Shopify

Shopify started when Tobias Lütke wanted to sell snowboards online and found every platform inadequate. So he built his own - then realized the infrastructure was more valuable than the snowboards. That instinct to build the tools rather than use broken ones turned a side project into the operating system for independent commerce, now powering millions of merchants and capturing 2-3% of billions in transactions.

What makes Shopify interesting isn't the technology; it's the organizational discipline. CEO Lütke recognized his calendar was sending the wrong chemical signals - claiming 'product quality is competitive advantage' while spending 60% of time on investor relations and only 10% on product. He restructured to 40% product time and implemented 'No Meeting Wednesdays,' protecting maker time from meeting fragmentation. The result: 33% more features shipped on Wednesdays and 22% higher developer happiness. Most CEOs optimize for looking busy; Lütke optimized for actually building.

Shopify's competitive moat comes from network effects that compound slowly then suddenly. Six thousand apps, shared infrastructure, merchant communities, and accumulated customization create switching costs that grow with time. When COVID collapsed physical retail in 2020, Shopify recognized the mast year and allocated heavily to merchant onboarding. They captured the moment because they'd built the root system first. That's the pattern: patient infrastructure, then explosive opportunity capture.