The dateline thing may be a bit pompous and a little too cute, but after an almost two-year run that’s turned the quiet enterprise-tech company into a global c-commerce power, Lütke has earned some creative license. Since he started Shopify 15 years ago, the company has sold software that allows about 2 million merchants worldwide to run websites—free from the complicated embrace of Shopify’s chief rival, Amazon.com Inc. For $30 to $2,000 a month. Shopify offers sellers more than a dozen services to run an online store, from the actual e-commerce website to inventory management to payment processing.
Its technology now undergirds the websites of giant retail chains such as Staples Inc. and Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc.; recently ordained public companies that grew up on the platform, including shoemaker Ailbirds Inc. and medical scrubs maker Figs; and the retail side-hustles of Kylie Jenner, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, and other celebrities. But the company’s biggest impact has been at the smaller end of the scale, in the vast constellation of mom and pops, venture-capital-backed startups, influencer minimoguls, twee entrepreneurs, merch heads, and more obscure outfits, like Offlimits - a two-person New York City startup trying to reinvent, of all things, breakfast cereal.
Here is Jim Cramer talking about how Shopify is a key component of “modern capitalism” – as more people leave the workforce and set up their own businesses
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