YOUR FRACTIONAL CAO

Chief Automation| Officer

Your business was built on experience. We make it run on AI, too — implementing automation and ecommerce for legacy distributors, CPG companies, and family-owned businesses, with the change management that makes it stick and the ROI you can see on your P&L.

Book a Free Assessment →See the Topicz Story

Who We Are

We've been in your chair.

We're not consultants who read a book about AI. We're operators who've spent years inside legacy distribution — co-building and running the digital and ecommerce operations that carry these businesses into the modern era.

We know what it's like to modernize a company built on decades of relationships and hard-won experience — where the team is wary of change and every dollar of ROI has to be real. As your fractional Chief Automation Officer, you get a principal who's actually done this — not a junior team and a templated deck. We embed, we build, and we make sure your people can run it long after we're gone.

Widest Net Technologies — Fractional Chief Automation Officer

Why We Do This

We didn't read about this transformation. We built it.

In the spring of 2020, we partnered with Topicz — a multigenerational family distribution business in Cincinnati ready to step into the information age.

They had decades of distribution experience, deep customer relationships, and national brand access.

What they didn't have was ecommerce infrastructure.

No marketplace operation. No digital playbook. No foundation to build on.

So we built it from the ground up.

Over the next three years, we helped take Topicz from zero ecommerce capability to a fully operational, multi-marketplace business — then evolved that foundation into a marketplace management accelerator for nationally distributed CPG brands.

Today, that operation activates and manages products across Amazon, Walmart.com, TikTok Shop, Temu, RepRally, Faire, Shopify, and more.

We built the technology stack. We built the operating systems. We built the workflows, integrations, reporting, catalog infrastructure, and marketplace processes required to make it run.

That is the work we do for you. Not a slide deck. Not theory. We have sat inside a legacy distributor, in the operator's chair, and helped build the future of one from the inside out. And we can do the same for yours.

2020

Built from the ground up

3 years

Zero to full marketplace operation

Sales channels activated

30K+

SKUs managed across channels

Who This Is For

Built for businesses that know they need to modernize, but cannot afford a failed tech project.

If your business has the relationships, inventory, and operating muscle, but lacks the AI and ecommerce infrastructure to compete in the next decade, that is exactly where we come in.

Book a Free Automation & Ecommerce Assessment →

Legacy distributors with decades of operating knowledge, customer trust, and untapped digital leverage

CPG companies managing fragmented channels, messy catalogs, and manual marketplace workflows

Family businesses where modernization has to respect the people who built the company

Teams still running critical work through spreadsheets, email, manual entry, and disconnected systems

Operators who need practical ROI, not AI theater or a deck that never becomes a working system

What We Do

The build work that turns a legacy operation into a modern one

We do not sell isolated tools. We design the operating system around them: AI workflows, ecommerce infrastructure, product data, team adoption, and the management cadence that keeps it producing.

AI Operations Automation

We find the manual work slowing the business down, then build AI agents and automations inside the workflows your team already uses.

Finance, admin, and reporting workflows
Email, spreadsheet, and data-entry automation
AI-assisted customer and vendor operations
Dashboards that show ROI in operating terms

Marketplace & Ecommerce Infrastructure

We stand up the channels, feeds, listings, inventory logic, and operating cadence required to sell across modern marketplaces.

Amazon, Walmart.com, Shopify, TikTok Shop, and more
Channel launch and marketplace operations
Inventory sync, listing QA, and issue resolution
Reporting rhythms your team can keep running

Catalog & Product Data Systems

We turn legacy product data into channel-ready assets, with enrichment, cleanup, normalization, and governance built into the process.

SKU cleanup and catalog normalization
AI product enrichment and descriptions
Image, attribute, and taxonomy readiness
Pricing, margin, and competitive intelligence

Change Management & Team Adoption

We embed with your people, train the team, document the systems, and stay close enough to make the new operating model stick.

Principal-led implementation, not junior handoff
SOPs, training, and operating cadence
Legacy system and ERP integration support
Ongoing optimization after launch

How It Works

Diagnose first. Build in the business. Leave systems your team can run.

No mystery, no lock-in. We work like operators because adoption is where most AI and ecommerce projects win or die.

Find the leverage

We start with a direct conversation about the operation, the bottlenecks, the team, and the places where manual work is already costing money.

Map the real workflows

We document how work actually moves through the business today, including the spreadsheets, inboxes, tribal knowledge, and system gaps.

Prioritize ROI first

You get a practical roadmap that separates nice-to-have technology from the automation and ecommerce work most likely to produce measurable return.

Build inside your environment

We implement AI systems, marketplace workflows, integrations, and reporting around the tools and people already running the business.

Train the team

Your people learn the new operating model as it is being built, with SOPs, usage habits, and confidence developed before handoff.

Optimize after launch

We stay close after systems go live, tune what is working, remove friction, and expand only when the operation is ready for the next layer.

Proof of Work

Built in the messy middle, where legacy operations become modern ones.

The pattern is consistent: understand the operation, build the infrastructure, train the team, and measure the outcome in business terms.

CPG / Convenience Distribution

Topicz and Shop the King: ecommerce built from zero

Built the operating foundation for a multigenerational Cincinnati distributor entering ecommerce for the first time, then helped evolve that foundation into a marketplace management accelerator for nationally distributed CPG brands.

2020

Built from the ground up

30K+

SKUs managed across channels

Marketplaces and sales channels

Full

Catalog, workflow, and reporting stack

Legacy Distribution / Specialty Supply

Marketplace strategy for operators with complex catalogs

Applied marketplace and ecommerce strategy across legacy distribution environments including HVAC, plumbing supply, apparel, specialty retail, and CPG, where SKU complexity, vendor data, and team adoption determine whether digital work actually scales.

20+

Years selling and building online

Global

Marketplace sales experience

B2B

Distributor workflows understood

Practical

Systems built around real operators

AI Implementation / Operations

Automation that turns manual work into operating leverage

Designs AI systems around measurable operational outcomes: product data enrichment, reporting, workflow automation, marketplace readiness, and human-in-the-loop processes your team can keep using after launch.

ROI

Prioritized before build

Agents

Built into existing workflows

Team

Training and adoption included

Owned

Infrastructure stays with you

Our Principals

You work directly with a principal — every time.

No handoffs to a junior team. The people who've done this work are the people in the room with you.

Sam Baron

Founding Principal · AI Solutions Architect

Sam is a serial entrepreneur and outcomes-focused AI solutions architect who has spent two decades building ecommerce operations inside real businesses. He started in 2004 importing live tropical fish from Southeast Asia and selling them online, then spent 15 years in designer menswear, selling globally across major marketplaces. Along the way, he worked with legacy distribution companies in HVAC, plumbing supply, CPG, and specialty retail, building marketplace strategy, operational systems, and digital revenue channels. In 2020, he co-founded Shop the King and helped build the Topicz ecommerce operation from the ground up, turning legacy distribution knowledge into modern marketplace infrastructure that teams can actually run.

Let's find the first place AI or ecommerce can produce measurable ROI.

In 30 minutes, we will look at your operation, identify the highest-leverage modernization opportunities, and tell you honestly whether we can help.

✓ Principal-led, no junior handoff
✓ Practical roadmap, not a pitch deck
✓ Built for legacy distributors and CPG operators
✓ You own everything we build

Your assessment includes

The first 3 places modernization can create ROI.

We use the call to separate real leverage from noise, then map the first practical systems worth building.

Workflow bottleneck scan

Where manual work, spreadsheets, inboxes, and handoffs are costing the most time.

Marketplace opportunity review

Which ecommerce channels and operating gaps are most likely to create practical upside.

Catalog readiness check

How ready your product data, images, attributes, and SKU structure are for scale.

Automation roadmap

The first few AI or ecommerce systems worth building, ranked by leverage and feasibility.

Honest fit recommendation

If we can help, we will tell you where. If we are not the right fit, we will say that too.