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Shopify to raise $100M in Toronto, New York IPO

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Re: Shopify to raise $100M in Toronto, New York IPO

#71

Post by Agustus »

sireat wrote: post #60

I looked at their pricing page and it looks like their $29 offering does have unlimited products now. I could have sworn it was much more limited about 2 years ago. I keep looking for an inexpensive shopping cart solution for a friend who owns a handmade crafts retail store and not finding a good one. Meanwhile he keeps paying $50 a month for a proprietary shopping cart and gets maybe 20 online sales a year.

Get them onto Shopify, the untold story of Shopify is the ease a layperson can work with the back-end. He can adjust all sorts of things, upload pictures, and edit text without having to contact you.

I like Shopify, they are going to have customer service growing pains as they ramp up to handle customer loads, but going public means it is sink or swim time.

Re: Shopify to raise $100M in Toronto, New York IPO

#72

Post by [deleted] »

sireat wrote: post #60

I looked at their pricing page and it looks like their $29 offering does have unlimited products now. I could have sworn it was much more limited about 2 years ago. I keep looking for an inexpensive shopping cart solution for a friend who owns a handmade crafts retail store and not finding a good one. Meanwhile he keeps paying $50 a month for a proprietary shopping cart and gets maybe 20 online sales a year.

[deleted]

Re: Shopify to raise $100M in Toronto, New York IPO

#73

Post by xasos »

walterbell wrote: post #30

CEO Profile, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-magazi... "..luck brought the sudden, coincidental appearance of a new framework for using Ruby, called “Ruby on Rails,” devised by Danish programmer David Heinemeier Hansson. ..because Ruby on Rails was so new, Lütke’s work gained notice. He began sharing some of the software components he was creating with the Rails community (a way to process credi…

Interesting. In Ben Horowitz's book The Hard Thing about Hard Things, he recalled doing the opposite at Opsware/Loudcloud. He made sure that all his employees knew that they were in trouble.

For six months, Loudcloud employees worked long hours and were under constant stress, but were able to stay afloat on less money (keeping them alive longer). I think transparency trumps secrecy in most cases. Bad news spreads quickly and good news spreads slowly.

Re: Shopify to raise $100M in Toronto, New York IPO

#74

Post by deniszgonjanin »

oimaz wrote: post #35

As a developer, does it make sense to build shopify apps? Curious to hear about shopify apps and its ecosystem

I had built a couple of Shopify apps early on that ended up generating about ~4k/month, and I ended up selling them for seed money for my next adventure.

It's a nice way to make passive income, but I wouldn't try to make a business out of it. Remember you are still on somebody else's platform, playing by their rules. It's fairly easy to have the rug pulled out from under you, so don't put all your eggs in that basket.

Re: Shopify to raise $100M in Toronto, New York IPO

#75

Post by bedhead »

This is straight from the prospectus. The first bullet alone makes me want to buy shares.

Culture and Employees

If you have ambitious goals, you need an equally ambitious team. Shopify is composed of hundreds of highly talented, deeply caring individuals all working on making commerce better for everyone. Our culture is continuously being redefined with every person that joins our company, but, at our core, we value people who:

 	•	 	Get shit done
 
 	•	 	Build for the long-term
 
 	•	 	Focus on simple solutions
 
 	•	 	Act like owners
 
 	•	 	Thrive on change

Re: Shopify to raise $100M in Toronto, New York IPO

#76

Post by walterbell »

xasos wrote: post #73
walterbell wrote: post #30

CEO Profile, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-magazi... "..luck brought the sudden, coincidental appearance of a new framework for using Ruby, called “Ruby on Rails,” devised by Danish programmer David Heinemeier Hansson. ..because Ruby on Rails was so new, Lütke’s work gained notice. He began sharing some of the software components he was creating with the Rails community (a way to process credi…

Interesting. In Ben Horowitz's book The Hard Thing about Hard Things , he recalled doing the opposite at Opsware/Loudcloud. He made sure that all his employees knew that they were in trouble. For six months, Loudcloud employees worked long hours and were under constant stress, but were able to stay afloat on less money (keeping them alive longer). I think transparency trumps secrecy in most cases. Bad news spreads qu…

Horowitz also told that story in his Pando interview, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqI7fa04atc

Re: Shopify to raise $100M in Toronto, New York IPO

#77

Post by cperciva »

biot wrote: post #57
cperciva wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I clearly need to abandon my profitable and steadily growing SaaS business and launch a startup which sells dollar bills for 75 cents each. IPO here I come!

Or try the Groupon model: sell other peoples' dollar bills for 50 cents and give them 25 cents from the sale.

... and then come to Startup School and talk about how you hate people who run unsustainable businesses.

Re: Shopify to raise $100M in Toronto, New York IPO

#78

Post by [deleted] »

mtrimpe wrote: post #61
aikah wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm not making excuses for them Yes you are. If the OP story is true, you just don't yell at your customer. It doesn't make me want to try Shopify if they really use these kind of practices. Only shady pornsites do that stuff.

Have you ever actually worked as a customer service agent? Getting low-paid employees to consistently be courteous to angry customers is actually really hard to get right. You probably aren't; but lots of customers are assholes. Lots of people become utilitarians when they're dealing with customer support: when they want an outcome all means to that end become justified. I can't tell you how many insults I've had hur…

[deleted]

Re: Shopify to raise $100M in Toronto, New York IPO

#79

Post by [deleted] »

mtrimpe wrote: post #61
aikah wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm not making excuses for them Yes you are. If the OP story is true, you just don't yell at your customer. It doesn't make me want to try Shopify if they really use these kind of practices. Only shady pornsites do that stuff.

Have you ever actually worked as a customer service agent? Getting low-paid employees to consistently be courteous to angry customers is actually really hard to get right. You probably aren't; but lots of customers are assholes. Lots of people become utilitarians when they're dealing with customer support: when they want an outcome all means to that end become justified. I can't tell you how many insults I've had hur…

[deleted]
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