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" It's this concept of 'just fill up a building of smart people.' It sounds so basic, but honestly it might just be the secret behind Shopify's success. We just do that and get out of the way. "

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" In my worldview, time is energy that you can invest in things, and money is energy that you can invest. Time has significantly more leverage than money in terms of how much energy you get out of time. "

Tobias Lutke

Energy

Things

Time

" One of the most important tasks as a leader in a startup is to pick the right metric to track. This is often referred to as the 'compass metric' because it will be your compass for growth. It's important to note that 'compass metrics' will likely change over the lifetime of a business. "

" I have serious, serious problems with personas - with unauthentic individuals. "

" It took about 10 years' time for Shopify to be an overnight success. "

" Change has to be fundamental to a company's culture, or there is no way it can survive. "

" Products are a form of speech, and free speech must be fiercely protected, even if we disagree with some of the voices. "

" No one benefits from us not taking credit for our successes. There is no virtue in allowing kudos to go unclaimed or elsewhere. "

Tobias Lutke

Credit

Benefits

" Why do Canadians sell themselves short? I've never been able to answer that question. "

" Given the success rate, if you want to get wealthy, entrepreneurship is a horrible way of doing it. There are significantly easier ways of doing it. "

" I'm always trying to think of ways to make something more efficient. If I have to do something once, that's fine. If I have to do it twice, I'm kind of annoyed. And if I have to do it three times, I'm going to try to automate it. "

" We have a lot of really great companies in Canada, and I think there's always been this fear that 'great' in Canada doesn't mean great on a world stage. We need more self-confidence. We are building incredibly good businesses with incredibly good people, being loyal, dedicating themselves to solving important problems. "

" Shopify has been a perpetually underestimated company at every point of its history. "

" It is incredibly powerful if you solve the problem you actually have yourself. It's really tough to develop a good product when you don't have very close proximity to the people who actually use your product. The closest proximity you can have to those people is to be that person. "

" We're trying to build the largest start-up ever without becoming a big company. "

" Every phase of building a company is really hard. "

" Sometimes, when you're building a company, out of necessity there's just a gazillion things you have to learn and figure out. "

" I find the strongest predictor of people who do well at Shopify is whether they see opportunity as something to compete for, or do they see opportunity as essentially everywhere and unlimited? It's a rough proxy for pessimism and optimism. "

" Everyone loves feeling comfortable. But it's actually completely useless. "

" I spent my time, growing up, essentially between two things: technology and retail. I was fascinated by selling and loved the idea of making a profit, but I also spent a lot of time on technology. "

" I am a worrier. I tend to do something about what I worry about. "

" People say Facebook connects the world. Facebook has 5,000 Ph.D.s that think about how to make you click on ads you don't want to see. Their business model is about something that most people would not perceive as making the world better. "

" Computers are the most powerful tools that humanity has ever created. Yet, we treat them largely as a black box; as if it were an alien artifact that magically appeared on desks, in homes, and in our pockets. "

" If you believe something needs to exist, if it's something you want to use yourself, don't let anyone ever stop you from doing it. "

" I'm a liberally minded immigrant, leading a predominantly liberal workforce hailing from predominantly liberal cities and countries. "

" I think I probably had to start a company, because I don't think I can work for other people. "

" It is my strong belief that computer literacy should be part of our educational system's core curriculum. "

" You have to put more of a well-rounded company together to make it in Canada, and I hope the Canadian market is going to be known for these well-performing, solid companies that people can rely on. "

" When the market turns down, a lot of people lose jobs... and that's the time people become entrepreneurs. Downturns end up being the best times to start companies. "

" More and more people are opening online stores and online retail businesses. This market is expanding very, very quickly. "

Tobias Lutke

Retail

Market

" We are at our best when we are at our proudest. Canadians need to harness that confidence in every arena, not just the ice rink. The Maple Leaf stands for quality, thoughtfulness, and innovation, so let's brand it proudly on the things that we've invented, created, and figured out. "