“Every phase of building a company is really hard.” — Tobias Lutke Quote

Every phase of building a company is really hard.

Growing up, I spent my time doing useless stuff looking at computers.

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.

I care about working on interesting problems, and Shopify is this gift that keeps on giving for working on interesting problems with amazing people.

Commerce is a powerful, underestimated form of expression. We use it to cast a vote with every product we buy. It's a direct expression of democracy. This is why our mission at Shopify is to protect that form of expression and make it better for everyone, not just for those we agree with.

I smuggled the camera, it was no problem to smuggle the camera there. And I took 60 photos, two films, during the time when there was no one in the control room, in the building.

For countries such as Kenya to emerge as economic powerhouses, they need better infrastructure: roads, ports, smart grids and power plants. Infrastructure is expensive, and takes a long time to build. In the meantime, hackers are building 'grassroots infrastructure,' using the mobile-phone system to build solutions that are ready for market.

I was a fan of the NCAA Tournament and watching when I could, but now I have files on over a 120 college teams that I have been building on over the last few years.

My idea is to fill an intersection with color. That will include the road and the sidewalk and up the building, so there's a cubic volume of color in the intersection wedged between four corners and four buildings.