#2 - Tobi Lütke & Kaz Nejatian on Shopify's Country-Sized Economy from The Network State Podcast

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#2 - Tobi Lütke & Kaz Nejatian on Shopify's Country-Sized Economy

2 hour 7 minutes Posted Feb 15, 2023 at 8:38 am.

Introduction

Shopify has the scale of a small country

Lifestyle businesses take up your whole life

SMBs can be harder than startups

Shopify could invest in its merchants

Shopify's economy is on par with Greece or New Zealand

Money, time, risk, attention

Is all retail a form of arbitrage?

The history of the corporation informs the development of smart contracts

Founders start as lead engineer, end up as chief psychiatrist

Shopify is not just technology but community

The concept of computational context

Shopify as a dashboard for the global economy

Atoms are so much more complex than bits

Balancing centralized vs decentralized at Shopify

If they could start a new country, what would Tobi and Kaz build?

Kaz on working at Shopify

Tobi's parting thoughts

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Show notes

Tobi Lütke (Shopify Founder & CEO), Kaz Nejatian (Shopify COO), and Balaji review how Shopify rose from tiny startup to $180B+ global economy, with an annual GMV on par with the GDP of New Zealand. In the process they touch on Hayek, the Hanseatic League, merchant cavemen, the history of the corporation, and the optimal level of platform decentralization.

OUTLINE

LINKS

1) 100 true fans: kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/

2) Gobekli Tepe: smithsonianmag.com/history/gobekli-tepe-the-worlds-first-temple-83613665

3) Shopify active merchant: github.com/activemerchant/active_merchant

4) Fall of Civilizations: youtube.com/@FallofCivilizations

5) Founding vs Inheriting: thenetworkstate.com/founding-vs-inheriting

6) Shopify careers: shopify.com/careers

VIDEO

YouTube: youtube.com/watch?v=DfrhCGpRCPI

CREDITS

Editing: twitter.com/DholakiaJaydeep

Images: twitter.com/elijah10T

SOCIAL

twitter.com/tobi

twitter.com/CanadaKaz

twitter.com/balajis

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