{"podcast":{"title":"How I Built This with Guy Raz","slug":"how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz-714258","podcast_index_feed_id":714258,"rss_url":"https://rss.art19.com/how-i-built-this","website_url":"https://wondery.com/shows/how-i-built-this/?utm_source=rss","image_url":"https://content.production.cdn.art19.com/images/56/ae/46/57/56ae4657-2aa7-4cfc-8ddf-9be24410d5ed/a42755c24a721ea0aaed99c400150d8e67da266430f4bf312684a4bd64e5a1b2f4be14f56746ce0633855e356d7a41a0973d96be2dd0f1d4a174bbe7f456aa4e.jpeg","author":"Guy Raz | Wondery","episode_count":842,"summary":"Guy Raz interviews the world’s best-known entrepreneurs to learn how they built their iconic brands. In each episode, founders reveal deep, intimate moments of doubt and failure, and share insights on their eventual success. How I Built This is a master-class on innovation, creativity, leadership and how to navigate challenges of all kinds. New episodes release on Mondays and Thursdays.","last_synced_at":"2026-06-15T16:17:51.485190+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz-714258"},"episode":{"title":"Shopify: Tobias Lütke. How a snowboarder built a $150 billion business (2019)","slug":"shopify-tobias-l-tke-how-a-snowboarder-built-a-150-billion-business-2019","published_at":"2026-06-08T07:10:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz-714258/shopify-tobias-l-tke-how-a-snowboarder-built-a-150-billion-business-2019","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz-714258","url":"https://rss.art19.com/episodes/d0b07b6a-125e-4896-babd-678d19957306.mp3?rss_browser=BAhJIg90cmFuc2NyaWJyBjoGRVQ%3D--952c5701c84ad333c69d5faa668f8177091704f0","audio_url":"https://rss.art19.com/episodes/d0b07b6a-125e-4896-babd-678d19957306.mp3?rss_browser=BAhJIg90cmFuc2NyaWJyBjoGRVQ%3D--952c5701c84ad333c69d5faa668f8177091704f0","summary":"In 2004, German programmer Tobias Lütke was living in Ottawa with his girlfriend. An avid snowboarder, he wanted to launch an online snowboard shop, but found the e-commerce software available at the time to be clunky and expensive. So he decided to write his own e-commerce software. After he launched his online snowboard business, called Snowdevil, other online merchants were so impressed with what he built that they started asking to license Tobi's software to run their own stores. Tobi and his co-founder realized that software had more potential than snowboards, so they launched the e-commerce platform Shopify in 2006. Since then, it has grown into a publicly-traded company with over 7,000 employees and $11 billion in revenue. Timestamps:  07:20 - Tobi discovers snowboarding–and meets his future wife–on vacation in Canada 11:25 - Building a new kind of snowboarding company 29:35 - Pivot point: skateboards or software? 34:25 - The night before Tobi’s wedding, Shopify switches business models 45:25 - The 2008 financial crisis hits… revealing a huge opportunity  58:55 - After a decade, Shopify goes public This episode was produced by Casey Herman with music composed by Ramtin Arablouei. It was edited by Neva Grant. This archive episode was produced by Katherine Sypher. Follow How I Built This: Instagram → @howibuiltthis X → @HowIBuiltThis Facebook → How I Built This Follow Guy Raz: Instagram → @guy.raz Youtube → guy_raz X → @guyraz Substack → guyraz.substack.com Website → guyraz.com See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .","meta_description":"In 2004, German programmer Tobias Lütke was living in Ottawa with his girlfriend. An avid snowboarder, he wanted to launch an online snowboard shop, but f…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3528,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz-714258/episodes/shopify-tobias-l-tke-how-a-snowboarder-built-a-150-billion-business-2019/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz-714258/shopify-tobias-l-tke-how-a-snowboarder-built-a-150-billion-business-2019.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}