By: Jessica Beauplat
With less than 24 hours to our next talk, we’re grateful to be counting on our partners. Things wouldn’t be the same without their unwavering support each month. We thought it would be a good idea to introduce them. Shopify recently celebrated their Montreal’s office first year anniversary and hence are the first to be chosen for the first installment of this series.
Here, we discussed their work, vision, involvement with CreativeMornings/Montréal and this month’s theme: Heritage.
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Could you tell me a little bit about Shopify and why it is such a cool environment to work in?
Shopify is a commerce platform that allows anyone to easily sell online via an online store, in-store with a point-of-sale system or anywhere in between with a payment processing mobile app. Shopify is the fastest growing commerce platform in the world and our employees get to play a part in helping the over 100,000 businesses using the platform to succeed. Shopify employees’ work in a very fast-paced and collaborative environment.
As we’re constantly growing we are always on the lookout for new talent to add to our team. In Montreal we’re looking primarily for designers and developers. When I started working at Shopify, there were 43 employees. We’re almost 500 now and we’ve done a really good job at maintaining that startup culture. In Montreal we grew in the past year to 18 employees. We’re looking to double that this year.
What are your core values?
Be an owner. We value autonomy. I’ve had employees come to me and ask, “how can I grow or how can I make a difference”? I always reply, it’s up to you, there’s no limit really. There is very little red tape.
Would you be able to name some of the main practices that your team exercise online that is also carried out offline?
One thing we’re consistent with both online and offline is simplicity. We put thought into the user experience and how it’s going to affect the customer. We want them to have a simple, friendly, and seamless experience.
You treat your employees with flexible hours, catered lunch every single day, there’s even a slide in the lunchroom, a nap room, seemingly everything to offer your employees the best environment possible. Why is it so important to you?
A lot of our perks are there to help lighten the load. For instance we offer childcare bonus for every child under the age of 5. It is simply a matter of reducing the amount of stress that could be put on an employee. We also want to reduce the number of things they have to think about like making lunch in the morning. It’s a sign of appreciation since they invest their time and resources, Shopify wants to give back and invest in them. But the most valuable perk is to be surrounded by passionate and knowledgeable people. We have a high caliber team and to be immersed in that environment is the biggest takeaway.
What is the advantage they appreciate the most?
I would say the conference budget. We encourage skills development by allowing employees to attend a conference of their choice every year. Whether someone would like to expand their knowledge, learn or improve a skill, we support learning opportunities. Not only that, but if you’re invited to speak at a conference, Shopify values that you’re taking time off and might be getting out of your comfort zone so we often pay for that as well.
From what I get there’s also a lot of emphasis on playtime and fun. What’s the most fun you had since you started working there? Do you have one moment that pops into your mind?
Well, we have more of a “work hard, play hard” philosophy. When it comes to moments…let me think. There are a lot, I mean we’ve had awesome Christmas parties and volleyball games. The last trip to Tremblant though was probably the most fun. We all went away for the weekend and even though we went there as a group we were free to be independent and choose our own set of activities, be it spa or ski.
You’ve recently celebrated the first year anniversary of the Montreal office, who says anniversary says party and since you guys like to have fun we want to know what did you do to celebrate?
We played sumo soccer! So we were wearing those big sumo suits and bumping into each other while playing soccer. It was fun. We also hosted a party at our new office with our partners, customers, family, friends, and people from the Montreal tech community.
The theme of CreativeMornings for the month of July is Heritage. I’ve been thinking about it in relation to the work that Shopify is doing, mainly designing apps, website and commerce solution that is beautiful and easy to use.
Could you tell me how design thinking, technology and the web, altogether, can build a heritage that will last even though it might look to some as ever changing and evolving?
We’re quite passionate about our designs; one thing we’ve been able to keep is the simple and clean look. We want to keep providing businesses with the resources they need to succeed, to empower anyone anywhere to sell products and services. That is the legacy we’re building upon. We are growing as a company and we are passionate about finding new talented individuals who are willing to take on new challenges. Things are going really well, and it’s only going to get better and better.
Can you tell me about your involvement with CreativeMornings/Montréal?
Shopify has enjoyed sponsoring CreativeMornings because we value the community they’ve built, the people who organize and attend and the learning opportunities they provide. We’d like to see CreativeMornings/Montréal continue to bring interesting and engaged people together each month for a new learning opportunity. Our goal is to meet as many of these people at CreativeMornings, and beyond!
Where can people find out more information about Shopify?
