Newsletter #2: Shopify's new board member, Le Motif's 30 day music challenge and a beautiful Amsterdam loft

Hi there,

I hope you're feeling good.

Today we're discussing Shopify's new board member, Le Motif's 30 day music challenge and a beautiful Amsterdam loft.

Let's dive in.

Work

On June 27th, Bret Taylor joined Shopify’s board of directors.

To announce this huge news, Tobi Lütke (CEO of Shopify) shared a 1-hour interview he did with him. I watched it whilst scrolling Bret Taylor’s LinkedIn profile to get a precise view of his career’s timeline.

My conclusion is simple: I have rarely seen such an impressive career.

Here is an overview:

• 2003-2007: Group Product Manager at Google. Why would a Stanford graduate in computer science accept a product management position? To answer this question, Bret Taylor quotes Sheryl Sandberg: “If someone offers you a sit on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat.” I really like this sentence. Impressive fact: during his time at Google, Bret co-created Google Maps.

• 2009-2012: Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Facebook (!).

• 2012-2017: Founder and CEO of Quip, a collaborative productivity software suite. The company was acquired by Salesforce for $750M in 2016. Bret then stayed at Salesforce and climbed the ladder… until becoming co-CEO!

• 2016-2021: Board Member at Twitter.

• 2017-2019: President and Chief Product Officer at Salesforce.

• 2019-2021: President and Chief Operating Officer at Salesforce.

• 2021-2023: Co-CEO at Salesforce.

• 2023: Board Member at Shopify.

What an inspiring journey!

Bret Taylor defines himself as open-minded to new experiences and driven by impact. He is a firm believer in not having rigid thinking, including for his personal identity: he doesn’t want to have a vision of him being limited to only do one thing.

Learn more about Bret Taylor by visiting his LinkedIn profile or watching his interview with Tobi.

Inspire

Do you know Le Motif?

He is a Belgian music producer who worked with artists such as Booba, Niska, SCH, Shay and Siboy.

In August 2020, Le Motif started a challenge that inspired me immensely.

This challenge was called "Un son par jour" (a song per day): it consisted in him making one song per day during 30 days.

I saw this as the bootstrapped startups’ “build in public” practice being applied to the music industry.

Every day from August 6th to September 5th, he published a 10 minute video on YouTube to show his step-by-step process:

• In the morning, a producer sends him a beat.

• Based on this beat, Le Motif creates a topline, that is to say a melody matching the beat's vibe.

• Based on that topline, he writes the lyrics.

• Finally he records the song.

On top of being an amazing creative experience, this challenge was also a powerful marketing strategy:

• His fans were given a wonderful opportunity to discover his creation process and see more of his day-to-day life.

• People who didn't know him (whether or not they liked his music) were touched by his contagious positive energy and his determination.

Following the success of this challenge, Le Motif released his first album, "Première partie", on September 18th of 2020.

He then did the same challenge again in August 2021. This time, he gathered his fans’ favorite songs in an album called "UN SON PAR JOUR II" that he released on Spotify in September 2021.

Learn more about Le Motif by listening to him on Spotify or watching his first and second challenges on YouTube (both of them are in French).

Explore

One of my favorite YouTube channels is Never Too Small.

Never Too Small is a media company dedicated to what they call “small footprint design and living”. They feature beautifully designed small appartments all around the world.

These videos bring me peace and positive energies.

I love discovering various types of interiors and admire how designers managed to make the most of relatively small spaces.

This week, let’s travel to Amsterdam to visit a bright plant-filled loft situated directly on the waterfront in the Eastern Harbour District of Amsterdam. The owners renovated it all themselves: they added a kitchen island, a frame around the bed and most importantly they extended the terrace by adding a floating deck.

Enjoy.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for reading this edition until the end.

I'll talk to you soon.

Take good care of yourself.

Coralie