What Is Mike Michelini Up To Now: October 11 to 17, 2026

This was my last full week of office work before an intense few weeks, and probably an intense few months, for the rest of 2026.

I spent a lot of the week working on the agentic upgrade for the Cross Border Summit app. We are taking the framework we used for last year's event and expanding it so attendees can bring their own agents into the app to help them learn, connect, and follow up during the Summit.

I still cannot believe this will be our eighth Cross Border Summit. We started this journey back in 2016, more than ten years ago now. Time is going seriously fast.

Another Amazon Verification

One of our Amazon accounts was locked again last week. This time it lasted about one day and involved another verification, which we passed.

I really hope we are done with lockouts, verification requests, and extra scrutiny for the rest of 2026. The fourth quarter is the biggest period of the year for many ecommerce sellers. A platform problem is stressful at any time, but during Q4 it can disrupt inventory, cash flow, and months of preparation.

We passed this check, and I am grateful for that. Still, it is another reminder that platform risk is real. You can build carefully for years and still wake up to a gate controlled by someone else.

Polishing, Hardening, and Maturing

This was not a week of launching ten new things. It was a week of polishing and hardening.

The Cross Border Summit app is becoming more agentic. Our other apps and agents are refining skills, fixing rough edges, and making existing features more reliable. After almost a year and a half of nonstop building, some of the systems finally feel like they are maturing.

That changes the nature of the work. The question is less about whether we can build another feature and more about whether the system works when people actually depend on it. Can an attendee use it without asking for help? Can an agent return something useful without crossing a boundary? Can the team keep moving when I am traveling?

Those are harder questions than building a prototype, but they are the questions that turn experiments into real infrastructure.

Back on the Road

This coming week I am back on the road.

On Tuesday, October 13, I am heading to Bangkok for an Advanced Ecommerce Seller Dinner. We have some amazing friends and experts coming, and I am looking forward to a focused night of honest ecommerce conversation.

It will be only one night in Bangkok. From there I am going to Siem Reap, Cambodia, for a couple of days and a birthday gathering. It will be my first time in Cambodia, and I may share more about that in the next update.

On Saturday I will pick up my son Miles and fly to Hong Kong. Then trade-show season really begins.

I am excited to take him to the electronics markets in Shenzhen and build some gadgets and gear together. For me, that is business, learning, and father-son time all mixed into one experience.

While we are in Shenzhen, I am also planning a private Cross Border Seller and Trader Dinner on Thursday, October 22. It will be a chance to reconnect with good friends and contacts in the city during trade-show season.

A Real Test of the System

This trip is also an exercise in working online while traveling. It will test the agents, software, systems, and team we have been building.

Cross Border Summit is only a few weeks away, so part of me could say this is the wrong time to travel. But regularly attending the trade shows in China, meeting partners and suppliers, and spending time with team members is part of the work too.

The goal is not to escape the business through automation. The goal is to build enough support around the work that I can stay close to the people and places that make the business real.

Life Is a Book

More than twenty years ago, when I was riding the highs and lows of entrepreneurship, my neighbor Laird told me something that still stays with me:

Life is a book, and there are many chapters, both good and bad.

That idea has followed me for years. A difficult platform review is one chapter. A system finally maturing is another. A first trip to Cambodia, a dinner with old friends, and building gadgets with my son are chapters too.

Take action. Take risks. Put yourself out there.

This trade-show season, I am pushing those limits. I hope you are too.

What chapter are you stepping into right now?