The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 29 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 1 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Harley Finkelstein: The future of retail is omnicommerce, not online vs offline
“But around 2013, 2014, it became increasingly clear to us that the future of retail is not binary. It's not online versus offline. Despite what you may hear from the CEOs of major malls and major retailers, the best spies and the, excuse me, the JCPenney's of …”
Harley Finkelstein: The internet has commoditized retail distribution
“Because distribution is no longer, it's commoditized now, and the internet did that.”
Finkelstein: Tobi Lütke is the greatest product mind on Earth
“I mean, Toby, I think is probably the greatest product mind on the planet.”
Finkelstein: Law school acts as finishing school for entrepreneurs
“In many ways, I think law school was a little bit like finishing school or etiquette school for entrepreneurs. I teach you how to write really well, which of course is really important when you're running a company. It teaches you how to be articulate and teac…”
Finkelstein: Modern tech companies are geographically agnostic
“I think business today, in particular technology companies, are geographically agnostic. I don't think it matters where you're based.”
Finkelstein: Children value full parental presence over grand gestures
“First of all, any of you listening have small kids, they don't give a shit about that. They don't care about how nice the table's set. What actually my kids valued more was my presence. Was I actually there, and was I mindful of them?”
Law school serves as a finishing school for entrepreneurs
“So law school for me was really more like finishing school for entrepreneurship.”
Shopify raised its 2010 Series A at a $25M post-money valuation
“He was in our Series A, first market in our Series A back in, in 20, 20, 10. It was actually, it was a seven million Series A, I think on a twenty-five million dollar post valuation.”
Shopify processes 10% of all e-commerce in the United States
“10% of all e-commerce in the United States is done via Shopify.”
Finkelstein: Great founding teams have non-overlapping skill sets
“I think that a lot of people start businesses with people that are just like them. People that they would be friends in high school with. But if you look at some of the best teams out there that have built incredible companies they are really different. I mean…”
Shopify starts all new employees with a 50% trust battery rating
“Everyone that comes to Shopify starts at a 50% trust battery.”
Finkelstein considers High Output Management the best business book ever written
“I still think high output management by Andy Grove is still the best book that I've ever read on business.”
Shopify's platform powers two million merchant stores
“It's great that Shopify has two million stores.”
Finkelstein: Early e-commerce forced a choice between million-dollar software and marketplaces
“And at the time in 2004, 2005, there really were two ways to sell a product online. One way was you would pay some agency a million bucks to do some sort of IBM Webster integration or some sort of Magento or, you know, some sort of Hybris integration. These bi…”
Finkelstein: Shopify warned IPO investors against expecting short-term revenue chasing
“In fact, if you read our Toby's letter to shareholders when we filed our IPO, we made it very clear that if you're looking for sort of quick wins, and you're looking for a company that is going to chase revenue, we're probably not the right company. To invest …”
Finkelstein: Bundling point solutions for retail creates an inefficient 'Frankenstein' system
“If you don't use Shopify and you don't want to use our platform to sell in all these different places, you can bundle up a bunch of different single point solutions. You can do just e-commerce plus just point of sale plus, you know, maybe a card reader from li…”
Harley Finkelstein: Physical retail stores must add value beyond location
“These physical retailers fundamentally need to understand that they have to add value and just being there, just having a store on its own is not enough.”
Finkelstein: Drake's OVO and Kanye's Yeezy rival top fashion companies
“If you look at OVO or you look at Yeezy, this is really high quality stuff that rivals the likes of the best fashion companies on the planet.”
Finkelstein: Nobody is born a natural manager
“I don't think anybody is born a natural manager or an innate manager. I think management is something that is really, really tough.”
Tobi Lütke launched Shopify when his software outgrew his snowboard business
“By 2005, it became clear to him that the software behind the snowboard business was more valuable Than the snowboard business itself. And so he launched Shopify.”
Finkelstein was one of Shopify's earliest e-commerce merchants
“And so I became one of the first merchants to use Shopify.”
Finkelstein: Communication clarity depends on the listener, not the speaker
“I think that that is all about empathy, which is like, okay, you think you're being clear. What does the other people person think? If they don't think you're clear, then it doesn't matter what you think.”
A new entrepreneur makes their first Shopify sale every 28 seconds
“Every 28 seconds, a new entrepreneur gets there for sale on Shopify.”
Finkelstein: 4.6 million new US businesses registered in 2021
“I think the numbers were like 4.6 million new business registrations happened in 20, 21 alone in the United States, like this massive jump from a decade earlier.”
Harley Finkelstein attends couples therapy with his wife every two weeks
“We've been seeing a couples counselor almost since like day one. We've been seeing, we've been going to couples therapy and we initially did it because on the advice of someone that one of these mentors that I think has a great relationship who only started se…”
Asking "listen or solve" improved Finkelstein's marriage tenfold
“That small, those two lines do you want me just to listen or do you want me to help you solve it? I think has increased our dynamic and our marriage and frankly, like the romance and love of our relationship probably tenfold.”
Finkelstein was store number 137 on Shopify before becoming COO
“I ended up signing up for Shopify as one of their first customers. I think I was store number 137 or something like that.”