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THE MILK BOTTLE ECOMMERCE SHOW · 38 EPISODES
The most useful ecommerce advice doesn't come from frameworks or playbooks. It comes from founders who've been through it — who've made the expensive mistake, figured out the fix, and are willing to talk about both. That's the premise of every founder interview on this podcast.
Over 112 episodes, we've spoken with merchants, app founders, agency owners, Shopify employees and investors. The range is wide by design. An Irish pharmacist who built a multi-location health brand online has different hard lessons than a San Francisco app founder who took VC funding. A fashion merchant selling handcrafted jewellery faces different operational constraints than a B2B wholesaler managing thousands of SKUs. The specific insights aren't always transferable, but the pattern of thinking — how good operators approach problems, make decisions under uncertainty and build resilience — is.
The conversations that have generated the most listener response are the ones where founders talk about what they got wrong: the platform decision that cost six months, the agency relationship that went sideways, the marketing channel that looked great in the spreadsheet and delivered nothing in practice. Honesty about failure is rare in business content and valuable precisely because of that.
Guests have included Kurt Elster (The Unofficial Shopify Podcast), Kelly Vaughn (headless commerce pioneer), Luke Carthy (growth and SEO strategist), Gavin Ballard (Shopify development veteran), and dozens of Irish and international founders who've built real businesses on Shopify. Each episode is a first-hand account of what building actually looks like, not what it looks like in a case study.
EPISODES
Episode #111
In a supplement market bursting at the seams, science beats hype every time. Dr. Daniel Jones, formulation expert and co-founder of AtOne, shares what it really takes to build a supplement brand that stands out: rigorous science, a genuine understanding of what consumers need, and a refusal to cut corners.
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Episode #104
In August 2023, we were honoured to welcome Ciaran Crean, co-founder of MicksGarage.com, as our guest. MicksGarage.com is an Irish-based eCommerce business that has made a significant impact in the eCommerce sector worldwide and its founders are regarded as eCommerce pioneers. Ciaran hails from the
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Episode #101
Marcus Seoighe, hailing from Galway, serves as the CEO of Clean Canvas, one of the most prominent Shopify theme developers on the planet. With more than a decade of experience, Clean Canvas specialises in crafting high-quality Shopify themes and remains one of the top-selling theme creators in the S
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Episode #99
In August 2019, we had the pleasure of hosting Kurt Elster, the renowned Shopify expert based in Chicago and the host of the highly acclaimed Shopify podcast, 'The Unofficial Shopify Podcast', on Episode 13 of our show. Kurt's expertise in the world of Shopify is second to none, and he's had the pri
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Episode #98
Gavin Ballard is a long-time friend of the team at Milk Bottle. He's the mastermind behind Disco Labs, a pioneering firm dedicated to crafting software that empowers Shopify stores. Not only has Gavin penned 'The Definitive Guide to Shopify Themes,' but he's also one of the most respected Shopify te
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Episode #95
MicksGarage.com, an Irish-based eCommerce business, has made a significant impact in the eCommerce sector worldwide and its founders are regarded as eCommerce pioneers. Co-founder Ciaran Crean joins us today to discuss his newest endeavour, Wave OMS, which is rapidly growing in the warehouse manag
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Episode #90
Let's listen to the career journeys of three women who have made an impact in the Shopify ecosystem. Anne Thomas, co-founder of the Design Packs app, helps merchants extend their theme's functionality by adding new sections and page templates. Lisa Popovici, a former med student, founded Cartloop, a
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Episode #88
Let's listen back to how these 3 successful entrepreneurs got started. Louise Stokes, a talented jewellery designer and businesswoman, shares her journey from New York intern to top of the jewellery scene in Ireland. The owner of Meaghers Pharmacy Group, Oonagh O'Hagan, who established the brand as
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Episode #87
In early 2021, Keith interviewed Shane Byrne, who was then serving as Head of Marketing at Fresh the Good Food Market. Shane shared an inspiring story about how Fresh transitioned to Shopify rapidly. This particular episode turned out to be one of the most popular downloads in 2021 continues to be
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Episode #84
Klara O’Leary is the founder of Shopify online-based business Care Box Collection. Care Box Collection is an Irish gift company that provides meaningful and affordable online, retail and corporate clients across Ireland, the UK and the EU - and it is built on Shopify.
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Episode #83
Mike Potter (Rewind.com), Jay Myers (Bold Commerce) & Björn Forsberg (FORSBERG+two) are the first entrepreneurs to have noticed the opportunity as a Shopify app developer. In this episode, Keith shares excerpts from their previous interviews where they share their journey.
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Episode #81
Niamh Tallon is the founder of HerSport.ie, a concept developed after seeing the disparity between the media coverage of female and male athletes.
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Episode #79
Louise Stokes is the founder of Loulerie, a boutique jewellery store situated in Dublin's city centre, which is run 100% on Shopify & Shopify POS. Keith welcomes Louise back for a second time to discuss her business and the challenges over the past two years since they last spoke.
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Episode #72
Keith chats with Laura Dowling who has just launched fabÜwellness.com on Shopify. fabÜ is the result of Laura’s fascination with the wonderful powers of plants, herbs and mushrooms from across the world and took 5 years to bring to market.
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Episode #66
Aaron Day, CEO of Amaze, shares his expertise on how Amaze is bringing social selling to a new level. A must listen for merchants who want to be responsive to social trends and communicate with their customers very quickly in order to sell more.
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Episode #65
Here is something interesting; a new commerce platform called Popup. We chat to CEO and Co-founder Matteo Grassi to find out more about the only no-code ecommerce platform that enables merchants to visually build and control customer journeys.
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Episode #62
Inventor, designer, entrepreneur and now Shopify merchant, meet Susan Furniss Radley Founder of Dust + Rock, creator of the original wrist pocket. We catch up with Susan to learn how she is finding selling online with Shopify and the opportunities she's creating to sell more.
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Episode #59
A merchant special with Stephen Jiang, Founder and MD of Fervor + Hue, an interior homeware brand based in Cork. As the pandemic unravelled Fervor + Hue concentrated on making their ecommerce offering a sustainable business and they haven't looked back since.
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Episode #57
Björn Forsberg, Founder of FORSBERG+two an award-winning Shopify app developer joins us again. Chatting from Denmark, Björn discusses how his side hustle became his bread and butter. This episode will inspire any app developer in the making.
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Episode #56
As a former barrister and senator, Lorraine Higgins channelled her experience into setting up Digital Business Ireland. A representative body that is made up of 4,000 digital businesses across a range of sectors in Ireland. Learn about how DBI can benefit and support your online business.
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Episode #55
Paul Healion is Co-founder & President of 1Rockwell, a full service digital agency in New York City. Paul chats to Keith about his career path that took him to NYC and running a successful agency in one of the busiest and vibrant cities in the world.
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Episode #51
Part 2 of a merchant special with Oonagh O'Hagan from Meagher's Pharmacy Group. Oonagh chats keeping customers at the core of what Meagher's Pharmacy do and how that helped the digital side of the business grow.
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Episode #49
A 2 part merchant special with Oonagh O'Hagan, Owner and Managing Director of Meagher's Pharmacy Group. A business that grew from one store to 8 branches with an invaluable online store.
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Episode #41
Shane Byrne from Fresh The Good Food Market chats to us about setting up an online store. When the pandemic hit there was uncertainty whether the business would be opened or closed. The big question asked was how quick could they go online?
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Episode #40
Kerrigans is a long established family-run craft butchers in Ireland. An early innovator of fresh online delivery, Barry Kerrigan chats about the opportunities presented by having an online store that compliments their walk-in shops.
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Episode #39
Jeroen Proos is co-founder of Human+Kind, an Irish based vegan skincare brand that is conquering the world. A great listen to any merchant looking to set up and/or expand their product business globally and online.
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Episode #30
John is Director of Support for Shopify, managing customer support teams worldwide. All of which work remotely. An interesting and free-flowing conversation about the impact of Covid-19 on the airline industry, building communities in rural areas through remote working, and the death of desktop.
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Episode #27
Kelly Vaughn is the founder of The Taproom Shopify agency. She's also a Twitter star in the developer world. Kelly chats about Atlanta, Shopify, DTC, Headless e-Commerce and how she taught herself how to code aged 11.
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Remote working is on the rise. Shauna Moran founder of Operate Remote chats to Keith about first experiencing remote working as a Shopify employee to then setting up her current business based in Galway, Ireland.
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Episode #24
Kieran Masterton tells us all about his new venture called Default. The aim of Default is to create products and services specifically for the Shopify partner community with savvy YouTube tutorial videos and The Default Podcast.
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Episode #21
Louise Stokes is the founder of Loulerie, a boutique jewellery store situated in Dublin. This episode is a great listen for any business owner who wants to know more about having an online store that compliments your bricks and mortar shop.
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Chase Clymer is former band member with City Lights and now a Columbus, Ohio based Shopify expert with his agency Electric Eye. As we head towards Black Friday, let's hear how Chase his helping his clients worldwide.
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Finbarr Taylor is the CEO of Shogun a popular page building app utilised by Shopify store owners across the world. In this episode, Finbarr shares his journey from cool Glasgow to sunny California with some interesting stops along the way.
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Bold Commerce are the largest & most successful Shopify developers. Co-founder Jay Myers walks us through this wonderful start up story which started in his basement and is now one of the largest employers in Jays hometown - Winnipeg.
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Kurt Elster is the host of the most popular Shopify podcast & founder of Ethercycle, a Chicago based Shopify agency. In episode 13 Keith chats to Kurt about how he found Shopify and of course his favourite customer - Jay Leno.
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We chat with Donagh Quigley, founder of The Handmade Soap Company. Donagh shares some great start up tales. A small business that grew from the kitchen table to selling globally on the Shopify platform.
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In episode 4 of our podcast, we chat with Stine Lyng Jørgensen co-founder of Vallerret Photography Gloves. Stine talks about how Vallerret became a reality and how she manages their 3 ecommerce stores on the Shopify platform.
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For episode 2 Keith chats with Björn Forsberg, the Founder of FORSBERG+two an award-winning Shopify app developer. Bjorn shares his journey into Shopify from a side hustle to award-winning development house.
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Milk Bottle Labs is a Shopify agency based in Dublin. We work with Irish and international merchants on founder interviews — from strategy through to implementation.
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