Harley Finkelstein

Episode 715: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) and Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) talk to Harley Finkelstein ( https://x.com/harleyf ) about boring products that could be worth $100M.  — Show Notes: (0:00) Disrupting boring products (15:05) Swiss Army knife founders (21:42) "People only remember your weird" (31:45) Considering an exit (39:32) Becoming a better storyteller (46:17) Shopify's leaked memo about AI (51:26) Biohacking Longevity — Links: • Shopify - https://shopify.com/  • Touchland - https://touchland.com/  • Firebelly Tea - https://firebellytea.com/  • Ember Mug - https://ember.com/  • David’s Tea - https://davidstea.com/  • AG1 - https://drinkag1.com/  • Method - https://www.methodhome.com/  • Olly - https://www.olly.com/  • Welly - https://www.getwelly.com/  • Ritual - https://ritual.com/  • Seed - https://seed.com/  • Prose - https://prose.com/  • Prenuvo - https://www.prenuvo.com/  • CLEERLY - https://cleerlyhealth.com/  • 29029 - https://29029everesting.com/  — Check Out Shaan's Stuff: • Shaan's weekly email - https://www.shaanpuri.com  • Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents. • Mercury - Need a bank for your company? Go check out Mercury (mercury.com). Shaan uses it for all of his companies! Mercury is a financial technology company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., and Evolve Bank & Trust, Members FDIC — Check Out Sam's Stuff: • Hampton - https://www.joinhampton.com/ • Ideation Bootcamp - https://www.ideationbootcamp.co/ • Copy That - https://copythat.com • Hampton Wealth Survey - https://joinhampton.com/wealth • Sam’s List - http://samslist.co/ My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano

Harley Finkelstein

President

Shopify

In this moment, the President of Shopify, Harley Finkelstein, discusses why having a diverse skillset is the best way to stand out in your industry and a way of becoming invaluable. A lot of the time you may think that having diverse skills in the form of hobbies or curiosities are a waste of time and take attention away from your main area of focus or business. However, Harley believes that these skills are actually priceless for an entrepreneur and leader, so much so that he attended law school just to become a better entrepreneur.  Listen To The Full Episode Here - https://g2ul0.app.link/RVuTuSXMEDb Watch The Episodes On Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/c/%20TheDiaryOfACEO/videos Harley: https://www.instagram.com/harley/?hl=en https://harleyf.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harley Finkelstein

President

Shopify

In this new episode Steven sits down with the Canadian entrepreneur and President of Shopify, Harley Finkelstein. Harley was 17 years when we started his first company selling T-shirts at University. Later, while studying law at the University of Ottawa, Harley met the future co-founder of Shopify, Tobias Lütke, and became an early adopter of the platform. After graduating from law school, Harley worked as a lawyer before joining Shopify in 2010 as it’s first employee. Since then Harley has helped Shopify grow from a start-up to one of the world’s leading e-commerce platforms in the world, powering over 1 million businesses in 175 countries. In this conversation Harley and Steven discuss topics, such as: Harley’s mission to make more people into entrepreneurs Why Harley had no choice but to become an entrepreneur Downshifting and what ‘being enough’ truly means Why Harley searches for meaning rather than happiness Follow: Instagram: https://bit.ly/3M49FnB Twitter: https://bit.ly/3M3BLPF Follow me: https://beacons.ai/diaryofaceo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harley Finkelstein

President

Shopify

My guest today is Harley Finkelstein. Harley is the President of Shopify and has been with the company since its early years. He is a lawyer by training but an entrepreneur by calling and that is the focus of our discussion. We discuss the different dimensions of entrepreneurship and Shopify’s role in promoting it, as well as exploring the company’s transition to public markets, and what the last few years have been like. Please enjoy my discussion with Harley Finkelstein.    For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.   -----   This episode is brought to you by Canalyst. Canalyst is the leading destination for public company data and analysis. If you're a professional equity investor and haven't talked to Canalyst recently, you should give them a shout. Learn more and try Canalyst for yourself at canalyst.com/Patrick.    -----   Today's episode is brought to you by Brex. Brex is the integrated financial platform trusted by the world's most innovative entrepreneurs and fastest-growing companies. With Brex, you can move money fast for instant impact with high-limit corporate cards, payments, venture debt, and spend management software all in one place. Ready to accelerate your business? Learn more at brex.com/best.   -----   Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.    Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.   Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus   Show Notes [00:02:26] - [First question] - His interpretation and definition of a person’s life's work  [00:05:50] - The story of the riverstone and the average polished executive  [00:08:36] - The thing he can’t help but do; and focusing on our compulsions [00:13:12] - How he would boil things down to the most simple entrepreneurial formula; Distilled [00:16:38] - What is harder and easier about new business formation today  [00:21:03] - The countervailing forces for small-to-medium business entrepreneurship  [00:24:31] - What he’s learned about operationalizing ideas and mentor lessons [00:29:08] - A piece of fortune cookie advice that he finds terrible [00:30:49] - How Brands Grow; his philosophy on marketing & distribution   [00:35:27] - The most effective distribution strategies he’s seen work in Shopify that might be portable to other businesses [00:38:43] - What it was like getting their first app developer for the Shopify app store [00:41:17] - The state of ecommerce today writ large and what trends are interesting  [00:45:46] - Lessons learned about the digital places that people are buying  [00:49:06] - What it’s been like as an executive working at a company that had their stock price explode over the pandemic  [00:52:25] - Tips for communicating effectively with Wall Street [00:54:14] - An investor that stands out in memory that really impressed him [00:55:10] - Important aspects of his world that are worth mentioning  [00:57:04] - Lessons learned about motivating people through DJing  [00:59:12] - Whether or not reading the crowd can apply to business [01:03:49] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him

Harley Finkelstein

President

Shopify

Chris Sacca is the Founder and Chairman @ Lowercase Capital, one of the best performing funds in the history of venture capital with a portfolio including Uber, Stripe, Twitter, Instagram, Twilio, Docker and many more. Why does Chris believe we have bred a generation of asshole kids? What is the right way to negotiate with children? How has that impacted how he manages his team? Anne Wojcicki is the Founder & CEO @ 23andMe, offering DNA testing with the most comprehensive ancestry breakdown, personalized health insights, and more. How did having kids change Anne's approach to time allocation and risk? Harley Finkelstein is the President of Shopify. Over the last 12 years, Harley has partnered with Tobi to the tune of building Shopify's revenue to over $4.6BN in 2021 and the team to over 10,000 employees. Does Harley believe he has always been a good father? What changes has Harley made to be more present and there for his children? Why does Harley advise couples therapy as early in a relationship as possible? Deena Shakir is a Partner at Lux Capital, one of the leading firms investing in emerging science and technology ventures at the outermost edges of what is possible. What specific negotiation tactics from parenting can be applied to business? How can a parent show their children they listen, they understand and are there for them? Why does Deena believe children make you more productive and more efficient? Eric Liaw is a General Partner @ IVP, one of the leading later-stage venture capital and growth equity firms of the last decade with $8.7 billion of committed capital and a 40-year IRR of 43.1%. What have been the biggest challenges for Eric of managing family and work? What have been some of Eric's biggest lessons in terms of how he communicates about his work to his family? Scott Dietzen is Vice Chairman of the Board of Pure Storage and served as the Company's CEO from 2010 to 2017. Under his leadership, Pure grew to thousands of employees and completed an IPO in 2015. What can parents learn from nature programs? What core elements of parenting are directly transferrable to management?

Chris Sacca

Investor

Lowercase CapitalLowercarbon Capital

Harley Finkelstein

President

Shopify

Deena Shakir

Partner

Lux Capital

Anne Wojcicki

CEO and Co-founder

23andMe

Harley Finkelstein is the President of Shopify, the platform modern commerce is built on. Over the last 12 years, Harley has partnered with Tobi to the tune of building Shopify's revenue to over $4.6BN in 2021 and the team to over 10,000 employees. On the side, Harley is an Advisor to Felicis Ventures and in the past has held board seats at CBC, Omers Ventures and The C100. If that was not enough, you can see Harley on a screen near you as one of the "Dragons" on CBC's Next Gen Den. In Today's Episode with Harley Finkelstein You Will Learn: 1.) The Founding Story: What was Harley's first entrepreneurial endeavour? How did seeing his family lose everything impact Harley's mindset and ambition? How did Harley first meet Tobi @ Shopify? How did the Shopify journey begin? 2.) Leadership Lessons: How has Harley changed as a leader over the 13 years with Shopify? How does Harley embrace vulnerability and authenticity in his communication with the team? What is Harley most insecure about when he looks at leadership today? What have been some of the biggest lessons Harley has learned from his board on what great leadership is? 3.) The Art of Marriage: What does Harley believe makes the most successful marriage? Why have Harley and his wife been seeing a marriage therapist from the early days? What is the biggest mistake people make when communicating with partners? How has Harley changed as a husband over the years? 4.) The Joy of Fatherhood: Does Harley always believe he has been a good father? What was his realisation moment that he was not being the father he wanted to be? What core elements of his behaviour did he change? How did that impact his relationship with his kids? How does Harley ensure he performs at the highest level while also being there and being present for his family? Item's Mentioned In Today's Episode with Harley Finkelstein Harley's Favourite Book: The Book of Ichigo Ichie: The Art of Making the Most of Every Moment, the Japanese Way

Harley Finkelstein

President

Shopify

There are countless ways for founders to learn how to build strong teams, strengthen go-to-market processes, and focus on growth and customer success. But a topic that's becoming more important, especially after such a challenging year, is founder well-being. Shopify President Harley Finkelstein shares insight on how successful entrepreneurs approach personal change, coaching, and ongoing development to achieve work-life harmony. Harley will be joined by Felicis founder and Managing Partner Aydin Senkut and Felicis' Head of Founder Success Dasha Maggio. They will discuss what founders should ask for and how focusing on personal development can lead to stronger teams and better outcomes for the business. Blog post and video: https://www.saastr.com/why-founders-should-prioritize-personal-development-with-shopify/

Harley Finkelstein

President

Shopify

Aydin Senkut

Founder and Managing Partner

FelicisFelicis Ventures

Nilay Patel talks with Harley Finkelstein, President of Shopify. Shopify makes software that allows businesses of all sizes to set up online stores, and from there it can handle everything from shipping orders to financing loans for expansion. The company went public in 2015, and as online commerce has exploded during the pandemic, it’s been on a tear ever since. Harley talks about competing with the tech giants, Shopify's content moderation policies, and the future of online retail. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Harley Finkelstein

President

Shopify

Harley Finkelstein (@harleyf) is an entrepreneur, lawyer, and the President of Shopify. He founded his first company at age 17 while a student at McGill. Harley is an advisor to Felicis Ventures, and he is one of the “dragons” on CBC’s Next Gen Den. In 2017, he received the Canadian Angel Investor of the Year award and Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 award, and in 2016 he was inducted into the Order of Ottawa. From 2014 to 2017 Harley was on the board of the C100, and from 2017 to 2020 he was on to the board of directors of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Please enjoy! This episode is brought to you by LMNT! What is LMNT? It’s a delicious, sugar-free electrolyte drink-mix. I’ve stocked up on boxes and boxes of this and usually use it 1–2 times per day. LMNT is formulated to help anyone with their electrolyte needs and perfectly suited to folks following a keto, low-carb, or Paleo diet. If you are on a low-carb diet or fasting, electrolytes play a key role in relieving hunger, cramps, headaches, tiredness, and dizziness. LMNT came up with a very special offer for you, my dear listeners. They’ve created Tim’s Club: Simply go to DrinkLMNT.com/Tim, select “Subscribe and Save,” and use promo code TIMSCLUB to get the 30-count box of LMNT for only $36. This will be valid for the lifetime of the subscription, and you can pause it anytime. * This episode is also brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. Whether you are looking to hire now for a critical role or thinking about needs that you may have in the future, LinkedIn Jobs can help. LinkedIn screens candidates for the hard and soft skills you’re looking for and puts your job in front of candidates looking for job opportunities that match what you have to offer. Using LinkedIn’s active community of more than 722 million professionals worldwide, LinkedIn Jobs can help you find and hire the right person faster. When your business is ready to make that next hire, find the right person with LinkedIn Jobs. You can pay what you want and get $50 off your first job. Just visit LinkedIn.com/Tim. * This episode is also brought to you by ExpressVPN. I’ve been using ExpressVPN to make sure that my data is secure and encrypted, without slowing my Internet speed. If you ever use public Wi-Fi at, say, a hotel or a coffee shop, where I often work and as many of my listeners do, you’re often sending data over an open network, meaning no encryption at all. A great way to ensure that all of your data is encrypted and can’t be easily read by hackers is by using ExpressVPN. All you need to do is download the ExpressVPN app on your computer or smartphone and then use the Internet just as you normally would. You click one button in the ExpressVPN app to secure 100% of your network data. Use my link ExpressVPN.com/Tim today and get an extra three months free on a one-year package! * If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading the reviews! For show notes and past guests, please visit tim.blog/podcast. Sign up for Tim’s email newsletter (“5-Bullet Friday”) at tim.blog/friday. For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts. Discover Tim’s books: tim.blog/books. Follow Tim: Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss Instagram: instagram.com/timferriss Facebook: facebook.com/timferriss YouTube: youtube.com/timferriss * DISCLAIMER: I own stock in Shopify. I was not compensated in any way to have Shopify represented on the program or to talk about my reasons for investing in Shopify. I may financially benefit if Shopify’s stock goes up in value. I am not an investment adviser. All opinions are mine alone. There are risks involved in placing an investment in any company. None of the information presented today is intended to form the basis for any offer or recommendation, or have any regard to the investment objectives, financial situation or needs of any specific person. Past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show include Jerry Seinfeld, Hugh Jackman, Dr. Jane Goodall, LeBron James, Kevin Hart, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jamie Foxx, Matthew McConaughey, Esther Perel, Elizabeth Gilbert, Terry Crews, Sia, Yuval Noah Harari, Malcolm Gladwell, Madeleine Albright, Cheryl Strayed, Jim Collins, Mary Karr, Maria Popova, Sam Harris, Michael Phelps, Bob Iger, Edward Norton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Neil Strauss, Ken Burns, Maria Sharapova, Marc Andreessen, Neil Gaiman, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Jocko Willink, Daniel Ek, Kelly Slater, Dr. Peter Attia, Seth Godin, Howard Marks, Dr. Brené Brown, Eric Schmidt, Michael Lewis, Joe Gebbia, Michael Pollan, Dr. Jordan Peterson, Vince Vaughn, Brian Koppelman, Ramit Sethi, Dax Shepard, Tony Robbins, Jim Dethmer, Dan Harris, Ray Dalio, Naval Ravikant, Vitalik Buterin, Elizabeth Lesser, Amanda Palmer, Katie Haun, Sir Richard Branson, Chuck Palahniuk, Arianna Huffington, Reid Hoffman, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Rick Rubin, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Darren Aronofsky, and many more. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Harley Finkelstein

President

Shopify

Sam Parr (@theSamParr) and Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) are joined by Harley Finkelstein (@harleyf) on the pod today. Harley is the COO of Shopify. In today’s episode you’ll hear: Sam and Harley share a hilarious but effective way to recruit senior employees (0:30), Harley gives his background and how he became the COO at Shopify (2:52), Shaan brings to light some interesting emails from the early investment rounds of Shopify (9:30), Harley shares some of the major things he’s seeing in retail during COVID (19:30), Sam asks Harley which companies he’s seen that can be successful on Shopify (30:00), Harley explains how Cardi-B can build a brand on Shopify (37:55), The guys kick around ideas related to Shopify Apps that don’t exist that should exist (45:30), Harley explains the future of retail as he sees it (53:45). This episode we are partnering with Square! Square makes it easy for your business to accept payment, and so much more! Check out this week's sponsor at square.com/go/hustle! Joined our private FB group yet? It's a page where people share each others million dollar ideas or what they're already working on: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ourfirstmillion.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Harley Finkelstein

President

Shopify

Harley Finkelstein is the COO @ Shopify, the e-commerce platform that has allowed a generation of people to become entrepreneurs and business owners. Harley joined the business with revenues of $5m, today the company has targeted this year for over $600m with over 400,000 merchants on the platform. They have raised over $120m in VC funding from very good friends of the show including Aydin @ Felicis, Jeremy @ Bessemer and Amish @ Firstmark. In May 2015, Shopify went public with a valuation north of $1bn. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Harley make the move from laywer to COO @ Shopify? 2.) Question from Aydin @ Felicis: What have been some strategic inflection points that at the time did not seem like a big deal? How have Harley and Shopify produced and maintained such consistent revenue growth? What is the secret? 3.) Why does Harley believe that the future of retail is not online vs offline? How does Harley react to the suggestion that retail stores need to transition from transaction based, to experience based? 4.) How does Harley view the rise of personal brand in today's technological world? How has this allowed previously non-monetized channels to be monetized? What are some good examples of this? 5.) Why did Harley and Shopify choose to IPO in 2015? How was the roadshow? What was the key learnings for Harley both pre and post-IPO? What does Harley believe it means to be a trusted public company? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Harley's Fave Book: High Output Management Harley's Fave Blog: Wait But Why Harley's Fave Shopify Store: Boosted Boards As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Harley on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC. Eight is a sleep innovation company. With their latest product, the Eight Smart Mattress, being a bed that literally tells you how well you slept last night, paired with an intelligent sensor cover that measures the quality of your sleep and delivers a daily sleep report. In order to bring you the best product, Eight used anonymized sleep data and feedback from over 10,000 people, to understand which materials and types of mattresses give customers the best sleep resulting in their unique blend of four responsive and high-density foam layers plus one layer of proprietary technology that helps people track and improve their sleep. You can check it out on Eightsleep.com – and if you use the code 20VC you will get a whopping 20% discount! FullContact provides the ability to organize your contacts, gain rich insights into them and therefore build deep relationships. With features like automatically identifying and merging duplicate contacts to the ability to snap a photo of a business card and FullContact will transcribe them for you, so no more lost and loose business cards at events. It is with these features just being the tip of the iceberg, FullContact really is the best all in one solution for contact management and you can check them out on fullcontact.com.

Harley Finkelstein

President

Shopify