the surface, ours might even read similarly. But the difference is in the room. Sessions founders actually stay for. Networking so strong people skip breaks just to keep talking. And a highly vetted audience where we turn down far more applicants than we accept. We don’t give tickets away for free. We never sell attendee lists. We keep sponsor standards extremely high. All of that is intentional to protect the founder experience and keep the signal high and the noise low. In a world where many events optimize for scale, we optimize for quality and economic value created per attendee. Yes, there are bigger events in the US. But very few with this high of a concentration of $5M, $10M, and $20M+ founders in one place talking real tactics across Amazon, DTC, TikTok, and now AI-led growth. Super excited for the waves this one is going to create. If you’re a serious ecom founder, I think you’ll feel the difference the moment you walk in.

If you missed the last Ecom Operator Room, we have another one happening in April. 👍 Follow us to be notified: linktr.ee/mdsonly

At MDS, our community thrives on the contributions of members who actively give more to get more. If you’re ready to connect with a group that believes growth happens together, this is where it starts.

What sets MDS apart? Real, peer-driven dialogue. Every session is an opportunity to learn not just from experts but from fellow founders who’ve walked the same path.

Are you an Ecom Founder in Utah who's looking for more ways to scale your brand? Whether you’re crushing it on Amazon, Shopify, TikTok, or your own DTC site, this is your chance to meet and mingle with other top sellers in the Salt Lake City area. Expect good vibes and great food as we swap stories, share tips, and build real connections in a laid-back setting. See you there! Reserve your spot now. luma.com/UtahEcomFounde…

Our SoFlo Chapter brought founders together for an afternoon of padel, connection, and community. From first-time players to seasoned competitors, this was about stepping away from content-heavy sessions and spending time building real relationships. Sometimes the strongest connections are built outside the usual format.

After back to back weeks of deep learning ecom events, our MDS Miami chapter took a different route. We hosted our second MDS Padel Social, and it is quickly becoming one of the most organically engaging formats we have done. What started as a casual idea has now turned into a consistent weekly game with 8 to 12 members showing up regularly. Sport, health, competition, and community all in one place. It has been refreshing to see founders step away from screens and connect in a more human way. This time around we organized stronger and had close to 20 founders get together. Lots of laughs, intense match ups, and a great energy all around. One lucky member even walked away with a custom carbon fiber NOX Padel racket as a prize. After the games, we headed to a healthy lunch where, as always, the conversation naturally shifted back to business. The main topic that kept coming up was Amazon’s recent variation break issues. Multiple founders were seeing Amazon's AI-driven auto breakups of variants and the lack of shared reviews across listings. Interestingly, while the rollout has been talked about for a while, the impact still feels uneven. Some brands are getting hit hard, others are only seeing small disruptions. But the consensus was clear: launching new products and building reviews is not getting any easier, and this is forcing founders to rethink listing strategy and SKU structure in real time. Then of course OpenClaw, everybody was talking about their new Mac Mini purchases. Many were already deep into the setups, feeding in ad data and having it optimize. One this is for sure, Ad agencies are going to get hit hard as that is what everybody is building automations around first! Overall, it was one of those events that perfectly captures what community should feel like. Competitive matches, genuine connection, and high level ecom conversations happening naturally instead of forced networking. Grateful to see our Miami founders showing up consistently and making this weekly ritual stronger. See you next time at our next ecom social in Miami on February 26th. luma.com/MiamiFounderSo…

Heading to Toy Fair New York this Sunday? Let’s meet up! We’re hosting an invite-only meetup alongside Toy Fair for ecommerce founders doing $1M+ in revenue. Secure a spot here: luma.com/MDSConnectToyF…

At MDS Inspire, the speakers are real founders, operators, and experts who’ve achieved success through hands-on experience. Scaling to $100M+ is challenging, and doing it alone only makes it harder. Join us to discover the ‘how’ from those who’ve already had proven success. Reserve your spot today at MDSInspire.com

@MillPrue The Prue Miami Takeover 🙌

Being part of entrepreneurial groups in your field is a must. I am always learning from and being inspired by smart people. If I took anything away from Miami last week... go hard on TikTok.

Where do real conversations happen after the trade show? At an MDS Connect — where founders across TikTok, Amazon, and DTC step away from the Cosmoprof floor to connect with like-minded peers. Let us know if you’re interested in learning more in the comments 👇

Join us for MDS Inspire 2026 400+ founders running 7–9 figure ecommerce brands will come together to share what’s actually working across Amazon, TikTok Shop, and DTC. If you’re ready to learn, connect, and grow with people who truly get it, join us: mds.co/mds-inspire

The TikTok Mastermind the day after Operator Room Miami almost didn’t happen the way we planned. With all the storms moving through the US, I was honestly worried. Flights were getting canceled. Travel plans were shifting last minute. And MDS masterminds aren’t passive events. They only work when members show up prepared, put their best foot forward, and genuinely help one another. Our team spent weeks pushing members to prepare thoughtful presentations on what’s actually working in their TikTok Shop businesses. So the uncertainty around attendance had me on edge. Instead of pulling back, we tried a few things we’d never done before. First, because of the travel chaos, we set up a last-minute 360 camera and enabled Zoom access. We ended up with three members joining live from London, Dallas, and Charlotte who couldn’t physically make it. Watching them participate virtually, in real time, was honestly pretty cool. It’s not something we’ve historically done with masterminds, but it worked. Second, we broke one of our own rules. MDS masterminds are usually intentionally small, eight to nine people, because everyone presents. This one had over 20 members in the room. Instead of requiring presentations across the board, we encouraged them. For members earlier in their TikTok journey, we used hot seats so the more experienced operators could help them in a different way. What made the room special was the range of experience. There were brands doing over 1M a month on TikTok Shop. Others in the $100k–$400k monthly range. And a handful of members just getting serious about the platform now, for different reasons, but finally ready to commit. That mix led to some very honest conversations. We opened with a simple question: “If you were starting TikTok Shop all over again, what would you do differently?” The most consistent answer across the room surprised no one, but still hit hard. Almost everyone said they wouldn’t have used an agency. Between the members in attendance, there were hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on agencies with very little to show for it. The common takeaway was clear: they wished they’d done it themselves sooner so they could actually understand the platform. The second answer was just as consistent. They all wished they started sooner. Not necessarily because TikTok Shop was instantly profitable, but because of what it unlocked. And this was an important nuance. Almost no one in the room was seeing clean, direct profit from TikTok Shop alone. But nearly everyone saw a strong correlation between TikTok Shop activity and overall revenue growth. The halo effect was undeniable. Retail brands talked about SKUs going viral on TikTok and then selling out in stores. That visibility helped them deepen retail relationships. Others saw meaningful lifts on Amazon, better efficiency on PPC, and stronger top-of-funnel momentum. TikTok Shop wasn’t just a channel. It was a force multiplier. The big takeaway wasn’t “TikTok Shop is easy money.” It was that TikTok Shop is the most important marketing opportunity brands can’t afford to ignore right now, even if attribution is messy and margins are imperfect. What stood out most, though, was the willingness to share. Three brand-new members were in the room, and they brought fresh perspectives that elevated the conversation even more. People weren’t posturing. They weren’t protecting secrets. They were genuinely trying to help each other win. That’s the beauty of MDS. Our goal this year is simple: get as many members as possible onto TikTok Shop and help them succeed in a way that actually strengthens their businesses. This mastermind felt like a strong step in that direction. More to come.

Operator Room Miami was a bit of an experiment for us. It was the first time MDS hosted something like this, and we kept the goal extremely simple: Create an experience compelling enough to pull high-revenue founders out of their offices and into a room together. If you’ve spent time around founders running real scale, you know the problem. They don’t lack opportunity. They lack time. Every hour is a tradeoff. Another meeting. Another decision. Another fire to put out. And more often than not, the “rational” choice is to stay behind the computer and keep working. So we designed this event to be the opposite of exhausting. Short. Focused. Intentional. One panel. People who’ve actually been there. Different paths, different models, decades of experience between them. Then the rest of the time was spent on what matters most: structured, thoughtful networking that made it easy for everyone in the room to actually meet one another. No running between sessions. No packed agenda. No noise. And most importantly, no pitching. We were extremely strict about who was allowed in the room. Every attendee had to be actively running a brand at scale as their core business. No agencies. No service providers. No hidden agendas. Just operators. That vetting is what made the room feel different the moment you walked in. By the end of the event, I was honestly overwhelmed in the best way. People coming up from all sides saying how refreshing it felt. How rare it was to be in a room like that. How surprised they were by the quality of brands and founders we were able to bring together. A few people asked how we found everyone. The truth is simple. MDS sees a massive volume of founders who want to join our community. We went through that list carefully and invited the people we felt would elevate the room. When those founders saw that this wasn’t a pitch, wasn’t sponsor-driven, and wasn’t transactional, they showed up. And because they showed up with the right mindset, the environment took care of itself. For a first event of its kind under MDS and Ecompreneur, I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out. This is just the beginning. We’re already thinking about taking this format on the road. London in May. Vancouver in July. Same idea. High-level brands. No forced agenda. Just real people, in real life, helping each other think better. Grateful for everyone who trusted us with their time. See you at the next one.