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.

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

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′.

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).

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Tom Taulli of Forbes writes about how ‘Angry Birds’ ventured into selling merchandise – online, with the help of Shopify and Shipwire.

See full article HERE.

This is the first article for a new series that I am working on w/ Practical eCommerce. The series is called ‘Innovators & Trendsetters‘, and will focus on emerging and unique – strategies being implemented by successful online shops. This instalment  revolves around ‘seasonality‘ and capitalizing on seasonal trends. See full article here.

[UPDATE] New Post: ‘3 Unusual eCommerce Models‘

I am excited to announce that I will be doing some mentoring @ FounderFuel. FounderFuel is a killer accelerator program that is focused on developing tech startups – within an ecosystem of experienced entrepreneurs, top executives, VCs, and Angels. If you know any entrepreneurs / startups that could thrive via a unique & intensive acceleration, apply here.

I recently sat down w/ the folks @ uOttawa re: my feedback on the JD/MBA program. Needless to say I am a huge proponent of the joint program, and had alot to discuss!

Here is the interview in full.

For the 2nd year in a row, Shopify was ranked as Ottawa’s Fastest Growing Company. Each year the Ottawa Business Journal ranks the top tech companies in the city, and we are humbled and excited to be leading this  list once again!

Last week, I was a guest on Practical eCommerce‘s weekly podcast, w/ Kerry Murdock. Kerry & I spoke about cloud computing, hosted platforms, and of course eCommerce. You can read the article HERE & listen to the podcast in full HERE

This past Monday, I was invited to CBC’s Ottawa office to discuss Shopify & Startups. The interview focused on the Build-a-Biz Contest & Ottawa’s Startup ‘Renaissance’. You can find the full interview HERE

Last year’s build-a-business contest was so successful that we’ve decided to do it again! But this year we’re going bigger, much BIGGER. Check out all the details HERE. Also check out Gary’s Post, Tim’s Post & Seth’s Post

While in Austin (SXSWi) I spoke w/ AOL Small Business about tips for SMEs. See tips below w/ some examples of Shopify users using those exact principles:

Lesson 1: ‘Don’t Compete with Amazon‘

Lesson 2: ‘Provide Extra-Personalized Service‘

Lesson 3: ‘Entertain your Shoppers‘

Lesson 4: ‘Curate a Collection‘

Lesson 5: ‘Engage Customers Through Social Media‘

QUOTED: “It’s that time of year again where Techvibes singles out 10 Digital Media People to Watch in Ontario in the coming year.” I am really honoured and humbled to be listed with these incredible individuals. Ontario / Canada is an amazing place to be an entrepreneur. Click logo or HERE for complete list.

Click HERE for my interview w/ Sprouter’s Erin Bury. Sprouter facilitates networking and collaboration between entrepreneurs globally - check them out!