#261 Tobi Lütke - CEO of Shopify: How Shopify Became a Cheat Code for Entrepreneurs

The Shawn Ryan Show

Shawn Ryan Show

Society & Culture, Philosophy

4.9 • 38.1K Ratings

🗓️ 11 December 2025

⏱️ 181 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Tobi Lütke is a German born Canadian who built a multibillion-dollar company from a snowboard shop; champions economic freedom for regular people starting businesses; combines old-world craftsmanship with modern innovation. He is an entrepreneur, software developer, best known as the co-founder and CEO of Shopify, a leading e-commerce platform powering over 4 million merchants worldwide as of 2024, generating billions in annual revenue. Born in Germany, Lütke discovered his passion for coding at a young age with a Schneider CPC computer, rewriting game code by age 11. A self-taught programmer who dropped out of school after tenth grade to pursue a computer programming apprenticeship at Koblenzer Carl-Benz-School, he moved to Canada in the early 2000s. In 2004, as a snowboard enthusiast, Lütke co-founded Snowdevil, an online snowboard shop, but frustrations with existing e-commerce tools led him to build a custom platform using Ruby on Rails, which became Shopify in 2006 in Ottawa, Canada. Under his leadership, Shopify went public in 2015, reaching a market capitalization exceeding $100 billion at its peak. He is a core contributor to Ruby on Rails and creator of open-source libraries like Active Merchant. Lütke joined Coinbase’s board in 2022. Tobi is a competitive racing driver in the 2025 IMSA SportsCar Championship’s LMP2 class for Era Motorsport. He is married to Fiona McKean, a former Canadian diplomat, with three children. He co-founded the Thistledown Foundation, supporting environmental causes through initiatives like Shopify’s Sustainability Fund. Lütke advocates for ethical technology, small business empowerment, and innovative leadership, often speaking on platforms like Invest Like the Best about building sustainable tech ecosystems. Shawn Ryan Show Sponsors: Visit https://shopbeam.com/SRS and use code SRS to get our exclusive discount of up to 50% off. Go to https://ShawnLikesGold.com right now to get your free 2025 Gold & Silver Kit. Ready to upgrade your eyewear? Check them out at https://roka.com and use code SRS for 20% off sitewide. Upgrade your routine with Caldera Lab and see the difference for yourself. Go to https://CalderaLab.com/SRS and use SRS at checkout for 20% off your first order. Tobi Lütke Links: X - https://x.com/tobi IG - https://www.instagram.com/tobi Get started with Shopify - https://shopify.com/srs Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Toby Lukie, welcome to the show.
0:07.5	I'm so excited to be here.
0:09.0	Man, I've been excited about this for a long time.
0:12.0	But, you know, I want to start this off.
0:14.0	I feel like I owe you a thank you.
0:16.0	I don't feel like I owe you a thank you.
0:19.0	How so?
0:20.0	Because what you've done with Shopify has just,
0:26.4	it is what brought success to my business and so many others.
0:31.0	And so I'll just give you a story.
0:32.5	You know, when I started this in around 2015, actually,
0:37.2	in December 2015, so almost exactly 10 years ago.
0:41.3	And, you know, this kind of started as a tactical training company.
0:47.3	And I had just gotten, I had just left CIA contracting for the CIA.
0:52.3	I didn't really know what I was going to do. And I've always
0:54.3	wanted to, you know, get into entrepreneurship. So I started this company and, but I had no money.
1:01.3	And web developed, you know, to create a website back then was, I mean, it was, it was, it was,
1:07.6	for me, it was a lot of money. I mean, it was, if I remember right, it was about
1:11.6	$20, $25,000 to get a website made. And I was like, man, I don't have $25,000. But I did it. I did it.
1:20.6	And I got a shitty website from a developer who I needed to call and have meetings with about every day, every time I wanted
1:29.8	a new product out there, and I was just selling courses.
1:33.2	And, you know, of course, every time I wanted to add another product, that was several
	...

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