Subvolts take Shopify's founder shares how engineering and a craftsman mindset build and scale businesses. Jan 3, 2023 - Developers
- Learn how engineering principles can be applied to build and scale complex businesses effectively.
- Business
- Discover how a craftsman mindset and hands-on coding can drive innovation and leadership in a large company.
This is a solid interview with the founder of a major e-commerce company discussing practical business and technology building.
Tobi Lütke: CEO and Founder, Shopify
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From Subvolts
Summary and analysis by Subvolts editorial, AI-assisted.
Kevin Scott interviews Tobi Lütke, founder and CEO of Shopify. Lütke discusses his craftsman-first mindset, applying computer science to scale businesses, and how coding and lab work inspire his leadership. The conversation explores building and growing a company from an e-commerce perspective.
This episode features the founder of Shopify talking about how he uses computer skills and a hands-on approach to build his company. He explains how coding and tinkering inspire him to lead and solve problems, showing how technology helps businesses grow.
This episode offers insights into scaling a major e-commerce platform through engineering and a hands-on approach. It's for founders, tech leaders, and anyone interested in practical application of CS principles in business. While not directly about frontier AI labs, Lütke's focus on building and innovation resonates with the underlying drive for technological advancement seen across OpenAI, Google Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot.
- HostKevin Scott
- GuestTobi LütkeCEO and Founder, Shopify
- Guest: Tobi Lütke, CEO and Founder, Shopify
- Show: Behind The Tech with Kevin Scott
- Length: 61 minutes
- Guest's Mindset: Craftsman first, business exec second
Tobi Lütke, CEO and founder of the Canadian multinational e-commerce platform Shopify, is always looking for the tools he can use to build a better company. Since his early days running an online snowboard shop from his carport, Tobi has envisioned himself as fundamentally a craftsman first and a business exec second, a mindset that he has used to solve a wide variety of problems over the course of his career. In this episode, he joins Kevin to talk about applying computer science and engineering techniques to build and scale a company, the idea of bringing an 'apprentice mindset' to his work, and how his daily practice of writing code and tinkering in his home lab inspires him to be a more creative leader.
Behind the Tech with Kevin Scott
Discover and listen to other Microsoft podcasts.
- e-commerce
- Tobi Lütke
- selling products online
1 h 0634 minYear in Review 2024
WithXyla Foxlin, Lisa Su, Ben Laude, Ethan Mollick
Questions people ask
- Who is Tobi Lütke?
- Tobi Lütke is the CEO and founder of Shopify, a Canadian multinational e-commerce platform.
- What is Lütke's approach to building a company?
- He sees himself as a craftsman first, using computer science and engineering techniques to build and scale Shopify, inspired by his daily coding and lab work.
Page generated Oct 19, 2026. Summaries are Subvolts' own; the audio, artwork and notes belong to Microsoft.