Harley Finkelstein

It changes the business model of the company. But the one thing that has not changed from a tiny little company in Ottawa, Canada, to $100 billion global commerce platform is that the people that work at Shopify, to be successful, we expect that they requalify every year for their job based on what the company requires of them.

And what the famous, what got you here won't get you to where you want to go. That is true. What you did last year was great for last year. It is not good enough for this year.

And what the famous, what got you here won't get you to where you want to go. That is true. What you did last year was great for last year. It is not good enough for this year.

the pace of company building. You can't see it, but it's just on the side of my desk here. I have the original screen print from Gymshark. Gymshark is a merchant on Shopify. Ben Francis started that company in 2012. 10 years after he started in 2022, Gymshark was a billion dollar company competing with Nike. In the history of the world,

the pace of company building. You can't see it, but it's just on the side of my desk here. I have the original screen print from Gymshark. Gymshark is a merchant on Shopify. Ben Francis started that company in 2012. 10 years after he started in 2022, Gymshark was a billion dollar company competing with Nike. In the history of the world,

We have never seen acceleration and pace of growth of company building that we're seeing right now. Never before would a company go from zero in a college dorm in the UK to a billion dollar behemoth competing with Nike in a span of one single decade. So the amazing part is that if you understand this,

We have never seen acceleration and pace of growth of company building that we're seeing right now. Never before would a company go from zero in a college dorm in the UK to a billion dollar behemoth competing with Nike in a span of one single decade. So the amazing part is that if you understand this,

And if you understand what you need to grow from an education perspective, from a philosophy perspective, from a hustle perspective, the energy that's required, you can build remarkable things. And those things weren't possible for... some random person to build 20, 30, 50, 500 years ago. 500 years ago, the people that were building the biggest companies had a lot of money.

And if you understand what you need to grow from an education perspective, from a philosophy perspective, from a hustle perspective, the energy that's required, you can build remarkable things. And those things weren't possible for... some random person to build 20, 30, 50, 500 years ago. 500 years ago, the people that were building the biggest companies had a lot of money.

They had a lot of connections. They had incredible backgrounds and they were someone's grandson or niece or something. There was something in their family history that allowed them to have this incredible, not easy, but an easier way to grow into scale. That is not the case. Today, entrepreneurship is as much of a meritocracy. It's not a perfect meritocracy.

They had a lot of connections. They had incredible backgrounds and they were someone's grandson or niece or something. There was something in their family history that allowed them to have this incredible, not easy, but an easier way to grow into scale. That is not the case. Today, entrepreneurship is as much of a meritocracy. It's not a perfect meritocracy.

There are still people that don't have access to the internet around the world. So obviously, there are some people that are starting from further back in the race. But as a whole, specifically in the developed world, The amount of opportunity that someone has right now is unlike anything we've ever seen. And that's what keeps me so optimistic about the future of entrepreneurship.

There are still people that don't have access to the internet around the world. So obviously, there are some people that are starting from further back in the race. But as a whole, specifically in the developed world, The amount of opportunity that someone has right now is unlike anything we've ever seen. And that's what keeps me so optimistic about the future of entrepreneurship.

You asked specifically some of the things that helped me climb. Let me be very specific. A couple things. There is a meme or a narrative right now on this thing called founder mode. Brian Chesky, who's the founder and CEO of Airbnb, said it on stage a few months ago. And there's been a bunch of blog posts and articles written about founder mode. Founder mode is very simple.

You asked specifically some of the things that helped me climb. Let me be very specific. A couple things. There is a meme or a narrative right now on this thing called founder mode. Brian Chesky, who's the founder and CEO of Airbnb, said it on stage a few months ago. And there's been a bunch of blog posts and articles written about founder mode. Founder mode is very simple.

it just means you have to be in the details. And you don't have to be a founder to be in the details, but as a leader, I think the best way to operate today is in founder mode. When I am working on something, a project, I expect the people I'm working with to know a lot about it, but I often will go five levels deeper into the details. When we're doing an earnings call, for example,

it just means you have to be in the details. And you don't have to be a founder to be in the details, but as a leader, I think the best way to operate today is in founder mode. When I am working on something, a project, I expect the people I'm working with to know a lot about it, but I often will go five levels deeper into the details. When we're doing an earnings call, for example,

I know there are certain metrics I want to talk about. There's a certain narrative. I need to write my own script. I need to ensure that every word choice I use is specifically geared towards the message, the audience, the timing of when we're talking about it. Toby still writes code.

I know there are certain metrics I want to talk about. There's a certain narrative. I need to write my own script. I need to ensure that every word choice I use is specifically geared towards the message, the audience, the timing of when we're talking about it. Toby still writes code.

When he's working on an important project, he'll still go in and write code to make sure that it's done a particular way. So one is I think getting into the weeds is really important at any stage of company. The second is I have a default to action. One of my superpowers is being exothermic. I try to add energy to things. But when I see a problem, my first instinct is to try to solve it.