Company

Better data in, smarter AI out

Every optimization tool a retailer runs is capped by the same thing — the quality of the data it is given. We build the interface that improves it.

Why we exist

The industry got very good at guessing

Over the last decade retail spent enormously on inferring intent. Clickstreams, session recordings, propensity models, post-purchase surveys — an entire discipline built on working out what a shopper probably meant.

It works, up to a point. But it is all reconstruction after the fact, and no amount of model sophistication fixes an input that never contained the answer. Meanwhile the shopper knew exactly what they wanted, at a moment nobody thought to ask.

Ignition Interfaces was founded on a narrow idea with wide consequences: the click itself can carry the answer. A single gesture, doing the job it already does, plus one more. That is the Dual-Action UI, and it is what our patents cover.

The founders

Built by operators, not theorists

Three founders with complementary track records across capital markets, product, and running e-commerce businesses day to day.

Matt Bowman

Co-Founder

Former Vice Chairman of Investment Banking and CEO of Merrill Lynch Ventures. Co-founder of two earlier companies, one of which developed several patents.

David Bowman

Co-Founder

Former Interactive Brokers product manager for desktop and mobile trading. Directed IBKR’s full software redesign — Barron’s “Best Online Broker” four years running.

Derek Sasaki-Scanlon

Co-Founder

Decades of senior technology leadership across media, e-commerce and consumer subscription. EVP of IT Operations at ebbo; co-founded My Pet Chicken, the category leader, sold in 2021.

For investors

The short version

Ignition sits underneath the AI tools every serious online retailer already runs, supplying the one input none of them can capture on their own.

  • A defensible position

    7 granted U.S. patents, filed 2017–2024 and granted 2019–2026 — all filed after Alice, all prosecuted by Sterne Kessler. Not easily replicated by incumbents.

    See the portfolio →

  • A market that sells itself in

    The largest platforms in conversion, personalization, analytics and Voice-of-Customer are channels and licensees rather than competitors. Better data in, smarter AI out, for every model in the stack.

    See the routes to market →

  • A team that has shipped before

    Investment banking, brokerage product leadership, and hands-on e-commerce operating experience — with two prior companies founded between them.

    Meet the founders →

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