Latest news with #ThomasGleeson
Int'l Business Times
6 days ago
- Business
- Int'l Business Times
The Profit-First Playbook: How Thomas Gleeson is Helping E-Commerce Brands Scale Sustainably
For e-commerce teams across industries, measuring the true return on paid marketing remains a costly guessing game plagued by fragmented data, inconsistent attribution models, and a lack of financial context. Despite access to attribution tools like Google Analytics, marketers still struggle to connect campaign performance to actual profit. According to Gartner's 2025 Tech Marketing Benchmarks Survey, proving the ROI of digital marketing remains a top-three challenge for marketing leaders. Thomas Gleeson is setting out to solve this strategic blind spot with StoreHero, a platform which helps e-commerce teams unify their marketing and financial data, making it easier to see which campaigns are actually driving profits. Drawing from his experience at Shopify and his own family's e-commerce business, Gleeson built StoreHero to bridge the gap between marketing and finance by helping online merchants move beyond vanity metrics and toward strategic decisions driven by profit potential. The Profit Disconnect: A Founder's First Challenge The philosophy behind StoreHero was born from an experiment in what drives e-commerce success. In the early 2010s, Gleeson's mother ran Wowee, one of Ireland's oldest e-commerce stores. She built the business through organic search traffic while Gleeson, still a student at the time, began testing paid advertising to accelerate growth. His campaigns drove a noticeable uptick in sales, but not everyone was convinced. His father, an accountant and the store's financial lead, questioned whether the revenue gains were enough to justify their investment and translated into real profit. To make his case, Thomas built a detailed spreadsheet that mapped ad performance to bottom-line impact. "He didn't connect with the typical marketing metrics," Gleeson recalls. "I still remember sitting at the kitchen table, building out this massive spreadsheet just to convince my dad that our ad spend was driving profit." The spreadsheet linked ad spend to actual profit margins by factoring in costs, conversion rates, and contribution per order, convincing his father to increase digital ad spend and sparking what Gleeson calls an "obsession with aligning marketing and finance" in e-commerce. From Shopify to Startup Leader: The Leap from Shopify to StoreHero Gleeson spent nearly four years at commerce platform Shopify, where he rose rapidly from customer support advisor to senior merchant success manager, advising some of the most prominent e-commerce brands in the United Kingdom, from Victoria Beckham to Motel Rocks, along the way. At Shopify, he ran into the same problems with proving the true value of marketing on a larger scale. Siloed data and misaligned goals prevented marketing teams from delivering true value and profit to the business. Even high-revenue brands struggled to measure what mattered. While the companies he worked with relied on tools like Google Analytics or Meta Ads manager, those platforms rarely connected campaign performance to profits. Gleeson's spreadsheet filled that gap by integrating marketing metrics with cost data and contribution margins, providing a clearer picture of which efforts were truly profitable. Refined to work across industries and business models, it became a trusted tool for his clients. During this time, Gleeson was working towards his bachelor's degree in business commerce in the evening. For his final project, he returned to the spreadsheet he had refined for his Shopify clients, transforming it into a full business plan by building a financial model, outlining a product roadmap, and detailing how the tool could scale into a SaaS platform for e-commerce brands. That project became the foundation for StoreHero. The same week he graduated with first-class honors, he handed in his notice at Shopify and launched the company. How StoreHero Helps E-Commerce Brands Make Profitable Decisions StoreHero is an e-commerce analytics platform that helps brands connect their marketing and financial data to drive profit-first growth. As co-founder and CFO, Gleeson leads both the strategic vision and financial architecture of the company. Drawing on his background in e-commerce operations and experience advising top Shopify clients, he built StoreHero to help brands understand which of their ad campaigns actually drive profit. Most e-commerce marketers depend on Meta Ad reports, Google Analytics, and store backends like Shopify to track performance. StoreHero brings it all into a single dashboard then connects it to deeper financial metrics like contribution margins, customer lifetime value, and blended return on ad spend. The result is a clear, real-time view of what's working, what's wasting spend, and where more investment could lead to increased profit. "Marketing shouldn't be a mystery to your CFO," Gleeson explains. "And finance shouldn't be a blocker to growth. When leaders can tie ad campaigns directly to profit, they can align faster, spend smarter, and scale more sustainably." StoreHero delivers what Gleeson calls the Profit-First Playbook : a measurement and data analysis framework that helps merchants track how each of their digital ad campaigns connects to their bottom line. Less than three years after launching, StoreHero supports more than 400 e-commerce brands, generating over $700 million in annual sales. While StoreHero is a data platform, Gleeson has built it with a human-first mindset. He regularly meets with clients to understand their challenges and shape the product around their needs. One Australian founder told him that StoreHero helped him and his wife grow their business to the point where they were able to buy a new home and expand internationally. "That's when it really hit me," Gleeson says. "We're not just building software, we're changing lives." The Road Ahead: Scaling Smart at a Global Scale As e-commerce brands face rising acquisition costs, supply chain volatility, and shrinking margins, many are questioning whether rapid growth alone is enough. In response, Thomas Gleeson has positioned StoreHero as an e-commerce intelligence solution that helps brands align their marketing and finance data. His goal is to help brands grow not just faster but smarter, with the financial clarity needed to make sound marketing and business decisions. Continued product innovation will be key to that goal. Based on client feedback, the StoreHero team is working to introduce more automation, deeper integrations, and advanced reporting features, but the core promise remains unchanged: helping brands make sense of their data to drive profit-first decisions. "You don't need more data," Gleeson concludes. "You need better decisions."
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
TXOGA applauds strategic commitment to West Texas growth and energy security
Apr. 24—AUSTIN — The Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) on Thursday took a major step in ensuring the long-term energy reliability and economic vitality of the Lone Star State by announcing that the buildout of the Permian Basin Reliability Plan will proceed using 765-kilovolt (kV) transmission lines — the highest-voltage transmission standard to be used in Texas. Following the announcement, Texas Oil & Gas Association (TXOGA) President Todd Staples issued the following statement: "Today's decision by the PUC to approve transmission lines in the buildout of the Permian Basin Reliability Plan further reinforces Texas' ongoing commitment to fostering economic growth, creating jobs and strengthening our energy independence. We thank PUC Chairman Thomas Gleeson, Commissioners Kathleen Jackson and Courtney Hjaltman, as well as staff, for their diligent and thoughtful work to advance this project. Former PUC Commissioner Lori Cobos also worked extensively on this issue. This decision is critical to ensuring that reliable power is available for oil and natural gas production and industrial development across West Texas — enabling the energy sector to continue delivering affordable, secure energy to Texas, the nation, and the world." Conditionally approved in September 2024, the Permian Basin Reliability Plan addresses persistent concerns over insufficient transmission capacity in one of the most productive energy regions in the country. The plan is designed to support the region's strong and growing electricity demand and unlock continued economic development across the Permian Basin. The Commission's endorsement of the 765-kV configuration signals not only the urgency of West Texas growth but also confidence in the ability of Texas transmission providers to deliver the project on time and within budget, despite challenging economic conditions. It also reflects the PUC's investigation and conclusion that the 765-kV approach offers the best long-term path to expand ERCOT's capacity and meet the state's growing power needs. The buildout will represent the largest high-voltage transmission investment in Texas in more than a decade — a bold step toward future-proofing the grid and reinforcing Texas' global energy leadership.
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
PUCT approves plan for the first extra high voltage transmission lines in ERCOT region
Apr. 24—AUSTIN — In a landmark decision, the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) on Thursday approved a plan to build the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) region's first extra high voltage transmission lines to meet the Permian Basin's rapidly growing power needs. "The PUCT is fully committed to building an ERCOT grid that will serve Texans reliably for decades to come," PUCT Chairman Thomas Gleeson said in a news release. "Extra high voltage lines are more efficient and strengthen reliability. Because each line can carry more power, fewer lines are necessary to serve the needs of the Permian Basin Region, meaning less disruption to Texas landowners, natural habitats, and landscapes. Our priority now is ensuring utilities execute these projects quickly and at the lowest possible cost to Texas consumers." House Bill 5066, passed by the Texas Legislature in 2023 and signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott, required the PUCT to approve an electric reliability plan for the Permian Basin region to support the on-going expansion and electrification of Texas' oil and gas industry and the growing electricity needs of West Texas communities. That plan was approved in Oct. 2024. The next step was determining whether to build it out with new, more efficient extra high voltage (765 kilovolts) transmission lines or the standard 345-kilovolt transmission lines currently in use throughout the ERCOT grid. The Permian Basin reliability plan is the first step in a broader effort mandated by the Legislature and Abbott to evaluate transmission and distribution systems across the ERCOT grid and identify where improvements are needed to support the state's rapid growth and ensure long-term electric reliability. The PUCT's approval of the Permian Basin reliability plan follows a full analysis of the costs, equipment supply chains, and project completion timelines of both voltage options. Additionally, the PUCT and ERCOT hosted six workshops to gather input from members of the public, equipment manufacturers, and the transmission service providers (TSP) who will build and operate the new lines. ERCOT and the TSPs estimate the extra high voltage plan could cost 22% more than the lower-voltage alternative; however, it will provide many long-term benefits. Higher voltage lines can carry more power and meet higher levels of demand as the state continues to grow, reduce expensive congestion on existing transmission lines, and could save money in the long-term by avoiding the need to build new transmission lines to catch up to future demand.
Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Electric reliability improvements focus of new Texas Energy Fund program
Feb. 13—AUSTIN — The Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) on Thursday approved a new rule establishing the Texas Energy Fund (TEF) Outside of ERCOT Grant Program (OEGP). The program will provide grants to Texas electric utilities and power generators outside of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) region. Grants can finance modernization, weatherization, reliability and resiliency enhancements, and vegetation management. "Every corner of our state faces unique weather threats and challenges, and ensuring every Texas electric utility and power generator maintains a resilient system is essential to providing reliable, affordable power to all Texans," PUCT Chairman Thomas Gleeson said in a news release. "The rule approved today will ensure that the TEF improves electric reliability for all Texans, whether inside or outside the ERCOT region." The new rule, TAC 16 §25.512, implements provisions of Senate Bill 2627, passed by the 88th Texas Legislature and signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott in 2023. It establishes procedures for applying for a grant under the OEGP, and the eligibility requirements and terms of the grant awards. The ERCOT region encompasses about 75 percent of the geographic area of Texas. Some electric utilities that serve Texas consumers are not located within ERCOT. According to the rule, Texas electric utilities and power generators outside of the ERCOT region may apply for grants for the following types of projects: facility modernization, facility weatherization, reliability and resiliency, and vegetation management. Those categories are defined in detail in the rule. Qualifying entities may not apply for grants to pay debt or construct or upgrade a facility not located in Texas, among other restrictions. Specifics regarding the grant application procedure, review process, and grant award amounts are outlined in the rule. Requirements for monitoring and assessing the performance of projects funded by the grants will be outlined in each individual grant agreement. The Outside ERCOT Grant Program is one of four Texas Energy Fund (TEF) programs created under the Powering Texas Forward Act, which was established by the Texas Legislature through passage of Senate Bill 2627 in 2023. The rule establishing the Outside ERCOT Grant Program adopted today is the third TEF rule adopted by the Commission. The In-ERCOT Generation Loan Program rule and the Completion Bonus Grant Program rule were adopted on March 21 and April 25th, 2024, respectively. Additional information about the Texas Energy Fund is available on the PUCT website: Texas Energy Fund.
