ShopX Coffee Chat

Three months in China — and Saigon deserves this energy

In 2025 I spent three months in China studying Mandarin — two months in Beijing, one in Shanghai. Outside of class, I went to a lot of coffee chats — AI rooms, founder rooms, ecommerce, cross-border, brand. And everywhere, from a small café in Sanlitun (三里屯) to a round table in Suhe Bay (苏河湾), I met the same thing: a real spirit of sharing, nothing being sold, people there because they want to grow together.

In Shanghai I met Ben — Uyghur, and a very successful seller in the city’s ecommerce scene. He doesn’t need to sell anything more, but he still runs Saturday-afternoon coffee gatherings — half because they keep him sharp on the market, half because he wants to help the people coming up behind him. Fifteen people, one host, a U-shaped table, minimal slides. Each person introduced themselves in two sentences. The host opened one question. Three hours later I walked out with more practical insight than a week of reading LinkedIn would have given me.

Nobody was performing. Nobody was selling. Everyone had something to share because everyone was actually doing the work. The most useful comments came from the quietest people in the room.

I loved that energy — sitting down at a café table where everyone is there for the same reason, nobody playing a role. So I want Saigon to have rooms like that too, and to keep them running across Shenzhen and Singapore when I travel — every two to three weeks, weekends, fifteen to twenty people, you pay for your own coffee. That’s it.

The format

• No speakers, no slides, no selling.
• Each person introduces themselves briefly: what you’re working on, what you’re curious about.
• Host opens one or two topics — the room takes it from there.
• If you don’t know much, just come and listen. If you know something, share it.
• Everyone pays for their own coffee. That’s the whole business model.

Think of it as a small café afternoon, talking shop, opening up perspectives, meeting people who actually do interesting things.

What we usually talk about

The room sets the agenda, but these come up almost every time:

• Cross-border commerce — selling into US/EU from VN/CN, sourcing, logistics, payment rails.
• Landing pages and CRO — what’s actually moving the conversion needle in 2026.
• Paid acquisition — Meta, TikTok, Google. What’s working, what’s burning cash.
• Content and advertorials — the format that’s quietly doing 3x of landing pages.
• Brand building — the long game, especially for DTC consumables.
• Product and supply — sourcing, R&D, working with factories, white-label vs own-label.

When an afternoon goes deeper

Sometimes a topic earns its own afternoon. When the room asks for depth, we’ll often anchor around one of these — half is a useful AI workflow, half is a real CRO/ecom problem we work through together.

#	Topic	The AI angle	The ecom/CRO angle
1	Audit any page in 5 minutes with Claude	Web → screenshot/HTML → structured audit prompt	10-point landing page CRO scoring, drawn from 2,620 advertorials
2	Build a pattern-based prompt library	Pattern-based vs generic prompting; reusable prompt architecture	5 archetype-aware advertorial prompts
3	Competitor research in 1 hour with Claude Projects	Claude Project setup, web research, synthesis prompts	DTC brand benchmark — positioning, creatives, pricing
4	Daily email triage with Claude — 30 minutes back	Project setup, triage rules, draft templates	Ecom customer email patterns (refund, complaint, partnership)
5	Image analysis with Claude Vision	Multi-modal workflows, batch image analysis	Product photo audit, ad creative critique against winning patterns
6	A daily AI operating system	Claude + Notion + Calendar integration	A founder’s day at GemCommerce, broken down
7	Document analysis at scale — PDFs, reports, contracts	PDF → structured insights pipeline	Compete intel from 10-K filings, agency contract review
8	Building internal tools with Claude Artifacts	Code-as-tool, deployable mini-apps	Mini CRO calculator, A/B sample-size tool
9	AI-powered user research — interview to insight	Transcript → themes → synthesis → recommendation	Customer call → CRO insight → A/B test hypothesis
10	Content production pipeline — idea to published	Multi-platform content automation	The advertorial pipeline running inside GemStory
11	Code review and debug with Claude Code	Engineering workflow with an AI pair	Building GemStory itself — behind the scenes
12	AI for decision-making — when to trust, when to doubt	Cognitive workflow + decision framework	Founder calls: build vs buy, hire vs agent, ship vs test

Same shape every time: a usable AI workflow on top, a real ecom/CRO problem underneath. You leave with one prompt template and one way to think about your store.

Who tends to come

• Shopify operators of any stage — first store or eighth.
• DTC founders building brand-led businesses.
• Agency owners and freelancers running campaigns for brands.
• App and tooling builders in the Shopify ecosystem.
• Anyone serious about ecommerce — newcomers welcome, just bring questions.

Photo library

So you can picture what each session feels like, I keep photos here — one section per chapter, with captions for context.

Saigon · Chapter 01 — May 23, 2026

How to join

The room is capped at 15–20 people per session, first-come basis through a small WhatsApp group I run.

If you want in:

Send me a short note — what you’re working on, which city you’re in, and you’re in.

I’ll add you to the relevant city group and ping when the next afternoon is set. No application form, no screening. Just show up, introduce yourself, contribute when you’ve got something, listen when you don’t.

See you over coffee.

ShopX Coffee Chat — Register

Tell me where you are and how to reach you. I’ll add you to the city group when the next one is scheduled.

Your name

Which city?

Saigon Shenzhen Singapore

Best way to reach you

Email WhatsApp WeChat

Register