The Shopify IPO - Acquired

What this episode covers

Ben and David head north of the border to Ottawa, Canada to cover perhaps one of the greatest IPO success stories of the past 5 years, Shopify. From humble beginnings as a “lifestyle business” hawking hipster snowboard gear online to now routinely mentioned in the same breath as Amazon, the tale of Shopify and its incredible CEO Tobi Lütke’s ascent is not one to miss!Editor's note: Shopify actually powered $41b of sales, not $14b, in 2018, as discussed toward the end of the episode. $14b was the fourth-quarter number. While this changes the analysis of value captured at the end of the episode (Shopify only captures 2.5% of merchant sales as their own revenue, not 7%, which is admittedly very different), it doesn’t change overall sentiment on the company discussed in the episode.Sponsors:Anthropic: https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25Sentry: https://bit.ly/acquiredsentryThe Acquired Meetup (in SF!): https://bit.ly/sentryacquiredmeetupWorkOS: https://acquired.fm/unpluggedPlaying Cards: https://bit.ly/workOSshop (Code: ACQDECK)Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26Links:https://www.snowdevil.cahttps://www.jadedpixel.comCitron’s “research” report: https://citronresearch.com/citron-exposes-the-dark-side-of-shopify/Carve Outs:Ben: Moment smartphone camera lenses: https://www.shopmoment.comDavid: Quoteapro engineering and head of product roles, Bill Gurley on Invest like the Best: http://investorfieldguide.com/gurley/More Acquired!Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodesJoin the SlackSubscribe to ACQ2Merch Store!© Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC

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Frequently Asked Questions

How long is this episode of Acquired?

This episode is 1 hour and 31 minutes long.

When was this Acquired episode published?

This episode was published on August 6, 2019.

What is this episode about?

Ben and David head north of the border to Ottawa, Canada to cover perhaps one of the greatest IPO success stories of the past 5 years, Shopify. From humble beginnings as a “lifestyle business” hawking hipster snowboard gear online to now routinely...

Can I download this Acquired episode?

Yes, you can download this episode by clicking the download button on the episode player, or subscribe to the podcast in your preferred podcast app for automatic downloads.