Story
Shopify was born because Tobi couldn't get a job in Canada
Harley explains Shopify's origin: German immigrant Tobi Lutke couldn't get hired without working papers, so he started a snowboard shop in 2004. He built the store software in Ruby on Rails, and by 2006 it was clear the software was a far better business than the snowboards.
“But someone had told him that, okay, you can't get a job, but you can totally start your own business. And so being in Canada, he decided he would start a snowboard shop. And this is 2004.”
Take
Amazon builds an empire; Shopify arms the rebels
Shaan relays Tobi Lutke's framing of Shopify's strategy versus Amazon: rather than become the one mega-shop, Shopify gives individual merchants the tools to run great independent stores. 'Amazon wants to build an empire; we want to arm the rebels.'
“You know, Amazon wants to build a giant empire, and at Shopify, we want to arm the rebels, which is basically like, you know, give, give each of the individual merchants the tools and abilities to sell and have great shops on their own rather than become the one big mega shop of the world.”