3min chapter

#359: Tobi Lütke — From Snowboard Shop to Billion-Dollar Company

The Tim Ferriss Show

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CHAPTER

Is This Really the Best Way to Encourage Risks?

Shopify is one of the fastest growing SaaS companies on the market. The company has raised more than $100 million in funding so far this year. CEO Toby Smith says he wants people to take responsibility for their own mental state and not rely on other people constantly telling them how good they are.

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Transcript

Episode notes

"Feedback is a gift." — Tobi Lütke

Tobi Lütke (@tobi) is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Shopify. In 2004, Tobi began building software to launch an online snowboard store called Snowdevil. It quickly became obvious that the software was more valuable than the snowboards, so Tobi and his founding team launched the Shopify platform in 2006. He has served as CEO since 2008 at the company's headquarters in Ottawa, Canada.

Tobi is an active advocate for computer literacy and education, and serves as a board member of Canada Learning Code, an organization working to give all Canadians access to digital skills. In 2014, Tobi was named The Globe and Mail's CEO of the Year. He served as Chair of the Digital Industries Table, an advisory board commissioned by the federal government to provide recommendations on how to turn Canada into a digital leader.

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