The Exchanges

Q Um, you guys go public in 2015. Um, you went public because presumably your investors wanted, you wanted to kind of give them return. People had waited a long time. This is 2015. People had started giving you money in 2004. Was that the reason why you went public?

A It probably would have become the reason eventually, but not at this point of time because, um, the investments only happened five years before that. Right. I took the investments knowing that I'm going to be raising the clock to either go public or get sold. Um, that was the duality of, of outcome. And by the way, this is true for every person who sells shares in their company. Just most people don't realize that that's what, what's happening. But I, I went in, into the venture world pretty clear eyed about what it means. And so I really wanted to set up a company to become an independent public company because My private investors have all seen Shopify perform under promise over deliver month after month and board meeting after board meeting. All of them fully trusted the company and further good performance was not really buying us anything new.

AI assessment note: “It probably would have become the reason eventually, but not at this point of time”

Q Toby, how has this changed you as a leader? I mean, you started this company when you were so young, you oversee 5000 people. And I mean, how do you think it's changed the way you operate as a leader and the way you think about what it means to be a leader?

A I am learning a lot. I mean, before this, I used to do an AMA, ask me anything about once a quarter of the entire company, and it was sort of an in-person event again. Now it's something I'm doing weekly. Uh, like I, I, I've been hosting every town hall since because I think just the entire company has incredibly clarity of mission right now, again, about what we set out to do, but exactly how we do this really left to all these parts of a company. We love to be loosely coupled, but loosely coupled only really works when we come together and base our decisions on the same fundamentals. So just the amount of communication and the ways to communicate have evolved so much. I'll give you one example, like, for instance, I love spending time with my product teams. I love getting into deep, detailed, like, engineering conversations. This used to be, like, I just walked into the part of a team that worked on this, and, and we did a little workshop, and, uh, I, I can't do this anymore, but one thing I do have, I have a really good video setup now, and I think this is something everyone's involved, like, hitting that record button is really cheap. Going through a flow or a mock-up, And just talking about this, and then putting this into the right Slack channel, it's not as good, because it's not as fun, because it's the interactivity is missing. But then I get a video back, the response…

AI assessment note: “just the amount of communication and the ways to communicate have evolved so much.”

Q Um, you guys go public in 2015. Um, you went public because presumably your investors wanted, you wanted to kind of give them return. People had waited a long time. This is 2015. People had started giving you money in 2004. Was that the reason why you went public?

A It probably would have become the reason eventually, but not at this point of time because, um, the investments only happened five years before that. Um, and, I took the investments knowing that I'm going to be raising the clock to either go public or get sold. Um, that was the duality of, of outcome. And by the way, this is true for every person who sells shares in their company. Just most people don't realize that that's what, what's happening. But I, I went in, into the venture world pretty clear eyed about what it means. And so I really wanted to set up a company to become an independent public company because My private investors have all seen Shopify perform under promise, over deliver, month after month, and board meeting after board meeting. All of them fully trusted the company, and further good performance was not really buying us anything new.

AI assessment note: “It probably would have become the reason eventually, but not at this point of time”

Q Um, you guys go public in 2015. Um, you went public because presumably your investors wanted, you wanted to kind of give them return. People had waited a long time. This is 2015. People had started giving you money in 2004. Was that the reason why you went public?

A It probably would have become the reason eventually, but not at this point of time because, um, the investments only happened five years before that. Um, and, I took the investments knowing that I'm going to be raising the clock to either go public or get sold. Um, that was the duality of, of outcome. And by the way, this is true for every person who sells shares in their company. Just most people don't realize that that's what, what's happening. But I, I went in, into the venture world pretty clear eyed about what it means. And so I really wanted to set up a company to become an independent public company because My private investors have all seen Shopify perform under promise, over deliver, month after month, and board meeting after board meeting. All of them fully trusted the company, and further good performance was not really buying us anything new.

AI assessment note: “It probably would have become the reason eventually, but not at this point of time”

Q Toby, what kind, I mean, what are some kind of, like, types of stores you've seen people launch in recent weeks? Any examples that stick out?

A One of the most amazing things is, like, right at the earliest time, like, when Shelter-in-Place happened, and we saw new businesses and some existing businesses pivot towards mask-making, which is, of course, becoming much more important. We all know that there's a significant shortage in PPE, and some people retooled their sneaker factories to create Uh, masks. And, and, and a lot of people drove efforts from home. That's one of the things we saw. The other thing is, it's just been an enormous community effort of bringing sort of a favorite local businesses online so that they can do curbside pickup or even do deliveries in, in the neighborhood. And, um, what's been remarkable is that, that we've seen some of these businesses actually do better than they've ever done before. It's not the rule, but like we, we hear this in our Calls with our customers and, ah, like just sort of local, even local newspaper stories, which is really, really awesome.

AI assessment note: “we saw new businesses and some existing businesses pivot towards mask-making”

Q the podcast, I'm gonna kind of mess up your quote here, but it's something like, as an entrepreneur, you always live in two states of mind. One state of mind is, if we do this, we'll be unbeatable, and we're doing great, it's all working out, and then the other state of mind is, um, complete dread. We're dead. Are you, do you still experience those two thoughts? Right now?

A I, totally. I think the thing that changes as the company gets bigger is that the oscillation between those two things just keeps getting faster, and it's, like, I have a pretty incredible job now, and I, I see, in some cases, it's these incredible people who are setting up for completely new journeys, and kind of excited about this, and on the other side, it's, I mean, this is a real challenge. There's some serious hardship out there, and it's challenged in a way that I don't think anyone, like, like, no one would sign up for. It's this, like, Hey, everything I knew is now invalidated. I have to re-derive every single idea I have about my business, every single idea I have about being able to meet payroll, or who I'm working with, or in which way I'm showing up, or what my brand actually stands for. And it's, it's a crazy situation. But this keeps going, and even when a company is at the point that Shopify is at, like, I, I often go through these mental states back and forth in the same day. It's, uh, You sort of get used to it, but not really.

AI assessment note: “I, totally. I think the thing that changes... is that the oscillation between those two things”

Q that you still have self doubt and, and that you talk about it. And I think that's super important and healthy. I mean, if you had an idea or you kind of wanted to launch something for a while, I mean, is now a good time to do it? I guess it's hard. It's hard question to answer, but are there opportunities now given what's going on around the world?

A A surprising number of the best companies in the world have been launched at the depths of recessions. Well, look, so the way we are talking about this internally is, um, uh, from what we're seeing, twenty-thirty basically got pulled to twenty-twenty forward on all trends that relate to digitalization. Again, all these businesses that only were retail just disappeared. There's a vacuum that were left behind, which they are scrambling to, to fill in. The businesses that were More digitally native. Business that had retail, but also were online and on the different channels like Instagram or Pinterest. They have replaced over 90% of their lost sales. And so it's not really that people have stopped spending money. The mix of how people spend their money has changed. It's a lot more online. It's a lot more on the kinds of products that you need around the house. So that is a backdrop against which amazing entrepreneurial stories can be written. Because there is just opportunity, especially on the recovery side, where people can just have new options on the market. And I think that's, a lot of people now have a new understanding of what the world's probably going to be like. I don't think we're going to go back to the world we had. We're going to forward into something different.

AI assessment note: “A surprising number of the best companies in the world have been launched at the depths”

Q What if you were planning on launching a product or service, right, before the pandemic happened? Um, and here you are, out in the world, you've got a Shopify storefront, and you're trying to generate interest, but you can't be out in the world. What are ways that people are able to market and to, to spread the word about what, what it is that they're offering?

A I think it's a better time than ever to do this through specifically social media. There's a lot more attention there. Like, I mean, it depends a lot on your product, of course, but We found the most sort of random subcategories of products ending up doing extremely well. Um, one of my favorite examples of this is decorative tapestries, which I never would have imagined being, but once you realize, hey, that's sort of a real world zoom background kind of accessory, then you realize why people are now buying, uh, decorative tapestries and wall art. And like, I think what you have to ask yourself is like, This product I'm creating, how does this fit into the story of the times? I mean, this is always a question you should ask yourself, but I think now, especially if you can tell your product fits better in a future that's emergent or fits in well in the times and solves a real problem, you will find an incredibly receptive audience.

AI assessment note: “I think it's a better time than ever to do this through specifically social media.”

Q that you still have self doubt and, and that you talk about it. And I think that's super important and healthy. I mean, if you had an idea or you kind of wanted to launch something for a while, I mean, is now a good time to do it? I guess it's hard. It's hard question to answer, but are there opportunities now given what's going on around the world?

A A surprising number of the best companies in the world have been launched at the depths of recessions. Well, look, so the way we are talking about this internally is, um, uh, from what we're seeing, twenty-thirty basically got pulled to twenty-twenty forward on all trends that relate to digitalization. Again, all these businesses that only were retail just disappeared. There's a vacuum that were left behind, which they are scrambling to, to fill in. The businesses that were More digitally native. Business that had retail, but also were online and on the different channels like Instagram or Pinterest. They have replaced over 90% of their lost sales. And so it's not really that people have stopped spending money. The mix of how people spend their money has changed. It's a lot more online. It's a lot more on the kinds of products that you need around the house. So that is a backdrop against which amazing entrepreneurial stories can be written. Because there is just opportunity, especially on the recovery side, where people can just have new options on the market. And I think that's, a lot of people now have a new understanding of what the world's probably going to be like. I don't think we're going to go back to the world we had. We're going to forward into something different.

AI assessment note: “A surprising number of the best companies in the world have been launched at the depths”

Q the podcast, I'm gonna kind of mess up your quote here, but it's something like, as an entrepreneur, you always live in two states of mind. One state of mind is, if we do this, we'll be unbeatable, and we're doing great, it's all working out, and then the other state of mind is, um, complete dread. We're dead. Are you, do you still experience those two thoughts? Right now?

A I, totally. I think the thing that changes as the company gets bigger is that the oscillation between those two things just keeps getting faster, and it's, like, I have a pretty incredible job now, and I, I see, in some cases, it's these incredible people who are setting up for completely new journeys, and kind of excited about this, and on the other side, it's, I mean, this is a real challenge. There's some serious hardship out there, and it's challenged in a way that I don't think anyone, like, like, no one would sign up for. It's this, like, Hey, everything I knew is now invalidated. I have to re-derive every single idea I have about my business, every single idea I have about being able to meet payroll, or who I'm working with, or in which way I'm showing up, or what my brand actually stands for. And it's, it's a crazy situation. But this keeps going, and even when a company is at the point that Shopify is at, like, I, I often go through these mental states back and forth in the same day. It's, uh, You sort of get used to it, but not really.

AI assessment note: “I, totally. I think the thing that changes as the company gets bigger”

Q What if you were planning on launching a product or service, right, before the pandemic happened? Um, and here you are, out in the world, you've got a Shopify storefront, and you're trying to generate interest, but you can't be out in the world. What are ways that people are able to market and to, to spread the word about what, what it is that they're offering?

A I think it's a better time than ever to do this through specifically social media. There's a lot more attention there. Like, I mean, it depends a lot on your product, of course, but We found the most sort of random subcategories of products ending up doing extremely well. Um, one of my favorite examples of this is decorative tapestries, which I never would have imagined being, but once you realize, hey, that's sort of a real world zoom background kind of accessory, then you realize why people are now buying, uh, decorative tapestries and wall art. And like, I think what you have to ask yourself is like, This product I'm creating, how does this fit into the story of the times? I mean, this is always a question you should ask yourself, but I think now, especially if you can tell your product fits better in a future that's emergent or fits in well in the times and solves a real problem, you will find an incredibly receptive audience.

AI assessment note: “I think it's a better time than ever to do this through specifically social media.”

Q Toby, how has this changed you as a leader? I mean, you started this company when you were so young, you oversee 5000 people. And I mean, how do you think it's changed the way you operate as a leader and the way you think about what it means to be a leader?

A I am learning a lot. I mean, before this, I used to do an AMA, ask me anything about once a quarter of the entire company, and it was sort of an in-person event again. Now it's something I'm doing weekly. Uh, like I, I, I've been hosting every town hall since because I think just the entire company has incredibly clarity of mission right now, again, about what we set out to do, but exactly how we do this really left to all these parts of a company. We love to be loosely coupled, but loosely coupled only really works when we come together and base our decisions on the same fundamentals. So just the amount of communication and the ways to communicate have evolved so much. I'll give you one example, like, for instance, I love spending time with my product teams. I love getting into deep, detailed, like, engineering conversations. This used to be, like, I just walked into the part of a team that worked on this, and, and we did a little workshop, and, uh, I, I can't do this anymore, but one thing I do have, I have a really good video setup now, and I think this is something everyone's involved, like, hitting that record button is really cheap. Going through a flow or a mock-up, And just talking about this, and then putting this into the right Slack channel, it's not as good, because it's not as fun, because it's the interactivity is missing. But then I get a video back, the response…

AI assessment note: “just the amount of communication and the ways to communicate have evolved so much.”

Q Toby, what kind, I mean, what are some kind of, like, types of stores you've seen people launch in recent weeks? Any examples that stick out?

A One of the most amazing things is, like, right at the earliest time, like, when Shelter-in-Place happened, and we saw new businesses and some existing businesses pivot towards mask-making, which is, of course, becoming much more important. We all know that there's a significant shortage in PPE, and some people retooled their sneaker factories to create Uh, masks. And, and, and a lot of people drove efforts from home. That's one of the things we saw. The other thing is, it's just been an enormous community effort of bringing sort of a favorite local businesses online so that they can do curbside pickup or even do deliveries in, in the neighborhood. And, um, what's been remarkable is that, that we've seen some of these businesses actually do better than they've ever done before. It's not the rule, but like we, we hear this in our Calls with our customers and, ah, like just sort of local, even local newspaper stories, which is really, really awesome.

AI assessment note: “we saw new businesses and some existing businesses pivot towards mask-making”

Q that you still have self doubt and, and that you talk about it. And I think that's super important and healthy. I mean, if you had an idea or you kind of wanted to launch something for a while, I mean, is now a good time to do it? I guess it's hard. It's hard question to answer, but are there opportunities now given what's going on around the world?

A A surprising number of the best companies in the world have been launched at the depths of recessions. Well, look, so the way we are talking about this internally is, um, uh, from what we're seeing, twenty-thirty basically got pulled to twenty-twenty forward on all trends that relate to digitalization. Again, all these businesses that only were retail just disappeared. There's a vacuum that were left behind, which they are scrambling to, to fill in. The businesses that were More digitally native. Business that had retail, but also were online and on the different channels like Instagram or Pinterest. They have replaced over 90% of their lost sales. And so it's not really that people have stopped spending money. The mix of how people spend their money has changed. It's a lot more online. It's a lot more on the kinds of products that you need around the house. So that is a backdrop against which amazing entrepreneurial stories can be written. Because there is just opportunity, especially on the recovery side, where people can just have new options on the market. And I think that's, a lot of people now have a new understanding of what the world's probably going to be like. I don't think we're going to go back to the world we had. We're going to forward into something different.

AI assessment note: “A surprising number of the best companies in the world have been launched at the depths”

Q the podcast, I'm gonna kind of mess up your quote here, but it's something like, as an entrepreneur, you always live in two states of mind. One state of mind is, if we do this, we'll be unbeatable, and we're doing great, it's all working out, and then the other state of mind is, um, complete dread. We're dead. Are you, do you still experience those two thoughts? Right now?

A I, totally. I think the thing that changes as the company gets bigger is that the oscillation between those two things just keeps getting faster, and it's, like, I have a pretty incredible job now, and I, I see, in some cases, it's these incredible people who are setting up for completely new journeys, and kind of excited about this, and on the other side, it's, I mean, this is a real challenge. There's some serious hardship out there, and it's challenged in a way that I don't think anyone, like, like, no one would sign up for. It's this, like, Hey, everything I knew is now invalidated. I have to re-derive every single idea I have about my business, every single idea I have about being able to meet payroll, or who I'm working with, or in which way I'm showing up, or what my brand actually stands for. And it's, it's a crazy situation. But this keeps going, and even when a company is at the point that Shopify is at, like, I, I often go through these mental states back and forth in the same day. It's, uh, You sort of get used to it, but not really.

AI assessment note: “totally. I think the thing that changes as the company gets bigger is that the oscillation”

Q Toby, what kind, I mean, what are some kind of, like, types of stores you've seen people launch in recent weeks? Any examples that stick out?

A One of the most amazing things is, like, right at the earliest time, like, when Shelter-in-Place happened, and we saw new businesses and some existing businesses pivot towards mask-making, which is, of course, becoming much more important. We all know that there's a significant shortage in PPE, and some people retooled their sneaker factories to create Uh, masks. And, and, and a lot of people drove efforts from home. That's one of the things we saw. The other thing is, it's just been an enormous community effort of bringing sort of a favorite local businesses online so that they can do curbside pickup or even do deliveries in, in the neighborhood. And, um, what's been remarkable is that, that we've seen some of these businesses actually do better than they've ever done before. It's not the rule, but like we, we hear this in our Calls with our customers and, ah, like just sort of local, even local newspaper stories, which is really, really awesome.

AI assessment note: “we saw new businesses and some existing businesses pivot towards mask-making”

Q What if you were planning on launching a product or service, right, before the pandemic happened? Um, and here you are, out in the world, you've got a Shopify storefront, and you're trying to generate interest, but you can't be out in the world. What are ways that people are able to market and to, to spread the word about what, what it is that they're offering?

A I think it's a better time than ever to do this through specifically social media. There's a lot more attention there. Like, I mean, it depends a lot on your product, of course, but We found the most sort of random subcategories of products ending up doing extremely well. Um, one of my favorite examples of this is decorative tapestries, which I never would have imagined being, but once you realize, hey, that's sort of a real world zoom background kind of accessory, then you realize why people are now buying, uh, decorative tapestries and wall art. And like, I think what you have to ask yourself is like, This product I'm creating, how does this fit into the story of the times? I mean, this is always a question you should ask yourself, but I think now, especially if you can tell your product fits better in a future that's emergent or fits in well in the times and solves a real problem, you will find an incredibly receptive audience.

AI assessment note: “I think it's a better time than ever to do this through specifically social media.”

Q Toby, how has this changed you as a leader? I mean, you started this company when you were so young, you oversee 5000 people. And I mean, how do you think it's changed the way you operate as a leader and the way you think about what it means to be a leader?

A I am learning a lot. I mean, before this, I used to do an AMA, ask me anything about once a quarter of the entire company, and it was sort of an in-person event again. Now it's something I'm doing weekly. Uh, like I, I, I've been hosting every town hall since because I think just the entire company has incredibly clarity of mission right now, again, about what we set out to do, but exactly how we do this really left to all these parts of a company. We love to be loosely coupled, but loosely coupled only really works when we come together and base our decisions on the same fundamentals. So just the amount of communication and the ways to communicate have evolved so much. I'll give you one example, like, for instance, I love spending time with my product teams. I love getting into deep, detailed, like, engineering conversations. This used to be, like, I just walked into the part of a team that worked on this, and, and we did a little workshop, and, uh, I, I can't do this anymore, but one thing I do have, I have a really good video setup now, and I think this is something everyone's involved, like, hitting that record button is really cheap. Going through a flow or a mock-up, And just talking about this, and then putting this into the right Slack channel, it's not as good, because it's not as fun, because it's the interactivity is missing. But then I get a video back, the response…

AI assessment note: “just the amount of communication and the ways to communicate have evolved so much”

Q Um, you guys go public in 2015. Um, you went public because presumably your investors wanted, you wanted to kind of give them return. People had waited a long time. This is 2015. People had started giving you money in 2004. Was that the reason why you went public?

A It probably would have become the reason eventually, but not at this point of time because, um, the investments only happened five years before that. Right. I took the investments knowing that I'm going to be raising the clock to either go public or get sold. Um, that was the duality of, of outcome. And by the way, this is true for every person who sells shares in their company. Just most people don't realize that that's what, what's happening. But I, I went in, into the venture world pretty clear eyed about what it means. And so I really wanted to set up a company to become an independent public company because My private investors have all seen Shopify perform under promise over deliver month after month and board meeting after board meeting. All of them fully trusted the company and further good performance was not really buying us anything new.

AI assessment note: “It probably would have become the reason eventually, but not at this point of time”

Q Um, you guys go public in 2015. Um, you went public because presumably your investors wanted, you wanted to kind of give them return. People had waited a long time. This is 2015. People had started giving you money in 2004. Was that the reason why you went public?

A It probably would have become the reason eventually, but not at this point of time because, um, the investments only happened five years before that. Right. I took the investments knowing that I'm going to be raising the clock to either go public or get sold. Um, that was the duality of, of outcome. And by the way, this is true for every person who sells shares in their company. Just most people don't realize that that's what, what's happening. But I, I went in, into the venture world pretty clear eyed about what it means. And so I really wanted to set up a company to become an independent public company because My private investors have all seen Shopify perform under promise over deliver month after month and board meeting after board meeting. All of them fully trusted the company and further good performance was not really buying us anything new.

AI assessment note: “It probably would have become the reason eventually, but not at this point of time”

Q people are relying on Slack to communicate. You're in a similar position. I mean, most businesses are not doing well now. But Shopify, of course, has benefited from so many people signing up. I mean, obviously, it's good for your company. You're a publicly traded company. You've got a responsibility to, you know, a series of constituents. But I don't know, is there something a little weird about it too?

A Yeah. No, it certainly is. Uh, I don't exactly know how I feel about this either. I mean, one thing I can do is Try to share any good fortune coming our way. Like the most wonderful thing about Shopify is that we can actually make a difference, right? We will work at Shopify or Slack. Um, we, we all made life choices that meant we didn't wind up being doctors or nurses or frontline workers. So it's very hard for us to, uh, join the real heroes of this crisis, uh, and make a difference in the most important realm. But at least we at Shopify, we can make a significant impact on the second wave economic crisis that comes from the humanitarian crisis. Like we really, really, really believe that merchants and the small business and the entrepreneurs are such an important part of the economy. Like more than 50% of people in the world work for small businesses. So what we try as much as we can is, uh, launch everything, even if you're uncomfortable about the quality. If you have something in the pipeline and the roadmap that makes a difference Right now, we are currently getting this out of the door. So we are trying, like, we're bringing everything forward, like local delivery, curbside pickup, all these things are things that we are trying to build better software for, because here's what happens. Like, we brought 20, 3010 years forward. So that also means we all are in 2030 right n…

AI assessment note: “Yeah. No, it certainly is. Uh, I don't exactly know how I feel”

Q So what, what did you, how did you start to build it? I mean, I guess there was a I, I read about this, this sort of language that you found called Ruby on Rails. What was that, and why was that so significant?

A So, I had this realization that I'm probably going to be the only programmer that will ever work on this. So, I don't actually have to choose something that lots of people know. I can actually choose just the best tool for the job. And so, I've always, there's been this programming language called Ruby, which I just absolutely loved. It was, you know, people don't usually talk about programming languages like this, but, um, I find, um, Like, I, I really, really love the process of constructing something in your brain, having this idea. It's, it's a little bit also like painting. Yeah. You have an idea for, for something, and then the programming language ends up being the mechanism for translating this perfect picture you have in your head onto a canvas.

AI assessment note: “I don't actually have to choose something that lots of people know.”

Q people are relying on Slack to communicate. You're in a similar position. I mean, most businesses are not doing well now. But Shopify, of course, has benefited from so many people signing up. I mean, obviously, it's good for your company. You're a publicly traded company. You've got a responsibility to, you know, a series of constituents. But I don't know, is there something a little weird about it too?

A Yeah. No, it certainly is. Uh, I don't exactly know how I feel about this either. I mean, one thing I can do is Try to share any good fortune coming our way. Like the most wonderful thing about Shopify is that we can actually make a difference, right? We will work at Shopify or Slack. Um, we, we all made life choices that meant we didn't wind up being doctors or nurses or frontline workers. So it's very hard for us to, uh, join the real heroes of this crisis, uh, and make a difference in the most important realm. But at least we at Shopify, we can make a significant impact on the second wave economic crisis that comes from the humanitarian crisis. Like we really, really, really believe that merchants and the small business and the entrepreneurs are such an important part of the economy. Like more than 50% of people in the world work for small businesses. So what we try as much as we can is, uh, launch everything, even if you're uncomfortable about the quality. If you have something in the pipeline and the roadmap that makes a difference Right now, we are currently getting this out of the door. So we are trying, like, we're bringing everything forward, like local delivery, curbside pickup, all these things are things that we are trying to build better software for, because here's what happens. Like, we brought 20, 3010 years forward. So that also means we all are in 2030 right n…

AI assessment note: “Yeah. No, it certainly is. Uh, I don't exactly know how I feel”

Q people are relying on Slack to communicate. You're in a similar position. I mean, most businesses are not doing well now. But Shopify, of course, has benefited from so many people signing up. I mean, obviously, it's good for your company. You're a publicly traded company. You've got a responsibility to, you know, a series of constituents. But I don't know, is there something a little weird about it too?

A Yeah. No, it certainly is. Uh, I don't exactly know how I feel about this either. I mean, one thing I can do is Try to share any good fortune coming our way. Like the most wonderful thing about Shopify is that we can actually make a difference, right? We will work at Shopify or Slack. Um, we, we all made life choices that meant we didn't wind up being doctors or nurses or frontline workers. So it's very hard for us to, uh, join the real heroes of this crisis, uh, and make a difference in the most important realm. But at least we at Shopify, we can make a significant impact on the second wave economic crisis that comes from the humanitarian crisis. Like we really, really, really believe that merchants and the small business and the entrepreneurs are such an important part of the economy. Like more than 50% of people in the world work for small businesses. So what we try as much as we can is, uh, launch everything, even if you're uncomfortable about the quality. If you have something in the pipeline and the roadmap that makes a difference Right now, we are currently getting this out of the door. So we are trying, like, we're bringing everything forward, like local delivery, curbside pickup, all these things are things that we are trying to build better software for, because here's what happens. Like, we brought 20, 3010 years forward. So that also means we all are in 2030 right n…

AI assessment note: “Yeah. No, it certainly is. Uh, I don't exactly know how I feel”

Q So what, what did you, how did you start to build it? I mean, I guess there was a I, I read about this, this sort of language that you found called Ruby on Rails. What was that, and why was that so significant?

A So, I had this realization that I'm probably going to be the only programmer that will ever work on this. So, I don't actually have to choose something that lots of people know. I can actually choose just the best tool for the job. And so I've always, there's been this programming language called Ruby, which I just absolutely loved. It was, you know, people don't usually talk about programming languages like this, but, um, I find, um, Like, I, I really, really love the process of constructing something in your brain, having this idea. It's, it's a little bit also like painting. Yeah. You have an idea for, for something, and then the programming language ends up being the mechanism for translating this perfect picture you have in your head onto a canvas.

AI assessment note: “I can actually choose just the best tool for the job. And so I've”

Q So what, what did you, how did you start to build it? I mean, I guess there was a I, I read about this, this sort of language that you found called Ruby on Rails. What was that, and why was that so significant?

A So, I had this realization that I'm probably going to be the only programmer that will ever work on this. So, I don't actually have to choose something that lots of people know. I can actually choose just the best tool for the job. And so I've always, there's been this programming language called Ruby, which I just absolutely loved. It was, you know, people don't usually talk about programming languages like this, but, um, I find, um, Like, I, I really, really love the process of constructing something in your brain, having this idea. It's, it's a little bit also like painting. Yeah. You have an idea for, for something, and then the programming language ends up being the mechanism for translating this perfect picture you have in your head onto a canvas.

AI assessment note: “I don't actually have to choose something that lots of people know.”

Q So what, what did you, how did you start to build it? I mean, I guess there was a I, I read about this, this sort of language that you found called Ruby on Rails. What was that, and why was that so significant?

A So, I had this realization that I'm probably going to be the only programmer that will ever work on this. So, I don't actually have to choose something that lots of people know. I can actually choose just the best tool for the job. And so I've always, there's been this programming language called Ruby, which I just absolutely loved. It was, you know, people don't usually talk about programming languages like this, but, um, I find, um, Like, I, I really, really love the process of constructing something in your brain, having this idea. It's, it's a little bit also like painting. Yeah. You have an idea for, for something, and then the programming language ends up being the mechanism for translating this perfect picture you have in your head onto a canvas.

AI assessment note: “I can actually choose just the best tool for the job... programming language called Ruby”

Q So what, what did you, how did you start to build it? I mean, I guess there was a I, I read about this, this sort of language that you found called Ruby on Rails. What was that, and why was that so significant?

A So, I had this realization that I'm probably going to be the only programmer that will ever work on this. So, I don't actually have to choose something that lots of people know. I can actually choose just the best tool for the job. And so, I've always, there's been this programming language called Ruby, which I just absolutely loved. It was, you know, people don't usually talk about programming languages like this, but, um, I find, um, Like, I, I really, really love the process of constructing something in your brain, having this idea. It's, it's a little bit also like painting. Yeah. You have an idea for, for something, and then the programming language ends up being the mechanism for translating this perfect picture you have in your head onto a canvas.

AI assessment note: “I can actually choose just the best tool for the job. And so, I've always, there's been this programming language called Ruby”

Q So was it pretty quick from the time you launched the website to the time you got your first orders?

A It took, um, let me, let me just double click on this because, you know, I was working from coffee shops at this time. I, I, um, I had my first order. I actually remember almost like everything about that day. This is actually ended up being a really profound experience because, um, I wrote the software. At some point doing writing the software, I actually had to type the email that the software would send to me. Like, and so, you know, I, I went to a coffee shop. I opened my laptop. And, um, it was a real order from, uh, a gentleman in Pennsylvania. No one I ever met. And it really felt like, I think that's what makes you an entrepreneur. Like the first time you sell something, or first time someone hires you for when the phone rings or something like this. Because until then, you're just someone who builds something, which is already great. But like, it's that moment, and it's something, when I meet Shopify customers, I often ask them, like, hey, where were you when you got that first order, and everyone can remember it.

AI assessment note: “let me just double click on this because, you know, I was working from coffee shops”

Q So was it pretty quick from the time you launched the website to the time you got your first orders?

A It took, um, let me, let me just double click on this, because, you know, I was working from coffee shops at this time. I, I, um, I had my first order. I actually remember almost, like, everything about that day. This actually ended up being a really profound experience, because, um, I wrote the software. At some point during writing the software, I actually had to type the email that The software would send to me, like, and so, you know, I, I went to a coffee shop, I opened my laptop, and, um, it was a real order from, uh, a gentleman in Pennsylvania. No one I ever met, and it really felt like, I think that's what makes you an entrepreneur. Like, the first time you sell something, or first time someone hires you for, when the phone rings, or something like this. Because until then, you're just someone who builds something, which is already great, but like, it's that moment, and it's something that When I meet Shopify customers, I often ask them, like, hey, where were you when you got that first order, and everyone can remember it.

AI assessment note: “It took, um, let me, let me just double click on this, because”