Harley Finkelstein

And I realized when I got there that this t-shirt business was never going to survive because ultimately it requires me going and meeting these student council people that were buying t-shirts face-to-face. My entire unfair advantage was I was selling t-shirts to students as a student myself. The business model just broke if I had to go to class.

In law school, you actually have to attend class unlike undergraduate or college where you can just show up for the exams. So I moved to Ottawa in 2005 and wanted to meet people. I wasn't really becoming friends with people in law school. They were very serious. They wanted to be lawyers and they were very studious. I was an entrepreneur.

In law school, you actually have to attend class unlike undergraduate or college where you can just show up for the exams. So I moved to Ottawa in 2005 and wanted to meet people. I wasn't really becoming friends with people in law school. They were very serious. They wanted to be lawyers and they were very studious. I was an entrepreneur.

I was a lot more interested in the value extraction from the curriculum of law school. I didn't care about doing well on the exam. I cared about selfishly, you know, it's like an exchange. I'm giving the law school $10,000 or $15,000 per year in tuition. In return, I'm demanding $10,000 or $15,000 worth of value. And so I didn't get caught up in grades and exams because I wasn't why I was there.

I was a lot more interested in the value extraction from the curriculum of law school. I didn't care about doing well on the exam. I cared about selfishly, you know, it's like an exchange. I'm giving the law school $10,000 or $15,000 per year in tuition. In return, I'm demanding $10,000 or $15,000 worth of value. And so I didn't get caught up in grades and exams because I wasn't why I was there.

I was there to extract value, to gain new skills. But as we talked about, ever since I was a kid, the entrepreneur community was always my tribe, my people. My closest friends have always been entrepreneurs. They still are to this day. And I asked where the entrepreneurs hung out in Ottawa. And I was directed to a coffee shop

I was there to extract value, to gain new skills. But as we talked about, ever since I was a kid, the entrepreneur community was always my tribe, my people. My closest friends have always been entrepreneurs. They still are to this day. And I asked where the entrepreneurs hung out in Ottawa. And I was directed to a coffee shop

And it was a group of entrepreneurs that got together every Friday evening to exchange war stories and talk about best practices and share tips and tricks. And they called themselves the Fresh Founders. And I joined this small group of quote-unquote Fresh Founders. And one of those Fresh Founders was this brilliant programmer named Toby who just moved two years earlier from Germany to Canada.

And it was a group of entrepreneurs that got together every Friday evening to exchange war stories and talk about best practices and share tips and tricks. And they called themselves the Fresh Founders. And I joined this small group of quote-unquote Fresh Founders. And one of those Fresh Founders was this brilliant programmer named Toby who just moved two years earlier from Germany to Canada.

When he got to Canada, he couldn't get a job because he was a new immigrant, didn't have his working papers, but he knew he could start a business. And he began to sell snowboards on the internet. And he wrote a piece of code on his own. He's a coder. To sell these snowboards on the internet.

When he got to Canada, he couldn't get a job because he was a new immigrant, didn't have his working papers, but he knew he could start a business. And he began to sell snowboards on the internet. And he wrote a piece of code on his own. He's a coder. To sell these snowboards on the internet.

And very quickly realized that while these snowboards were a good idea, the code that he'd written to sell the snowboards was a great idea. And that more people may want to use his software to sell their own products. And I was one of those people. I became one of the first merchants, the first customers, the first people to use what is now Shopify.

And very quickly realized that while these snowboards were a good idea, the code that he'd written to sell the snowboards was a great idea. And that more people may want to use his software to sell their own products. And I was one of those people. I became one of the first merchants, the first customers, the first people to use what is now Shopify.

I moved from a wholesale t-shirt business to a promotional t-shirt business with logos and licenses, Batman, Spider-Man, really cool licenses. And I set up an online store on Shopify in 2006. And that was my introduction to Shopify. And after I finished school, I called Toby and asked him if I can join him and a small group of engineers, mostly engineers, and help them build the business.

I moved from a wholesale t-shirt business to a promotional t-shirt business with logos and licenses, Batman, Spider-Man, really cool licenses. And I set up an online store on Shopify in 2006. And that was my introduction to Shopify. And after I finished school, I called Toby and asked him if I can join him and a small group of engineers, mostly engineers, and help them build the business.

And that was 15 years ago.

And that was 15 years ago.

More than a third of my life. Yeah.

More than a third of my life. Yeah.

Well, two things. This was the case then. It's still the case today. In many ways, businesses are a living thing, a living creature. And so think about biology. Think about out in nature. There's something called the law of ecology, and there's four laws of ecology.