President, Shopify
Search every verified Harley Finkelstein interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Harley Finkelstein, President of Shopify, appeared at the company's DotDev 2026 global partner event in July, where he discussed new POS features such as buy online, return in store. He described the feature as bringing foot traffic into stores and turning returns into exchanges, adding that it is "not just about convenience" for brands. In an April 2026 interview, Finkelstein discussed his family's history, including his father's escape from persecution in Hungary and his grandfather's work at a farmers' market in Montreal. He said that a building with his family's name is "a symbol of survival" and "perseverance." Finkelstein also spoke about anxiety, stating that he has "had anxiety my entire life" and that it does not go away. He described AI as delivering "uncapped reach and uncapped resources" for entrepreneurs and suggested that the current era may be "the golden age of entrepreneurship." He also said that entrepreneurship is "the greatest tool for freedom and for independence in the world" and that Shopify "tries to level the playing field so anyone can do it."
“People misunderstand TAM to their detriment. Total addressable market. Everyone kind of looks at TAM as being this thing which is like what is the like there's there's a pie and I'm going to take a bigger piece of the pie. Yeah it's it's very much like zero sum and funny enough you know Sequoia has said this publicly I...”
“We, first of all, did not return phone calls from corp dev teams early on. Specifically because we didn't want to get into that headspace, that line of thinking. That wasn't what we were interested in. We wanted to build a 100-year independent company and we knew that those phone calls may result in us having meetings...”
“I think this is an exceptionally un underspoken about point which is this idea of like skill stacking but stacking skills that are unobvious and rare within an industry. So if we take and I think we should go through this in a little bit more detail because I think it can really have a profound impact on people. I read...”
“The amount of people shop right now is about 10% of all e-commerce in the United States. Um in place like Australia, it's even way more than that. Um I know most of our largest merchants because I'm obsessed with this stuff. I love it. Most of the businesses on Shopify that are really successful, the homegrown success...”
“I think entrepreneurship is the greatest tool for freedom and for independence in the world and it was out of touch for for most people for a very very long time and Shopify tries to level the playing field so anyone can do it.”
“I think drop shipping is being completely misunderstood. Completely misunderstood. Drop shipping is a process improvement for retail. That is all it is.”
“I actually think one of the reasons that we've done so well is people talk about the grit and the hard work and the work ethic and the multigenerational trauma and all that stuff. I actually think it's much more simple than that. I think one of the reasons that we have been so successful is because we have this super i...”
“Stop taking advice from people who have never built anything. They haven't put something on the line. Their opinion on your risk isn't worth hearing. The people who judge the attempt are never the ones making one.”
“This building is not a symbol of success. It's not a symbol of hard work. It's not a symbol of entrepreneurial strategy. This building is a symbol of survival. Perseverance. This building is what is the Jewish story is that you know two generations ago my grandfather was sitting in a concentration camp and now I'm putt...”
“I think this generation now has probably the greatest opportunity to build something in history. I think both the barrier to entry and the time to scale have completely collapsed... I think ultimately what AI is delivering for entrepreneurs is like this uncapped reach and uncapped resources... this next era of entrepre...”
“I've had anxiety my entire life. I still have anxiety. I still wake up every single morning anxious. And I've been able to tune that with things like meditation and exercise and frankly a cold plunge has been one of the greatest new things in my life. I don't think that goes away and as I get older what I realize is it...”
“It is only in this particular era that you can go from mom's kitchen table to doing $3 billion of topline revenue inside of 3 years.”
“I don't think you can inherit that give a [__] factor unless you are kind of a founder. It's just it becomes it's it's so personal to you. It's it's your baby. It's the thing that like you care most about in the world other than you know your children.”
“If you want to find customers for your online store, you can use SEO, you can use performance marketing, you can pay paid spend, you can do social, you can do content, you can do but now you have a brand new other thing called agentic commerce whereby if you merchandise your products properly and you're able and we do...”
“I think that AI is making entrepreneurship dramatically more accessible and I think it actually is creating this massive accelerant of it and I think we're going to see more entrepreneurs which is good for the world also very good thing for Shopify.”
Episode 715: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) and Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) talk to Harley Finkelstein ...
Ecomm Cowboy is broadcasting LIVE from DotDev, Shopify's global partner event, with 2,000 partners in the room and the people building the future of commerce on the show. Chris Hall and Colin Dougherty sit down with Shopify leadership and top agencies for two days on agentic checkout, AI storefronts, POS, theme architecture, luxury commerce, and where the ecosystem goes next. ON TODAY'S EPISODE Harley Finkelstein — President, Shopify The new entrepreneur showing up through the Catalogue API, who's doing it right in 2026, and why AI generates demand while merchants create value. Vanessa Lee…
In this moment, the President of Shopify, Harley Finkelstein, discusses why having a diverse skillset is the best way to stand out in your industry and a way of becoming invaluable. A lot of the time you may think that having diverse skills in the form of hobbies or curiosities are a waste of time and take attention away from your main area of focus or business. However, Harley believes that these skills are actually priceless for an entrepreneur and leader, so much so that he attended law school just to become a better entrepreneur. Listen To The Full Episode Here - https://g2ul0.app.link/RV…
Sam Parr (@theSamParr) and Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) are joined by Harley Finkelstein (@harleyf) on the pod today. Harley is the COO of Shopify. In today’s episode you’ll hear: Sam and Harley share a hilarious but effective way to recruit senior employees (0:30), Harley gives his background and how he became the COO at Shopify (2:52), Shaan brings to light some interesting emails from the early investment rounds of Shopify (9:30), Harley shares some of the major things he’s seeing in retail during COVID (19:30), Sam asks Harley which companies he’s seen that can be successful on Shopify (30:00), H…
Shopify President Harley Finkelstein discusses his family’s journey from persecution to prosperity, the mission behind Big Shot, the antisemitism that made him more publicly Jewish, and why AI may be ushering in a golden age of entrepreneurship. #Entrepreneurship #HarleyFinkelstein #Leadership #Success #J100Podcast https://thealgemeiner.substack.com/p/...
Harley Finkelstein believes we’re entering the most important shift in commerce since the invention of online shopping itself. As President of Shopify, Harley has helped build the infrastructure powering millions of businesses across more than 175 countries. Now, he says AI is about to fundamentally change not only how consumers discover and buy products online— but how “machine customers” might do our shopping for us. Harley explains why agentic commerce could replace traditional search, his take on the idea that every brand is becoming a media company (featuring a Favorite Daughter case st…
After $SHOP's earnings call yesterday, Harley Finkelstein sat down with The Cap Table to break down the quarter, why the stock dropped 13% despite beating expectations, and what agentic AI actually means for the future of commerce. 04:00 – Harley joins live 06:00 – Why he doesn't sweat day-to-day stock swings 09:00 – Agentic commerce 13:00 – Sidekick: Shopify's AI co-founder tool (4x user growth YoY) 16:00 – AI bubble fears & CapEx concerns 19:00 – Why OpenAI isn't a threat 22:00 – The cheat code for creators who want to build a real brand 26:00 – Doomer mentality & the job market: advic…
Harley Finkelstein joins MTS to discuss Shopify's strong Q1 performance, the company's hundred year vision, and how merchant solutions leverage economies of scale to deliver value at unprecedented speed. -- https://x.com/harleyf -- MTS is a live news and interview show covering technology, business, politics, and culture as it happens. Follow MTS: X | / mtslive YouTube | / @mtsituation Spotify | https://open.spotify.com/show/4HUNNmV... Apple | https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Substack | https://mtslive.substack.com/ Interested in sponsoring the show? …
Shopify President Harley Finkelstein joins 'Squawk on the Street' to discuss the company's Q1 earnings results, the impacts of ...
... been on Shopify for many years are not plateauing They continue to grow As an example in Q1 almost 90% of our revenue was ...
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