C&C Pod: Steve Papa, Commerce OG - Endeca, Toast, and Parallel Wireless
From Cocktails & Commerce Podcast by Brian Walker & Bill Friend
April 23, 2026 · 1h 4m
About this episode
Steve Papa discusses his journey in the commerce industry, including the founding of Endeca and his current ventures.
Another episode with a true Commerce OG. This week Steve Papa joins us to explore the founding and growth-path of Endeca — the commerce search and guided navigation platform that became the de facto standard for retail eCommerce discovery in the 2000s. Endeca climbed to powering roughly half of the top 100 eCommerce sites before being acquired by Oracle in 2011. If you were building a serious retail site in that era, you almost certainly had Endeca under the hood - and many still do. Beyond Endeca, Steve was an early investor in Toast — writing the first check when every VC in the room said restaurant tech was a dead end — and he is now founder and CEO of Parallel Wireless, which is building trusted, scalable, secure cellular network infrastructure. It is a mission-driven effort operating at the intersection of national security, connectivity, and the physical infrastructure that communications, commerce, and digital experiences of all kinds will increasingly depend on. He is also an investor in Product Genius, an AI-native product enrichment and CX experience solution. It’s a great conversation, so pour yourself something to sip along with us and enjoy our wonderful conversation…
People in this episode
Hosts: Brian Walker, Bill Friend
Guest: Steve Papa
Topics covered
- eCommerce
- technology
- entrepreneurship
- investment
- network infrastructure
Keywords
- Endeca
- eCommerce
- Toast
- Parallel Wireless
- Product Genius
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Endeca, Oracle, Toast, Parallel Wireless, Product Genius
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