Austin Headley — Founder & CEO
Austin Headley is a marketing and design professional with over a decade of experience in brand strategy, B2B/B2C marketing, and creative services. He founded ShopBroker in 2024 after experiencing the problems with local buying and selling firsthand — cash-only transactions with strangers, no payment protection, and no recourse when things went wrong.
Austin designed and built the platform from the ground up while working full-time, bringing a marketing-first perspective to a space typically approached from an engineering mindset. That background shapes how ShopBroker is built: focused on the user experience and the trust gap rather than technology for its own sake.
Topics Austin Can Discuss
Fintech infrastructure for local commerce: Why peer-to-peer transactions need the same protections as e-commerce
Building a fintech platform from a marketing background: How a non-traditional technical path shapes product decisions
AI applications in everyday transactions: Practical uses of AI for pricing secondhand goods
Last-mile delivery for the secondhand economy: Building delivery infrastructure for goods that already exist in people's homes
Trust and safety in peer-to-peer marketplaces: How reputation systems and payment protection reduce fraud
Marketing strategy for early-stage startups: Balancing brand building with product development as a solo founder
Interview Availability
Austin is available for interviews, podcast appearances, and commentary on topics related to Canadian fintech, local commerce, and marketplace technology.
To arrange an interview, contact [email protected].