Harley Finkelstein

#Inspire2013: DJs + Graffiti Artists + Entrepreneurs

admin — Mon, 20 May 2013 14:31:49 +0000

Two years ago, I struck up a friendship with a well known DJ & music producer named DJ Illo. Despite very different career paths, one thing that Illo and I shared was a strong passion to learn everything there was to know about our unique areas of interest – music for him and startups for me. After many long conversations about topics like ‘success’ and ‘ambition’, we found a larger connection to one another; both Illo and I started DJ’ing when we were 13 years old. We both agreed that the lesson of learning how to DJ wasn’t about the technical side of mixing music, it was actually about developing an interest in something complex (especially for 13 year olds), and making a commitment to spend the time and attention needed to learn that skill. We decided that we wanted to give others a chance to have the same experience we had. So last week, in collaboration with YouthNet, we organized an event called #Inspire2013, where 80 teenagers came to Shopify to meet with accomplished musicians, artists, and entrepreneurs. The objective was simple: ‘inspire them to relentlessly pursue the things they are most interested in’. The event was amazing! Here are the details from the Citizen.

Video: #Scion Conference Talk w/ Harley Finkelstein

admin — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 20:45:13 +0000

Shopify Culture: “Work Hard / Play Hard”

admin — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 18:52:25 +0000

CTV National recently spent a day with us at Shopify HQ, to learn a bit about our culture and what it’s like to work here. Here’s the full VIDEO.

Profit Magazine: “Canada’s Smartest Company: Shopify”

admin — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 18:35:00 +0000

Profit Magazine has just announced that Shopify has been named as ‘Canada’s Smartest Company’ for 2012. We’re so humbled and grateful for this incredible honour. You can read the full article HERE. #Hustle.

Video: Global Entrepreneurship Week + Startup Weekend

admin — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 18:32:08 +0000

Daily Rant: 10 x 10x’ers

admin — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 18:28:18 +0000

It was suggested to me that a question I may wish to pose to references (past employers) of potential new hires is whether or not the reference would hire that person again. The response to such a question has assisted me in determining whether that candidate is someone worth meeting. But what if I wanted to know whether that candidate was not just above average, but rather whether the candidate was a “10x’er” at their previous job. [For reference, Jim Collins defines a 10x'er as someone that possesses fanatic discipline, empirical creativity, and productive paranoia - although many in the tech scene seem to prefer the term 'rock star']. For the past few months I have tried a number of different approaches in an attempt to sniff out candidates that may be 10x’ers. After some testing, I believe that I have found a line of questioning that seems to work quite well. Simply put, I ask: ”If you were able to hire 10 identical copies (or clones) of this individual, would you jump at that opportunity, or would you be hesitant?”. I don’t think that this is gospel, but it has worked for me and so I thought I’d share it. #Hustle

Video: “A Startup Renaissance”

admin — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 18:30:43 +0000

Daily Rant: The Importance of ‘Dog Food’

admin — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 18:27:19 +0000

I think most of us have heard the maxim that we should be ‘eating our own dogfood‘. To be clear, all that is meant by this phrase is that we should be consuming the products (or services) that we ourselves have created. The rationale is quite simple; if you yourself don’t like using your product then no one else will, and there’s no better way to test the user experience or demonstrate the product’s capabilities, especially for those at the company that aren’t involved with the building of the product itself. It seems so simple, yet I get pitched daily by business teams and execs that seem to have little to no understanding of the very product that they’re selling. And once it becomes apparent to me that someone is trying to sell me something that they know very little about, their credibility is shot and usually so is the proposed deal. Before joining Shopify, I was a customer (via smoofer), and we used the product on a daily basis for many months, which provided me with an incredible understanding of the platform. There is no way I would be able to bring in business at the current level had I not had a deep knowledge of our offering. With that said, my suggestion (especially for those that work on the business team) is to go learn everything there is to know about what you’re selling, before you start selling it. And then #Hustle like hell.

Forbes: “Build a Million-Dollar Business by February”

admin — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 18:13:29 +0000

I recently spoke with Tom Taulli from Forbes about our Build-A-Business Competition. Tom was interested in hearing how we are using mentorship, along with equity investments, to motivate aspiring entrepreneurs to “get off their butt” and build new online businesses. Here’s the full article.

Video: My ‘Save the Opera’ Campaign Video

admin — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 13:57:33 +0000

Video: Launch of Shopify’s 2012-2013 Build-a-Business Competition

admin — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 22:37:23 +0000

Video: Shopify 2 Announcement

admin — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 17:42:23 +0000

Daily Rant: “Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die”

admin — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 16:19:41 +0000

When I first heard the Peter Tosh lyric, “Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die”, it really resonated with me. Ever since I was a child, I had noticed that as a society we embrace the idea of going to ‘heaven’ (a post-mortem destination that purports to be majestic, peaceful and cathartic), despite the fact that most of us seem petrified of death. Ironic. It seems like we’re excited about the destination, but loathe the journey. Recently, I’ve been feeling the same way about parts of the ‘startup’ scene. Each day I receive a dozen or so emails from wide-eyed entrepreneurs that want to build startups. Most of them have great ideas, strong passion, and real conviction; however only a handful of them end up executing. They all want to be successful, but most of them don’t want to seriously invest the time and effort required. “Everybody wants to launch a startup, but few want to put in the work” – HF. #Hustle

Mixergy: “Agile Biz Dev” Part 2 (cheat sheet)

admin — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 23:13:30 +0000

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of doing another interview with Andrew Warner on Mixergy, one of my favorite podcasts. Here’s the ‘cheat sheet‘ and summary of that session, titled ‘Agile BD, Part 2′.

Startup Canada Tour: “Building a Startup Nation”

admin — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 14:30:26 +0000

A few weeks ago, I participated in a panel discussion about startups in Canada. It was part of Startup Canada’s national tour, and I found the discourse and conversation to be really strong. Here’s a summary of the discussion topics and the panel’s responses (via Alexandra Reid).

Video: Life at Shopify

admin — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 18:13:47 +0000

Video: Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty visits Shopify

admin — Tue, 15 May 2012 22:56:03 +0000

TWIT: The Social Hour 61 – Featuring Shopify’s Harley Finkelstein

admin — Thu, 10 May 2012 13:33:42 +0000

Mixergy: “Kill Deal Lethargy With Agile Business Development” – Interview with Harley Finkelstein

admin — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 21:52:40 +0000

CTV News: Shopify’s Growth & Culture

admin — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 00:18:34 +0000

Harley @ Pinterest

admin — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 12:41:47 +0000

I have been using Pinterest for about 3 months now, and have been really enjoying the UI / UX and its functionality. Here are my boards & my pins.

Invest Ottawa Launch: Keynote w/ Harley Finkelstein

admin — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 22:06:53 +0000

Shopify Named by Fast Company as one of the Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Retail

admin — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:14:33 +0000

Really humbled and excited that Shopify has been named as one of the world’s most innovative companies in retail. See full article here.

TechCrunch: ‘eCommerce Platform Shopify Acquires Mobile App Development Studio Select Start’

admin — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:24:24 +0000

TechCrunch News: “Shopify, which provides a turnkey e-commerce technology that lets anyone create a storefront online, has acquired mobile app and game studio Select Start Studios.” See full article here.

Fast Company Article: ‘Strive For A Meritocracy, And Never Settle For Mediocrity’, by: Harley Finkelstein

admin — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:53:05 +0000

Quoted: “I believe that we should all endeavor to produce our best work, and managers and entrepreneurs alike should look at the merit of their employees and partners as the most important and most relevant criteria for evaluation.” See my full article in Fast Company here.

Shopify: 2011 Year in Review

admin — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:08:31 +0000

Each year at Shopify we roll out our ‘Year in Review’ at the start of the new year. 2011 was an especially exciting year for us, and we wanted to share all the great news and cool stats with our merchants & our community of supporters. See full infographic HERE.

National Post Article: “Shopify rings up US$15-million funding round”.

admin — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 00:27:58 +0000

QUOTED: “On Monday, Jaded Pixel Technologies Inc. — better known by its online name, Shopify— will announce it has closed a $15-million round of venture capital financing from a group of Canadian and American investors.” See full article HERE

Fast Company Article: ‘Meet The Chief Platform Officer’, by: Harley Finkelstein

admin — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 22:59:31 +0000

Since becoming ’CPO ‘ at Shopify, I have been asked a number of times what in fact – the role of a CPO entails. I felt it was finally time to break down the role, and here is the post on FastCompany.

Productivardy Podcast: “Decisions, Decisions & Harley Finkelstein”.

admin — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 17:40:50 +0000

Last month, TheNextWeb‘s Mike Vardy launched his new productivity podcast called – ‘Productivardy‘. I was fortunate enough to be asked on to the program as his guest. We had a really great chat, and HERE is the full podcast.

Entrepreneur Magazine Article: “How Angry Birds Set Up Its Online Store with Shopify”.

admin — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 21:08:45 +0000

See Entrepreneur Magazine (July, 2011) article on: “How digital commerce platform Shopify helped Angry Birds creator Rovio Mobile spread its wings into licensed merchandise sales” – and how Shopify helped them with their eCommerce website.

See full article HERE.