Making It: Acquired by Shopify after failing in obscurity
One of the holy grails for many startup founders: to have their entrepreneurial baby be acquired by a big industry behemoth. In this case: SHOPIFY.
And then what? Or more importantly: what came before that? Who is such a lucky person? How did they 'make it?'
Meet Guillaume Racine, the thoughtful, reflective French-Canadian who never quite felt he could fit in, and so he built something of his own (after building and doing a few other things). I met Guillaume during my year at INSEAD, and as an MBA peer who chose his own path, he embodies the spirit of 'making it.'
For access to Guillaume's book, The Tao of Founders:
https://taofounders.com
Guillaume's LinkedIn profile and details about all the cool stuff he's doing can be found here:
/ guillaumeracine
00:00 – Intro
01:14 – Day in the life of
03:10 – The usefulness (or -lessness) of plans
07:38 – Making of a founder
14:48 – Failing big & loser years
23:07 – Drawing confidence
29:04 – Living with risk & pressure
34:24 – The story of Return Magic
36:37 – Getting acquired
43:49 – Choosing a startup location
49:12 – Introspection & external feedback
52:20 – Advice for a 25-year old self
56:14 – Christian’s & Guillaume’s definitions of ‘making it’ (2024 edition)
PS: Guillaume's Medium blog posts, as promised:
/ guillaume_racine