A Summer @ Shopify

Communication: Stand out and make it meaningful

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 14:32:23 -0400

Tweets, emails, Facebook and LinkedIn - there are tons of ways to get through to individuals you’d like to work with. When you’re competing with 100’s of other people you need to make your dialogue meaningful in order to stand out.

A couple weeks ago a story was launched on Fast Company about Shopify and its proprietary bonus system. The unique system Tobi named Unicorn was the focal point of the article.

Unicorn has grown along with Shopify thanks to employees dedicated to quality internal tools. Daniel Beauchamp and Serena Ngai spearheaded the latest updates. Check out more details on Shopify’s unicorn from ultimate blogger Joey Devilla.

Lately I’ve taken an interest to PR. Trying to reach out and grab the attention of journalists, big shot writers and reps from the media seemed challenging and fun. I didn’t know much about PR so one Friday afternoon I decided to do a little research and see if I could grab someone’s attention.

I checked out Wired and Fast Company for articles that were related to culture. I found an article in Fast Company from FC Blogger Shawn Graham. The article articulated the importance of creating a culture of innovation and how an office space can facilitate that.

With Shopify’s move to a new office I thought it would be really neat to chat with someone who appreciates a strong culture and who has seen some of the coolest offices in the States.

I reached out and he responded. He was initially interested in hearing about my experience at Shopify, so I went with it and we exchanged emails about my internship, what I’m learning, why I like Shopify, etc. We then exchanged ideas about maintaining culture through growth and some of the things Shopify does to facilitate that. Our conversations slowly progressed from his interest in chatting about culture and internships to the possibly of him writing an article on Shopify.

After a 40 minute discussion about Shopify he thought unicorn stuck out the most.

A few e mails later he’d fallen for unicorn. Tobi then took the time to give Shawn a demo. After the demo and explanation of unicorn from its inception, the article in Fast Company was published.

Things I learned from the experience:

PR has aspects that are tedious and can play out for a while.

My communication with Shawn happened over a span of 4 weeks. Emails here and there, screenshots, tweets and two calls.

Other aspects happen very quickly.

Once he decided to run the story it was published before I knew it. One call with Tobi on a Friday and by Tuesday morning the story was out.

I also learned was the importance of thoughtful communication…

Creating and maintaining human relationships is sometimes lost through the use of social media because it is time consuming and often difficult to make a meaningful connection. Get to know the person you are speaking with and they are much more likely to be interested in hearing more and helping you out. Generic emails, tweets and thoughtless communication doesn’t get people anywhere. Don’t blink.

Epic Shopify Time

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 10:21:00 -0400

A month ago we had YouTube sensations Epic Meal Time at the office to film one of their episodes.

Harley asked if I’d help organize the day so I came in to the office Saturday morning and set up for the mad amounts of cooking.

The boys arrived a few hours later and the rest of the day was just bananas.

We went shopping for supplies. 3 different places to get enough meat.

The cooking commenced, the people arrived and the party started. Shopify folks, the Epic crew and a few outside fans took over the office and had a great time.

The next 8 hours was filled with Jack Daniels, Bacon, roof top fun, video games and broken BBQs.

Mark and I saved the day by rolling a BBQ down the market streets when our rental one wouldn’t start up.

In one of the video shots a Shopify rep was needed in the background. Initially the not so politically correct Epic crew asked if I’d stand in the background and do the dishes.

Well this did not bode well with me. I asked for a drink and told them that sipping some JDs leaning against the dishwasher was as close to public dish doing that I would get.

My 10 second cameo is a hilarious addition to the array of different tasks I’ve done at Shopify.

From learning about and practicing HR, trying out PR and marketing, starting my first blog, learning about programming to building shelves, editing videos, and hanging in the background of a youtube video with over 2 million hits, my experience here has been anything but ordinary.

One week left, who knows what I will get up to.

Shopify on Shopify

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 14:53:00 -0400

We launched our own Shopify Swag store today. Yep, we’re using our own product to sell our merch.

Kicking it all off was a team effort that helped us to better understand what our store owners go through each day. As a newbie to the set up and maintenance of a shopify store it was super beneficial to get some insight on exactly what goes on from signup to launch of the store.

First off, the creation of the Shopify store was easy peasy! 3 minutes and you’re done.

Alex MacDonell then did a fantastic job designing the storefront.

Remember a while back when I started at Shopify and was tricked into doing a Shopify photo shoot. Well, he used some of those pictures.

As the store set up and maintenance is so easy, I’ll lay out the things that could not be done through the Shopify store…note there aren’t that many!

1. Your Product - Find something you love to do and make a business out of it! There are tons of different products and services you can sell online.

Create an original product of your own
Use an existing product and come up with accessories or features to compliment it.
Design merchandise that represents you or your company and sell it on your online store (eg. Shopify and EpicMealTime )
If you have a service, get it online for people everywhere to enjoy.

2. Count and organize the inventory you have to sell

In our case t shirts and sweatshirts

3. If you are going to use a fulfillment center to ship out your product then create sku numbers for all the items and indicate the skus and desired fulfillment center warehouse in your shop.

eg. SHPFYHDYSM (Shopify Hoodie Small)

4. Verify your inventory is being tracked by the fulfillment center and place a test order to ensure the shop is also connected.

5. Ensure you have enough of your product to sell before you launch, if you’re unsure then order or create more.

We placed an order to american and alternative apparel and got them printed and sent to Shipwire with the rest of our inventory (we don’t want to run out of cool swag in our warehouse when all the celebs start wearing it).

6. Choose a payment gateway for your transactions.

Eg. PayPal, Authorize.net, Moneybookers etc.

6. PROMOTE PROMOTE PROMOTE

We rolled out our swag store today. Marketing wrote a wicked blog post, tweeted and got people excited!

So here it is, Shopify using Shopify.

Now get yourself some of our cool Shopify Swag.

Hope Beach

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 11:00:00 -0400

This past weekend 22 Shopify employees participated in Ottawa’s Hope Beach Volleyball Tournament.

Two teams came out on a sizzlin’ hot Saturday to support Hope’s great cause.

The day’s events included:

5 games for each team

Sunburns galore

Some great live music: My Favourite Tragedy, The Balconies, Autumns Canon, KO, Tokyo Police Club, Big Sugar

Food

Tough competition

and as excepted…

Shopify team 2 - The Angry bods (Captain Anna Lambert) - took the win.

Just more proof of Shopify’s ability to connect employees through fun, non work related activities, while supporting a great cause.

Hope raises money for a number of excellent charities including: Breast Cancer Action, Harvest House, the YMCA, Kids Help Phone, Ottawa Children’s Treatment Centre Foundation and Starlight Children’s Foundation.

Shopify continues to maintain its culture while we grow. We do...

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 11:00:00 -0400

Breakfast Club and Bagel Wednesday

Mac Computers fill the office

Wicked art work in our open lobby

Game room: PS3 and X Box

The Bat Cave

Shopify runs on...

Food food and more food

An unlikely romance

Take a break, shoot a friend

Unicorn Art

Shopify continues to maintain its culture while we grow. We do this in many ways, one of which being the atmosphere in the office.

Our current office is cool. It makes work fun and brings everyone together.

We are moving in September and want to add some wicked additions to make our new office even better!

Some more pics of our current office! We have a digital map in...

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 10:51:17 -0400

Shopify Transaction Tracker

Goodies for the employees

R2D2 Kettle

Board Room Zoo

Some more pics of our current office!

We have a digital map in the lobby showing each transaction as it occurs and where it occurs.

Every employee gets decked out in Shopify swag and other items that represent our culture: our fave restaurant and stores!

R2D2 fills everyones mug.

Welcome to the jungle! Meetings and lunches are held in our animal themed boardroom.

There’s nothing better than celebrating a good work week...

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 17:22:47 -0400

There’s nothing better than celebrating a good work week with a dance session in the Shopify game room.

Veteran Connect Dancers, Liz and Theresa, attempted to teach me some moves but as you can tell, that task is much easier said than done.

Perhaps I’ll have some moves down by the end of the summer.

Happy Canada Day!!

Live 88.5 Crashes Shopify

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 10:45:00 -0400

A few weeks ago one of Live 88.5s biggest fans, Mike Gagnon, suggested I look into their new weekly event called Office Crashers. Great suggestion Mike :)

Instructions were simple— tell us why you’re awesome and if we agree we will bring you food and prizes.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned working here, it’s that the people at Shopify love food.

Here is the e mail that enticed them to come…

Hi live 88.5!
My name is Anna and I work at Shopify in the Market. We are Ottawa’s
fastest growing company 2 years running and have a fun young culture
to match that of the market.

Our office is 61A York Street and there are roughly 65 employees and growing fast. We have a modern and fun office space and would love you to come check it out!

So come crash our office anytime, we LOVE food, good music and I know
many of your fans here at Shopify would be stoked if you came in.

We have a video game room with tons of games and I personally as well as many others here would love to take you guys on in a video game match. I can also guarantee that you will be shot more than once with a nerf gun while you’re here.

Hope to see you guys soon.

Rock on!

I think the often forgotten about “Rock On” takes the cake!

The Crashers came in hooked us up with lunch, played some tunes and gave us a gift certificate to enroll a Shopify team in the Ottawa Sports and Social Club.

A value of $700—ABSOLUTELY FREE.

Anyway moral of the story.

- Own a nerf gun,

- Play video games AND

- Keep on keepin’ on

…people will bring you free food.

Pics to come!

AnnasNotes: Landing your Dream Job 2.0

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 15:05:00 -0400

Shopify’s Harley Finkelstein moderated an OCRI event entitled “Landing your Dream Job 2.0”. The Mercury Lounge hosted members of OCRI as well as guests from all over the city who wanted to network and gain tips to ensure they stand out in the application process.

As a student with little experience in the job search scene, this panel was of particular interest to me.

The four panelists came together to give their words of wisdom and professional advice for those in the search of their dream job. Luc Levesque, founder and GM of TravelPod, Doug Tetzner of Odgers Berndtson and Shopify’s own Brittany Forsyth and Mike Freeman all brought their list of do’s and don’ts when it comes to the application process.

Here are just a few of the useful tips these 4 experienced panelists brought to the table…

1. Think to yourself, can I add value to this company?

Find out how and demonstrate that.

2. Justify your claims:

Don’t just tell your potential employer what you can do, show them ie. send them your code, a link to your blog, a design or business pitch.

3. Think outside the box:

Create a video resume, a landing page or a custom website to set yourself apart from other applicants.

4. Reduce the risk:

Hiring a new employee is a risk for an employer. Reduce that risk factor by using your networking skills. Find your Trump Card — An individual who can attest to your excellent work habits/skills and who is trusted and respected by your potential employer. Have them make the intro.

5. Get your name out there:

Attend networking events and make connections with people from the company. Engage in conversation, show interests and maybe they will put in a good word on your behalf.

6. Know your audience:

Check out what the company’s culture is like and tailor your cover letter, resume and interview to that culture. If you find your personality does not bode well with that culture, then perhaps this is not your dream job.

7. Do your research and get your facts straight:

Find out everything you can about the company and about individuals within the company. Show your interest and creativity in your cover letter or application and prepare questions for the interview that demonstrate your knowledge and interest.

8. Form a relationship:

An interview is like a first date. Both you and the employer are deciding if your personalities click. If you standout as an individual capable of being efficient and compatible with the company then your rock-star attitude could put you above people with even a greater skill set. Note: Don’t talk salary unless it’s brought up by the employer.

9. Use social media tools to your advantage:

Represent yourself in the positive way that you want to be perceived. Social media tools are used to verify information and check out applicants representation of themselves. *Include on your Linkedin and Facebook pages your github, design page or blog.

The proof is in the pudding… so it better be delicious.

10. Never use the infamous… “To Whom it May Concern”.

Doug pointed out various pet peeves from his stack of sticky notes- one that stood out to me was the overuse of TWIMC. He added, it’s impersonal, it lacks creativity and let’s be real, when is the last time you heard anyone under the age of 70 use “whom”.
If you wanna play the game, find out a name!

Click for soon to be Oscar Nominated Digital Short

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 14:09:57 -0400

Click for soon to be Oscar Nominated Digital Short:

OCRI is holding an event tonight called “Landing Your Dream Job 2.0”. Harley came up with the idea to create a promo video that would be put up on the OCRI website.

He happened to see my flip video camera on my desk and asked if I’d video tape him and Rob Woodbrige hype up the event.

After several hilarious takes we finally got the dream video. Lucky for me, I was now responsible for editing the video.

As I’ve mentioned before, my computer skills are somewhat lacking (note: they are improving greatly working here).

After a tutorial from my roommate Lily followed by some seriously exciting time discovering all the cool things that could be done on I Movie, the video was complete…and I actually had a lot of fun doing it.

Upcoming Videos from Shopify’s not-quite-yet-Professional Videographer:

Beat Boxing Shopify and Shopify’s Magic Machine!

Through in the Clutch: Biz Dev 3.0

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 10:06:43 -0400

Through in the Clutch: Biz Dev 3.0:

brennanloh:

Biz Dev 1.0

Often referred to as relationship selling, biz dev 1.0 is the function of forging strategic partnerships (to make you more efficient) and establishing channel partners (to bring you more clients). Just like any relationship, biz dev 1.0 is time consuming - full of research, cold…

How Shopify makes its Benjamins and Bordens?

Fri, 03 Jun 2011 16:10:00 -0400

So we’ve heard all about how Shopify began, how it runs and how it makes stores beautiful.

There still remains one very important aspect of the company that we are missing, the thing that every company relies on… $$ bills.

How Shopify makes it’s money— Presented to the NEWBs by Harley and Toby.

Toby-VP Finance and Harley- Chief Platform Officer at Shopify.

Together, Toby and Harley explained how Shopify, with the help of many skilled and committed individuals, successfully makes more and more money, and how they plan to continue doing so.There are various ways through which Shopify acquires income.

The first is evident- Customers who sign up and maintain a successful store.

How do we ensure this.

Team Commitment

-Marketing pumps out positive messages about the company enticing visitors to the site.

-The developers and design team have created a beautiful and easy to use website that potential customers are attracted to.

-Once customers have signed up, the Guru and Phone support team step in. They help new customers get accustomed to creating and maintaining a store which turns leads and prospective customers into long-term customers.

Shopify thrives off seeing its customers succeed, because through their success, comes ours.

This is further faciliated through the Customer Success Program at Shopify. This program helps Shopify store owners by providing them with data collected that could help their store succeed.

Customers make $$ —> Shopify makes $$.

The second way through which Shopify makes its money is Biz Dev.

Agile BD is Harley and Brennan’s idea of the most successful Business Development plan.

Check out the full deats on Agile BD explained by expert Harlifyer, Harley.

http://mixergy.com/harley-finkelstein-shopify-interview/

Anyone and everyone is a potential business deal and by remaining flexible and nimble the Shopify Biz Dev team jumps on tons of great business opportunities that would not normally be pursued.

Partnerships with PayPal and Woo prove that the saying “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine” prevails.

Shopify also proves this saying through its many partnerships.

Dan works to find partners that can help us while we help them. With the partnership program, Shopify makes alliances with tons of cool companies internationally who can send us business while Shopify helps them— either financially or more commonly, with their business.

It is through agile Business Development, Partnership Programs, Customer Success and Support that Shopify makes its capital.

As a result of this versitile business model, Shopify has strong and attainable financial goals for the future.

In the words of the great Notorious B.I.G. - “Mo Money Mo Problems”.

And in the words of the great Toby Shannan, “as we grow our company and our capital, we have bigger and greater problems, we also learn to solve those problems quickly and efficiently, which in turn makes us [MO MONEY]”

…and the cycle continues.

Many hot summer days and nights ahead here in Ottawa! A walk on...

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 22:23:00 -0400

Many hot summer days and nights ahead here in Ottawa!

A walk on the canal was the perfect kick start to the warm summer ahead.

Random YouTube search proves to find amazing artists!

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 21:42:00 -0400

Random YouTube search proves to find amazing artists!

Key Quotes to Shopify's Success - Tobi's Talk

Fri, 27 May 2011 09:07:00 -0400

…Tobi was next to talk on the Shopify 101 list.

This talk was particularly interesting as he has experienced Shopify from the very beginning.

Tobi on all that is Shopify—The then, the now and the future!

What started off as two guys in a Bridgehead coffee shop is now Ottawa’s fastest growing company for the second year in a row. Tobi has seen Shopify grow from SnowDevil, the online site created to sell snowboards, to an e-commerce platform, which hosts over 13,000 stores. He is the CEO and co-founder of Shopify and evidently has lots to say of its creation, growth and future.

————————————————————————————————-

Tobi started off the 3^rd Shopify 101 class by outlining some key quotes and ideas that Shopify runs on:

“Done is better than perfect” (with the exception of accounting of course).

By this Tobi explained that we are here to get a job done and get it done well! That being said, perfection is not the be all and the end all. We strive for perfection, but without failure every once in a while there is no room for innovation, and if everyone were striving for the often impossible “perfect” many jobs would not be completed.
Failure is okay, as long as you take ownership of your failures.

“We will never work with shitty tools”. If something isn’t up to par…we fix or replace it!

With happy employees we have a happy company and with that comes a successful and happy product that ensures happy and successful customers.

Tobi talked about some things that Shopify strives for:

Important companies make things that people are excited about— So we strive to make Shopify exciting, and therefore something that people desire.
We want to have fun** Tobi and the rest of the crew expect everyone to be on their A-game and to work hard…but fun is never left behind in the process.
We want to help others succeed

Shopify is all about helping other people succeed. If you think about what goes on here, Shopify really is the host/facilitator of many peoples success.

The Ideal Shopify Cycle: by CEO Tobi Lutke

happy employees-> efficient and happy company —> great product->successful customers —> happy customers —> FUN —> happy employees etc..

Our Guru’s and support are available to answer questions, aid in problem solving and attempt to give them as much advice as they need to succeed in their business, which in turn allows us to succeed.

Tobi finished with something that I think is a testament to his character and that of the company.

*Don’t be afraid to get yourself in over your head!!*

There are many consequences that can occur from getting in over your head… there are also many wonderful things.

You accomplish something you never thought possible
You figure out how to work through problems that you have NO idea how you even got yourself into
You grow as an individual and as a professional
You achieve something amazing

Smiling Customers @Shopify

Wed, 25 May 2011 18:33:00 -0400

Smiling Customers @Shopify:

Shopify wants all of its customers smiling! Customer satisfaction is one of the most important things that the folks at Shopify strive for…check out all the smiling customers! Nawwt to shabby eh?…and by that I mean - Incredible!!

It’s my third Friday here at Shopify and one of my Friday...

Fri, 20 May 2011 16:21:00 -0400

It’s my third Friday here at Shopify and one of my Friday afternoon projects is underway! I hope to get the team involved in a fun little office activity in the next couple weeks.

activity deats—to be CONT’d—

Also, Brittany and I are planning more Shopify gatherings for this summer to get employees together, socialize, soak up the sun and have some fun.

First week I was at Shopify we had a BBQ to start the summer off right. Everyone came out to enjoy the sun (and trickles of rain), good food, drinks and company.

I personally enjoyed the matching swag that everyone was reppin’ that day.

Theresa even surprised me with the -doublay doublay- Shopify sweatshirt look.

New winter layer look?…I see potential.

Shopify 101 - Part 2 with Cody Fauser

Thu, 19 May 2011 12:45:00 -0400

It was Shopify’s CTO Cody Fauser’s turn to give the new employees his two cents on Shopify as a whole, how he got involved and what his vision is for the future. If you haven’t discovered it yet, then I’d like to show you just a little something to reiterate the laidback and fun atmosphere that Shopify posseses.

Cody kicked off his chat about Shopify with a memorable photograph.

Last summer the Shopify crew had an employee appreciation day for everyone to get together. They had a wicked time and celebrated the successes, that without everyones dedication and hard work, would not have been possible. Shopify held a themed volleyball tournament where teams were expected to dress up… and Cody did just that!

This picture just shows how chill and hilarious things are at Shopify… and I must say, working in that kind of atmosphere is such a positive experience for everyone.

After subjecting the new employees to his lovely v ball uniform nostalgia and getting a good laugh, Cody got down to the nitty gritty.

Here is my version (the techno peasant) review on Shopify as a whole

- Shopify runs on a framework called Rails that is written in a programming language called Ruby.

(Cody is the author of 3 successful books, two of which are written about Rails).

- Shopify runs on 34 servers and 40 000+ lines of code

- The Shopify timeline is not long, but despite its short life, Shopify has accomplished a great deal.

2004- with the first public release of rails, Tobi started to work on Snowdevil (a website designed to sell snowboards)

2005- Jaded Pixel Technology Inc. was incorporated into the platform

2006- Public launch of Shopify

2009- App store is released

2010- Theme store released and Shopify receive $7M in Series A funding

2011- Shopify hosts over 13000 stores

From 2005 to 2011 Shopify went from a 3 man show to 65 employees.

The very impressive and rapid growth here at Shopify is a testament to the product, which is all encompassing. Shopify is an aggregation of all the things you need to have to have a successful online store.

From the written code that runs the platform (public API), content management, customer relationship management, hosting, security admin, orders, shipping, marketing, apps, themes, and checkout, Shopify really does it all —the latest new accomplishment being the return/cancellation policy—.

It is easy to get going , it is risk free and it is pretty.

Cody went on to explain a great deal about the developed architecture of Shopify…which I’ll be honest, most went straight over my head. But what I did get from that portion of that chat, is that recently the Ops team did a kick-ass job to prepare for and complete a company server change.

My take on the awesomeness is that, there was a ton of data prep, some serious coffee kicks for the ops guys, a stressful 40 minutes of changeover period and Shopify was up and running on a complete new server in a new city, CHICAGO.

Check out this massive server that Shopify now runs from!!! This is just one of three.

Kudos to the team for this positive changeover and serious respect!

I just figured out how to transfer a video from my camera onto a separate webpage. So needless to say, I’m more than impressed with the significance of this changeover.

The future for Shopify looks great, innovation with regards to customer success, themes, apps, data importing and customer independence will ensure the growth of Shopify is positive and continual. Cody spoke of some challenges they’ve had in the past and the ideas that quickly turned into projects that were implemented to solve the problem and make the company better.

As a newb to Shopify and the world of Ruby, Code and Programming, I’m super excited to have had the chance to hear about the basics of the architecture that runs Shopify, the extreme amount of team work needed for the company to exist and the amount of things that Shopify encompasses.

Although I will continue the classic “smile and nod” when discussing the detailed breakdown of writing code, creating apps and programming. I’ve been here 3 weeks and I can say I know a lot more about exactly how much is behind that super easy button on the screen that says for example, “Save Changes” or “Publish Post”.

So thanks to you folks, you rock the world!

Shopify 101- Intro

Thu, 19 May 2011 10:06:54 -0400

New employees get the chance to go to Shopify 101 meetings. These meetings happen once a week after a certain amount of new employees have been hired. The stars of the show are Daniel (Chief Design Officer), Cody (Chief Technical Officer), Tobi (Chief Executive Officer), Harley (Chief Platform Officer) and Toby (VP of Revenue).

Each leader at Shopify takes an hour out of their day to talk Shopify. They speak about Shopify as a whole, how they got involved, what they believe in, what they do here and what’s on the docket for the future. These meetings not only allow new employees to get to know the leaders in the company but also, by the end, they know about all sides to Shopify and where it is going.

We already heard from Daniel and my next post will be about Cody’s presentation!!

About Shopify — http://www.shopify.com/about

Unicorn Reward System

Tue, 17 May 2011 16:41:42 -0400

Shopify has what is called the “Unicorn Reward System”. Unicorn is basically a site where all employees can receive and give out unicorn points. Unicorn points correlate with bonus’ at the end of the year. There are various reasons that people give out unicorn points. Unicorn points could be given out for helping a coworker out with their work, for doing an extra project, coming up with a new idea or doing a really good job on something Shopify related. This system not only allows managers to reward employees, but also for other employees to reward coworkers. This system stimulates passion and innovation in employees. It’s a formal way to give credit to co-workers and to basically say “Thanks, you ROCK”.

Pretty cool system that keeps everyone in the know about the awesome stuff everyone else is doing.