The Spark

It's New Year's Eve. A few couples from the neighborhood are over for drinks. The question comes up: "Any good resolutions for 2026?" We go around the table, and my turn arrives. Pretty quickly it becomes clear to me: I want to create again. I still feel like an entrepreneur, and it's time to build something new. I share it with the group and we jot it down on a list we'll revisit on the same evening a year from now.

As a columnist at RetailTrends, I write extensively about AI's impact on e-commerce. It's moving incredibly fast. Customer service, marketing, development; basically everything can be automated. Most knowledge work will be handled by AI. We're already seeing AI-agents running entire operations. In a column I'm writing about solopreneurs, the rise of entrepreneurs who start and run a business solo by leveraging AI.

Then the question bubbles up in me: can AI actually even be an entrepreneur?

What if, as a business owner, you stop doing the execution, stop hiring people, stop building a team, and only make decisions? Is AI creative enough to invent a product, design it, and then launch it on the market like a well-oiled machine, with AI handling all the research, marketing, sales, web development, and customer service, while we outsource everything else?

How cool: set up a company that runs 95% on AI. Working title: "Product AI". Of course you need to attach a goal to it. I write down: "Minimum revenue of €200,000 in the first year."

You've got to document this adventure somehow, maybe by writing columns or even a book about it. That way you can highlight the moments when AI surprises you or falls short. It could become an entrepreneurial handbook and a sneak peek into what building a business looks like in the AI era.

So yes, I want to capture the wins, the misses, the doubts, and the breakthroughs. Something that reads like an adventure story. With concrete, actionable insights about how to deploy AI in an e-commerce operation.

Solid plan, but I know this: I can't do this alone. It's also way more fun with two of you; you keep each other sharp when you do it together. And you hit on new ideas. But who's got the time and appetite to take this on with me?

Then I see a post from Jurriën Kerstholt pop up on LinkedIn. He's a real e-commerce veteran, founder of De Nieuwe Zaak and High Performing Company.

For Twinkle Topics he's hosting a session on vibecoding and 20 years of entrepreneurship in e-commerce. That's right. Recently, like me, he wrote a book documenting his time at Nieuwe Zaak. He'd asked me for feedback. I pull up the WhatsApp chat and message him right away. Let's see what he thinks.