Mark Zuckerberg, my first big tech hero.
In 2006 - 2008 when Facebook became popular in Nigeria, we had Hi5 and MySpace, but they weren’t just cutting it. Facebook, in our eyes was like a new thing we’d never seen before, features like Photo Tagging, Post Sharing, News Feed really won hearts. And learning that it was built by a young lad made it all the more fascinating. I followed Zuck ever since. The highest point for me was when he returned to Harvard in 2017 for a commencement lecture. That lecture is one of my all time favorite. But recent trajectory of FB, IG, WhatsApp have left me wondering if it’s the same Zuck of the early 2000s.
Tobi of Shopify on the other hand is a big tech CEO you can say he’s still doing what he started out doing. Shopify, founded in 2006, IPOed in 2015, started out trying to empower merchants make money. Till date, Tobi and Shopify have only grown in their crazy thirst for innovation and actually helping out users. The Shopify Unite Conference announced a massive major update once every 5 minute this evening. The biggest of which is that App Store makers wouldn’t be disturbed with Revenue Share until they hit $1M in earnings. I only need to watch a Tobi commencement lecture and I’ll start shouting Tobi as my childhood hero!
In 2006 - 2008 when Facebook became popular in Nigeria, we had Hi5 and MySpace, but they weren’t just cutting it. Facebook, in our eyes was like a new thing we’d never seen before, features like Photo Tagging, Post Sharing, News Feed really won hearts. And learning that it was built by a young lad made it all the more fascinating. I followed Zuck ever since. The highest point for me was when he returned to Harvard in 2017 for a commencement lecture. That lecture is one of my all time favorite. But recent trajectory of FB, IG, WhatsApp have left me wondering if it’s the same Zuck of the early 2000s.
Tobi of Shopify on the other hand is a big tech CEO you can say he’s still doing what he started out doing. Shopify, founded in 2006, IPOed in 2015, started out trying to empower merchants make money. Till date, Tobi and Shopify have only grown in their crazy thirst for innovation and actually helping out users. The Shopify Unite Conference announced a massive major update once every 5 minute this evening. The biggest of which is that App Store makers wouldn’t be disturbed with Revenue Share until they hit $1M in earnings. I only need to watch a Tobi commencement lecture and I’ll start shouting Tobi as my childhood hero!
I used to look up to