junaid kabani

The Origin Story

I started selling electronics in college. What began as a side project grew into a real business by senior year. I got a warehouse, hired a couple workers, and we were selling on Amazon and eBay while fulfilling across multiple suppliers and warehouses. Multi-channel fulfillment in the e-commerce world.

I managed it all through Zapier and Google Sheets. It worked perfectly when we were doing a few dozen orders per day. But as order volume grew, things started falling through the cracks. Orders getting duplicated, inventory counts going out of sync, customers receiving the wrong items.

When getting orders is no longer the problem, operations becomes the bottleneck. I looked for software that could manage multi-channel fulfillment, but nothing existed for small businesses. Everything required manually connecting to each channel. Adding new suppliers or switching warehouses meant manual intervention and business downtime.

I knew if my business was going to scale, I'd have to build my own system. So in 2019, I learned to code and started building Openship. At first it only worked with my specific shops and channels. Then I made it work with any e-commerce business and their existing operations. Open-source fulfillment glue that could connect any shop to any supplier or warehouse.

Today it's powering live stores, but it taught me the real lesson. Platforms aren't owned if they're rented.

The Realization

In the mid-2010s, many Amazon sellers, including us, migrated to Shopify because we wanted to "own our store." But here's the thing: if you're on someone else's platform, you don't own anything. They control the code, set the terms, and can change the economics whenever they want.

Like so many big sellers, we made the switch, only to watch Shopify remove its Amazon integration. That's when it hit. Even on an "owned" platform, you're at the mercy of their decisions. Software to manage your business should always be something you can control. True independence requires owning the infrastructure.

Before I could build an open marketplace, businesses needed platforms they could actually own. That's Openfront.

What We Built: Openfront

Openfront is a collection of open-source e-commerce platforms for every vertical: retail, restaurants, salons, hotels, car rentals. Complete source code. Deploy anywhere.

These aren't half-finished demos. They're production-ready platforms with payments, inventory management, customer accounts, and order processing. These are the actual platforms running live stores right now.

Businesses can run them themselves, modify them however they want. True ownership. When you deploy Openfront, you're not renting infrastructure. You own it. Self-host on Vercel or DigitalOcean, or use our SaaS for support and hosting. Either way, the code is yours.

What We Built: the/marketplace

We built the/marketplace, an open-source conversational marketplace that connects to any store running Openfront or exposing our standard API. It's MCP-powered and works entirely through chat. Order products, book appointments, make reservations. All through one conversational interface.

Here's what makes it different: zero transaction fees. Traditional marketplaces charge 15-30% because they built all the infrastructure. Carts, checkouts, payment processing, fraud detection. But if businesses already own their infrastructure, why should they pay rent for discovery?

The marketplace queries the store's API and renders checkout directly in chat. When you complete a purchase, payment goes straight to the store's account. The merchant gets paid directly. We're just connecting you to them.

Stores keep their own cart, checkout, and payment processor. They're not locked in. The marketplace just provides discovery. Connect to any store with the standard API, no per-marketplace integrations, no contracts, no gatekeepers.

The Architecture

Everything is built on MCP (Model Context Protocol). Stores expose a standard API that any marketplace can query. The marketplace uses MCP tools to browse products, manage carts, and process orders. You can use it with your own API key, through our hosted version, or directly through any MCP client that supports MCP UI.

Think Lego for commerce. Expose one standard API, plug into any marketplace. No integration hell. No custom connectors for each platform. Set it up once and it works everywhere.

The entire codebase is open source. Anyone can curate their own list of stores in a config file and deploy their own marketplace. No permission needed. When stores aren't locked in, network effects distribute instead of concentrate.

How We Make Money

We sell Openfront. Businesses get access to the platforms with support, hosting options, and white-glove setup. They truly own the code, can self-host or use our infrastructure.

the/marketplace is open source and available right now. Because stores already have the cart, checkout, and payment processing, we just provide discovery. As we grow, we may explore listing fees or affiliate commissions to keep it sustainable, but the core principle remains: discovery doesn't require transaction taxes.

Why This Matters

Commerce platforms shouldn't be landlords. Deploy Openfront, expose the standard API, and you're instantly discoverable in every marketplace using this protocol. Set it up once, no per-marketplace integrations, no contracts, no gatekeepers.

You keep your customer data, control your payment processing, and fulfill orders your way. This is commerce where merchants own the infrastructure, customers control their data, and discovery happens through open protocols instead of closed algorithms. No one can copy your success and use it to crush you.

Get Involved

Has this vision compelled you like it has us? Start by starring us on GitHub. If you want to go further, sponsor the project to help fund continued development.