# Kevin Dees

Kevin Dees shares practical advice on business technology, marketing and AI-assisted custom software. The posts discuss custom development and tool choices for Shopify clients, alongside guidance on LinkedIn and business attention.

- Profile: https://b2binfluencer.marketing/creators/kevin-dees/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevindees
- LinkedIn followers: 919
- Topics: artificial-intelligence, ecommerce, shopify, linkedin-marketing
- Based on 11 dated posts, latest 2026-10-09

## Summary

Kevin Dees is most useful for practical guidance on AI-assisted custom software, Shopify tool choices, and business technology tradeoffs.

- Best for: A Shopify app vendor or development agency explaining when custom, AI-assisted development beats off-the-shelf tools.
- Not for: A consumer brand wanting high-reach awareness, paid sponsorship package, or segmented demographic audience.
- Check first: Confirm rate card, media kit, sponsored examples, inquiry route, and post-level analytics.

### Takeaways

- AI can structure company research, but the output still needs checking.
- Choose software by fit, not feature count, weighing off-the-shelf apps against custom development.
- Attention is a business issue, not just a marketing one.

## Main ideas

- **AI can structure company research, but the output still needs checking**: Dees asked Google Gemini to research the firm, Robojuice, and report whether they should hire it, then published the three prompts used: one to audit credibility and contradictions, one to check market positioning against the industry vertical, and one to extract exactly three pros and three cons. The prompts are reusable; verify the generated assessment against source material before relying on it.
- **Choose software by fit, not by feature count**: Dees describes the 90/10 app problem: a client evaluates apps that cover 90% of features they do not need in order to get the 10% they do. They argue AI has made small custom Shopify apps more practical for narrow workflows because the platform is well documented and current models handle its APIs well. The tradeoff is real development cost against less feature clutter and technical debt, with software shaped around how the business actually works.
- **Attention belongs to business operations, not just marketing**: Dees argues that attention is part of how a business runs, not a marketing tactic. It goes to threats such as a spoofed e-commerce site, to client leads that change a team's workload, and to the relationships that need you. Promotion, socializing, and ads can add noise rather than cut through it. Deciding when to pivot means weighing what currently has your attention against what deserves it.
- **Practical LinkedIn habits for busy leaders**: Relaying points from a Website Leader Podcast conversation with guest Richard Bliss, Dees passes on three arguments: LinkedIn prioritizes user activity over ads because subscriptions drive its revenue; post from a personal account rather than a business page; and the algorithm amplifies conversation, so meaningful comments matter more than broadcasting. These are Bliss's points as Dees presents them, framed for leaders under pressure to keep up with a fast-moving digital landscape.
- **Tool recommendations come out of client work**: Dees flags updates to tools relevant to the clients they advise, showing how recommendations grow out of hands-on client work rather than general endorsement. Ask whether a paid relationship exists; none is documented here.

## Work to read

- [Use AI to structure a company audit](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kevindees_custom-software-development-design-robojuice-activity-7508231254891302913-nArB)
- [When a Shopify app does too much](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kevindees_one-thing-i-keep-running-into-with-shopify-activity-7503903193781673984-zx38)
- [Attention is a business issue, not just a marketing one](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kevindees_attention-isnt-just-a-marketing-thing-it-activity-7506769040829513729-yVjh)
- [Turn a podcast conversation into LinkedIn actions](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kevindees_business-podcast-marketing-activity-7112467913072148480-_RU7)

## Brand relationships

- **Robojuice** (employment)
- **TypeRocket** (mention)
- **Shopify** (mention)
- **Supermoon** (mention)
- **Website Leader Podcast** (mention)

## Partnerships

Kevin Dees's posts do not say they offer sponsorships or partnerships: no rate card, media kit, sponsored-format examples, or inquiry route for brand collaborations. The posts do show advisory and delivery work. In one, Dees describes running an AI-assisted audit of their own company, Robojuice, and lists the consultancy's strengths and constraints: direct access to principal architects, a small core team of under ten people, reliance on contractor networks for larger enterprise scopes, and premium mid-market pricing. Another describes evaluating Shopify apps that cover only part of a client's workflow and building small custom apps instead; a third is a public endorsement of a Shopify tool. A brand considering a paid collaboration should ask about sponsorship formats and terms.

## Alternatives

- Karl Sakas: Choose Sakas when the consultancy needs to judge where a client's business actually sits in AI adoption before recommending tools. A post lays out five named levels: no meaningful use; incidental use that arrives inside existing software such as Google Workspace, Canva, Adobe, Microsoft, Notion or HubSpot; intentional use of ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini with shared prompts and department templates; operational use, where AI moves into workflows with n8n, Make or Zapier and agents acting inside project or CRM tools; and integrated use, where systems pull on internal data through RAG or embeddings. They place most agencies between levels two and three and say Sakas & Company is moving into level four. The post ties adoption to how an organization handles change, treating an agency's AI competence as a proxy for adaptability and operational maturity. That is a readiness assessment a consultancy can sell to a client worried about whether an AI rollout will take, and a framework Dees does not offer.
- Himanshu P.: Choose this alternative when the question under the AI request is really build versus buy for one capability. A post reframes the familiar custom-or-platform choice as a matrix of differentiation value against volume: buy commodity services such as accounting, HR and project management; use a platform with custom work where volume is high and commodity services still carry cost, illustrated with $50M in annual processing and $1.45M a year in Stripe fees; build only the differentiating slice that makes a business unique; or go fully custom where no platform can scale with the need, as the post says of Netflix. It also lists costs most buyers leave out—platform lock-in and migration, technical debt from small tweaks, constraint creep and opportunity cost—and a working rule: buy commodity services, customize mid-tier differentiators, build core IP. A consultancy that has to place an AI tooling decision on that same map and argue it with numbers in front of a client gets a repeatable structure here.
- Michal Windorpski: Choose Windorpski only if the consultancy's client work is web and e-commerce delivery and the client's need shifts from process analysis to why a site is losing the sales its traffic should already produce. A post separates search visibility from conversion: SEO can be working while the landing page makes visitors hunt for answers, the mobile experience adds friction or the next step is unclear. It turns that into three checks to run before increasing a marketing budget. The WordPress-versus-Shopify post takes the same client-first stance, opening by saying the weekly platform question is the wrong one and replacing it with what the business must be able to do in eighteen months, while conceding that most agencies push the platform they are more comfortable with.

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AI-assisted summary of public posts. Audience demographics are not available. Engagement appears only where we checked recent posts. Method: https://b2binfluencer.marketing/methodology/