Thread by @ankithharathi

After following his girlfriend to Canada, a young snowboarding enthusiast was ready to start his life anew.

One final meeting with a potential employer took an unexpected turn…

Fast forward to today - he’s created a net worth of $10B.

Here’s what happened in that meeting 🧶👇

1) Tobi Lutke grew up in the small German town of Koblenz.

School was not Tobi’s strong suit.

He struggled with Dyslexia and ADHD.

Though he tried and tried, he found no support from the education system, and would often retreat to his room to be alone with his computer.

2) Tobi found comfort in video games, exploring online fantasy worlds where he could do or be anything he imagined.

His passion for gaming continued to grow - eventually Tobi learned to code and was building video games himself.

3) Realizing that school was just not working for him, Tobi dropped out in the 10th grade to join a software development apprenticeship program.

He was paired up with Jürgen Starr.

Jürgen was unlike anyone else he’d ever met.

4) “He would always come to work on his BMW motorcycle and he would have long hair and he wasn’t wearing a suit like he was supposed to. Like a total rebel”

He came to idolize Jürgen.

Rebelliousness would become a recurring theme in Tobi's journey.

5) Around this time, Tobi became engrossed with a new computer game, Asheron’s Call.

Its expansive digital world captivated him and, unexpectedly, Tobi formed a close friendship with another Asheron’s Call player, Fiona McKean.

6) Though they had never met in person, the two chatted and played together almost daily.

One day, they made plans to meet in real life.

“I flew to Whistler to meet her for the first time. Snowboarding down that mountain, I fell in love with Canada, and her!”

7) After a period of long distance, Tobi decided to move halfway across the world from Germany to Ottawa and start their life together.

Fiona started her masters program; Tobi set out to find a job.

8) Tobi began chatting with a local company about joining their team, and was excited about the potential.

In their final meeting to make things official, they brought Tobi in to get all the paperwork sorted. At which point, they realized their massive oversight.

9) Tobi didn’t have a permit to work in Canada. They couldn’t hire him.

In fact, nobody could.

Tobi would not be able to get a job in the country.

10) Rather than defeatedly accepting these ‘rules’, Tobi didn’t give up.

If no one could employ him, then he’d employ himself. He was going to build his own company.

11) Aside from gaming, Tobi also liked snowboarding.

Naturally, he decided to start an online snowboarding business.

He scoured the internet, trying to find the easiest way to set up an online shop, but found nothing.

So for 2.5 months, he spent 16 hours/day programming...

12) Tobi created the infrastructure to setup his own online shop, everything from the website to the payment purchasing flow.

He emerged with Snowdevil.

Snowdevil launched in 2004 and immediately Tobi knew he was on to something.

13) Aside from snowboard orders, he started getting hundreds of inquiries as to how he’d built the online store, and if he’d license the software for others.

Now came a choice.

Snowboards or Software?

14) He chose the latter.

Shopify was born - a platform where anyone, anywhere could setup their own online store and be an entrepreneur.

15) Today, Shopify is a ~$140B company, with Tobi at the helm.

Tobi and Shopify have enabled millions of small business owners to make a living doing what they love, while taking on the e-commerce giants.

Their mission has stayed true since their founding:

“arming the rebels”