How far would you travel for a good conversation? For hosts Tyler Hogge and Sterling Snow it was a no brainer to fly 2000 miles to talk with Kaz Nejatian, the COO of Shopify in their Toronto HQ.
Kaz is a fascinating mind in tech and an unconventional thinker shaping the the product culture of Shopify. He shares his story of growing up in Iran, experiencing the Iran-Iraq war, and eventually immigrating to Canada at age 12. In Canada, Kaz gets even deeper into his fascination with computers and goes onto found a YC company, run a product line at Meta and now acts as the COO and Product Evangelist at multi-billion dollar company Shopify.
Tyler and Sterling find out why Shopify employees have no meetings, how big tech companies are doing product wrong, and why Shopify's unique culture will create a 100 year company that just keeps getting bigger.
Chapters:
01:50 - Kaz's Childhood in Iran and Fleeing to Canada
06:49 - Hot Takes on Current Protests on College Campuses
07:55 - Early Exposure To Computers and Path To Tech
11:17 - The Best Product Managers Are Weird People
13:30 - "I Cannot Take An Average Person And Train Them To Be A PM"
21:25 - How Shopify Is Different Than Other Big Companies
31:00 - How Kaz Killed Meetings At Shopify
37:30 - Write Code And Talk To Users, Do That Over And Over Again
43:39 - Why Getting Married Will Be Your Best Career Accelerant
50:00 - Wrap Up questions
57:25 - Tyler & Sterling's Recap
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Connect With Kaz
https://x.com/canadakaz
Kaz@shopify.com
Connect With Tyler & Sterling
https://x.com/thogge
https://x.com/sterlingmsnow
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