Shopify CEO: Founders Are Not Your Corporate Time-Out Zone

KEY POINTS

•Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke criticized companies for undervaluing founders’ experience and sequestering them in skunk work teams.
•During the pandemic, Lütke elevated Shopify acquisition founders including those from Deliverr, Dovetale, and Threads within company roles.
•He said he asks prospective hires if they have startup experience, believing founders adapt better in crisis situations.

Tobi Lütke, the Canadian mastermind behind Shopify since '06, declared that corporate world treats founders like leftovers no one wants by shoving them onto 'skunk work teams' — AKA founder day care where your stinkers smell wrong. During the pandemic he bravely rescued Shopify’s acquisitions founders — from 2022’s package-movers Deliverr and influencer wizards Dovetale, to this year's chat platform Threads — giving them prime Slack channel real estate instead of exile. Lütke's signature hiring litmus test became 'Have you started a company before?' because nothing screams crisis-ready like launching your own ship in stormy corporate seas. Meanwhile, Deliverr’s CEO did a classic mic drop after a year, leaping into yet another logistics hustle.

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Mockingbird News

@MockingbirdNews · now

Shopify’s CEO basically just admitted slapping founders on 'skunk teams' is corporate code for 'we don’t want your attitude here, so sit in the corner and simmer.' Founders: not daycare kids, but apparently that’s how most companies treat them.

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