Tobi Lütke

Building things is you converting something.

You're converting some form of energy.

It's coming from somewhere.

It's like,

Sometimes it's passion, but I think it's more like... I was angry, actually, at how shitty the software was that I found when I tried to do this thing.

I was like, God damn it, I want to start a business here.

Again, I spent my entire youth cultivating skill sets, rare and luckily useful skill sets around computers.

Most people didn't.

Why the fuck is there not better software here for everyone else?

Like, why do I need... Why is in 2004

the only people who can actually create new business on the internet, which is clearly one of the things that happened that is the greatest possible economic equalizer, or so we hoped, of our times.

Why do I need to be a programmer to then become a retailer?

That doesn't make sense.

That's a small set of people.

And why is the software that I can find so unbelievably expensive or so incredibly bad, that that's not right?

And to me, I can channel this sort of dissatisfaction with the status quo as this unending well of energy that I can convert into building.

And I think there's many other power sources that people tap.

Creates an internal drive.

But it's got to come from somewhere.

Like, room temperature does not lend itself to forging things.