Tobias Lütke (born 1980) is a German/Canadian entrepreneur who is the co-founder and CEO of Shopify, an e-commerce company based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.[2][3][4] He has been part of the core team of the Ruby on Rails framework and has created open source libraries such as Active Merchant.[5] As of 2022, he was the 11th richest Canadian.[6] As of November 2024, his net worth was US$9.9 billion.[7]
Early life
Lütke was born in Koblenz,[8] Germany in 1980.[9][10] He received a Schneider CPC (German brand of the Amstrad Colour Personal Computer distributed by the Schneider Rundfunkwerke AG) from his parents at the age of six.[11][8] By 11 or 12, he began rewriting the code of the games he played and modifying computer hardware as a hobby. Lütke dropped out of school and entered an apprenticeship program at the Koblenzer Carl-Benz-School to become a computer programmer after tenth grade.[12][13] He moved from Germany to Canada in 2003.[14]
In 2004, Lütke, along with his partners, Daniel Weinand and Scott Lake, launched Snowdevil, an online snowboard shop.[3][17][18] Lütke built a new e-commerce platform for the site, using Ruby on Rails.[19][13][20] Soon after, the Snowdevil founders shifted their focus from snowboards to e-commerce and launched Shopify in 2006.[21][22][23] He currently owns 7% of Shopify, which went public in 2015.[24] Despite controlling a minority of the shares outstanding, he controls a 40% voting interest in Shopify due to a two-class voting structure.[25]
The Globe and Mail named Lütke "CEO of the Year" in November 2014.[26][27] Lütke was presented with the Meritorious Service Cross on November 5, 2018, for his work in supporting the growth of the Canadian technology industry.[28] In 2019, Lütke donated $1,000,001 to Team Trees, the biggest donation as of May 1, 2024, with the message, "For the Lorax".[29] In 2021, Lütke donated $1,200,001 to Team Seas, the 4th biggest donation as of May 1, 2024, with the message "For the Lorax... but wet."[30]
On September 8, 2021, it was announced that Lütke, along with former and current Shopify top executives and Celtic House Venture Partners, invested $3 million in Creative Layer, "a global personalized print-on-demand platform for managing Shopify orders, proofs, fulfillment, and team members".[31]
On January 31, 2022, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase announced Lütke would join its board of directors.[32]
