Matthew Weeks

🌟 Exciting times ahead! Next week, my team at Shopify will be coming together to “burst" in-person. This will be my first time meeting the majority of these super humans in real life and I couldn’t be more thrilled. Shopify thrives as a remote organization, but the value of in-person connection cannot be overstated. Meeting face-to-face allows us to build deeper relationships, foster trust, and enhance collaboration in ways that virtual interactions sometimes fall short. It’s about those spontaneous conversations, the shared laughs, and the energy that comes from being in the same room together. These moments of in-person engagement are integral to creating a cohesive and motivated team and will propel us forward in the months to come. I feel very thankful that Shopify believes this as well and allows us to prioritize opportunities to gather. I’m looking forward to the shared brainstorming sessions, meals, and most importantly, the connections we’ll strengthen during this time together. See you in Toronto! 🚀🇨🇦🙌 #remotework #engineeringleadership #distributedteams #remotecollaboration

36

Try more things. Fail more often. Learn faster. Burn brighter. Plant more gardens. Launch more startups. Make more babies. Build more community. Help others do the same. This is effective opportunism. Pronoia & Purpose. E/opp is a better meme than Hiis. Just as inspiring, but more secular. Gender neutral vs. male-coded. More conjectural, less prophetic. E/opp is building & growing your mind & body. Building & growing startups. Building & growing families & communities. Effective Opportunism.

1

…But that’s if you're starting from zero. Look, you don't have to spend hundreds of hours figuring it out. Instead, you can use these 3 Conversation Code Strategies and be ready to connect with clients and candidates tomorrow: 1️⃣ The Trust Builder Strategy: ✅ 1: Start the conversation by genuinely complimenting your candidate’s career achievements. Everyone likes recognition. ✅ 2: Share a quick anecdote about your own career path or recruiting journey to create relatability. (Your Backstory) 2️⃣ The Value Proposition Strategy: ✅ 1: Identify the top three pain points for your clients and integrate them into your value proposition. ✅ 2: Clearly outline your unique recruiting process and how it directly addresses those pain points. 3️⃣ The Relationship 'Deepener' Strategy: ✅ 1: Schedule consistent follow-up calls with every client and candidate to build rapport. ✅ 2: Send a thoughtful article, podcast, or book recommendation relevant to their interests or industry. And just for reading this far... I pulled 10 more Conversation Code Strategies from my training, The Conversation Code, for each of these... Plus... I'm throwing in some examples you can use right away... Giving you a total of 30 strategies to connect like a pro. Want access to these 30 Conversation Code Strategies? Drop your biggest cold call phrase that you hate to hear, or DM me directly and I'll get you the link to the docs... Happy Headhunting ~ Rick #GenuineConnections #RecruitingRevolution #TheConversationCode #RecruitingTips #TalentAcquisition #HumanResources #RecruitingSuccess #CareerConversations #Networking #LinkedInNetworking

5

You didn't follow the path to become a VP of Software Engineering or front-end developer or accounts receivable rep, counsellor, financial analyst, truck driver or supply chain leader to suddenly have to be a salesperson. Hell, you don't even like salespeople! Ick. Gross. Yet, here you are, looking for a new job. And... It SUCKS. It is the worst. People ghost you. They hang up on you when you try to call them directly. They pretend they will help and then you never hear from them again. I get it. Been in sales my entire life and that is the life of a salesperson. Happens to also, at least currently, be the life of the average unemployed person too. There's hope. Sadly, for those who hate the thought of being in "sales", however, it does require that you suddenly become a salesperson too. You need to know how to prospect - find leads for new jobs. You need to know how to overcome objections - we aren't hiring. You need to understand that there will indeed be competition - thanks, LinkedIn for showing me that 479 people applied to this job that's been open for 26 minutes. You need to power through, have a network of people who will support you, and live to fight another day. Looking for leads? Don't only apply where there are open jobs. I am sorry to all of my colleagues here who work for ginormous companies and think it is major taboo to apply to companies that have no open roles posted, but it is a thing! And, people do get jobs that way. I am one of them and I have also hired people that way. The leads are companies you discover through searches however you want to search - whether it is by industry, company size, those involved in the community, where your friends work, where your college roommates dad just retired, wherever. Go on ChatGPT and paste your resume and then prompt it to "find 20 competitors to the last 3 companies I have worked at"...leads are everywhere. Objections? Comes with the territory and, if you are like most people searching for a job right now I know, getting any response is better than getting no response. Take the objection as a "win" and keep moving forward. One less company you have to worry about. Check. Competition. Yeah, there is a lot of it. Just like all the things trying to snag your attention while you are reading this article, there will be 480 people who have applied for the job that was posted, now 27 minutes ago. Apply anyway! As someone who reviews those 479 people - first, that number is not legit and second, a miniscule percentage of that number is remotely close to qualified. Power through is not a "rub dirt on it and you'll feel better" sort of thing. This is difficult. It is mentally draining. You will feel like your worth is decreasing with every passing day. Whether it is your faith, family, friends, or whatever, you need to find those people or that thing that will enable you to start each day with a purpose and with conviction to keep fighting. #LookingToBeBetter

21

4 Comments

I’ve been sitting on this post for a while, but I’ve decided to tell the (LinkedIn) world that I’m actively looking for a technical co-founder to help me build Canopy. This feels really scary for some reason - I feel really exposed. But a technical co-founder is a must when building a technical product…go figure 🤷‍♀️ So. That’s where you, my network, will hopefully come in on this lovely Friday afternoon. I’ll keep it simple. I’m looking for a technical co-founder who: 🌴 Is deeply passionate about solving the problem of misconduct and psychological safety in workplaces 🌴 Is motivated by impact and led by their values 🌴 Understands the need to build Canopy in a way that is secure, safe, and scalable 🌴 Knows how to leverage AI and can imagine the future use cases of it (while keeping in mind the point above) In order for Canopy to succeed, the people who build it need to be representative of the people who use it. For that reason, I’m especially interested to speak with anybody who has first-hand experience with the impacts of sexual harassment, bullying, and discrimination. While I’m active in my search for somebody, I’m not in a rush. If things go right for Canopy (which I’m optimistic they will), this will be a very long term relationship. I want whoever is reading this to keep this in mind. Lastly, I want to be up-front with the fact this is an early stage start-up and I’m currently bootstrapped. This may change in the future, but right now it’s important to consider. For that reason, I don’t need somebody to commit full time (yet). I understand bills need to be paid and families need to be fed. And yes, I understand the missed opportunity of not making a video to the the ‘I'm looking for a man in finance’ song for this post... Reach out to me to chat here on LinkedIn or sam@hellocanopy.ai #startup #womenfounder #womenintech #AI

288

74 Comments

Not many people know the story of "why" Zenhub exists...so here it goes👇 Back in 2014, the team that would come to be "Zenhub" was a scrappy group of devs and PMs working at a product studio up in Vancouver. When clients are paying you to do work, they (rightfully so) want to understand where that work is at and “when is this going to be done?” The problem was that we could never answer that question… No matter what project management solution we tried (and believe me, we tried them all), we kept coming back to the same core problem. Context switching... Ie. our devs always felt like they were being forced away from where they were working from (ie. GitHub) in order to update our PM tools. So they didn't update them. Needless to say, this wasn't leading to a productive relationship with our clients. So our devs got together on a weekend to try and fix the problem. What they hacked together was a simple Chrome extension to bring a Trello-esque "task board" into GitHub. And as they say, the rest was history. Well, not really, but we’ll save that story for another set of posts… Reducing context switching has been core to our mission from day one. But while GitHub was the home for teams back in 2014, that's changed. Today that home is Slack. While I know people have a lot of mixed feelings about Slack, it has (for better or worse) become where “work” happens in most modern organizations. That’s why today, we’re announcing early access for an entirely new Slack integration that’s going to be a game-changer for how teams use Zenhub. While platforms evolve, that idea of “reducing context switching” has remained a constant, and we’re excited to double down on that mission with Slack. With this new integration teams will be able to create, plan, and track work in Zenhub all without having to leave a Slack channel. If you want to get hands on with what we’re building and join our early access program, check out the link in the comments below. #slack #github #developers #agile #scrum #projectmanagement #devex

62

9 Comments

WAIT Are you telling me that now Shopify is using LLM's to make more simple the generation of GraphQL queries?? 😮 .dev Assistant gotta be one of the best features for developers from Shopify, you don't know how complicated it can be for someone to jump into GraphQL without previous knowledge (and the docs are not so easy to read for the beginners). This definitely will push a lot of new features and developments within stores! 🙌 🙌 🙌 This is an amazing way, and a very useful one too, of using LLM's instead of just adding a chat helper to your favorite instant messaging app 😅 Check a demo video from Shopify here! https://lnkd.in/eQcbUg2D #Shopify #ShopifyPlus #GraphQL #Storefront #APIs #LLM #FrontEnd #Learning #Lifehacks

7

1 Comment

One of my favourite phrases in business is ‘your focus needs focus.’ It’s easy to get excited about new opportunities—starting a brokerage, investment company, or even a tech startup. And that’s great! But here’s the key: don’t spread yourself too thin. Bring in smart, capable people to help run those ventures so YOU can stay laser-focused on your main one. Trust me, when you do that, both projects will thrive. #Entrepreneurship #BusinessGrowth #mortgagebroker #Leadership #BusinessMindset"

3

Tech has a funny relationship with work-life balance. Here are my 2 cents: If you're grinding hard, it's crucial to take a break. Resetting helps you come back more refreshed. Still, a good vacation needs 2 things: You need to prep for it You might set a vacation 6 months in advance, but all of a sudden that is a terrible time. You've got a big release and your team wants your help. Here's how to avoid that: → Work strategically in the weeks before → Make sure the team is ready. → Schedule your posts. Step 100% away I'll be honest, I'm bad at this. I still log in, even when I aim to be fully away. Work is fun for me, so it's not a big deal. I love keeping things moving, and I'd rather spend 10 minutes in my email than scrolling on my phone. But you can't keep going constantly. The best ideas come when you fully step away. Whenever I come back from vacation, I feel fully revitalised. ➝ Gets me great ideas ➝ I want to move faster ➝ Makes me more focused Vacation can be a game-changer. Breaks are essential for keeping your energy going. What’s your take on working while being on vacation?

85

27 Comments

“It's a romantic notion that you're going to have one brilliant idea and then everything is going to be great... but the execution and delivery are what's key.” - Sergey Brin Are you a developer, hacker, or builder and you've built something great? Aceocial and Google Cloud are hosting a Demos Only event at Toronto Tech Fest on May 23rd from 3-6pm where you can showcase what you've built to the world! Here are the rules: ​-Demos must be working prototypes (any stage) -Demos can be creative uses of new technology -Demos must be presented in person. -Each demo can't take more than 5 mins. -Judges provide feedback on demos. -Judges and attendees vote on demos. -Demos will be vetted before they can present Judging and submission criteria are as follows (3 technical, 2 performance): ​Technical: Innovation and Imagination ​-Demo showcases ingenuity in the application of new technology. ​-Highlights unconventional thinking and personal experimentation. ​Technical: Daring and Exploration ​-Demo ventures into new areas of technology or introduces fresh ideas ​-Embodies unique viewpoints, questions conventional wisdom, or delves into untapped possibilities ​Technical: Proficiency and Skill ​-Demo shows a profound grasp of new technology and skill in execution. ​-Presented a working prototype of high caliber. ​Performance: Quality and Clarity ​-Presentation is articulated precisely, effectively, and within the allotted time. ​-Visual or practical presentation elements are clear and well prepared. ​Performance: Variety and Fun -​Presentation showcases a broad spectrum of perspectives and themes. ​-Concepts are fun, engaging, and memorable Think you got what it takes to be judged the best demo of the day? Sign up here for your chance to demo: https://lnkd.in/gfQkpwgd Want to join as the crowd? Sign up for the event here: https://lu.ma/qkmyfpyp Mell Truong Frank Chen Eric Lay Arda Erturk Parry Chan Victor Ou Oliver Xin Michael Huang ✨ Interested in more events in May? Check out lu.ma/torontotechfest for a whole month of amazing May tech events in Toronto! 👉 Got questions on the hottest tech events? Chat with us and stay in the know: lnkd.in/gNiWyJXv 📣 Want a list of all the tech events happening this month? Connect with me and DM ✅

19

2 Comments

Recently, someone asked me for advice about hiring their first engineer. It depends on the industry, of course. My advice is - don’t hire a Shopify developer. Hire an engineer. A good engineer can learn APIs, a new language, or whatever they need to, rather than the other way around. Look for a breadth of projects, but dive deep into one or two projects they’ve done. You need to know how passionate they are about their job. My favorite question to ask is, “Tell me about a project that you’re most proud of.” What is your favorite question to ask when hiring someone?

31

9 Comments

The more I think about it, the more I think the model is wrong. They should have been building like Shopify rather than a subscription model. Shopify doesn't really make their money off subscriptions, as 90+% of their subscribers would barely make $1k But Shopify makes $ on the transaction fees. So they encourage the top 10% of their customers to make more $, therefore they can produce more $. ClickFunnels is heavily based on acquire more beginners, that's why they focus so much on front end profit and ascension funnels. ClickFunnels has an awesome opportunity to do this, think how many 2-Comma-Club winners there are but ClickFunnels doesn't get a cent. Even more because most people just send random screenshots of bank statements and claim it all came through one funnel.

3

2 Comments

Quick story time!📸 When RenoAssist approached me about building Canada's most comprehensive renovation directory in Webflow, I knew we had to get creative. Jack Hunter (their brilliant founder) had this amazing vision, but Webflow CMS alone just wasn't going to cut it. Instead of saying "it can't be done," we said "let's make it happen!" The solution? A beautiful tech sandwich: Webflow's sexy frontend (because we're not savages 😉) Xano doing the heavy lifting backend Cloudflare keeping everything fast and secure The results have blown everyone away: ✅ Lightning-fast directory searches ✅ Perfect URL structure for local SEO ✅ Real-time sitemap updates ✅ Smooth pagination that handles thousands of listings And yes, we still use Webflow CMS for the simple stuff - because sometimes the original recipe works just fine! Huge thanks to Jack Hunter for trusting the process. Sometimes the best solutions come from pushing boundaries! 🙌 Who else is out there pushing Webflow beyond its limits? Would love to hear your stories! #WebDevelopment #Innovation #ClientSuccess #nocode #webflow

28

6 Comments

Wages are down 38.5% in 25 years. 🔷 In blue is the story that they tell you: salaries have been going up! 🔴 In red, is the reality in your wallet: inflation-adjusted salaries declined 38.5% over the last 25 years. Salary growth doesn't keep up with inflation! While your purchasing power dropped 38.5%, politicians gave themselves automatic raises and inflation-protected pensions.

1

Last year I earned 200k+ USD (Base, not total) SF/NYC people might be like meh, but I work remotely aka I don’t have insane COL or taxes.. so that’s nothing to scoff at. Now moving to Canada and coming back to US as an immigrant, wiped out most of it. But this year I could’ve easily saved half of that and earned more. However I decided to pivot in a different direction. I decided to bet on myself. Which comes with a huge cut to your income, lots of uncertainty, and venturing into uncomfortable domains I have no experience in. But that’s okay. I can afford to give myself time to fail and learn. My goal in the next 2-3 years is to be: a) self dependent financially b) pocket atleast 200-250k net profit yearly c) not be tied to any place geographically I don’t wanna climb corporate ladder. I don’t want that 400k TC. I don’t wanna work for anyone if I can save it. All I want is to be an excellent dad, and father as many kids as possible. Keep your quarterly all-hands strategy and year end bonuses, I am busy adventuring in a safari with my kids in Africa. I wanna show em how to ski in the Alps, show em how to give back to kids sleeping in the streets, and appreciate how good and abundant their life is when we visit the villages where water and bread are earned twice a day. Some might say, pfft you’re not ambitious. Depends on how you define ambition. I’m ambitious because I wanna maximize priceless moments like the following in my life.. everything else in life, to me, is noise. Liv and I went to a pumpkin patch yesterday. Unprompted, she walks right up to the owner and says “excuse me, why do you have such a big belly?!” 😂😂 She explained later, “I thought he had a baby, like a sea horse” 🥹 Right after low key insulting the man, she convinced him to give her a ride in his brand new tractor. Btw that’s NOT offered as part of the experience generally, but he kindly obliged. Wish I had 1/10th of her charisma and persuasion skills. (This has nothing to do with B2B SaaS sales profound insight.. and it’s not a “professional” LinkedIn post, but I say and post what I feel like sharing. Another benefit of not being beholden to corporate overlords.)

22

1 Comment

There are so many companies on Shopify racking up technical debt because they don't realize that there is work to do to keep your site relevant. You are behind the times if you haven't moved to Shopify 2.0 or checkout extensibility. We have an in-depth post from our direction of engineering, Christy Megalo, on checkout extensibility in the comments!

46

5 Comments

I was 5 months away from losing all my savings. Then I fired myself as a CEO. 🛑 Last October, I moved to Canada to scale Crescentic globally. What followed was the most challenging 6 months of my 4-year journey as an agency owner. The harsh reality hit hard: 📉 6 months without a single sale 🛑 Lost our biggest account 😢 Only 5 months of runway left in the bank I realized I had been running my business like a freelancer, not an entrepreneur. So I did the unthinkable: I fired myself as CEO and hired my inner entrepreneur. Here are 6 pivotal mindset shifts that helped us land 2 new clients and extend our runway from 5 to 10 months: 1️⃣ Embracing partnerships over competition 2️⃣ Openly sharing instead of guarding information 3️⃣ Consistently providing value rather than just seeking opportunities 4️⃣ Reaching out for help instead of trying to figure everything out alone 5️⃣ Developing clear strategies instead of running blindly 6️⃣ Proactively learning new skills rather than waiting for others to fill the gaps These changes weren't easy, but they were necessary. They've not only kept us afloat but positioned us for sustainable growth 📈 . We have a long way to go... Note: It wasn't just my effort but the whole team involved in it. The tremendous support and mentorship I have received from old & new friends was significant. To my fellow entrepreneurs, especially those navigating new markets: What mindset shift has been most crucial in your journey? Let's learn from each other's experiences. Share your thoughts below!

32

2 Comments

I've spent more than half a decade working as a developer on Shopify. Here are my top tips for hiring good dev talent to work on your brand 👇 --- Need help with your Shopify store? Book a 1-1 with me via the link in my bio!

2

My FAVORITE part of the job as a PM is something I get to do as an entrepreneur too and I love it——- it’s PRODUCT DISCOVERY. Can’t believe it’s part of a job lol cause it’s so much fun! You’re just talking to a certain type of people/ personas, and asking curious questions to know them deeply, identifying problem patterns to build product hypothesis on… And then, you get to go back to them and ask them if it’d solve the problem… if it goes well, you literally have found a happy friend (for life if you wanna put in the effort)!!! I mean, whaaaaaaaat? Making friends is part of my job, now? Who would have thought? Definitely not teenager Arunima who was getting super scolded by her mom for being “too social” for a Boards-exam-studying-student. I got 95%+ or something (def 90+), don’t worry, but according to my Mom I could have done much better if I was more “focused” lol… Joke’s on you my (best in the whole world) Mumma, cause being social is kinda in the JD now 😎 I’m just loving it so much. Atleast today lol. There are thorny days too fam, to be clear. When I’m working on the most boring operational stuff and thinking about things I never had to think of or care about cause of being such a pampered corporate employee, alas! All in all tho, 2025 Arunima do feel she is exactly where she’s supposed to be. And if you’re reading this post TILL this point, YOU HAVE A HUGE HAND in helping me get past the tough times in 2024… thank you so much for reading my long expressive essays and filling the void I felt when I didn’t have a team to just discuss things with. Extra-TMI-level personally, having the “social” feeling of community I had here in 2024 is a huge reason why I was able to be productive with long lonely working sessions on research stuff and some emotional processing of stepping into an entrepreneurial life. So, while I am aware of the lawyer/mentor/friends advice I often get on having a more traditional “executive presence” online, and at the risk of creating wrong/inaccurate/half-baked perceptions about me…. I wanna say that LinkedIn has changed my life. The last decade I wouldn’t have been able to achieve even a quarter of the things I was able to achieve, if my dear Stanford friend didn’t introduce me to this Networking tool that could help me grab opportunities in the US while being a college student in India, and not an IITian at that haha. Thank you, Network. And thank you, LinkedIn. And I hope that I’m able to help more and more hard-working people in the world use LinkedIn to network more efficiently in ‘25, through NavHub AI. Let’s see what adventures are ahead, hopefully atleast as many wins as learnings from mistakes/ failures…. But then again, yo girl has done an almost-PhD in turning adversities to opportunities until there just are enough wins to make an year count! #Entrepreneurship #ProductManagement #Innovation

35

12 Comments