Alibaba.com

Glad that Accio was featured as the "AI use case of the week" in Newsweek! One thing about the three founders in it: none came from tech. A mother. A vet. A caregiver. All three ideas came from taking care of someone — a changing table that cleans itself, a pet health monitor, cutlery that's easier to hold. You don't find problems like that in a market report. You find them by being the one who deals with it, over and over. But the idea was never the hard part. Suppliers, storefront, marketing — that's what stops people. AI shouldn't just make big companies faster. It should give these three the same shot. That's what we're building Accio for. If you're carrying an idea like theirs, go try it. https://lnkd.in/giZZgTqG

Find a niche market and make it real! Jesse Haynes and his co-founder Mark kept noticing the same problem: young athletes wanted high-performance eyewear built around the way they actually play — at a price families could afford. No one was making it. So they built Solaro Shades with a small group of friends. Alibaba.com gave them a direct line to manufacturers. They co-designed interchangeable lenses with softball players, detail by detail. Last year, Jesse joined us in Las Vegas for CoCreate 2025. Two things made the trip worth it. One was Accio, which now helps his small team punch above its weight. The other was manufacturers who understood what small brands are up against. But you don't always need the biggest team. Sometimes you just need the right people, and the bravery to take the leap. That's what CoCreate is about. This year, we're bringing it to Los Angeles. Register: https://lnkd.in/gbwpvr7c See you in LA!

Every great global business starts with a single moment of courage. A family in Hong Kong reimagining generations of craftsmanship.@Ivy Lui A pharmacist in Italy daring to dream beyond her local shop.@Grazia Savoriti An entrepreneur in Uzbekistan shipping freeze-dried fruit to buyers he’d never met—on the other side of the world. @Erkinjon Inamov These are proof that no business is too small to go global. With the right platform, the right tools—and a little digital courage—SMEs are turning local passion into worldwide impact. Watch their journeys. Then ask yourself: What’s possible for my business? #GoGlobal #SmallBusinessBigDreams #AlibabaCom #DigitalCourage #SME #MadePossible

The future of sourcing is not another spreadsheet. For many founders, sourcing is where time quietly disappears. Comparing supplier quotes. Following up on details. Changing specs. Rebuilding the same comparison again and again. But sourcing should not be about chasing every update manually. It should be about setting the right goal, understanding the trade-offs, and making the final call. That is the idea behind the Accio Sourcing Toolkit. A founder can set the target price, quantity, specs, and requirements. Then Accio Work helps keep supplier conversations moving in the background — collecting replies, comparing options, and flagging what needs attention. If the specs change, the agent can update the open conversations at once. The founder STILL makes the decision. AI just handles the repetitive coordination that used to take over the evening. This is what we believe work will look like for the next generation of lean founders: You set the intent. The agent keeps the work moving. You focus on the decisions that matter. What part of sourcing still takes the most time for you? you can @Accio in your comment below.

CoCreate Pitch is a stage Alibaba.com built for anyone with a business idea. It's also turned into something else for us: a window into where business is headed. Last year, a 15-year-old won our European grand prize. Right now he's sitting his high school exams while his company keeps running without him. A year ago that would have sounded impossible. Today it just feels like a preview. And the numbers back it up. Among this year's applicants, solo founders went from 40% to 70%. For most of my career, starting a company meant teams, capital, process, and someone's permission.That list is getting shorter. Last year AI was a co-founder. This year it can stand in for the whole team. When AI handles the grunt work, your "why" is the only thing left to defend. They started with a wound or something that bugged them enough to fix it. And it goes further. Agent-to-agent business is the future. Your AI will talk directly to other people's AI — so how you set your intent matters more than it ever has. So this is an open invitation. If you have the intent, bring it here. Let CoCreate Pitch carry some of the weight for you. $1M+ prize pool. 1,000 free Accio Work credits for everyone who applies. CoCreate Pitch LA closes in a month. What's your next big idea? Apply here: https://lnkd.in/gKbgMFzV

Just read Winston Ma, CFA Esq.’s latest article on how agentic AI is reshaping founders. Thank you, Winston, for the insight. And thanks to the World Economic Forum for hosting this conversation. One metaphor stood out: Raphael’s studio. Unlike Michelangelo, who painted every stroke himself, Raphael ran multiple workshops. Dozens of apprentices executed the details. He focused on vision, composition, and final touches. He managed many projects at once. This is the essence of Agentic Business today. The article highlights Accio Work as a prime example. It powers over 230,000 online stores globally. It acts as a full-stack digital workforce for solo founders. Its AI agents collaborate as a complete team. They handle market analysis, product ideation, supplier negotiation, logistics, and compliance. AI agents are your digital apprentices. They free you from daily execution. You focus on what matters: vision and creativity. As the article says: AI agents handle execution. Founders focus on creation. What will you build with your agentic workshop? #AgenticAI #Founder #Entrepreneurship #ArtificialIntelligence #Innovation #FutureOfWork https://lnkd.in/gbd6M628