Because we help the world SHOP

Lights flicker and arcs stream across a map of the world on the flat-screen TV in the Shopify lobby. Every time one of Shopify’s 11,500 international clients makes a sale, a little light goes on; an arc traces where the order is heading. At 5 p.m., the California-Australia shipping routes really pick up. It’s busy and beautiful, like the entire sleek, bustling office.

Shopify is a local start-up that can’t really call itself a start-up anymore. With a spacious new office in the ByWard Market, the e-commerce company that started out as a way for two hackers to subsidize their snowboarding habit is now so successful that it “incubates” new start-ups, offering them free space and advice in exchange for, well, whatever their protege can offer. (more…)