tobi lutke

Shopify CEO by day, Dad in evening, hacker at night, Aspiring comprehensivist.
+ qmd !

[tobi lutke @tobi]

Yea that was a fun one.

Thank you for celebrating the glory of entrepreneurship, David.

[David Senra @davidsenra]

My conversation with Tobi Lütke (@tobi), co-founder and CEO of Shopify.

0:00 Companies as Social Technology
5:27 The Value of Reading Books: Cheat Codes for Life
7:28 Post-IPO Crisis: Cosplaying as a CEO
7:54 Competition vs Rivalry: The Power of Healthy Competition
16:02 COVID as a Turning Point: Rebuilding the Executive Team
18:21 Hiring Founders: Building a Team of High-Agency People
26:49 Shopify OS: Engineering the Company from First Principles
36:48 Compensation Innovation: Giving Employees Full Agency
40:41 The Psychology of Identity and Affirmations
48:43 Differentiation Over Perfection: Making It Your Own
50:31 Context Podcast: Documenting Decision-Making
1:26:36 The IPO Decision: Going Against Silicon Valley Orthodoxy
1:35:08 Building a Company Worth Working For
1:41:50 Hiring for Spikiness: Finding Non-Conformists
1:48:28 Office Design Philosophy: Creating Space for Excellence
1:58:54 Video Games as Business Training: StarCraft Lessons
2:07:06 AI Revolution: 2026 and Beyond
2:11:44 Focus on Craft: The Unquantifiable Elements of Excellence
2:21:08 Survivorship Bias: The Importance of Entrepreneurial Exposure
2:23:22 Closing

Includes paid partnerships.

[tobi lutke @tobi]

@geren8te could have been worse

[tobi lutke @tobi]

@jack https://t.co/EZqAPsykOW 🪄

[Harley Finkelstein @harleyf]

At our Creator Mart in Austin this weekend we brought to life something called our “Shop Cash Wand”. It's a legit wand 🪄 that when we tap your phone you get a surprise amount of $$ to spend on @Shop on 100s of millions of products powered by @Shopify.

[tobi lutke @tobi]

@LostMemeArchive ok, it was me

[Toronto Tech Week @TOtechweek]

Tobi Lütke (@tobi) and Lulu Cheng Meservey (@lulumeservey) on building Shopify in the AI era, why "we're cooked" gets the moment wrong, and the bell-curve case for aiming at best in the world.

0:00 Era of the Entrepreneur
3:18 Starting Shopify by Accident
7:30 Every Purchase Is a Vote
15:30 Magic Eye Dealer Era
22:00 Why 1-Person Companies Are BS
24:00 Island of Misfit Toys
27:00 Every App Is Now a Prompt
30:55 Don't Negotiate "Best"
34:00 Craftsmanship vs. Academia
44:00 "We're Cooked" Is Just Dumb

[tobi lutke @tobi]

Super talk by @Alex_Danco, totally agreed on the core premise.

[Toronto Tech Week @TOtechweek]

Alex Danco (@Alex_Danco) on the bull and bear case for Toronto, why tech runs on gift culture, and a new way to measure product-market fit for the city.

0:00 Do We Have PMF Yet?
1:15 The Bear Case in 60 Seconds
1:54 I'm Tired of Hearing This
3:12 American Culture Is Gift Culture
5:33 The Bull Case for Toronto
6:59 Belly of My Brother
7:42 Confidence Doesn't Grieve

[tobi lutke @tobi]

@itsjamiehudson @Shopify 👀

[tobi lutke @tobi]

@eli_tannis @mario4thenorth Should be 10bps max

[tobi lutke @tobi]

@_glnarayanan @harleyf @eastdakota "be so good that they cannot ignore you"

[JJ @JosephJacks_]

I spent > $3,000 and 2 weeks to make this:

“On The Helicity of Reality” 🌏🌪️🌀🪐🌌

100 ~ top scientific discoveries over 2,700 years which utilize / depend on a helical geometry.

Heavily hand-tailored + AI for exquisite visuals.

Enjoy!

The inaugural presentation will be done live here in the Himalayas @iit__mandi … video should be online soon.

[tobi lutke @tobi]

@Devon_Eriksen_ As a German, sincere thank for finally explaining humor

[Objectobot @Objectobot]

China cannot make state owned enterprises more productive than private enterprise either.

[Marc Andreessen 🇺🇸 @pmarca]

You’ll notice there is no look-back celebration or remembrance of this or virtually any of the other great moral victories from that era. It’s all been memory holed, a will-o'-the-wisp dimming out in the far distance.

[John Daniel Davidson @johnddavidson]

Five years ago, a moral panic gripped Canada over a story that was obviously fake but that so perfectly confirmed the biases of anti-Catholic liberals, no one in the media or the political establishment bothered to check its veracity.

The Globe and Mail recently ran an editorial acknowledging its role in the hoax. To date, it’s the only media outlet that has done so.

[tobi lutke @tobi]

@brianlilley Good

[Mario Zelaya @mario4thenorth]

The Canada Pension Plan (CPP) has over 2,000 employees.

Top 5 managers, make more than $5 million per year.

They have never beaten the market.

Nevada has 1 guy. Who invests in ETFs.

Does nothing. All day.

And he outperforms the CPP.

Consistently.

For further context, if CPP invested in QQQ, for the last 10 years, instead of $800 billion in assets, we would have $2.4 Trillion.

VOO would put it at $1.6 trillion.

Lesson: The government will never outperform the market.

So don’t think the Sovereign Debt Fund will be any different.

[tobi lutke @tobi]

C-22 is a mistake. Not one part of it, the entire direction. ( Same for C-9 )

https://t.co/D5apl9nwvF

[Rhonda Kirkland @rhondaforoshawa]

WATCH: Signal says their concerns with Bill C-22 are NOT about resisting lawful access.

Metadata retention and government-mandated system redesigns alone could be enough to force them out of Canada.

Why are the Liberals ramming this flawed surveillance law through Parliament despite repeated warnings from privacy experts and industry leaders?

[tobi lutke @tobi]

@AndrewLawton Good. Chilling how these people are casually advocating for suppression of freedom of speech.

[Mike @MikeG86582264]

Me: completes a job at a customer's address. Reaches for the company card.
It's not there.
Also me: opens Shopify POS for the first time ever.
5 seconds later: customer taps their phone to mine, payment taken, receipt emailed.
Shopify is incredible. 🤌 @tobi @jessicarhertz

[Mosquito Atlatl ⛪️ 🎯🏹 🦊 🦆⚔️ 🚜🚛🚚🚜🍎 @Atlatl_Mosquito]

@build_canada The 3 Bills C-22, C-8, C-9 are a set that gives total control!
Creating a total surveillance state with absolute power to define the crime & erase you off the internet and if you protest public detain you...
Totalitarian & evil!

Song more Truth than Libs!
https://t.co/uUcwxPXJdZ