Tobi Lütke on Creating Shopify for Americans as a German in Canada | Conversations with Tyler

Tobi Lütke is the CEO and co-founder of Shopify. 20 years ago, he was just a German coder who emigrated to Canada to launch some ecommerce platform with another German. Now he’s the world-renowned thought and tech leader who has revolutionized online shopping for billions. He’s also the creator of many open-source libraries like Liquid, Active Merchant, and the Typo weblog engine. Tyler and Tobi hop from Germany to Canada to America to discuss a range of topics like how outsiders make good coders, learning in meetings by saying wrong things, having one-on-ones with your kids, the positives of venting, German craftsmanship vs. American agility, why German schooling made him miserable, why there aren’t more German tech giants, untranslatable words, the dividing line of between Northern and Southern Germany, why other countries shouldn’t compare themselves to the US, Canada’s lack of exports and brands, ice skating to work in Ottawa, how VR and AI will change retailing, why he expects to be “terribly embarrassed” when looking back at companies in the 2020s, why The Lean Startup is bad for retailers, how fantasy novels teach business principles, what he's learning next, and more. Recorded July 23rd, 2024 Transcript and links: https://conversationswithtyler.com/ep... Stay connected: Follow us on X, IG, and Facebook: @cowenconvos   / cowenconvos     / cowenconvos     / cowenconvos   Join us on Discord:   / discord   https://conversationswithtyler.com https://mercatus.org Timestamps: 00:00:00 - Stand-up meetings 00:01:38 - Meeting culture 00:21:15 - German words that don't have English equivalents 00:26:56 - How Canada has changed since Tobi moved there 00:37:31 - Ottawa as an underrated city 00:39:06 - The future of the internet and retail 00:47:29 - Companies as complex adaptive systems 00:58:24 - Interesting books Tobi has read recently