Valuing Tech: Shopify's Journey

Shawn O’Malley and Daniel Mahncke break down Shopify (ticker: SHOP), a leading e-commerce platform company enabling e-commerce merchants across the world to seamlessly manage nearly every part of their business in one place. Shopify has been locked in a power struggle with Amazon, as the two present distinct visions for the future of e-commerce: Amazon tries to pull merchants to its marketplace and to conform with its standardized shopping experience, while Shopify empowers merchants to manage their own websites that go direct-to-consumer.

In this episode, you’ll learn how Shopify started humbly as a snowboard website, what makes Shopify such a killer app, how Shopify and Amazon compete but also have found ways to strategically co-exist, why Shopify may have multiple moats working to its advantage, and whether Shopify is attractively valued given its compelling growth prospects, plus so much more!

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IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN

00:00 - Intro

05:30 - Why the enterprise software market was ripe for disruption.

10:50 - Shopify’s origin story as a simple snowboard website in Canada.

14:47 - How Shopify’s value proposition differs from Amazon.

36:42 - Why Shopify abandoned its logistics business just one year after making a major acquisition.

42:42 - How Shopify has responded to Amazon encroaching on its turf.

01:01:38 - What to make of Shopify’s share split and ownership structure.

01:12:28 - Why Shopify’s growth story may only be just beginning.

01:16:32 - Whether Shawn & Daniel add SHOP to The Intrinsic Value Portfolio.

And much, much more!

*Disclaimer: Slight timestamp discrepancies may occur due to podcast platform differences.

BOOKS AND RESOURCES

• Get smarter about valuing businesses in just a few minutes each week through our newsletter, ⁠⁠⁠⁠The Intrinsic Value Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠.
• Business Breakdowns podcast on Shopify.
• Quartr’s overview of Shopify.
• Clayton Christensen's The Innovator’s Dilemma.
• Check out our previous Intrinsic Value breakdowns: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Nintendo⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠Airbnb⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠AutoZone⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠Alphabet⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠Ulta⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠John Deere⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠Madison Square Garden Sports⁠⁠⁠⁠.
• Check out the books mentioned in the podcast ⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠.
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