To open the series, Rory Mounsey-Heysham and Chris Corbishley are joined by Harley Finkelstein, President of Shopify. Shopify is often seen as an e-commerce platform, but Harley describes it as something bigger: an entrepreneurship company. By lowering the barriers to starting and scaling a business, Shopify has helped millions of people turn ambition into independence.

In this conversation, Harley reflects on Shopify’s journey, why more entrepreneurs make the world stronger and more colourful, and how technology is reshaping what’s possible for founders. From lessons learned from iconic business leaders, to the right role for government, to the promise and pitfalls of artificial intelligence - this episode is full of ideas on how “big problems” can become “big business.”

• Why Shopify thinks of itself as an entrepreneurship company, not just a tech platform
• How reducing barriers to entry has changed who gets to build businesses
• Why small businesses, not large corporations, are the true drivers of economies
• The two forces behind entrepreneurship: passion and survival
• What Harley has learned from great founders across industries
• Why government should set “guardrails, not gates” for business
• How AI is giving entrepreneurs new tools and levelling the playing field