Episode Number:

72

May 11, 2026

In this episode of The eCom Growth Show, Danan Coleman interviews Matt Holman, Founder and CEO of Commerce Catalyst, to explore why community is one of the most underrated growth engines in eCommerce. From small meetups to a thriving Slack network of more than 1,000 ecommerce professionals, Matt shares how genuine relationships, consistent value, and intentional events can create long-term opportunities for brands, operators, and service providers.

Meet Matt: The Community Builder Behind Commerce Catalyst

Matt Holman is the Founder and CEO of Commerce Catalyst, a Utah-based eCommerce community built around connection, education, and practical support. What started as a small gathering of marketers has grown into a network of ecommerce professionals looking to solve real problems together.

Matt is also a co-founder of Qpilot, where he helps brands improve retention, customer lifetime value, and subscription operations through smarter systems and technology-forward strategies.

At his core, Matt loves eCommerce, community, and the intersection of both.

Community Starts With a Real Need

Matt didn’t set out to build a massive eCommerce network. He started with a simple problem: he was the only marketer at a bootstrapped startup and needed people to talk to.

A few peers began meeting for breakfast, then lunch, to trade ideas and troubleshoot challenges.

  • They shared real problems they were working through.
  • They compared tools, CRMs, landing pages, and workflows.
  • They helped each other avoid wasting time on outdated advice.
  • They created a space where practical experience mattered more than theory.
Big Lesson: The best communities often begin by solving a problem the founder personally understands.

Why Community Matters in Ecommerce

Matt believes every major brand has some form of community, following, or loyal audience around it. But community is not just about building a group of people to sell to.

For Matt, community creates value in several ways:

  • It helps people find better jobs, clients, partners, and opportunities.
  • It gives operators a trusted place to ask questions.
  • It allows eCommerce professionals to learn from people who have already solved similar problems.
  • It positions the community leader as a trusted connector within the industry.
Core Insight: A strong community creates commerce, trust, and opportunity long before it creates direct revenue.

Start With What You Can Execute Now

One of Matt’s biggest warnings is that many people try to build the version of the community they want three to five years from now instead of focusing on what they can deliver today.

That approach often leads to overcomplication.

Instead, Matt recommends starting with what is useful right now:

  • Can you get five people in a room?
  • Can you host a valuable lunch?
  • Can you help one person solve one problem?
  • Can you create a repeatable touchpoint people look forward to?
Smart Move: Don’t build for a fantasy future. Build something useful enough that people want to show up this month.

Consistency Creates Momentum

Community growth is rarely linear. One event may have 15 attendees. The next may have 55. Another may drop back down to 30.

Matt’s advice: keep showing up.

  • Consistency builds trust.
  • Regular events create more word-of-mouth opportunities.
  • Repeated touchpoints help people remember the community exists.
  • Momentum compounds when people know you are not disappearing after one quiet event.
Takeaway: Community is not built in one big launch. It is built through repeated, valuable moments over time.

Offer Value Before You Sell

Matt and Danan both agree that selling works best when it starts with help. In community settings, people do not show up for a pitch. They show up because they expect value.

That does not mean sponsors, vendors, or speakers should hide what they do. It means they need to lead with education before promotion.

Matt encourages partners to share:

  • Real customer use cases.
  • Specific strategies that worked.
  • Practical examples the audience can learn from.
  • Clear outcomes without turning the session into a pitch fest.
Practical Play: Teach people how to win first. Then show them how your product, service, or expertise supports that win.

The Best Communities Reflect the Founder’s Values

Matt has found that the strongest communities often take on the personality of their founders.

For Commerce Catalyst, that means:

  • Education comes first.
  • People should feel welcome.
  • The space should be safe, helpful, and low-ego.
  • Members should be encouraged to ask questions and support one another.

That culture becomes self-reinforcing. When someone needs help with sourcing, TikTok Shop, retention, or operations, existing members naturally point them toward the community.

Key Reminder: People come back when the community feels useful, generous, and aligned with their real needs.

Don’t Outgrow the People You Built It For

As communities and events scale, Matt warns that they can lose touch with the original audience they were meant to serve.

Large conferences may become more valuable for enterprise teams, vendors, or software prospecting than for the smaller operators who once found them essential.

Matt wants Commerce Catalyst to grow, but not at the cost of its Utah eCommerce roots.

  • Growth should not erase the original mission.
  • New opportunities should still serve the core audience.
  • Monetization should follow value, not replace it.
  • Local members should still feel like the community was built for them.
Guiding Principle: Scale the community without losing its soul.

Events Are a Tool, Not the Whole Business

Matt gets asked whether Commerce Catalyst will expand events into other cities. His answer is strategic: he is not simply building an event business. He is building a community that uses events as one way to create connection.

That distinction changes the roadmap.

Rather than chasing more cities for the sake of expansion, Matt thinks about deeper value:

  • Job connections and hiring support.
  • Training for eCommerce roles.
  • Small mastermind groups.
  • Specialized Slack channels.
  • Workshops for specific business functions.
Growth Angle: Events are powerful, but the real asset is the trusted network behind them.

Small Groups Can Beat Big Rooms

Matt does not measure success only by having bigger and bigger events. In fact, he would be happy with 50 small groups of 10 people each if those groups delivered meaningful value.

That mindset opens the door to more specific, useful programming.

Commerce Catalyst has hosted or explored events around:

  • AI and eCommerce.
  • Finance.
  • Subscriptions.
  • Sourcing.
  • Fulfillment and logistics.
  • Tech reviews.
  • Retention.
  • Women in eCommerce.
Important Shift: The goal is not always a packed room. The goal is the right people getting the right value.

Community Helps Fight Imposter Syndrome

One of the most powerful parts of community is realizing that other people are dealing with the same doubts, setbacks, and hard seasons.

Matt and Danan discussed how easy it is to compare your journey to someone else’s highlight reel. But real community creates room for honest conversations.

  • People share what they are struggling with.
  • Founders realize they are not behind just because they are not chasing a billion-dollar exit.
  • Operators learn from others who have faced similar challenges.
  • Members get encouragement through practical stories, not empty motivation.
Human Truth: Community reminds people they are not building alone.

Take Risks and Keep Learning

Not every event works. Matt shared that he once hosted a fulfillment-focused event with a strong panel, but only about 10 people showed up.

Still, the experience was valuable.

Why? Because the people in the room got help.

That is part of the community-building process:

  • Test new topics.
  • Learn what resonates.
  • Accept that some experiments will be smaller than expected.
  • Keep serving the people who do show up.
Field Note: A small event is not a failure if it creates real value for the right attendees.

Commerce Catalyst: Where eCommerce Professionals Connect

Commerce Catalyst now includes a free Slack community with around 1,300 members. The group includes eCommerce professionals from Utah, across the United States, and around the world.

Inside the community, members can:

  • Ask eCommerce questions.
  • Connect with experts.
  • Discover events and meetups.
  • Join topic-specific conversations.
  • Learn from operators, marketers, founders, and service providers.

Matt recently created an AI-focused Slack channel after realizing he wanted a better place to discuss practical AI use cases with eCommerce peers.

Community Signal: When the group is healthy, members can create new pockets of value naturally.

Connect With Matt Holman

Final Thoughts

Community is not built by chasing scale first. It is built by helping real people solve real problems consistently.

Matt’s story shows that the strongest eCommerce communities begin with genuine need, grow through trust, and last because they keep delivering value.

Whether you are building a brand, hosting events, running a Slack group, or trying to become more connected in your industry, the blueprint is simple:

  • Start with the people in front of you.
  • Solve problems that matter now.
  • Lead with value before selling.
  • Keep showing up.
  • Protect the soul of the community as it grows.

Stay tuned for more episodes of The eCom Growth Show, where eCommerce leaders share the relationships, systems, and strategies that help brands grow with purpose!