Tobi Lütke, Shopify

Tobi Lütke, Shopify

From David Senra by Scicomm Media

January 18, 2026 · 2h 24m · Episode 9

About this episode

Tobi Lütke discusses his journey as the co-founder and CEO of Shopify, highlighting the company's growth and his contributions to e-commerce.

Tobi Lütke is the co-founder of Shopify, where he has served as the company's CEO since 2008. Under his leadership, Shopify grew from an online snowboard shop in Ottawa, Canada in 2004 to the world's leading e-commerce platform, powering over 4 million merchants in more than 175 countries. The company went public in 2015 at a $1.27 billion valuation and has since grown to a market capitalization exceeding $200 billion. After dropping out of school following the tenth grade in Germany, Lütke completed an apprenticeship in computer programming at the Koblenzer Carl-Benz-School. He moved to Canada in 2002 and launched Snowdevil, an online snowboard shop, in 2004 with Scott Lake and Daniel Weinand. Frustrated with existing e-commerce solutions, Lütke built his own platform using Ruby on Rails, which became Shopify in 2006. He became known for pioneering accessible e-commerce tools, contributing to the Ruby on Rails open-source community, and championing the idea that entrepreneurship should be available to everyone. His accomplishments include building Shopify into one of Canada's most valuable companies, being named "CEO of the Year" by The Globe and Mail in 2014, receiving Canada's…

People in this episode

Host: David Senra

Guest: Tobi Lütke

Topics covered

  • e-commerce
  • entrepreneurship
  • technology
  • business growth
  • leadership

Keywords

  • Shopify
  • Tobi Lütke
  • e-commerce platform
  • entrepreneurship
  • technology industry
  • business leadership
  • Ruby on Rails

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Shopify, The Globe and Mail, Thistledown Foundation, Coinbase

Places: Germany, Ottawa, Canada

More episodes of David Senra

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the David Senra podcast page.