Introduction
What’s your name, how old are you, and where are you from? Where do you live currently, and how do you make a living?
My name is Spencer, and I’m 32 years old. I was born and raised in Kelowna, British Columbia. Even after visiting over 35 countries, I’ve found myself back in Kelowna, which says a lot about how great of a city it is. I’m the co-founder and CEO of DropCommerce, a US and Canadian-based product sourcing platform built for Shopify.
Life Before Becoming Nomadic
What were you doing before becoming a digital nomad?
Before becoming a digital nomad, I was working in private security. My original goal was to become a police officer or go into intelligence with Canada’s national security agency. I studied criminal justice and earned a diploma, and at the time I was working security at the Delta Grand in Kelowna, British Columbia.
What made you want to make a change?
I took a leave of absence to go on a solo backpacking trip across Canada and Europe that lasted almost four months. That experience completely changed my life.
I had always wanted to travel — I was fascinated by history, and I wanted to see the places where my ancestry came from. I visited both Europe and parts of Canada where my family first settled. The trip wasn’t supposed to be solo, but after years of trying to plan something with friends, no one committed, so I went alone. That decision ended up being one of the best things I’ve ever done.
When I got back, I realized I couldn’t settle for two weeks of vacation a year. I had experienced too much freedom to go back to a traditional path. I looked at jobs with the RCMP and Canadian intelligence, but nothing felt right anymore. That’s when I decided to go all-in on entrepreneurship and start building a life where I could control my own time and future.
What was your first step into remote income or travel?
DropCommerce wasn’t the first business I started, but it was the first successful one. My close friend Patrick Kelly and I had been tossing around business ideas since middle school. While I was working in security, I started learning more about marketing and business development on my own time. Patrick had begun learning to code, so we teamed up and started trying different ideas.
One of our first was a coffee ordering app for small local cafés, but after talking to a few owners, we realized they weren’t interested. We tried a bunch of other ideas that didn’t stick.
Eventually, I read The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss and got really intrigued by the dropshipping model. But as we looked into it, we noticed the market was flooded with cheap, low-quality products from China, many with shipping times of over a month. I remember seeing a $2 watch listed with a suggested retail price of $60 and thinking, this can’t be it.
That’s when we came up with the idea for DropCommerce. We wanted to build a network of US and Canadian suppliers offering fast shipping, better quality, and real brands you could stand behind as a reseller.
We started working on it in June 2018. Patrick built the app while I cold-called suppliers. Our pitch was simple: we’d become a new sales channel for them at no upfront cost, as long as they offered at least 30% off retail pricing. A few months later, Patrick had the first version of the app ready. We launched on the Shopify App Store with just over a dozen suppliers and made our first dollar within the first month.
Did you hit any early roadblocks? How did you overcome them?
Yeah, we definitely hit some hiccups early on. There were technical issues with the app that we had to work through, and logistical challenges we didn’t foresee—like when a supplier wouldn’t ship an order on time or something went wrong operationally.
It definitely wasn’t a smooth launch. At one point, we even had to temporarily unlist our app from the Shopify store while we fixed bugs and made improvements. It was a lot of fixing as we went. But each issue taught us something and helped us improve the platform step by step.
What You Do For Work Now
What do you do for income today, and how does it work?
Today, I manage DropCommerce, a product sourcing app on Shopify and other e-commerce platforms. We help entrepreneurs find high-quality North American products to dropship.
The way it works is simple: users find our app through the Shopify App Store or another platform, install it, and browse a curated selection of suppliers. When they add products to their store and make a sale, our software routes the order directly to the supplier. The supplier ships the product to the end customer, and the store owner pockets the difference between their retail price and the supplier’s wholesale price.
It’s a win-win. The store owner doesn’t need to hold inventory, and the supplier gets a new sales channel.
How much do you typically earn per month (USD)?
I pay myself a low six-figure salary, though nothing too crazy. A large portion of the company’s revenue gets reinvested back into the business.
I also have an investment property that pays me roughly $1,500 per month in profit.
How did you learn the skills you use now?
Working in security taught me a lot about people. One of the biggest skills I developed was being personable—just knowing how to talk to someone and approach situations in a calm, friendly way. I used to get comments all the time that I was too friendly to be a security guard, but that social ease ended up becoming one of my biggest assets in business.
When you’re dealing with people who are drunk, violent, or even armed, you learn how to stay composed. I’ve had knives pulled on me, I’ve had people try to run me over with their car. So now, when I have to jump on a cold call or handle a tough conversation in business, I honestly find it easy by comparison.
That experience helped shape how I handle negotiations, diffuse angry customers, and just generally connect with people—skills that are all crucial when running a company, especially in an ecosystem like Shopify where customer support and communication are everything.
Do you work alone or have a team?
Right now, our team is made up of six people including myself. At our peak, we had a team of 14, but as people moved on, we decided not to immediately rehire. We also went through a bit of a dip, so we didn’t expand the team during that period.
Since then, we’ve found a good rhythm with a smaller crew. The six of us cover everything we need, and we’re pretty happy with the setup at the moment.
What was your first $1K/month like? How did you make it happen?
It was amazing. I remember telling my parents we had just hit our first $1,000 month and they were like, “Cool, so when are you going to apply for a job with the police?” They didn’t really get the significance — but for us, it was huge.
That milestone came about five months after launching DropCommerce. We had started celebrating wins way before that though. I still remember when our first $11 came in from someone signing up for the cheapest plan. Even that felt surreal.
Crossing $1K in a single month made it feel real. It showed us that we were building something that people would actually pay for, and that gave us the confidence to keep going.
What tools, platforms, or services do you rely on most?
On the business side, Shopify is our backbone. Without it, DropCommerce wouldn’t exist. It’s the platform we rely on for everything. We also use Intercom for customer support — it’s expensive, but extremely powerful. Their new AI support tool has been a game-changer, especially for covering hours when our human support team (currently three people) is offline. Customers have responded really well to it.
Slack is another essential we use daily for team communication.
On the travel side, I always use Airalo for eSIMs. Staying connected is critical since I run a business, so I never rely solely on Wi-Fi. I also keep a backup smartphone with key apps preloaded — like authentication apps, offline Google Maps, Google Translate, and even a survival guide.
One of my favorite lesser-known tools is Alfred, which turns a spare phone into a motion-detecting security camera. I use it to monitor my Airbnb when I leave gear behind for weekend trips. It alerts me if someone enters and even records footage. It’s been a huge peace-of-mind hack for travel.
Other travel habits: • I download offline maps and languages in Google Maps and Google Translate. • I use Duolingo if I’m planning to stay in a country for a while to pick up basic phrases.
Life As A Nomad
Where have you lived or traveled in the past 6–12 months?
In 2023, my girlfriend and I spent about nine months traveling through Europe and Eastern Europe. We visited around 20 countries during that trip, which was the longest I’ve done with a partner. I had mostly traveled solo before that, so it was really meaningful to share the experience with someone. Even now, certain songs remind me of specific road trips we took together, which brings back a lot of great memories.
After we wrapped up the Europe trip in May 2024, we returned to Canada and did a mini cross-country tour to visit her family. We made stops in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, PEI, Quebec, and Ontario before settling back in British Columbia.
More recently, I went to Mexico in early 2025. I spent time in Tulum and Mérida, where I finalized my Temporary Residency paperwork.
Coming up, I’ll be heading to Toronto for a Shopify event. Beyond that, we’ve got a few potential trips in mind, but nothing officially locked in yet.
What are your favorite memories from the road so far?
One of my favorite travel memories came from my very first big trip abroad. I was in Iceland, and it was the first time I had traveled alone—and honestly, one of the first times I’d ever left the country.
I had booked what I thought was an Airbnb, but it turned out to be a small hostel listed on the platform. Luckily, it was amazing. The owner was around my age, the other guests were all in the same age group, and the place only held about 12 people. We all hit it off, and I made some lifelong friends during that stay.
My routine for those two weeks was simple but perfect. Wake up, grab some food, go on a road trip, explore Iceland’s incredible nature, stop at hot springs, catch the Northern Lights at night, and then do it all again the next day. It felt like peak happiness.
That trip made me fall in love with travel, and I think about it often. I still keep in touch with some of the people I met there, and Iceland will always be a special place I hope to return to.
How do you make friends and meet people while traveling?
In the past, it was always through hostels. I didn’t have any kind of strategy—I’d just show up and start meeting people naturally. My girlfriend even calls me a “friend collector” because I tend to make friends wherever I go. I think that’s just part of my personality.
Hostels were amazing for that. Beyond being affordable, they gave me the chance to meet other travelers who shared that same passion for exploring. Whether it was my bunkmates or people hanging out in the common areas, I was always connecting with someone new. It pushed me out of my comfort zone in the best way.
These days, I’m a little older, and I haven’t stayed in a hostel for years. I mostly do Airbnbs now, but I still meet people organically. A couple of years ago, I met some great friends from Germany who were staying at the same multi-unit Airbnb in Mexico, and we’ve kept in touch ever since.
I haven’t really used meetup tools or apps, but I’m sure they’re helpful. For me, it’s always been about just staying open and being present. Most of the time, the connections happen naturally.
What does a typical day look like for you?
These days, a typical day starts with morning meetings to ensure everything is moving along. I often have partnership calls as well—sometimes with other app developers, sometimes with suppliers, and often with platform partners like Shopify or Wix. I try to stay in regular contact with all of them.
Most of my time is spent thinking about long-term strategy, planning the product roadmap, and adjusting course if needed. It’s a lot of high-level work, making sure we’re aligned and continuing to grow.
Occasionally, I’ll jump into a customer support ticket if it’s a high-value client or something where I can offer strategic insight. But for the most part, I trust my team to handle operations. That’s the benefit of having a strong, reliable team—it allows me to focus on the bigger picture.
No two days are quite the same, but that’s part of what makes it fun.
What’s the hardest part of this lifestyle? What’s the best?
Funny enough, I think the best part and the hardest part are actually the same thing: routine.
When you’re set up in one place for a bit, you can build an incredible routine as a digital nomad. For example, when I was in Europe, the time zone difference worked in my favor. I’d wake up, check Slack and emails from overnight while enjoying my coffee and breakfast, then spend the day sightseeing or exploring new places. By the time I got back in the evening, my team in North America would be starting their day, and I’d sync up and get some work done. It was a perfect blend of adventure and productivity.
But on the flip side, if you’re constantly moving or not very disciplined, the lack of structure can really catch up with you. Waking up in a different bed every couple of nights, struggling to find time or space to work out, eating whatever you can grab on the go—it can all take a toll.
So I’d say the key is discipline. If you’re intentional about how you structure your time, being a nomad gives you an amazing sense of freedom. But if you let it slip, it’s easy to lose control of your habits.
Advice, Vision, and Resources
What would you tell someone who wants to follow in your footsteps?
If you’re working in security and have ambitions to start a business, you’re in a surprisingly good spot. A lot of security roles come with downtime—time that can be used to learn, build, and prepare. I used mine to study real estate, take online courses, and eventually work on DropCommerce. Instead of scrolling on my phone when things were quiet, I was reading textbooks, learning marketing, or cold-calling suppliers (shoutout to Bluetooth for letting me do that while on patrol).
It wasn’t always the most conventional setup, but it gave me a runway. And I’ve met others who used their security gigs the same way—to skill up and eventually transition out. That’s harder to do if you’re in a manual labor job or a role that demands your full focus every minute. Security gave me the space to build something while still collecting a paycheck.
If you’re thinking of getting into SaaS, I’ll say this: I’ve always been passionate about tech. And in SaaS, the sky’s the limit. If you’re solving a real problem, there’s massive opportunity. The freedom it can give you is incredible. Right now, we’re in Vancouver and haven’t even decided when to go home. We could stay a day, a week, or a month—it doesn’t matter. That kind of flexibility is what this path can lead to.
And honestly, there’s never been a better time to build. With AI tools making development more accessible than ever, if you have a good idea, you can bring it to life.
If you lost everything and had to start over, what would you do differently?
I’ve learned a lot since starting DropCommerce. If I had to begin again, the first thing I’d do is talk to customers earlier—like, really talk to them. We got lucky because we were solving a problem we personally had, and it turned out thousands of other people had the same issue. But that’s not always the case. Some people build solutions to problems that aren’t really problems. So validating your idea with real conversations upfront is huge.
Second, I’d tell myself to network like crazy. I heard the phrase “your network is your net worth” years ago, and it’s proven true over and over. Surround yourself with people who inspire you. Get into the right rooms. Talk to others who are building. That kind of community is powerful—not just for learning, but for creating new opportunities and partnerships.
In the early years, I kept a low profile. I wasn’t putting myself out there or showing up as a leader in the space. And in hindsight, that held me back. Since I started being more visible and intentional about networking, I’ve seen those efforts pay off in a big way. So yeah—if I had to start over, I’d focus more on conversations and community, right from day one.
What resources (books, tools, people, websites) helped you most?
I try to read business books as much as I can. Even if I don’t take something tactical from them, they often give me a burst of motivation or new energy, which is just as valuable.
One podcast I love is Acquired. It’s super interesting and always fires me up. On the book side, Blitzscaling was a great read, and I’d definitely recommend it. I also enjoyed the show WeCrashed about WeWork’s rise and fall, and the book Billion Dollar Loser. You obviously don’t want to emulate everything in those stories, but they’re fascinating case studies on how big things can grow—and implode.
More recently, I’ve been hooked on a YouTube channel called S3 Build. They feature new startup projects every week. I’ll watch an episode and immediately feel like I need to get off the couch and start building again. Seeing what others are shipping into the world is incredibly motivating.
What does the future look like for you? Any new projects or goals?
From the DropCommerce side, there’s a lot of exciting momentum. We’re seeing growth we never imagined before, and with that comes big plans. We’ve got some major new features in the pipeline that are already in development, so things are full steam ahead for the business.
Outside of DropCommerce, I’m co-launching another project—also a Shopify app—focused on the testimonial space. We’re bringing a fresh take to the category, and I’m hoping to launch the closed beta by the end of the month. I’m leveraging everything I’ve learned from DropCommerce to make this one a success as well.
Beyond tech, I’m involved in a real estate development project in Eastern Canada. I’m not as hands-on with that one, but it’s a great opportunity I’m excited about.
Personally, I’m also working on expanding my global flexibility. I recently obtained Mexican residency, and my long-term goal is to build up a portfolio of residencies and, eventually, multiple passports. I believe that having more options always leads to more freedom.
What kind of people should connect with you, and where can they reach you?
I’m always happy to connect with people in the Shopify dev space, folks working at Shopify, or anyone building on the platform. Also, if you’re an aspiring entrepreneur or already running a business, feel free to reach out. I just enjoy meeting people who are doing interesting things, especially in the entrepreneurial world.
The best place to reach me is on Twitter/X.