Tom Robertshaw Tom
Builder, Founder, Engineer
I've founded companies, shipped products to hundreds of customers, and led engineering teams. This is a timeline of the projects, products, and roles along the way.
2025
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CIO
Glass Atlas Leadership Team
Part of the leadership team integrating Space 48, Brave the Skies, Bring Digital, and This is Digital into Glass Atlas. Operated as CIO across the integration: consolidated Google Workspace, GitHub, and 1Password, defined the Data Security Policy, and led the company to Cyber Essentials certification.
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BigCommerce import/export app
Launched Hypa Shift
Shipped an all-in-one import/export app for BigCommerce handling bulk data management, migrations, scheduling, and spreadsheet workflows. Architected the processing pipeline with discrete steps and abstraction layers so complex multi-stage transformations could progress reliably.
- React
- Laravel
- Postgres
- Redis
- Heroku
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Voice calling app for kids
Holler
Designed and built a voice calling app for kids as a side project, end-to-end. Next.js frontend wrapped with Capacitor for native app distribution, Cloudflare Workers backend with Durable Objects managing call state, WebSockets powering real-time call notifications and session management. Built AI-assisted using Amp Code.
- Next.js
- Capacitor
- Cloudflare Workers
- Durable Objects
- WebRTC
- WebSockets
- TypeScript
2024
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Standalone ecommerce SaaS · 468 customers
Launched Hypa Apps
Spun out the BigCommerce apps work into Hypa, a standalone product identity with a suite of apps serving hundreds of customers. I was sole developer for the first two years, building the React frontends, Laravel backends, Postgres databases, and Heroku infrastructure before moving into product lead and senior engineering responsibilities.
- React
- Laravel
- Postgres
- Redis
- Heroku
- BigCommerce APIs
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Dark Matter Commerce
Top 24 Ecommerce Voices 2024
Included in Dark Matter Commerce's Top 24 Ecommerce Voices for BigCommerce app work, community contributions, and the Web Almanac ecommerce chapter.
2023
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BigDesign and API documentation
BigCommerce Open Source Contributions
Contributed bug fixes to BigDesign (BigCommerce's React UI library) and corrected API documentation issues found during app development.
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BigCommerce Slack community
BigComChat
Launched and grew a Slack community for BigCommerce professionals to 200+ members.
2022
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BigCommerce app · sole developer
Metafields Manager
Designed and built a BigCommerce app for managing metafields through a UI rather than the API alone. Became a foundational product in the Hypa portfolio and retained market position as competition entered.
- React
- Laravel
- Postgres
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Online developer event
BigCom DevX
Organised a free online developer event for the BigCommerce community, running it for two years with five speakers and ~100 attendees per year.
2021
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Space 48 · Foresight Private Equity partnership
Innovation Director
Moved into an innovation role as the agency doubled in size through a Foresight Private Equity partnership. Identified the BigCommerce apps opportunity, pitched it internally, and created the space to pursue product work inside an agency environment. This initiative became the origin of Hypa.
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From agency side-project to product company
BigCommerce Apps Initiative
Led the first stage of the BigCommerce apps initiative, taking it from internal pitch to working products and an emerging roadmap. Built Automated Categories, Category Merchandiser, and the first version of Metafields Manager from scratch as sole developer.
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HTTP Archive
Web Almanac Ecommerce Chapter
Authored the 2021 Ecommerce chapter for HTTP Archive's Web Almanac, analysing the state of ecommerce technology across the web using large-scale public data.
2020
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Space 48 · ~50 engineers
Head of Engineering
Led engineering for a team of around 50 developers. Introduced lean delivery principles to reduce time-to-visible-work, using early platform prototypes to make discovery more concrete. Proposed and led the company's first playbook initiative, replacing tribal knowledge with structured documentation, defined processes, and discovery plays for drawing out project requirements, priorities, and risks with clients.
2019
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Website anti-virus for JavaScript skimmers
Threat Detect
Beta launched a website anti-virus tool with Nick Jones to detect Magecart-style JavaScript skimmers on ecommerce sites. Built during the peak of the Magecart era when payment data theft via injected scripts was a major industry concern.
2018
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Inventory and fulfilment service design
Bettys & Taylors Available To Purchase
Led discovery and business analysis for Bettys & Taylors of Harrogate's ecommerce platform. Designed the 'Available To Purchase' service, which manages product batches, expiry dates, stock calculations, shipping methods, and delivery dates at checkout. Produced the requirements and technical specification for the service. It is still in operation 8+ years later, now also powering a corporate gifting application.
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Magento and ecommerce ecosystem
Conference Talks and Community Education
Invested in the Magento community through conference talks, technical blog posts, open-source modules, and developer education. Spoke at Magento Imagine, Magento Meetup London, and community events.
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Magento Imagine Conference
Recognised as a Magento Master
Recognised by Magento as a Magento Master at the Imagine Conference.
2017
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Space 48
Ecommerce Evangelist
Post-acquisition role bridging product and engineering with public-facing ecommerce strategy. Led client discovery and technical scoping, published a Progressive Web Apps guide, and represented the company at Magento Imagine and community events. Delivered conference talks, webinars, and technical writing across the Magento ecosystem.
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Founder transition into leadership team
Space 48 Acquires Meanbee and Hivemind
Meanbee and Hivemind were acquired by Space 48. Several Meanbee team members grew into leadership roles across the combined business. I took on ecommerce evangelist responsibilities, led business analysis and technical discovery for key clients, and became a senior voice in the engineering team.
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AI and ecommerce conference talk
Magento Imagine: Cognitive Commerce
Presented at Magento Imagine 2017 on Cognitive Commerce, combining AI experimentation with ecommerce before the current AI wave.
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IBM Watson Visual Recognition
Applied AI: Image Classification for Real Estate
Built an image classification system for a real estate client selling Spanish properties. Trained a Watson Visual Recognition classifier to identify room types in property photos, then used the classifications to automatically optimise image ordering — prioritising swimming pool shots, then exterior views, to maximise listing appeal. Part of a broader period of AI experimentation including chatbots, Alexa skills, and ecommerce personalisation prototypes.
- PHP
- IBM Watson
- Machine Learning
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Cash-on-delivery risk mitigation
Keycash
Built a system for mitigating merchant risk with cash-on-delivery payments over 12 months, focused on the MENA market where COD is a dominant ecommerce payment pattern. Worked at the intersection of ecommerce operations, financial risk, and regional market behaviour.
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Ecosystem preservation
Magento Connect Archive
Created a mirror of Magento Connect before it was sunset, preserving historical extension data for the community.
2015
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Internet-scale technology intelligence platform
Launched Hivemind
Built a platform that scanned millions of websites monthly to detect and report on technology adoption. Rebuilt the early Perl scripts into Java scanning infrastructure across AWS, with results stored in Redshift and queried through a Laravel/Postgres frontend. Also shipped an API and Chrome extension for real-time technology detection. Paying customers included Rackspace, Magento, and PayPal.
- Java
- Perl
- AWS
- Redshift
- Laravel
- Postgres
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Jordan ecommerce platform
Fractional CTO for ShopGo
Worked with the ShopGo team in Jordan as fractional CTO, shaping product direction and helping development teams formalise their engineering practices and delivery processes.
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Open-source Magento tools
Magento Performance and Developer Tooling
Published open-source Magento tools across performance, data safety, and developer experience, including magento-footer-js, magedbm, cache visibility tooling, and Docker-based development and staging infrastructure.
- PHP
- Magento
2014
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Data-led ecommerce research
Responsive Ecommerce Survey
Researched the adoption of responsive design across popular ecommerce sites. A stepping stone from the original Ecommerce Survey toward Hivemind.
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Personal art project
Doors of Bath
Created an art project with Shari exploring ornate Bath front doors. Mostly from noticing how much personality they have once you start paying attention.
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Magento certification notes
MageCert
Shared Magento Developer Certification revision notes with the community.
2013
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Industry reference point
Ecommerce Survey Cited by Magento/eBay
Magento/eBay cited the Tom Robertshaw Ecommerce Survey in Imagine 2013 conference coverage.
2012
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Magento page layout tooling
Launched DIY Mage
Built and shipped a Magento extension and theme that let store owners update page layouts using drag-and-drop, tackling the notoriously difficult experience of managing layouts in Magento.
2011
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Magento agency, co-founded during university
Founded Meanbee
Co-founded Meanbee while studying Computer Science at Bath, after an early Magento build showed there was a real opportunity in ecommerce implementation. Built client sites and extensions around university, placements, and summer breaks, then rented an office before final year to give it a proper go. We went full-time after graduation and grew it into a specialist Magento agency with clients across the UK and US, reaching 15 people at peak.
- PHP
- Magento
- MySQL
2010
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Top million website analysis
Ecommerce Survey
Inspired by my internship at Netcraft, wrote Perl scripts to scan the top one million websites and map ecommerce technology adoption. The results became a widely cited reference in the Magento ecosystem and were referenced by Magento/eBay at Imagine 2013. This project led directly to Hivemind and reflected the same long-running interest in web-scale analysis that later led me to contribute the Web Almanac ecommerce chapter.
- Perl
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Meanbee and Postcode Anywhere
International Address Lookup for Magento
Launched a free international address auto-fill module for Magento in partnership with Postcode Anywhere. One of Meanbee's earliest product launches, with affiliate revenue from address lookup credits.
2008
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Internet survey and security company
Netcraft Internship
Interned at Netcraft, the internet survey and security company. Built a dataset aggregating insights from the Netcraft browser extension's user base. The exposure to large-scale internet data and Unix tooling directly inspired the Ecommerce Survey and later Hivemind.