# Sean Percival

> American e-commerce and marketing executive, investor, author, and humble candlemaker, living in Oslo, Norway. VP of Global E-commerce at Xplora Technologies. Former Myspace VP, former 500 Startups partner. Writes annual letters, restores his old essays, and puts the comedy into commodities.

Sean Percival went from janitor (1997, Las Vegas) to VP of Online Marketing at Myspace, founded and lost a startup (Wittlebee), invested in 100+ companies as a partner at 500 Startups, then moved to Norway in 2017 for the quality of life. Today he runs global e-commerce at Xplora (kids' smartwatches and Doro senior phones, roughly 2 billion NOK annual sales) and builds DTC brands and AI tools on the side. He is the author of Working with Norwegians and Living with Norwegians.

## Pages

- [Work](https://seanpercival.com/work): Everything Sean is working on — e-commerce sites, Shopify apps, and AI tools
- [Annual Letters](https://seanpercival.com/letters): The yearly life-and-work letter, the only guaranteed site update each year
- [Essays](https://seanpercival.com/essays): 17 essays spanning 2008-2026, restored from the old blog at their original URLs
- [Books](https://seanpercival.com/books): Working with Norwegians, Living with Norwegians, and MySpace Marketing
- [Videos](https://seanpercival.com/videos): Talks, interviews, and TV appearances from two decades
- [Speaking](https://seanpercival.com/speaking): Topics, testimonials, and booking — e-commerce, startups, Silicon Valley vs. the Nordics, AI and commerce
- [Contact](https://seanpercival.com/contact): The "try your luck" form

## Current Work

- [Xplora Technologies](https://seanpercival.com/work): VP of Global E-commerce — 14 webshops, team of 9, building a safer digital life for all generations
- [Byvoks](https://byvoks.com): Norwegian candle and scents brand — nice scents with a sense of humor
- [Banana for Scale](https://bananaforscale.biz): Product studio, home of Extra Slutty Olive Oil
- [Entitled](https://apps.shopify.com/entitled/): Shopify app — SEO title tags made easy
- [Seam](https://seam.bananaforscale.biz/): Shopify app — daily AI insights for store owners, emailed before your first coffee
- [Promptly](https://open.spotify.com/show/033FLIBHVw47xx2tGfyBCI): Weekly newsletter and podcast — last week in AI, promptly
- [This Meeting Should Have Been a Song](https://meeting-should-have-been-a-song.vercel.app/): Free AI tool that turns meeting transcripts into one-minute songs
- [JTBD.md](https://v0-jtbd-ai.vercel.app/), [Brand.md](https://brandmd-builder.vercel.app/), [VibeICE](https://v0-vibe-ice-app.vercel.app/): AI tools for jobs-to-be-done, brand guides, and growth prioritization
- [Claude for Marketing course](https://vibelabs.no/): Full-day workshop with Vibelabs

## Annual Letters

- [The Annual Letter (2026)](https://seanpercival.com/letters/2026): Theme: create. Records at Xplora, the Colorado Airbnb, closing the Oslo boutique, vibe-coding with AI
- [The Annual Letter (2025)](https://seanpercival.com/letters/2025): Stability and growth — joining Xplora, growing Byvoks, rediscovering e-commerce
- [The Not-so-annual Letter (2024)](https://seanpercival.com/letters/2024): Leaving startups, becoming a shopkeeper in Oslo, building DTC brands

## Notable Essays

- [Turn Your Meeting Transcript Into a Song](https://seanpercival.com/turn-meeting-transcript-into-song): The free AI tool explained — how it works, privacy, and why (2026)
- [Sleeping Through the AI Revolution](https://seanpercival.com/essays/sleeping-through-the-ai-revolution): Biphasic sleep, midnight prompts, and possibility insomnia (2026)
- [AI Psychosis Is Here. It's Just Not Evenly Distributed.](https://seanpercival.com/essays/ai-psychosis-is-here): The three tiers of AI adoption (2026)
- [When it's not all good, ask for help](https://seanpercival.com/2013/02/01/when-its-not-all-good-ask-for-help): On founder mental health, written after losing Jody Sherman (2013)
- [Founder Real Talk From the Edge](https://seanpercival.com/2016/09/19/founder-real-talk-from-the-edge): It's OK to quit, and other real talk from 500 Startups (2016)
- [How to Survive the Series A Crunch — From Someone Who Didn't](https://seanpercival.com/blog/2013/06/03/how-to-survive-the-series-a-crunch-from-someone-who-didnt): Post-mortem of his own startup (2013)
- [Investor-to-Founder Translator](https://seanpercival.com/2016/08/28/investor-to-founder-translator): What everyone in the pitch meeting actually means (2016)
- [How I Went From Picking up Your Crap to Reading It](https://seanpercival.com/blog/2008/03/08/how-i-went-from-picking-up-your-crap-to-reading-it): The janitor origin story (2008)
- [Subscription Commerce (#SUBCOM) Matrix](https://seanpercival.com/blog/2011/08/27/subscription-commerce-subcom-matrix): The 2011 map of the subscription box gold rush (2011)

## Books

- [Working with Norwegians](https://workingwithnorwegians.com): The complete guide to Norwegian business culture
- [Living with Norwegians](https://livingwithnorwegians.com/): The guide for moving to and surviving Norway
- MySpace Marketing (2008): One of the first social media marketing books — historically accurate, professionally obsolete

## Contact & Social

- Website: https://seanpercival.com
- Contact form: https://seanpercival.com/contact
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanpercival/
- X/Twitter: https://x.com/Percival
- Speaking inquiries: https://seanpercival.com/speaking

## Key Topics

E-commerce and DTC growth, startup investing and accelerators, Silicon Valley vs. Nordic business culture, AI in marketing and commerce, founder mental health, moving to and working in Norway, candle making, and putting the comedy into commodities.