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Shopify CEO on the stock surging 50% after IPO

Susannah Lee

Shopify (SHOP) is now open for business at the New York Stock Exchange (ICE), and investors are buying. The stock surged more than 50% at its debut after raising its IPO by $2 above the top of the range at $17.

Even if you’ve never heard of the company, Shopify’s CEO and co-founder Tobi Lütke said chances are you’ve come into contact with it. “If you bought something online in the last month or so, you probably bought something from a Shopify store,” he said.

Along with giants like Google (GOOG) and Tesla (TSLA) as clients, Shopify mostly helps small and mid-sized businesses set up their storefronts online by providing a cloud-based platform.

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When it comes to ecommerce IPOs, investors don't seem to be spooked by Etsy’s (ETSY) disappointing and unexpected losses in its first earnings report since going public in mid-April. The online craft marketplace posted a loss of $0.84 per share; revenue was also slightly below Wall Street’s forecast.

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The demand for Shopify stock has been strong and Lütke said his business is different from Esty’s because its goal is to "help people own their own businesses instead of renting space on someone else’s website.”

Shopify is not alone in providing software tools for online stores. Another recent IPO, GoDaddy (GDDY), launched its services, but Lütke is not concerned with the crowding ecommerce space. “We’ve never been a competitive focused company, we’ve always looked internally,” he said.

Lütke said the creation of Shopify comes from a history of his trying to find solutions for his own business. The CEO’s focus is now on other entrepreneurs. “We like staying in the background. You don’t go to shopify.com to buy things, you go to the 165,000 online websites that are powered by Shopify and our job is to make the merchants look fantastic," he said.

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