Cavs, Cubs, Magento 2, Trump and The Pats: This Year’s Greatest Comebacks

This article was wtitten by 121 CEO Ben Chafetz

It’s been the year of comebacks. Based in Cleveland, I’ve been at the heart of it.

The craziness started with the 2016 NBA Finals. The Warriors were up 3-1, and then after some great Cavs basketball, dumb Draymond Green fouls, Kyrie Irving’s clutch 3 pointer and Lebron James’ block, the Cleveland Cavaliers came back and won the championship. The internet blew up with 3-1 memes, and Cleveland was no longer the butt of all jokes (at least for a few days).

People always love the underdog, but when The Comeback happens it’s simply euphoric. Put yourself back into it: Just as you’ve completely given up, there’s a play or call that gives you that tiniest glimmer of hope, then the slightly irrational optimism kicks in, and suddenly you’re speculating- and then calculating- that there might just be a way you can still win!  Once the momentum starts turning in your favor, you hold your breath until it’s over, but when it is, that victory is like no other.

Then there was the World Series, and once again Cleveland was the center of the action. We were getting used to this, and at this point we were like a freshman who was accidentally at senior prom; super awkward at first, but when the dance started getting cheers it was kind of cool. Entering the World Series, the Cubs were the best team in baseball and the Indians somehow just ended up there. But the Indians went up 3-1 before the tide turned, and then the Cubs came back and won it all.  The theme of the year was shaping up to be comebacks.

The election was the most confusing, Trump had a 30% chance of winning, and the nation was preparing for the first female president. And then, as the results started coming in, America began to wonder. I don’t need to tell you the rest. . .

But none of this compares to the Super Bowl and Tom freakin’ Brady. Down by 25 and pulling that victory out of nowhere.

I have a confession to make; Valentine’s day is a huge day in ecommerce and by halftime with the Pats being blown out, my workload piling up and Valentine’s day being a week away, I left the Super Bowl party to go get some work done.

To date, here are my three biggest regrets:

1. Not investing in Google in 1998.

Jeff Bezos (Amazon CEO) did, he invested $250,000 which is now worth up to $2.5 billion.

2. The time I forgot my Anniversary.

Whatever. This is not the forum to discuss this incident, and I’ve moved past it. (and hopefully my wife has too).

3. Leaving at halftime.

I’m never gonna live this one down.

So yeah, it’s fair to say it’s been the year of comebacks. But the one I have been paying the most attention to is the one that has been getting the least coverage.

Magento 2.

Magento 1 was the platform that changed eCommerce. Started by a small talented group of people led by Roy Rubin and Yoav Kutner (whom I’ve had the privilege to work with for 6 years and have know for over 10), the first public beta version was released in 2007 and the full version in 2008. Magento was instantly a huge success because it filled a need for a great flexible eCommerce platform that until then was only available to companies with at least a half a million dollar development budget (think ATG and Websphere circa 2005).

Magento has been one of the biggest drivers behind the explosion of eCommerce because it afforded so many people and companies opportunities that until then were out of their reach. But as Magento grew, so did the number of competitors, each one building with the luxury of hindsight and a feature-rich market to inspire them.  While Magento 1 continued to grow, it started to lose ground over the last couple of years to platforms like Shopify, and some others.

Enter Magento 2. The winner of all-time greatest comebacks.

Released in late 2015, it is hands down the most powerful and flexible eCommerce platform. With the ability to integrate with every ecommerce tool and then some, Magento has positioned itself back on top.

With the new technologies, improved marketplace, easier front-end development, improved customization process and scalability, Magento has really blown away the competition. Add in the fact that they offer multiple options for deployments with the new Enterprise Cloud Edition, this makes for a victory like no other we’ve seen.

I may have missed the second half of the Super Bowl, and will forever live with the fact that I could have witnessed one of the greatest comebacks in sports history, but one thing I am not going to miss is Magento 2. I plan on sticking around and watching this one take the victory ring.