Financial Commandment #1: Your Money, Your Responsibility
In this post you’ll learn: He almost didn’t review his tax return that year....
What will 2026 look like for eCommerce founders, investors, and operators? In this episode, I sit down with Bill D’Alessandro for our annual predictions, breaking down what we believe is coming next across AI, advertising, inflation, M&A, Bitcoin, and brand survival.
Listen in as we debate everything from AI-powered ad automation and rising CPCs to whether small lifestyle brands are headed for extinction. We also cover where the next real opportunities may lie, how founders should position themselves for volatility, and which long-term bets still make sense heading into 2026.
You’ll learn:
- How Bill sees a K-shaped economy shaping winners and losers in 2026. (4:00)
- Why Andrew believes AI-powered ad targeting will eclipse Meta’s capabilities. (8:30)
- How inflation, tariffs, and government spending could impact eCommerce margins. (14:30)
- How AI-generated ads could fully automate Meta campaigns by 2026. (23:00)
- Why trust and human verification may become critical as AI content explodes. (26:45)
- Why small lifestyle eCommerce brands may struggle to survive without true differentiation. (31:50)
- What it really means to “build a machine” instead of a founder-dependent business. (33:45)
- Why brand strength and defensible IP matter more than ever. (35:00)
- Why M&A may stay strong at the top but weak for average brands. (44:00)
- How video and audio content creation is on the brink of full automation. (48:30)
- Bill’s Bitcoin prediction for 2026. (50:20)
- How CPCs and CPMs could rise even faster than they did in 2025. (55:50)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music
(With your host Andrew Youderian of eCommerceFuel.com and Bill D’Alessandro of FoodScience.com)
What Was Mentioned
Ideas Worth Sharing:
"My prediction is that, in 2026, one of the big LLM models—if not all of them—are going to release a paid ad model.” - Andrew Youderian Tweet this "In 2026, you're building a machine, or you're getting squished by people who are building machines.” - Bill D’Alessandro Tweet this "I think in 2026, running ads on Meta is going to look much more like setting up a pipeline, rather than kind of making individual ads.” - Bill D’Alessandro Tweet this
Post by Andrew Youderian
Founder and Chief Instigator, eComFuel
Andrew quit an early finance job to sell CB radios online — an admittedly unorthodox career path. It set him on a course to found and sell multiple businesses, host a decade-running podcast, lecture at Harvard Business School and create eComFuel, the leading community for 7- and 8-figure online business owners. Andrew is fascinated with branding, AI, building community, investing and growing meaningful businesses that don't require sacrificing what truly matters.
