Company

Product Hunt is a platform that was built for sharing all the interesting things that people are making: apps, unique physical products, digital downloads, podcasts, you name it.

"Hunters" can post the cool products they come cross, after which the community votes for the ones they love. If a product ends up trending, it can earn a lot of exposure to an audience of avid early adopters with disposable income.

With a sizeable user base of tech industry people, makers, and entrepreneurs, Product Hunt was the perfect launchpad for Startup Drugz, a lifestyle brand for entrepreneurs that makes kickass startup-themed tees, hoodies, posters, mugs and more.  

On this episode of Shopify Masters, we're joined by Maxwell Finn of Startup Drugz who will share how they used the Product Hunt platform to bring in 35,000 unique visits in their first week.

Lasting businesses aren't built overnight.

It takes consistent action to grow a sustainable venture, so it's important to find and focus on what you have the skills, time and resources to do on a regular basis.

On this episode of Shopify Masters, you’ll learn from an entrepreneur who believes consistency is the key to building a successful long-term business—that's it's better to be consistently good than just occasionally great.

Meet Dafina Smith of Sunny's Hair and Wigs: the source to "change your hair, change your life" for all textures and tones of hair.

Ideas can come from anywhere, and as a business owner there's no source quite like the fresh eyes afforded by your employees.

That's why shaking up your thinking can sometimes mean shaking up your employees, which is exactly what the founder of Stretch Event Tents—provider of large eye-catching custom outdoor structures—does every 3 months.

On this episode of Shopify Masters, you'll learn how Stretch Event Tents' founder Stuart Johnson breathes new life into his company by rotating employees into new roles on a regular basis.

Being the founder of a successful ecommerce website isn’t something I would have predicted for myself. One year ago, the idea wasn’t even in my peripherals. It wasn’t something that took me a lot of planning and preparation coupled with years of experience to carry out.

Creating National Parks Depot and getting it to a recognized level of success basically took one month. During that month, I came up with a product to sell, created a store, and promoted the product to about one million targeted prospects. Sales were so great that I had to pull in an investor to help get inventory. 

Building National Parks Depot using Shopify is one of the easiest things I’ve ever done. I don’t have tons of experience in sales or marketing, so it’s not as if I was destined to be successful at this. In fact, with my history, success seemed unlikely. But with all the right pieces in all the right places, what seemed to be most unlikely actually became a reality.

Mosh pits, mohawks, and punk rock—a seemingly unlikely combination for most entrepreneurs running a six-figure business. But for Bay Area native Scott Hay, this countercultural scene was what inspired him to launch One Inch Round and stage dive into the world of entrepreneurship.

Here’s the story of how this punk rocker took his counterculture passion and grew it into a global business with the help of a Shopify Expert.

It should come as no surprise that there's a world of difference between selling an idea on Kickstarter and creating a successful product for retail.

Our guest on this episode of Shopify Masters is Nate Barr, the founder of Zootility Tools, surprisingly thin multi-tools that fit in your wallet.

Find out why he launched a Kickstarter campaign just to break even and how he had to completely rethink his product for retailers. 

A brand is more than a logo or a catchy slogan. It's the entire experience your customers have when interacting with your business, down to the tiny details. 

Nick and Alessia Galekovic are the "King and Queen" of The Beard King, a lifestyle brand and line of grooming products, who attribute the success of their 7-figure business to the time and planning they spent on branding through videos and visuals. 

On this episode of Shopify Masters, you’ll learn from two entrepreneurs who built a 7 figure business by going all-in on building a brand that speaks to their target audience.

Telling stories about your products is one of the best ways to sell them.

From pitching to editors to enhancing the perceived value of your products, there are a lot of ways to leverage the stories that are inherent to you and your products. 

Our guest on this episode of Shopify Masters is Caroline Weaver, the founder of CW Pencils, purveyors of superior graphite.

Find out how she unearthed the stories that helped her go from collecting pencils to running a very profitable business.

Content can be excellent bait for attracting the kinds of people you want as customers.

But it's not enough to create epic content if your audience doesn't see it. One way to ensure it lives in the same places your audience does is by syndicating it on other platforms.

Cathryn Lavery and Allen Brouwer are the founders of BestSelf Co.: one of the winners of Shopify's Build a Business VI competition and maker of the Self Journal, the productivity super weapon that puts you in control of your day every day. 

On today’s podcast you’ll learn how these two entrepreneurs launched a $2 million business by writing epic productivity articles and syndicating them in all the right places.

From trading cattle with your neighbor, to buying pizza online—it’s clear that commerce has changed tremendously over time.

But what was the catalyst for it all? How did something like ecommerce become this $1.915 trillion industry?

In celebration of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, we decided to play detective to find the truth behind the history of ecommerce. We wanted to uncover the first product to ever be sold online.

Our findings were pretty surprising.

You need to try and fail a few times before you succeed in business, at least that's how the story usually goes.

But for the founders of Original Grain, putting in the thought, effort, and care (plus having some solid connections in China) helped them get it right the first time.

Andrew and Ryan Beltran are the co-founders of Original Grain, the premier maker of all-natural wood and stainless steel watches.

On this episode of Shopify Masters, these two first-time entrepreneurs join us to talk about how they started a $15 million watch company with one founder in China.

Holiday shopping can be hard. But you can make it easier on your customers by creating products that cater to the gift-giving season.  

Jeff Phillips is the inventor of Beardo, the original beard hat.

On this episode of Shopify Masters, he'll share his criteria for creating giftable products for the holiday shopping season.