The Ledger
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Shopify uses M&A primarily to accelerate its product roadmap
“I spend the majority of my time working with our product team and understanding what that roadmap looks like for the next one, two, three, five, 10 years, and we have an opportunity to look at each area and find out which of those specifically can be great can…”
Acquired startup founders make the best long-term leaders post-acquisition
“We find that founders make the best long-term leaders within the company, and what we want to have is, is all founders who have opportunities and distinct paths to go down, an opportunity to join Shopify to become incredible leaders.”
Profitability is the best source of startup optionality
“Optionality can come in one of three favors. That could be a sustainable business that's highly profitable. That's the best way to build optionality. Second best way is by having great funders behind you who are willing to really take this to the long term. Th…”
Acquired employees should have a better job on day one post-acquisition
“We want the individuals on the company joining Shopify to have a better job day one than they did at their last day as an independent company”
Acquirers and targets must establish a shared vision before signing an LOI
“The first is making sure early on in the acquisition process, this is even pre-LOI or pre-execution phase, that there's a distinct shared vision between the two companies.”
Shopify acquired Oberlo based on merchant product-sourcing data and cultural fit
“The most recent acquisition is a company called Oberlo that does product sourcing, and so the reasons we said yes were, number one, data. We're a heavily data-driven company, and we understand that one of the biggest challenges for our merchants and their path…”
Shopify's M&A approval process mirrors VC investment committees
“Having come from the VC background, so it's structured in a very similar way. We have an individual who I work with who would sort of be the partner on the transaction, really pushing and championing what we call a champion of the deal, pushing it through the …”
Shopify acquired Kit CRM to establish its San Francisco office
“Actually, the team in San Francisco was a product acquisition. It was an incredible team out in San Francisco called Kit CRM, which was building a text-based interface to simplify a merchant experience. Their core initial offering was around simple marketing s…”