Tobias Lütke, founder and CEO of Shopify, describes building interest through development blogging and an email waitlist ahead of the platform's public launch.
0:00 / 0:06exact quote · 6.2s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“By the time we launched in 2006, I think we had four or 5000 emails, so it's not, but that seemed like a lot.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading:
filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard
(the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Tobias Lütke
Insight
Lütke: Selling company shares creates a ticking clock to IPO or sale
“I took the investments knowing that I'm going to be raising the clock to either go public or get sold. That was the duality 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 …”
“Working for Siemens has been probably one of the most important things I've ever done in my life because it kind of taught me what I don't want. It was, In so many ways, a strange company culture in the way that it felt exceptionally mistrusting of everyone, r…”
Tobias LütkeJun 8, 2026▶ 8:19Shopify: Tobias Lütke. How a snowboarder built a $150 billion business (2019)
AssertionNot checkable as stated
VCs rescinded Shopify's term sheets during the 2008 financial crisis
“So basically, I got this around this time, notice that term sheets will no longer be honored, because everyone needs to tighten bells, and so on.”
Tobias LütkeJun 8, 2026▶ 38:40Shopify: Tobias Lütke. How a snowboarder built a $150 billion business (2019)
Disclosure
Lütke intentionally slowed Shopify's growth in 2009 to keep it manageable
“At this point, I intentionally slowed down the growth of the company a little bit just because I needed it to be manageable for me.”
Tobias LütkeJun 8, 2026▶ 41:37Shopify: Tobias Lütke. How a snowboarder built a $150 billion business (2019)
AssertionSupported
Lütke: Digitally Native Retailers Replaced Over 90% of Lost Sales
“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.”
Tobias LütkeMay 16, 2020▶ 5:19How I Built Resilience: Live with Tobias Lütke and Jon Stein
Insight
Lütke: The pandemic pulled 2030 forward, leaving society with 2020-quality software
“Like, we brought 20, 3010 years forward. So that also means we all are in 2030 right now, with circa 20 20 quality software.”
Tobias LütkeMay 16, 2020▶ 11:12How I Built Resilience: Live with Tobias Lütke and Jon Stein
Made with StarZero
Turn any episode into a week of clips.
This entire site, over 800 episodes transcribed, diarized, checked and made playable,
runs on the StarZero media pipeline. Drop in your own episode and the podcast clipper finds the
moments worth sharing, cuts them, captions them, and reframes them for every feed.
We use essential cookies to make the site work. With your permission we
also use analytics cookies (Google Analytics and Mixpanel) to understand
usage and improve StarZero. See our Cookie Policy.