For its 19 yearsin existence,
Founder and chief executive Tobi Lütke, who emigrated from
But these days,
They instead sprinkled themselves across
Shopify watchers say the decentralization away from
"The centre of gravity of Shopify, I think, definitely seems to be shifting," said
It's not an unusual phenomenon. Tech goliaths of Shopify's size often mature to a stage where they want to be near like-minded entrepreneurs, investors and talent, Watson said.
"I think it's no accident that many of (Shopify's) new executives are not based in
Lütke relocated to
Finkelstein previously moved to
But he admits others weren't drawn to the city.
"The one issue we had historically was executives ... at Shopify would have to move to
Chief financial officer
"I don't know that it's a shot across the bow to
"I think it's just people today are looking at how to get out of the office, they don't want to work in the segmented way that the past generations have worked in."
Asked if its new remote ethos makes
However, the emphasis Shopify put on being "everywhere" coincided with a wave of criticism for politicians in
When the federal government revealed in September a voluntary code of conduct meant to apply some interim guardrails to the use of artificial intelligence, Lütke was one of its most vocal critics.
He dubbed the code, which asks signatories to screen data sets for biases and assess their AI for potential adverse impacts, "another case of EFRAID." The term "Existential Fatalistic Risk from AI Delusion disease" is used by some in the tech community, including deep learning pioneer
"I won’t support it. We don’t need more referees in
"Let other countries regulate while we take the more courageous path and say 'come build here.'"
He also commented on
Lütke called the government's approach to both "tragic."
"It's probably well meaning, but extremely bad," he wrote on X.
Lütke and Shopify declined to comment for this story.
Araya sees such posts as Shopify "throwing down the gauntlet."
"I get the sense that they're a little pugnacious and I think that's kind of part of their ethos," he said.
But Finkelstein characterized speaking out on issues facing the tech community and his company's merchants as a necessity that comes along with having the kind of status and power Shopify does.
"Not to quote 'Spider-Man,' but with great power comes great responsibility and Shopify is a big Canadian company," he said.
The company has the third largest market capitalization on the TSX, and with a booming stock price during the COVID-19 pandemic even eclipsed
Shopify's relationship with the federal government was once much cosier.
Prime Minister
The government even turned to Shopify during COVID-19, launching a contact-tracing app based on an open-source software code Shopify staff voluntarily built.
"There are times that we think what the government is doing is great. We jump on that, we help propagate that information and tell that story and there's other times where with AI, for example, Tobi's tweets speak for (themselves)," Finkelstein said.
"It's important that we work with government because they have levers that we don't have, but also we're going to hold everyone accountable because they're going to hold us accountable."
That goal extends to Shopify's approach to Small Business Minister
Finkelstein met her for the first time in October just before a fireside chat attended by hundreds of merchants. He took the opportunity to highlight the need for lower credit card fees and more funding for small businesses.
"I'm going to hold them accountable," he said.
"I'm not sure they're going to do with what we say, but they take our meetings now."
That meeting with Valdez was in
This report by The Canadian Press was first published
Companies in this story: (TSX: SHOP)
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