Cocktails & Commerce Podcast

About Cocktails & Commerce Podcast

Common sense for commerce tech, washed down with great cocktails. Hear from great guests from around the enterprise commerce tech landscape as they share nuggets of wisdom between sips, just like at the hotel bar... cocktailsand.substack.com (https://cocktailsand.substack.com/s/cocktails-and-commerce?utm_medium=podcast)

Publisher

Brian Walker & Bill Friend

Category

arts · technology

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

13 Jun 2024

Latest episode

29 Jul 2026

Latest episodes

38 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   29 Jul 2026

   C&C Pod: Bryan Mahoney, Co-Founder & CEO of Chord Commerce

   This week Bill and I are joined by Bryan Mahoney (https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryanmahoney/) to mix up a Negroni riff and talk about something we think is under appreciated in the agentic commerce conversation: the data foundation and context layer that are key to enabling agentic commerce operations. Bryan is the co-founder and CEO of Chord Commerce (https://chordcommerce.com/), a platform built for D2C and omnichannel brands that unifies first-party data to enable operational AI and agents. Prior to Chord, Bryan has spent nearly thirty years in commerce technology across a number of senior roles, including founding CTO of Glossier. Brian also hosts his own podcast, Brilliant Commerce (https://open.spotify.com/show/3pf7JKmxiuhnNRPjJK5TNH?si=a9d2a2cf7677475f). With that, please pour yourself something to sip along and enjoy our conversation with Bryan. Cheers! Thanks for reading Cocktails & Commerce! Please share, there is more room at the party! This week’s drink: A Negroni Riff The Negroni is perhaps Italy’s most prominent contribution to mixology and the cocktail pantheon. The history of the Negroni is relatively clear in its general outlines, but like many cocktail origin stories, there are gaps and perhaps some - shall we say - creative license introduced along the way. The Negroni is also a cocktail that lends itself easily to playful adaptation given it’s dead simple spec - one part spirit, one part vermouth, one part bitter. The first account of the Negroni was contained in a letter written sometime between the end of World War I and October 1920 by Count Camillo Negroni, a Florentine aristocrat. He apparently was quite the character - having spent time as a professional gambler, a fencing instructor, and even in America as some sort of cowboy. As he recounted in the letter, once back in Florence after the war he took to having the bartender at Florence’s Caffè Casoni make him an Americano only boozier. The Americano is vermouth, bitters and soda water, and the bartender swapped in gin for the Americano’s water, and voilà! - the Negroni was born. But it was really in Paris that the drink took off during ‘The Roaring Twenties’. It became so popular that American humorist Nina Wilcox Putnam joked that, “All Gaul was divided into three parts; one part gin; one part vermouth, and one part Italian bitters.” Later, those bitters became somewhat standardized as Campari - but back then they were probably using all sorts of Italian-style orange bitters which are close cousins of Campari. The drink fell out of favor with the rise of Italian fascism and WWII, but then had a renaissance when it was adopted as the drink of dopoguerra (“postwar”) Italy and of la dolce vita (“the sweet life”). Italy was suddenly very glamorous, and the Negroni became the drink of the jet-set in America, Europe, and beyond. The classic Negroni has inspired countless riffs, since that equal-parts template is so easy to bend. For this episode, we made our own - swapping out the core spec for substitutions that echo the original while bringing something new. Cheers! Negroni Riff: Context Layer 2 oz. Gin (London Dry recommended - Beefeater or Botanist) 1 oz. Gran Classico 1 oz. Amaro (Cardamaro recommended) 1 dash orange bitters Garnish: orange twist Steps: Add all ingredients to a mixing glass with ice and stir until well chilled - approximately thirty seconds. Strain into a rocks glass over a large clear ice cube. Express the orange twist over the surface, swipe the rim, and drop it in. Enjoy! Thanks for reading Cocktails & Commerce! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. As always, it’s great to have you here! If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share, rate (it helps!), and let us know your thoughts. We love to hear from our listeners. Be well, drink well, and here is to good business! Cheers! - Brian & Bill Cocktails & Commerce™ is a wholly owned subsidiary of StrategyēM, LLC (https://www.strategyem.com/). This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cocktailsand.substack.com (https://cocktailsand.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

2. 

   9 Jul 2026

   C&C Pod: Peter Sheldon, Co-Founder & CPO of ShopVision

   This week Bill and I are joined by our guest Peter Sheldon, to shake up a Vesper cocktail and talk about ShopVision, Market & Competitive Intelligence, his vision for how commerce become’s increasingly autonomous, and what it’s like leading Product for an AI-native company. Peter is co-founder and Chief Product Officer of ShopVision, a fast growing market and competitive intelligence solution focused on digital commerce and marketing. ShopVision’s customers include the likes of Achteryx, Herschel, Vistaprint, Kohl’s, and Signet Jewelers among many others. Many of you will know Peter from his time as an analyst at Forrester - covering the commerce technology market - as well as his time at Magento and then Adobe where he was in senior product and strategy roles. Bill and I have both known Peter for many years, including a time Peter and I worked together, and we’ve been looking forward to having Peter on show. It’s a great conversation, so pour yourself something to sip along with us and enjoy our conversation with Peter. Cheers! Episode Chapters: * The Vesper cocktail - Bond’s iconic cocktail born in fiction * “Hey Levi” - Explaining ShopVision to a 6-year-old * The story behind founding ShopVision * Breaking down ShopVision’s Market & Competitive Intelligence solution and data-set * What’s different about building an AI-native company and what its like leading Product strategy in the AI era * Peter’s view on how Commerce and marketing become increasingly autonomous * What AI agentic development means for platforms and the ecosystem * Does Build vs. buy decision making change with the advent of AI * Future of industry analyst firms * Final cocktail order and sign-off Please share, there is plenty room at the party! This week’s drink: The Vesper The Vesper, also known as the Vesper Martini, was invented by author Ian Fleming for his iconic, fictional British secret agent, James Bond in his first Bond novel, Casino Royale. Fleming had Bond name the drink after his love-interest - and fictional double agent - Vesper Lynd. In the novel, the character explains that she was born ‘on a very stormy evening’, and that her parents named her ‘Vesper’ - Latin for evening. Bond then gives her name to the Martini variation he orders, leaving little ambiguity in how the bartender is to prepare the cocktail: “A dry martini. Three measures of Gordon’s, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it’s ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel.” Fleming was apparently inspired to name the cocktail and character by his close friend Ivar Bryce, who later shared the story in his memoir You Only Love Once (https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/title/you-only-live-once-memories-of-ian-fleming/author/bryce-ivar/). During WWII Fleming visited Bryce’s home in Jamaica. When the butler arrived with the drinks, he apparently said, “Vespers are served.” - an allusion to canonomical rights practiced in many orthodox Christian traditions. But the drink was not a Martini variation, but rather a rum-based drink. The attribution seems to be upheld by Fleming inscribing a copy of Casino Royale to Bryce with, “To Ian, who mixed the first Vesper.” The Vesper cocktail itself never appears in any of Fleming’s subsequent Bond novels after the character of Vesper is revealed as a double agent and ends up committing suicide at the end of Casino Royale. One very specific element though does carry forward as Bond goes on to order Martini’s throughout the series: that the drink be shaken, not stirred. As Bond became a massive cultural icon, this kicked off decades of debates among drinkers, bartenders and mixologists about the right way to prepare a martini, or any cocktail that is spirit-forward like the Martini. Most would claim that a Martini be stirred, but Bond wanted his shaken. Beyond a great one-liner, this has the effect of consistently rendering the finished product ice-cold and not dependent on the duration of a stir to reach dilution and the essential chill - so maybe Fleming was onto something after all. The Vesper is also by its nature a generous pour, closer to a double, and it is exactly as lethal as it sounds. Cheers! Cocktail Spec: The Vesper 3 oz. / ~90 ml. - Gin (London Dry style recommended) 1 oz. / ~30 ml. - Vodka 0.5 oz. / ~15 ml. - Kina Lillet or Lillet Blanc (substitute Tempest Fugit Kina d’Or for a more bitter, quinine-forward result) Garnish - Large lemon twist Steps: Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with plenty of ice. Shake hard until very well chilled. Strain into a large chilled coupe or cocktail glass. Express the lemon twist over the surface of the drink, wipe around the rim, and drop into the glass. Enjoy! Thanks for reading Cocktails & Commerce! Subscribe for free to make sure you don't miss out next episode. As always, it’s great to have you here! If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share, rate (it helps!), and let us know your thoughts. We love to hear from our listeners. Be well, drink well, and here is to good business! Cheers! - Brian & Bill Cocktails & Commerce™ is a wholly owned subsidiary of StrategyēM, LLC (https://www.strategyem.com/). This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cocktailsand.substack.com (https://cocktailsand.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

3. 

   8 May 2026

   C&C Pod: Tomasz Pindel, Founder & CEO of Voucherify

   This week Bill and I are joined by our guest Tomasz Pindel, co-founder and CEO of Voucherify. Voucherify is a Customer Incentive and Loyalty Engine that has built a reputation for enabling businesses to rapidly deploy and test promotions, discounts, and loyalty solutions through its API-first, composable platform. Based in Poland, Voucherify works with customers across Europe and now North America, counting the likes of Breville, Altitude Sports, McDonald’s, and Michelin among their many customers. Voucherify recently launched Vincent, an AI agent aimed at streamlining promotion and incentive workflows while connecting to other agents to bring forward market and customer insights. In the episode we get further into what Vincent does and why it matters. Our conversation covers a lot of ground: the incentive and promotion landscape, the pain points that drive enterprises to seek out a composable Incentive and Loyalty solution, and how brands are not ready for shopping agents yet. We also get Tom's view on how AI has impacted product development from someone who is living it firsthand. So please pour yourself something along with us and enjoy our conversation with Tom. Cheers! Please share! There is plenty of room for others at the cocktail party! This week’s drink: The Szarlotka Riff The Szarlotka is a beautifully simple drink of Żubrówka bison grass vodka poured over apple juice with a pinch of cinnamon. ‘Szarlotka’ is Polish for “apple pie”, and indeed this drink tastes like warm slice of pie in a glass. Żubrówka is one of the more distinctive spirits in the world: a Polish rye vodka infused with bison grass from the Białowieża Forest, giving it faint notes of vanilla, fresh hay, and a kind of meadowy sweetness that slots perfectly alongside apple. Bill took that Szarlotka foundation and built on it for a C&C riff - adding pear brandy for depth, a house-made cinnamon-cardamom syrup for spice and warmth, a squeeze of lemon for balance, and a few drops of saline to pull everything together. The result keeps the apple-pie soul of the original but gives it more structure and nuance. An egg white is optional but adds a silky texture that rounds out the spice nicely. Cheers! Cocktail Spec: The Szarlotka Riff 1.5 oz. - Żubrówka Bison Grass Vodka 0.75 oz. - Fresh unfiltered apple juice (fresh-pressed if you can get it) 0.5 oz. - Pear brandy (St. George or similar) 0.25 oz. - Cinnamon-cardamom syrup (see below) Scant 0.25 oz. - Fresh lemon juice 2 drops - Saline solution (20% solution, pinch of sea salt as an alternative) 0.5 oz. - Egg white (optional, for texture) Garnish - Cinnamon stick and fresh thyme sprig Steps: If using egg white, dry shake all ingredients without ice for 10–15 seconds to emulsify. Add ice and shake again until well chilled. Strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with a cinnamon stick and thyme sprig. How to make the Cinnamon-Cardamom Syrup 1 cup sugar + 1 cup water 2–3 Ceylon cinnamon sticks 6–8 green cardamom pods, lightly crushed Steps: Stir sugar and water over low heat. Add cinnamon and cardamom. Steep until fragrant, tasting often - the cardamom will turn to a medicinal flavor if left too long. Strain and cool. Add a capful of high-proof vodka to preserve which helps keep it for a couple of months if refrigerated. Enjoy! Please subscribe! We want to be sure you make it to the next party! Cheers! As always, it’s great to have you here! If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share, rate (it helps!), and let us know your thoughts. We love to hear from our listeners. Be well, drink well, and here is to good business! Cheers! - Brian & Bill Cocktails & Commerce™ is a wholly owned subsidiary of StrategyēM, LLC (https://www.strategyem.com/). This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cocktailsand.substack.com (https://cocktailsand.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

3 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

3 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 30 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

47

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

32

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