Words matter. These are the best Tobias Lutke Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
People say Facebook connects the world. Facebook has 5,000 Ph.D.s that think about how to make you click on ads you don’t want to see. Their business model is about something that most people would not perceive as making the world better.
It’s not a principle unless it costs you something.
I got my first computer when I was 6, and I was part of that early generation of children who grew up with computers always being around. I fell in love with them early on.
We have a lot of really great companies in Canada, and I think there’s always been this fear that ‘great’ in Canada doesn’t mean great on a world stage. We need more self-confidence. We are building incredibly good businesses with incredibly good people, being loyal, dedicating themselves to solving important problems.
Why do Canadians sell themselves short? I’ve never been able to answer that question.
Computers are the most powerful tools that humanity has ever created. Yet, we treat them largely as a black box; as if it were an alien artifact that magically appeared on desks, in homes, and in our pockets.
Being part of something that’s growing fast is better than being part of something that isn’t growing fast because opportunities are essentially everywhere, and you’re not competing for something.
I think I probably had to start a company, because I don’t think I can work for other people.
Everyone loves feeling comfortable. But it’s actually completely useless.
At Shopify, we are trying to make things as simple as possible, but for the business owner, it’s not unlike starting your own little shop along Main Street somewhere.
I’m ridiculously lucky.
Shopify has been a perpetually underestimated company at every point of its history.
Given the success rate, if you want to get wealthy, entrepreneurship is a horrible way of doing it. There are significantly easier ways of doing it.
Products are a form of speech, and free speech must be fiercely protected, even if we disagree with some of the voices.
Growing up, I spent my time doing useless stuff looking at computers.
Change has to be fundamental to a company’s culture, or there is no way it can survive.
Our mantra has been, ‘We will not buy a company unless we think the people that make up the company have a better job the day after the acquisition than before.’
I am a worrier. I tend to do something about what I worry about.
Being a start-up has nothing to do with the numbers. It’s that everyone who works there has the chance to do everything and have an impact.
Sometimes, when you’re building a company, out of necessity there’s just a gazillion things you have to learn and figure out.
Different people need different kinds of communication for it to have the same effect. That was something I had to learn.
Shopify was built as a company that could be run remotely anywhere.
All of us in Canada have to be better at making a dollar count, because we have fewer dollars.
When the market turns down, a lot of people lose jobs… and that’s the time people become entrepreneurs. Downturns end up being the best times to start companies.
It took about 10 years’ time for Shopify to be an overnight success.
