Stephen Callender is the founder and principal of Foster Commerce, which builds B2B ecommerce stores for manufacturers and distributors on a platform they own.
Stephen started his first agency, Shoe Shine Design, in 2011 while living as an expat in Argentina. It was a two-person team that polished and improved existing websites.
As his family grew, he set out to build a calm, enjoyable workplace that did valuable work for its clients. He expanded the agency to build custom ecommerce sites from the ground up, and he has built on Craft since 2015.
In 2018, Stephen renamed the agency Foster Commerce to match its focus on ecommerce. Today Foster Commerce is a fully remote team of 8, headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. Most of its B2B stores start on Commerce Foundations, its ready-built B2B platform on Craft Commerce, and the team writes and maintains its own Craft plugins.
Born and raised in Texas, Stephen completed his undergraduate studies in psychology and anthropology and later acquired two master’s degrees from Fuller Seminary. After several years as a pastor of a church in South Pasadena, California, Stephen moved to Argentina for three years to learn Spanish. Now Stephen lives in Columbus, Ohio, with his wife and two kids, where he enjoys life as a husband and father and is teaching himself how to garden.
Talks by Stephen
- Dot All 2023 How I Saved My Agency From Myself
- Dot All 2022 Workshop: Launching a Headless Craft Commerce Site
- Dot All 2021 Use Entry Types for the Love of … Clients
- Dot All 2019 A Flexible, Future-Proof Way to Structure Craft Commerce Products
- Dot All 2018 Building a Smarter Craft Commerce Website
Interviews with Stephen
- The Ecommerce Edge Podcast The Pros and Cons of Build vs. Buy for B2B Commerce Solutions
