Pod: The Next Billion-Dollar Brand Won’t Have a Website!?!: Roy Rubin on Retailgenic
Roy Rubin, Magento co-founder and Venture Investor shares his journey and predicts a future where AI shopping agents could make websites obsolete.
Roy Rubin is an entrepreneur-turned-investor best known as the co-founder and CEO of Magento, the open-source ecommerce platform that launched in 2008 and went on to power over 250,000 merchants and $100B+ in annual transactions. Magento was acquired by eBay and currently lives inside Adobe.
Today, Roy is a General Partner at R-Squared Ventures, an “angels’ fund” backed by a network of successful founders, CEOs, and investors from Silicon Valley and Israel. The fund focuses primarily on Fintech, Enterprise/SMB SaaS, Marketplaces, and Digital Commerce, while also exploring sectors like B2C, Gaming, and AgTech.
From founding one of the most enduring platforms in ecommerce to investing in the next generation of entrepreneurs, Roy is constantly thinking about where the puck is going, especially in the age of agentic AI.
Listen/Watch Our Interview:
"My prediction: the next billion dollar direct-to-consumer brand will not have a website."
— Roy Rubin, Co-founder of Magento
In this week’s episode of Retailgenic, we sit down with Roy as he shares the origin story of Magento, its acquisition by eBay, and his transition into venture capital. He also explores the future of e-commerce, predicting that the next billion-dollar brand may not even need a website as AI shopping agents reshape the retail landscape.
We explore:
The inside story of Magento’s sale to eBay and Adobe
Why Roy thinks websites might be obsolete in the age of AI agents
The impact of generative AI on commerce infrastructure
His vision for tastemaker-led retail and agentic marketplaces
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Up next…
On our next episode of Retailgentic, coming Thursday June 26th, we’ll be talking to a special guest from IDC, the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. Subscribe and Stay tuned!