The Anti-Amazon Built by a Snowboard Shop

Tobi Lütke never set out to build a company worth $100 billion. In 2004, he just wanted to sell snowboards online from his shop in Ottawa. Frustrated with the e-commerce software available at the time, the German-born programmer built his own platform. Other merchants asked if they could use it. Shopify was born.

What makes Shopify's story interesting is not its scale, but its stance. While Amazon optimised for the customer at the expense of the merchant, Shopify made a contrarian bet: empower the merchant first, and customers will follow.

The company calls itself an 'anti-Amazon' arsenal — giving small businesses the tools to compete with giants. Today, over a million merchants in 175 countries use Shopify, processing hundreds of billions in annual sales.

The insight: in a world obsessed with consumer brands, sometimes the biggest opportunity is to be the brand behind the brands.