Anthony Sardain

It’s a beautiful day to ship physical products.

Agree that flooding inboxes is ineffective, and increasingly so. But even misguided energy will outperform apathy. Ultimately, it comes down to the sum of many small things. Being attentive at trade shows versus sitting on your phone is a great example. But other things: - If something is slightly out of a factory’s wheelhouse, they’ll do their best to take it on. - You can ask for quotes and not place an order 99 times, and the 100th time they’ll still provide a quote. These small behaviours, shared across all layers of the country’s supply chain (and broader economy), have been what has made China successful. As a country, we’d do well to stop chest thumping and take notes.

Expand? The "how" you chase matters. Flooding my inbox / DMs is not really a chase in the age of hyper skepticism around digital inbound IMHO. Granted, I fully believe if they had my address or phone number they'd call or show up too which I suspect is your point. Admittedly, I haven't been to any trade shows / events in the east yet but I would be curious to see how Chinese sales teams approach personal interaction in that environment. Those who have come to the shows Ive been to in the west though definitely align with the commitment you speak of. Despite language barriers at times I have noticed a lot more proactive engagement in trade show booths than a lot of their western counterparts seen just sitting on their phone (biggest pet peeve ever). Massive generalization but I think Ive been to enough events now to feel pretty confident in the trend.

Agree in spirit but disagree on method: YES, it does rely on accessible and responsive inbound. Email ain't it. Too much nuance in discovery / production requirements / educating the customer. Plus there's the whole inbox massively flooded with hot garbage issue. When's the last time you opened your inbox and didn't immediately regret it? True high value customer acquisition requires actual discussion, ideally IRL.

@Seanfrank We source most things @cavelahq

sourcing new suppliers: - who does yogurt? - who does gummys? - who does meats? - who does perfumes? - who does toilet paper? IM DOING IT ALL

If you own a factory catering to US brands, there is probably no greater ROI than fixing your online presence. How much business is being lost because most factory websites look like this?

@mattfreed American Dynamism hinges on American factories actually answering emails

Sometimes it feels like the US and Japan are competing for who can have the worse manufacturer buying experience

> 2022: Celebrity launches tequila brand > 2026: Celebrity launches agentic workflow orchestration middleware

@BowTiedPassport As they say in Mexico: Imagine living in Switzerland and missing out on this.

At what point do you think AI will finally catch up with Mexico?

@Shwinnabego @swapcommerce I don't think we've figured out how to productize AI outside of chat-style interfaces. Especially for where decision-making is so visually informed, like e-commerce. Brian Chesky mentioned how this is true for Airbnb, and I suspect it's true here too. x.com/bchesky/status…

Are ecomm stores going to look like some blend of ChatGPT + online shopping soon? New launch from @swapcommerce shows how some sites might look soon (esp if conversion rates and first party data is there as they suggest). #ecommerce #swappartner

We’re making hair ties for a men’s haircare brand. As a marketing bit, the brand advertises the ties can resist 100 lbs of weight. First product iterations, the factory owner would send these videos as part of the sampling process. Client loved it.

@levelsio Hard to see a way out for Europe without a hard restart. Not enough to completely dismantle the political and economic system, when mentalities have been completely corroded by anti-ambition social programming.

Of my European friends - one is burn out for years getting paid by the government to sit at home and not work (free money) - one is building an app for people to use AI to apply for subsidies (free money) from the government - one is building an app to get emission credits (free money) from the government - one is trying to get subsidy (free money) for building this app below Entire economy built on free money from the government

@joe__touring @cavelahq Fixing that

@sardain @cavelahq Im gonna crash out if I have to keep using Alibaba in the year of our lord 2026

This week @cavelahq was named to the Agentic List 2026. 3000+ attendees – from fortune 500 c-suites to top AI founders – got to hear me talk about how global supply chains are held together by whatsapp voice notes and jpeg annotations drawn in red circles

Update: we outgrew our old office.

@joe__touring La Cumbre in San Jose del Pacifico, Mexico is worth the detour

Here are the top 10 cafes I’ve encountered so far on the Pan-American Highway: 1) EAGLES NEST San Marcos, Lake Atitlán 🇬🇹 Complete with a sauna, world-class yoga shala, and an absurd triple volcano view

@joe__touring @cavelahq somewhere rn a “hello dear” email is preventing a global recession

@sardain @cavelahq This is painfully accurate